Liverpool get Toulouse in Champions League draw

NYON, Switzerland, Aug 3 (Reuters) Last season's Champions League finalists Liverpool will take on French club Toulouse in the third qualifying round of this season's competition.

Liverpool, beaten by AC Milan last May in Athens after winning in 2005, will be in southwest France for the first leg against a side who finished third in Ligue 1 last season.

''I think the draw has been reasonably kind on us, it could have been a lot worse,'' Liverpool's club secretary Bryce Morrison told Reuters following the draw at UEFA's Swiss headquarters.

''The qualifying competition seems to get harder each year though. It would be a great benefit if we could qualify automatically for the group stage next time.'' Premier League rivals Arsenal, who were losing finalists in 2006, start at Czech side Sparta Prague, while a tie with Ajax Amsterdam awaits the winners of the second qualifying round tussle between MSK Zilina of Slovakia and Slavia Prague.

Arsenal beat Sparta 3-0 at Highbury and 2-0 away on that run to the 2006 final against Barcelona. Striker Thierry Henry, now at Barcelona, broke the club's scoring recored in Prague with his 186th goal for the north London side.

''It was a great night for Thierry but now we are hoping to have a good season without him,'' said club secretary David Milers. ''We've played Sparta Prague four times in the past six years but we'll still be doing our homework.'' Sparta Prague's chief financial officer Presmysl Benes told Reuters he was looking forward to seeing Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky returning to his boyhood club.

''Tomas spent all his developing years at Sparta so having him back for the first leg will certainly add some spice to the match,'' Benes said.

''We have brought in Tomas Repka from West Ham since we last played Arsenal as well as a lot of young players so I would say we are a stronger team than we were two seasons ago.'' Celtic, the first British club to win the European Cup in 1967, have a tricky tie with Spartak Moscow, while fellow former champions Benfica play either FC Copenhagen or Beitar Jerusalem.

''We haven't played Spartak Moscow before so we'll be doing all our normal preparations,'' said Celtic's head of operations Ronnie Hawthorn. ''They have an artificial pitch so we'll also have to see what we do about training for the match.'' The 16 winners from the third round, which will be played between August 14/15-28/29, will go through to the lucrative group phase of the competition, which runs from September 18 to December 12. The 2008 final will be played in Moscow on May 21.

REUTERS TB HT1805