eircom League in Europe - 2008

[Dodge]

They won't be better than Odense. And for their result v Hibs is cancelled by barely beating Riga, who Bohs should've beaten

[Dodge]

Best of luck anyway, i give them 1 in 10 chance of going through.

I would like to place €50 on that 9/1 shot

[CuanaD]

Best possible chance of adding to the coefficiant anyway

[bigmac]

OK, Here's a quick summary of the draw for the teams from the countries around us in the coefficient table.

• Metalurgs (Lat) V FC Vaslui (Rom)
• Suduva Marijampole (Lit) V Salzburg (Aus)
• Poznan (Pol) V Grasshoppers (Swi)
• Warsaw (Pol) V FK Moscow (Rus)
• Gyor (Hun) V Stuttgart (Ger)
• Debrecen (Hun) V Young Boys (Swi)
• Brijeg (Bos) V Besiktas (Tur)
• Mostar (Bos) V Braga (Por)
• Ljubljana (Slo) V Hertha Berlin (Ger)

They look like fairly difficult draws for most of the teams so fingers crossed that they don't pick up any results. I don't know anything about Vaslui, but hopefully they'll be a similar standard to the Bucharest teams.

[HarpoJoyce]

OK, Here's a quick summary of the draw for the teams from the countries around us in the coefficient table.

• Metalurgs (Lat) V FC Vaslui (Rom)
• Suduva Marijampole (Lit) V Salzburg (Aus)
• Poznan (Pol) V Grasshoppers (Swi)
• Warsaw (Pol) V FK Moscow (Rus)
• Gyor (Hun) V Stuttgart (Ger)
• Debrecen (Hun) V Young Boys (Swi)
• Brijeg (Bos) V Besiktas (Tur)
• Mostar (Bos) V Braga (Por)
• Ljubljana (Slo) V Hertha Berlin (Ger)
• Koper (Slo) V Liberec (Cze)

They look like fairly difficult draws for most of the teams so fingers crossed that they don't pick up any results. I don't know anything about Vaslui, but hopefully they'll be a similar standard to the Bucharest teams.

Just in general terms mind.
This is the Central/East draw and I believe Suduva (Lithuania) and Metalurgs (Latvia) got the short straw by been sent to this region for seeding/balance purposes. I think Mittel Europe are very good at being Mid-table.

(The resort town of Koper didn't make it. Liberac play Zilina of Slovakia (SVK))

[pete]

Good draw for Pats given the alternatives.

Elfsborg are favourites but Pats have a chance. The league has good track record against Swedes in recent years but I am sure the Swedes will be as arrogant as always.

[bigmac]

(The resort town of Koper didn't make it. Liberac play Zilina of Slovakia (SVK))

Whoops - not sure how that got in there

Definitely agree with you on the short straw point.


By the way, to put the UEFA cup progress into perspective, of 51 ties in Europe so far this year the unseeded team has only knocked out the seeded team on 4 occasions.

[paul_oshea]

They won't be better than Odense. And for their result v Hibs is cancelled by barely beating Riga, who Bohs should've beaten

is that the optimism breaking out?

[bennocelt]

By the way, to put the UEFA cup progress into perspective, of 51 ties in Europe so far this year the unseeded team has only knocked out the seeded team on 4 occasions.

damn just got there before me
yeah this proves the importance of seeding, so well done to St Pats.

by the way Bigmac just wondering what would the most co effieicents any team ever got in one season? hard to answer, but i reckon St Petersburg would have picked up a huge amount from last seasons run, considering they went through something like 7 rounds and won the final

[green army]

is that the optimism breaking out?

its the truth. hibs are brutal and aparently will struggle this season. its the best draw we could have hoped for but not that confident of getting throu.

[TheBoss]

What a surprise, Dynamo Kiev lose 2-1 at Home today, hopefully, something similar on Wednesday

[Dodge]

is that the optimism breaking out?

If you can call thinking we won't lose 5-0 optimistic, then yeah...

[CuanaD]

damn just got there before me
yeah this proves the importance of seeding, so well done to St Pats.

by the way Bigmac just wondering what would the most co effieicents any team ever got in one season? hard to answer, but i reckon St Petersburg would have picked up a huge amount from last seasons run, considering they went through something like 7 rounds and won the final

They were ranked 6th of last years teams:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/...ccoef2008.html

[Celdrog]

Drogs team arrived in Kiev tonight at 7pm. Dan Connor didn't even travel - not looking good for him, his career could be over.

Roddy acting the maggot again.
Thread on Drogs forum

Any recommendations? I think we'll do well to keep it to 2 but you never know.

[pineapple stu]

Any recommendations? I think we'll do well to keep it to 2 but you never know.

I'd recommend winning by two and then having lots of drink.

I agree you'll do well to keep it to two though. Depends on Kiev though (if, hypothetically, they ease up at 1-0, for example).

[higgins]

Lads, the coefficients for 2008/09 being used for 2010/2011 is irrelevant really.
You should only view those when looking at the number of teams you have in europe and at what round the teams start, everything else happens at the current coefficient values.

For example in the 2009/2010 season we will be entered as 35th seed but when it comes to the draw and the seeding we will be effectively the 33rd seeds (if things stay the same as they are now).

It's only in terms of the rounds at which you enter that you have to look at the placing from two seasons back.

We won't be too far off having three teams seeded in the UEFA Cup QR2.
From what I can work out we will be 46 47 and 48th of the 80 team in that round and possibly higher if unseeded teams were to go through from QR1.
I know some sides could have a team coefficient higher than their league ranking but not many will.

[paul_oshea]

when for next season higgins?

When will Ireland have 3 teams in the UEfA cup and more importantly when will they all be seeded in the 2nd qualifying round?! Sounds a bit far off...

[superfrank]

Next season Ireland will have three teams in the UEFA (because of the termination of the InterToto).

[Schumi]

If I've read next year's access list correctly, if our Champions' League team win two ties, they make it to the UEFA Cup group stages. The losers from CL qualifying round 2 go into the last qualifying round of the UEFA Cup and losers from CL qualifying round 3 go into the UEFA Cup groups. This is one round quicker than currently where losers from CL qualifying round 3 have to win another tie to make the UEFA Cup groups.

[bigmac]

If I've read next year's access list correctly, if our Champions' League team win two ties, they make it to the UEFA Cup group stages. The losers from CL qualifying round 2 go into the last qualifying round of the UEFA Cup and losers from CL qualifying round 3 go into the UEFA Cup groups. This is one round quicker than currently where losers from CL qualifying round 3 have to win another tie to make the UEFA Cup groups.

I read it that way as well. There are effectively 2 separate CL qualifying pools - one for the top 15 countries and one for countries 13 down (the overlap is for countries that have 2 teams in the CL, their 2nd placed team gets stuck in the harder qualifier group). Each of these pools provides 5 teams in the CL group stages and 5 into UEFA stages. Essentially it means that if an EL team win their first round tie, they will effectively be playing to get into the UEFA Cup group stages. Unfortunately, unless Pats can get coefficient points against Elfsborg or Drogs get something from Kiev (and other results go our way), the champions will be unseeded next year.