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Well at least we got a mention during the CL draw even if we weren't in the pot! Pointless observation but Real Madrid, Dortmund, and Sporting Lisbon were drawn with Legia so a super tough group and while the money would have been huge but the chance of getting hammered by these could have been damaging in its own way.
Dundalk would have been the lowest ranked team and been drawn against Bayern, Atletico and PSV
" 40 team format"
UEFA were suggesting that they had a 40 team format for FIFA to consider using in World Cups. Possibly UEFA should use that 40 team format for both the Champions League and Europa League.
What do you mean by the last paragraph?
Interesting to hear Stehpen O'Donnell say something similar on TV after the match the other night. Sounded like he'd rather be in the Europa league with a better chance to compete rather than get a few hammerings. He didn't exactly put it in those terms, but that was basically the gist of it. I think some of those teams could potentially do Legia a lot of damage too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nesta99
The guy falling over on the ball, oh dear!Quote:
Originally Posted by Pablo Escobar
Was that Flower Lodge ?
Can you show your workings on this, my father watched the draw and he says you are are wrong and Nesta is right.Quote:
Originally Posted by shelsfan1
Workings? Rostov were the lowest seed so the theory is that 'spot' would have been Dundalk'sQuote:
Originally Posted by redarmyfaction
It's only a draw though
Before the current FIFA president took up the position, when he was in UEFA he was calling for the World Cup to be expanded to 40 teams. At the moment one UEFA group runner-up misses out on the World Cup playoffs. UEFA being UEFA they had the 40 team tournament format fully worked out.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
The top 4 leagues are going to get 4 automatic CL places. The FAI and similar associations have to look at compromises and a fair deal. One option of many is expanding the CL to 40 teams and maintain the champions route to the CL. UEFA believe they have a suitable format for it.
Zurich bumped up to third seeds now with the results coming in, roughly 17% chance of Dundalk playing in Switzerland now, ha
West Ham going out it seems. Few interesting results tonight. Will make for a possible better draw tomorrow.
Silviu Lung was MOM in goals, like father like son....:)Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
I assume the Chairman is on his hands and knees tonight praying for Man United
Here we go folks. What's a good draw?
Attachment 2456
The fact that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are out of the equation is good news.
It's a mixed bag and with such big pots it's a minefield.
Hoping for an Austrian side, trip to Belgium or the Netherlands. Would love my Italian team Fiorentina or st. Etienne.
Or get united and block see the aviva to every man ure barstooller for 90 for the 3 games no exceptions
I hope dundalk don't draw an English team. I remember almost commitING murder listening to spurs dublin fans in 2011 talking about "our boys" doing the business. ...there are plenty of teams in the draw worth going to see other then the brits
Anderlecht, Saint Etienne and Zurich. That would be ideal on many levels.
Ajax Genk and Southampton.
Ajax, Roma & Southampton for the glamour matches and away trips,plus big enough crowds.
Plzen, St-Étienne (love their draws) & Zürich. Chance of results and not the worst for travelling.
My 4 picks in each pot in order of preference for a good draw, they maybe obvious but still:
Pot 1: Viktoria Plzen - Anderlecht - Olympiakos - Ajax
Pot 2: Standard Liège - Sparta Praha - AZ Alkmaar - APOEL
Pot 3: Zürich - Rapid Vienna - Feyenoord - Slovan Liberec
Depending on travel, I might toddle along to a game or two if time permits
Inter (Milan 4 hours by train), Roma (about 60 Euro return Easyjet) FC Zurich (an hour away)
But I would love to see Dundalk do well
So the best draw IMHO
Plzen, Genk, FC Zürich
Dundalk are the lowest ranked team left in Europe yet I think they can win games in Europa league - unlike Rovers a few years ago! (I hoping so anyhow) - Hope they get Plzen, Genk and Zurich - that's a great draw!
Yeah that was Flower Lodge. Another great loss to the league.Quote:
Originally Posted by TonyD
The changes to the Champions' League have been confirmed so.
Reading it though, it looks like the non-champions route is the one to be affected - the champions route is going to stay the same as at present. (There's no indication it's going to change anyway). It seems like, applied to this year, Gladbach, Roma, Villarreal and Man City wouldn't have been in the qualifying round, and Inter would be bumped up to the group stages from the Europa League. It looks like the clubs to potentially lose out are the non-champions of smaller clubs (e.g. Young Boys, Steaua, Porto and Monaco, who played the above four teams)
The changing of club coefficients may benefit Dundalk, but only if they continue qualifying for Europe of course.
Don't think it's quite as bad for the LoI as was being made out?
Based on what you've outlined there Stu, then no not too bad. Haven't had a chance to read the changes in great detail but did see that the number of qualifying spots via the Champions Route will be reduced from 5 to 4. Not sure how that would change the current qualifying structure?Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
Missed that. That would be a bit of a blow alright. Not sure how they'd manage that - maybe a much expanded first round, possibly sucking the LoI in? Then the LoI less likely to be seeded in the second round I guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by ger121
I didn't see that either, are you sure ger121? The UEFA website announcement just says all champions will still have a chance of qualifying and that the full distribution list will be announced later in the year.Quote:
Originally Posted by pineapple stu
As it stands the top 4 countries get 11 automatic places.... that's moving to 16 which means 5 less places for champions of middle ranked countries or qualifiers. Hard to imagine that we in the champions route would lose less than 2 places, and possibly 3. Slight glimmer of hope is that the non-champions route has to be impacted severely too- you'd be taking Man City, Roma etc out of that route.
Current distribution for group phase:
Countries ranked 1-3 [ESP GER ENG] 3 places each [9 places] moving up to 4
Italy ranked 4 get 2 places in the groups- moving up to 4 (!)
Europa League winner: [1]
At present the other 20 places are allocated like this, and 5 of them have to go:
Countries ranked 5, 6: 2 places each [4]
Countries ranked 7-12: 1 place each [6]
Champions qualifying route (League of Ireland etc): [5]
League qualifying route: [5]
At present we have 41 national champions battling for 5 places. You'd have to think that's likely to be down to 2 or 3 places.
SeanD - read it on Yahoo Sport via a link I saw on Twitter. Could be inaccurate.
Decent preamble to the Grauniad coverage:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/football...tage-draw-live
Fair balls to Paul Doyle, calling out the many Irish ppl who will be checking that article to see how their beloved Man Utd get drawn
The first thing I will be looking for is to see who Dundalk get.
So top two seeds drawn so far.
Inter and Sparta looking interesting. Or Plzen and Roma. A nice profile game (non Premiership) plus a vaguely winnable trip to the Czech Republic.
Scratch that; for points, it's Olympiakos, APOEL and Young Boys. Obviously all better than Dundalk of course, but still.
Group b please
Three groups now with the Italy/Czech Republic pairing now; bit mad.
Southampton get Inter.
Avoided United anyway. Glad of that.
Zenit, Alkmaar and Maccabi Tel Aviv so.
Lansdowne will be a bit bare. But nice trips.
Disaster, 3 good sides but not crowd bringers
Zenit
AZ
Tel Aviv
It was the one group they didn't want!Quote:
Originally Posted by Titan
I'm due a trip to the Dam. I'll link it in with that AZ game so. :)
Plus long, costly trips to israel and russia
If they were allowed they could play all 3 home games at Tallaght and probably still not fill it once :(