Arsenal to face Udinese in Champions playoff
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Shanghai Daily, August 6, 2011
Arsenal will play Udinese in the Champions League playoff round, and four-time winner Bayern Munich was drawn against FC Zurich yesterday.
Lyon received perhaps the toughest draw, against a match-sharp Rubin Kazan which is midway through the Russian league season.
Arsenal club secretary David Miles said the Gunners were happy to avoid the long trip to Russia.
"It would have been difficult. But we won't underestimate (Udinese) at all. The draw gives us the home leg first and hopefully we will take a lead over there," Miles said.
Villarreal will travel to Denmark for the first leg against Champions League newcomer Odense. Twente will host two-time winner Benfica in the first leg. In a separate 10-team draw for national champion, Copenhagen was drawn against Czech newcomer Viktoria Plzen.
First-leg matches will be played on August 16 or 17, and the returns on August 23 or 24. Ten playoff winners will join 22 teams with direct entry to the group stage, which will be drawn on August 25 in Monaco.
Slight edge
Arsenal, the 2006 Champions League runner-up, and Udinese have never met in a competitive match.
The English side has a slight edge with the Premier League scheduled to begin next weekend, whereas Udinese's Serie A campaign starts on August 28.
"We will make our best effort to prepare our team in the best way," Udinese general manager Franco Collavini said. "We respect Arsenal. It's one of the most important clubs in Europe."
Udinese qualified for the Champions League by finishing fourth in Serie A. The club sold star winger Alexis Sanchez to Barcelona and key midfielder Gokhan Inler to Napoli.
Bayern Munich received a favorable pairing with Zurich, which lost its first three matches in the Swiss league this season before eliminating Belgium's Standard Liege in the third qualifying round.
In other pairings of national champion, Wisla Krakow plays APOEL, Maccabi Haifa faces Genk, Dinamo Zagreb plays 1979 runner-up Malmo and BATE Borisov faces Sturm Graz.
