Hungarian clubs find out Champions League and Europa League opponents

The draws for qualifying rounds one and two of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League have been held, with Hungarian entrants Ferencváros, MOL Fehérvár, Debrecen and Honvéd facing some intriguing ties in their quest to make the group stages.

In the Champions League, Ferencváros face on Bulgarians Ludogorets Razgrad, with whom MOL Vidi met in round two last season. Hungarian sides have fared well in recent years against Bulgarian opponents, Debrecen defeating Levski Sofia in 2009, Diósgyőr seeing off Litex Lovech in 2010 and Vidi edging out Ludogorets 1-0 on aggregate last season. Ludogorets cannot be taken lightly though, having qualified twice for the Champions League and three times for the Europa League group stages in the past six seasons.

Ludogorets are fresh off the back of their eighth championship success in a row, albeit this time round they edged nearest rivals CSKA Sofia by only a point. Main dangerman is Romanian international striker Claudiu Keșerü who came second in the league scoring chart with 20 goals. Central defenders Dragoș Grigore and Cosmin Moți also hail from Romania, and there is a strong Brazilian influence too, with right back Cicinho and attacking midfielders Marcelinho and Wanderson influential.

Ferencváros play the first leg at home on 10 July, with the return match in Razgrad the following week. Should Fradi succeed in making round two, they will face the winners of first round tie between Dudelange of Luxembourg and Valletta of Malta, with the first leg at home on 23 or 24 July. Should Serhiy Rebrov’s side fail to get past Ludogorets, they will drop into Europa League qualifying round two and face the losers of the Champions League first round Valur against Maribor match, starting away on 25 July.

MOL Fehérvár, who reached the Europa League group-stage last season under the name MOL Vidi, start their campaign this season away to FK Zeta of Montenegro on 11 July, with the home leg a week later. Should Fehérvár progress, in round two they will face the winners of the tie between Icelandic side Breiðablik and Vaduz of Liechtenstein, starting at home.

Debrecen start at home on 11 July against Albanian side FK Kukësi, and should András Herczeg’s side safely negotiate that tie, in round two they will face Italian opposition, with the first leg away from home on 25 July and the home leg on 1 August. There is still some doubt as to who Loki’s opponents will be, with AS Roma being drawn out of the urn, but should AC Milan drop out of the Europa League, Roma would take their place directly in the group stage, meaning that Debrecen would then face Torino instead.

Budapest Honvéd also play their first-round, first-leg tie at home, albeit they will be using Vasas’ Illovszky Stadion for their European matches this season. With the new Bozsik Stadion currently under construction, Honvéd have been using MTK’s Új Hidegkuti Stadion as home, but due to the Maccabi Games in July, the Kispest side were forced to make other arrangements. Honvéd’s opponents in round one are Lithuanians FK Žalgiris of Vilnius, whilst prospective round two opponents are the winners of Sabail FK of Azerbaijan against Universitatea Craiova of Romania, with the home leg due to be played on 25 July.