Celtic draw Arsenal and Sporting draw Fiorentina…

The Champions League draw for the all-new Third Qualifying Round format has thrown up a couple of massive ties in the non-Champions side of the draw. For those not in the know, now the Qualifying draw is separated into two – the teams that won their respective leagues, and the teams from bigger countries that didn’t.

And with teams like Arsenal, Fiorentina, Sporting Lisbon, Atletico Madrid we were going to get some decent stuff to look forward to. The full draw is after the jump.

UEFA Champions League play-off round
Non-Champions Route

Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v RSC Anderlecht (BEL)
Celtic FC (SCO) v Arsenal FC (ENG)
FC TimiÅŸoara (ROU) v VfB Stuttgart (GER)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) v ACF Fiorentina (ITA)
Panathinaikos FC (GRE) v Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)

UEFA Champions League play-off round
Champions Route

FC Sheriff (MDA) v Olympiacos CFP (GRE)
FC Salzburg (AUT) v Maccabi Haifa FC (ISR)
FK Ventspils (LVA) v FC Zürich (SUI)
FC København (DEN) v APOEL FC (CYP)
PFC Levski Sofia (BUL) v Debreceni VSC (HUN)

Whoever wins their games gets to play in the group stages of the Champions League – which means a big learning curve for the smaller boys, and less and less of the same old matches.

The big ones for me there are Arsenal taking on Celtic in what will inevitably dubbed (probably even by me) as the “Battle of Britian” as it invariably is in these circumstances. There’s also Sporting Lisbon taking on Fiorentina, two sides who usually would sit in the group stage, and Atletico and Pana two sides who would probably be looking to get through a group stage usually.

18th and 19th of August are the first legs. Can. Not. Wait.

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Champs League Schedule

Category: Draws

Tags: Arsenal, Battle of Britian, Celtic, Draws, Fiorentina, Lisbon, Lyon, Stuttgart

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