CSKA and Monaco would be tough draws.
predictions
basil - astana
celtic - MTA
APOEL- NK partizan
dinamo - malmo
BATE - skenderbeu
I’ll go:
APOEL Nicosia - Skenderbeu Korce
Dinamo Zagreb - Partizan Belgrade
BATE Borsiov - Maccabi Tel-Aviv
FC Basel - FK Astana
Celtic - Malmo
Are Croatian and Serbian teams allowed to be drawn against eachother do you know @mickee321? There are occasionally ties that UEFA rule out for security reasons.
i believ so @Rocko
think for UEFA its only serbia/albania and russia/georgia that cant be drawn
1 Like
Partizan and Tel-Aviv would be the games I’d rather avoid.
Think we have a decent enough record against Scandanavian teams in recent years.
And Lazio.
Agreed.
Astana should be beatable. Stereotypical “difficult place to go” but scraping past HJK isn’t outstanding. They beat Maribor too but Maribor weren’t that good last year. Nowhere near as good as Legia were.
Skenderbeu should be avoided on Mickee’s word. They were the most convincing winners in the last round against the crowd that put out Ludogrets. Avoid.
Malmo beating RB Salzburg is a really good result but RB Salzburg have a history of choking and we coped with Malmo handily enough a couple of years ago.
The top 2 are definitely problematic.
@Rocko;s question has me thinking, as far as i know ( i need to verify) Dinamo Zagreb or Hadjuk Split CANNOT ever play againts Crezna Zvedza ( Red Star Belgrade) in a competitive fixture, this is after what happened in 1991 when Zvommiar Boban took on the Yugoslav police and the war kicked off, if ever there was a signifigant game of football, that man is some hero by the way, by and large the croats were equally culpable murdering bastards but what he did that day would put hairs on the back of your neck, another lovely anecdote from Sinisa Mihailovic and Igor Stimac from the Yugoslav cup final in 1991, 2 utter psychopaths, some reckon it was Stimac authorised that swastika on the croatian pitch a few months ago
“In one moment we were face to face,” Mihajlovic later revealed, reminiscing their encounter in the 1991 Yugoslav Cup final. “He leaned to me and said, his voice full of hatred: ‘I pray to God your whole family in Borovo gets murdered.’ I blacked out; I could slay him with my teeth.”
Years later, he said Stimac was “the only person he could strangle with his bare hands”, while the man who became his nemesis never admitted to saying what Mihajlovic claimed he did, but continued to let off poisonous arrows in his direction. “I realise he has to try twice as hard as anyone else to prove his allegiance to Serbia. But his mother is Croatian, his wife Italian, he married and baptised his children in a Catholic church; they [the Serbs] will never accept him,” Stimac said 10 years ago in an interview with the Croatian weekly magazine Nacional.
isnt that briliant stuff
2 Likes
re Maccabi TA, it must be remembered that NK Maribor Teatanic put them out last year, notwthstanding @Bandage the fact Maccabi’s home leg was played in Cyprus, in the subsequent UEFA cup qualifier MTA were beaten over 2 legs by Atromitis i think ( one of the non big 3 Greek sides)
bottom line, Maccabi were shite in Europe last season, ok there was a war going on and Oscar Garcia did fuck off after the first Maribor game so it was a total mess.
Now, they are sticky opponents, almost put Basil out of the 2013 CL and that season beat Bordeaux and Frankfurt in the UEFA cup, Bloomfield in Jaffa in August is a fucking horrendous place to go, itll be fucking 35C at 9 45 PM the KO time.
Maccabi did well tonight to pull that out in Plzen, at least it shows they have a bit of gumption, their main man is Eran Zahavi who got the goals tonight, they dont like it up em tho and in Celtic park they could fall to pieces, they have no physical presence about them, play nice ball but wont like Celtic one bit.
Those weird Cruyffs are plotting something tho as well as that psycho Jokanovic the manager…
Interestingly Craig Whyte’s mate Martin Bain is Chief executive, he had a similar position at a scottish club from 2005 to 2011…
1 Like
Hello Croatian lady representative 
Celtic v Malmö
1 Like
Very happy with that.
1 Like
Yep, can’t have any complaints with that draw. Stick up the full draw there someone.
That right there is what football is all about.
1 Like
What dates for the Malmo ties, @Rocko pal?
PS, how did Aberdeen get on in their second leg last week?
out,
not good news for “our” coefficient
1 Like
Wednesday 19th August 2015
Celtic v Malmö FF 19:45
Tuesday 25th August 2015
Malmö FF v Celtic 19:45
1 Like
Can anyone throw up Man United’s game times so we can follow both British clubs?
I’d like to reiterate this.
He’s done a terrific job since coming in the backdrop of Monaco letting their big name players leave. They are now making a big challenge for the Ligue 1 title and into the last 16 of the CL.
1 Like