Maltese teams unseeded in Nyon draw

Marsaxlokk will be unseeded in today's draw of the 2007/08 Champions League when the first two pairings of the qualifying phase will be made in Nyon.

With a low coefficient in the UEFA rankings of 0.550, the Maltese champions, along with Sliema Wanderers and Hibernians in the UEFA Cup, have little chance of attracting a plum fixture even though the opponents' calibre at this stage of the competition is more or less average with most of the teams on the seeded side of the draw hailing from eastern Europe.

The first qualifying round will be staged over two legs on July 17/18 and 24/25, with the second qualifying round taking place on July 31/August 1 and August 7/8.

Last year, Marsaxlokk played in the Intertoto Cup. They were ousted from the opening round after a 4-1 aggregate defeat to NK Zrijnski of Bosnia.

This will be the southerners' first showing in the Champions League after an historic Premier League triumph last month. In 2005, they made their debut in Europe in the UEFA Cup (vs Primorje, Slovenia - agg: 0-3).

The full line-up of the Champions League entrants was only completed a couple of weeks ago with Real Madrid's triumph in Spain marking the conclusion of all of Europe's domestic league seasons.

The final will be played in Moscow on May 21, 2008. The Russian capital has never before staged a Champions Cup final, making this the most easterly showcase in the tournament's history.

Andorra, San Marino and Montenegro feature in the entry list for the first time. They will be represented by Rangers FC, SS Murata and FK Zeta Golubovci respectively. Like Marsaxlokk, they are all unseeded.

The seeded teams in the first qualifying round will be:

Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Apoel Nicosia (Cyprus), Domzale (Slovenia), IF Elfsborg (Sweden), FK Sarajevo (Bosnia), Ventspils (Latvia), MSK Zilina (Slovakia), Derry City (Ireland), Hafnarfjordur (Iceland), FBK Kaunas (Lithuania), Tampere United (Finland), Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova), Olimpi Rustavi (Georgia) and Pobeda Prilep (Macedonia).

Shelbourne won the Ireland championship this year but did not enter the Champions League after being relegated for financial reasons.

Runners-up Derry City took their place.

The most attractive teams in the second qualifying round are Rangers (Scotland), Besiktas (Turkey), Rosenborg (Norway), Red Star (Serbia), KRC Genk (Belgium) and FC Salzburg (Austria).

Big names in UEFA Cup

There will be a few big names in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup but today's draw will not involve Bayern Munich or Tottenham Hotspur who play at a later stage.

An initial 74 clubs will start in the first qualifying round (July 19 and August 2) with the 37 winners moving through to the second qualifying round where they will be joined by the 11 Intertoto Cup winners and 16 others starting at this stage.

The final will be played at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14, 2008.

Sliema and Hibs will be playing against one of the following teams in the Southern Mediterranean region:

FK Bezanija (Serbia), FK Partizan (Serbia), Vojvodina Novi Sad (Serbia), Litex Lovech (Bulgaria), Hajduk Split (Croatia), Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus), NK Gorica (Slovenia), NK Slaven Koprivnica (Croatia), AC Omonia (Cyprus) and Koper (Slovenia).