Predict what five countries' champions will advance through the qualifying rounds to the 2011-2012 Group Stage. According to http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seedcl2011.html the five champions with the best coefficients who do not start in the Group Stage will be Copenhagen (Denmark). Rangers (Scotland), Maccabi Haifa or Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel), BATE Borisov (Belarus), and Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia). In 2010-2011 the five clubs who did this were Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel), Copenhagen (Denmark), Basel (Switzerland), Zilina (Slovakia), and Partizan Belgrade (Serbia). As you can see, two countries are in both groups. Scotland could not have been in this group in 2010-2011 because their champion (Rangers) started in the Group Stage when Scotland had a better coefficient. The champion of Switzerland had to go through qualifying rounds for 2010-2011 but will start in the 2011-2012 Group Stage.
It's very hard to predict which 5 champions will survive the qualifying rounds yet, but a couple clubs I definitely like right now and would be shocked to see miss the Group Stage are Copenhagen (Denmark) and BATE (Belarus). Copenhagen made it to the Champions League Round of 16 this season and made a mockery out of their league, losing only 1 match out of 33 (if I recall correctly) in a league that gets 2 teams in Champions League. Assuming they don't sell all their good players during the summer, Copenhagen are almost a lock to return to the Group Stage and maybe beyond. BATE are currently unbeaten in their domestic league and have gotten to the Group Stage before. This season, they made it to the Europa League Round of 32 and it looks like they haven't lost a step. They had the misfortune of running into Copenhagen in the Champions League qualifying rounds this season, but since both BATE and Copenhagen are seeded teams throughout the qualifying rounds this time, BATE should get through inferior opposition to the Group Stage. While not a lock to make it, I would say BATE have an 85% chance of reaching the Group Stage of Champions League. Rangers (Scotland) are the highest seeded champion not in the Group Stage to start, but I cannot endorse anything relating to the SPL at this point. I would not be surprised if Rangers make the Group Stage (they probably will), but I'm not gonna bet on that at this point. One champion I definitely do NOT like to make it back to the Group Stages of Champions League is Rosenborg (Norway). Having gone unbeaten in their domestic league last year, they appear to be doomed to flirting with relegation so far this year.
I'm not sure what triggered this, but Slovan Bratislava finished their league campaign on a 14 match winning streak, scoring 37 and conceeding 5 (after an indifferent start which saw them win 6 of their first 19 matches). The streak started right after the winter break (their last defeat was in October ) so I'm assuming they purchased some sick talent. So I'll go with Slovan Bratislava, København, Dinamo Zagreb, BATE and Partizan Belgrade.
Dinamo Zagreb and BATE are correct, Kobenhavn lost in the Playoff Round, and Slovan Bratislava and Partizan both lost in the Third Qualifying Round. Partizan was eliminated by Genk, who needed penalty kicks to reach the Group Stage and has the worst goal differential in the Group Stage. Kobenhavn was eliminated by Viktoria Plzeň who is in third in their group ahead of BATE who has a better coefficient than Viktoria Plzeň. Slovan Bratislava was eliminated by APOEL who leads their group.