Europa League Play Offs - Will Borussia be seeded?

With only a fortnight to go until the draw for the Play Offs of the Europa League, we today have a look at the current rankings. Borussia, who will start their European campaign on August 19th, are currently ranked 36th out of 74teams, thus would be seeded if all goes according to plan.

But what is according to plan

... and why can things still change for the worse maybe leaving us with a heavyweight like Juventus or Liverpool for the Play Offs?

Let's have a closer look. We have to keep an eye on both the 3rd Round Qualifiers for the Champions League as well as the 3rd Round Qualifiers for the Europa League and keep in mind that if we drop two places (from 36 to 38) we will not be seeded and maybe face a European giant before the group stages.

3rdRound CL-Qualifiers

Here we need to keep our fingers crossed for the "favourites" (in bold below), if one of them drops out, they will join the Europa League Play Offs. As they are currently ranked higher than Borussia they will be seeded above us.

Here are the matches

Sparta Prag - Lech Posen

FK Aktöbe - Hapoel Tel Aviv

Litex Lowetsch - MSK Zilina

VSC Debrescen - FC Basel

AIK Stockholm - Rosenborg Trondheim

BATE Borisov - FC Kopenhagen

The New Saints - RSC Anderlecht

Omonia Nikosia - Red Bull Salzburg

Ajax Amsterdam - PAOK Saloniki

Dinamo Kiew - AA Gent

Young Boys Bern - Fenerbahce

But what if two favorites go out?

If all the favorites but one go through here, forget about everything that is written below and maybe already prepare yourself for a nice trip into the unknown countries of the former Soviet Union. Chances are not too low we'll face one of those teams. If two or more teams drop out (and who wouldn't want to see Red Bull Salzburg not qualify for the next round) read on, not everything is lost.

Unlike the Champions Leauge qualifiers the Europea League qualifiers give us the opportunity to root for the underdogs. If any of the bolded teams below dropout, Borussia will climb up the ranking. There are only 10 CL Qualifiers and 17 Europa League Qualifiers. Fingers crossed for the underdogs in those games:

Europa League qualfiers

Odense BK - Zrinjski Mostar

FC Liverpool - FK Rabotnicki

CSKA Sofia - Cliftonville FC

Shamrock Rovers - Juventus Turin

FC Nordsjaelland - Sporting Lissabon

Ruch Chorzow - Austria Wien

Viktoria Pilsen - Besiktas Istanbul

Olympiakos Piräus - Maccabi Tel Aviv

Molde FK - VfB Stuttgart

Maccabi Haifa - Dinamo Minsk

Dinamo Bukarest - Hajduk Split

AZ Alkmaar - IFK Göteborg

Spartak Zlatibor - Dnepr Dnepropretowsk

Kalmar FF - Lewski Sofia

Galatasaray Istanbul - OFK Belgrad

And then there was the case of RCD Mallorca: The Spanish islanders have been forced out of the qualifiers due to financial problems. If UEFA sticks to this, which still is up in the air, something happens. Either a Spanish team will take the place and not change a thing for Borussia or a 3rd Round lucky loser joins the Play Offs, we might be lucky too. Who knows? And always remember to keep your fingers crossed for the CL favorites and the EL underdogs. But as Adi Preißler once put it: "What matters is on the pitch"

steph (translation)/scherben (who did all of the maths), 23.07.2010