Dundalk will discover their Champions League play-off opponents on Friday.
Stephen Kenny’s side recorded a historic 3-0 win over BATE Borisov on Tuesday evening, and are now 180 minutes away from playing in the group stages of the world’s best club competition.
At the very worst, Dundalk will be playing European football until Christmas, as they’ve guaranteed a place in the Europa League group stages.
However, Kenny’s side will hope to go one further, and do something no other Irish side have managed by playing in the group stage of the Champions League.
Following Wednesday night’s results, here’s the confirmed teams for Friday’s draw:
Seeded: Viktoria Plzen, FC Salzburg, Celtic, Apoel Nicosia, Legia Warsaw.
Unseeded: Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Copenhagen, Hapoel Be’er-Sheva, Dundalk.
Dundalk will play either Viktoria Plzen, from the Czech Republic, Austria’s FC Salzburg, Celtic, APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus or Polish champions Legia Warsaw.
Dundalk’s co-efficient ranking is 350. Legia Warsaw are ranked 84th, Celtic are ranked 46th, Plzen are ranked 49th and Salzburg 50th. Apoel Nicosia are ranked 103rd and are the lowest ranked side Dundalk can face.
BATE Borisov were ranked 85th and were comfortably beaten in Tallaght earlier this week, so by co-efficient ranking alone, there is hope for Kenny’s side.
Here’s the seeding for the other side of the draw, the teams who qualified for this stage of the competition through their final league position.
Seeded: Manchester City, FC Porto, Villarreal, Ajax, Borussia Monchengladbach.
Unseeded: Roma, Young Boys, Monaco, Steaua Bucharest, Rostov.
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