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.