United handed Belgian test in Champions League

“We’re absolutely delighted to be back in the competition”. The first matches of the two-legged ties will be on August 18 and 19, with the return legs on August 25 and 26, and the ten winners advance directly to the Champions League group stage.

While Club Brugge don’t have any household names in their squad, they will nevertheless be up for this one.

“We go into any game with confidence. We’d like to think we can win the competition”.

The three-time champion United is seeking to build on a season where manager Louis van Gaal – who guided Ajax to Champions League glory in 1995 – steadied the ship following a turbulent campaign under David Moyes.

United were seeded for the draw, and avoided Monaco, Lazio and CSKA Moscow.

Premier League champions Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal have already qualified for the group stage.

The Premier League team’s journey in Champions League will be decided on Friday during the UEFA Champions League play-off draw.

But Malmo, European Cup finalists in 1979, have plenty of pedigree and have won the Swedish title in the last two seasons.

United forward Adnan Januzaj and midfielder Marouane Feilaini are both Belgium internationals. However, Valencia and Lazio could face a tougher challenge when they come up against Monaco and Leverkusen respectively.

Also, Austria’s Rapid Wien has been scheduled to meet Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine, while the Kazakh Astana will play against APOEL from Cyprus, and Scotland’s Celtic was pitted against Malmo from Sweden.