After an impressive debut for his new club in Malaysia yesterday Damien Duff's first competitive outing for Chelsea now looks set to be in Israel.

In the draw for the third qualifying round of the Champions League the Londoners were paired with either Maccabi Tel Aviv or MTK Zilina of Slovakia, who play the first of their second-round games next week. The winners will now go on to face Duff and co for a place in the group stages of this year's competition.

The Premiership club would expect to beat either club although after a series of embarrassing defeats in the early stages of European tournaments in recent years, including one against Maccabi's neighbours Hapoel, there will be considerable pressure on Claudio Ranieri to ensure his team do not slip up again.

None of the British clubs that featured in yesterday's draw will be too disappointed by the opposition they have been handed, although Rangers could be tested by Danish side FC Copenhagen and Newcastle will not be thrilled by the prospect of taking on Partizan Belgrade or Djurgarden of Sweden.

In the event that Celtic negotiate their way past Kaunas of Lithuania in the second round Martin O'Neill's side will face either MTK Budapest or HJK Helsinki in the final qualifying round, the stage at which the Scots last season lost to Basel.

The tie of the round will be the meeting of Italian giants Lazio and former winners Benfica while if Bohemians can surprise Rosenborg, they will earn a hugely lucrative meeting with Deportivo la Coruna.

"Wouldn't it just be wonderful?" chuckled club secretary Gerry Cuffe after witnessing the draw in Nyon yesterday and getting to grips with the fact that playing the Spaniards would almost certainly mean a windfall of more than €500,000 for the Dublin club.