Co-efficient Corner: The Third Qualifying Round draws

While the Second Qualifying Round ties start this week in UEFA’s men’s club competitions, the pace of qualifying matches means that UEFA continues to draw ties one round ahead, so today saw the completion of the draws for the Third Qualifying Round, which sees a total of just nine new teams enter at this stage: everyone else playing in this round will have either advanced or dropped down from a previous round.

Champions League

Starting with the draw for the Champions’ Path: Shamrock Rovers will play Celje or Egnatia Rrogozhinë if they beat Ararat-Armenia, while Larne will play Hapoel Be’er Sheva or Víkingur Reykjavík if they can overcome Red Star Belgrade.

In the League Path, Heart of Midlothian will play Fenerbahçe or Górnik Zabrze if they beat Sturm Graz.

Europa League

The Third Qualifying Round is the only one where there’s a separate Champions’ Path in the Europa League: Shamrock Rovers will play the loser of Celje v Egnatia Rrogozhinë if they don’t beat Ararat-Armenia, while Larne will play the loser of Iberia 1999 v Slovan Bratislava if Red Star Belgrade prove to be too much for them.

In the Main Path, Rangers are one of the nine teams beginning their European journey at this stage and start their proceedings against Jagiellonia Białystok. Hearts, meanwhile, will face Benfica or St. Gallen if Sturm Graz get the better of them in the Champions’ League.

Conference League

Proceedings were rounded off as always with the Conference League draw.

Starting with the Champions’ Path, The New Saints will play Inter Club d’Escaldes if they can beat Flora Tallinn.

In the Main Path, three teams from the League of Ireland learned their fate: Derry City will play Ilves Tampere or Stjarnan if they can upset Rijeka, Shelbourne will face Ajax or Vojvodina after Kalju Nõmme, and Bohemians will be up against the loser between Beşiktaş and Midtjylland if they can get past Ballkani.

From Scotland, Hibernian’s prize if they beat Malisheva will be a tie against Shkëndija Tetovo or Bravo. And there’s a potential North Channel Derby: Motherwell will play Coleraine if they beat HB Tórshavn and HJK Helsinki respectively.

This week’s matches: the women’s club competitions get underway

This week sees no fewer than 72 matches taking place across the men’s club competitions, as well as the first games for Hearts, Motherwell, Hibs, Shelbourne and Coleraine.

Also, the women’s club competitions get underway with the Semi-Finals of the Women’s Champions League First Qualifying Round on Wednesday, with the Finals and Third-Place Play-offs taking place on Saturday.

While there are only nine matches on each day, they are significant: by the end of Saturday, 14 teams will be knocked out and 14 countries will be out of UEFA’s women’s club competitions already. Among those hoping to progress are Ireland’s Athlone Town, Northern Ireland’s Glentoran and making their debut for Wales, Wrexham. I’ll be back on Sunday to review all the games across the week.