Champions League 07/08 Thread

[The Kraig]

All 'British' teams (including ROI teams) will be bolded, as most of us EWB football fans are from the British Isles...just an easy reference. >_>

Well, the first qualifying round of UEFA's Champions League had been drawn and these matches will all be played in July at some stage:

Khazar-Lankaran (Azerbaijan) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)

APOEL (Cyprus) vs BATE (Belarus)

Sheriff (Moldova) vs FC Rànger's (Andorra)

FH (Iceland) vs HB (Faroe Islands)

The New Saints (Wales) vs Ventspils (Latvia)

Pobeda (Macedonia) vs Levadia (Estonia)

Olimpi Rustavi (Georgia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)

Zeta (Montenegro) vs Kaunas (Lithuania)

Tampere United (Finland) vs Murata (San Marino)

Dudelange (Luxembourg) vs Žilina (Slovakia)

Linfield (Northern Ireland) vs Elfsborg (Sweden)

Derry City (Republic of Ireland) vs Pyunik (Armenia)

Marsaxlokk (Malta) vs Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Domžale (Slovenia) vs KF Tiranë (Albania)

The second qualifying round already has two guaranteed ties, these will be played throughout August, or on July 31st:

Zagłębie (Poland) vs Steaua Bucureşti (Romania)

København (Denmark) vs Beitar Jerusalem (Israel)

Pyunik/Derry City vs Shakhtar (Ukraine)

Crvena Zvezda aka Red Star Belgrade (Serbia) vs Pobeda/Levadia

Rangers (Scotland) vs Zeta/Kaunas

Debrecen (Hungary) vs Linfield/Elfsborg

Genk (Belgium) vs Marsaxlokk/Sarajevo

TNS/Ventspils vs Salzburg (Austria)

Olimpi/Astana vs Rosenborg (Denmark)

Dudelange/Žilina vs Slavia Praha (Czech Republic)

Tampere/Murata vs Levski Sofia (Bulgaria)

Beşiktaş (Turkey) vs Sheriff/Rànger's

FH/HB vs APOEL/BATE

Domžale/Tiranë vs Lankaran/Dinamo

The following teams will be drawn with the winners above to create the third (and final) qualifying round, to be played throughout August:

Liverpool (England)

Arsenal (England)

Valencia (Spain)

Sevilla (Spain)

Benfica (Portugal)

Ajax (Netherlands)

Werder Bremen (Germany)

Celtic (Scotland)

Lazio (Italy)

Anderlecht (Belgium)

Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine)

Sparta Praha (Czech Republic)

Fenerbahçe (Turkey)

AEK (Greece)

Dinamo Bucureşti (Romania)

Spartak Moskva (Russia)

Toulouse (France)

Zürich (Switzerland)

After that, the groups are drawn with the winners from the final qualifying round, and the following teams, to be played from September to December:

AC Milan (champions) (Italy)

Barcelona (Spain)

Inter Milan (Italy)

Real Madrid (Spain)

Chelsea (England)

Manchester United (England)

Lyon (France)

Porto (Portugal)

PSV (Netherlands)

Roma (Italy)

Schalke (Germany)

VfB Stuttgart (Germany)

Marseille (France)

Sporting Clube de Portugal (Portugal)

CSKA Moskva (Russia)

Olympiacos (Greece)

Delicious. And thank Christ for wikipedia. Anyways, my predictions for the first qualifying round...winners in bold.

Khazar-Lankaran (Azerbaijan) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)

APOEL (Cyprus) vs BATE (Belarus)

Sheriff (Moldova) vs FC Rànger's (Andorra)

FH (Iceland) vs HB (Faroe Islands)

The New Saints (Wales) vs Ventspils (Latvia)

Pobeda (Macedonia) vs Levadia (Estonia)

Olimpi Rustavi (Georgia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)

Zeta (Montenegro) vs Kaunas (Lithuania)

Tampere United (Finland) vs Murata (San Marino)

Dudelange (Luxembourg) vs Žilina (Slovakia)

Linfield (Northern Ireland) vs Elfsborg (Sweden)

Derry City (Republic of Ireland) vs Pyunik (Armenia)

Marsaxlokk (Malta) vs Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Domžale (Slovenia) vs KF Tiranë (Albania)

I'll be supporting all the British teams, unless they're facing Rangers of course.

I can't pick an overall winner yet though. I think I'll wait until all the transfer deals have finished (especially with Arsenal and so on not being sorted out yet).

[Hobo]

Derry have sucked without Stephen Kenny as manager, they're 8th (out of 12). I'll be surprised if they get through.

[The Kraig]

Yeah, but they did pretty well in Europe last year. They were even on the telly!

Mentally, this will probably be a breath of fresh air from what seems like a poor season if what you're saying is true.

Besides...Pyunik...sounds like puny. IT'S AN OMEN~! >_>

[Captain Kirk]

So we get Sarajevo or the Hearts Reserves.

Plus I thought Rangers were seeded for the 3rd Qualifying round too?

[Hobo]

Yeah, but they did pretty well in Europe last year. They were even on the telly!

Mentally, this will probably be a breath of fresh air from what seems like a poor season if what you're saying is true.

Besides...Pyunik...sounds like puny. IT'S AN OMEN~! >_>

They'll still be on telly in Ireland at least! I'd love for them to go on a good European run. An Irish club in the Champions League group stages would be awesome, just for the fact they're there but I think it's a big ask. Even if they do get through Shakhtar will rape them... But that's better than an Irish club playing Steua for the third year in a row.

[Lord Nibbler]

Dudelange FTW!

[Bigal]

I don't know anything about Elfsborg, are they much of a team?

[Spee]

I don't know anything about Elfsborg, are they much of a team?

[The Kraig]

Yeah, Linfield could get raped by Elfsborg. They got one of the harder draws in that whole thing.

[Bigal]

Ach balls, this is last year all over again; we got the no.1 seed (Gorica) in the first round, and would have faced the no.1 seed in the second round if we'd got through.

We lost 3-1 at home and drew 2-2 away with Gorica last season. Apparently we were unlucky too, and were good enough to win it, but alas, out in the first round again it seems

[gunnar hendershow]

Time for my predictions I guess. You can all go JACKNIFE POWERBOMB! JACKNIFE POWERBOMB! JACKNIFE POWERBOMB! IT'S OVER NOW FOLKS!NS when I get all of them wrong. I gave you all the right with the World Cup last year haha.

Khazar-Lankaran (Azerbaijan) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)

APOEL (Cyprus) vs BATE (Belarus)

Sheriff (Moldova) vs FC Rànger's (Andorra)

FH (Iceland) vs HB (Faroe Islands)

The New Saints (Wales) vs Ventspils (Latvia)

Pobeda (Macedonia) vs Levadia (Estonia)

Olimpi Rustavi (Georgia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)

Zeta (Montenegro) vs Kaunas (Lithuania)

Tampere United (Finland) vs Murata (San Marino)

Dudelange (Luxembourg) vs Žilina (Slovakia)

Linfield (Northern Ireland) vs Elfsborg (Sweden)

Derry City (Republic of Ireland) vs Pyunik (Armenia)

Marsaxlokk (Malta) vs Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Domžale (Slovenia) vs KF Tiranë (Albania)