LoI in Europe 2024

Groups will be revealed in the afternoon.

Since its unofficially divided by region I guess it'll be Welsh, Gibraltar, Faroe and Sammarinese teams would be ideal.

I do like the mini-draw before the draw. Gives a day to completely overthink how different draws would play out for each of the teams.

I do hope that Shels get a softball in the first round so that I can see them play against a quality team in the second round or later. Be interesting to see how there defence matches up against better quality

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Originally Posted by yurt

Groups will be revealed in the afternoon.

Since its unofficially divided by region I guess it'll be Welsh, Gibraltar, Faroe and Sammarinese teams would be ideal.

I do like the mini-draw before the draw. Gives a day to completely overthink how different draws would play out for each of the teams.

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Last year, the groups were out late, on the morning of the draw.
I think Gibraltar and San Marino are normally in the southern group, but UEFA have to move some teams about to even out the group numbers.
Wales would be the obvious choice. Winnable and cheap for the clubs to get to.

Champions League:

Seeded:
HJK Helsinki (FIN)
FC Flora Tallinn (EST)
KÍ Klaksvík (FRO)
Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)
FC RFS (LVA)

Unseeded:
NK Celje (SVN)
Larne FC (NIR)
FK Panevežys (LTU)
Vikingur Reykjavík (ISL)
FC Differdange 03 (LUX)

Conference League:

Round 1:

Seeded:
Breidablik (ISL)
F91 Diddelang (LUX)
SP Tre Penne (SMR)
St Joseph's FC (GIB)
Crusaders FC (NIR)

Unseeded:
Floriana FC (MLT)
Shelbourne FC (IRL)
Atlétic Club Escalades (AND)
GFK Tikves (MKD)
Caernarfon Town FC (WAL)

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Champions League:

Seeded:
HJK Helsinki (FIN)
FC Flora Tallinn (EST)
KÍ Klaksvík (FRO)
Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)
FC RFS (LVA)

Unseeded:

NK Celje (SVN)
Larne FC (NIR)
FK Panevežys (LTU)
Vikingur Reykjavík (ISL)
FC Differdange 03 (LUX)

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That's the one to avoid there, they battered Dundalk 3-0 in a one leg game during Covid in 2020.

Seeded:
FK Zalgiris (LTU)
Linfield (NIR)
Paide Linnameeskond (EST)
FK Liepaja (LVA)
Derry City (IRL)

Unseeded:
Bala Town FC (WAL)
Vikingur (FRO)
Stjarnan (ISL)
VPS Vaasa (FIN)
FCB Magpies (GIB)

They're great groupings overall. The Irish clubs could be favourites in all 3 ties.

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Originally Posted by oriel

That's the one to avoid there, they battered Dundalk 3-0 in a one leg game during Covid in 2020.

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Did I hear on a podcast the Lithuanian crowd are bottom or close to the bottom of the league .

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Originally Posted by holidaysong

They're great groupings overall. The Irish clubs could be favourites in all 3 ties.

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At least Shelbourne and Derry anyway but Rovers' only hope of advancing is if they get a bye.

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Originally Posted by CSAD

At least Shelbourne and Derry anyway but Rovers' only hope of advancing is if they get a bye.

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Yeah I'd say pray for a bye or somehow draw Bohs, either or.

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Originally Posted by ger121

Did I hear on a podcast the Lithuanian crowd are bottom or close to the bottom of the league .

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Yep - second last. Weird that; the Baltic leagues don't tend to have much strength in depth, so they might have had financial issues?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Champions League:

Seeded:
HJK Helsinki (FIN)
FC Flora Tallinn (EST)
KÍ Klaksvík (FRO)
Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)
FC RFS (LVA)

Unseeded:
NK Celje (SVN)
Larne FC (NIR)
FK Panevežys (LTU)
Vikingur Reykjavík (ISL)
FC Differdange 03 (LUX)

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Wouldnt fancy us to beat any of the teams above, maybe the Lituanians.

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Originally Posted by sbgawa

Wouldnt fancy us to beat any of the teams above, maybe the Lituanians.

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Surely you would be confident of beating Larne over 2 legs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Conference League:

Round 1:

Seeded:
Breidablik (ISL)
F91 Diddelang (LUX)
SP Tre Penne (SMR)
St Joseph's FC (GIB)
Crusaders FC (NIR)

Unseeded:
Floriana FC (MLT)
Shelbourne FC (IRL)
Atlétic Club Escalades (AND)
GFK Tikves (MKD)
Caernarfon Town FC (WAL)

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Mixed bag those possible ties for Shels. Definitely want to avoid Breidablik and F91 as they beat both Rovers and Pats in Europe only last season

Crusaders would be popular for the cheap travel bills and being winnable, St. Joseph's popular for a summer holiday and being winnable but if we definitely want to progress surely that San Marino team have to be terrible

Dudelange in the away leg were possibly the best side Pats faced last season IMO. Even at that though Pats got the tie level in the second leg before gifting them a goal with about 25 minutes to go and imploding from there. A lot of the 5 goals conceded in the tie were preventable and I think this years shels team would be able to see off Dudelange because of their defensive solidity and the fact that they don’t tend to have too many brain farts resulting in goals. Breidablik would be tricky also but despite knocking rovers out they wouldn’t be an impossible task either. So taking those 2 as the best 2 sides in that seeded group, a 60% percent chance of a great draw for shels is fantastic odds considering they’re unseeded

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954

Seeded:
FK Zalgiris (LTU)
Linfield (NIR)
Paide Linnameeskond (EST)
FK Liepaja (LVA)
Derry City (IRL)

Unseeded:
Bala Town FC (WAL)
Vikingur (FRO)
Stjarnan (ISL)
VPS Vaasa (FIN)
FCB Magpies (GIB)

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Unless we get Vaasa, I'd be fairly disappointed not to progress. We played KuPs last year, and there was nothing between the sides. Would expect the same from Vaasa.
Otherwise, we'd be favourites. I know Icelandic sides can be tricky, but Stjarnan are sitting 7th in the league at present.

Bala is obviously the favoured one. Couldn't be bothered going back to the Faroes again for Víkingur, but it's a winnable tie.

I think we've got the most difficult group of any of the LoI teams, however I still think all teams should proceed, maybe barring Rovers getting Celje.

Yeah I agree with all that Brendy. Derry bring seeded in the ECL doesn't really count for much because must the seeded teams are weaker than the unseeded

You'd hope that Derry would have less problems with Bala than Sligo did.

Rovers will be desperate to draw the Lithuanians. If they draw Larne and lose you'd have to think it'll cost Bradley his job.

Would love to see Shels play Tre Penne. They have to be one of the weakest sides in the competition so would be interested to see what the floor is like in terms of European quality.

There would be huge fallout if they managed to lose to them and I'd be here for all of it.

Vikingur Reykjavik for Shamrock Rovers,2nd leg at home…

They’re bang in form.

we’d need a full squad to navigate this one I fear

They went out so tamely to the Icelanders last year and didn't seem that interested. I fear the same this time around.