This seems to get tougher every year. Bosnian, Hungarian, Romanian, Polish champions all unseeded in the first qualifying round. Draw is tomorrow but draw groups have been allocated today.
Celtic (SCO) Qarabağ (AZE) Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) F91 Dudelange (LUX) Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Valletta (MLT)
Sarajevo (BIH)
Sutjeska (MNE)
Partizani (ALB)
Saburtalo (GEO)
Group 3 (seeded sides in bold )
BATE Borisov (BLR) Maribor (SVN) Rosenborg (NOR) HJK Helsinki (FIN) Dundalk (IRL) The New Saints (WAL)
Winners of the preliminary round
Piast Gliwice (POL)
Valur Reykjavík (ISL)
Linfield (NIR)
HB Tórshavn (FRO)
Riga (LVA)
Polish side only won their first ever league title last year. Never reached the champions league before so would have no coefficient points worth noting.
Only the 12th highest attendance total of sides in Poland last year so seems mad that they finished ahead of some of the bigger clubs there.
Still they are the ones to avoid in the draw most definitely. Dundalk would fancy it against most of the others in that group.
Should be no trouble for Celtic either. Cluj look like the other big tricky unseeded outfit but they are in a different group
Before last season they would have been seeded ahead of Dundalk based on getting 20% of Poland’s seeding plus their own points.
In theory, it’s fairer now to the smaller countries to remove that boost for country seedings but it won’t seem that way if Dundalk draw them as an unseeded team.
first time since i started following Israeli football in 2008 when beitar were in the CL that an Israeli side has gotten a bye to the next round and this is notwithstanding HB7’s disastrous performance last year,
Im assuming tho its because MTA have just a higher coeffocient,
that’s incredible for dundalk tho to be seeded - 800k for just playing this round - 1.2 million for getting thru and also a parachute of a UEFA cup place
You’re teasing me now with these coefficient statements.
No, Celtic have a higher seeding than MTA for example. Much higher. The round you join is determined by your country ranking. The country ranking lags 12 months behind results so Israel are ranked 18th in Europe based on performances to 2017/18 and will be ranked 27th next year so will be back to Round 1 thanks to the poor performances in Europe last season. They benefit from the champions of the Champions League and Europa League already being in the Champions League so Cyprus and Israel bump up a round.
fantastic draw for Dundalk that
Baltic club football is very poor - the Vrsliga in Latvia is destroyed with match fixing and the finest exponents of this are usually Latvians in the lower echelons of the European Leagues - Igors Labuts for example at Athlone
w.r.t. FK Sarajevo - Pats put Sikroki Brijeg out of the 2013 UEFA cup so that’ll give you an idea of the standard - @Rocko what Molodovan side were they beaten by - Sheriff Tirasspol are a very decent side and would be streets ahead of anything there
Armernian football is very bad - Piyuunik Yerevan were beaten by Gibraltar’s FC College Europa in 2016
Nõmme Kalju (EST) v Shkëndija (MKD)
Sūduva (LTU) v Crvena zvezda (SRB)
Ararat-Armenia (ARM) v AIK (SWE) Astana (KAZ) v CFR Cluj (ROU) Ludogorets (BUL) v Ferencváros (HUN)
Group 2 (seeded sides in bold )
Celtic (SCO) v Sarajevo (BIH) Sheriff Tiraspol (MDA) v Saburtalo (GEO) F91 Dudelange (LUX) v Valletta (MLT)
Partizani (ALB) v Qarabağ (AZE) Slovan Bratislava (SVK) v Sutjeska (MNE)
Group 3 (seeded sides in bold )
Linfield (NIR) v Rosenborg (NOR)
Valur Reykjavík (ISL) v Maribor (SVN) Dundalk (IRL) v Riga (LVA) The New Saints (WAL) v Winners of the preliminary round HJK Helsinki (FIN) v HB Tórshavn (FRO) BATE Borisov (BLR) v Piast Gliwice (POL
Clubs’ coefficientsare now determined EITHER by the sum of all points won in the previous five years OR by the association coefficient over the same period – WHICHEVER IS THE HIGHER (under a new system introduced for 2018/19 onwards).
