Champions League 2014/5

Qualifying Round 2
Tuesday, July 15, first leg

KR (Iceland) - Celtic (Scotland) 0-1 (halftime: 0-0)
Cliftonville (Northern Ireland) - Debrecen (Hungary) 0-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) - Zalgiris Vilnius (Lithuania) 2-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Partizan Belgrade (Serbia) - HB (Faroe Islands) 3-0 (halftime: 1-0)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) - FC Levadia Tallinn (Estonia) 7-0 (halftime: 3-0)
FC Santa Coloma (Andorra) - Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) 0-1 (halftime: 0-0)
Rabotnicki Skopje (FYR Macedonia) - HJK Helsinki (Finland) 0-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Zrinjski (Bosnia & Herzegovina) - Maribor (Slovenia) 0-0 (halftime: 0-0)
BATE Borisov (Belarus) - Skenderbeu (Albania) 0-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) - Sutjeska Niksic (Montenegro) 2-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) - The New Saints (Wales) 1-0 (halftime: 0-0)
Valletta FC (Malta) - Qarabag Agdam (Azerbaijan) 0-1 (halftime: 0-1)

Celtic win (saw the tail end of the game) and Cliftonville draw at home. As least the latter didn't concede so a score draw will do them away from home. The New Saints still in with a chance. Other that Zagreb, Prague, Maccabi, Maribor and Bratislava, I wouldn't know the rest.

Best of luck for Pats against Legia Warsaw.

Legia Warsaw v St Pat's live on Setanta tonight. Very much looking forward to that game, should be a massive test for a Pat's team who haven't really been performing of late.

All for Pats to play for now...

...and you. I suspect you'd prefer a visit to Inchicore rather than Warsaw.

..it'd be unlikely to be in Inchicore though.

Both legs could be played in a borrowed rugby ground.

So Legia and their fascist fans, oh joy. Most Tims would have preferred Pats'...

Though also saw certain LOI fans of my acquaintance, bizarrely were supporting Legia, presumably due to potential envy had Pats sneaked through and played in front of 40k+ in the New Lansdowne. Eejits.

Champions League Results

Wednesday 23rd July 2014

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - QUALIFYING - SECOND ROUND

Aktobe 3-0 Dinamo Tbilisi
(agg 4-0)

FK Ventspils 0-1 Malmö FF
(agg 0-1)

Show
HJK Helsinki 2-1 Rabotnicki
(agg 2-1)

Steaua Bucharest 1-0 Strømsgodset
(agg 2-0)

NK Maribor 2-0 Zrinjski Mostar
(agg 2-0)

St Patrick's Athletic 0-5 Legia Warsaw
(agg 1-6)

Tuesday 22nd July 2014

Sutjeska Niksic 0-3 Sheriff Tiraspol
(agg 0-5)

F91 Dudelange 1-1 Ludogorets Razgrad
(agg 1-5)

Levadia Tallinn 1-1 Sparta Prague
(agg 1-8)

FK Qarabag 4-0 Valletta FC
(agg 5-0)


Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 FC Santa Coloma
(agg 3-0)

The New Saints 0-2 Slovan Bratislava
(agg 0-3)

HB Tórshavn 1-3 Partizan Belgrade
(agg 1-6)

Skënderbeu Korcë1-1 BATE Borisov
(agg 1-1)
BATE Borisov win the tie

Zalgiris 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb
(agg 0-4)

Debrecen 2-0 Cliftonville
(agg 2-0)

Celtic 4-0 KR Reykjavík
(agg 5-0)

No luck for Cliftonville either :(

Celtic are rancid, my word. I know they've a new coach but they don't seem to have any clear plan at work.

Not watching but keeping an eye on the bbc text commentary. They sound like they are being spanked. Forster has given them a chance though.

To think Pats were disappointed to draw in Warsaw!

Any of those Legia guys in the Polish team?

A couple of them have played friendlies and minor qualifiers but wouldn't be near the main games.

Ronny Deila - "Celtic are bigger than Atletico Madrid".

4 weeks later, Celtic lose 4-1 to Legia Warsaw.

Did he really say that? Well, historically they are a bigger club, but not sure what relevance it has now. I liked how the first thing he did when he took over as Celtic manager was slag off the rest of the league. He has had an awful start to his reign but he has the sort of arrogance and not giving a fig what people think that tends to succeed in the Old Firm.

Are they historically a bigger club than Atletico though?

Of course they are.

I would disagree greatly. Atletico were one of the big clubs in Spain and Europe for many years before anyone had even heard of Celtic outside of the home nations.

Celtic are a historically massive club in this part of the world, but I'd argue that Atletico are, and always have been, a much bigger club.

Bigger in what sense? They haven't won more trophies, they haven't done more in Europe, they haven't had more fans, they haven't produced more internationals, they haven't produced more world class players. They're both huge clubs but Celtic have the better pedigree.

edit: I'm not even a Celtic fan. I couldn't give a fig about them really.

Oh dear. The Tims would have struggled to beat the Legia of Mary on that performance.

Norwegian Ronny, he'll soon be gonny.

He also was moaning about having to play three pre qualifying games, he seems to be a bit of a tit

Chas is right here, but asking far too much in the 2nd.leg.

That said, WGS & Lenny both had stinkers on their first forays into Europe. Though longer-term, unless Celtic can escape the SPL they're destined to a long-time decline. There's just no money in it as a sustainable 'product' even if the Zombies do return. And at least Celtic are solvent, but Desmond needs a long hard look at whether treading water is sufficient.