Shamrock Rovers of Ireland and Macedonia’s Rabotnicki set-up money-spinning Europa League ties against former European champions Juventus and Liverpool respectively on Thursday.
Juventus will head to Dublin next week for the third qualifying round tie to face Shamrock, who triumphed 1-0 against Bnei Yehuda in humid Tel-Aviv to prevail 2-1 over two legs. Thomas Stewart scored the only goal 20 minutes from the end.
“It’s something wonderful for our fans and players, to play against them at our home stadium and in Italy,” Shamrock boss Michael O’Neill told the UEFA Web site. “We will try to do our best against Juventus and maybe the luck will be with us.”
Rabotnicki won their opener against FC Mika 1-0 last week and booked a dream clash with Liverpool by battling to a goalless draw in the return leg in Armenia on Thursday.
“We played very bravely,” coach Zoran Stratev said. “We ensured that football fans in Skopje can see one of the best clubs in the world next week. This is a great success for Rabotnicki and for Macedonian football. We know that even in Skopje Liverpool are 99 percent likely to win, but I can promise that we will do ourselves justice.”
Meanwhile, debt-ridden Real Mallorca said they were surprised to be excluded by UEFA on Thursday from playing in this season’s Europa League.
The Spanish club went into voluntary administration in May with debts of a reported 60 million euros (US$77 million).
The UEFA control and disciplinary body said Mallorca did not fulfill “the necessary admission criteria as the license of the club was not granted in accordance” with the competition’s regulations.
Mallorca said in a statement on it’s Web site that UEFA’s decision came as a “surprise,” especially since UEFA offered no “legal arguments.”
Mallorca disputed it was not conforming to regulations, saying it received its UEFA license on May 14.
It said it would wait until it received the full decision from UEFA before deciding on how to proceed. Mallorca have three days to appeal Thursday’s decision to the UEFA appeal panel. They can then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if it proves unsuccessful there.
Villarreal take Real Mallorca’s place for the Aug. 6 draw.
Mallorca finished fifth in the Spanish league last season and were in the Champions League hunt until the final round of games.
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