Champions League Third Qualifying Round: Who could FC Porto face?
The draw for the Champions League third qualifying round takes place this Monday, 22nd July, and Porto are one of the sides to go into the hat.
After finishing 2nd in the Primeira Liga top flight, Porto have to go through two round of qualification to reach the Champions League group stage, with Portugal only ranked 7th in the UEFA Coefficients.
Russia, meanwhile, ranked one place above Portugal in the UEFA Coefficient rankings, get two sides automatically in the Champions League group stage. Portugal’s collective objective is to therefore close the gap and leapfrog Russia in the rankings, who are currently 2.267 points ahead.
For now, however, Porto will have to embrace two additional rounds of football in order to join Benfica in the Champions League proper, and they already know the four teams that could potentially await them.
As one of the seeded sides in the draw, Porto will avoid having to play against one of the so-called harder teams, including Dynamo Kyiv, the winner of the clash between Basel and PSV, and the winner of Olympiakos and Viktoria Plzen.
Instead, Porto will face one of the following sides: Club Brugge (Belgium), Krasnodar (Russia), Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkey) or LASK (Austria).
Club Brugge are deemed the most difficult side based on the UEFA Club Coefficient, with last season’s Belgian Jupiler Pro League runners-up having amassed 39.500 points over the last 5 seasons.
Krasnodar are then officially the second hardest opponent awaiting Porto in the third qualifying round, the Russian outfit, who finished 3rd in their domestic league last season, sitting on 34.500 points.
Both Istanbul Basaksehir and LASK are then well behind in terms of the coefficient rankings and are, at least on paper, the two more favourable draws. Coming as runners-up in Turkey and Austria respectively, their coefficients are 10.500 and 6.250.
The first leg will take place either on the 6th or 7th August, the return leg occurring on the 13th.
Diogo Costa. Photo author: Елена Рыбакова. License Link.
