Bohemians’ failure to secure seeding for second qualifying round of the Champions League appears costly after the League of Ireland champions were draw against Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg this morning.
Pat Fenlon’s side will meet the Giovanni Trapattoni’s former club over two legs, with the only consolation being a home tie for the second leg.
The first match will be held at the Red Bull Arena on July 15th, with the return leg scheduled for a week later at Dalymount Park.
It is a sizeable task for Bohs, but though Salzburg won the Austrian Bundesliga by four points, they conceded 50 goals, more than any of the other top five teams, and lost eight times.
Fenlon’s men will also have the advantage of being match fit come July, when they will have played 19 games of their season.
Salzburg beat Rapid Vienna into second and Sligo Rovers may yet face them if they can overcome Albanian side Vllaznia in the first round of the Europa League qualifiers.
St Patrick's Athletic and Derry City will be among the teams in the second round of qualifying too, with St Pat's set to meet either Valetta (Malta) or Keflavlik (Iceland) on July 16th and Derry facing a trip to Latvian side Skonto Riga.
The return legs are to be played on July 23rd.
Glentoran were handed an arduous tie against Maccabi Haifa, who famously beat Manchester United in the group stages in 2002, in their Champions League qualifier.
Maccabi are likely to have too much for Allan McDonald’s men, who ousted Linfield as Northern Ireland champions last term.
Seventeen second qualifying round winners will be joined by Olympiakos, Slavia Prague and FC Zurich in the next stage on a path that will eventually see five sides make it through to the final 32.
Another 15 teams, including Celtic and Arsenal, are in a separate section, with five making it through from that part of the draw as well to join the 22 teams already confirmed in the group stages.
Welsh champions Rhyl have also been handed a daunting task after being paired with Partizan Belgrade.
