The European journey of the Maltese clubs involved in the UEFA competitions get under way today when the draws of first qualifying rounds of the Champions League and the Europa League will be held today at the UEFA headquarters, in Nyon.

The Champions League draws will be held at 2.30pm followed by the Europa League. The second qualifying round draws of the latter competition will be held tomorrow, with the three Maltese clubs set to know their potential opponents should they advance from the first round.

Valletta will be Malta’s representatives in the Champions League while Gżira United, Hibernians and FA Trophy winners Balzan are in the pot for the first qualifying round of the Europa League.

The Champions League first qualifying round will draw much of the attention with Valletta bracing themselves of the prospect of being handed a mouth-watering European tie as yesterday they were put in the same pot with Scottish giants Celtic.

The Glasgow club is one of two former European champions that are present in today’s draw with the other being Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade.

Valletta will relish their chance of facing Celtic in the Champions League as surely it could yield them a lucrative financial return through TV rights when facing one of the biggest clubs in Scottish football.

Should Celtic be drawn against Valletta it will be the second time that the Hoops will be making the trip to Malta as in season 1971-72 they played against Sliema Wanderers in the second round and coasted through 7-1 on aggregate following a 5-0 and 2-1 victories.

The Malta champions have other stern opposition in today’s pot in the form of Azerbaijan champions Qarabag who have already experience in playing the group stages in the Champions League two seasons ago.

The other teams in the pot are Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange, who were in last year’s Europa League group stagres, Moldova’s Sheriff Tiraspol and Slovan Bratislava, of Slovakia, who last season played Balzan in the Europa League qualifiers.

Apart from Valletta, the other unseeded teams in Group 2 are Bosnia’s Sarajevo, Sutjeska, of Montenegro, Partizani, of Albania, and Georgia’s Saburtalo.

The ties for the Champions League first qualifying round will be played on July 9-10 and 16-17.

In the Europa League, Gżira, who are making their second successive appearance in the competition after placing third in the BOV Premier League last season, could be facing familiar opposition in the form of Serbia’s Radnicki Nis.

The Serbian side played the Maroons in the second qualifying round of the Europa League and they eased into the next stage of the competition when they won the first stage at home 4-0 and then edged to a 1-0 win at the Centenary Stadium.

Should they avoid Radnicki, Gżira will still head to Eastern Europe as they were put as one of the unseeded teams in Group 2 and could be drawn against Hajduk Split, of Croatia, Legia Warsaw, of Poland, Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia or Kazakhstan’s Ordabasy Shymkent.

Hibernians, last season’s runners-up in the Premier League, also face a tough draw as they were one of the unseeded teams in Group 5 and could play Hungary’s Fehervar, Zrinjski, of Bosnia Herzegovina, Neftci, of Azerbaijan and Levski Sofia, of Bulgaria.

Interestingly three of the teams in Hibernians pot have faced Maltese clubs in UEFA club competition in recent years.

In fact Fehervar, formerly known as Videoton, played Balzan in 2017-18 Europa League and they progressed to the next round 5-3 on aggregate after 2-0 win in Hungary and a 3-3 draw at the Hibs Stadium.

Neftci also faced Balzan in the summer of 2016 in the same competition and they just managed to scrape through 3-2 on aggregate. In fact after winning the first leg in Malta 2-0, the Azeris just made it through after suffering a 2-1 home defeat.

HSK Zrinskji, on the other hand, played Valletta in the second qualifying round of the Champions League. After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Bosnia, Zrinjski needed a late goal to take a crucial 2-1 win in the return leg to progress.

Balzan could also face stern tests as their potential opponents are Israel’s Hapoel Beer-Sheva, AEK Larnaca of Cyprus, Slovenia’s Domzale, Pyunik of Armenia, Sabail of Azerbaijan and Montenegro’s Buducnost Podgorica.

The Europa League first qualifying round will be played on July 11 and 18.

The pots

Champions League

Group 2
Seeded: Celtic (Scotland); Qarabag (Azerbaijan); Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova); F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg); Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia).
Unseeded: Valletta (Malta); Sarajevo (Bosnia); Sutjeska (Montenegro); F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg); Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia).

Europa League

Group 2
Seeded: Hajduk (Croatia); Legia (Poland); Radnicki Nis (Serbia); CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria); Ordabasy (Kazakhstan).
Unseeded: Flora (Estonia); Torpedo Kutaisi (Georgia); Sant Julia (Andorra)/Europa (Gibraltar); Titograd (Montenegro); Gżira United (Malta).

Group 5
Seeded: Fehervar (Hungary); Zrinjski (Bosnia); S. Soligorsk (Belarus); Neftci (Azerbaijan); Levski Sofia (Bulgaria).
Unseeded: Hibernians (Malta); Ruzomberok (Slovakia); A. Pandev (Macedonia); S. Nisporeni (Moldova); FK Zeta (Montenegro).

Group 9
Seeded: Hapoel Beer-Sheva (Israel); AEK Larnaca (Cyprus); Domzale (Slovenia); Pyunik (Armenia); Sabail (Azerbaijan); Buducnost Podgorica (Montenegro).
Unseeded: U Craiova (Romania); Balzan (Malta); Laci (Albania); Shkupi (Macedonia); Petrocub-Hincesti (Moldova); Narva Trans (Estonia).