The Premier League team's journey in Champions League will be decided on Friday during the UEFA Champions League play-off draw.
After a rare season out of the UEFA Champions League, the former Premier League champions finally have a chance to get back to Wednesday night football. After finishing fourth place last season, United have a chance to qualify in UEFA Champions League group-stage as they wait for a team to face in the play-off.
According to the rules of the play-off draw, Manchester United could face any team among- Lazio (Italy), Monaco (France), Rapid Vienna (Austria), Club Brugge (Belgium) and CSKA Moscow (Russia).
Draws are based on teams qualifying through two ways- League position and League Champions.
Those qualifying through a better position in the their respective leagues are put in the "League routre" pot, and those getting an automatic qualification due to winning their respective leagues are put in the "Champions route" pot.
Both these pots are further divided to seeded and unseeded teams, based on thier UEFA Rankings.
Manchester United is drawn in the "League route" pot and is also a seeded team. So their fixture will be against an unseeded team in the "League route" pot, which include the above mentioned teams.
United could face tough test from AS Monaco and Lazio. Monaco knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League at the round of 16 stage last season, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by finalists Juventus. Lazio too had a pretty decent last season, finishing third place in Serie A.
League route:-
Seeded: Manchester United (ENG), Valencia (ESP), Bayer Leverkusen (GER), Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Sporting CP (POR)
Unseeded: CSKA Moskva (RUS), Lazio (ITA), Club Brugge (BEL), AS Monaco (FRA), Rapid Wien (AUT)
Champions route:-
Seeded: FC Basel (SUI), Celtic (SCO), APOEL (CYP), BATE Borisov (BLR), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Unseeded: Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR), Partizan (SRB), Malmö (SWE), Skënderbeu (ALB), Astana (KAZ)
Automatic qualification:-
Barcelona (Champions), Bayern München, Chelsea, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus, Zenit, PSV Eindhoven, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, FC Porto, Arsenal, Manchester City, Sevilla, Olympique Lyonnais, Dynamo Kyiv, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, AS Roma, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, KAA Gent
The two-legged ties will be played on August 18/19 and 25/26. The winners will advance to the group stage.
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