Pep Guardiola's Manchester City got a relatively easy tie as the Champions League Group phase playoffs were drawn in Nyon Friday as it landed Romanians Steaua Bucharest. "I wanted any team but City," said a blanched Steaua coach Laurentiu Reghecampf, while City's sporting director Txiki Begiristain took a cautious approach. "It's going to be a difficult tie because Steaua are on the up again in Europe and have a lot of talent," the Spaniard said. The other British side in the draw Scotland's 1967 European Champion Celtic plays Hapoel Beer-Sheva of Israel in its desert stadium, while Ireland's Dundalk takes on Polish Champion Legia Warsaw. The plum ties cast 2004 Champions League winner Porto against Italy's Roma while Spain's fourth placed side last season Villarreal takes on French third placed side Monaco. Two time UEFA Cup winner the German outfit Borussia Mönchengladbach takes on Young Boys of Berne while Salzburg drew Croats Dinamo Zagreb. Ajax faces Russian club Rostov, whose striker Dmitri Poloz was delighted to have landed the legendary four time winner. Copenhagen takes on APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus and Bulgaria's Ludogorets takes on Viktoria Plzen of the Czech Republic. The playoffs are contested over two legs on the 16/17th and 23/24th of August with the winners going into the lucrative Champions League groups phase. West Ham at home already Cheikhou Kouyate scored twice as West Ham United beat Slovenians NK Domzale 3-0 Thursday to reach the Europa League playoff round in its first game at its new ground. Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, Slaven Bilic's side won 4-2 on aggregate at London Stadium courtesy of Senegalese midfielder Kouyate's first-half double and Algerian winger Sofiane Feghouli's late strike. Elsewhere, Portugal's Euro 2016 final hero Eder was brought down to earth with a bump as his side Lille was eliminated by Qabala of Azerbaijan. Formerly known as the Olympic Stadium, West Ham's new 60,000-seater ground hosted the athletics events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. It has been converted to a football stadium at a cost of 272 million pounds ($362.7 million), partly funded by the British taxpayer. West Ham, missing the rested Dimitri Payet, took an eighth-minute lead when Kouyate flicked home left-back Sam Byram's low cross from close range. It made the Senegal international the first scorer at the ground and he added another in the 25th minute, toeing the ball in from Andy Carroll's knock-down to register his first career brace in his 321st match. Feghouli made it 3-0 in the 81st minute by beating Domzale goalkeeper Axel Maraval at his near post. In Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, Eder's efforts to repeat his Euro 2016 heroics fell flat as Lille lost 1-0 to Qabala for a 2-1 aggregate defeat. Lille had been held to a 1-1 draw at home in last week's first leg with Eder watching on from the stands. Finland international Teemu Pukki scored a hat trick as Danish side Brondby overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit with a 3-1 home win over German representatives Hertha Berlin.
