NYON, Switzerland (AP) 鈥� After a in the Scottish Premiership, Heart of Midlothian鈥檚 longer path toward the lucrative Champions League will start in Austria in July.
Hearts was paired with Sturm Graz in the draw Wednesday for the second qualifying round, needing to advance through three rounds to play in the 36-team league phase starting in September.
Scottish champion Celtic, which beat long-time leader Hearts in the final game last month, will start in the qualifying playoffs round in late August.
will play Gornik Zabrze in the other pairing of teams that finished runner-up in mid-ranked leagues.
First-leg games start two days after the World Cup final and are played July 21 and 22. Return games are one week later.
Since losing the title race, Hearts has seen star forward Lawrence Shankland 鈥� now on World Cup duty with Scotland 鈥� join Rangers. The storied Glasgow club also is set to hire coach Derek McInnes away from Hearts, just five weeks before it begins a Champions League qualifying program.
Opponents in the third qualifying round could be Bodo/Glimt, Lyon or Union Saint-Gilloise.
Surprise champions step up
Two first-time national champions entered in a separate second qualifying round draw Wednesday for domestic title holders, and received very different results.
got a tough draw playing at home first against Champions League regular Dinamo Zagreb.
also is at home first, against Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar or Inter Club d鈥橢scaldes of Andorra. They meet in the first qualifying round over two legs in early July.
Thun and Mj盲llby were unseeded in the draw and sure to face a seeded team, which could have been Dinamo, former European champion Red Star Belgrade or Lincoln, which has a higher UEFA ranking after playing in last season鈥檚 third-tier Conference League.
Red Star, the 1991 European Cup winner, was drawn to play the away leg first against Tre Fiori of San Marino or Northern Ireland鈥檚 Larne.
Benfica in Europa League
Benfica was playing in the Champions League knockout playoffs in February, and finished the Portuguese league season unbeaten for coach Jose Mourinho 鈥� but only in third place.
Now with , Benfica and new coach Marco Silva will start the second-tier Europa League in the second qualifying round on July 23, away to Swiss league runner-up St. Gallen.
The draw Wednesday sent another Champions League team this season, Pafos of Cyprus, to play Hajduk Split or Zilina with the first leg away. Return games are July 30.
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