Meh, I wanted Rapid Vienna to draw United or Valencia :((
Really excited for Valencia - Monaco, though.

i wanted valencia to qualify. this is awful!!!!

Awesome! UCL here we come!

@Juan Do you live close to Wien / Rapid Vienna? Or you meant you would want to watch it on tv?

I'll definitively watch Malmö FF-Celtic live at home.. Think they're going to win over Celtic.. The Scottish league is ranked lower than the Swedish allsvenskan nowadays.. Will be a great game!

Europa League draw.
Going to stadium for Žilina vs. Bilbao, we couldn't get a harder opponent probably but, at least we can see Bilbao here.

@KTBFFHSWE: Yeah, I live in Vienna, around 20 minutes away from the stadium (Ernst-Happel-Stadion), where Rapid Vienna plays their home games. Normally said stadium is only used for the matches of the Austrian National Team, but Rapid temporarily switched to that stadium as they demolished their old stadium (Hanappi-Stadion) and are currently building a new one (Allianz Stadion), however, the location of the old/new stadium is quite far away from me, so I'm pleased that they use the national stadium at the moment. Usually, I attend all of Austrias national team games and the international games of Rapid (with the last one being the game against Ajax, obviously). I'm not too sure about Shakhtar though.. they are very good side without a doubt, but they don't really excite me enough to go to the stadium to be honest.

May I ask where you live and who you support in Sweden? I'm also hopeful that Malmö will beat Celtic.. they're not the greatest on the ball, but they sure are fighters and know how to frustrate their opponents like we've seen against Red Bull Salzburg two years in a row. Speaking of Salzburg, the Austrian press is absolutely wrecking them!

@quikzyyy: lol I often go to Poland as I have family there, and when we drive through Zilina you can literally see into the stadium from the motorway as there are major gaps between the tribunes/stands. Anyways, do you support them? If I remember correctly, you're from Bratislava, I thought you're a fan of Slovan :-p?

You remember great mate! I don't support them in the league but, in Europe I'm glad for any our team. It's not happening often that teams with that quality will visit us, since our league football is on really bad level. I remember when Chelsea played here few years ago also against Zilina too, even though Chelsea destroyed them, it's nice to see these players on the pitch live :).

I hope Valencia can beat Monaco. It's been a while since they were last in the CL. Manchester United should definitely make it to the group stages.

@juan Austria Vienna and Rapid Vienna are both from Wien I guess? Would Rapid be your "local" team then? If I recall correctly Rapid just beat Salzburg as well, didn't they?. I can really imagine RB Salzburg getting trashed in the media at home. I mean.. they were clear favorites both times against Malmö but somehow they always seem to fail out in Europe.. I really wonder why that is.. Coincidence? Someone told me it's been 8 years or so since they last progressed in an European cup.. Don't know if that's correct though. Because I've seen their matches and how they usually dominate the austrian bundesliga.. They're usually really good.

My hometown is an hour away from Malmö (3rd biggest town in Sweden) but I currently reside in Uppsala. I guess one could say that Malmö is the capital here in southern Sweden.. so a lot of people here feels some kind of connection to the city. Can't say that I watch all their games, but at least I get happy when Malmö wins and I definitively watch all their international games! I really do think they have a good shot against Celtic as they didn't impress at all against that Kazakhstanian team and Malmö is by far the best team in Sweden! Group stages in Cl would be so fun to watch with them. Last year they beat Olympiacos and put on a great fight against Juventus.

@KTBFFH: Yes, they are both from Wien, Vienna's just the English word for Wien. I guess you could call Rapid my local team, but I don't support them in the same magnitude as I support Chelsea. It's the team I like the most in Austria, but like I said before, I only watch the international games, because the level of our league is below average to put it nicely. As for Salzburg, it's the 8th time in a row they didn't qualify for the Champions League since Didi Mateschitz (founder of Red Bull) acquired the rights of the club (2005), but they've always managed to get into the Europa League since 2009, once even getting 18 points in the group stage, then destroying Ajax 6:1 on aggregate before closely going out against Basel. Before the Red Bull era, they were called SV Austria Salzburg, but that team wasn't a force in the league since Austria and Rapid Vienna always managed to attract bigger players and had a bigger budget than Salzburg. However, they've once managed to get into the Champions League group stages in 1994, something which the current team isn't capable of doing as you know. To be fair, they lose their best players every year (most of them get farmed out to Red Bull Leipzig as that is the main project of Red Bull), but with the budget they have it's still a bit odd that they haven't managed to do it yet.

Oh, I understand. Well, I hope that Malmö qualifies. Did you attend the CL games in Malmö last year? I had the chance to do so two years ago when Austria qualified for the CL group stage, but I didn't take it, which I regret now that I'm thinking about it. That's why I really hope that Rapid qualifies, but I'm not optimistic at all seeing how Shakhtar performed against Fenerbahce.

Fu*k, i feel sad for the looser of Valencia/Monaco, they both deserve to play CL.

^i don't care about monaco but imwill be really sad if valencia go out. For me Monaco are Boring if they don't have ocampos or carrasco.

@juan You've pretty much the same relationship with your home-club as I then. It's Chelsea which really matters.No other team can compete with the love I feel for this club.

Thanks for clarifying the Salzburg saga. I didn't know they focused more on RB Leipzig than RB Salzburg, considering Salzburg usually is top of the league and Leipzig in 2nd tier. But I've heard about how German fans dislike Leipzig because of it's affiliation with Red Bull. Personally, I have nothing against it. More money attracts better players which after a period of time makes the league better. Same with the English clubs and some of their rich owners.. Anyways, you should know that the Austrian league is ranked higher than the Swedish allsvenskan in the FIFA rankings (But then again who trusts FIFA anymore, eh?). Allsvenskan isn't really good either though.

I did not watch the CL games with Malmö last year as I lives in a city far away then. But this year I'll make the home games at least! Really hope they qualify.

Shaktar is a fairly good team and they'll be a tough nut to crack for Rapid.. We'll have to wait and see:)

Fifa rankings is for National teams, they apply friendlies...
Uefa coefficient ranks are for clubs and leagues, no friendlies are taken into consideration.

@KTBFFH: You're welcome. The main target of Red Bull is to compete with Bayern in the long run and qualify for the Champions League. They've made a German team their main project because it's much easier to attract top players to the Bundesliga than to the Austrian League. However, you're right, Leipzig receives a lot of hate in Germany (so does Salzburg in Austria btw) with a lot of fans booing them or holding posters saying "Fuck commerce" (quite ironic, eh?), but the most extreme incident was the following one.

These are fans of Erzgebirge Aue, who made banners that translate to:
An Austrian calls and you follow blindly
Every child knows where this will end (rhymes with the first line in German)
You would have been good Na.zis

Additionally, you can see Didi Mateschitz in a Na.zi uniform at the bottom. Even the presidents of other (first league) German clubs have criticised the project. Let's see how it works out.

@juanmata I find the Red Bull investment strategy fascinating. The amount of money they invest in football, F1 and all other kinds of sports is ridiculous. But contribute to making sports more attractive to watch in a way. For example the Austrian Bundesliga.. RB Salzburg is easily the team nowadays that is seen the most out in the world. Most people know about this team and in the long run it contributes in giving the Austrian league attention itself.

All though I can understand the frustration from rivaling clubs and their fans, I personally think RB's involvement is good. Most successful football teams are commercialized nowadays. Good or bad, I don't know, but that's just how it is.. With that said, I've heard about that incident. Na.zi references don't go unnoticed nowadays.

@KTBFFH: I completely agree with you, I've got nothing against Red Bull's involvement in sports, in fact I even cheer for Salzburg when they play in European competitions because they've brought and may still bring a lot of important points for the UEFA coefficient, which gives other Austrian teams a chance to actually qualify for the Champions League, like Rapid. I think this is the first or second time in recent history that both the winner and the runner-up of the Austrian League are eligible to play in the Champions League qualification rounds, other than that, only the champions were able to do so. This is mostly down to Salzburgs performances in the EL, so it's unfair that Red Bull-sponsored teams receive that much hate - at least in Austria and Germany, I don't know much about Red Bull New York.