Source: Telegraph
Champions League draw: Tottenham's five possible opponents
Follow the Champions League play-off draw live (Friday Aug 6 11am BST) on Telegraph.co.uk. [LNB]If you thought Harry Redknapp's men were home and hosed the moment the full-time whistle blew at Eastlands in May, hold your horses. There are still two matches standing in between Tottenham and Champions League riches. [LNB]Tottenham set to join West Ham in ChinaOn Friday morning the draw for the fourth qualifying round will take place at Uefa headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Because of the way the seedings work out, Tottenham will definitely be drawn against one of the following five sides. [LNB]Depending on the vagaries of the draw, Tottenham fans could be sunning themselves in northern Portugal, sweating in sweltering Kiev, slurping on some pasta alla Genovese, sipping a glass of Burgundy or boring themselves senseless in Switzerland. [LNB]But what lies in store on the pitch? [LNB]Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine)[LNB]Star player: Andriy Shevchenko [LNB]Not as good as they were when reaching the Champions League semi-finals in 1999, but still the trip Tottenham will want to avoid most. Shevchenko has previous against them, too: one of the two greatest moments of his Chelsea career came when he scored in an FA Cup replay at White Hart Lane. The other, for the record, was when he beat Geremi at darts. [LNB]Braga (Portugal)[LNB]Star player: Alan [LNB]An excellent city break destination, Braga are playing in the Champions League for the first time and are one of the weaker teams left in the competition. Lost some decent players over the summer, but knocked out Celtic in the previous round, not that that counts for much. [LNB]Sampdoria (Italy)[LNB]Star player: Antonio Cassano [LNB]Tough cookies. Unbeaten at home in Serie A last season, and lethal on the counter-attack. In Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini, they have two mercurial talents of the type that always seem to come good against Tottenham (see Shevchenko). Spurs fans will also remember left-back Reto Ziegler, although not all that fondly. [LNB]Auxerre (France)[LNB]Star player: Ireneusz Jelen [LNB]Easy pickings for Tottenham - another team who prefer to sit back and keep things tight, even at home. Shared a buttock-numbing eight 0-0 draws last season. And when your main attacking threat is former Liverpool flop Anthony Le Tallec, you can understand why. [LNB]Young Boys (Switzerland)[LNB]Star player: Christoph Spycher [LNB]Easy pickings again, you'd think - but they did put out Fenerbahce in the last round. Still, they haven't won yet this season in the Swiss league, and Tottenham would surely have too much for the lowest ranked of the five sides they could be pitched against. Also: their stadium's called the Wankdorf, snigger snigger. [LNB]
