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Liverpool to play Rabotnicki in Europa League

Liverpool will face Rabotnicki in the third qualifying round of the Europa League after the Macedonian side beat Armenia's Mika 1-0 on aggregate.

The two sides drew 0-0 in an uneventful second leg qualifier on Thursday.

Motherwell face Norwegian club Aalesund after beating Breidablik of Iceland 1-0 away to seal a 2-0 aggregate victory.

Bangor City of Wales beat FC Honka 2-1 thanks to two late goals which secured a 3-2 aggregate win, while Northern Ireland's Cliftonville beat Cibalia.

Bangor will now face Portugal's Maritimo, while Cliftonville have a tie against CSKA Sofia after they beat Croatian side Cibalia 1-0 on aggregate, following a 0-0 second leg draw.

Hibernian discovered they will face Maribor in the third qualifying round after the Slovenian side beat Videoton 2-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.

But Northern Ireland's Portadown are out after a 1-1 draw in Qarabag saw them lose 3-2 on aggregate.

Dublin's Shamrock Rovers face a glamour tie against Italian giants Juventus after beating Israel's Bnei Yehuda 2-1 on aggregate after Thomas Stewart's goal secured an away victory in their second leg in Tel Aviv.

The third qualifying round ties are due to be played on 29 July and 5 August.

Meanwhile, Uefa has excluded debt-ridden Spanish side Mallorca from the Europa League for this season.

The Spanish club - which finished fifth in the Spanish league last season - went into voluntary administration in May with debts reported to be about £50m.

Uefa's 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.

But Mallorca released a statement saying Uefa's decision came as a "surprise" as Uefa offered no "legal arguments".

Mallorca have three days to appeal to Uefa against Thursday's decision and if unsuccessful they can take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In the meantime, Villarreal will take Mallorca's place for the 6 August draw for the play-offs which will determine who progresses to the group stage.

And Uefa has also handed 3-0 Europa League defeats to FK Atyrau of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan's FC Baku after ruling that both clubs fielded ineligible players in last week's second qualifying round first leg ties.

Both teams were eliminated on Thursday, although Baku would have won were it not for the Uefa penalty.

Europa League third qualifying round - selected ties

Rabotnicki v Liverpool
Maritimo v Bangor City
CSKA Sofia v Cliftonville
Maribor v Hibernian
Aalesund v Motherwell
Shamrock Rovers v Juventus

Full draw on uefa.com

First legs to be played on 29 July; second legs on 5 August

by BBC    posted on: 23-July-2010      [ Back to Top ]
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