2014-15 Champions League: the Quixotic Quest to Qualify

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Titans Bastard

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Champions League is back on Tuesday, baby!!
 
Yes, the first leg of the first round of qualifying kicks off this week.  This year, there's a very exciting new twist: a new minnow's minnow has joined the fold: Gibraltar.  The newest member of UEFA is, at a population of just under 30,000, also the smallest.  Their first sacrificial lamb CL entrant will be their reigning champion, the Lincoln Red Imps.  Fun fact that I learned five minutes ago: all eight clubs in the loftily-named Gibraltar Premier League play in the same stadium.
 
Anyway, the midget-fighting of the first qualifying round consists of the following:

FC Santa Coloma (Andorra) vs. Banants Yerevan (Armenia)
Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar) vs. HB (Faroe Islands)
La Fiorita (San Marino) vs. Levadia Tallinn (Estonia)
 
The second round has also been drawn and even contains a few clubs you've heard of.  Four, I believe, have won European silverware at some point in their more glorious past.
 
BATE Borisov (Belarus) vs. Skënderbeu Korçë (Albania)
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) vs. Santa Coloma/Banants
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) vs. Aktobe (Kazakhstan)
Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia) vs. Maribor (Slovenia)
Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) vs. Sutjeska Nikšić (Montenegro)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) vs. La Fiorita/Levadia
Malmö (Sweden) vs. Ventspils (Latvia)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs. The New Saints (Wales)
KR (Iceland) vs. Celtic (Scotland)
Cliftonville (Northern Ireland) vs. Debrecen (Hungary)
Partizan (Serbia) vs. Lincoln/HB
Legia Warsaw (Poland) vs. St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland)
Rabotnički (Macedonia) vs. HJK (Finland)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) vs. Žalgiris Vilnius (Lithuania)
Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) vs. F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg)
Valletta (Malta) vs. Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
Strømsgodset (Norway) vs. Steaua Bucuresti (Romania)
 
 
You may recall that a few years back CL qualifying was shifted into two separate pathways -- champions and non-champions.  So five CL group stage entrants will come from this pool, plus Red Bull Salzburg (Austria), APOEL (Cyprus), and AaB Aalborg (Denmark) who will join in the next round.
 

URI

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The Lincoln Red Imps beat Gibraltar Phoenix 0-16 and 16-1 last year. Phoenix were relegated with 0 points and a -85 goal difference.

I did more reading on the Gibraltar Premier Division than is really reasonable yesterday.
 

Titans Bastard

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Titans Bastard said:
Four, I believe, have won European silverware at some point in their more glorious past.
 
The answer to this trivia question, by the way, is as follows:
 
Celtic -- 1966-67 European Cup champions
Steaua Bucuresti -- 1985-86 European Cup champions
Dinamo Tbilisi -- 1980-81 Cup Winners' Cup champions (over Carl Zeiss Jena in the Halcyon Days Of Yore Bowl sponsored by Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Slovan Bratislava -- 1968-69 Cup Winners' Cup champions (over Barcelona, no less)
 
Honorable mentions:
Malmö FF -- 1978-79 European Cup runners-up (Nottingham Forest)
Partizan -- 1965-66 European Cup runners-up (Real Madrid)
 
Any thoughts on when the next Forest-Malmö European final will be?
 
 
-----
 
 
I like the early rounds of the Champions League and Europa League because they inevitably lead you to doing ridiculous shit like reading up on the Gibraltar Premier League as URI has already sadly discovered.  We can all appreciate a good Cinderella story, and I like the new qualifying format that gives clubs from smaller countries a better chance to taste the group stage.  While this often ends badly, sometimes they can surprise you like with APOEL's run a few years back.
 

Titans Bastard

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Nice backdrop in Andorra for FC Santa Coloma's match:
 

 
Meanwhile, La Fiorita will host their match in San Marino's Stadio Olimpico because, for some reason, their ground doesn't seem to meet UEFA standards.  And I use the word "ground" not out of a need to adopt every last Britishism, but because it seems like the most appropriate term for the Stadio Igor Crescentini in Montegiardino (pop. 910):
 
 

 
 
The bench appears to be the primary seating area.
 

OCST

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URI said:
The Lincoln Red Imps beat Gibraltar Phoenix 0-16 and 16-1 last year. Phoenix were relegated with 0 points and a -85 goal difference.

I did more reading on the Gibraltar Premier Division than is really reasonable yesterday.
This is awesome.
 

Titans Bastard

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HampshireCounty said:
This is useful.  I bought a FoxSoccer2Go subscription again this year, but they don't start showing games until the last playoff round before the group stage.
 
Another bad miscalculation by Fox.  They should underestimate the drawing power of Sutjeska Nikšić at their own peril.
 

URI

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I'm thinking about buying a Lincoln Red Imps kit.
 

URI

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Titans Bastard said:

 
 
Edit:  Didn't know Platini was such a big fan.
I want to start a fake history of the Red Imps. Like Platini was their captain under a different name when he was playing for Juvy.
 

URI

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That's actually exactly what I had in mind.
 

Titans Bastard

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Casciaro, Casciaro, Casciaro, Chipolina, Chipolina, Duarte, Duarte, and Perez are starting for the Red Imps.
 
Perez on the bench.
 
What a team.
 

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The Gibraltar Phoenix Facebook page has this post: https://www.facebook.com/gibraltar.phoenixfc
 
 
So far squad for thursday is as follows

Titto
Garry
David
Floyd
Daniel
Johnny
Cookie
Field
Kyle
Dwayne
Connor
Luppi
Brian

Anyone else coming? And if not hope to see everyone there for a drink and breif at brunos after also to hand kits in
 
Below it are comments like, "I can play."
 
That's just stupendous.
 

Titans Bastard

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OilCanShotTupac said:
The Gibraltar Phoenix Facebook page has this post: https://www.facebook.com/gibraltar.phoenixfc
 
 
Below it are comments like, "I can play."
 
That's just stupendous.
 
Clearly, that's the difference between a Champions League club and a relegated club in the Gibraltar Premier League.
 
 
By the way, the Red Imps are up 1-0 in the 60th minute on the strength of a Joseph Cipolina penalty.  Shameful performance from the Faroese champions!
 

URI

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Titans Bastard said:
 
Clearly, that's the difference between a Champions League club and a relegated club in the Gibraltar Premier League.
 
 
By the way, the Red Imps are up 1-0 in the 60th minute on the strength of a Joseph Cipolina penalty.  Shameful performance from the Faroese champions!
 

 
The hero of our minnows.
 

Titans Bastard

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Champions League, 1st Qualifying Round, 1st Leg
 
FC Santa Coloma (AND) 1-0 Banants (ARM)
La Fiorita (SMR) 0-1 Levadia Tallinn (EST)
Lincoln Red Imps (GLT) 1-1 HB (FAR)
 
Big win for the Andorrans, who have fired their way over San Marino into 52nd (of 54) place in the UEFA coefficient rankings for the time being.  It must be depressing to be a fan of the Armenian domestic league.
 
Despite Levadia's win, Estonia remains the lowest ranked UEFA country that's not a microstate, but they have Armenia squarely in their sights.  Exciting times in the Baltics.
 
Huge slate of qualifying games for the Europa League tomorrow involving a wonderful array of obscure clubs from Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the British Isles, Kazakhstan, and the minnow states of the UEFA.
 
Not much name recognition -- Aberdeen, Rosenborg, IFK Göteborg, maybe Tromsø and Ferencváros.  Ferencváros actually played a couple of days ago and drew with Sliema Wanderers of Malta.  Somewhere, the ghost of Ferenc Puskas weeps for what's happened to Hungarian football.
 

Titans Bastard

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1st Qualifying Round, 2nd leg
 
Levadia Tallinn (EST) 7-0 Tre Fiori (SMR)  (8-0agg)
 
Expected demolition of the Sammarinese club, who did well to hold Levadia to a 1-0 win in San Marino.
 
Banants Yerevan (ARM) 3-2 FC Santa Coloma (AND) (3-3 agg)
 
An epic result for the Andorrans, who go through on away goals.  This is the second time an Andorran club has ever knocked out their opponents in European play and the first time was when Sant Julià beat Tre Fiori of San Marino on penalties.  Between this and what happened at the World Cup, is there any question that Andorra is the rising power in Iberia?
 
Also seems to have been an epic game.  Santa Coloma scored first, but Banants responded with the three goals they needed for advancement.  But Banants were reduced to 10 men (I've said it before and I'll say it again -- Gevorg Nranyan is out of control!!!!) and Santa Coloma's GOALKEEPER scored the aggregate-equalizer at 90'+5'.
 
Santa Coloma now face a grim fate against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
 
HB (FAR) 5-2 Lincoln Red Imps (GLT)  (6-3 agg)
 
The Gibraltarian dream is dead.
 

URI

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Now I have no reason to watch.
 

Titans Bastard

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2nd Qualifying Round Draw
 
BATE Borisov (Belarus) vs. Skënderbeu Korçë (Albania)
Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) vs. FC Santa Coloma (Andorra)
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) vs. Aktobe (Kazakhstan)
Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia) vs. Maribor (Slovenia)
Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) vs. Sutjeska Nikšić (Montenegro)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) vs. Levadia Tallinn (Estonia)
Malmö (Sweden) vs. Ventspils (Latvia)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs. The New Saints (Wales)
KR (Iceland) vs. Celtic (Scotland)
Cliftonville (Northern Ireland) vs. Debrecen (Hungary)
Partizan (Serbia) vs. HB (FAR)
Legia Warsaw (Poland) vs. St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland)
Rabotnički (Macedonia) vs. HJK (Finland)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) vs. Žalgiris Vilnius (Lithuania)
Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) vs. F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg)
Valletta (Malta) vs. Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
Strømsgodset (Norway) vs. Steaua Bucuresti (Romania)
 
 
Yes, that's right -- the bolded are my matches of the round.  We're doing this.
 
BATE vs. Skënderbeu
 
BATE Borisov has been the strongest club in Belarus for a while now and has made the group stage in Europe five our of the last six years (three CL, two EL).  They have been a plucky underdog for a while.
 
In 2008-09, they qualified for the CL group stage for the first time, knocking out Anderlecht along the way.  For their troubles, they landed in a group with Real Madrid, Juventus, and Zenit -- but managed three draws.
 
In 2009-10, they decided to go for something different and were knocked out of CL qualifiers by a club from Latvia.  However, they parachuted to the EL qualifiers, made it to the group stage and beat Everton at Goodison Park and AEK Athens at home, ultimately finishing 3rd.
 
In 2010-11, Copenhagen put an end to their CL run in the qualifiers, but a win over Marítimo from the island of Madeira returned them to the EL group stage.  BATE accumulated 10 points, enough to finish behind Dynamo Kyiv and ahead of AZ Alkmaar and Sheriff Tiraspol.  They were knocked out by PSG in the Round of 32 on away goals.
 
In 2011-12, it was a return to the CL group stage that did not go well - a draw at Viktoria Plzen and at home against Milan and two brutal drubbings at the hands of Barcelona.
 
2012-13 contained BATE's finest moment in Europe, a 3-1 win over Bayern Munich.  They beat out Lille for third place in the group to parachute to the EL Round of 32, but were finished off by Fenerbahçe.
 
Last season was disastrous for BATE, having been knocked out in the CL qualifiers by Kazakhstan's Shakhter Karagandy at the stage before losers parachute to the EL.
 
 
Meanwhile, their opponents from Albania have a less illustrious history, having never qualified for Europe for the first 100+ years of their history until the 2011-12 season, when they were the first in a long line of APOEL's victims in their ridiculous run to the CL quarterfinals.  However, they nearly became the first Albanian club ever to qualify for the group stage last season, but fell to none other than Shakhter Karagandy in the 3rd qualifying round in the CL.  Having advanced a stage further than BATE, they had another shot at the EL group stage, but lost in penalties in the final EL q-round to Chornomorets Odesa of Ukraine.
 
As an aside, as someone who spent two years living in Karagandy Oblast in Kazakhstan during a stint in the Peace Corps, I was quietly pumped about all this last year.
 
 
Dinamo Tbilisi vs. Aktobe
 
Dinamo Tbilisi is a club with a storied past, having won the Cup Winners' Cup in the early 80s.  Life in the small pond of Georgian football has changed things a bit.
 
Aktobe has been probably the most successful Kazakh club over the past decade.
 
Both these clubs regularly qualify for Europe and regularly advance to the latter stages of qualifying but fail to reach the holy grail of the group stage.  Dinamo and Aktobe met sad ends in the final stage of EL qualifying last season at the hands of Spurs and Dynamo Kyiv respectively.  This one feels like it's one of the best bets to be evenly matched to me.
 
Strømsgodset vs. Steaua
 
You may have even heard of these clubs.  On paper, this is matchup with the most overall quality.  Godset just lost their manager to Celtic last month.  Steaua always seem like one of the strongest Eastern European clubs outside of Russia & Ukraine.  Steaua were European champions in 1986 and reached the final again in 1989.  They've been in the group stage of the CL or EL every year since 2006/07 although they've rarely impressed in the CL.  They did reach the semifinals of the EL in 2005-06 in a freak year for Romanian football that basically broke the UEFA coefficient ranking system.
 

Titans Bastard

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PedroSpecialK said:
Did you happen to catch one of those famous Karagandy sheep sacrifices?
 
No.  I lived in a smaller city in the oblast that was an overnight train away from Karagandy (almost everything in Kazakhstan is at least an overnight train away).  My city did have a 2nd division team for a year or two, so I did catch a couple of games.  The level was low, to say the least.  The local mining company pulled the plug on the 2nd division team in early 2011, so Shakhter would be my "local" team at this point.
 
The top teams in the top division are far from the worst in UEFA based on recent results in Europe but obviously no great shakes.
 
I did eat all manner of sheep, cow, and horse parts, but not anywhere near a pitch.  :)
 

Titans Bastard

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The first leg of the second qualifying round has been completed.  The first qualifying round is a novelty involving the minnows.  There's a little more at stake in the 2nd qualifying round.
 
  • Two of the clubs from this round are guaranteed to make the group stage and as many as five could do it.
  • Clubs that reach the 3rd qualifying round and lose parachute into the final EL qualifying round giving them another shot at group stage football (albeit of the Europa variety)
  • Clubs that reach the 4th qualifying round are guaranteed to play group stage football of some variety, as the losers parachute directly into the EL group stage
The Europa League group stage isn't very sexy in the power countries of Europe, but it's the holy grail if you are an Albanian club.  I like to see the small clubs of the world have their day in the sun - for me the Europa League is one of those competitions that gets less interesting over time once the Benfica/Sevilla/Zenit types have cleared the field of cinderellas.
 
Anyway, a few notable results from the past two days:
 
BATE Borisov (BLR) 0-0 Skenderbeu Korçë (ALB)
 
A very solid result on the road from an Albanian club.  Without an away goal there's still a lot of work to be done, but they have a fighting chance for a big upset.
 
Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 0-1 Aktobe (KAZ)
 
Kazakhstan had a breakthrough last year when Shakhter Karagandy reach the group stage of the Europa League and they are having another strong year in qualifying so far, with six wins and a draw from their four clubs.  Aktobe is in a good position to go through, which would give them two chances to replicate Shakhter's feat.
 
KR (ISL) 0-1 Celtic (SCO)
 
Hey Celtic: if you're going to complain about having to play so many qualification rounds for the Champions League, maybe you should beat Icelandic clubs by more than one goal.
 
Legia Warsaw (POL) 1-1 St. Patrick's Athletic (IRL)
 
Nice result from an Irish club and they were even one minute from pulling out a win.
 
Strømsgodset (NOR) 0-1 Steaua Bucharest (ROU)
 
It will be tough for the Norwegian champs to come back from this in Romania.  Steaua can't be stopped from fulfilling their yearly destiny as group stage whipping boys.
 
 
Full results
 

cjdmadcow

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Titans Bastard said:
The first leg of the second qualifying round has been completed.  The first qualifying round is a novelty involving the minnows.  There's a little more at stake in the 2nd qualifying round.
 
  • Two of the clubs from this round are guaranteed to make the group stage and as many as five could do it.
  • Clubs that reach the 3rd qualifying round and lose parachute into the final EL qualifying round giving them another shot at group stage football (albeit of the Europa variety)
  • Clubs that reach the 4th qualifying round are guaranteed to play group stage football of some variety, as the losers parachute directly into the EL group stage
The Europa League group stage isn't very sexy in the power countries of Europe, but it's the holy grail if you are an Albanian club.  I like to see the small clubs of the world have their day in the sun - for me the Europa League is one of those competitions that gets less interesting over time once the Benfica/Sevilla/Zenit types have cleared the field of cinderellas.
 
Anyway, a few notable results from the past two days:
 
BATE Borisov (BLR) 0-0 Skenderbeu Korçë (ALB)
 
A very solid result on the road from an Albanian club.  Without an away goal there's still a lot of work to be done, but they have a fighting chance for a big upset.
 
Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 0-1 Aktobe (KAZ)
 
Kazakhstan had a breakthrough last year when Shakhter Karagandy reach the group stage of the Europa League and they are having another strong year in qualifying so far, with six wins and a draw from their four clubs.  Aktobe is in a good position to go through, which would give them two chances to replicate Shakhter's feat.
 
KR (ISL) 0-1 Celtic (SCO)
 
Hey Celtic: if you're going to complain about having to play so many qualification rounds for the Champions League, maybe you should beat Icelandic clubs by more than one goal.
 
Legia Warsaw (POL) 1-1 St. Patrick's Athletic (IRL)
 
Nice result from an Irish club and they were even one minute from pulling out a win.
 
Strømsgodset (NOR) 0-1 Steaua Bucharest (ROU)
 
It will be tough for the Norwegian champs to come back from this in Romania.  Steaua can't be stopped from fulfilling their yearly destiny as group stage whipping boys.
 
 
Full results
 
Great stuff again, TB.
 
There's a name that takes me back. I'd only been a teenager for 9 months but I was at the game that still stands as Liverpool's record win: 11–0 against Strømsgodset in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, 17 September 1974.
 

Phil Plantier

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The Guardian on Europa League qualifying: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/jul/23/europa-league-minnows?CMP=EMCFTBEML853
 
 
Brandur Jacobsen is president of Faroese side Vikingur and, like the rest of the club’s staff, works on a voluntary basis. It takes around 50 of them to prepare for a European home game, which is some undertaking given that Vikingur’s tie against the Latvian side Daugava Daugavpils was watched by the first qualifying round’s lowest aggregate attendance – just 542.
 

Titans Bastard

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2nd qualification round finished today.  There really weren't any surprises in the end, as pretty much all the favorites advanced to the next round.  BATE Borisov needed away goals to fend off a challenge from Albania's Skënderbeu Korçë, which was about as close as it got.
 
 
The 17 winners will now be joined by Red Bull Salzburg, APOEL, and AaB Aalborg in the 3rd qualifying round.  In the "Champions Route", this is where it gets interesting, for several reasons.  First, the teams tend to be more evenly matched because all the champions from the heavy-hitter countries qualify for the group stage automatically, but the true weaklings have been mostly weeded out.  Second, there's more at stake.  A win in this round guarantees that a club will be playing into December, which is big for some of the minnow-ish clubs left.
 
Here's the draw for the Champions Route:
 
Qarabağ (AZE) vs. Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Debrecen (HUN) vs. BATE Borisov (BLR)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) vs. Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA)
AaB Aalborg (DEN) vs. Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Legia Warsaw (POL) vs. Celtic (SCO)
Aktobe (KAZ) vs. Steaua București (ROU)
Maribor (SLO) vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR)
HJK Helsinki (FIN) vs. APOEL (CYP)
Sparta Prague (CZE) vs. Malmö (SWE)
Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) vs. Partizan (SRB)
 
 
The ten losers drop down to the final qualifying round for the Europa League.  The ten winners advance to the 4th round and play for five places in the Champions League group stage; the five fourth round losers go to the EL.
 
I've bolded my picks from each tie, but there aren't nearly as many slam dunks this round.
 
The 3rd round is also the beginning of the "Non-Champions Route".  This is an entirely separate qualifying bracket for clubs who (a)qualified for the CL, (b)but who weren't champions, and (c)didn't finish in a place that guaranteed direct entry into the group stage.
 
 
AEL Limassol (CYP) vs. Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS)
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UKR) vs. Copenhagen (DEN)
Feyenoord (NED) vs. Beșiktaș (TUR)
Grasshoppers (SUI) vs. Lille (FRA)
Standard Liège (BEL) vs. Panathinaikos (GRE)
 
 
Same rules as the other bracket -- the five losers drop into EL qualifying and winners are guaranteed group stage football of some sort.  Only for this bracket, the winners will be joined in the next qualifying round by Arsenal, Porto, Bayer Leverkusen, Napoli, and Athletic Bilbao.  That's tough.
 

sachmoney

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Anyone know how the scheduling works for this round? I'm seeing all the games scheduled on the same day for each leg. I was hoping there would be a one day lag like they do for the group stage. As I said in the Arsenal thread, I'm going to be in Copenhagen for the second leg, so I'd like to check out both Copenhagen and Malmö which is 6 miles across the bridge. It would be nice if they had a Monday/Tuesday or a Tuesday/Wednesday thing going.
 

Titans Bastard

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sachmoney said:
Anyone know how the scheduling works for this round? I'm seeing all the games scheduled on the same day for each leg. I was hoping there would be a one day lag like they do for the group stage. As I said in the Arsenal thread, I'm going to be in Copenhagen for the second leg, so I'd like to check out both Copenhagen and Malmö which is 6 miles across the bridge. It would be nice if they had a Monday/Tuesday or a Tuesday/Wednesday thing going.
 
The scheduling isn't as regimented as in the group stage, but in the past two rounds there have been games on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  It might be at the discretion of the home team?  I don't really know, but I don't think there will be any effort to ensure that Copenhagen and Malmö play on different days.  You could get lucky with that, though.
 
Both matches should be interesting.  Sparta Prague is supposed to be decent this year; they ran away with the Czech league and retained most of their squad over the summer.  Malmö struggled to get by Ventspils of Latvia, so the Swedes are definite underdogs.  And Dnipro is one of those second-tier Ukrainian clubs like Metalist that has done some damage over the last few years.
 

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3rd Qualifying Round, 1st Leg
Champions Route
 
Sparta Prague (CZE) 4-2 Malmö (SWE)
 
Sparta storms back from a 2-1 halftime deficit to put them in a strong position.  They'll still have to hold the line in Sweden.  Sachmoney will provide the full match report for the second leg.
 
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) 2-1 Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA)
 
Sheriff missed a PK that would have put them in the drivers seat.  Given that the second leg is in Moldova this one is 50/50.  Transnistria can't be an easy place to travel to.
 
Debrecen (HUN) 1-0 BATE Borisov (BLR)
 
A good win from the Hungarians.  A 1-0 home win is the best kind of one-goal home win.  An away goal in Belarus and BATE will need three to advance.
 
Aktobe (KAZ) 2-2 Steaua București (ROU)
 
A very good result for Aktobe against one of the strongest clubs in the Champions bracket, but it's hard to imagine that they'll survive the second leg in Romania.  A qual
 
Qarabağ (AZE) 2-1 Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
 
I think RB Salzburg is still the favorite here, but the Azeris have definitely made it interesting.  Qarabag nabbed a winner in the 86th and the goalscorer saw a straight red in the 88th (the third red of the game)...not sure what happened.
 
HJK (FIN) 2-2 APOEL (CYP)
 
HJK blew a two goal lead in the second half, which is killer.  Former MLSer Macoumba Kandji was sent off in the 49th and it looks like things went downhill from there for the Finns.  Pulling out a result in Cyprus will not be easy for them.
 
Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) 0-0 Partizan (SRB)
 
These clubs seem evenly matched.  Both Bulgaria and Serbia haven't had much success in club football in a while and could really use a boost.  Ludogorets are an out-of-nowhere club that rose through the ranks in Bulgaria and had a great run in the Europa League last year.  Partizan periodically makes the CL or EL group stage and inevitably gets slapped around like a shittier, Eastern Europe version of Anderlecht.
 
AaB Aalborg (DEN) 0-1 Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
 
Good away win for Dinamo who are in the drivers seat.
 
Maribor (SLO) 1-0 Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR)
 
The Slovenians nicked a last-gasp winner to take a lead to Israel.  
 
Legia Warsaw (POL) 4-1 Celtic (SCO)
 
Yikes.  Two weeks ago, Legia needed a last-minute equalizer to avoid a home loss to St. Patrick's Athletic.  And now they're crushing the Scottish champions.  Efe Ambrose was sent off at the end of the first half, but Celtic were already down 2-0.  It could have been even worse -- they are lucky that Legia missed TWO penalties in the second half.
 
Non-Champions Route
 
AEL Limassol (CYP) 1-0 Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS)
 
Lol. Zenit finished second in their CL group to APOEL three years ago and once again failed to beat a Cypriot club.  They stand a good chance of turning the result around in the second leg, but it would be great to see such an unlikeable club go down at this stage.  Axel Witsel was sent off and will be unavailable.
 
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UKR) 0-0 Copenhagen (DEN)
 
Russian language clubs names are strange, aren't they?  When they aren't given army (CSKA), KGB (Dynamo), railroad workers (Lokomotiv) type names, they are often named after geographical features nearby.  So why not name a club after a river that the city is already named after?  Genius.  Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk is the Ukrainian counterpart to Russia's Tom Tomsk.
 
Anyway, Dnipro were forced to play in Kiev, which didn't help their cause.  Decent result for Copenhagen, but their lack of away goals mean that this is still very close.
 
Grasshopper (SUI) 0-2 Lille (FRA)
 
Nothing is ever truly safe, but Lille is in the best position of anybody in this round right now.
 
Feyenoord (NED) 1-2 Beșiktaș (TUR)
 
Dutch clubs get raided too frequently to ever mount much of a campaign in Europe anymore.  Over the summer, Feyenoord lost a trio of Dutch World Cup players as well as leading scorer Graziano Pellè to Lazio, Newcastle, Porto, and Southampton respectively.
 
Standard Liège (BEL) 0-0 Panathinaikos (GRE)
 
A very even matchup, but either of these clubs would really struggle once paired up with Arsenal or Napoli or whomever.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

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The Zenit result is both lolworthy and also possibly significant for fans of Arsenal (ahem), Porto, Leverkusen, and Napoli.  If Zenit wins its tie, it joins those four teams as the seeded clubs in the non-champions playoff round.  If Zenit loses, however, then Athletic Bilbao will get seeded.
 
Basically, Bilbao would be a really shitty opponent to draw, a team which could conceivably beat any of the four automatically seeded teams over two legs.  There's a huge drop off from them to the likes of Besiktas, Lille, and Standard Liege.  Go Cypriots!
 

sachmoney

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Hey folks,

I'm at the Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagen and we were going to go to the game in Malmö but great beer, sausage, and cheese kind of trumps. We are going to FCK on Wednesday though.
 

Titans Bastard

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sachmoney said:
Hey folks,

I'm at the Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagen and we were going to go to the game in Malmö but great beer, sausage, and cheese kind of trumps. We are going to FCK on Wednesday though.
 
I'm pretty sure the Malmö game kicks off on Wednesday one hour before FCK.  If that's true, you've made a wise decision today.
 

cjdmadcow

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sachmoney said:
Hey folks,

I'm at the Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagen and we were going to go to the game in Malmö but great beer, sausage, and cheese kind of trumps. We are going to FCK on Wednesday though.
 
I love Copenhagen, my sister lives there, and I was there when City v Chelsea FA Cup match took place last season, Different bar, though. Took a walk around the FCK stadium on a cold, winters afternoon which is only a 10 minute walk from my sisters'. There's a good history of Danish support for LFC as well, which helps.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Titans Bastard said:
 
Grasshopper (SUI) 0-2 Lille (FRA)
 
Nothing is ever truly safe, but Lille is in the best position of anybody in this round right now.
 
 
Boy, Grasshoppers have crapped the bed coming out of the blocks this year.  They dropped the first Zurich derby to open the Swiss Super League year, and are stuck on one point after three games.
 
Did that sound like I actually knew something about the Swiss league?  Other than the fact that I think those who call themselves supporters of Young Boys inevitably must come off as creepy, I didn't even know there was a team called Grasshoppers until I saw this post.  This is really fantastic stuff, TB.  One my favorite threads.  
 
Here's a neat picture of the stands of Victoria Stadium in Gib, with the rock in the background.
 

 
Immediately in the other direction is the runway for the Gibraltar airport.  The road to the right leading to the roundabout is Winston Churchill Avenue -- the only road into Gibraltar from Spain.  You have to cross the runway. 
 
 
 

sachmoney

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Yeah it's a good thing we didn't mistakenly take the train into Malmö. Besides the good time that was being had, getting there and finding out there was no game would've been devastating. My trip has been complicated to say the least. We biked by the Parken. Yeah, FCK seems the right call. We've seen a lot of Messi jerseys here. Pretty filthy if you ask me. Where are all the Bendtners! Where are all the Eriksens!
 

Titans Bastard

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Four games today:
 
BATE Borisov (BLR) 3-1 Debrecen (HUN) [3-2 on aggregate]
 
Debrecen scored a crucial away goal that forced BATE to score three goals to avoid elimination.  Unfortunately for them, that's exactly what BATE did -- aided by a first half red card that reduced the Hungarians to 10 men.  Debrecen drop into the Europa League, where they'll need to get lucky and draw one of the weaker seeded teams to have a chance to advance to the group stage.
 
Panathinaikos (GRE) 1-2 Standard Liège (BEL) [1-2 on aggregate]
 
After a scoreless draw at home, Standard won on the road to ensure passage to the next round somewhat comfortably, given their two away goals.  Very tall task to get through the next round, though.
 
Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR) 2-2 Maribor (SLO) [2-3 on aggregate]
 
Maribor advances and clinches group stage football for the fourth consecutive season -- not bad for the Slovenians.  They only once qualified for the Champions League though, back in 99/00, so they'll hope to avoid being dumped into the Europa League GS once again.  Despite the fact that Maribor have a recent history of doing decently, the Israelis should be disappointed - this was a good opportunity for them.
 
Lille (FRA) 1-1 Grasshoppers (SUI) [3-1 on aggregate]
 
After a 2-0 road victory, Lille just needed to hold the line.
 

Titans Bastard

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The 3rd qualifying round is finished and it was a real bloodbath for seeded teams in the Champions Route bracket.  Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Maribor yesterday and four others bit the dust today.
 
Champions Route
 
APOEL (CYP) 2-0 HJK (FIN) [4-2 on aggregate]
 
Expected win for the Cypriots.  HJK did well to keep this one relatively close.
 
Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) 0-0 Slovan Bratislava (SVK) [1-2 on aggregate]
 
Sheriff shot themselves in the foot with a red card and blew a golden opportunity to secure group stage football for the second year in a row and for the fourth time since 2009.
 
Malmö (SWE) 2-0 Sparta Prague (CZE) [4-4 on aggregate; Malmö advances on away goals]
 
The Swedes turned around a two goal deficit at home and advanced on away goals.  A very good result for them and a real waste for Sparta.
 
Steaua Bucharest (ROU) 2-1 Aktobe (KAZ) [4-3 on aggregate]
 
Expected result.  Aktobe went down 2-0 and then down to 10 men and scored a late consolation.  They did well to keep it this close and will forge on ahead in Europa League qualifiers.
 
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) 2-0 Qarabag (AZE) [3-2 on aggregate]
 
RB Salzburg played with fire a bit, but did enough to get through.  They've come close to group stage qualification many times, but haven't been in the Champions League proper since 1994/95.  As a seed, they now have an excellent opportunity.
 
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 0-2 AaB Aalborg (DEN) [1-2 on aggregate]
 
Huge choke by Dinamo Zagreb at home, squandering their away win. 
 
Celtic (SCO) 0-2 Legia Warsaw (POL) [1-6 on aggregate]
 
LOL.  Celtic sure are lucky that Legia missed two PKs in the first leg and only won 4-1.  This article from a few weeks ago is classic.  "Manager Ronny Deila says it is "stupid" that Celtic have to negotiate three qualifying rounds just to make the group stages of the Champions League."
 
Partizan (SRB) 2-2 Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) [2-2 on aggregate; Ludo advances on away goals]
 
The Bulgarians did just enough to get by Partizan and advance to the final round.
 
Non-Champions Route
 
Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS) 3-0 AEL Limassol (CYP) [3-1 on aggregate]
 
Any chance AEL had of holding onto their first leg lead vanished when a player was sent off after a second yellow in the 26th minute.
 
Besiktas (TUR) 3-1 Feyenoord (NED)
 
Demba Ba nailed a hat trick for the Turks, who seemed in control through both legs.
 
Copenhagen (DEN) 2-0 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (UKR)
 
Dnipro is one of the second-tier Ukrainian clubs who can be tricky, but Copenhagen put them away here.  One of their goals came from Andreas Cornelius, who they sold to Cardiff City last June for €8.7m and bought back in January for €3.5m.  EPL clubs really do have more money than they know what to do with.
 
 
 
4th Qualifying Round
 
This is the last hurdle.  Winners go to the CL group stage and losers go to the EL group stage.  The draw is tomorrow and below are the seeds:
 
Champions Route
Seeded: Red Bull Salzburg (AUT), Steaua Bucharest (ROU), APOEL (CYP), BATE Borisov (BLR), Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL)
Unseeded: Maribor (SLO), Legia Warsaw (POL), Slovan Bratislava (SVK), Malmö (SWE), AaB Aalborg (DEN)
 
Losses for Dinamo Zagreb, Celtic, Maccabi TA, and Sparta Prague allowed Ludogorets to sneak into the seeded category, which is huge for them.  The seeds you really want to avoid here are RB Salzburg and Steaua, I'd say.  The non-seeds seem fairly even in quality.
 
Non-Champions Route
Seeded: Arsenal (ENG), Porto (POR), Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS), Bayer Leverkusen (GER), Napoli (ITA)
Unseeded: Athletic Bilbao (ESP), Lille (FRA), Copenhagen (DEN), Standard Liège (BEL), Besiktas (TUR)
 
Nobody wants to draw Athletic Bilbao.  The other unseeded clubs will be hard-pressed to do anything.  I'd probably take my chances with Zenit, given their struggles with AEL Limassol.
 

sachmoney

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I didn't hear about Cornelius until after the game. At least the Cardiff part and I hardly watched Cardiff last year and I guess he hardly played. He was actually pretty good last night. He's a monster in the air and as a target for goal kicks. His goal came on a quick counter actually with a sweeping left footed finish. He looks like Ivan Drago from the stands.

FCK's second goal was out of left field. It was on the break and sort of after a spell of Dnipro possession so not much was expected. Kadrii made an awesome run and it looked like he was using the outside of his foot to play a through ball but he kept going and ripped a left footer into the corner. Single best bit of individual skill and determination throughout.

Dnipro didn't show up. They lacked imagination and courage. I feel bad for the 30 or so fans that made the trek. To travel and see that kind of performance out of your team must suck.

The FCK ultras were amazing last night. Solid atmosphere for a not even close to sold out crowd. Saw some cops running in force after the game so I'm not sure if there was any violence. Sounds totally unnecessary but these European games seem to bring out the worst.
 

Titans Bastard

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Celtic have been reinstated after being awarded a 3-0 win over Legia and going through on away goals.
 
Very weak.  The Polish player missed three matches, but was not registered for the St. Patrick's series so it apparently doesn't count.  He came on and played four minutes at the end of the second leg, at which point Legia were up 6-1 on aggregate.
 
Seems like a pretty disproportionate punishment to me, as he didn't play in three consecutive matches (even if he wasn't registered) and then had almost no effect on the game.  If the roles were reversed, would UEFA have thrown Celtic out or just fined them?  I feel bad for Legia.
 

Titans Bastard

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Maribor (SLO) vs. Celtic (SCO)
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) vs. Malmö (AUT)
AaB Aalborg (DEN) vs. APOEL (CYP)
Steaua București (ROU) vs. Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) vs. BATE Borisov (BLR)
 
Beșiktaș (TUR) vs. Arsenal (ENG)
Standard Liège (BEL) vs. Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS)
Copenhagen (DEN) vs. Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
Lille (FRA) vs. Porto (POR)
Napoli (ITA) vs. Athletic Bilbao (ESP)
 
 
Legia feels screwed and so should Ludogorets.  Because Celtic were reinstated, they were bumped to the unseeded pool and now are stuck with Steaua -- a poor draw.

On the other side of the bracket, Napoli are the ones who got stuck with Athletic Bilbao.
 
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