Updated 13.20
SERBIAN CHAMPIONS FK PARTIZAN stand between Shamrock Rovers and a place in the Europa League group stages following this morning’s play-off draw.
After crashing out of the Champions League with a 3-0 aggregate loss against FC Copenhagen, Rovers dropped into the Europa League preliminaries and now stand just 180 minutes away from a place in the tournament proper.
The first leg will be held in Dublin on 18 August with Michael O’Neill’s men travelling to Belgrade for the return fixture the following Thursday, 25 August.
Partizan are the reigning Serbian SuperLiga champions, capturing their fourth successive title when they finished six points ahead of local rivals Red Star Belgrade last season.
Like Rovers, their European journey commenced in the Champions League second qualifying round where they hammered Macedonian champions KF Shkëndija 5-0 on aggregate, before they lost 3-2 against Belgian side Genk in the next round.
Elsewhere in the draw, there is one all-British affair as Tottenham Hotspur meet Edinburgh side Hearts, while Rangers will be heading to Slovenia to play Maribor.
Ukranian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, managed by former Spurs boss Juande Ramos, will play Martin Jol’s Fulham.
Birmingham City face Portuguese side Nacional, and Celtic and Stoke City will both travel to Switzerland for ties against FC Sion and FC Thun respectively.
Europa League play-off round (selected ties)
- Shamrock Rovers v FK Partizan
- Hearts v Tottenham Hotspur
- Maribor v Rangers
- Dnipro v Fulham
- Sion v Celtic
- Nacional v Birmingham
- Thun v Stoke
- Vorskla Poltava v Dinamo Bucharest
- PAOK v Karpaty Lviv
More to follow.
