Dundalk will play Legia Warsaw for a chance to reach the Champions League group stages after the playoff draw was made this morning.

The League of Ireland champions, who beat BATE Borisov on Tuesday night, will take on the Polish champions in the first leg at the Aviva Stadium on the 16th or 17th of August with the away leg to be played the following week.

Stephen Kenny’s side will be looking to become the first Irish side ever to reach the group stages of Europe’s premier competition after Shelbourne came closest in 2004.

Dundalk are set to earn €2 million if they manage to beat Legia, and an additional €12 million for reaching the group stages.

Regardless of the result, the Louth club are guaranteed at least another six European matches before Christmas, with defeat seeing Dundalk drop into the Europa League group stages.

European Cup semi-finalists in 1970, where they were beaten by eventual winners Feyenoord, Legia have not reached the group stages since the 1995/96 season. The Polish champions held on at home against Slovakia’s AS Trencin to put themselves one game away from the main competition.

Meanwhile, Celtic received a favourable draw in the form of Israeli champions Hapoel Beer-Sheva while Manchester City will face Steaua Bucharest in the league route side of the draw.

Champions League playoff draw:

Champions route

Ludogorets Razgrad v Viktoria Plzen

Celtic v Hapoel Beer-Sheva

Copenhagenv Apoel Nicosia

Dundalk v Legia Warsaw

Dinamo Zagreb v FC Salzburg

League route

Steaua Bucharest v Manchester City

Porto v Roma

Ajax v FC Rostov

Young Boys Bern v Borussia Monchengladbach

Villareal v Monaco

– Ties to be played August 16/17 and 23/24.