Uefa Champions League Playoffs Draw

UEFA Champions League Play-off Round Draw Winners and Losers

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The UEFA Champions League play-off round draw has been completed; all 20 clubs vying for access to the group stage know who they must overcome to reach the financial goldmine of the tournament proper.

Manchester United drew Club Brugge of Belgium, Bayer Leverkusen have been handed Lazio, Valencia face Monaco and, closer to home, Celtic will play Malmo. BT Sport provided a helpful infographic of the full draw on Twitter.

Here, B/R takes a look at winners and losers from the draw.

Winner: Manchester United

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

Drawing Club Brugge gives Louis van Gaal arguably the easiest draw of the competition, rivalled only by Shakhtar Donetsk landing Rapid Wien of Austria. There's also a reasonable Belgian contingent in The Red Devils' squad, giving them a rare comfort factor when heading to a country not often visited.

United were never in danger of facing Bayer Leverkusen or Valencia, but they did dodge Monaco and Lazio. The drawing of Club Brugge all but guarantees their passage to the group stage—barring an absolute catastrophe, that is.

To fall away at this stage would be nothing short of a disaster for LVG as he looks to return United's name to the top shelf of continental football. This gives him a golden chance of taking that first step.

Loser: Lazio

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Lazio have been extremely quiet in the transfer window this summer despite achieving Champions League football for the season ahead. The reason? They still have to negotiate this play-off and didn't wish to gamble the future on making the group stage proper.

That cautious outlook now looks very, very wise. Drawing Bayer Leverkusen isn't a happy outcome, and while the game is probably 60-40 in favour of the Germans only, it's this kind of rotten luck that can ruin you for the next few seasons.

Expect Stefano Pioli to have to wait and see if his side can overcome this task before any proper money is spent.

Winner: Jorge Mendes

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The Jorge Mendes derby?

Mendes, Portuguese super agent, is a man with both a controlling stake in Valencia and, seemingly, a controllinghand in Monaco's transfer business. He'll see the two clubs he has most invested in do battle in the Champions League play-off round.

It's going to be a tight battle between two strong sides, and Mendes can sit back and simply enjoy watching a significant number of his own clients playing high-level football. Joao Moutinho, Fabinho, Rodrigo, Andre Gomes...the list of first-team stars with the same agent rumbles on.

One set will progress, while the others will drop out. Perhaps Mendes will have some transfers to negotiate for whoever drops out?

Loser: Maccabi Tel-Aviv

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Maccabi Tel-Aviv were an unseededthird qualifying round winner, and that always opens up the chance of a tough draw. Unfortunately the Israeli outfit drew the worst possible scenario: they must play Basel for the right to enter the Champions League group stage.

Basel were the team who pipped Liverpool to second place in last year's groups, going on to battle a strong FC Porto side in the round of 16. With Breel Embolo and Co. developing at a rate of knots, the Swiss outfit's young stars should best Maccabi without breaking a sweat.

"Every team that gets to this stage is good and nothing will be easy. It's the third meeting in two years [against Basel] and the previous ones didn't finish well for us but we believe this time it is possible," defender Tal Ben Haim told UEFA.com after the draw.

Despite Ben Haim's positive outlook, don't expect to see Slavisa Jokanovic's men in this competition come September.

Winner: Celtic

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Like Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Celtic were among 10 third qualifying round winners, though the Scottish outfit were at least seeded for the draw. They were excluded from the possibility of facingthe likes of Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen or Monaco, but there were a few iffy outcomes firmly on the radar should Lady Luck give them the cold shoulder on Friday.

Dinamo (Croatia), Partizan (Serbia) and Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel) would have been discomforting opponents; the travelling, tiredness and potential jet lag to those destinations isn't what you need to kick off a season.

Luckily, they were given Malmo—a weaker side based in Sweden, which is extremely accessible via a quick journey from Scotland. They've avoided lots of air miles and drawn one of the most enticing play-off eventualities.

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