Champions League Qualifiers 2018 /2019

Looking at Celtic’s qualifying path this year I wouldn’t fancy us to make the CL. Much tougher this year with the likes of Dutch Champions now having to play qualifiers.

How likely are Celtic to be seeded if they reach the playoff round?

It is much tougher alright. AEK Athens are probably better than any team we’ve faced in the last round in recent years.

We will be seeded in the playoff round if we make it that far though.

Young Boys will be in that round and unseeded.

The “expected” other unseeded teams would be:
Legia Warsaw
Astana
Qarabag

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His case is to be decided on Friday of this week. So he’s suspended tomorrow night and then they will decide on Friday whether to add further matches to it.

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DembĂ©lĂ© went off injured against Alashkert. He’s out for 2-3 weeks so won’t be playing tomorrow night and will probably miss the return leg. And Edouard was also carrying an injury but he’s fit and available to start tomorrow. Griffiths has been back in training so might start alongside Edouard or else we’ll change system and someone like Sinclair will come into the team.

:open_mouth:

0–0 in Zagreb after 10 mins
Granovic the croat “swiss” fella on the bench for GNK Dinamo
HBS playing a 4/5/1 and breaking fast
game on arena sport1 if you have IPTV a croat channel

backed Hapoel at 7/2

2-0 horrific

A 5-0 thumping. Are Hapoel gone backwards Michael?

Spartak Trnava beating Legia, good shout from yourself if they hold on.

yeah - that was on the cards allright
of course i didnt do it at 15-2
spartak are good allright in an improving league
Legia Warsaw are awful - watched both their games v cork - shocking side- nowhere near good enough

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they were simply horrific
literally all 5 of the goals were the result of utterly atrocious defensive play
now israeli teamx are poor at the back - you remember this maccabi played dundalk and when celtic beat HBS 5-2 in parkhead the night legia beat dundalk- but then hapoel always used to get something one the break and nearly win the thing at home - they were the first ever side to beat inter home and away that year in one european season
tonight Nawakeame, Meliksson and co just didnt fire at all and at the back - fucking hell - they signed AEKs keeper and dropped Goresh and he was at fault for both first half goals - spilling one and stumbling over another
going forward it looked a bit slow and ponderous- you know that 16/17 season was their year when they got to last 16 of europe league
 it looks jaded now
he kept the same squad for last season and maribor put them out ( we saw how bad maribor were) and in last season europa they finished behind Plzen and FCSB in a poor group really
he badly needs to freshen up the attack
itll do domestically - but tonight against i must say harmless enough opposition it looked poor

i doubt any of those will make it Rocko

state of play now
i think the team below will progress in bold

Celtic (SCO)/Rosenborg (NOR) v AEK Athens (GRE)- AEK could be anything but celtic maybe,
Salzburg (AUT) v Shkëndija (MKD)/Sheriff (MDA) - sheriff will win thru despite defeat earlier
Crvena zvezda (SRB)/SĆ«duva (LTU) v Legia Warszawa (POL)/Spartak Trnava (SVK)- red star
KukĂ«s (ALB)/Qarabağ (AZE) v BATE Borisov (BLR)/HJK Helsinki (FIN)- BATE
Astana (KAZ)/Midtjylland (DEN) v Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)/Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR) - Midtylland
CFR Cluj (ROU)/Malmö (SWE) v Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL)/Vidi (HUN) - Razagrd

Rosenborg are in complete disarray lads. Should be a handy win for Celtic over the two legs

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Why do you say that?

did rosenberg fire the boss but then the players wanted him back or some craic?

Manager sacked and players had a revolt because of it

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I don’t know how much this will effect them. They’d actually been in reasonable form before they sacked him. Granted they struggled to get through the last round but they have won 5 of their last 6 league games. Seems a strange sacking given they’ve won 3 titles in a row and last season they narrowly lost to Celtic (1-0 over 2 legs) in the Champions League qualifiers before knocking Ajax out in the Europa League qualifiers. That’s not a bad recent record at all.

dinamo zagreb did similar last season
sacked the manager with 7 games to go and a commanding lead
lost the next 5, fired the new guy and brought in a lad with 4 days left who got one win that saw them home
Rosenberg certainly arent who they were say 15 years ago and dundalk should have beaten them really last year
in terms of the scandanavian leagues Denmark is way ahead in terms of quality which is why @Rocko i think Midtylland will get thru that tie above - sweden also a league with very big crowds has come back to join norway i think and in the norwegian league rosenburg have joined the pack (i know they have won recent titles)
if you want to gauge the swedish league i think now in 8 of the last games LOI clubs have played v swedish opposition we have won 5.
look that result rosenberg had only to beat Hafnorfjodur i think on aways with a 90th min spotter is not great at all, Stjarnan are top of the league there and rovers did them easily last season
Celtic will come thru and if Caulfield has any gumption and plays an attacking team from the start CCFC have a right chance against the norwegians

Oh I agree with that.

My “expected” teams were just the higher seeded teams because that determines who Celtic could play. But AEK Athens and the likes of Midtylland are certainly better than some of the seeded teams.

Rosenberg aren’t the force they once were but playing a side midway through their season in the middle of July makes it more dangerous than it might be. Plus, they know they ran Celtic close last year so won’t be expecting to roll over.

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