Believe it or not, but the UEFA Champions League begun Tuesday, and continued Wednesday. Okay, so its the first round of qualifying, but still -- the long road to Rome is underway. As far as I know, no club has ever progressed from the First Qualifying Round to the Group Stages. So this may all be a moot point, but whatever.The 28 Champions of associations 25-53 take part in the first round. A nation's association is determined by their UEFA league co-efficient. In this round, Sweden has the highest ranked league, whereas San Marino has the lowest (I was unaware San Marino had a league -- but they do have a funny entry in the Onion's Our Dumb World). Lichtenstein do not qualify for the Champions League, as they don't have a league. Per usual, each qualifying round is two-legged. So, without much ado, below are the results for the First Qualifying Round. And as always, home team listed first:
FC BATE (Belarus) 2-0 Valur (Iceland)
Drogheda United (Ireland) 2-1 Levadia Tallinn (Estonia)
Aktobe (Kazakhstan) 1-0 Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova)
Dinamo Tirana (Albania) 0-2 Modriča (Bosnia/Herzegovina)
F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg) 0-1 Domžale (Slovenia)
Tampere United (Finland) 2-1 Budućnost (Montenegro)
Inter Baku (Azerbaijan) 0-0 Rabotnički (Macedonia)
Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus) 1-0 Pyunik Yerevan (Armenia)
Llanelli (Wales) 1-0 Ventspils (Latvia)
Murata (San Marino) 0-5 IFK Göteborg (Sweden)
Santa Coloma (Andorra) 1-4 Kaunas (Lithuania)
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) 3-0 NSÍ Runavík (Faeroe Islands)
Valletta (Malta) 0-2 Artmedia Petržalka (Slovakia)
Linfield (Northern Ireland) 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)
The second leg continues next week, July 22nd and 23rd.
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