The European national championships have reached the finish line, which means that the tentative outlines of the basket compositions for the draw for the initial stages of next season's European Cup tournaments are already visible.
We would like to remind you that Dynamo Kyiv will start the season 2024/25 from the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League on the way of non-champions. The company of the Bilo-Syni at this stage (and path) of the tournament will be made by the vice-champions of Austria, Serbia, Turkey, Switzerland and Czech Republic.
To understand which teams from these countries have the best chances to become possible rivals of Dynamo, let's look at the current situation in the standings of the respective championships.
We would like to remind you that the UEFA club coefficient of the participating teams is used when forming the baskets for the draw of this or that stage of the Champions League.
Austrian Championship. 1 round left to play
(UEFA club coefficient is given in brackets)
1. "Sturm" (14.500) - 41 points
2. "Salzburg " (50.000) - 39
3. LASK - 34.
As we can see, two clubs have theoretical chances to finish in the second place. For Dynamo it is important that this club will be Sturm, but the chances of such an outcome are small, because in the final round this team will play with Austria Klagenfurt, while Salzburg will have to play with strong LASK. Everything will be decided this Sunday, 19 May.
Serbian Championship. There are 2 rounds left to play
(UEFA club coefficient is given in brackets).
1. "Crvena Zvezda" - 90 points
2. "Partizan " (25.500) - 74
3. "Bačka Topola " (5.555) - 72
4. "Radnicki" - 59.
There are also two contenders for the second place, but in this case the outcome of the tournament does not matter for Dinamo, as both Partizan and Bačka Topola have a lower club coefficient.
Turkish Championship. There are 2 rounds left to play
(UEFA club coefficient is given in brackets)
1. "Galatasaray" (31.500) - 99 points
2. "Fenerbahce" (36.000) - 93
3. "Trabzonspor" - 61.
As you can see, with the probability close to 100 per cent, Fenerbahce will finish second here, but in any case the representative of Turkey will be higher than Dynamo in the seeding.
Swiss Championship. There are 3 rounds left to play
(UEFA club coefficient is given in brackets).
1. "Young Boys" (34.500) - 68 points
2. "Lugano " (8.000) - 62
3. "Servette " (9.000) - 61
4. "St. Gallen " (6.595) - 54
5. "Zurich" - 51.
The situation in this championship is the most confusing, because four teams have a chance to end up in the second place, but for Dynamo it is only important that this team does not become Young Boys - only this club has a higher UEFA coefficient than Kyiv.
Czech Championship. There are 2 rounds left to play
(the UEFA club coefficient is given in brackets).
1. "Sparta" (22.500) - 83 points
2. "Slavia " (53.000) - 76, a match in reserve
3. "Viktoria " (28.000) - 68, match in reserve
4. "Mlada Boleslav" - 47.
"Slavia" and "Viktoria" have a match in reserve in relation to "Sparta", so there are three contenders for the second place in this tournament. But it is obvious that Slavia and Viktorija, whose club coefficients are higher than Dynamo's, have the best chances to finish in this position.
Assuming that the current standings of the above championships remain unchanged until their completion, the composition of the baskets for the draw of the 2nd qualifying round will be as follows.
Preliminary composition of the baskets for the Champions League 2nd qualifying round draw
Seeded
"Slavia - 53.000
Salzburg - 50.000
Fenerbahce - 36.000
Unseeded
"DYNAMO - 26.500
Partizan - 25.500
Lugano - 8.000.
The draw for the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League will take place on 18 June, while the matches of this stage of the tournament will take place on 23/24 July and 30/31 July.
As for the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, 8 teams will take part: 3 winners of the second qualification, the fourth team of France, the third team of the Netherlands, as well as vice-champions Portugal, Belgium and Scotland.
The Portuguese vice-champion is already known - it is Benfica with club odds of 79.000. This means that there are only three vacant positions in the seeded basket at this stage of the tournament. Among the possible participants of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League are Brest, Lille, Nice (all in France), Twente, AZ (both in the Netherlands), Bruges, Anderlecht (both in Belgium), Rangers and Celtic (both in Scotland).
Alexander POPOV
