LOI in Europe 2023

[SwanVsDalton]

Derry will play KUPS of Finland if they see off Torshavn - better than the possible alternatives of Gent or Midtjylland.

Pats will play either Glentoran or Mzira of Malta - great draw. Dundalk will fancy it too, against either Akyerui of Iceland or Connah's Quay.

[pineapple stu]

KÍ Klaksvik or Ferencváros in ECL for the loser in the Rovers/Copenhagen game…

Don't they go to the Europa League first?

Derry will play KUPS of Finland if they see off Torshavn - better than the possible alternatives of Gent or Midtjylland.

Pats will play either Glentoran or Mzira of Malta - great draw. Dundalk will fancy it too, against either Akyerui of Iceland or Connah's Quay.

Crikey - that has to be the easiest set of draws we've ever gotten? And in the second round too?

[joey B]

Don't they go to the Europa League first?

Whoops,it’s the loser of the first qualifying round,I messed that up!

[Philosophizer]

Crikey - that has to be the easiest set of draws we've ever gotten? And in the second round too?

Incredible draws! Is this a result of the extra qual games now with the intro of the conference league? Or did we just get extremely jammy draws?
Bit of both maybe?

[sbgawa]

Derry will play KUPS of Finland if they see off Torshavn - better than the possible alternatives of Gent or Midtjylland.

Pats will play either Glentoran or Mzira of Malta - great draw. Dundalk will fancy it too, against either Akyerui of Iceland or Connah's Quay.

Wow Dundalk and Pats would be strong favs to be in the 3rd round on that basis even Derry if they show up would have a strong chanc against KUPS.
If Rovers can get through the first round in all likelyhood lose to Copenhagen we could have 4 IRish teams in the 3rd round of the Conference league.................Lots of ifs i know but its a very very kind draw.

[sbgawa]

Incredible draws! Is this a result of the extra qual games now with the intro of the conference league? Or did we just get extremely jammy draws?
Bit of both maybe?

Bit of both , Rovers could have been playing the Swedish Champions and Derry could have been playing Riga.
On the other hand Pats alternatives to their draw were probably easier then what thye got....... Faroes, North MAcidonia, Malta , Gibralter and Andorra.
First round of Conference is pretty low bar stuff, Champions league standard is a good bit highter on average with a few landmines thrown in.

[WeAreRovers]

Wow Dundalk and Pats would be strong favs to be in the 3rd round on that basis even Derry if they show up would have a strong chanc against KUPS.
If Rovers can get through the first round in all likelyhood lose to Copenhagen we could have 4 IRish teams in the 3rd round of the Conference league.................Lots of ifs i know but its a very very kind draw.

A Rovers loss in CL R2 would put us in EL R3 not ECL - https://twitter.com/ryanmcdyer/statu...297024/photo/1

[pineapple stu]

Incredible draws! Is this a result of the extra qual games now with the intro of the conference league? Or did we just get extremely jammy draws?
Bit of both maybe?

The seedings are weird. Pat's for example could have gotten in the second round -

Luzern (Switzerland)
Celje (Slovenia)
Dukagjini (debutants from Kosovo) or Europa (GIB)
Penybont (debutants from Wales) or Santa Coloma (AND)
Glentoran/Gzira (which is who they did get)

Huge gap between the top two and the last three, so they certainly got lucky to an extent. And the extra qualifying round means there's weaker teams left in the second round, so it's a bit of both for sure.

The seedings favour teams who regularly qualify for Europe. Luzern and Celje have done next to nothing in Europe this decade (literally beat Dundalk and lost all their other games) for example

Just for completeness, Derry's round 2 pool options were Gent (BEL), Midtjylland (DEN), KuPS (FIN), Riga (LAT) or Vikingur (ISL), Linfield or Vllaznia (ALB)

And Dundalk had AGF (DEN), Hammarby (SWE), KA (ISL) or Connah's Quay Nomads (WAL), Vikingur (FAR) or Escaldes (AND), Haka (FIN) or Crusaders.

I've marked in bold who they did draw, so you can see the odds of three very winnable ties was actually quite low, but there was almost certain to be one very winnable one, and it was probably 50/50 there'd be two very winnable ones.

[Peaky Blinder]

All philosophing aside not all drubbings are equal!! Some have a lot more entertainmnt value that others...like a Rovers side struggling against an Albanian team that were trying to throw the tie!

There's no need to go making stuff up in terms of slagging Rovers off for european results. As mentioned elsewhere, the 7-0 to Gornik was enough to embarrass anyone.
We beat the albanians home & away FTR.

[Kiki Balboa]

I hope not to jinx it, but have we ever had a year with each team getting through two rounds? With these draws, it would be fantastic to see all Three Conference teams get to the 3rd round.

[Kiki Balboa]

The seedings are weird. Pat's for example could have gotten in the second round -

Luzern (Switzerland)
Celje (Slovenia)
Dukagjini (debutants from Kosovo) or Europa (GIB)
Penybont (debutants from Wales) or Santa Coloma (AND)
Glentoran/Gzira (which is who they did get)

Huge gap between the top two and the last three, so they certainly got lucky to an extent. And the extra qualifying round means there's weaker teams left in the second round, so it's a bit of both for sure.

The seedings favour teams who regularly qualify for Europe. Luzern and Celje have done next to nothing in Europe this decade (literally beat Dundalk and lost all their other games) for example

Just for completeness, Derry's round 2 pool options were Gent (BEL), Midtjylland (DEN), KuPS (FIN), Riga (LAT) or Vikingur (ISL), Linfield or Vllaznia (ALB)

And Dundalk had AGF (DEN), Hammarby (SWE), KA (ISL) or Connah's Quay Nomads (WAL), Vikingur (FAR) or Escaldes (AND), Haka (FIN) or Crusaders.

I've marked in bold who they did draw, so you can see the odds of three very winnable ties was actually quite low, but there was almost certain to be one very winnable one, and it was probably 50/50 there'd be two very winnable ones.

Worth remembering European Footall for Irish clubs is fairly radically changed with the Conference League. The Europa League is still here, so its baiscally diluting a lot of the possible opponents.

[ger121]

A Rovers loss in CL R2 would put us in EL R3 not ECL - https://twitter.com/ryanmcdyer/statu...297024/photo/1

Open draw too so could get a good one or god knows who. Worst case I think you’d be seeded in ECL PO but even that can be a minefield ala 2021.

[oriel]

Maybe The Europa League is diluting a lot of the possible opponent, but the list of clubs entering ECL R3 is still frightening, almost no chance of making the play off, and all Irish teams will be unseeded at that point.

For R2 Dundalk at 8.5 were on the same side of the draw as Club Brugge / FC Twente / Rossenborg and Hibs (Scot), no chance against first 3 and not sure I`d fancy us either v Hibs.

Just shows how important the coefficient is, plus good chance to stack up some wins too this season, for all clubs given the draws, its the wins that matter, you get very little for a drawn game, points wise.

[yurt]

How I see the percentages for the first rounds.

Rovers v Prelim 70%
Derry v HB 75%
Dundalk v Bruno's 90%
Pat's v Dudelange 50%

Is it only Iceland and the Faroes who wouldn't be preseason?

Bohs got Dudelange while they were in preseason and they looked miles off. Now this will be two weeks earlier than that again. Pat's have a huge opportunity to go on a decent run.

[pineapple stu]

Random pointless stat - there's six countries the LoI clubs have never played in. If Rovers end up with Budocnost, we'll be knocking three of them off in this campaign

[D24Saint]

How I see the percentages for the first rounds.

Rovers v Prelim 70%
Derry v HB 75%
Dundalk v Bruno's 90%
Pat's v Dudelange 50%

Is it only Iceland and the Faroes who wouldn't be preseason?

Bohs got Dudelange while they were in preseason and they looked miles off. Now this will be two weeks earlier than that again. Pat's have a huge opportunity to go on a decent run.

A Luxembourg football account on twitter has been talking up our chances. According to him they have lost their manager and several players. The fitness for us could be the edge in an otherwise tight tie.

[oriel]

Random pointless stat - there's six countries the LoI clubs have never played in. If Rovers end up with Budocnost, we'll be knocking three of them off in this campaign

Almost sure with Dundalk v Bruno's Magpies, its a first LOI v GIB also.

[oriel]

How I see the percentages for the first rounds.

Rovers v Prelim 70% - I'd think more 85 - 90%
Derry v HB 75% - Agree
Dundalk v Bruno's 90% - Not sure about that - Prob 65-70% - the heat out there and afternoon KO ?
Pat's v Dudelange 50% - Fancy Pats, but as mentioned since, Lux football club and national team on the rise big time, they had good 2-0 away win v Bosnia & H during week.

Is it only Iceland and the Faroes who wouldn't be preseason? - Think so, Gibraltar and Lux def play winter season.

Bohs got Dudelange while they were in preseason and they looked miles off. Now this will be two weeks earlier than that again. Pat's have a huge opportunity to go on a decent run.

My take on this in in bold .

[Philosophizer]

Calm down lads, I know we’ve done ok in recent years but some are getting a bit carried away.

I’d never have any LOI side as a 90% to win any European tie, no matter how lowly ranked the opponent may be. 70-75% absolute tops.

If history has taught us anything about Irish football, it’s the hope/expectation that kills you.

Nothing wrong with some quiet confidence but don’t go OTT.

[brendy_éire]

I hope not to jinx it, but have we ever had a year with each team getting through two rounds? With these draws, it would be fantastic to see all Three Conference teams get to the 3rd round.

Assume not, but even with draw, it's a big ask. I'd be disappointed not to get past Tórshavn, but KuPS is a different story. They're consistently in Europe, and have been in a playoff spot two of the past three years.