During today’s draws for the Champions League and Europa League, Macedonian internationals received their opponents for the play-off rounds of these two competitions.

Champions League qualifications:

Ivan Trickovski and APOEL received the defending Polish champions Wisła Kraków in the play-off round of the Champions League.  Wisła Kraków is not an easy opponent but APOEL is the early favorite and they should be satisfied to avoid a bigger club.  APOEL has a talented squad and they should advance to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League.

Europa League qualifications:

Goran Popov and Dynamo Kyiv will play Bulgarian club Litex Lovech in the play-off round of the Europa League.  Dynamo Kyiv is a much stronger side and should advance if they don’t underestimate the Bulgarian club.  Goran Popov’s older brother, Robert, actually played for Litex Lovech earlier in his career.

Muhamed Demiri and Thun received a tough opponent in English side Stoke City.  Thun just eliminated Italian club Palermo to reach this round so they are a confident club and will need that confidence to oust Stoke City as well.

Martin Bogatinov and Karpaty Lviv were drawn against Greek club PAOK.  Bogatinov was moved to the bench for the last game so it’s unknown if he will regain his starting keeper job or whether the Karpaty manager will stick with the other keeper.

Maribor and Agim Ibraimi will face Scottish giants Rangers in the play-off round of the Europa League.  It’s a tough opponent but Maribor will fancy putting added misery to Rangers after they were recently eliminated from the Champions League by losing to Malmö.

Aleksandar Lazevski and Partizan will play Shamrock Rovers from Ireland in the next round.  Lazevski should return from his injury for these games and hopefully he will be a starter once he fully recovers from his injury.

Kristijan Naumovski and Dinamo Bucureşti received Vorskla from Ukraine in the play-off round.  Naumovski is currently the #3 keeper for Dinamo Bucureşti so he is unlikely to play for the Romanian club during these two matches.