Celtic in the UEFA Champions League 2024-25

Yeah but after 60 mins when all three begin to tire, who do we bring on? Yang and Kenny? Underwhelming to say the least but that’s what we are faced with for not strengthening in attack. Jota is apparently not yet 100% fit so you’d expect he would be changed. And Idah we have seen does tire after running for 65-70mins. Maeda is a massive loss as he is one of the few players (in the world) who can go all out for 90+ mins.

 

The way the cookie crumbles I suppose. Very naive from maeda kicking out last game even though the player was at him all game, missing out on kvistgarden coming back to bite us also. Have enough talent to hopefully * a result from them in the home game anyway. I’d be happy with a good showing and a respectable score line tbh

 

Big schluup to the rescue.

 

Hopefully he’s starting at left back

 

Might need him LW for when jotas done..

 

Maybe I’d prefer him up against the likes of olise and sane than Taylor though

 

Tbh, they'll probably all be camped in the box against them anyway deploy killy tactics

 

Probably been mentioned already but our away leg against Byern is being shown live on Amazon prime.

 

Thanks. Handy to know. Get the carry out in.
I think if we can avoid defeat on Wednesday, the tie will remain open for the second leg.

 

A long way to go in a number of European leagues but we may just sneak into being seeded for the CL Playoff next year.

Czech champs and Turkish champs get automatic qualification so they don’t matter.

What we know is the Scottish , Austrian Swiss and Norwegian (Bodo/Glimt) will all be in the playoff round for the CL Champions path and will be joined by 6 teams who qualify from the third round of qualifying.

As things stand the Swiss and Austrian league leaders are Basel and Sturm Graz, and we have a higher ranking than them. Bodo/Glimt will be higher ranked than us. So in both the Austrian league we will want anyone but Salzburg in (they are currently 10 points back in 5th but I feel they do something strange like Belgium around the points totals so far through the season and in Switzerland no team will be higher ranked than us, so it doesn't matter who wins the league.

One league to keep an eye on is Croatia , Dinamo Zagreb are in third, 5 points off the league leaders Hadjuk Split with Rjeka in between. If either of those two win the league that would ensure we are seeded for the playoff if Dinamo Zagreb get in and reach the 3rd qualifying round they could be above us and we become unseeded.

Another league to watch is Denmark , Copenhagen are higher ranked than us, they are leading the league on goal difference but a long way to go and 5 teams within 6 points. I think it is 17 fixtures to play, their league splits soon and all the top sides play each other twice in the champions round. Any other team would be seeded below us.

Greece, and Olympiakos are leading the way by 2 points and have a higher coefficient than us. However, as long as a Champions league qualified club win the CL they will go straight in as the highest ranked coefficient club in the champions path. However Zagreb winning their league could take that place from Olympiakos I believe meaning they would be seeded above us. We would also not want PAOK to win the Greek league any other team is fine, they are currently in 4th 8 points back.

Ferencvaros are currently 2nd in Hungary but only 2 points behind. If they managed to lose their league that would be a bonus for us as we are higher ranked than all other teams. It is a bit depressing they are higher ranked than us.

In Serbia Red Star will win the league, they are 21 points clear but will have to make their way through the playoffs from the second qualifying round.

Lastly in Ukraine , Shakhtar are currently third 10 points behind Dynamo Kiev but have a game in hand. We don’t want Shakhtar to win the league or they would be seeded above us.

So very long winded to get to here but to summarise to be seeded in the playoff draw three of the below need to happen.

- Olympiakos or PAOK not to win the league or Olympiakos to be top ranked so go straight in CL.
- Shakhtar not to win the league or be top ranked and go straight in CL.
- Copenhagen not to win the league or be top ranked and go straight in CL.
- Dinamo Zagreb not to win the league or be top ranked and go straight in CL.
- Salzburg not to win the league or be top ranked and go straight in CL.
- Ferencvaros not to win the league.

Ironically if Rangers won our league they would be the team to take the straight in spot. We can’t achieve that as Bodo/Glimt have already won their league and they likely won’t get that either even if all the above happened as Red Star will win their league and take that.

 

Just hope the new format is kept for at least a few seasons more.

 

Suppose it’s not the right thread to put this in but just seen on twitter how the play off round currently stands for next season. As it stands we’ll be seeded and will play one of Slovan Bratislava/Basel/Qarabag/Ludogorets/Sturm Graz. If it were to remain the same you’d strongly fancy us against any of these teams, though Basel and Sturm Graz would be the 2 to avoid.

 

Aye we'd be strong favourites going into any of those ties

 

Favs maybe but I'm not sure about strong favs..

Also what happens in the summer regarding our squad will be a factor

 

Look, we are going to beat Bayern next week on our way to winning CL so will be seeded in League Phase next season

 

I really want to believe you Drakhan.

 

That's actually a lot better than I hoped.

 

Why couldn't yhe game have been Wednesday!!! I'm at pantera on Tuesday.

 

That would be a cracking draw. Better than the time we had to play Arsenal, that's for sure.