The road to Istanbul

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

The road to the UEFA Champions League final in Istanbul begins when the draw for the first two qualifying rounds is made on Friday.

Twenty in the hat
Twenty teams are in the hat for the first qualifying round draw, including the champions of Latvia, Skonto FC, who last season won their 13th successive domestic league title. The ten seeds will be matched randomly against the ten unseeded clubs.

Former champions
The ten winners will advance into the second qualifying round to join a further 14 clubs. Former European champions FK Crvena Zvezda are among the entrants at this stage. Once again half the teams are seeded and half are not for the purposes of the draw.

Seeding pots: First qual. round - Second qual. round

First qualifying round pots:

Seeded:	Unseeded:
Skonto FC (LAT)	Sliema Wanderers FC (MLT)
HJK Helsinki (FIN)	Shelbourne FC (IRL)
NK Gorica (SLO)	FC Pyunik (ARM)
FC Sheriff (MOL)	Rhyl FC (WAL)
NK Široki Brijeg (BHZ)	KF Tirana (ALB)
FC WIT Georgia (GEO)	FC Flora (EST)
FK Pobeda (MKD)	Linfield FC (NIR)
FBK Kaunas (LIT)	AS Jeunesse Esch (LUX)
FC Gomel (BLR)	PFC Neftchi (AZE)
KR Reykjavík (ISL)	HB Tórshavn (FAR)

Second qualifying round pots:

Seeded:	Unseeded:
AC Sparta Praha (CZE)	BSC Young Boys (SUI)
Club Brugge KV (BEL)	PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (BUL)
Rosenborg BK (NOR)	APOEL FC (CYP)
Wisla Kraków (POL)	MŠK Žilina (SVK)
FK Crvena Zvezda (SCG)	Winner match 1
FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)	Winner match 2
FC København (DEN)	Winner match 3
Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)	Winner match 4
Ferencvárosi TC (HUN)	Winner match 5
FC Dinamo Bucuresti (ROM)	Winner match 6
HNK Hajduk Split (CRO)	Winner match 7
Trabzonspor (TUR)	Winner match 8
PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS)	Winner match 9
Djurgårdens IF (SWE)	Winner match 10

The road to Istanbul

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