New entrants await third qualifying round draw

Former European titleholders SL Benfica and past finalists Panathinaikos FC are among 13 teams coming into the competition when the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round draw is made at 12.00CET on Friday in Nyon, streamed live on UEFA.com.

In all, 30 clubs will compete in the ties on 26/27 July and 2/3 August – the 13 sides entering at this stage and the winners of the 17 second qualifying round match-ups, which conclude next Tuesday and Wednesday. Those winning teams will join Rangers FC, their fellow 2010/11 group entrants FC København and KRC Genk in the Champions Route section of the draw, while the remaining ten new clubs – who were runners-up or finished third in their countries last season – will be in the separate League Route.

For the League Route, the ten sides will be seeded or not according to their coefficient; in the case of the clubs advancing from each second qualifying round tie to the Champions Route, the coefficient of the higher-ranked team of the two will be taken for the draw.

The Champions Route clubs are further split into two groups, each containing an equal number of seeded and unseeded contenders. From the 20 sides that will compete in the Champions Route, five will eventually participate in the group stage following the play-offs.

Five ties will be formed in the League Route, with the five highest-ranked teams seeded. The five winners will join FC Bayern München, Arsenal FC, Olympique Lyonnais, Villarreal CF and Udinese Calcio in the play-offs to decide the five teams progressing from that route to the group stage, for which 22 clubs are already confirmed.

LEAGUE ROUTE

Seeded
SL Benfica (POR)*, FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR), Panathinaikos FC (GRE)*, FC Twente (NED)*, R. Standard de Liège (BEL)

Unseeded
FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)*, FC Zürich (SUI), Odense BK (DEN), Trabzonspor AŞ, (TUR), FC Vaslui (ROU)

CHAMPIONS ROUTE

Group 1:
Seeded
FC København (DEN)*, Maccabi Haifa FC (ISR)/FK Borac Banja Luka (BIH), NK Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)/Neftçi PFK (AZE), KS Skënderbeu (ALB)/APOEL FC (CYP), Skonto FC (LVA)/Wisła Kraków (POL)

Unseeded
FK Mogren (MNE)/PFC Litex Lovech (BUL), Slovan Bratislava (SVK)/FC Tobol Kostanay (KAZ), NK Maribor (SVN)/F91 Dudelange (LUX), HJK Helsinki (FIN)/Bangor City FC (WAL), Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)/FC Flora Tallinn (EST)

Group 2:
Seeded
Rangers FC (SCO)*, Linfield FC (NIR)/FC BATE Borisov (BLR), Rosenborg BK (NOR)/Breidablik (ISL), FK Partizan (SRB)/FK Skendija 79 (MKD), SK Sturm Graz (AUT)/Videoton FC (HUN)

Unseeded
KRC Genk (BEL), FC Pyunik (ARM)/FC Viktoria Plzeň (CZE), Valletta FC (MLT)/FK Ekranas (LTU), FC Zestafoni (GEO)/FC Dacia Chisinau (MDA), Malmö FF (SWE)/HB Tórshavn (FRO)

*Played in 2010/11 group stage