GENEVA - Arsenal and Porto are among the big clubs entering the Champions League qualifying campaign when the draw for the last-round playoffs is held Friday. Jacoby Ellsbury Shirts . Arsenal, chasing a 17th straight group-stage campaign, and two-time European champion Porto are the highest-ranked teams in the 20-team draw. They are seeded with Zenit St. Petersburg, 2002 runner-up Bayer Leverkusen and Napoli in the section for teams which are not national champions. Their unseeded opponents are Athletic Bilbao, Lille, Copenhagen, Standard Liege and Besiktas. The Turkish club advanced from the third qualifying round Wednesday with a hat trick from former Chelsea forward Demba Ba to beat Feyenoord 3-1 and complete a 5-2 aggregate win. "He is not 100 per cent but fit to play," Besiktas coach Slaven Bilic said of his new signing. Clubs from the top five leagues in UEFAs rankings — Spain, England, Germany, Italy and Portugal — join in the fourth and final qualifying round, with two-leg matches scheduled for Aug. 19-20 and Aug. 26-27. In the champions section, 1986 European Cup winner Steaua Bucharest is seeded with Salzburg, APOEL, BATE Borisov and Ludogorets Razgrad. Potential opponents are Maribor, Legia Warsaw, Slovan Bratislava, 1979 runner-up Malmo and Aalborg. Playoff winners join the 22 clubs directly qualified for the group stage. The eight four-team groups are drawn Aug. 28 in Monaco. The 10 playoff losers enter the second-tier Europa League group stage, drawn Aug. 29. Though each playoff team gets 2.1 million euros ($2.8 million) form UEFA, the real prize — in status and cash — comes in the six-match Champions League group stage which kicks off in September. UEFA pays a basic 8.6 million euros ($11.5 million) fee for reaching group stage, plus 1 million euros ($1.34 million) per win and 500,000 euros ($670,000) per draw. Teams also get a share of television rights money in a near 1 billion euros ($1.34 billion) payout shared by the 32 group teams. Arsenals streak of claiming a share of that bonanza started in the 1998-99 season. Zenit was fined 6 million euros ($8 million) of its prize money last season by UEFA for breaching Financial Fair Play rules, and is restricted to registering only 22 senior players in this years competition instead of the usual 25-man squad. Led by former Porto and Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas, Zenit got two late goals Wednesday to beat AEL Limassol 3-0 and advance 3-1 on aggregate. In the champions section Wednesday, Legia routed group-stage regular Celtic 6-1 on aggregate, and perennial qualifier Dinamo Zagreb was stunned at home by Aalborg. Danish champion Aalborg is the lowest ranked of the 20 playoff teams, earning its place with a 2-0 win in Zagreb, to advance 2-1 on aggregate. Copenhagen, the Danish league runner-up, also advanced with a 2-0 second-leg win over Dnipro of Ukraine to remove one security problem from the Champions League. UEFA has deemed some Ukraine cities, including Dnipropetrovsk, unsafe to host matches during ongoing conflict with pro-Russian separatist rebels, and currently prohibits Ukraine vs. Russia matches in its club competitions. Malmos return to Europes elite links the competition to its 1970s heyday dominated by Ajax, Bayern Munich and Liverpool, which all feature in the groups draw The Swedish champion was not a fully professional club when it lost the 1979 European Cup final to Englands Nottingham Forest, and has never played in a Champions League group. Malmo advanced Wednesday when Markus Rosenberg scored twice in a 2-0 home win against Sparta Prague, enough to advance on away goals after losing the first leg 4-2. "Winning a match like this for this club, of course its special," Rosenberg said. Shawn Kelley Yankees Jersey . Make that 2-40 now. Tony Gwynn Jr. led off the ninth with a walk against Miami closer Steve Cishek and later scored, Ben Revere added the go-ahead run when Miami second baseman Donovan Solano bobbled a potential double-play grounder and the Phillies rallied past the Marlins 5-4 Thursday night to snap a six-game losing streak. Brian Roberts Shirts . They had already blown a double-digit lead, fans were hitting the exits, and a long seven-game road trip waited at the end.GOODYEAR, Ariz. - Michael Brantley was smoothly sidestepping a question about whether he should have won the Gold Glove for going an entire season in the outfield without an error. His boss interrupted him in midsentence. "He should have won the Gold Glove," Cleveland Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said. Brantleys response matched his "Dr. Smooth" nickname. He kept right on going, talking about everyone except himself. "Its about winning baseball games," Brantley said. His devotion to that answer helped him get a $25 million, four-year contract on Thursday as the Indians opened spring training. A player who was the last piece in the deal for pitcher CC Sabathia in 2008 is now recognized as one of the Indians core players. Brantley batted a team-leading .284 last season, when Cleveland ended a five-year playoff drought. The Indians lost to Tampa Bay 4-0 in the wild-card game. The challenge is to keep getting better. The Indians decided that the 26-year-old can be instrumental that way. He avoided arbitration by agreeing to the deal, which he signed after passing a physical. Brantley gets a $3.5 million signing bonus and salaries of $1.5 million this year, $5 million in 2015, $6.5 million in 2016 and $7.5 million in 2017. Cleveland has an $11.5 million option for 2018 with a $1 million buyout. His 2017 salary would increase by $1 million if hes among the top five in MVP voting in any year from 2014-16 and would go up by $500,000 if he finishes sixth to 10th. The option price would be boosted by $1 million if hes among the top five from 2014-17 and by $500,000 if he finishes sixth to 10th. "He is a complete player," Antonetti said. "He is a tireless worker, a great teammate, a complete professional in every sense of the word. When youre making investments of this magnitude, those are the things you look for. He embodies everything we look for in our players. "His entire focus is on the team. A lot of guys talk about that and will give the surface, Hey, Im a team pplayer. Johnny Damon Shirts. . Michael lives that every day." He proved it last season. Brantley was slotted as the leadoff hitter and centre fielder until the Indians signed Michael Bourn. He agreed to move to left field and floated around in the batting order, hitting everywhere from first through eighth as manager Terry Francona rested regulars. Brantley set career highs with 26 doubles, 10 homers, 73 RBIs and 66 runs. He also stole 17 bases in 21 attempts. And he went the entire season without making an error in his new outfield spot. "Those are the players that you value because regardless of what their personal goals are or their aspirations, theyre able to put the team goals ahead of it," Francona said. "And thats a good example. We all know he wanted to play centre field, and he moved to left. And he probably preferred to stay in one spot in the order, but he moved around. "And he did it willingly." Brantley was part of a four-player package that the Indians got from Milwaukee on July 7, 2008. Originally, it was three players and one to be announced after the season. Brantley heard that he would be the final piece in the deal, which was completed on Oct. 3. Little did the Indians know he would end up being the biggest prize in the package, which included first baseman Matt LaPorta. "In bringing Michael over, we had some sense of those things," Antonetti said. "But Im not sure we could fully appreciate how great of a worker he was, how great of a teammate he was, how driven he was to be successful." Notes: Francona isnt sure where Brantley will bat this season, but said its possible he could move around in the order again. ... The Indians were prepared for an arbitration hearing Friday with RHP Josh Tomlin, who is asking for $975,000. The team has offered $800,000. RHP Justin Masterson also has an arbitration hearing pending. He is seeking $11.8 million, while the club offered $8.05 million. AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum contributed to this report. wholesale jerseys cheap jerseys ' ' '
