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| Champions League Qualifying 2018/19; 1st Round - Alashkert (ARM). Away first. 2nd Round - Valur Reykjavic (ISL) or Rosenborg (NOR). Home first. | |
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| Topic Started: 27 Feb 2018, 10:42 AM (112,708 Views) | |
| Davybhoy344 | 21 May 2018, 07:07 PM Post #321 |
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First team training
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Celtic have the most to gain from that endeavour. I know who's position I'd rather be in. |
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| Ricky Spanish | 21 May 2018, 08:26 PM Post #322 |
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Club Captain
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Looking at the list of automatic qualifiers for the champions league, I’d be happy for the “big 5” to break away and have their own competition every season. They always end up playing each other in the knockout stage away, and it has become predictable boring pish. Another competition for “rest of us” giving us competitive games against teams from Holland, Portugal, Belgium etc. I think this would suit eufa as the “big teams” would be guaranteed to play each other every season, and another competitive competition still with massive clubs involved that would have plenty of interest in it. |
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| Shuggie Edvaldsson | 21 May 2018, 10:23 PM Post #323 |
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Club Captain
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I don't think there'd be much interest in it from the TV companies. It would basically be the Europa League without "big five" teams? The EL already generates much lower sponsorship, and that's with those teams. Edited by Shuggie Edvaldsson, 21 May 2018, 10:24 PM.
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| ssmith81 | 21 May 2018, 10:57 PM Post #324 |
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Mo..Mo..Super Mo....Super Mo Camara!
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My brother works in the restaurant on the roof of the Copenhagen stadium. He was at the derby v Brondby and said the standard was really awful. Wouldn't be the worst draw. |
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| Sage | 22 May 2018, 01:14 AM Post #325 |
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First-team starter
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This. Despite how repetitive the CL is getting there’s no doubt even in the group stage it generates games that are an obvious TV draw (mainly pot 1 vs pot 2 team games). Even I admit I’d probably turn on City v Real in the group stage or something like that. But with the Europa League how many of us watch games that Celtic isn’t in (or a Scottish team out of morbid curiosity)? Especially in the group stage where it’s two teams you’ve never heard of or a big team playing their reserves - hardly going to be prime time in Thailand or wherever. Even with the football being competitive at times it’s as hard a sell as the SPFL. Edited by Sage, 22 May 2018, 01:14 AM.
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| Finn1888 | 22 May 2018, 02:00 PM Post #326 |
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First-team starter
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Our 1st game will be on a World Cup Semi-Final night
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| Otis B Driftwood | 22 May 2018, 02:03 PM Post #327 |
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Satisfaction came in a chain reaction
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The CL nowadays is fecking bonkers: we need to play as many games to get to the group stages as the Lions did to reach Lisbon in 1967. |
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| stevie21 | 22 May 2018, 02:24 PM Post #328 |
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Poster of the Tuesday afternoon!
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Allows UEFA to include loads more teams in the overall tournament so you can see the sense in it. There were only 16 teams in the first European Cup so we can hardly go back to those days. |
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| Bhoyball | 22 May 2018, 02:27 PM Post #329 |
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No trouble with trebles.
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Belgium v Australia semi will decimate us |
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| pablo5 | 23 May 2018, 11:31 AM Post #330 |
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Whatever it is, there's not enough of it
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The first round of the competition proper has had 31 or 32 teams for a long time. In 66/67, there were 15 first round ties with Real getting a bye. |
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| Davybhoy344 | 23 May 2018, 11:44 AM Post #331 |
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First team training
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I always hear people talking about how hard it is for UEFA to keep everyone happy. There's no doubt that the big 4 leagues, and the teams coming from it, bring in the most revenue. I get that, without those teams competing, revenue would probably drop. I just don't see why they don't expand the Champions League group stage and keep everyone happy? Would it make a massive difference to the big 4 if they make it 8 groups of 7 instead of 4? Each team plays the others once instead of twice. Everyone still gets 3 home and away ties. I know there would be problems to overcome but it would, in my view, be more beneficial for the Champions League to have more champions in the competition as well as the big money clubs. 56 group teams would satisfy both camps, I reckon. |
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| Shuggie Edvaldsson | 23 May 2018, 12:12 PM Post #332 |
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Club Captain
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The rich leagues’ clubs want fewer games against the smaller clubs, not more. If the groups were to expand to seven clubs they would simply see it as an opportunity to have more of their own—so we’d see guaranteed spots for Everton, Fiorentina, Deportivo and the like. There’s a cohort of clubs from the big five that doesn’t typically qualify but would be seen as more desirable than more clubs from Croatia, Sweden or Slovakia. Edited by Shuggie Edvaldsson, 23 May 2018, 12:24 PM.
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| Carnanreagh | 23 May 2018, 12:27 PM Post #333 |
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Occasional Substitute
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I don't really see the problem of playing these games this early. We'd be playing meaningless friendlies otherwise. The first two rounds should be against teams who shouldn't be too much trouble getting past. By the time we reach the third round where we'll start to face teams who will pose some problems we'll have four competitive games under our belt. I'd rather this than going into a difficult game completely cold. |
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| Shuggie Edvaldsson | 23 May 2018, 12:29 PM Post #334 |
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Club Captain
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There was also a short preliminary round. There were some pretty impressive gubbings too, so I guess it's not a new thing. That roaster van Himst scored five in a game for Anderlecht. Also, Inter were lucky to get through, 1-0 vs Torpedo Moscow, and the goal was an OG. Edited by Shuggie Edvaldsson, 23 May 2018, 12:41 PM.
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| LambertandButler | 23 May 2018, 12:32 PM Post #335 |
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The Greek Finance Minister
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The first round is inevitably a bye. The playoff round is usually OK because we are fit and motivated. I worry about the 2nd round (and now the 3rd round). We have scraped through a couple of times because you play decent teams and we are still rusty. I think Rosenborg should probably have knocked us out last year. |
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| brianlara67 | 23 May 2018, 12:44 PM Post #336 |
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Getting on a bit
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There might be interest if every country other than the Big 5 didn't show that tournament on TV (or just a highlights package) and just concentrated on the competition containing teams from their own country. I couldn't give a flying off about the Big 5's tournament. Let them get on with it. I'd only be interested in the tournament containing Celtic. |
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| TheMaestro | 23 May 2018, 12:44 PM Post #337 |
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First-team starter
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Ironically I effed my back when I was younger playing a cup final up at Loretto on grass. And grew up playing on red ash. A shampooe pitch is a shampooe pitch. |
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| Shuggie Edvaldsson | 23 May 2018, 12:45 PM Post #338 |
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Club Captain
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The fact that some of the teams--typically Scandinavian or Russian--are well into their season and are match fit is an issue that is often glossed over. I'm not sure if there's a solution (and I recognize that it benefitted us against Zenit) but I do think it's unfair on the team playing what might be its most important (financially anyway) tie of the season. |
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| randombloke | 23 May 2018, 12:57 PM Post #339 |
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Off treasure hunting in Holland
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It's not quite the same thing though.....the meaningless friendlies are basically just exercises in getting the fitness and match sharpness up. Normally played at a slower pace with plenty of subs and no hard tackles to make sure nobody is pushed too hard while they're still getting their fitness up. We can't approach the qualifiers that way - even if we are up against pub teams the result matters and players need to put in a 90 minute shift even if they aren't fully up to speed yet. Inevitably we'll probably pick up a few injuries in the attempt to get players ready for a competitive match so early in pre-season. It's almost getting to the stage where we want to retain a core of 7 or 8 "qualifier specialists" in the squad who play little part in the latter half of the domestic season and then come in to start pre-season in early June to see us through the qualifiers.* (*not actually suggesting we do this) |
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| Larbertbhoy | 23 May 2018, 01:03 PM Post #340 |
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Everyone's Fantasy Football first pick
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I wonder if our two “free” games this season will be qualifiers, rather than one qualifier, and one friendly which hardly anyone goes to even when it is “free” . I hope so, but I suspect not
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