Manchester City will have to go through Steaua Bucharest to make Champions League
The draw for the UEFA Champions League qualifying playoffs was held on Friday and Manchester City learned that their road to the group stage will go through Steaua Bucharest.
Manchester City could have been drawn against AS Roma, Monaco, Young Boys, Rostov or Steaua, so things didn't go too poorly for the Citizens. They wanted to avoid Roma above all, and did. Steaua isn't an ideal match-up in part because of the travel to get to Romania and they're not a bad team, but City should still advance with relative ease.
The playoff round is the final round of qualifying for the group stage and features 20 clubs in 10 two-legged ties. The winners will advance to the group stage, where glory and a giant pile of money await them.
Elsewhere in the draw, Porto were matched up with Roma so only one of them will be in the group stage after what should be a thrilling tie. Monaco were matched with Villarreal, in what should also be a good clash and Celtic will play Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Brendan Rodgers' men suffered an embarrassing loss to the Lincoln Red Imps two rounds prior before staging a second leg comeback and struggled with Astana last round so Celtic will need to take a big step forward if they are to get into the group stage.
The first legs of the playoff round will be played on August 16 and 17, with the second legs on August 23 and 24.
Playoff round ties
Steaua Bucharest vs. Manchester City
Porto vs. Roma
Ajax vs. Rostov
Young Bous vs. Borussia Monchengladbach
Villarreal vs. Monaco
Ludogorets Razgard vs. Viktoria Plzen
Celtic vs. Hapoel Be'er Sheva
Copenhagen vs. APOEL
Dundalk vs. Legia Warsaw
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Red Bull Salzburg
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