NYON, Switzerland — Manchester United was given a troublesome tie against Club Bruges in the draw for the Champions League playoff round Friday, although it could have been worse as it avoided Lazio, CSKA Moscow or Monaco. Lazio will meet Bayer Leverkusen as they attempt to return to the group stage for the first time since 2007-08 while another high profile tie pitted Spain's Valencia against Monaco, which was quarterfinalists last year. Portugal's Sporting will face CSKA while Rapid Vienna, which stunned Ajax Amsterdam by beating the four-time European champion in the previous round, was rewarded with a tie against group stage regulars Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine. United, fourth in the English Premier League last season, will still be uncomfortable at having to overcome Bruges to avoid missing out on the group stage for the second season in a row. “Belgian football is right at the very top and we have two Belgian players in the squad who keep us abreast of what's going on there,” said Manchester United club secretary John Alexander. “We go into any game with confidence. We'd like to think we can win the competition.” Former European champion Celtic will play Swedish counterparts Malmo, with the first leg in Glasgow, as it attempts to make up for last season's disappointing playoff round defeat against Maribor. Skenderbeu, aiming to become first Albanian team to reach the group stage, must face Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb and Astana, hoping to become Kazakhstan's first representatives in the competition proper, must meet APOEL of Cyprus. Champions League regulars FC Basel, Swiss champions for the last six seasons, face Maccabi Tel Aviv and BATE Borisov, who have also became familiar faces in the group stage with four appearances since 2008/09, take on Serbia's Partizan. The first legs will be played on Aug. 18/19 and the second legs on Aug. 25/26. The reward for advancing is a 12 million euros ($13.1 million) prize money bonus from UEFA for being in the group stage, plus 2 million euros for winning the playoff. UEFA has increased Champions League prize money by 33 percent this season, and will share more than 1.2 billion euros among the 32 group-stage clubs. Playoff losers this month are compensated with 3 million euros and a place in the Europa League groups, which guarantees a 2.4 million euros bonus.— Reuters
