NYON, July 24 (AP): Marseille, the first winner of the rebranded Champions League in 1993, was paired with either Ukrainian club Dnipro-1 of Ukraine or Greek team Panathinaikos on Monday in the draw for the third qualifying round.
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After finishing third in the French league last season, Marseille needs to advance through two rounds to get to the 32-team group stage.
Marseille’s path through the first of those rounds was drawn three days after the club won a ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport which lifted the threat of a one-year ban on registering new players. The club can now recruit freely for the new season.
A second former champion, PSV Eindhoven, was in Monday’s draw. The 1988 European Cup champions will be at home first on Aug. 8 or 9 against Austrian club Sturm Graz.
A separate section of the draw for teams from higher-ranked countries that did not win their domestic title saw Rangers paired with Servette or Genk, and Braga paired with Serbian club TSC Backa Topola.
The draw was made ahead of Tuesday’s games in the second qualifying round.
In the draw section for national champions, AEK Athens will face either Dinamo Zagreb or Astana in the third qualifying round, and Sparta Prague is away first against Copenhagen or Icelandic club Breidablik.
Faeroe Islands champion KI KlaksvÃk was in the draw after eliminating Ferencvaros last week in the first qualifying round with a 3-0 win in Budapest. After that loss, Ferencvaros fired Russian coach Stanislav Cherchesov, who led his national team to the 2018 World Cup quarterfinals at home.
KI will next play Swedish champion Hacken and the winner of that second qualifying round series will advance to face HJK Helsinki or Molde.
