Champions League Qualifying ,All Chat In Here.

Yeah I'll never forget that, Naka should have had a penalty in ET.

 

Juventus 2001-02/2002-03
Porto 2001-02/2002-03
Porto 2002-03/2003-04
Shakhtar 2007-08/2008-09
Barcelona 2004-05/2005-06
Man Utd 2006-07/2007-08

All reached finals the season after we played them too. We seem to bring teams good luck

We even played Fulham in pre-season in the 08/09 season and they reached a final in 09/10 and Sevilla in the 2004-05 pre-season and they reached the final in 05/06.

 

So looking at qualifying for next season, the toughest draw would be the Champions of Belgium (Anderlect or Brugge). The Champions of Romania, Serbia, Austria, Cyprus and the Czech Republic would be best avoided too I guess.

Hopefully the second round draw sets a few of the bigger clubs against each other to dilute the third round a bit. It'd be brilliant if someone like TNS, Molde, Shamrock or KR got through and we drew them - nearby and straightforward.

Depending on how the draw goes, the playoff round could be tricky and we may well be facing the possibility of either a good opponent or someplace way out East.

 

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But the problem is, we’re rarely at our peak at the beginning of the season.

Both MON and GS failed in the qualifying rounds as well!

Basle and Artmedia.

It will be tough regardless of who we get.

 

Found an article finally clarifying all we need/want to know about qualifying

http://sport.stv.tv/football/scotti...st-in-europe-for-club-performances-in-201112/

The draw will take place on July 20. Ties are currently scheduled to take place on July 31/August 1 and August 7/8.


The winners of the third qualifying round ties will then proceed to the play-off round, which is drawn on August 10. Fixtures are due to take place on August 21/22 and 28/29.

We shouldn't get anyone too difficult, in either round, but of course we've been here before and NEED to be prepared fully mentally and physically for the task as being the favourites historically never sits well with us!

 

"Barring a significantly impressive performance next season, the country is likely to fall further down the list."

We knew this but it doesn't make for good reading

What exactly does "significantly impressive" mean? Last 16+? If we bottle it in the qualifiers and crash out of Europe all together, with no Huns to potentially qualify and the other Scottish teams facing unseeded rounds it could be absolutely disastrous.

Is the Huns final appearance from a few years back still propping us up or has that gone? Or is it due to go? :S

 

Won't improve unless Celtic make progress in Europe next season, the other teams in Scotland will get pumped off part timers from Slovakia and the likes

 

Huns co-efficient from the UEFA final I think you'll find is now wiped out. It is up to us now to improve our own club co-efficient. We currently are ranked with 32.72. Whoever finishes 3rd in the SPL will join us in the CL for season 2012/13. The following year only the SPL Champions will qualify but maybe needing an extra qualifying round.

The whole co-efficient thing is very complicated but there is an excellent CL and EL source which tries to explain it all.

http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/

 

All i ask for is qualification into the Champions League...do that and i will consider it a success.

 

It is not necessarily getting to the last 16 thats is going to improve our coefficient. We have to do better than the teams from countries above us in the rankings, so we need to be doing better than the likes of israel, cyprus, netherlands, the swiss, belgium etc...

We need to be going further than the teams from these respective countries in order to climb the table. It will be difficult but getting to the champions league is the first step. Consistently for a few years getting CL group stage will eventually bring Scotland back up into the top 15 rather than languishing in 18th place for 2013/2014 season.

 

In a few years time, Scotland will only have 1 team in the Champions League and that team will have to start in the 1st qualifying round against teams from Ireland, Estonia etc.

That's the way we look to be heading.

 

So is there a list of our likely opponents in the qualifying rounds??

 

If we can reach the groups this year, I don't see us playing in a 1st qualifying round for a long long time. I doubt we'll ever drop that low.

 

I think for Scottish football to survive we have to do well in Europe this year and get lots of points for Scotland.

 

Don't you get the same amount of coefficient points for winning a game in the europa league as you do for a game in the champs league ?

 

Wanyama, Kayal and Mulgrew i am convinced are champions league players.

I hate how we are only in the 3rd qualifying round. But if it is fight we'll have to put in, then lets fvcking have it!

 

Assuming we qualify for the group stages, would people rather....

Qualify Last 16 Champions League

Or

Finish 3rd in group, then have a decent run to at least last 8 in Europa league

 

Last 16 no doubt, I'd rather it than Europa League Final.

 

Last 16 in the CL.

Would only give that up for a Europa League final.

 

It's all about the champions league, so last 16 is our target. Having said that, a run in the Europa after a 3rd place finish would mean more games against quality opposition. That experience is probably the best thing in the world, considering what a young squad we have.