Today in the Swiss city of Nyon, the draw for the third qualifying round of the Champions League and the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup will take place. Three more teams from Ukraine will enter this stage of the competition. Kyiv's "Dynamo" will begin its journey in the Champions League, while Donetsk's "Metalurh" and Dnipropetrovsk's "Dnipro" will compete in the UEFA Cup. And while the opponents of these teams in the next round will most likely be quite manageable, for "Shakhtar" the third qualifying round (if they defeat "Pyunik") will become the first truly serious test for Mircea Lucescu's team.
Even now it can be said that "Shakhtar," which will be "unseeded" in the draw, could be paired with Madrid's "Real," England's "Man Utd," or Italy's "Juventus".... That is, there are many options, and which one is the best will only become known in a month.
However, we offer a probable list of teams that "Shakhtar" could face in the third round of the Champions League. Let us add that from this stage, Kyiv's "Dynamo" starts among the "seeded" teams, but their meeting with "Shakhtar" is excluded. In addition to the 13 teams that begin the competition directly from the third round, three clubs advancing from the second qualifying round with the highest ranking will also be among the "seeded" teams. Most likely, these will be Belgium's "Brugge," Norway's "Rosenborg," and Czech Republic's "Sparta."
Possible opponents for "Shakhtar": "Deportivo," "Real" - (Spain), "Juventus," "Inter" - (Italy), "Manchester United," "Liverpool" – (England), "Bayer" (Germany), "Monaco" (France), "Benfica" (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), "Rangers" (Scotland), "Anderlecht" (Belgium), PAOK (Greece).
In the third round, Kyiv's "Dynamo" could face Switzerland's "Basel," Israel's "Maccabi" (Haifa), or Austria's "Graz." Also among the possible opponents for the Kyiv side are the winners of the following pairs: Neftchi (Azerbaijan) - CSKA (Russia), WIT-Georgia (Georgia) – "Wisla" Krakow (Poland), Tirana (Albania) - Ferencvaros (Hungary), HJK (Finland) – Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel), Nova Gorica (Slovenia) - FC Copenhagen (Denmark), "Skonto" (Latvia) - Trabzonspor (Turkey), "Zilina" (Slovakia) – "Dynamo" (Romania), "Young Boys" (Switzerland) – "Crvena Zvezda" (Serbia and Montenegro), Hajduk (Croatia) – "Melbourne" (Ireland), Djurgarden (Sweden) - Kaunas (Lithuania).