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"Drogheda: first time CL'ers"

The CL Qualifiers

We are still over a week away from the vital 3rd round draw for this year's Champions League qualifications but some of the smaller champions of Europe have been battling it out in the first round.

With the first second round matches taking place on the 29th and 30th of July, there is not much time to draw breath or for final travel arrangements to be made for next week's match.

As always, there are some romantic tales to be found and one of the best comes with Drogheda United.

Dynamic Tie Ahead for Drogheda
This season is the club's first crack at the Champions League and they’ve succeeded in getting through the first round.

Paired up against Levadia Tallinn from Estonia the Irish team would have fancied their chances. A 2-1 victory in the home leg gave cause for optimism but losing a vital away goal is a cause for concern for any team in Europe.

These fears turned out to be unmerited as the team claimed a historic 1-0 away victory to seal their place in the second round. Their reward for doing so is a draw against Ukranian giants Dynamo Kiev.

Kiev are a club with a great European pedigree and their name will conjure up memories for people of a certain vintage. With two Cup Winners Cup victories to their name as well as a Super cup triumph, Dynamo Kiev will offer an extremely stern challenge to Drogheda United.

In all likelihood, the Ukrainians will rack up a comfortable victory but for now, the people of Ireland will be able to celebrate their first round victory and have a little dream about the possibility of further success in the competition.

A Nine Goal Thrashing
As you would expect in some of the ties, there was a clear mis-match of opposition and this was probably best shown in the Murata v IFK Gothenburg tie.

An overall 9-0 aggregate win for the Swedish team was rough justice on the small San Marino club but it does emphasize the gulf in class between some of the clubs and why UEFA is probably right to have expanded the European Cup.

There will be many who rightly think that having four teams from one nation devalues the competition but there will be many more who love it. Even aside from advertisers and television companies, the excitement of seeing the world's best teams competing is what makes the Champions League the exciting event that it truly is. Therefore, qualification rounds are necessary but hopefully Murata still got some enjoyment from their experience.

IFK Gothenburg will face a much harder task in trying to defeat FC Basel from Switzerland in the second round. Both teams have Champions League experience and would both present a strong argument to suggest why they should be representing their nation in this season's Champions League. With the first leg in Sweden, the IFK fans will be hoping for a lead to take with them on their travels but probably won’t be expecting as many goals as the first round.

Predictable First Round
There were not too many shocks in the first round with the ties going much the way that the bookmakers predicted. Yet again, Linfield of Northern Ireland were knocked out but at least they made a real fight of it against Dinamo Zagreb.

After losing the home tie 2-0 no one would have gave Linfield a hope of qualifying but when they grabbed an away goal to square the game at 1-1, they would have hoped for a fighting chance. As it was, the experience of the Zagreb team shone through and they managed to close out the game but no doubt the 1-1 away score will give Linfield some pride.

Nonetheless, their European adventure is over before the majority of teams have started and it will be another long season to plough through before they get the opportunity to face European opposition again. The reward for Dinamo Zagreb is a tie against Domzale from Slovenia, who managed a 3-0 triumph in their first round qualifying tie against F91 Dudelange.

A lot of these team names may be unfamiliar to many readers but with the emergence of many nations in the footballing world and the expansion of tournaments, it may not be long until one or two crack through.

The goal for each of these teams is to progress and improve and maybe get the chance to face some genuine world class opposition. With the expansion of the Champions League and UEFA Cup from next season, the qualifying rounds and structure change again. From next season, there will be two parachute rounds from the Champions League into the UEFA Cup, giving teams a second chance at European glory.

Changes Ahead for Champions League
This can be seen as safeguarding revenue for some of the middle teams in Europe but it gives the smaller clubs a genuine goal to aim for. A club that wins their own domestic league in a very small nation knows that they would need two monumental victories to get to the 3rd round and parachute status.

Next season this changes and with a bit of luck, teams can make the second round knowing a UEFA Cup round will be their smallest reward. Having an extra round to prepare for, against possibly weaker opposition will help teams develop and become better equipped to deal with European football.

The last qualifying game to be decided was Bate versus Valur but victory for the Belarusian team concluded the first round and completed the second round fixtures. Anderlecht from Belgium are the opponents for Bate and the Belarusian team will be facing opposition with Champions League experience too.

Looking down the list of teams in the second qualifying round emphasises how many teams have played in the Champions League. It may always be the same small band that makes it to the final stages but there is a lot of variety in the Group stages which helps the appeal of the competition.

With second round first leg matches and the important draw for the third round to come next week, things are starting to take shape for the 2008/09 Champions League.

for The Silver Circle at www.footballtip.co.uk

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