Celtic in the UEFA Champions League 2024-25

Great stuff.

 

Surely UEFA will allow them to play in Warsaw, Krakow or some other city

Edit: just read that they are the largest European city without a commercial airport with 300,000 people, ffs the largest city in Maine has less the 70,000 and has one

 

It’s not the football clubs fault there is no airport. Canny punish them for that surely.

They let teams from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan play in it for * sake.

 

https://www.sportbible.com/football...n-poland-uefa-rules-bialystok-202680-20240528

 

I wasn’t disputing your claim mate, just pointing out that it would be a joke considering they let teams from outside Europe play in it.

 

Both countries you mention are partly in Europe.

It's not the club's fault, but 200km from an airport is a * of a * distance. The clubs and players travelling to play there shouldn't suffer. I'm sure they will be aloud to play in a different city for Europe.

 

Teams in bold have already qualified.

 

Hopefully we draw them as an away day. Then they don't get home advantage

 

I’m assuming coefficient points are for the country not the individual team?

 

Pots 1 and 2 are terrifying.

 

team

If you can get Brugge or Donetsk then you'd be happy. I think if we drew one of them at home we could get 3 points.

 

I know, ha ha. Dream draw for trying to progress would be hoping for Leipzig and another from pot 1, then Club Brugge and Shakhtar Donetsk from pot 2. Pots 3 and 4 we should be looking to beat any of the teams in there, pot 4 has some nice ties, teams that we ain’t played or played recently in Europe.

 

Would love to get drawn against Aston Villa

 

That’s the beauty of football though. It can take you to weird and wonderful places. *, when we are playing away in Europe, it can mean getting two flights, train, taxi etc etc. Sometimes means flying into a different country. The players won’t be suffering. They will be flying and then travelling to the stadium in luxury. It also won’t be on the same day as the game so it’s not like they won’t have time to prepare for it. Let them play at their home stadium, that’s how it should be.

 

You're comparing the experience of a fan to that of the clubs.

Not all teams travel in luxury. The qualifiers will be littered with semi pro teams or barely pro teams. I can imagine a lot of teams want to fly back straight after the game.

 

Again, that is football. Not a chance should they be forced to play in a different stadium through no fault of their own. All teams would have to travel from the airport to the hotel they are staying anyway. If that means the bus trip is a bit further than usual, then that’s what it is. Or it should be anyway.

 

I think we're collectively deluded when it comes to Europe. It's like we haven't watched Celtic in Europe since 2013 or something.

Leipzig hammered a better Celtic team than the current one home and away just 2 years ago (and they were hammerings IMO, much more even than the scorelines suggest).

Club Brugge? The same Club Brugge that reached the Conference League semi-finals this year when we haven't won a knockout tie in any European competition (including the Conference League) since the Seville run? The one that is 25th in the coefficient rankings while we are 59th?

Shakhtar Donetsk? A far better Celtic side than the current one failed to beat a far worse Shakhtar Donetsk side than the current one 2 years ago when they were in utter disarray because of the war.

Looking to beat any of the teams in Pots 3 and 4?! They're not as scary as the teams in the first 2 pots; but most of the teams in Pot 3 would beat us and so would a few of the ones in Pot 4 (such as Villa, Galatasaray, etc.

Mate, I'm not having a go at you personally here; I think the support in general is totally unrealistic about Celtic in the CL.

 

Would you really, though? I'd genuinely hate that. I can't see how that ends well.

 

Yes, normally the english teams that have no much experience in europe play very bad for some reason. I think we would beat them at home. And the build up would be nice.

I do understand you though as i agree that a beating would be more painful than against a team from another country, but a point/win would be sweet

 

However. The huns reached a European final not so long ago, and we finished above that hun team to win the league.