Twenty ready for Friday's play-off draw
Thursday, August 4, 2011
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The lineup for Friday's play-off draw is complete after this week's third qualifying round ties and features two former winners along with four clubs seeking their group stage bow.
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There will be two former European Cup winners in Friday's draw for the UEFA Champions League play-offs − as well as four teams with no group stage experience whatsoever − after the lineup was completed on Wednesday.
Two-time champions SL Benfica were one of the 15 clubs to make it through the third qualifying round. They are among five of this week's winners entering the hat for the league route along with four-time champions FC Bayern München, 2006 runners-up Arsenal FC, Olympique Lyonnais, Udinese Calcio and Villarreal CF − all of whom qualified for the play-offs automatically.
The only team in the league route without prior experience of the tournament are Denmark's Odense BK, 5-4 aggregate winners against Panathinaikos FC on Tuesday. The champions route, by contrast, features three sides seeking a first stab at the UEFA Champions League group stage in FC Viktoria Plzeň, Malmö FF and Wisła Kraków. It should be added, however, that both Malmö, European Cup runners-up in 1979, and Wisła, quarter-finalists the same year, have a back story when it comes to the competition.
The club in the champions route with most group stage participations are Austria's SK Sturm Graz, though you have to go back to 2000/01 for the last of their three appearances. The ten teams in the champions route will be divided, with five seeded and five unseeded in accordance with the UEFA club coefficient rankings. For the league route the sides will be split according to the club rankings established at the beginning of the season.
The play-off draws for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League will take place at UEFA headquarters in Nyon on Friday, starting at 12.00CET and 13.30CET respectively.
| Club | Qualified as | Last in GS | GS Apps* | 2010/11** | European Cup best*** |
| Champions route | |||||
| FC København | Champions, Denmark | 2010/11 | 2 | R16 | Round of 16 (2011) |
| FC BATE Borisov | Champions, Belarus | 2008/09 | 1 | UEL GS | Group stage |
| Maccabi Haifa FC | Champions, Israel | 2009/10 | 2 | UEL 3QR | Group stage |
| NK Dinamo Zagreb | Champions, Croatia | 1999/00 | 2 | UEL GS | Group stage |
| APOEL FC | Champions, Cyprus | 2009/10 | 1 | UEL 2QR | Group stage |
| Wisła Kraków | Champions, Poland | – | – | UEL 3QR | Quarter-finals (1979) |
| SK Sturm Graz | Champions, Austria | 2000/01 | 3 | UEL PO | Group stage |
| KRC Genk | Champions, Belgium | 2002/03 | 1 | UEL PO | Group stage |
| FC Viktoria Plzeň | Champions, Czech Republic | – | – | UEL 3QR | – |
| Malmö FF | Champions, Sweden | – | – | – | Runners-up (1979) |
| League route | |||||
| FC Bayern München | Third, Germany | 2010/11 | 14 | R16 | Winners (1974, 1975, 1976, 2001) |
| Arsenal FC | Fourth, England | 2010/11 | 13 | R16 | Runners-up (2006) |
| Olympique Lyonnais | Third, France | 2010/11 | 11 | R16 | Semi-finals (2010) |
| SL Benfica | Runners-up, Portugal | 2010/11 | 6 | GS | Winners (1961, 1962) |
| Villarreal CF | Fourth, Spain | 2008/09 | 2 | UEL SF | Semi-finals (2006) |
| FC Twente | Runners-up, Netherlands | 2010/11 | 1 | GS | Group stage |
| FC Rubin Kazan | Third, Russia | 2010/11 | 2 | GS | Group stage |
| Udinese Calcio | Fourth, Italy | 2005/06 | 1 | – | Group stage |
| FC Zürich | Runners-up, Switzerland | 2009/10 | 1 | – | Semi-finals (1964, 1977) |
| Odense BK | Runners-up, Denmark | – | – | UEL GS | First round (1979, 1984, 1991) |
Seeded teams in bold
*Past groupstage appearances
**UEFA Champions League unless stated
***Includes pre-1992 European Champion Clubs' Cup
UEL – UEFA Europa League
2QR – second qualifying round
3QR – third qualifying round
PO – play-offs
GS – group stage
R16 – round of 16
QF – quarter-finals
SF – semi-finals
