Porto discover their Champions League third qualifying round opponents
The draw for the Champions League third qualifying round has taken place, with FC Porto finding out their opponents.
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.
As one of the seeded sides in the draw, Porto avoided having to play against one of the supposed harder teams in the hat, including Dynamo Kyiv, the winner of the clash between Basel and PSV, and the winner of Olympiakos and Viktoria Plzen.
Instead, Porto knew that they would face one of the following sides: Club Brugge (Belgium), Krasnodar (Russia), Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkey) or LASK (Austria).
In the end, Porto ultimately ended up being drawn against Krasnodar, who were deemed the second most difficult possible sides that Porto could have faced based on their UEFA Club Coefficient.
Krasnodar, who finished 3rd in the Russian Premier League last campaign, only behind Zenit and Lokomotiv Moscow, have amassed 34.500 points over the last 5 seasons.
Club Brugge, meanwhile, the Belgian runners-up last season, were deemed the hardest possible team for FC Porto to face, with a club coefficient of 39.500 points, far more than the other unseeded sides Porto could have faced.
The Belgians also qualified for the Champions League group stage last season, finishing 3rd in a difficult group containing Monaco, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid, and thus Porto will be relieved to have avoided them.
Both Istanbul Basaksehir and LASK were then well behind in terms of the coefficient rankings and were, at least on paper, the two more favourable draws Porto could have had. Coming as runners-up in Turkey and Austria respectively, their coefficients are 10.500 and 6.250.
Porto’s opponents Krasnodar reached the round of 16 of the Europa League last season, emerging from a group containing Sevilla, Standard Liege and Akhisar Belediyespor, and only getting knocked out by Valencia with a last-gasp Goncalo Guedes goal.
Jesus Corona. Photo author: Елена Рыбакова. License link.
