SOCCER/Champions League draw: A year ago a run in the Uefa Cup gave them a taste for European football in the likes of Gothenburg, Glasgow and, even as they went out, Paris. The downside of Derry City's elevation to the Champions League this year, however, was highlighted yesterday when the draw for the first round of the competition was made.
The club's first, and perhaps last, port of call this summer will be the Armenian capital, Yerevan. If things go well, a trip to Ukraine's Donetsk awaits a couple of weeks later.
City will play FC Pyunik twice in successive weeks during the middle of July. "I don't really know what to make of it, to be honest," said the captain and caretaker manager Peter Hutton. "We have to organise the trip and familiarise ourselves with the team in a very short space of time and neither will be easy.
"It's disappointing for the fans, though. We brought a lot of supporters with us everywhere we went last year but not too many of them are likely to make it along on this trip. Having said that, though, if it means that we have a better chance of making it through to the next round then so be it, that's the main focus."
The club's chief executive, Jim Roddy, admitted the draw has left the club with a lot of work to do. "Getting drawn at home first is disappointing from a sporting point of view but there is some consolation here because it gives us an extra week to get everything organised."
Having talked to people in the know at yesterday's draw in Nyon, Roddy said that the general view is that the standard is broadly similar to that here. Beyond that, however, he conceded it was early days in terms of gathering information about a team that has won its championship for the last six years running.
The Pyunik captain, Sargis Hovsepyan's observation, however, that "Derry City are not the strongest opponents we could have got in but Irishmen are very good in the air" at least suggests that current levels of mutual ignorance are roughly equal.
In the Uefa Cup, Drogheda United and St Patrick's Athletic enjoyed starkly contrasting fortunes with the former landing a first-round tie with SP Libertas, the second best side in San Marino last year, while John McDonnell and his men have the rather more daunting task of taking on Denmark's Odense.
"They are the most difficult team in the seeded pool, they have a good pedigree," said the club's director of football, Brian Kerr, who was in Nyon for the draw. "They have beaten Shels in Europe, they have gotten to the group stages of the Uefa Cup - and, last season, they beat Copenhagen in the Danish Cup final. So they're strong."
Both Irish clubs have been drawn at home although it is understood the order of United's games will be reversed over the coming days.
First Round (to be played July 17/18th and 24/25th): Khazar Lenkoran v D Zagreb; Apoel FC v Bate Borisov; FC Sheriff v FC Ranger's; Hafnarfjodur v HB Torshavn; New Saints FC v FK Ventspils; FK Pobeda v Levadia Tallinn; Olimpi Rustavi v FC Astana; FK Zeta v FBK Kaunas; Tampere United v SS Murata; F91 Dudelange v MSK Zilina; Linfield v IF Elfsborg; Derry City v FC Pyunik; Marsaxlokk FC v FC Sarajevo; NK Domzale v KF Tirana.
Second round (to be played July 31st/ August 1st and August 7/8th): Derry City/FC Pyunik v Shakhtar Donetsk; Crvena Zvezda v FK Pobeda/Levadia Tallinn; Rangers v FK Zeta/FBK Kaunas; Debreceni VSC v Linfield/IF Elfsborg; Zaglebie Lubin v Steaua Bucuresti; KRC Genk v Marsaxlokk FC/FK Sarajevo; New Saints FC/FK Ventspils v FC Salzburg; Olimpi Rustavi/FC Astana v Rosenborg; BK Hafnarfjodur/HB Torshavn v Apoel FC/Bate Borisov; FC Coepenhagen v Beitar Jerusalem; F91 Dudelange/MSK Zilina v Slavia Prague; Tampere Utd/SS Murata v Levski Sofia; NK Domzale/KF Tirana v Khazar Lenkoran/D Zagreb; Besiktas JK v FC Sheriff/FC Rangers
