THE draw for the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round takes place on Friday 20th July at 11.00 am BST. Liverpool Football Club will enter UEFA’s second string European competition in the 2012/13 season, following their Carling Cup final victory over Cardiff City at Wembley Stadium in February. Some other recognised names in European football will enter the competition at the same stage as the Reds this year, including Inter Milan, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao.
In this third qualifying round, the draw is split into five groups containing twelve teams. These groups are then split again between seeds and non-seeds, so that when the draw takes place, seeded teams will be drawn against non-seeded teams.
Liverpool are seeded in Group 2, along with the likes of Dinamo Moscow, Bursapor and Swiss outfit Young Boys. However it is their possible opponents that could pose unnecessary headaches for the Reds, in terms of travel.
With the club’s well publicised tour of North America due to end just four days before the Europa League qualifying tie, with a game against Tottenham Hotspur, the last thing that new boss Brendan Rodgers would welcome is a trip to the far reaches of Europe, or even the Middle East. However, that is exactly what Liverpool could end up with.
The worst case scenarios would see the Reds having to fly to Israel (Maccabi Netanya), Ukraine (Arsenal Kiev), Belarus (Gomel), Macedonia (Renova) or Finland (Kups Kuopia). There also remain the possibilities of trips to Sweden to play Kalmar FF, Croatia to play NK Osijek or Slovakia to face Spartak Trnava, slightly closer to home.
Brendan Rodgers and co. will be hoping against hope for a little luck in the draw, something which could see Liverpool paired with Dundee United or Sligo Rovers, should they get through their second round tie.
Printed below is Liverpool’s group for the draw for the third qualifying round of next season’s Europa League, courtesy of soccernet.espn.go.com
Group Two Seeds: Dinamo Moscow, Bursaspor, Young Boys or Zimbru Chisinau, Steaua Bucuresti, ND Mura 05 or CSKA Sofia, Liverpool
Non-seeds: NK Osijek or Kalmar FF, Arsenal Kiev, Spartak Trnava or Sligo Rovers, Renova or Gomel, Dundee United, Maccabi Netanya or KuPS Kuopio
You can catch Neil on Twitter @Neil1980 or on his blog http://itsallinthegameblog.wordpress.com/
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