Floriana expecting tough draw on Sunday

Floriana will be playing against one team from Ludogorets of Bulgaria, CFR Cluj of Romania and Omonia of Cyprus in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League as the draw will be held in Nyon on Sunday at 12:00 CET.

The 34 teams were divided equally between seeded and unseeded clubs in accordance with the club coefficient rankings.

In fact, the UEFA administration formed groups for the draw to avoid clubs without an approved stadium being drawn against each other, in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. For each group, two pots are prepared; one for the seeded teams and the other for the unseeded teams. For each group, the balls containing the names of the seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and the balls containing the names of the unseeded teams will be put into another bowl. One ball will be taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, where they will be shuffled. The club drawn first plays the single leg of the tie at home if no fixture reversals apply.

The Greens, who are unseeded, were placed in Group 3 together with Buducnost Podgorica of Montenegro and Ararat-Armenia of Armenia will be facing one of the seeded sides – Ludugorets, CFR Cluj and Omonia.

Group 1

Seeded
Celtic (SCO)
Legia Warszawa (POL)
Ferencváros (HUN)

Unseeded
Djurgårdens (SWE)
Winner of preliminary round (Linfield (NIR) or Drita (KOS))
KR Reykjavík (ISL)

Group 2

Seeded
Crvena zvezda (SRB)
Sheriff (MDA)
Sarajevo (BIH)

Unseeded
Fola Esch (LUX)
Connah’s Quay (WAL) 
Europa (GIB)

Group 3

Seeded
Ludogorets (BUL)
CFR Cluj (ROU)
Omonia (CYP) 

Unseeded
Budućnost Podgorica (MNE)
Ararat-Armenia (ARM)
Floriana (MLT) 

Group 4

Seeded
Astana (KAZ)
Qarabağ (AZE)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR)
Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 

Unseeded
Dynamo Brest (BLR)
Riga (LVA)
Tirana (ALB)
Sileks (MKD)

Group 5

Seeded
Molde (NOR)
Dundalk (IRL)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Sūduva (LTU)

Unseeded
Flora Tallinn (EST)
KÍ (FRO)
Celje (SVN)
KuPS (FIN)

Ties take place on 18 or 19 August, with extra time and a penalty shoot-out if required. Winners advance to the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round; all losing sides progress to the UEFA Europa League second qualifying round.