Europa League Draw: Rangers / Progrès Niederkorn v AEL Limassol / St Joseph's

[BrahimHemdani 1]

The latter. It's incredible the level of teams that we would have to play prior to the group stages.

 

It gets worse because " The 15 clubs defeated in the 3rd qualifying round of the CL, are entitled to play in the 4th qualifying round of the Europa League,"

 

Any of these....

 

 

Seeded teams coef. Unseeded teams coef.

------------------------ --- ---------------- ------------------------ --- ----------------

Olympiakos Piraeus Gre 64.580 Malmö FF ** Swe 16.945

Celtic ** Sco 42.785 FK Astana ** Kaz 16.800

FC Salzburg ** Aut 40.570 Partizan Belgrade ** Srb 16.075

FC København ** Den 37.800 NK Rijeka ** Cro 15.550

Ludogorets Razgrad ** Bul 34.175 Rosenborg BK ** Nor 12.665

BATE Borisov ** Bls 29.475 Sheriff Tiraspol ** Mol 11.150

Legia Warsaw ** Pol 28.450 Hapoel Beer-Sheva ** Isr 10.875

APOEL Nicosia ** Cyp 26.210 Slavia Praha Cze 8.135

NK Maribor ** Slo 21.125 FH Hafnarfjardar ** Isl 6.175

Garabag Agdam ** Azb 18.050 Viitorul Constanta Rom 5.870

For the draw of the 3rd round the 20 teams are divided into 2 groups of 10 teams.

 

3rd Qualifying Round for Non-Champions (10 teams)

 

Seeded teams coef. Unseeded teams coef.

------------------------ --- ---------------- ------------------------ --- ----------------

Dinamo Kiev Ukr 67.526 Steaua Bucuresti Rom 35.370

Ajax Ned 67.212 Young Boys Sui 28.915

Viktoria Plzen Cze 40.635 OGC Nice Fra 16.833

CSKA Moscow Rus 39.606 Istanbul Basaksehir Tur 10.340

Club Brugge Bel 39.480 AEK Athens Gre 6.580

[Frankie 8,570]

I always remember Gazza's first two Euro games for us against Anorthosis Famagusta in 1995 where we struggled to beat them over the two legs.

 

However, I'd still expect us to progress this time though it may be tighter than some think.

[compo 7,054]

Have to say never heard of this team we take on anybody have any info on them .

[StuGers 477]

Has it always been this difficult to qualify for the Europa / UEFA? I seem to remember it being a reliable backup if not on the CL, not some nightmare to qualify for. Or is it just that our coefficient is so poor now?

[compo 7,054]

I always remember Gazza's first two Euro games for us against Anorthosis Famagusta in 1995 where we struggled to beat them over the two legs.

 

However, I'd still expect us to progress this time though it may be tighter than some think.

 

you could be having a bad day then you would look at the pitch and see Paul with a smile that brightened many a day

[blueflag 386]

Has it always been this difficult to qualify for the Europa / UEFA? I seem to remember it being a reliable backup if not on the CL, not some nightmare to qualify for. Or is it just that our coefficient is so poor now?

The later i believe.

We were almost seeded in the past and got to join with the big boys in r3/r4 I think.

Looking at that list of potential teams is frightening but still be good to see the big teams back at Ibrox

 

 

[Uilleam 5,948]

I always remember Gazza's first two Euro games for us against Anorthosis Famagusta in 1995 where we struggled to beat them over the two legs.

 

However, I'd still expect us to progress this time though it may be tighter than some think.

 

Famagusta had a red haired Bulgarian in midfield, played well, but sadly for him, he ended up at Pittodrie.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Has it always been this difficult to qualify for the Europa / UEFA? I seem to remember it being a reliable backup if not on the CL, not some nightmare to qualify for. Or is it just that our coefficient is so poor now?

 

The later i believe.

We were almost seeded in the past and got to join with the big boys in r3/r4 I think.

Looking at that list of potential teams is frightening but still be good to see the big teams back at Ibrox

 

I think it's a combination of factors.

 

The last twice we played in the old UEFA Cup there was only one qualifying round and we scraped through in 2004 vs Maritimo on penalties thanks to the legendary Gregory Vignal's penalty after losing 1-0 in Madeira, winning 1-0 at home (Prso) and 2006 vs Molde 2-0 (Buffel and Ferguson) after 0-0 in the Fjords.

 

In 2008 of course we dropped down from the CL before going to Manchester.

 

We have only played once in the Europa League, suffering ignominious defeat 3-2 on aggregate to Maribor in Q4 in 2011 after equally ignominious defeat to Malmo in the CLQ3.

 

So it has never been easy at least not in the last 7/8 years we played in Europe.

 

However, the Europa League format of four qualifying rounds makes it much harder; Scotland's poor coefficient means having to start in Q1 and our own lack of any coefficient other than 20% of what the other teams have amassed over the past 5 years just compounds the problem.

 

Incidentally, next season Scotland will be marginally better off as we finished 23rd this season (based on last 5 years) so the CW will automatically gain entry to Q2 (rather than through the back door this time*) but the N2 and N3 will still start in ELQ1.

 

* Since the Champions League title holder (Real Madrid) already qualified for the group stage of the Champions League, the Europa League title holder (Manchester United) gains access to the group stage of the Champions League, and leave an open spot in the Europa League group stage. This open spot will be taken by the cup winner of the 13th country on the ranking list (Czech Republic). The cup winner of the 18th country on the ranking list (Poland) has direct access to the 3rd qualifying round, and the cup winners of the 25th and 26th countries on the ranking list (Scotland and Azerbaijan) have direct access to the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League.

 

https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedel2017.html

 

Our Champions will have to get through four qualifiers to get to the group stages of the CL.

 

We have to get up to 17th even to improve one round on that in both the CL and EL.

Edited June 19, 2017 by BrahimHemdani

[Bearman 9]

AEL Limassol also boast a Portuguese manager - Bruno Miguel Nunes Baltazar. If he guides his side through to QR2 it will be celebrated on his 40th birthday!

 

So his present will be a game against the famous Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox Stadium 1 week later.

 

[der Berliner 3,747]

Well, there is a reason that beyond the Yahoos so little comes to the Scottish co-efficient. While other Scottish teams may navigate the first rounds (while still being in pre-season mode), they usually end up against decent enough teams from the better leagues in Europe and that drop out. Since most lesser teams play against eually lesser team at the start, they hardly get any points on the boards before someone of a higher standard puts them to the sword in round 2 etc.. As has been said, while it looks a grand gesture of the UEFA to let so many teams enter the "qualification" to the Europa League, only 2 teams out of roughly 500 have actually managed to get to the group stages after starting with Q1 in recent years.

 

Take the opponents of today's friendly as an example: They play Europa FC of Gibraltar in Q1, and are up next against the champions (no less) of Croatia in Q2, HNK Rijeka. (How the Croat champs ended up there is beyond me, but ... )

Edited June 19, 2017 by der Berliner