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Michael Laudrup will face a familiar face after Swansea City were paired with Romanian side Petrolul Ploiesti in the Europa League play-off.

Romanian cup winners Ploiesti are managed by former Romania international Cosmin Contra who played under Swans boss Laudrup at Getafe.

Indeed, Contra scored in both legs of the Spanish minnows Uefa Cup clashes with Bayern Munich in their progression to the quarter final in 2008, a run Laudrup said he wanted to try and emulate with S

After coasting through against Swedes Malmo with a 0-0 draw at the Swedbank Stadium last night, Michael Laudrup's current charges could have faced tricky trips to Kazakhstan or Iceland, so will be quite pleased to be facing the Romanian cup winners and will be favourites to progress.

Ploiesti is 35 miles north of Romanian capital Bucharest, the side finishing third in their league last year and reached the play-offs having beaten Faroe Islands side Vikingur 7-0 on aggregate in the second-qualifying round before shocking Wilfried Bony’s former side Vitesse Arnhem 3-2 over two legs in the last stage.

Map: The Swans face a 3,000 mile round-trip to Romania

Ploiesti have faced Welsh opposition before, beating Wrexham 1-0 in the 1995 European Cup Winners’ Cup over two legs. In a quirk of fate, that was the last time a Welsh side from the English system played in Europe before Swansea’s entry as English League Cup winners this year.

The winners of the tie – to be played on August 22 and 29 with Swansea due to be at home first – will progress to the group stage, the draw for which is in Monaco on August 30.

After drawing 1-1 in their home leg, Petrolul dumped out Vitesse with a goal five minutes into injury time when Gheorghe Grozav pounced in.

Arsenal and Celtic had contrasting fortunes in the draw for the Champions League play-off round yesterday as they look to seal their place in the competition’s group stages.

While the Gunners have been given a tricky encounter against Turkish side Fenerbahce, Neil Lennon’s men appear to have been handed a favourable draw against Shakhter Karagandy of Kazakhstan.

Arsenal, who have yet to make a big-name signing this summer, will travel to Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on either August 20 or 21, with the return leg at the Emirates Stadium a week later.

Boss Arsene Wenger would have perhaps been hoping for an easier draw rather than being paired with a side who finished runners-up in the Super Lig last term, but may yet receive a ban from competing in Europe this season, even if they overcome their English opponents.

Ersun Yanal’s side, who beat Salzburg 4-2 on aggregate to qualify for the play-off stage, are awaiting a final ruling from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over whether they will be allowed to go into the competition proper this season, having been banned from competing in Europe by Uefa for match-fixing in domestic competition.

They have challenged that ruling and a CAS verdict is due before the group stage draw is made, but home and away matches against Arsenal stand to go ahead before that decision arrives.

Uefa yesterday said no decision has yet been made regarding what would happen in the event of Fenerbahce, who have former Premier League players Raul Meireles, Joseph Yobo, Emre Belozoglu and Dirk Kuyt in their ranks, winning the tie and losing their CAS appeal.

While the CAS decision will leave a cloud hanging over the encounter, Arsenal will need no reminding that they were on the losing side when they faced Turkish opposition earlier this month, with Didier Drogba’s double giving Galatasaray a 2-1 win in north London in a pre-season friendly.

It will be a long first-leg trip for Wenger’s men, while Celtic find themselves in an identical position as they will travel to the Shakhtyor Stadium before welcoming their opponents to Celtic Park a week later.

The Hoops, who reached the last-16 of the Champions League last season, were given a testing time in the third qualifying round, coming through 1-0 on aggregate.

, with Kris Commons’ goal in the first leg in Glasgow separating the sides over the course of the 180 minutes.

Yet they will still be buoyed by memories of their last campaign in Europe, where they beat Barcelona in the group stages on a memorable evening at Celtic Park before bowing out to Juventus.

It proved a lucrative run for the Glasgow side, who will now face a team with no European pedigree, aiming to reach a main-draw stage for the first time against a club who won the old European Cup in 1967.

Shakhter landed the Kazakh league title in 2012 but their form in 2013 has been shaky. They ended the regular season in third place, behind Aktobe and Astana, and are heading into the championship round of the domestic campaign.

The standout tie of the round features PSV Eindhoven against AC Milan.

The Dutch outfit were winners of the European Cup in the 1987-88 season, while Milan are seven times European champions and will be favourites to progress.