MONACO (AP) — Historic rivals Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade won their Champions League qualifying playoffs on Wednesday and can now be drawn to meet for the first time in 33 years.
Dinamo and Red Star last played each other in May 1991 in the Yugoslavian league that started to break up after that season as ethnic tensions moved toward war in the Balkans. One year earlier, their match in Zagreb saw violent clashes in the stadium.
On Wednesday, Dinamo beat Qarabag 2-0 in Azerbaijan to win 5-0 on aggregate score, and Red Star overturned a 2-1 deficit from the first leg against Bodo/Glimt with a 2-0 win in Belgrade.
Dinamo and Red Star were joined by Lille and Slovan Bratislava completing the 36-team Champions League lineup in the draw on Thursday for the new format league phase that starts next month.
Lille won 3-2 on aggregate against Slavia Prague, despite losing 2-1 in the Czech capital, and Slovan won 3-2 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate score against Midtjylland.
In Thursday’s draw, Dinamo and Red Star will be in the pot of third-seeded teams who can be paired to play each other once.
The Champions League has abolished the traditional group phase and will now have an opening stage of a single league standings to decide which teams advance to the knockout rounds starting in February.
Each of the 36 teams will play eight games against eight different opponents, with four at home and four away.
The top eight in the standings in January advance direct to the round of 16. The teams ranked Nos. 9-16 are drawn to face teams Nos. 17-24 in two-leg knockout playoffs to join the last 16. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.
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Seedings
Pot 1: Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Liverpool (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Leipzig (Germany), Barcelona (Spain).
Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Atlético Madrid (Spain), Atalanta (Italy), Juventus (Italy), Benfica (Portugal), Arsenal (England), Club Brugge (Belgium), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), AC Milan (Italy).
Pot 3: Feyenoord (Netherlands), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Salzburg (Austria), Lille (France), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Young Boys (Switzerland), Celtic (Scotland).
Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), Monaco (France), Sparta Prague (Czech Republic), Aston Villa (England), Bologna (Italy), Girona (Spain), Stuttgart (Germany), Sturm Graz (Austria), Brest (France).
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