Champions League draw: Man United v Club Brugge, Celtic v Malmo

The victor will be given a place in the Group Stage of the Champions League – no small prize at all.

The first legs of the play-off ties will take place on August 18-19, with the second leg matches on August 25-26.

Last season Monaco reached the last eight of the competition before losing to Juventus.

The Champions League group stage is close, but there’s still spots open.

The draw was conducted this morning and United have been handed a favourable draw having been pitted against Club Brugge of Belgium.

Dutch winger Memphis Depay, World Cup victor Bastian Schweinsteiger and French holding midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin have all arrived in the off-season, although standout goalkeeper David de Gea continues to be linked with Real Madrid and Van Gaal confirmed Friday that the Spanish worldwide wouldn’t play in Saturday’s Premier League opener against Tottenham.

Starting with the extremely obvious, Manchester United lucked out on their return to European football’s biggest stage.

In Champions Route, ties of the round are undoubtedly meetings between Basel and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, as well as those between Celtic and Malmo. Astana from Kazakhstan will test themselves against the Cypriot outfit Apoel.

SB: They beat Salzburg and we all know how good a team they are from last season, so we certainly can’t underestimate them. Dinamo Zagreb stand in the way of further glory.

As for Sporting, they will have their chance to avenge their 2005 UEFA Cup final loss to CSKA Moskva – the Russian club winning 3-1 at the Portuguese side’s own Lisbon ground. But only one of those two will progress this year to the tournament.