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

[BrahimHemdani 1]

Fola Esch are at home in the first leg but Differdange are at home in the second leg so one or other may wish to switch dates.

Edited June 19, 2017 by BrahimHemdani

[BrahimHemdani 1]

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 ... )

 

I agree with your analysis plus the fact that only half points are awarded in the qualifiers.

 

As to NK Rijeka, Croatia are 17th meaning their champions get a bye to the CLQ2 and NK Rijeka Cro 15.550 are seeded.

Edited June 19, 2017 by BrahimHemdani

[Norris Cole 0]

Man, I never thought I'd be so excited over a tie against Luxembourg opposition. Six long, shitty years.

[pete 2,499]

I read a stat the other day that only something like 3 teams in the last few years have gone from the 1st qualification round to the group stages. If we get there, it'll be a good achievement in itself - especially for a significantly revamped team such as ours.

 

I don't think you can class Rangers as a normal 1st round team though. If we had not had our problems our coefficient would be far higher and we would have probably been seeded in the third round.

[pete 2,499]

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.

 

I am not accepting that we lost these games because one Alistair Murdoch McCoist thought we could send a half fit team who had just started training for the new season against teams that were midway through their season. Ally McCoist lost us those games by being in holiday in Portugal(LoL) up until 2 weeks before the tie.

[pete 2,499]

FC Progrès Niederkorn

 

European competition

The club has never won a game in European competition. Niedercorn's only managed two draws (and only one goal), the first was against Glentoran in the 1981–82 European Cup, where they drew 1–1; the second was against Shamrock Rovers in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League.

[SteveC 150]

I don't think you can class Rangers as a normal 1st round team though. If we had not had our problems our coefficient would be far higher and we would have probably been seeded in the third round.

 

That's true but then again we are no longer the normal Rangers. Somewhat frightening to read of near escapes and failures from the past with star-studded sides.

[JFK-1 1,693]

First and second rounds should be a formality with the bonus being it will be four good workouts to get the team up to full fitness for the real challenge the third round may be.

 

If we had been able to chose the opposition these teams would have been in the preferred candidates list.

[RANGERRAB 3,678]

First and second rounds should be a formality with the bonus being it will be four good workouts to get the team up to full fitness for the real challenge the third round may be.

 

If we had been able to chose the opposition these teams would have been in the preferred candidates list.

 

Not quite sure AEL Limassol will be a formality.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

I am not accepting that we lost these games because one Alistair Murdoch McCoist thought we could send a half fit team who had just started training for the new season against teams that were midway through their season. Ally McCoist lost us those games by being in holiday in Portugal(LoL) up until 2 weeks before the tie.

 

McCoist made two big mistakes in Maribor, gambling with Bocanegra 24 hours after signing him and the dash from France and changing tactics in the second half after (rightly) taking off Naismith at half time before he was got off.

 

However, we lost in Malmo because uncharacteristically Whittaker and entirely predictably Bougherra (in his last match) lost the plot; and Jelavic (after scoring a fantastic volley from Edu's long ball) missed with the goalie to beat to take us through. Of course it's arguable, and I did before the match, that Bougherra should not have played but Weir was injured and Papac had to revert to CB.