The UEFA Champions League draw might be little more than a week away, but there are still seven more spots in the league phase that are up for grabs, with 14 teams battling each other for the last remaining places in the competition.
Several European regulars made the cut for the playoff round, the final round of Champions League qualification, though the headlining act of the next two weeks will be Fenerbahce’s tie with Benfica and the manager they share in common — Jose Mourinho. The two-time Champions League winner, now the Fenerbahce manager, will need to outdo the team that gave him his managerial start in order to reach the league phase, though it will be no small feat. Benfica reached the round of 16 in both last season’s edition of the Champions League and in this summer’s Club World Cup, where they beat Bayern Munich and took eventual champions Chelsea to extra time.
The play-off round is not short on storylines, though, as a mix of European regulars and minnows make up the last teams standing in the qualifying rounds. Three previous Champions League winners – Benfica, Celtic and Crvena zvezda – made the cut, as did last season’s UEFA Europa League semifinalists Bodo/Glimt. Fenerbahce target their first Champions League campaign in almost two decades, while three teams — Norway’s Bodo/Glimt, Cyprus’ Pafos and Kazakhstan’s Kairat — hope of reaching the competition for the first time. Kairat are taking the path less traveled, journeying to the playoff round after beginning their qualification campaign in the first round on July 8.
These last 14 teams standing face off against each other in seven two-legged ties that will be decided on aggregate score, which begin on Tuesday and run through next Wednesday, finishing up just in time for the league phase draw on Aug. 28. The Champions League awaits for the seven winners, while the rest will take part in the Europa League instead.
Play-off round first leg schedule
All matches will kick off at 3 p.m. ET and will air live on Paramount+
Tuesday, Aug. 19
Crvena Zvezda vs. Pafos
Rangers vs. Club Brugge
Ferencvaros vs. Qarabag
Wednesday, Aug. 20
Celtic vs. Kairat
Basel vs. Copenhagen
Bodo/Glimt vs. Sturm Graz
Fenerbahce vs. Benfica
Jose Mourinho faces his former club
The UEFA Champions League qualification play-off round makes for a unique setting for an anniversary but almost exactly 25 years after Benfica hired first-time manager Jose Mourinho, he will face his former club for a spot in the league phase.
Mourinho’s Fenerbahce will host Benfica in the first leg on Wednesday, where the two teams’ contrasts will begin to play out. Fenerbahce and Benfica may have Mourinho in common but that is where the similarities end – Benfica are favored to advance as a European mainstay, reaching the last 16 in the Champions League and Club World Cup just last season, while Fenerbahce have not played in the competition since the 2008-09 season. Their second place finish in the Turkish Super Lig last season means they had to enter qualification in the third round, beating Robin van Persie’s Feyenoord 6-4 on aggregate to set up a meeting with Benfica in the first place.
The manager acknowledged just as much last week when they advanced to the play-off round, his flair for the dramatic aside. By Mourinho’s own admission, Fenerbahce are “not a Champions League side,” by which he means that they may have the caliber of winning the Europa League but lifting Europe’s top club prize is an “impossible dream.” The financial incentives of a Champions League run that guarantees at least eight games, though, cannot be understated.
“I think [Benfica would[ prefer Feyenoord,” he said last week after their 5-2 win at home cemented their aggregate win over the Dutch side. “They know we’re stronger, they know it won’t be easy for them. But let’s go. I want to play, the fans want to play, the players want to play. It’s important financially, it’s important in terms of prestige. But we’re playing against great teams, Feyenoord and now Benfica, it’s not an easy playoff. But honestly, I think Benfica isn’t happy.”
Mourinho’s 11 game spell at Benfica, which ended after a spat with the club’s newly elected president, may be old news but he is still tasked with outperforming his old employers. He does have a point about Fenerbahce’s talents – the Turkish side have a handful of notable players, including former Manchester United player Fred and the globe-trotting Jhon Duran, who has bounced from Aston Villa to Al-Nassr and now Fenerbache in the span of eight months. Both of them scored in Fenerbahce’s win over Feyenoord next week but Benfica have their own including Greece international Vangelis Pavlidis, who scored seven goals in 12 Champions League games last season.
Nearly 25 years after his first managerial gig, Mourinho’s legacy is probably intact, even if his longevity is not. He has not stood on a Champions League touchline in over five years, last doing so at Germany‘s Red Bull Arena as Julian Nagelsmann‘s RB Leipzig registered a 4-0 aggregate win over Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur in the round of 16. If he finds a way to outmaneuver Benfica over the next two weeks, though, he just might hit the quarter of a century mark in style.
