LOI In Europe 2021

[D24Saint]

Yes that's it, Carmarthen played there. It's a grand little ground in fairness.

The welsh league have live games on YouTube occasionally, it’s a grand ground that one.

[Martinho II]

Yes that's it, Carmarthen played there. It's a grand little ground in fairness.

That was a mad night for a few of us. A few of us missed our boat due to few drinks in Dun Laoghaire,got a lift in mates car at last min on ferry to holyhead. Then we had no accomodation
sorted in Newtown. Only I got chattin to some UEFA observer who was leavin his hotel room after game at 3am & we had use of his room to sleep in once he checked out! Ah the memories!

[Nesta99]

That was a mad night for a few of us. A few of us missed our boat due to few drinks in Dun Laoghaire,got a lift in mates car at last min on ferry to holyhead. Then we had no accomodation
sorted in Newtown. Only I got chattin to some UEFA observer who was leavin his hotel room after game at 3am & we had use of his room to sleep in once he checked out! Ah the memories!

Love that! Only possible in the mad world of GLITW!!

[Charlie Darwin]

The potential opponents for Rovers are a disaster - three teams who would almost certain beat us comfortably and one that aren't a pushover but are clearly far more beatable than the rest.

Us and Dundalk are in crap form and Sligo are up and down. Based purely on current form, Bohs would be the most confident going into the draw.

[pineapple stu]

FWIW, Sligo also have a lopsided pot - KÍ (FAR), FH (ISL), Slask Wroclaw (POL) or Bala Town (WAL). That's reasonable apart from the obvious one.

Bohs have The New Saints (WAL), Europa (GIB), Stjarnan (ISL) or Gzira United (MAL)

It's a tad depressing seeing these teams seeded while Bohs/Sligo aren't tbh

[placid casual]

Rovers playing Slovan Bratislava, first game away.
Not the worst result as we avoided Malmö and Legia.

[D24Saint]

Rovers playing Slovan Bratislava, first game away.
Not the worst result as we avoided Malmö and Legia.

Yeah them two were the ones to avoid but the tie still represents a tricky challenge.

[sbgawa]

Second best draw for rovers.
We have a chance but a slim one I'd say.

[Buller]

Rovers playing Slovan Bratislava, first game away.
Not the worst result as we avoided Malmö and Legia.

Yeah, tough draw but we'll take it. Couldn't see us getting past Malmo or Legia under any circumstances this year! Maybe last year we would have stood a chance.

[placid casual]

It's the 2nd best result we could have hoped for. If we can avoid getting taken apart in the 1st game I would hope we can at least put it up to them in the 2nd leg. Anyone know if fans will be allowed in, and if Slovan play in a summer league or will they be wandering back from their sun loungers?

[pineapple stu]

Slovan don't play a summer league.

Wouldn't underestimate them at all - they dealt with Dundalk fairly comfortably a couple of years back, and even beat the mighty UCD 1-0 in 2015. Not as bad as Legia, but maybe on a par with Malmö? They've beaten LoI teams every time bar one, which was a draw back in the 90s. One player at the Euros at the moment.

[Nesta99]

Where's our Icelandic football cheerleader these days?

[2 Year Contract]

Dundalk draw Newtown AFC who finished 7th in the Welsh league last season

[EatYerGreens]

Dundalk draw Newtown AFC who finished 7th in the Welsh league last season

That's pretty damn jammy for Dundalk ! Even with their current problems they should still beat Newton easily enough. The quality in the Welsh league plummets very quickly once you get beyond the top 2 teams.

[paul_oshea]

Two Irish sides against Icelandic opposition, thats interesting!

[ger121]

You got to say not the worst draws in the world considering 3 teams unseeded. I know Rovers beat Stjarnan home and away a few seasons ago so will be interesting to see how we get on against them. I have bad memories of my last trip to Iceland :(

[nigel-harps1954]

All in all, each one of the four presents a relatively winnable tie. Shamrock Rovers obviously with a pretty crap draw, but as said, could have been worse. If they click into gear and get bodies back from injury they'll have a go at them. The other three are all fairly winnable ties over two legs.

[Nesta99]

All in all, each one of the four presents a relatively winnable tie. Shamrock Rovers obviously with a pretty crap draw, but as said, could have been worse. If they click into gear and get bodies back from injury they'll have a go at them. The other three are all fairly winnable ties over two legs.

Sure Towell is worth 4 additional players on the pitch!!

[Bucket]

The losers of the Rovers tie only will go into the 3rd qualifying round of Conference, the other losers will go into the 2nd qualifying round. So I suppose that's the good news from today's draw for them.
I really wish all four teams the best of luck in getting through a few rounds mostly because the games will all have to be moved to Tallaght, which will hopefully have a positive affect on getting all the current stadium plans up and running.

[Nesta99]

The losers of the Rovers tie only will go into the 3rd qualifying round of Conference, the other losers will go into the 2nd qualifying round. So I suppose that's the good news from today's draw for them.
I really wish all four teams the best of luck in getting through a few rounds mostly because the games will all have to be moved to Tallaght, which will hopefully have a positive affect on getting all the current stadium plans up and running.

Ridiculous pro Rovers bias!!! draw was rigged for them obviously.

[Buller]

Ridiculous pro Rovers bias!!! draw was rigged for them obviously.

Our people talked to their people and came to a compromise.

I wonder will we get the same prizemoney for progressing that round if its a bye?

[Nesta99]

Hasnt happened in the other comps in recent years so i'd doubt it (which is obviouly an anti Rovers jealousy issue....ok I shall quit on that now).

[Martinho II]

That's pretty damn jammy for Dundalk ! Even with their current problems they should still beat Newton easily enough. The quality in the Welsh league plummets very quickly once you get beyond the top 2 teams.

I wouldnt be surprised EYG that Dundalk will crash out. We were the laughing stock of the LOI when Carmarthen knocked us out in 05. That was the start of our bubble bursting !

[yurt]

Rovers getting a bye could in a way, work against them. If they are to have any chance of being seeded in next years CL they need to pick up at least a couple of wins in Europe. If they do lose over 2 legs to Bratislava they will go into ECLQ3 unseeded and will be up against it to come up with any co-efficient points.

Given that Sligo look likely to be involved in Europe next year a couple of wins would do their future European chances no harm at all.

Dundalk drawing poor teams in Europe is an honor they've earned from being consistently involved and successful. Both Rovers have important campaigns ahead of them if they want to emulate anything like Dundalk have done over the past 5 years.

[Bucket]

Our people talked to their people and came to a compromise.

I wonder will we get the same prizemoney for progressing that round if its a bye?

The prizemoney is determined by what round you exit, plus €100k for each round you play in, so Rovers would lose out on €100k

[Yossarian]

Dundalk drawing poor teams in Europe is an honor they've earned from being consistently involved and successful. Both Rovers have important campaigns ahead of them if they want to emulate anything like Dundalk have done over the past 5 years.

That’s the thing, consistently qualifying and then progressing in Europe makes a big difference. That’s a real frustrating part of our self implosion over the last 18 months. With the coefficient we have built up we were set up to get winnable ties in the early rounds of Europe for the next few years.

[Nesta99]

And continue to improve our coefficient in the process and potentially be seeded in later rounds. On that front it was looking positive with group stages being a possibility more regularly - exactly what the owners wanted.

[holidaysong]

Rovers getting a bye could in a way, work against them. If they are to have any chance of being seeded in next years CL they need to pick up at least a couple of wins in Europe. If they do lose over 2 legs to Bratislava they will go into ECLQ3 unseeded and will be up against it to come up with any co-efficient points.

Club coefficient in qualification rounds are based on the round you're eliminated in. Not on the individual matches. So the bye is good for their club coefficient but not so for the country coefficient.

[yurt]

Club coefficient in qualification rounds are based on the round you're eliminated in. Not on the individual matches. So the bye is good for their club coefficient but not so for the country coefficient.

You can obviously tell that my club has never qualified for European competition because I've been following European results religiously for years and only ever paying attention to the national co-efficient.

Given this news it would mean that if Rovers were to go out without winning a game in ECLQ3 they'd get 2 points pushing their UEFA ranking to 6.5 which would give them (my guestimate) 80%+ chance of being seeded next year. So ignore my earlier comment, Rovers have done all the heavy lifting already.

[Nesta99]

Do ECL qualifying rounds get awarded full co-eff points, or the same as the 2 higher ranking competitions?

[Yossarian]

Do ECL qualifying rounds get awarded full co-eff points, or the same as the 2 higher ranking competitions?

I’m not sure but I see Bert Kassies site has Rovers coefficient for next season as 6, on the basis that that they get the minimum this season. That would obviously change should they win a round.

[Dalymountrower]

UEFA have announced that no away fans will be permitted in all upcoming club competitions until at lease the group stages.

[holidaysong]

Do ECL qualifying rounds get awarded full co-eff points, or the same as the 2 higher ranking competitions?

For country co-efficient, it's the same as it has been for qualification rounds in the other 2 competitions. 1 point for a win and 0.5 point for a draw.

https://kassiesa.net/uefa/calc.html

[Nesta99]

Bit ouch for Sligo, but the rest have dodged some very big hitters in R2.

[placid casual]

Rovers play Young Boys of Berne if they get past slovan

[Nesta99]

Rovers play Young Boys of Berne if they get past slovan

Rovers not getting it easy in the draw. Some lucky banker in the ECL R3 draw would be good!

[placid casual]

On the flip side dundalk are getting great draws, even with seeding they've avoided any difficult teams again.
Sligo vs Rosenberg - good luck with that!

[Buller]

Bit ouch for Sligo, but the rest have dodged some very big hitters in R2.

Yeah absolutely. R2 has more big sides than easy. Dundalk and Bohs with the best draws they could have asked for out of those groupings. Very fortunate.
Dundalk avoiding Swedish, Hungarians and Slovaks.
Bohs avoiding Portuguese, Belgians, Danes, Scottish.

Sligo had no easy teams in their grouping at all, was always gonna be a tough one.

[pineapple stu]

Ha - Bohs v Dudelange! That'll be interesting.

Rovers v Slovan means a nice 2015 remix while I wait for UCD's next random way of qualifying for Europe...

[Nesta99]

Bit swings and roundabouts, BATE x2 and Rosenborg albeit getting at minimum a results in those ties. Slovan and Qarabag werent the greatest draws. But the last 2 years its so far so good. Hard to dampen expectations considering our current form with those draws up to QR3 - its th hope that kills ye.

Quandary for owners if we progress again in these 2 rounds, put a season saving run together (HA!!) and qualify for Europe. Cut budget to more appropriate levels which could still be domestically competitive - well it could cause a rethink back to medium longer term thinking by P6, and another year to their ownership, whether that would be good or bad thing fook knows.

[Demesne Lad]

Good draw for Dundalk in QR1, but most likely facing Levadia Tallinn in QR2 - who beat De Town home and away in 2018, and Cork City 6-2 on aggregate in 2017.

[Yossarian]

Good draw for Dundalk in QR1, but most likely facing Levadia Tallinn in QR2 - who beat De Town home and away in 2018, and Cork City 6-2 on aggregate in 2017.

Dundalk beat Levadia Tallinn in 2018.

[Nesta99]

Good draw for Dundalk in QR1, but most likely facing Levadia Tallinn in QR2 - who beat De Town home and away in 2018, and Cork City 6-2 on aggregate in 2017.

Dundalk beat Tallinn in both legs 2018.

*as did Cork 2017.

[Demesne Lad]

Quite right, lads! I'm awarding myself a yellow card. However, the prospect of getting to QR3 lifts the mood!

[El-Pietro]

Our people talked to their people and came to a compromise.

I wonder will we get the same prizemoney for progressing that round if its a bye?

We had a similar situation in 2018. We lost to Legia, got a bye in the second round of the Europa League and then lost to Rosenborg. We didnt get the second round prize money. In hindsight I think we would have preferred to play the second round. Probably a chance of a better draw than then eventual one we got, and if we had gone out in the third round having won a tie it would have felt a lot better than getting beaten pretty comfortably (in the end, the Legia tie was pretty close until about half time in the second leg) in both rounds.

[El-Pietro]

Good draw for Dundalk in QR1, but most likely facing Levadia Tallinn in QR2 - who beat De Town home and away in 2018, and Cork City 6-2 on aggregate in 2017.


Dundalk beat Tallinn in both legs 2018
*as did Cork 2017.
I assume this is a typo from Demesne? Cork City won 6-2 as Nesta points out. Our second ever win both home and away in Europe. Cracking goal from Beattie in Parnu (game was moved from Tallinn) in the first leg and a hattrick from Seanie at home, after we gave up our away goals advantage.

[Demesne Lad]

Alas, not a typo but an own goal under pressure (from the dog) by misreading the Wiki entry on Levadia Tallinn.

Back to cleaning the First Team's boots, I suppose.

[EatYerGreens]

Rovers play Young Boys of Berne if they get past slovan

Cue jokes about Rovers' supporters liking Young Boys ?

[pineapple stu]

It'll be a local derby seeing as it's all Rovers have on the bench these days anyway (so they tell us)

[placid casual]

Cue jokes about Rovers' supporters liking Young Boys ?
I assumed you would have gone with Rovers battling against the bsc.