Mad achievement that. 10 games unbeaten now.
We've matched our results last year already - four wins and four draws - and Rovers/Pat's are still in. Celje and Sabah next - I'd be disappointed with two defeats in either of those games tbh, though that may be over-optimistic.
Then on to Rovers' next draw on Monday, which will give an indication of how likely group stage football is.
There's still question marks over the performances really - Rovers a penalty kick away from facing extra time with ten men against Viking, and Derry losing to a Gibraltar side (albeit with a dodgy disallowed goal and a red card) the stand-outs. But Shels didn't have it all their own way against the Gibraltar side either (who hit the woodwork a number of times out there), Pat's got a nice draw against second tier opposition (they could have had Brondby or Gent - but I suppose it makes up for Zurich/Copenhagen), and even Shels picked up a (good) draw against a side who already had the tie won.
But it's respectable enough so far. Derry have blown a huge chance to really improve their coefficient, which would be the main downside I think.
Two very respectable results tonight really.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Are Pats still playing in Richmond Park for the next round?
Irish by birth ,Harps by the grace of god.
Not much change in the coefficients after tonight's games. Still 33rd, though Kosovo have pulled a little bit clearer and are 0.419 ahead. Iceland are 34th, 0.542 behind. But the next round - and any group stage qualifications - will tell a lot about where we're going to end the year. RFS of Latvia have to beat Andorran opposition to reach the groups for example, while either Bosnia or the Faroes will be there too (and possibly both), as will Belarus or Gibraltar, though they're too far behind us to worry about for now.
We're 41st across this year and last year - four countries below us have a higher coefficient this year - so be good to add another couple of results this year.
Elsewhere, Serbia are ranked the worst league this year at the moment, with 1 win and 5 defeats from 6 games, while Finland are also going steadily backwards - 3.7 to 2.7 to 1.7 to 0.7 in successive years.
There are also the teams that lose in the champions path in europa league round 3 like us in this scenerio
They'll all be on the unseeded side.
Fair enough , I thought our coefficient was higher than some of those. Must be a pathway issue I guess. Or I'm just wrong completely which is 100% possible![]()
Anyone know when the next round dates and times released?
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Maccabi Haifa v Sabah was played in a town near the Hungary-Ukraine border (Kisvárda). It's 300km from Budapest.
The stadium hosts a club from Hugary's 2nd/Eastern (regionalised) division.
There is a big Jewsih population in Budapest (from memory about 10% of the population), so if it had been played there they would have had a lot more at the game.
The way it works is that the lower of the 2 coefficients is used for the 2 sides in ELQ3. Unfortunately, Celje’s is 4.500. While CLQ3 uses the higher coefficient of the 2 sides. I think Rovers are ranked 2nd of the unseeded sides. Bizarrely you would have wanted Bratislava to lose to Celine and then yours would have been the lower of the 2 coefficients and have you on the seeded side. Your hope now is some of the ‘weaker’ teams win those ties to leave you facing somewhat better opposition. You could draw Vikingur again too. I fancy them to beat Flora.
I can never get photos to upload from my phone but here is a link on Twitter
https://x.com/fmeetsdata/status/1819...133423074?s=46
Looks like Zurich brought over a couple of hundred.
Much banter beforehand or was it a case of leave them to themselves?
Was a great time in Lichtenstein, bit of a weird game where Pats were essentially seeing out the tie until each time they scored, where we then switched on and almost immediately equalised. Romal Palmer was great again, doubt we'll hold onto him but would be delighted if it were to happen.
One of the highlights was a couple of Vaduz "fans" in the Pats end, supporting Pats, because they've apparently given up on Vaduz after we beat them last week
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