Celtic’s Mikael Lustig goes down after a challenge by Legia Warsaw’s Ondrej Duda at Murrayfield, Edinburgh.

Napoli, bidding to reach the Champions League group stage for the third time and the second in a row, were handed a daunting tie against Athletic Bilbao in the draw for the play-off round yesterday.

Arsenal, hoping to qualify for the 17th consecutive season, must face Turkey’s Besiktas and twice former champions Porto were also handed a difficult draw as they were paired against Lille, with the French club at home the first leg.

Rafael Benitez’s Napoli finished third in Serie A last season, only enough for a place in the play-off round after Italy slipped down the national coefficients which determine how many places each league gets in the tournament.

“Among the five possible opponents, with Athletic Bilbao we have been landed with the most difficult,” Benitez said.

“They’re a team who play good football and, at home, the 50,000 at San Mames give them a big push. It will be a very good, and very intense game.”

Napoli also won the Coppa Italia and were eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League in Benitez’s first season in charge.

The performance was regarded as no more than satisfactory and he will be expected to improve on that showing this term with one of the most expensive squads in Serie A.

If Napoli fail to beat Bilbao, Italy will be left with only two representatives, Juventus and Roma, in the group stage.

Arsenal also met Turkish opposition at the same stage last season when they beat Fenerbahce 5-0 on aggregate over two legs.

Scottish champions Celtic, reprieved after third qualifying round opponents Legia Warsaw fielded an ineligible player in their 6-1 aggregate win, will meet Slo-venian champions Maribor in the play-off round.

Unregistered defender Bartosz Bereszynski came on as a substitute with three minutes remaining in Legia’s 2-0 win on Wednesday which sealed a 6-1 aggregate victory.

UEFA investigated the matter and awarded Celtic the match with a 3-0 victory, making the aggregate score 4-4 and sending the Scottish champions through on the away goals rule after they lost the first leg 4-1.

Dominik Ebebenge, sport department coordinator and head of development for the Polish club, said Legia would appeal against the decision.

“This is unjust and completely disproportionate,” he told re-porters at UEFA headquarters.

“There have been similar cases in the past which have not been punished in this way. This was just a basic human error.

“We have spent eight years working towards this and now it has been taken away from us. Financially, it’s unimaginable and the players are shattered.”

Former European champions Steaua Bucharest were paired with Bulgaria’s Ludogorets Razgrad while Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia, who reached the quarter-finals two seasons ago, were drawn against Danish counterparts AaB Aalborg.

UEFA said that the vanishing spray, used at the World Cup to display the correct distance between a free-kick and the defensive wall, would be used in the tournament, starting with the play-off round.

UEFA draws

Champions League, play-off round
AaB (Denmark) vs APOEL (Cyprus)
Besiktas (Turkey) vs Arsenal (England)
Copenhagen (Denmark) vs B. Leverkusen (Germany)
Lille (France) vs Porto (Portugal)
Maribor (Slovenia) vs Celtic (Scotland)
Napoli (Italy) vs Athletic Bilbao (Spain)
Salzburg (Austria) vs Malmo (Sweden)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs BATE (Belarus)
Standard Liege (Belgium) vs Zenit SP (Russia)
Steaua Bucharest (Romania) vs Ludogorets (Hungary)

First legs: Aug. 19/20.
Second legs: Aug. 26/27.

Europa League, play-off round
Aktobe (Kazakhstan) vs Legia Warsaw (Poland)
Apollon (Cyprus) vs Lokomotiv Moscow (Russia)
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Villarreal (Spain)
Asteras Tripolis (Greece) vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel)
Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) vs Nacional (Portugal)
Dnipro (Ukraine) vs Hajduk Split (Croatia)
Elfsborg (Sweden) vs Rio Ave (Portugal)
Feyenoord (Holland) vs Zorya Luhansk (Ukraine)
Grasshopper (Switzerland) vs Club Brugge (Belgium)
HJK Helsinki (Finland) vs Rapid Wien (Austria)
HNK Rijeka (Croatia) vs FC Sheriff (Moldova)
Limassol (Cyprus) vs Tottenham (England)
Lokeren (Belgium) vs Hull City (England)
Lyon (France) vs Astra (Romania)
Karabukspor (Turkey) vs St Etienne (France)
Neftci (Azerbaijan) vs Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Omonia (Cyprus) vs Dinamo Moscow (Russia)
Panathinaikos (Greece) vs Midtjylland (Denmark)
Petrolul (Romania) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
PSV (Holland) vs Shaktyor Soligorsk (Belarus)
Qarabag (Azerbaijan) vs Twente (Holland)
Real Sociedad (Spain) vs Krasnodar (Russia)
RNK Split (Croatia) vs Torino (Italy)
Ruch Chorzow (Poland) vs Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Sarajevo (Bosnia) vs B. Moenchengladbach (Germany)
Spartak Trnava (Slovakia) vs Zurich (Switzerland)
Stjarnan (Iceland) vs Internazionale (Italy)
Trabzonspor (Turkey) vs Rostov (Russia)
Young Boys (Switzerland) vs Debrecen (Hungary)
Zimbru (Moldova) vs PAOK (Greece)
Zwolle (Holland) vs Sparta Prague (Czech Rep.)

First legs: Aug. 21.
Second legs: Aug. 28.