NYON, Switzerland, Aug 6, (Agencies): Former European champions Liverpool, who missed out on their accustomed Champions League place, will face Turkish side Trabzonspor in the play-offs of the second-tier Europa League.
The draw, staged at UEFA’s headquarters on Friday, also pitted Manchester City against Timisoara of Romania, while Aston Villa face Austria’s Rapid Vienna and Celtic meet Dutch side Utrecht.
This is the second successive season Villa and Vienna have met at this stage of the competition, with the Austrian side advancing on away goals last season.
Celtic dropped down to Europe’s second tier club competition after defeat to Sporting Braga in the Champions League qualifiers.
Fellow Scots Motherwell will meet Danish outfit Odense while debutants Dundee United have a tough test looming against Greek giants AEK Athens.
In other ties Paris Saint Germain will have to overcome Israeli opposition in the shape of Maccabi Tel Aviv, while Juventus will play Sturm Graz.
Liverpool booked their place in the play-offs on Thursday with the five-time European kings celebrating new manager Roy Hodgson’s first game at Anfield with a 2-0 win over Rabotnicki of Macedonia.
Trabzonspor have won the Turkish league six times, with the last title coming back in 1984. They finished fifth in the Turkish Super League last season. The Turkish side are coached by Senol Gunes, who was goalkeeper in the Trabzonspor team that beat Liverpool in the first leg of their European Cup second round tie in 1976.
Trabzonspor won the home leg 1-0 only to succumb 3-0 in the return before Bob Paisley’s side went on to win their first European Cup.
City boss Roberto Mancini warned his team not to underestimate the Romanians.
“It will be a difficult game and any team from Romania will provide stiff opposition, particularly on their own ground,” he said.
“We will look forward to both legs and obviously look to ensure we move to the group stages of the competition.”
Villa boss Martin O’Neill felt his side were destined to meet Rapid again.
“We kind of had the feeling beforehand that we would probably find ourselves drawn against Rapid Vienna again. As proved to be the case last year, this will be a difficult assignment against difficult opposition.” he said.
PSV Eindhoven face the longest trip of all to Russian Cup winners Sibir Novosibirsk, the most easterly club ever to compete in European competition.
“It will be a long journey,” said PSV Fred Rutten.
“They are an unknown opponent and it won’t be easy to travel there. We will have a close look at them in the coming days.”
Draw list
Paris Saint-Germain (France) vs Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) vs Tavriya Simferopol (Ukraine)
CSKA Moscow (Russia) vs Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)
Hajduk Split (Croatia) vs Unirea Urziceni (Romania)
Feyenoord (Netherlands) vs Ghent (Belgium)
Genk (Belgium) vs FC Porto (Portugal)
Debreceni (Hungary) vs Litex Lovech (Bulgaria)
Aris (Greece) vs Austria Vienna (Austria)
Galatasaray (Turkey) vs Karpaty Lviv (Ukraine)
Palermo (Italy) vs Maribor (Slovenia)
FC Brugge (Belgium) vs Dinamo Minsk (Belarus)
Omonia (Cyprus) vs Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Vaslui (Romania) vs Lille (France)
Napoli (Italy) vs Elfsborg (Sweden)
Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) vs Brondby (Denmark)
Grasshoppers (Switzerland) vs Steaua Bucharest (Romania)
Liverpool (England) vs Trabzonspor (Turkey)
Celtic (Scotland) vs FC Utrecht (Netherlands)
Borussia Dortmund (Germany) vs Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
AIK Stockholm (Sweden) vs Levski Sofia (Bulgaria)
Sturm Graz (Austria) vs Juventus (Italy)
Getafe (Spain) vs APOEL (Cyprus)
Dundee United (Scotland) vs AEK Athens (Greece)
AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands) vs Aktobe (Kazakhstan)
Dnepr Dnipropetrovsk (Ukraine) vs Lech Poznan (Poland)
Rapid Vienna (Austria) vs Aston Villa (England)
CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria) vs The New Saints (Wales)
Besiktas (Turkey) vs HJK Helsinki (Finland)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs Stuttgart (Germany)
Sibir Novosibirsk (Russia) vs PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)
BATE Borisov (Belarus) vs Maritimo (Portugal)
Lausanne (Switzerland) vs Lokomotiv Moscow (Russia)
Gyor (Hungary) vs Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
OB Odense (Denmark) vs Motherwell (Scotland)
PAOK Thessaloniki (Greece) vs Fenerbahce (Turkey)
x-Villarreal (Spain) vs Dnepr Mogilev (Belarus)
Timisoara (Romania) vs Manchester City (England)
x-Villarreal replaces Mallorca, which still has the right to appeal its exclusion on financial grounds.