Valletta FC drawn with F91 Dudelange in UEFA Champions League first qualifying round

Valletta were drawn with F91 Dudelange of Luxembourg in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. The draws were held in Nyon on Tuesday.

The first leg will be played in Luxembourg on July 9/10 while the second leg will be played in Malta on July 16/17. However these are yet to be confirmed by UEFA.

F91 Dudelange is a professional football club based in Dudelange, Luxembourg and plays in the Luxembourg National Division.

It was formed in 1991 as a merger between three teams in the city: Alliance Dudelange, Stade Dudelange and US Dudelange. Domestically, it has won the Luxembourg National Division 15 times and the Luxembourg Cup eight times. F91 Dudelange qualified for the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League, becoming the first club from the country to reach the group stage of a European competition.

Since their first participation in UEFA club competitions, they reached a further round on three occasions apart the fine run in the UEFA Europa League last season. In 2005/06, they eliminated Zrinjski Mostar from the UEFA Champions League; in 2011/12, they eliminated FC Santa Coloma of Andorra in the UEFA Champions League; in 2012/13, they managed to eliminate Tre Penne of San Marino and Red Bull Salzburg from the UEFA Champions League. Last year, they were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by MOL Vidi of Hungary with a 2-3 aggregate score but in the UEFA Europa League, they defeated Drita of Kosovo 3-2, Legia Warsaw of Poland 4-3 and CFR Cluj of Romania to make it to the group stage where they finished fourth behind Real Betis, Olympiakos and AC Milan.

Last season, Valletta were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round by Kukësi on the away goals rule while in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, they lost 2-3 on aggregate to Zrinjski Mostar of Bosnia Herzegovina.

FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND DRAW

Group 1 (seeded sides in bold)

Nõmme Kalju (EST) v Shkëndija (MKD)
Sūduva (LTU) v Crvena zvezda (SRB)
Ararat-Armenia (ARM) v AIK (SWE)
Astana (KAZ) v CFR Cluj (ROU)
Ludogorets (BUL) v Ferencváros (HUN)

Group 2 (seeded sides in bold)

Celtic (SCO) v Sarajevo (BIH)
Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) v Saburtalo (GEO)
F91 Dudelange (LUX) v Valletta (MLT)
Partizani (ALB) v Qarabağ (AZE)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) v Sutjeska (MNE)

Group 3 (seeded sides in bold)

Linfield (NIR) v Rosenborg (NOR)
Valur Reykjavík (ISL) v Maribor (SVN)
Dundalk (IRL) v Riga (LVA)
The New Saints (WAL) v Winners of the preliminary round
HJK Helsinki (FIN) v HB Tórshavn (FRO)
BATE Borisov (BLR) v Piast Gliwice (POL)