2 su 5 non si conoscono ancora
se superano saranno ajax e shaktar
e speriamo di beccare una di queste
Lazio? Monaco? Sporting Lisbon? There are some tricky teams standing between Manchester United and the Champions League group stages, and we have all the information you need.
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Before we get into the meat of who United might be playing in the Champions League Playoff Round, a quick note on how it all works. Thanks to the joys of seeding and club rankings Manchester United will not have to play Bayer Leverkusen or the frankly terrifying Valencia. Hooray for that.
United will avoid the other two seeded teams as well, though we don't know who they are yet. If Shakhtar Donetsk and Ajax make it through the third qualifying round, it will be them; if one doesn't, then Sporting Lisbon will be seeded; and if both don't, then CSKA Moscow will be seeded as well. Unless the Russians don't make it through as well, in which case the final seeding place will go to Lazio. Clear? Good. On to the hot information!
Lazio, Italy
Perhaps the trickiest of United's potential opponents, Lazio swiped the final Italian Champions League spot from Napoli thanks to (a) run of eight straight victories between mid-February and mid-April, which saw them briefly move above local rivals Roma into second, and (b) a totally ridiculous final day victory over Napoli in a game that saw Lazio go two up, then have a man sent off, then slump back to 2-2, then give away a penalty for 2-3 that Napoli missed, then score two more to seal the win. At some point in there Napoli had a man sent off as well. It was fun.
Whether they're quite as strong next season remains to be seen. Brazilian wunderkind Felipe Anderson, scorer of eleven goals this season, has been linked with most of the big clubs in Europe, United included. Louis van Gaal also reportedly maintains an interest in central defender Stefan de Vrij, even though he only moved to Italy a season ago. He has the twin advantages of being able to play football quite well and being Dutch. Up front, Miroslav Klose is still scoring goals, even though he's older than the city of Rome itself. We'd say his pace had gone, but he never had any.