In Nyon be the draw for the first round in the new edition of the Champions League in the 2024/25 season has been made, BTA reported. As already reported by FACTS, the Bulgarian champion Ludogorets (Razgrad) will meet the Georgian Dynamo (Batumi) in the first qualifying round.
This season, the Champions League will take place in a new format with 36 teams in a single group stage, with each team playing eight matches against other squads.
The winners of this stage proceed to the second qualifying round, and the losers will enter the second round of the Conference League tournament. Two teams were lucky and will go straight to the third round at the will of the draw.
The second Bulgarian participation in this round is that of the former youth national Kun Temenuzhkov and his Lincoln Red Imps, champion of Gibraltar. "The Reds" from the small British territory on the Iberian Peninsula, they have as their rival the Maltese champion Hamrun Spartans.
Borac (Banja Luka) from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Egnatia Rogozine from Albania formed a Balkan derby, and the easiest seems to be for the Romanian Football Club Steaua Bucharest (FCSB), who will travel to the small village of Akuanova in San Marino for a meeting with the local Virtus.
Complete 2024/25 Champions League First Preliminary Round Draw:
Slovan (Bratislava, Slovakia) – Struga Trim Lum (Rep. North Macedonia)
THC (Wales) – Decic Tuzi (Montenegro)
Borac Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – Egnatia Rogozhine (Albania)
Hamrun Spartans (Malta) – Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar)
Balkans (Kosovo) – UE Santa Coloma (Andorra)
Flora Tallinn (Estonia) – NK Celie (Slovenia)
KS Klaksvik (Faroe Islands) – Differdange (Luxembourg)
Panevezys (Lithuania) – HC Helsinki (Finland)
RFS Riga (Latvia) – Larne (Northern Ireland)
Vikingur (Iceland) – Shamrock Rovers (Rep. Ireland)
Virtus (San Marino) – FCSB (Romania)
Ludogorets (Bulgaria) – Dynamo Batumi (Georgia)
Ordabasi (Kazakhstan) – Petrocub (Moldova)
Dinamo Minsk (Belarus) – Pyunik (Armenia)
* The first matches will be played on the 9th or 10th of July, and the second legs on the 16th or 17th of the following month.
* The winners continue in the second qualifying round of the Champions League, and the losers
will participate in the second preliminary round of the UEFA Conference League tournament.
The losers in the pairs Panejevis – HIK (Helsinki) and RFS Riga – Larn were lucky
at the draw and will skip the second round and go directly to the third.