Celtic's Champions League season 17/18

Hope we are drawn at home first leg of 2nd rd.
Those * at BA are going on strike for 2 weeks from 1st July to 16th and this covers the 1st match in 2nd rd.

 

Yeah I go there often whenever i am in London, which until recently, was quite often. (Union Rep etc)

 

I know its CRAZY.

 

That's good to read.

Used to spend a lot of time in that part of the town when I was with my ex wife but haven't been there for years.

 

Draw will be held at 11am GMT on Monday

 

I know a lot of people want the first game to be away, personally, I prefer being at home first, let's be honest, without being too arrogant, we should be able to establish a good solid lead regardless who we get at this stage, hopefully get a 2/3 goal lead to take into the away leg, let's get the business done early, allowing some leverage for potentially tricky away tie.

Hit them hard, overwhelm them, make the second leg a bit of a dead rubber.

Last week I was very, very confident of progressing to the Group Stages, but with the Dembele rumours picking up pace, Roberts could be dead in the Water, we're going into these games withour our huge players (Yes I know Robers was never ours to start with). Suddenly, I'm not so confident....

Having said that, LG is the perfect replacement for Moussa.

Hopefully, BR has it all under control, he knows what he's doing, I hope to see some activity soon, better than Hayes though please

 

I apologise as this has probably been done on this thread already... But if anyone can give a brief overview of who we could potentially draw on Monday it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Anyone who's curious about what could happen in the draw Monday plus (should we progress) the next rounds check out footballseeding.com

The second round draw is regionalised to an extent, these regional groupings are decided Monday morning just before the draw for the matches.
I'd expect British, Irish, Scandanavian or Balkans. We were expected to face an Estonian team last year but Red Imps beat them hence the Gibraltar trip.
Nothing in this second round scares me. We should be far too strong. The real business will start in the following round.

 

The Estonian-Gibraltar thing was just pot luck and not down to regionalisation with Estonian team. We could very well end up with facing the winners of a potential champions of Malta vs champions of Kosovo or Armenia tie.

 

We can't draw Liverpool can we?

 

No. Liverpool didn't win their league.

 

I've done travel research on all the possible 22 teams and the only ones which are a * to get to (from London) are Vikingur (Faroe Islands) and Alashkert (Armenia). Buzzing!!! Roll on the draw.

 

We were regionalised with 6 teams last season.
Winner of talinn / red Imps
Dundalk
Crusaders
Valetta
Plus the Swedish & Finland champions.

There'll be a similar regional grouping for this draw. I guess we could end up in Kosovo or Armenia if they for example are drawn against and beat Linfield, who there's every chance we'd be grouped to face.

 

2 of our potential opponents were nothing to do with regionalisation - Valetta and Red Imps. We had the winners of QR1 1st tie and Winners of QR1 3rd tie allocated to our group before any draws were made on the Monday morning - Red Imps and Valetta won those ties but the draw could have had us potentially facing any of the 1st round qualifiers.

I'd expect two QR1 winners again along with Dundalk, IFK Mariehamn, Spartaks Jurmala and Vilnius.

 

Yeah mate. That's why I said originally regionalised to an extent, because the draw for rounds where all the teams aren't totally known are worked on the assumption the higher seed goes through. Estonia and Malta champs were the higher seeds. Obviously if they lose you're travelling to the non seed destination.

I'd agree with how you see our potential group of opponents panning out. I've a feeling the Finns for some reason.
Personally I'd like Dundalk as the match would be switched to the Aviva and tickets should be easy to pick up.

 

Most likely TNS, Dundalk, Linfield I heard due to geographical reasons.

 

Not that I'd be nervous of Dundalk but I'd prefer to avoid them. After their run last year can never be too careful. Would love to get them in a later round tho. Outside of that, I'm fine with any club in the second and third rounds. Second rounds usually a breeze and the third is a challenge but largely manageable. Its the playoff round where no matter how much we strengthen, our mentality will be put to the test. We have the quality and the finances to beat any team in these playoffs, but its all about getting it done on the day. Just want to get them underway!

 

Quietly confident this year, but some definite banana skins in there as usual.

 

Linfield away 12th July.

 

oooft....imagine it!!