The Third Qualifying Round Draw For All 3 Of The UEFA Club Competitions Has Just Occurred

The Third Qualifying Round Draw For All 3 Of The UEFA Club Competitions Has Just Occurred.

What Does That Mean For The 4 Greek Teams Involved?

By Alexander Koutakos

The first of the three draws was the UEFA Champions League 3rd qualifying round draw. In this draw, Olympiacos was drawn with the winners of the Mura (SVN) and Ludogorets (BUL) match-up. But, first they must get past Neftci (AZE) in the 2nd qualifying round, which is the likely outcome in my opinion. Both Mura and Ludogorets are the champions of their domestic leagues and have been very impressive for their standards recently. However, they both lack European experience both as a club and on a player to player basis in comparison to the boys from Piraeus. The 3rd qualifying should be pretty straightforward for Olympiacos and I think that they will comfortably advance to the play-offs no matter the opponent. 

The second draw of the day was the UEFA Europa League 3rd qualifying round draw. In this draw, the loser of the Olympiacos/Neftci match-up was drawn with the loser of the HJK(FIN) and Malmo(SWE) match-up. In the event that Olympiacos would lose against Neftci, they would drop down to the 3rd round of the Europa league qualifiers and play the loser of the HJK and Malmo match-up. This once again would be somewhat straightforward for Olympiacos. However, we should not take that for granted as Malmo and HJK have been on the European stage for a while now and could pose a threat to the Thrylos.  Bottomline here is that Olympiacos should get 4/4 wins from the UCL 2nd and 3rd qualifying rounds and provide themselves with 4 coefficient points and 1 coefficient point for Greece. In the circumstance that they do drop down to the Europa league, I would still label them as the “favourites” in a potential match-up against HJK/Malmo.

The third draw of the day was the UEFA Europa Conference League 3rd qualifying round draw. In this draw, three Greek teams were involved. PAOK, as Greek cup winners enter Europe this season in the 3rd qualifying round, whereas AEK and Aris still need to beat Velez Mostar(BIH) and Astana(KAZ) respectively to make it to the 3rd qualifying round. Remember, that if one of these three Greek teams are eliminated from the Conference League, they are eliminated from Europe entirely. This is unlike Olympiacos who will not be eliminated from Europe via a loss to Neftci. 

For the 3rd qualifying round, PAOK was drawn against the winners of the Dudelange(LUX) and Bohemians(IRL) match-up. On paper, this should be very easy for PAOK as Dudelange is in a rough patch right now and both Dudelange and Bohemians have squad market values of under 5 million. In comparison, PAOK has a total SMV of around 70 million euros. Despite that, this is football and anything could happen. Remember that PAOK lost to Omonoia last year, a team with a SMV that is very inferior compared to PAOK. With all that being said, I’m still very confident that PAOK will win this match-up and that their class, experience and ability will be the difference between the teams.

AEK on the other hand was drawn against the winners of the Elfsborg (SWE) and Milsami Orhei (MOL) match-up for the 3rd qualifying round.

 For AEK to get to this stage, they first have to beat Velez Mostar of Bosnia which once again is very likely. Elfsborg finished 2nd in Sweden last year and Milsami Orhei finished 3rd in the Moldovan league. Both of their season’s have started so far, so they would be the fresher team on paper. 

However, Milojevic (AEK’s new coach) is very rigorous in training and AEK looked very fit in their pre-season fixtures. This AEK team has been very much rejuvenated with fresh blood during this transfer window with the likes of Le Tallec, Stankovic, Tzavellas, Araujo, Vranjes and Mitoglou all joining. 

These players are hungry for European football, so I have no doubt that they will throw everything on the field for the Enosi when push comes to shove. This match-up, regardless of the opponent, should see AEK come on top. Hopefully, they prove me right and give Greece some much-needed coefficient points.

Aris was drawn against the winners of the KUPS (FIN) and Vorskla Poltava (UKR) match-up. For Aris to get to this stage, they must first beat Astana of Kazakhstan which will certainly be a tough task on its own. Luckily for Aris, Astana have recently sold Haroyan and are poised to sell Barseghyan. These are two Armenian internationals who were very crucial to Astana’s style of play. Without them, they will require other players to step up heavily! Just ask Football Kentron!

Anyways, if Aris does get past Astana, the 3rd qualifying round will be slightly easier for them. Their potential opponents are KUPS and Vorskla. KUPS finished 3rd in the Finnish league last year and Vorskla finished 5th in Ukraine last year and interestingly enough they finished level on points with Kolos. If Aris does get past Astana in the 2nd round, they should easily get the better of KUPS or Vorskla. 

With all of that considered, Greece’s goal is to finish 15th in the league coefficient rankings at the end of the year. Greece currently sits in 19th place so there is certainly some work for us to do. But, the gap from 19th-15th is fairly slim (under 2 points) and 15th should be very attainable for Greece if results fall our way. Only time will tell. So let’s hope that Olympiacos, PAOK, AEK and Aris all do their jobs well and give Greece some much-needed coefficient points. 

HellasFootball 

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