NYON, Switzerland, Sept 28 (Reuters) - French club Troyes,
who knocked Newcastle United out of the Intertoto Cup to claim a
place in the UEFA Cup, return to England to play Leeds United
after the draw for the second round was made on Friday.
|  |
Troyes: Victory in England (Troyes celebrate/Allsport) |
Troyes sailed through the first round with a 6-2 aggregate
win over Ruzomberok of Slovakia, while Leeds eased through with
a 3-0 victory over Maritimo of Portugal on Thursday night after
losing the away leg 1-0.
Leeds club secretary Ian Silvester said: 'First of
all, obviously we are pleased to be in the second round,
especially after the bit of a scare we had against Maritimo.
'Troyes are unknown to us. It's their first UEFA campaign
and they have no historic achievements in Europe, although they
qualified through the Intertoto Cup and we are aware they had a
good win over Newcastle.
'We had a big shock to our systems in Maritimo, but we put
that right last night and we won't take this lightly. We will
prepare for Troyes as if we were preparing for AC Milan or
Valencia. Maybe everyone (the players) did take them (Maritimo)
lightly, but given our result and our desire to do well, I would
be surprised if we approached another match the same way again.'
Rangers, who did not want to travel to Russia to play Anji
Makhachkala of Dagestan in the last round and eventually played
the tie as a one-off in neutral Warsaw, will go back to Russia
after all to face Dynamo Moscow.
Rangers only European honour came in 1972 when they defeated
Dynamo 3-2 in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Barcelona.
Long before that they had famously met in a 2-2 draw in
Glasgow in front of 90,000 fans when Moscow visited Britain on a
post-World War Two goodwill tour in November 1945.
This Dynamo team are not quite in the same calibre though
and only struggled through the first round with a 1-0 aggregate
win over minnows Birkirkara of Malta.
Paris St Germain, whose place in the competition was only
ensured after a disciplinary committee meeting on Thursday, will
face Lothar Matthaeus's Rapid Vienna in the second round.
PSG beat Rapid 1-0 in the 1996 European Cup Winners' Cup
final in Brussels.
PSG were involved in a controversial first round, second leg
match on Tuesday against Rapid Bucharest, which was abandoned
after floodlight failure with PSG leading 1-0 on aggregate in
extra time.
Although PSG were awarded the win, UEFA also fined them
15,000 Swiss francs (£7,000) for leaving the ground without a
decision being taken about whether to finish the match or not.
Rapid Bucharest have until Sunday night to lodge an appeal,
but PSG club president Laurent Perpere said: 'I'm very
confident. I think the UEFA disciplinary committee made a very
clear decision and I am very confident that decision will be
confirmed. But we could yet have to replay the match. That's not
yet been decided, so let's not worry about it.'
Valencia, European Cup runners-up in the last two seasons,
will play Legia Warsaw, while Italian giants Inter Milan, who
won the UEFA Cup three times in the 1990's, also play Polish
opposition in Wisla Krakow.
Inter will have to play their home leg in Trieste, but
Krakow want the second leg game, set for November 1,
re-scheduled because it is a religious holiday in Poland. Their
home leg might also be played in Chorzow 100 miles away.
Fiorentina have been drawn against Tirol Innsbruck for the
second successive season and will be looking to improve on the
last outcome after Tirol beat them in the first round 5-3 on
aggregate.
AC Milan face Bulgaria's CSKA Sofia, while the 1999 winners
Parma face FC Utrecht of the Netherlands.
The two Israeli teams making a rare appearance in the second
round of a European competition had contrasting luck. Maccabi
Tel Aviv will play Roda JC Kerkrade, a tie they could win, but
Hapoel Tel Aviv were drawn against Chelsea and their interest in
the competition is likely to end.
As with Austria's visit to Israel for a World Cup match on
October 7, security will be one of the issues. Chelsea managing
director Colin Hutchinson said the club planned to visit Tel
Aviv next Tuesday and Wednesday to make security arrangements.
'That is no different from a visit to any other club. We're
going to take an observer from the FA and a local police
commander and we will talk about all aspects of the match
including security.
'Certainly the Israeli club is no more concerned than normal
but we will talk to the foreign office if we need to but lets
take it one step at a time. The draw has just been held.'
'We don't know much about the team. I do know they're
playing a local derby tomorrow (Saturday) with the other Tel
Aviv team and we will try to have someone there to watch.
The first legs are scheduled to be played on October 18 and
the second legs on November 1.