Maccabi Haifa will meet Northern Ireland champions Glentoran in the second qualifying round of the Uefa Champions League.

Haifa will host the first leg on July 15 with the return in Belfast on July 22.

Defender Alon Harazi is one of three players still at Haifa who helped them record a 3-1 aggregate victory over Glentoran in the then European Cup Winners Cup in 1998.

He said: “This is a very comfortable draw for us on paper but on the pitch things can be different.”

Haifa manager Elisha Levy said: “We are preparing for a very physical, long-ball game from Glentoran.”

Maccabi were seeded with the strong teams in last week’s draw and will also be seeded in the strong half of the third qualifying round draw should they progress. Should they progress, they will be seeded with the weaker teams but, thanks to the restructuring of the tournament, they will avoid team’s from the strongest countries and look set to a team from Greece or the Czech Republic.