Champions RoundUp Edition 05

Its a jam packed edition of Champions RoundUp this week as the Qualifying rounds reach their advanced stages!

We'll be looking at the sides taking part a little later, but first ...


Play-Off Preview!

The teams:

FC BAYERN MUNCHEN - Germany:
Finalists in 2010 and four time champions of the UEFA Champions League, they are the top side in the Play Off Round. No one will want the Bavarian giants!

How they got here: Automatically qualified via Bundesliga.

APOEL NICOSIA - Cyprus:
A giant in Cypriot football and they qualified for the Group Stage in 2008/09, they will be a formidable opponent for any side.

How they got here: They beat Korce of Albania in the Second Qualifying Round and Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava in the Third Qualifying Round.

BATE BORISOV - Belarus:
Belorussian powerhouses BATE Borisov have progressed i leaps and bounds since the turn of the decade, and featured in the Group stages before. A less than convincing qualifying round saw them draw against two of the smaller sides in the UEFA Champions League and they will need to improve their performances for the big guns.

How they got here: Aggregate victories over Linfield and Ekranas saw them make it this far.

DINAMO ZAGREB - Croatia:
They have come so close on many occasions of making the group stage, but always fell short at the later qualifying rounds. They will be desperate to make the cut this season so will provide a real threat to the other sides in the Champions pot. They have the quality to make it!

How they got here: Comprehensive victories over Neftchi Baku and HJK Helsinki.

RUBIN KAZAN - Russia:

Wisla Krakow
Maccabi Haifa v KRC Genk
v Malmo FF
FC Copenhagen v Viktoria Plzen
v SK Sturm Graz

Non-Champions Path
Odense BK v Villarreal CF
FC Twente v SL Benfica
Arsenal FC v Udinese Calcio
v FC Zurich
Olympique Lyonnais v Rubin Kazan

Play Off Round Draw

Champions League Play-Off Round draw:

Champions Path
Wisla Krakow v APOEL Nicosia
Maccabi Haifa v KRC Genk
Dinamo Zagreb v Malmo FF
FC Copenhagen v Viktoria Plzen
BATE Borisov v SK Sturm Graz

Non-Champions Path
Odense BK v Villarreal CF
FC Twente v SL Benfica
Arsenal FC v Udinese Calcio
FC Bayern Munchen v FC Zurich
Olympique Lyonnais v Rubin Kazan

Reaction to follow.

Third Qualifying Round Ends

The 20 sides who will compete for a place in the lucrative Group stages have been confirmed after the 15 successful teams in the Third Qualifying Round booked their place to join the 5 sides who automatically qualify.

The Third Qualifying did claim some big casualties as some of Europe's stellar sides were eliminated. Dynamo Kyiv, Rosenborg BK and Panathinaikos headed the list of big teams bidding farewell to the tournament as well as well as some group stage hopefuls such as Trabzonspor, Rangers and FK Partizan who were hoping to match their efforts of group stage qualification last season.

The tournament now enters the final round of qualifying and 10 sides will qualify for the group stage, 5 of which will come from the Champions path and 5 from the non champions path.

The draw takes place on Friday and here is a look at the sides entering and the seeded and unseeded pairings.

CHAMPIONS ROUTE:

Seeded
FC Copenhagen
BATE Borisov
Maccabi Haifa
Dinamo Zagreb
APOEL Nicosia

Unseeded
Wisla Krakow
Sturm Graz
KRC Genk
Viktoria Plez
Malmo FF


NON-CHAMPIONS ROUTE

Seeded
FC Bayern Munchen
Arsenal FC
Olympique Lyonnais
SL Benfica
Villarreal CF

Unseeded
FC Twente
Rubin Kazan
Udinese Calcio
FC Zurich
Odense BK

Play Off Round Looms

The final stage of Qualification is looming as the Play Off Round draw takes place this Friday, 5th August 2011. The winners of the Third Qualifying Round will join up with the 5 sides entering this round.

The following 5 Sides who enter the Play Off Round as Non-Champions are:

Arsenal FC
FC Bayern Munchen
Olympique Lyonnais
Udinese Calcio
Villarreal CF

The draw result will be published here on UCLCentre.

Champions RoundUp - Edition 04

Hi and welcome to another edition of Champions RoundUp! We look at three games this week that include some of Scandinavia's finest as they embark tough opposition in the Third Qualifying Round!


We start this weeks edition in Helsinki, Finland as HJK Helsinki took on Croatian Champions Dinamo Zagreb. In what was always an intriguing match-up, the tie did not disappoint. HJK fresh from their emphatic 13-0 aggregate win over Welsh Champions Bangor City went into the game brimming in confidence and it showed in the early stages of the game. 20-year-old Alexander Ring put the Finnish champions ahead on 14 minutes and it capped off a great start for the Finns. However 5 minutes later disaster struck for HJK as Rafinha put the ball in his own net and it somewhat knocked the stuffing out of HJK, but both sides searched rigorously for the wining goal and it came near the end on 77 minutes for the visitors, as Sammir's strike put a hammer blow to HJK's chances of progressing as they now face a massive uphill task of trying to overcome a 2-1 deficit in Zagreb on Wednesday.


Next we go to Denmark and the capital, Copenhagen as FC Copenhagen began their Champions League adventure against Irish champions Shamrock Rovers. FC Copenhagen were out to emulate their efforts from last season as they progressed to the dizzy heights of the Round Of 16 last season. Shamrock Rovers were fresh after a 1-0 aggregate win over Flora Tallinn and proved to be no pushovers in Parken Stadium as they weathered most of the Copenhagen storm and came out with a credible 1-0 defeat to give them a great chance of making the Play Off round. It was a game that had chances on both ends and some fantastic goalkeeping from both sides kept the tie in the balance for the second leg i Tallaght. Defender Solvi Ottesen who is on a bit of a goalscoring streak lately having put two past Odense in a high profile league match prior to this week was the only scorer early on the 4th minute in what must have been a scare for Rovers in fear of what was to come, but Rovers held solid and it sets up a fantastic prospect next week as both sides will fancy their chances.

Finally we head to Trondheim, Norway as heavyweights Rosenborg BK took on Czech Republic champions Victoria Plzen who enter this competition for the first time in their history. On paper the Norwegians have the experience of featuring in many group stage's and beyond in the UEFA Champions League, but a Czech side is always going to be tricky in this competition and RBK found that to be the case as they suffered a scalp and lost 1-0 at home to now face a tough battle in Plzen to keep alive their Champions League dream.






That's it for this week, next week we will be reviewing the sides in the Play Off Round as well as reporting three selected games. To keep track of the Third Qualifying Round click HERE

Champions RoundUp

Welcome to another edition of Champions RoundUp. This week saw the conclusion of the Second Qualifying Round and had no major shocks or big casualties.

Irish champions Shamrock Rovers were the first side to book their place in the Third Qualifying Round after they held out to draw 0-0 with Estonian Champions Flora Tallinn in Tallinn in the rounds early kick off. The hard fought tie in which Shamrock Rovers won 1-0 on aggregate earns them the reward of playing Danish giants FC Copenhagen in the Third Qualifying Round.

First Qualifying Round winners, F91 Dudelange and Valletta FC were both eliminated in the Second Qualifying Round meaning all participants in the First Qualifying Round are now inactive in the tournament. Dudelange were beaten home and away by Slovenian champions NK Maribor to lose 5-1 on aggregate. Meanwhile Valletta, despite a brave showing crashed out to Ekranas of Lithuania , losing 4-2 on aggregate. Valletta despite their free scoring form in the UEFA Champions League were unable to match that performance at the back and that proved costly. NK Maribor will now face a tough prospect in Israeli stalwarts Maccabi Haifa, who despite a scare in Bosnia saw of Borac 7-4 on aggregate and Ekranas' efforts have earned them a tie against Belorussian champions BATE Boriosv who all eyes will be on after they struggled against Northern Irish champions Linfield FC.

APOEL Nicosia who featured in the Group Stages recently will be looking to repeat that feat this season, and they got off to a great start in that quest by eliminating Albanian champions KS Skenderbeu with ease putting six past them over to legs to win 6-0 on aggregate. APOEL will now face a tricky assignment in Slovan Bratislava.

Before we go here is a look at all the Results in the Second Qualifying Round Ties:

Flora Tallinn 0-0 Shamrock Rovers
Aggregate: 0-1

Dudelange 1-3 NK Maribor
Aggregate: 1-5

Tobol Kostanay 1-1 Slovan Bratislava
Aggregate: 1-3

Neftci 0-0 Dinamo Zagreb
Aggregate: 0-3

Ekranas 1-0 Valletta
Aggregate: 4-2

HJK Helsinki 10-0 Bangor City
Aggregate: 13-0

BATE Borisov 2-0 Linfield
Aggregate: 3-1

Litex Lovech 3-0 FK Mogren
Aggregate: 5-1

HB Torshavn 1-1 Malmo FF
Aggregate: 1-3

Viktoria Plzen 5-1 FC Pyunik
Aggregate: 9-1

Wisla Krakow 2-0 Skonto
Aggregate: 3-0

Skendija 0-1 FK Partizan
Aggregate: 0-5

APOEL FC 4-0 Skenderbeu
Aggregate: 6-0

Dacia 2-0 Zestafoni
Aggregate: 2-3

Videoton 3-2 SK Sturm
Aggregate: 3-4

Borac 3-2 Maccabi Haifa
Aggregate: 4-7

Breidablik 2-0 Rosenborg BK
Aggregate: 2-5

Thats it for this week on Champions RoundUp, we congratulate all the successful sides in the Second Qualifying Round and offer our commiserations to those who didn't make it. See you next Saturday!

Third Qualifying Round Ties Decided

The UEFA Champions League Second Qualifying Round came to a conclusion tonight as 17 sides progressed to the Third Qualifying Round to join the 13 sides who enter the stage.

HJK Helsinki (pictured) were the free scoring toast of the round after they put THIRTEEN goals past hapless Welsh champions Bangor City, they now play Croatian Champions Dinamo Zagreb in what looks like one of many intriguing ties in the Third Qualifying Round.

The 3 clubs who enter the Champions Path of this stage now know who they face in the Third Qualifying Round, and they make up for potentially good ties.

Rangers FC face Malmo FF who made tough work of their progression against HB Torshavn. Malmo have a history in the UEFA Champions League having reached the final in 1979 only to lose to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest, they are a far cry from those heights today but they will not roll over in this latest challenge against Scottish Champions Rangers who themselves have a history in this tournament.

FC Copenhagen made it to the Round Of 16 last term losing out to English champions at the time Chelsea FC. They enter the not so dizzy heights of the Thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifird Qualifying Round and will face Irish Champions Shamrock Rovers who saw off Flora Tallinn in a tightly fought contest in the second qualifying round. Its a plum tie for the Irish champions but will be a tall order for them to progress.

KRC Genk also entered the Third Qualifying Round and they face a really tricky tie against FK Partizan who qualified for the Group Stage last season.

Click HERE for the full fixture list of the Third Qualifying Round

And remember Champions RoundUp will be here on Saturday as always with a round up of the weeks games!

Champions RoundUp

Although its not quite the serious stuff happening in the UEFA Champions League, the Second Qualifying Round had some tightly fought games and some of the bigger guns struggled to get a stranglehold on their supposed inferior opponents. Linfield FC of the Northern Irish Premier League put up a credible showing against Belarus-an Champions BATE Borisov. The Irish League champions should have made for easy pickings against the side who held Juventus whilst appearing in the Group Stage of the Champions League but Linfield held on and even took the lead in Windsor Park. The final outcome of the game was 1-1 and all advantage will be with BATE, but it leaves questions open on their performance whether they would be able to handle superior opposition. I

In comparison to BATE's shortcomings, Maccabi Haifa and FK Partizan made easy work of Borac and Shkendija respectively earning a four goal deficit against their less illustrious opponents.

Norweigan stalwarts Rosenborg BK achieved the biggest deficit of the round as they put Icelandic champions Breidablik to the sword with a comprehensive 5-0 drubbing in Trondheim. Another Scandinavian derby took place as Swedish giants Malmo FF recorded a solid 2-0 win over HB Torshavn in Sweden. And sticking to Scandinavian sides, Finnish Champions HJK Helsinki defeated Welsh Champions Bangor City 3-0 in Wales to all but secure their progress to the next round.

Here is a look at the other games that took place in this round.

Zestafoni 3-0 Dacia
Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 Neftchi
Skenderbeu 0-2 APOEL
Skonto 0-1 Wisla Krakow
Sturm 2-0 Videoton
Pyunik 0-4 Plezen
Valletta 2-3 Ekranas
Mogren 1-2 Litex
Maribor 2-0 Dudelange
Slovan 2-0 Tobol
Shamrock Rovers 1-0 Flora Tallinn

Third Qualifying Round Draw

Nyon was the scene today as the draw for the Third Qualifying Round for the UEFA Champions League was made. It did not disapoint and it provided some mouth watering ties for the coming weeks.

Dynamo Kiev, one of the heavyweight sides were paired with Rubin Kazan of Russia which would have been a Group Stage fixture in 2009. Dynamo won 3-1 in Kiev on that occasion and drew 0-0 in Kazan. The group in which they competed in had eventual winners FC Internazionale in the group and reigning Champions FC Barcelona, a side who Rubin have enjoyed playing in recent games earning some credible results and holding an impressive record against the Catalan giants. If Rubin want to enter this season's Group Stage they must first negotiate this tough tie against Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev in what is arguably the tie of the round. This Eastern European battle is definitely one to watch!

Here is the Draw result below:

Champions Path
FK Mogren/Litex Lovech v Skonto/Wisla Krakow
Maccabi Haifa/Borac v Maribor/F91 Dudelange
HJK Helsinki/Bangor City v Dinamo Zagreb/Neftci
Skenderbeu/APOEL v Slovan Bratislava/Tobol
FC Copenhagen v Shamrock Rovers/Flora Tallinn
Genk v FK Partizan/FK Skendija
Rosenborg BK/Breidablik v FC Pyunik/Plzen
Zestafoni/Dacia v Sturm Graz/Videoton
Valletta/FK Ekranas v Linfield/FC BATE Borisov
Rangers v Malmo/HB Torshavn

Non Champions Path
Standard Liege v FC Zurich
Twente v Vaslui
SL Benfica v Trabzonspor
Dynamo Kyiv v Rubin Kazan
Odense BK v Panathinaikos FC

The ties will take place on 26/27 July and 2/3 August. Remember you can view all the results of the Qualification phase on THIS page.

Also, Champions RoundUp will be here tomorrow to go over the results for this weeks UEFA Champions League action in the Second Qualifying Round, 1st Leg.

Big Guns Set To Enter Fray

The draw for the Third Qualifying Round of the UEFA Champions League will take place on Friday, two days after the first leg of the 2nd Qualifying Round concludes.

The draw will be split into a Non Champions Path and Champions path. The successful clubs from the second Qualifying Round will enter the Champions Path along with Scottish stalwarts Rangers, Danish giants FC Copenhagen and Belgian champions Genk.

Clubs Entering the Champions Path
Rangers FC
FC Copenhagen
KRC Genk
(Followed by the successful clubs in the Second Qualifying Round)

The Non Champions path is decided and all ten clubs in this phase will be drawn into pots of seeded and unseeded pairings, the pairings are illustrated below. THe clubs in Italics are unseeded and will be paired with the non italic clubs in the draw.

Non-Champions Path
SL Benfica
Dynamo Kiev
Panathinaikos
Twente
Standard Liege

Rubin Kazan
Zurich
OB Odense
Trabzonspor
Vaslui

The non-champions path boasts some huge European heavyweights such SL Benfica, Panathinaikos and Dynamo Kiev. They will be paired against some tough sides and upcoming sides such as Odense and ambitious Turkish side Trabzonspor. All these clubs are top level clubs and their presence shows how serious the competition is truly getting!

Champions League's First Victims Crash Out

San Marino's Tre Fiori and Andorra's FC Santa Coloma where the first knockout victims of this seasons Champions League campaign. Both sides where trailing comprehensive leads and where further beaten on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The victors of each of the First Qualifying Round ties, Dudelange and Valletta will play NK Maribor and FK Ekranas respectively in the Second Qualifying Round which kicks off next week.

Remember, you can keep up to date with all the Qualifying results and fixtures on THIS page!

Champions RoundUp

KICKOFF!
The 57th UEFA Champions League season took place this week as four sides participated in the First Qualifying Round. The road to Munchen kicked off in San Marino as hosts Tre Fiori fell victim to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat inflicted on them by Maltese champions, Valletta. The San Marino outfit have it all to do in Malta and will need a minor miracle to retain their interest in this seasons tournament.

The Second tie of the Second Qualifying Round took place high in the Pyrenees as FC Santa Coloma succumbed to a 2-0 defeat in Andorra La Vella by Luxembourg stalwarts FC Dudelange. Like their San Marino counterparts the Andorran side have it all to do and they need to seriously up their game if they wish to stay in the competition.

Champions League Underway

Nyon was the scene today as 36 sides learned their fate earlier today.

FK Partizan of Serbia qualified for the coveted Group Stage last season and all eyes were on them as they were the top draw along with the likes of other recent Group Stage competitors. Rosenborg BK who have become a household name across Europe thanks to their regular appearances in this tournament was probably the most well known side in today's draw.

The First Qualifying Round kicks off on 28/29 June and 5/6 July and the Second Qualifying Round takes place on 12/13 and 19/20 July.

Here is the Draw Result:

First qualifying round draw (28/29 June and 5/6 July)
SP Tre Fiori v Valletta FC
FC Santa Coloma v F91 Dudelange

Second qualifying round draw (12/13 and 19/20 July)
Maccabi Haifa FC v FK Borac
FK Mogren v PFC Litex Lovech
NK Maribor v F91 Dudelange
KS Skenderbeu v APOEL FC
Slovan Bratislava v FC Tobol Kostanay
Sturm Graz v Videoton FC
FC Zestafoni v FC Dacia Chisinau
NK Dinamo Zagreb v Neftçi PFK
FC Pyunik v FC Viktoria Plzen
FK Partizan v FK Skendija 79
SP Tre Fiori or Valletta FC v FK Ekranas
Malmo FF v HB Torshavn
Shamrock Rovers v Flora Tallinn
Rosenborg BK v Breidablik
HJK Helsinki v Bangor City
Skonto FC v Wisła Krakow
Linfield v FC BATE Borisov

Road To Munich Starts Here!

FC Barcelona lifted the coveted UEFA Champions League trophy in Wembley for the fourth time in their history back in May. But the past is the past and a new season in European club football's most prestigious tournament is about to start in the coming weeks with the Qualifying Rounds about to kick off.

On Monday, 22nd June 2011 the draw for the First and Second Qualifying Round takes place. The draw will take place at 12.00 CET and the draw results will be posted here at UCLCentre.

The Second Qualifying will contain some stalwart sides with the likes of recent group stage participants such as FC BATE Borisov, Macabi Haifa, Rosenborg BK and FK Partizan who were in last season's group stage. These sides will provide tough opposition for the smaller sides in the draw and the teams hoping to make their mark in Qualifying.