Brugge renew friendships

Unlucky draw
"We have won against FC Steaua Bucuresti, FC Rapid Bucuresti in the past and now we have to win against Dinamo as well," said Brugge's general manager Antoine Vanhoye as he looked forward to the clubs' second qualifying round meeting, after the draw for the competition's first two rounds was made in Geneva on Friday. "We are always unlucky," he added. "We have never played against this side before but we have played against other teams from Bucuresti and been successful so I think we have a chance here too."

New coaching team
Brøndby IF board member Finn Andersen was more confident that the Danish club, who play either FBK Kaunas or KS Dinamo Tirana, would reach the third qualifying round. "We will probably have to play against Kaunas and that should be a fairly easy task," he said. "Our new coaching team, Michael Laudrup and John 'Faxe' Jensen will have plenty of things to do when we start up again in a couple of weeks."

Travel arrangements
Last season Boavista FC reached the last 16 of the Champions League after winning the Portuguese first division. But this time around the Porto club must look to progress to the group stages by first beating either Hibernians FC or Shelbourne FC. "It is a good draw for Boavista," said the Portuguese club's general manager Paulo Leite Gonçalves, who was relieved that Boavista would not have to travel too far to play the game. "The problems in these first qualifying rounds is travel to distant countries like Russia or Ukraine," he said.

'You never know'
"But Ireland or Malta is all right for us. Realistically, we are favourites in our match. Not only because we are the seeded team, but because we have a good team and we should win. It is our third time in the Champions League and we should repeat our success from last year and go through to the second group stage. And then you never know..."

Shelbourne thrilled

Important changes
Austria's Grazer AK, who are only taking part in the Champions League after FC Tirol Innsbruck's enforced withdrawal, will have to make just such a trip east, to either FC Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova or FC Zhenis Astana from Kazakhstan. "All we know about the team from Kazakhstan is that it is their first participation," said Grazer board member Wolfgang-Lukas Strohmayer. "Regarding Moldova, we expect to see a strong opposition considering they have a new president who has introduced a lot of important changes. In any case, our manager will certainly travel to both countries to watch both teams play."

Zagreb satisfied

Partizan downbeat