Will Lech Poznań fight for the Champions League in Lublin?

As we know, for several weeks now, the Motor Lublin Arena has been hosting another team trying to get into this elite competition – Dynamo Kyiv.

Our eastern neighbors began their competition in the second round, where they defeated Maltese side Hamrun Spartans twice (3-0 and 3-0). In the third round, they will host the Cypriot champions, Pafos FC, in Lublin on Tuesday, August 5th. The return leg is scheduled for August 12th (7:00 p.m.).

If the Ukrainian team wins the two-legged tie, they will face the better of the two teams in the fourth round for a Champions League ticket: Lech Poznań vs. Red Star Belgrade. The draw revealed that in such a situation, the first leg would be played at the "Kolejorz" stadium, with the possible return leg in Lublin. The matches in this round will take place on August 19-20 and August 26-27.

While Dynamo has a good chance of edging out their Cypriot rivals, experts rate the Serbian team's chances much higher in the Lech-Crvena Zvezda clash. This is hardly surprising, as coach Vladan Milojevic's side recorded 32 wins (out of 37 matches) in the league last season, along with four draws and only one defeat. Their goal difference was 123-35. They secured a total of 100 points, edging out second-place Partizan Belgrade by 27 points. Third-place FK Novi Pazar, Jagiellonian Białystok's recent rivals, trailed by... 46 points.

Lech's rivals could afford to bring in a player of Maarko Arnautović's caliber, and there's talk that Dusan Tadić, a former Ajax star, will soon join the team. On the other hand, if you're going to try to eliminate the Serbs, now would be the time. Crvena Zvezda have sold several key players, not all of the new faces are ready to play yet, and Arnautović, for example, is recovering from an injury.

We'll find out just how strong the Belgrade team really is on Wednesday. The first match between the two teams will take place in Poznań (8:30 p.m.). The match will be broadcast on TVP 2, TVP Sport, and online at sport.tvp.pl.

Draw for the 4th qualifying round of the Champions League

Ludogorets Razgrad/Ferencvaros – FK Skendija/Qarabag Agdam

Lech Poznań/Crvena Zvezda – Dynamo Kyiv/Pafos FC

Feyenoord Rotterdam/Fenerbahce – OGC Nice/Benfica

Rangers FC/Viktoria Plzen – FC Salzburg/Club Brugge

FK Bodo/Glimt – SK Sturm Graz

Celtic FC – Kairat Almaty/Slovan Bratislava

FC Basel 1893 – Malmo FF/FC Copenhagen