Revealed: The 5 Teams Arsenal Could Draw In The Champions League Play-Offs

Arsenal now know the five possible opponents they could face in Friday’s Champions League play-off draw after the qualifying rounds concluded on Wednesday night.

A fourth placed finish in the Premier League last season means we’ve got to navigate a tricky two legged play-off to earn a place in the Champions League group stages.

Thankfully we are a seeded team along with FC Porto, Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli and Zenit St Petersburg, but there are still some potential ties we’ve prefer to avoid. Here are the five teams we could get:

Athletic Bilbao: The Spaniard’s have been dumped into the unseeded pot after seeing Zenit come from a first leg defeat to beat AEL Limassol 3-1 on aggregate, and they will certainly be a dangerous opponent despite losing key player Ander Herrera to Man Utd this summer.

Lille: Another tricky side, Lille finished third in Ligue 1 last season behind PSG and Monaco. The bonus of drawing the French outfit is it would only be a short trip across the channel.

Besiktas: While we should be confident of beating Besiktas, it’s never easy facing a Turkish side away from home as the atmosphere is always hostile. Maybe one to avoid for that reason alone.

Standard Liege: This would be a very good draw for Arsenal in all fairness. I’d be delighted if we drew the Belgian outfit, despite the fact they knocked out Panathaniakos in qualifying.

FC Copenhagen: The Danish side are probably the weakest team we could get in Friday’s draw, so lets hope we get them.

So from these five possible opponents, I’ll be praying we draw either Standard Liege or FC Copenhagen, while Athletic Bilbao are certainly the ones to avoid.

The draw takes place on Friday morning, with the first leg on the 19/20 August and the return leg the following week on the 26/27.