Glasgow given hard qualifying route

Glasgow City LFC, who reached last year's UEFA Women's Champions League round of 16, will travel to Finland for their qualifying round group after the draw was made.

Eight groups of four teams were formed by the draw, and the mini-tournaments will be played from 11 to 16 August with the winners and two best runners-up progressing to the round of 32 to join the 22 clubs given byes, including holders Olympique Lyonnais. Glasgow are up against two teams that also got past the qualifying round last year, hosts PK-35 Vantaa and Croatia's WFC Osijek, with Group 8 made up by Moldovan newcomers FC Noroc Nimoreni.

Swiss champions FC Zürich Frauen – who feature former UEFA Women's Cup winners Inka Grings and Sonja Fuss – are in Group 1 alongside Slovenian hosts WFC Pomurje, Lithuania's Gintra Universitetas and Ataşehir Belediyespor of Turkey. The only team to take part in all 12 editions, KÍ Klaksvík, will have a difficult task if they are to finally made it through a round as their group is staged by a team that beat Umeå IK two years ago, Apollon LFC of Cyprus, while first Montenegrin entrants Ekonomist, have seasoned opposition in RTP Unia Racibórz, FC Bobruchanka and section hosts ŠK Slovan Bratislava.

Karen Espelund, UEFA Executive Committee member and chairwoman of the UEFA Women's Football Committee, made the draw and said: "The 2012 final [in Munich] was a great showcase for women's club football, setting not only a competition record but also a modern day women's football record of 50,212 spectators inside the Olympiastadion,

"This is the fourth season of the Women's Champions League in this form and the very start to the road to the pinnacle of European women's club football. The winners will be crowned champions in London on 23 May 2013."

Full entry list

Qualifying round draw
Group 1: FC Zürich Frauen (SUI), Gintra Universitetas (LTU), WFC Pomurje (SVN)*, Ataşehir Belediyespor (TUR)

Group 2: FC NSA (BUL), BIIK (KAZ), ŽFK Spartak (SRB)*, Pärnu Jalgpalliklubi (EST)

Group 3: SU 1 ° Dezembro (POR), Olimpia Cluj-Napoca (ROU), Glentoran Belfast United (NIR), Birkirkara FC (MLT)*

Group 4: RTP Unia Racibórz (POL), FC Bobruchanka (BLR), ŠK Slovan Bratislava (SVK)*, Ekonomist (MNE)

Group 5: WFC SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH)*, ASA Tel-Aviv FC (ISR), Peamount United (IRL), Cardiff Met LAFC (WAL)

Group 6: Apollon LFC (CYP)*, WFC Kharkiv (UKR), KÍ Klaksvík (FRO), Ada Velipoje (ALB)

Group 7: FC PAOK (GRE), MTK Hungária FC (HUN), ZNK Nase Taksi-SNT 2010 (MKD)*, SKONTO FK (LVA)

Group 8: Glasgow City LFC (SCO), PK-35 Vantaa (FIN)*,  WFC Osijek (CRO), FC Noroc Nimoreni (MDA)

*Hosts