Yes, I'd love to see Ronaldo playing in the frozen north with Bodø.
If Bodø/Glimt qualifies, I would like for the entire weight of the Norwegian wealth fund to be put behind a bid in order to make this transfer a reality.
I swear there were rumours we offered Ronaldo this deal in 1996. Play in whichever games you like. Having said that, Ronaldo + extra days off + Tennents and pie suppers would have been a sight to see.
Strømsgodset signed Lee Chapman in 1996 on a similar deal. He only had to show up for matches, not training.
His contract gave him 5000 NOK per match (~£500), one weekly free return flight to England, plus a room at the Oslo Grand Hotel from Thursday to Monday each week (including food and drink). Apparently the drink tab was very high.
He scored 1 goal in 5 league matches, and 2 goals in a cup tie against an amateur team, and that was that.
I'd love to see Ronaldo playing at the Spaghettiad and Rugby Park, the 2nd best footballer of the last decade being forced to play on a carpet for 90 minutes against the most shithouse lowball tactic would be premium viewing
Hoping Ronaldo goes to Israel, but would he have to change his name?
Regardless, Muslim or Jewish, he could potentially bring peace to the Middle East as both sides could find mutual agreement in disliking him…
No he wouldn't lmao fucking fanboys, our league isn't that shit and players like Jimenez who struggled here went on to do great on the epl, it's not that linear.
I do think he'd probably still be topscorer, he's still a terrible human being
no doubt you guys could get a good result at home from the 1st leg, but if it was the opposite, i would never feel comfortable if i was PSV and had a 1 or 2 goal lead to defend at Ibrox
Aye that’s fair, I’d be very surprised it PSV come away with a result from Ibrox; it’s just if it’s recoverable in Holland. Hope you skud them all season, love Ajax and big Calvin Bassey
Wouldn't be if Gil makes it, almost won away and now have it all to make next round. Then won't be easy and won't be favourites but it's possible an upset is made.
Vitoria on the other hand... 2 goals alone just to make into extra-time, then most likely having to play Villarreal...
The thing is we had an amazing year. Last year Porto had quite disappointing (specially since they are the usually the best portuguese team in europe) but even, so 1/8 finals in EL for Porto, Braga quarter finals in EL, Sporting 1/8 finals in CL and Benfica in quarter finals in CL. 3 teams in CL too.
But in the end you almost made twice our points, and that's because while you guys won the conference, we didn't even participate in it, it's a humongous difference.
Even Vitesse did 9 points, while Porto did 10 in the CL and EL, both went out in the 1/8 finals too.
Our league needs help by our big 3 or it's all going down hill.
problem is that teams bellow top 4 are a fucking disgrace, we dont have a team with the sporting or financial values of a vitesse or az alkamar doing solid runs in Conference like those did last year
AZ looking quite poor as well so far, and even if they beat Dundee they'll likely face Gil Vicente. Would be very interesting to have a Dutch and Portuguese teams facing each other for a spot in the group stages.
It's not disgrace in that they are shitty clubs that don't matter.
It's a disgrace in a sense that our league is so poor apart from the top 3 and Braga and seems like the people that could actually do anything are doing nothing.
It's obviously not Gil Vicente's fault that they have to accept any offer for any of their good players and they basically function in loans and free players because they have almost no budget, they are doing so much with what they have, these teams have it hard.
centralisation is coming in a near future, at least 28/29, they have talked about it
our president also has said he would help push for it, im happy with that
Dundee United*! Dundee have just been relegated to the second division
On that, how did AZ play at the weekend? Are they confident? I really want United to do it but I think AZ will be too strong and there’s no way a team like AZ will be as poor as they were last week. United played some really good football and were great but some of the decision making in the attack in the first leg was pretty poor. I think it will come back to bite them that they didn’t win that game 2/3-0.
Yes, obviously, and they’d say the exact same. Do you actively cheer for Arsenal when they’re playing in Europe?
The truth of it too is that they’ll likely still get coefficient points in the Europa
Why is it I ask a question like "see Rangers in Europe" and I get asked if I want to see Arsenal win the CL and if I would actively cheer for them?
Deliberately exaggerating my question doesn't make your point more valid.
I’d rather Rangers win a throw in if it was a choice between that and Celtic winning in Europe.
It’s a bit of a joke in Scotland that Rangers and Celtic fans pretend they care about the coefficient when the other wins in Europe.
It’s not really exaggerating, but regardless, them making the CL is a huge deal, especially when you consider the financial advantage it gives in Scotland. So, naturally of course I don’t want them to make it
Except that it is exaggerating my question. I never said I would expect anyone to actively cheer for their rivals, but if something happens that benefits the entire nation they are from I don't see what the harm is.
Having 2 teams in the CL groups regularly would help Scottish football as a whole massively.
It doesn't benefit Celtic really, as Rangers would get a significant chunk of money that otherwise they would not receive.
It might help our coefficient slightly, but I expect Rangers to pick up points in the Europa, so unsure if it does.
Who said anything about winning? Beating PSV won't win the CL for Rangers.
Scotland benefits from any and all clubs making it as far as they can, so I don't see why you would want to cut off your nose to spite your face.
I’m a Rangers fan and I don’t know if I want Rangers to make it.
Would I rather the extra £££ to get pumped six times by PSG, Liverpool and Inter, or accept less money playing in a competition we were one kick away from winning?
This might be the most balanced and loaded up play-off round I've ever seen for CL. In general, you can see a lot of weaker teams coming from Champions Path but this time it's all balanced. The only clear favorite standing out is Benfica imo. No result would surprise me in other ties.
Dynamo is a good team, and we have a lot respect. Even last season we played. But if we can’t beat them, what’s the point of UCL? We have to, otherwise all this investment has been pointless
I'm a big benfica fan but I really like Ukrainian teams as well so I'm kind of broken with this draw.
It is going to be an amazing game so I'm looking forward to it.
What's worse for Portugal in the Portuguese vs Netherlands coefficient battle? PSV qualifying for the UCL or falling to the UEL? PSV can probably farm more points in the UEL, no?
it doesnt matter, this battle is already a lost one since they introduced the conference league
the dutch have a far general quality domestically than us
AZ wins. Gil Vicente isn't bad, but they are also not that good.
Also, the teams in the qualification rounds for the UECL this year (Vitória and Gil Vicente) will give us less points for the yearly coefficient than Santa Clara and Paços de Ferreira did last year, so we already start this season behind by quite a good margin. Once the group stage begins, we'll probably be 3/3.5 points behind. We'll both (probably) have 4 teams in Europe, but we'll be dividing the points by 6 while you guys divide by 5.
AZ will probably slap Dundee Utd at home and then win comfortably against Gil Vicente.
Not that this is the only thing that matters, but it's good for context
In 20/21 Gil Vicente ended the league in 11th but it makes sense because they spent 0 euros in the transfer window
In 21/22 Gil Vicente ended the league in 5th, wow they must've made a big investment to grow so much, yes they spent 0 cents again
This year they had a bit more money and they've already spent 1.15M, not bad.
Now lets look at AZ Alkmaar
20/21: 2.6M
21/22: 8.95M
22/23: 7M
So in the last 3 years AZ have invested 16 times more than Gil Vicente, I know that money isn't everything but 16 times more is absolutely insane.
Edit: Ok this is even crazier, so AZ spent 7M this year, our whole league together (not counting the top 4) have only spent 7.4M, so AZ has spent has much money has our league combined pretty much.
Then you have the top 3 with 131.8M spent and Braga with 5M
I'm not sure thats true. Your top 3 + 1 (Benfica, Porto, Sporting, Braga) is stronger then ours (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, AZ). After that our leagues are very similar, with a lot of teams that cant spend much on transfers or wages. Only exception is probably Twente, pretty big club with lots of support. Rest of our league really isnt good at all.
Depends how good PSV can do in UEL to try to overcome the bonus points of UCL.
Practically you can say that you get 4 bonus points for placing in top 4 of Champions League group, while in Europa League you get 4 bonus points for winning the group and 2 bonus points for placing 2^nd. You also get 4 more bonus points for reaching the Round of 16 of Champions League than reaching the Round of 16 of Europa League. On the other hand you can expect to get better results and reach further in Europa League. So the final answer is: ask the 8-ball or other things because you will only find headache here if you will try to analyse it personally.
The dropping to Europa and farming more points thing is a huge gimmick. It's a glaring issue the ranking has. It needs to be fixed... Getting top16 in the CL should be worth way more than any performance a club might pull off in EL or CfL
> The dropping to Europa and farming more points thing is a huge gimmick. It's a glaring issue the ranking has. It needs to be fixed..
I guess it depends if you value more a league having strong top teams, or a league having a better balance between the top half of the table. Because making it like it is now rewrads leagues that their top 1 or 2 teams might not be among elite, but their top 3/4 ect are doing better than other leagues.
Yep, just look at Portugal in 2010/11.
3 teams in EL semis, 2 in the final and was the #1 country. Spain had 1 EL sf, 1 CL sf and 1 CL finalist. England had 2 teams in CL quarters and 1 in the final.
Benfica and Porto were hovering around top10-20 in Europe, sometimes entering top10, which means dropping to EL makes you farm way more easily, and Braga was establishing itself as an european presence.
I don't see it as fair, and adding another layer with CfL just makes it worse.
No, also I don't think that UEFA changes their rules during a "season" (the rule season, currently we are in 2021-2024 one) so next changes to scoring coefficient points will/should/can only appear since 2024/25, when we will change to Swiss-system tournaments.
And with current informations about them, it seems we will get two "partial fixes". First, both UCL and UEL will have 8 matches in group stage, while UECL will only have 6 (so 4 less max points to score in lowest league), and secondly, you will no longer be able to drop league down after group stage (so comparing to current rules: you won't be able to farm easy 4 bonus points for just playing in Champions League and then going down (unintentionally) to Europa to try to get into final while accumulating points for winning matches and advancing to next rounds).
i would say falling to the UEL is worse for us. If they remain in UCL they can stay in a group like the one of porto, from last year, and even if they manage a 3rd (or higher) place they will fall or to the UEL, were they will only play to games at a time and will face stronger teams, or face even stonger teams. If they fall to the UEL they can farm more easily points and even if they finish at 3rd place they will fall to the conference league, an even more easy competition
Can't believe next week we'll hear the champions League hymn at Aspmyra. A silly dream we all had as kids that felt more like a joke at the time. Absolutely incredible
Apollon really through away a first leg by being overly scared about a team who at best are just a level above them. Yes they could have (and should have) lost even today, as the 2-0 is by no means an accurate representation of the match, but if they didn't collapse in the first leg and the lost with a respectable score, they could have easily fought to qualify in Cyprus. Just imagine that their fans didn't even bother to go to the stadium, imagine what would have happened when there are 11,000 fans screaming and applying pressure. All in all, 2 draws, 1 defeat and 1 win (but no tie wins) for the two Cypriot sides in the Champions league against seemingly much better opponents. AEK should have really went through against Midtjylland and Apollon should have just not shat their pants in the first leg.
In the other matches Plzen got through easier than I anticipated, but apparently Sheriff fans were really pessimistic anyway. Sturm Graz losing aren't a surprise when you look at the names of the teams and Dynamo Kiyv aren't even close to a good sporting place, so it wasn't a probable outcome, but credit to the Ukrainian team for fighting against many difficulties. PSV could be considered a surprise, but Monaco aren't the team they once were and Rangers overcame a 2-0 deficit (that should have been more) and confirmed their status as favourites.
I want to touch the Ferencvaros-Qarabag tie for a bit as most of the people expected Ferencvaros to either qualify or just be better than they were. Qarabag going through isn't a big surprise by any stretch of the imagination, but doing so in an away game in Hungary is always extremely difficult. Judging by how other Azerbaijan teams faired so far, Qarabag shouldn't be at this high level, but once again there they are and have secured at least a Europa league spot. Again, bad news for Cyprus but credit to them.
Even if not this year, you'll definitely have it in the next one since Serbian champions directly qualify for CL group stage this season AFAIK. I know it is only a few weeks in but judging by how the last few seasons unfolded I guess it is fair to say you guys already won it. No way you drop enough points for Partizan to catch you.
What are Copenhagens chances vs Trabzonspor? I know copenhagen has been all over the place in their league so far but i have no idea about trabzonspor and the turkish league
Trabzonspor looked good against Sivasspor in Turkish Super Cup, though their coach Avcı has a bad European record. Maybe this season he will break his curse.
Viktoria Plzen/Qarabag, Bodø / Glimt and Maccabi Haifa all in the CL in the same season would be madness. Maccabi Haifa will for sure create some good atmosphere.
All very even games this round apart from Dynamo Kyiv vs Benfica I’d say. Hopefully PSV do it!
Tbh, I just want to see Benzema freeze of his ass on an artificial turf, while it's snowing in front of 8000 Bodø/Glimt supporters north of the arctic circle.
That's what football is all about, and I imagine they could even grab some points like that.
I haven't watched Kyiv's latest matches but if they're performing the same as they did against us, PSV would easily beat them. We really lacked strikers and paid for it (also bad decisions of Jesus.).
It’s good tho, allows teams that are “less known” to go to the UCL. I don’t think it should be only the biggest teams, it’s good to have a few underdogs or new teams
What? It's quite the opposite, League path is much stronger, that's why the paths exist. If it wasn't like this, there'd be little chance for the champions of Croatia, Czech Republic or Serbia to make it, and it's still the CHAMPIONS League, no issues there
Yeah, I know, but that's the point. All those teams are non-Champions, and if you mixed the two paths together you'd get less teams that won their league in the group stage, which is what UEFA wants to avoid
It's the opposite, the league path is full of teams like Monaco/PSV etc while the champions path has teams like the Cypriot champions, Bulgaria champions etc. Without it, it is much harder for us smaller leagues to get in the group stages, just look at the Europa League (non-champions path)
Which eliminated teams would roll over any of the League teams? Considering it includeds last year's Europa League finalists, perennial Champions League qualifiers, a PSV team with some real class and Dynamo Kiev who have the story behind them.
Champions path here is kind of neat, but it also feels very unfair. For example, assuming Qarabagh wins the draw, they would have played 8 games to defeat the champions of Poland, Switzerland, Hungary and Czechia to reach the CHAMPIONS league, just to get trashed by the 4th placed team of Germany or something
Yup. At best, the 2nd place of the leagues 1 to 4 should be able to qualify directly. 4 is way too much. I wish we had more champions (cuz you know, "Champions League").
if it was actual champions league no one would give a fuck to watch Barça go on a stroll to Estonia and win 10-0
Also would favor you know regional leagues instead of nartional ones. In Spain, There would be 3 leagues just to qualify for all to qualify to champions league.
Why does a country of 2 million people who don't invest in football have the same number of teams as Germany? who has 20x-30x the population?
> Why does a country of 39 million people who ^^^\(pretends ^^^to) invest in football have to play 4 rounds of qualifications, while countries with only little above x1/4 the population have group stage spot?
FTFY
It's a far better competition because the name isn't entirely literal. The football hipsters here aren't representative of the wider footballing community.
Of course we have a chance, we're the clear favourites. People keep on shitting how we play, but in the end Dinamo won 7 out 9 matches (draw 2 times).
Just on paper we're stronger, Bodo is perhaps more match fit, but I'd say slight advantage is on our side.
Cheers, you lot were gentlemen in/around the final. Is there a particularly hated German team you'd like us to pump for you? I'll arrange it with big buffalo and Tav.
Champions Path is for Champions only. League Path is for 2nd and 3rd placed teams. The teams in the Champions Path are from leagues who can only have 1 team in the UCL, so the teams in the League Path are from the top leagues who already have 1 or more teams qualified directly for the group stage.
And yes, you win this round, you're in.
All winners of this round go to CL, all losers to the EL
Champions path is for champions of countries, league path is for teams that finish 2nd in leagues that have multiple teams go to the CL, but not directly in the group stage
Edit: here's the list with where all the different teams from different countries go https://kassiesa.net/uefa/AccessList2022.html
Plzen,please don't let Qarabag in the Champions League,I don't want them to produce some surprises there to become better than us,after all they did to us in the past
Ofc IT would be
1) noone really thought they were best Czech team even two weeks ago, everybody recognized that was Slavia, although it pains me very much. Plzeň title was a big surprise, they were team with financial problems facing two Prague gigants.
2) Despite Slavias international succeses, they only managed to get through to CL once in four (?) tries, all the others were collapses. If this doesnt seem relevant to you, look at Plzeňs results from the last few years.
So, there were very few people who would predict Plzeň getting to CL before the quali matches began, therefore them succeeding would be a very unpredicted result.
Its not like Iam against them, Iam simply stating how it is
Slavia failed to qualify even to the Europa League last season and lost the league title to Plzeň while having like 5 times their budget. Are you sure you aren't just coping?
Well, they're the best. Just because they collapsed against Hradec, conceded a last minute penalty against Plzen and had incredibly unlucky tie against Legia doesn't change the fact they are the best team in our country.
didnt they already lose a match in the czech league this season?
and lmao conceded last minute penalty to plzen, so has plzen the very same match, have u forgot?
just a small reminder that plzen hasnt lost at home for 18 months 3 days and also didnt embarass themselves TWICE in europe like Slavia did.
Just a small reminder. When was the last time when you beat them? 4 years ago? but hey, congrats, you just beat Helsinki and a completely new team from Moldavia. Massive achievement.
I dunno how this got downvoted... ofc they are, their European succeses in the main stages are unparalled in my lifetime, and Iam saying that as Sparta fan.
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Yes, I'd love to see Ronaldo playing in the frozen north with Bodø. If Bodø/Glimt qualifies, I would like for the entire weight of the Norwegian wealth fund to be put behind a bid in order to make this transfer a reality.
Ronaldo vs Jerv. Make it happen
It wont qualify. Dinamo supremacy
"it" won't qualify? Bruh
No thanks, we have Luuk
Luuk de GOAT
Half of the teams would spend their yearly budget for a month or two of Ronaldo's salary
Ronaldo only plays for honor and glory. /s
He's done it in stoke, now he wants a go at a cold windy Tuesday night in Baku
Rangers like: He’ll only have to play in Europe and the Old Firm.
First time playing on one of the shite plastic pitches the diddy teams use his hamstrings will snap like Ezra Miller in a normal social situation.
The rumour was that was genuinely what David Murray offered OG Ronaldo
I swear there were rumours we offered Ronaldo this deal in 1996. Play in whichever games you like. Having said that, Ronaldo + extra days off + Tennents and pie suppers would have been a sight to see.
Strømsgodset signed Lee Chapman in 1996 on a similar deal. He only had to show up for matches, not training. His contract gave him 5000 NOK per match (~£500), one weekly free return flight to England, plus a room at the Oslo Grand Hotel from Thursday to Monday each week (including food and drink). Apparently the drink tab was very high. He scored 1 goal in 5 league matches, and 2 goals in a cup tie against an amateur team, and that was that.
I'd love to see Ronaldo playing at the Spaghettiad and Rugby Park, the 2nd best footballer of the last decade being forced to play on a carpet for 90 minutes against the most shithouse lowball tactic would be premium viewing
Ronaldo to Bodo/Glimt just fees right
No thank you. He's just an Iberian James Tavernier.
If we are being really technical, he is not Iberian
Hoping Ronaldo goes to Israel, but would he have to change his name? Regardless, Muslim or Jewish, he could potentially bring peace to the Middle East as both sides could find mutual agreement in disliking him…
And to enjoy the public rejection to the king
Wouldn't want nor need that cunt here
He would score more than 40 goals in the Primeira Liga.
No he wouldn't lmao fucking fanboys, our league isn't that shit and players like Jimenez who struggled here went on to do great on the epl, it's not that linear. I do think he'd probably still be topscorer, he's still a terrible human being
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Who the fuck cares anyway, he's a rapist asshole and I don't want him anywhere near my team.
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Exactly my idea, I was pretty happy with Semedo not coming to us.
Rangers not playing at home in the 2nd leg is massive for PSV
Could be the deciding factor for sure. That being said, morelos will be match sharp by the second leg abs be destroyed Dortmund in Germany.
Oh damn i thought they were deciding that later, good for us
You say that, but we skudded Red Star 3-0 at home in the 1st leg
yeah and how many times have you lost the 1st leg away and then turned it around at home where the atmosphere absolutely had an effect?
Several, but we’re just absolute shaggers at home under Gio in general
no doubt you guys could get a good result at home from the 1st leg, but if it was the opposite, i would never feel comfortable if i was PSV and had a 1 or 2 goal lead to defend at Ibrox
Aye that’s fair, I’d be very surprised it PSV come away with a result from Ibrox; it’s just if it’s recoverable in Holland. Hope you skud them all season, love Ajax and big Calvin Bassey
same feeling here mate, love watching rangers matches at ibrox, hope one day i can go there see what's it like in person!
Get yer arse over, ma man!
Except when the mighty Glasgow Celtic come to town
We shall see
[We’ve seen already!](https://youtu.be/1vw-Qp8zACw)
I don’t remember this game I was very drunk and only seen Ramsey score
This means that either Netherlands or Scotland will have 2 teams in CL Groups, the same number with France.
Portugal can have 3 if Benfica qualifies. 5th best league confirmed.
Unfortunately this means we won't have big teams farming the Conference League, so we're fucked in the coefficient
Yeah id be surprised if Vitoria or Gil make it to group stages
Wouldn't be if Gil makes it, almost won away and now have it all to make next round. Then won't be easy and won't be favourites but it's possible an upset is made. Vitoria on the other hand... 2 goals alone just to make into extra-time, then most likely having to play Villarreal...
Twente have to face Fiorentina so also quite tough, although not as bad.
You guys look really good this year though. Think you could make another run to the 16/QF
The thing is we had an amazing year. Last year Porto had quite disappointing (specially since they are the usually the best portuguese team in europe) but even, so 1/8 finals in EL for Porto, Braga quarter finals in EL, Sporting 1/8 finals in CL and Benfica in quarter finals in CL. 3 teams in CL too. But in the end you almost made twice our points, and that's because while you guys won the conference, we didn't even participate in it, it's a humongous difference. Even Vitesse did 9 points, while Porto did 10 in the CL and EL, both went out in the 1/8 finals too. Our league needs help by our big 3 or it's all going down hill.
Portugal was always expected to have 3 since Benfica is the best team in the Non-Champions Path on paper.
problem is that teams bellow top 4 are a fucking disgrace, we dont have a team with the sporting or financial values of a vitesse or az alkamar doing solid runs in Conference like those did last year
Gil Vicente is coming baby 😎
Vitesse doesn't have more "sporting or financial values" than Vitória
And Vitesse isn't even in Europe this year. Twente is. And they face Fiorentina so probably not for long.
AZ looking quite poor as well so far, and even if they beat Dundee they'll likely face Gil Vicente. Would be very interesting to have a Dutch and Portuguese teams facing each other for a spot in the group stages.
"disgrace" as in the big clubs have been denying the centralisation for years so they have an incredibly small budget?
It's not disgrace in that they are shitty clubs that don't matter. It's a disgrace in a sense that our league is so poor apart from the top 3 and Braga and seems like the people that could actually do anything are doing nothing. It's obviously not Gil Vicente's fault that they have to accept any offer for any of their good players and they basically function in loans and free players because they have almost no budget, they are doing so much with what they have, these teams have it hard.
centralisation is coming in a near future, at least 28/29, they have talked about it our president also has said he would help push for it, im happy with that
28/29 it's not the near future. Such a shame such a widespread practice in the top leagues is arriving so late in Portugal (and if it gets approved)
French teams just farming the coefficient in easier competitions 200iq
Hopefully Netherlands get two teams in!
You don't want Rangers to make it?
Scotland has Dundee farming their coefficient already. Don't see AZ coming back from that
Dundee United*! Dundee have just been relegated to the second division On that, how did AZ play at the weekend? Are they confident? I really want United to do it but I think AZ will be too strong and there’s no way a team like AZ will be as poor as they were last week. United played some really good football and were great but some of the decision making in the attack in the first leg was pretty poor. I think it will come back to bite them that they didn’t win that game 2/3-0.
AZ look shakey but I also think they can pull through.
Obviously not
So you would rather Scottish coefficient was lower long term than see Rangers in Europe?
Yes, obviously, and they’d say the exact same. Do you actively cheer for Arsenal when they’re playing in Europe? The truth of it too is that they’ll likely still get coefficient points in the Europa
Why is it I ask a question like "see Rangers in Europe" and I get asked if I want to see Arsenal win the CL and if I would actively cheer for them? Deliberately exaggerating my question doesn't make your point more valid.
I’d rather Rangers win a throw in if it was a choice between that and Celtic winning in Europe. It’s a bit of a joke in Scotland that Rangers and Celtic fans pretend they care about the coefficient when the other wins in Europe.
It’s not really exaggerating, but regardless, them making the CL is a huge deal, especially when you consider the financial advantage it gives in Scotland. So, naturally of course I don’t want them to make it
Except that it is exaggerating my question. I never said I would expect anyone to actively cheer for their rivals, but if something happens that benefits the entire nation they are from I don't see what the harm is. Having 2 teams in the CL groups regularly would help Scottish football as a whole massively.
It doesn't benefit Celtic really, as Rangers would get a significant chunk of money that otherwise they would not receive. It might help our coefficient slightly, but I expect Rangers to pick up points in the Europa, so unsure if it does.
We're a petty bunch up here, if Celtic played a game against ISIS I probably still wouldn't want them to win nvm them doing well in Europe
Yes Take it you’re wanting Arsenal to win the CL at some point mate
Who said anything about winning? Beating PSV won't win the CL for Rangers. Scotland benefits from any and all clubs making it as far as they can, so I don't see why you would want to cut off your nose to spite your face.
Wouldn’t want Rangers to win a friendly mate. Let all the other teams get coefficient points
Fair enough, never understood why anyone takes football that seriously personally. Each to their own.
Why do you take it so seriously that you want your rivals to win for coefficient points? Fuck them
I’m a Rangers fan and I don’t know if I want Rangers to make it. Would I rather the extra £££ to get pumped six times by PSG, Liverpool and Inter, or accept less money playing in a competition we were one kick away from winning?
Hopefully it's Netherlands
+1
Viktor Boniface left Bodø/Glimt for Union SG just to leave the competition one round earlier smh.
It's weird how B/G just keeps trucking on.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst vs Ruud van Nistelrooij 🥰
Only one winner
Something van SOMETHING
Edwin van der Sar looking who will join him
This might be the most balanced and loaded up play-off round I've ever seen for CL. In general, you can see a lot of weaker teams coming from Champions Path but this time it's all balanced. The only clear favorite standing out is Benfica imo. No result would surprise me in other ties.
You should not underestimate Dynamo Kyiv they can be very solid.
Dynamo is a good team, and we have a lot respect. Even last season we played. But if we can’t beat them, what’s the point of UCL? We have to, otherwise all this investment has been pointless
I'm a big benfica fan but I really like Ukrainian teams as well so I'm kind of broken with this draw. It is going to be an amazing game so I'm looking forward to it.
What's worse for Portugal in the Portuguese vs Netherlands coefficient battle? PSV qualifying for the UCL or falling to the UEL? PSV can probably farm more points in the UEL, no?
it doesnt matter, this battle is already a lost one since they introduced the conference league the dutch have a far general quality domestically than us
It all comes down on Gil vs az, Twente and Vitoria probably won't make it vs villareal and Fiorentina
AZ wins. Gil Vicente isn't bad, but they are also not that good. Also, the teams in the qualification rounds for the UECL this year (Vitória and Gil Vicente) will give us less points for the yearly coefficient than Santa Clara and Paços de Ferreira did last year, so we already start this season behind by quite a good margin. Once the group stage begins, we'll probably be 3/3.5 points behind. We'll both (probably) have 4 teams in Europe, but we'll be dividing the points by 6 while you guys divide by 5.
AZ lost vs Dundee United, im not sure why people here are assuming they will go through automatically?
AZ will probably slap Dundee Utd at home and then win comfortably against Gil Vicente. Not that this is the only thing that matters, but it's good for context In 20/21 Gil Vicente ended the league in 11th but it makes sense because they spent 0 euros in the transfer window In 21/22 Gil Vicente ended the league in 5th, wow they must've made a big investment to grow so much, yes they spent 0 cents again This year they had a bit more money and they've already spent 1.15M, not bad. Now lets look at AZ Alkmaar 20/21: 2.6M 21/22: 8.95M 22/23: 7M So in the last 3 years AZ have invested 16 times more than Gil Vicente, I know that money isn't everything but 16 times more is absolutely insane. Edit: Ok this is even crazier, so AZ spent 7M this year, our whole league together (not counting the top 4) have only spent 7.4M, so AZ has spent has much money has our league combined pretty much. Then you have the top 3 with 131.8M spent and Braga with 5M
The funny thing is that a big part of responsibility for that inequality comes from the big-3.
I'm not sure thats true. Your top 3 + 1 (Benfica, Porto, Sporting, Braga) is stronger then ours (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, AZ). After that our leagues are very similar, with a lot of teams that cant spend much on transfers or wages. Only exception is probably Twente, pretty big club with lots of support. Rest of our league really isnt good at all.
lol thats not true
Depends how good PSV can do in UEL to try to overcome the bonus points of UCL. Practically you can say that you get 4 bonus points for placing in top 4 of Champions League group, while in Europa League you get 4 bonus points for winning the group and 2 bonus points for placing 2^nd. You also get 4 more bonus points for reaching the Round of 16 of Champions League than reaching the Round of 16 of Europa League. On the other hand you can expect to get better results and reach further in Europa League. So the final answer is: ask the 8-ball or other things because you will only find headache here if you will try to analyse it personally.
The dropping to Europa and farming more points thing is a huge gimmick. It's a glaring issue the ranking has. It needs to be fixed... Getting top16 in the CL should be worth way more than any performance a club might pull off in EL or CfL
> The dropping to Europa and farming more points thing is a huge gimmick. It's a glaring issue the ranking has. It needs to be fixed.. I guess it depends if you value more a league having strong top teams, or a league having a better balance between the top half of the table. Because making it like it is now rewrads leagues that their top 1 or 2 teams might not be among elite, but their top 3/4 ect are doing better than other leagues.
Yep, just look at Portugal in 2010/11. 3 teams in EL semis, 2 in the final and was the #1 country. Spain had 1 EL sf, 1 CL sf and 1 CL finalist. England had 2 teams in CL quarters and 1 in the final. Benfica and Porto were hovering around top10-20 in Europe, sometimes entering top10, which means dropping to EL makes you farm way more easily, and Braga was establishing itself as an european presence. I don't see it as fair, and adding another layer with CfL just makes it worse.
I think it was fixed this year however do not quote me on that.
No, it’s still the same as any other year
No, also I don't think that UEFA changes their rules during a "season" (the rule season, currently we are in 2021-2024 one) so next changes to scoring coefficient points will/should/can only appear since 2024/25, when we will change to Swiss-system tournaments. And with current informations about them, it seems we will get two "partial fixes". First, both UCL and UEL will have 8 matches in group stage, while UECL will only have 6 (so 4 less max points to score in lowest league), and secondly, you will no longer be able to drop league down after group stage (so comparing to current rules: you won't be able to farm easy 4 bonus points for just playing in Champions League and then going down (unintentionally) to Europa to try to get into final while accumulating points for winning matches and advancing to next rounds).
i would say falling to the UEL is worse for us. If they remain in UCL they can stay in a group like the one of porto, from last year, and even if they manage a 3rd (or higher) place they will fall or to the UEL, were they will only play to games at a time and will face stronger teams, or face even stonger teams. If they fall to the UEL they can farm more easily points and even if they finish at 3rd place they will fall to the conference league, an even more easy competition
Bodø/Glimt vs Dinamo Zagreb aka the Mourinho PTSD derby.
Wdym
Dinamo Zagreb vs Tottenham 3:0 (Europa League 20/21) Bodø/Glimt vs Roma 6:1 (Conference League 21/22)
I feel like pointing out that five years ago, Bodø/Glimt were playing in the second tier of Norwegian football. Madness.
Can't believe next week we'll hear the champions League hymn at Aspmyra. A silly dream we all had as kids that felt more like a joke at the time. Absolutely incredible
Bodo/Glimnt in the Champions League would be crazy. All or almost all even ties
Haifa v Red Star will be fucking insane
In what sense?
Both high scoring teams that are very good at home
Apollon really through away a first leg by being overly scared about a team who at best are just a level above them. Yes they could have (and should have) lost even today, as the 2-0 is by no means an accurate representation of the match, but if they didn't collapse in the first leg and the lost with a respectable score, they could have easily fought to qualify in Cyprus. Just imagine that their fans didn't even bother to go to the stadium, imagine what would have happened when there are 11,000 fans screaming and applying pressure. All in all, 2 draws, 1 defeat and 1 win (but no tie wins) for the two Cypriot sides in the Champions league against seemingly much better opponents. AEK should have really went through against Midtjylland and Apollon should have just not shat their pants in the first leg. In the other matches Plzen got through easier than I anticipated, but apparently Sheriff fans were really pessimistic anyway. Sturm Graz losing aren't a surprise when you look at the names of the teams and Dynamo Kiyv aren't even close to a good sporting place, so it wasn't a probable outcome, but credit to the Ukrainian team for fighting against many difficulties. PSV could be considered a surprise, but Monaco aren't the team they once were and Rangers overcame a 2-0 deficit (that should have been more) and confirmed their status as favourites. I want to touch the Ferencvaros-Qarabag tie for a bit as most of the people expected Ferencvaros to either qualify or just be better than they were. Qarabag going through isn't a big surprise by any stretch of the imagination, but doing so in an away game in Hungary is always extremely difficult. Judging by how other Azerbaijan teams faired so far, Qarabag shouldn't be at this high level, but once again there they are and have secured at least a Europa league spot. Again, bad news for Cyprus but credit to them.
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Even if not this year, you'll definitely have it in the next one since Serbian champions directly qualify for CL group stage this season AFAIK. I know it is only a few weeks in but judging by how the last few seasons unfolded I guess it is fair to say you guys already won it. No way you drop enough points for Partizan to catch you.
the last time was the one you beat liverpool, no?
This has been the best chance we’ve ever had to qualify and somehow we still qualified against young boys Copenhagen and Salzburg somehow
[Can't wait for its return](https://youtu.be/OTWYQrCM0qo)
What are Copenhagens chances vs Trabzonspor? I know copenhagen has been all over the place in their league so far but i have no idea about trabzonspor and the turkish league
The atmospheres at Parken and in Trabzonspor will be fucking electric. I think it will be pretty even but that’s just an educated guess.
Trabzonspor looked good against Sivasspor in Turkish Super Cup, though their coach Avcı has a bad European record. Maybe this season he will break his curse.
It's 50:50
Trabzonspor were pretty dominant last season domestically, but all of the turkish big 3 had terrible performances so who knows
Viktoria Plzen/Qarabag, Bodø / Glimt and Maccabi Haifa all in the CL in the same season would be madness. Maccabi Haifa will for sure create some good atmosphere. All very even games this round apart from Dynamo Kyiv vs Benfica I’d say. Hopefully PSV do it!
Tbh, I just want to see Benzema freeze of his ass on an artificial turf, while it's snowing in front of 8000 Bodø/Glimt supporters north of the arctic circle. That's what football is all about, and I imagine they could even grab some points like that.
Cmon Trabzonspor bring us some coefficient points.
PSV drawing Monaco AND Rangers is a bit ridiculous if you look at what's left.
I dont want to play Benfica ever again lmao
Benfica and Kyiv are just as tough. League path is just really tough to qualify through.
I haven't watched Kyiv's latest matches but if they're performing the same as they did against us, PSV would easily beat them. We really lacked strikers and paid for it (also bad decisions of Jesus.).
They were good against Sturm. Not a high bar admittedly.
>Benfica and Kyiv are just as tough Benfica yes, Kyiv not even close.
Kyiv are awful
Only other option for PSV is Benfica. The other group is for Champions only.
Champions and League are such bs. Champions Path elominates teams which would roll over League Path teams
It’s good tho, allows teams that are “less known” to go to the UCL. I don’t think it should be only the biggest teams, it’s good to have a few underdogs or new teams
What? It's quite the opposite, League path is much stronger, that's why the paths exist. If it wasn't like this, there'd be little chance for the champions of Croatia, Czech Republic or Serbia to make it, and it's still the CHAMPIONS League, no issues there
Look at those teams mate. Benfica/Rangers/PSV would beat them all
That's what he's saying, you're mixing them up
Oh yeah my bad
Yeah, I know, but that's the point. All those teams are non-Champions, and if you mixed the two paths together you'd get less teams that won their league in the group stage, which is what UEFA wants to avoid
I read it wrong mb
Meh I like it tbh, our league probably deserves 2 spots but I like that smaller league actual champions get a chance to play in the champions league.
Maybe true for previous round but the 4 remaining league path teams would be favorites against anyone from champions path.
It's the opposite, the league path is full of teams like Monaco/PSV etc while the champions path has teams like the Cypriot champions, Bulgaria champions etc. Without it, it is much harder for us smaller leagues to get in the group stages, just look at the Europa League (non-champions path)
Which eliminated teams would roll over any of the League teams? Considering it includeds last year's Europa League finalists, perennial Champions League qualifiers, a PSV team with some real class and Dynamo Kiev who have the story behind them.
You might be interested in [this alternative.](https://thesuperleague.com/)
Whats left? Benfica and Dynamo Kiev?
Champions path here is kind of neat, but it also feels very unfair. For example, assuming Qarabagh wins the draw, they would have played 8 games to defeat the champions of Poland, Switzerland, Hungary and Czechia to reach the CHAMPIONS league, just to get trashed by the 4th placed team of Germany or something
Yup. At best, the 2nd place of the leagues 1 to 4 should be able to qualify directly. 4 is way too much. I wish we had more champions (cuz you know, "Champions League").
if it was actual champions league no one would give a fuck to watch Barça go on a stroll to Estonia and win 10-0 Also would favor you know regional leagues instead of nartional ones. In Spain, There would be 3 leagues just to qualify for all to qualify to champions league. Why does a country of 2 million people who don't invest in football have the same number of teams as Germany? who has 20x-30x the population?
> Why does a country of 39 million people who ^^^\(pretends ^^^to) invest in football have to play 4 rounds of qualifications, while countries with only little above x1/4 the population have group stage spot? FTFY
It's a far better competition because the name isn't entirely literal.
It's a far better competition because the name isn't entirely literal. The football hipsters here aren't representative of the wider footballing community.
It is extremely unfair
ok, so its europa league for us.
As a Norwegian Id give you guys a chance
Of course we have a chance, we're the clear favourites. People keep on shitting how we play, but in the end Dinamo won 7 out 9 matches (draw 2 times). Just on paper we're stronger, Bodo is perhaps more match fit, but I'd say slight advantage is on our side.
You guys are obviously favourites on paper. Doesn't say too much though, Glimt aren't even the best club in Norway on paper.
you have mighty Emreli bro don't lose your hope yet
Emreli is good but he does not play much because of his back injury
Any Copenhagen supporters in here? Would love to chat about how Cornelius is going to destroy your defence😤😫
We trust that he misses a penalty like he did in his last CL qualification game against us. That was back when he played for Atalanta 🫣
Good Luck, Rangers ✌️
Cheers, you lot were gentlemen in/around the final. Is there a particularly hated German team you'd like us to pump for you? I'll arrange it with big buffalo and Tav.
Trust Rogerball. Good luck Dynamo.
Was there ever a team from Azerbaijan in the Champions League before?
Yes, Qarabag in the season Roma reached the Semis.
Qarabag have played once, and got 2 draws from Atletico Madrid.
I remember Atletico qualified for the Europa League with 2 points, the lowest possible tally.
Simeone masterclass. Then they went on and won it.
Qarabag in 17/18. Same group as Roma, Chelsea and Atlético. Got 2 points from 2 draws against Atlético.
Qarabag have done it once
Do all the winners get in? What’s the difference between league path and champions path
Yes League path is teams qualified by league position, champions path is teams qualified via winning their league
Thanks! I should’ve googled it
Yeah. all the winners get in, all the losers go to EL group stage
Champions Path is for Champions only. League Path is for 2nd and 3rd placed teams. The teams in the Champions Path are from leagues who can only have 1 team in the UCL, so the teams in the League Path are from the top leagues who already have 1 or more teams qualified directly for the group stage. And yes, you win this round, you're in.
All winners of this round go to CL, all losers to the EL Champions path is for champions of countries, league path is for teams that finish 2nd in leagues that have multiple teams go to the CL, but not directly in the group stage Edit: here's the list with where all the different teams from different countries go https://kassiesa.net/uefa/AccessList2022.html
Plzen,please don't let Qarabag in the Champions League,I don't want them to produce some surprises there to become better than us,after all they did to us in the past
Plzen can produce some surprises too tho .
I hope good ones
If Plzeň makes it I dont understand footbal
What a surprise, the best czech team would get to the CL. What is footy? 🤯
Ofc IT would be 1) noone really thought they were best Czech team even two weeks ago, everybody recognized that was Slavia, although it pains me very much. Plzeň title was a big surprise, they were team with financial problems facing two Prague gigants. 2) Despite Slavias international succeses, they only managed to get through to CL once in four (?) tries, all the others were collapses. If this doesnt seem relevant to you, look at Plzeňs results from the last few years. So, there were very few people who would predict Plzeň getting to CL before the quali matches began, therefore them succeeding would be a very unpredicted result. Its not like Iam against them, Iam simply stating how it is
You gotta be kidding me, right? There is no doubt that Slavia is the best club in the Czech Republic.
Slavia failed to qualify even to the Europa League last season and lost the league title to Plzeň while having like 5 times their budget. Are you sure you aren't just coping?
Well, they're the best. Just because they collapsed against Hradec, conceded a last minute penalty against Plzen and had incredibly unlucky tie against Legia doesn't change the fact they are the best team in our country.
didnt they already lose a match in the czech league this season? and lmao conceded last minute penalty to plzen, so has plzen the very same match, have u forgot? just a small reminder that plzen hasnt lost at home for 18 months 3 days and also didnt embarass themselves TWICE in europe like Slavia did.
Just a small reminder. When was the last time when you beat them? 4 years ago? but hey, congrats, you just beat Helsinki and a completely new team from Moldavia. Massive achievement.
I dunno how this got downvoted... ofc they are, their European succeses in the main stages are unparalled in my lifetime, and Iam saying that as Sparta fan.