Queen of the South were rewarded for reaching the Scottish Cup final last season by being drawn against Nordsjaelland, of Denmark, in the Uefa Cup second qualifying round.

Gordon Chisholm, the Queens manager, is confident the fans will come out in force for their historic home leg, which will be played at the home of Airdrie United. “I would love to have played at Palmerston, getting them in your own back yard is always going to be beneficial, but Uefa regulations state that there is no standing allowed,” he said. “However, it’s the first time in history that we have played in Europe and I think that’s why it will be a sell-out.”

Meanwhile, Manchester City and Aston Villa will also be confident of progressing after both were handed favourable draws. City will face FC Midtjylland, who finished second in the Danish Super League last season, while Villa have been drawn to play Hafnarfjordur, of Iceland. But, unlike Villa, City will have to play in the second round of the Carling Cup. The eight English clubs that qualified for Europe were given byes in the Football League’s knockout competition but City’s late inclusion in the Uefa Cup via the Fair Play league would have left the domestic competition with an odd number of participants had Mark Hughes’s team been handed a passage to the third round.

City overcame EB/Streymur, of the Faeroe Isles, 4-0 on aggregate to reach this stage, though Midtjylland, formed as part of a merger of two clubs and 10-1 aggregate victors over Bangor City in the previous round, should provide stiffer competition.

Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, is adamant that his team will not be underestimating Hafnarfjordur after overcoming OB Odense in the Inter-toto Cup to reach the Uefa Cup. “We had two tough games against Odense and now we are determined to do as well as possible,” O’Neill said.

Uefa Cup draw

Southern section Siroki Brijeg v Besiktas; Braga v Zrinjski; Lokomotiv Sofia v Borac Cacak; Aris Salonika v Slaven Belupo Koprivnica; Omonia Nicosia v AEK Athens; Vllaznia Shkoder v Napoli; APOEL Nicosia v Red Star Belgrade; DeportÍvo La Coruña v Hajduk Split; Litex Lovech v Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona; Vojvodina Novi Sad v Hapoel Tel Aviv; Maccabi Netanya v Cherno More Varna. Central-East section VfB Stuttgart v Gyor ETO; FC Zurich v Sturm Graz; Lech Poznan v Grasshoppers; Slovan Liberec v Zilina; Metalurgs Liepaja v Vaslui; Young Boys v Debrecen; WIT Georgia Tbilisi v Austria Vienna; Suduva Marijampole v Salzburg; Interblock Ljubljana v Hertha Berlin; Legia Warsaw v FC Moscow; Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk v AC Bellinzona. Northern section Djurgarden v Rosenborg Trondheim; Manchester City v Midtjylland; FC Honka v Viking Stavanger; Queen of the South v Nordsjaelland; Ghent v Kalmar; Aston Villa v FH Hafnarfjardar; Stabaek v Stade Rennes; Haka Valkeakoski v Brondby; FC Copenhagen v Lillestrom; Elfsborg Boras v St Patrick’s Athletic.

First legs August 14 Second legs August 28