The possible opponents of AEK in the 3rd qualifying round and in the playoffs of the Champions League

AEK now knows the possible opponents it will find on its way to the Champions League qualifiers, both in the 3rd qualifying round and in the playoffs of the competition, if it manages to get there.

Initially, the champion of Greece will definitely not face her Young Boys in the 3rd qualifying round, as Inter secured their exit to the top club competition through the Italian league, with the Swiss going directly to the playoffs of the competition, due to reclassifications which resulted from the qualification to the “neratzuri”.

In addition, the champion of Ukraine Shakhtar advanced to the groups from the playoffs, the champion of the Czech Republic Sparta Prague the champions of Turkey and Cyprus also advanced to the 3rd qualifier, Galatasaray and Mars, they advanced to the 2nd qualifying round.

After finalizing the champions in Turkey and Denmark, “Union” still knows three more possible teams to meet in the 3rd qualifier. These will be the Dinamo Zagreb (champion of Croatia), n Galatasaray (champion of Turkey) and Copenhagen (champion of Denmark), but also the three teams that will be paired with them in the 2nd qualifier.

These are the teams that are certain, while there will be three more pairs that will be known after the end of the first qualifier. In them will be found groups such as Ferencvaros, Slovan Bratislava, BATE Borisov, Astana, Maccabi Haifa, Sheriff, Qarabag as strong of the couple, along with three weak ones like the Lincoln Red Ibbs, Partisan, Claxwick and the Polish champion Rakov of Yiannis Papanikolaou and Stratos Svarnas.

Of course, there is also the scenario that AEK will be powerful in the playoffs. This will be drawn in the 3rd qualifier with a team that will have high rate (such as Galatasaray, Copenhagen, Ferentsvaros), despite the fact that the level of difficulty increases. If, on the other hand, he faces clubs with a lower score, he will remain among the underdogs. It should be noted that something like this had also happened in 2018, when the “Union” threw out the powerful Celtic in the 3rd qualifier and were drawn with the powerless and theoretically weaker Vidy in the playoffs.

As for the draws, that of the 3rd qualifier will take place on July 24 and that of the playoffs on August 7. Matias Almeida’s team will be regular in both, since they will play the first game at August 8-9 and the rematch on 15 of the same month. If he qualifies, he will compete on 22-23 and August 29-30 for the “ticket” to the groups of the competition, while if he is excluded he will enter those of the Europa League.