Next season we’ll have to play 3 qualifying rounds in order to reach the group stages – one more than this season. That means we start in the 2nd Qualifying round, playing our first game in the middle of July. The good news is that since we’re playing in the ‘Champion’s Stream’ of qualifying, we’re guaranteed to be seeded in all 3 rounds. Based on how things are shaping up around Europe, here’s who we might end up playing. Anything with a Q before the co-efficient means that the team has already secured its place in the tournament. 2nd Qualifying Round Assuming that the seeded teams from the 1st round make it through. If we lose at this stage then that’s our lot for the season. No more European football. Draw Date : 24th June 1st Leg : 16-17th July 2nd Leg : 23-24th July Seeded Teams Q39.175 BATE Borisov (Belarus) Q37.538 Celtic (Scotland) 35.604 Steaua Bucuresti (Romania) 28.745 Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) Q25.916 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 17.425 Partizan (Serbia) 13.650 Legia Warsaw (Poland) 11.533 Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) 9.941 Maribor (Slovenia) 8.341 Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) Q8.125 Elfsborg (Sweden) Q8.075 Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) Q7.835 Molde (Norway) Q6.701 HJK Helsinki (Finland) Q6.300 Ekranas (Lithuania) 5.708 Neftchi Baku (Azerbaijan) 5.333 Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia)Non Seeded Teams 4.566 Zeljeznicar (Bosnia) Q4.083 FH (Iceland) 3.850 Gyor (hungary) Q3.766 The New Saints (Wales) 3.450 Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) Q3.225 Sligo Rovers (Ireland) Q2.941 Shakhter Karagandy (Kazakhstan) 2.833 Skenderbeu Korçe (Albania) 2.541 Birkirkara (Malta) 2.316 EB/Streymur (Faroes) 2.116 Cliftonville (N. Ireland) Q1.658 Daugava Daugavpils (Latvia) 1.300 Sutjeska (Montenegro) Q1.191 Nomme Kalju (Estonia) 1.100 FC Lusitanos (Andora) 1.050 Turnovo (Macedonia) 0.925 Fola Esch (Luxembourg) 3rd Qualifying Round Should the seeded teams all make it through, the 3rd round would look something like this. Being knocked out at this stage would put us into the Europa League Playoff round. Draw Date : 19th July 1st Leg : 30-31st July 2nd Leg : 6-7th August Seeded Teams 56.635 Basel (Switzerland) Q39.175 BATE Borisov (Belarus) Q37.538 Celtic (Scotland) 35.604 Steaua Bucuresti (Romania) 35.366 APOEL (Cyprus) 28.745 Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) Q25.916 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 17.425 Partizan (Serbia) 16.575 Austria Wien (Austria) 13.650 Legia Warsaw (Poland)Non Seeded Teams 11.533 Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) 9.941 Maribor (Slovenia) 8.341 Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) Q8.125 Elfsborg (Sweden) Q8.075 Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel) Q7.835 Molde (Norway) Q6.701 HJK Helsinki (Finland) Q6.300 Ekranas (Lithuania) 5.708 Neftchi Baku (Azerbaijan) 5.333 Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) Playoff Round Again, should the seeded teams all make it through, the playoff round would look something like this. Making this round guarantees us Group stage football. Champions League if we win, Europa League if we’re knocked out. Draw Date : 9th August 1st Leg : 20-21st August 2nd Leg : 27-28th August Seeded Teams 56.635 Basel (Switzerland) Q39.175 BATE Borisov (Belarus) Q37.538 Celtic (Scotland) 35.604 Steaua Bucuresti (Romania) 35.366 APOEL (Cyprus)Non Seeded Teams 28.745 Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) Q25.916 Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) 17.425 Partizan (Serbia) 16.575 Austria Wien (Austria) 13.650 Legia Warsaw (Poland) Obviously, not all of these teams will finish where they are in their league, or make it through the earlier qualifying rounds. But it does give an idea of the type of team we might find ourselves up against before we can think about the Group stage. There are a few potential tricky ties in there. Group Stage Should we make it this far here’s what we could be up against. Again, this is based on how things stand around Europe, and again it assumes that the team with the highest coefficient qualifies from the playoff rounds for both Champion and Non-Champion streams. It’s also assuming that Real Madrid will secure 2nd or 3rd in the Spanish League – something which bumps the Danish Champions into the Group Stage, and knocks a few other teams up a round. Finally, it assumes that Dortmund don’t win this year’s tournament. If they do they’ll be in Pot 1, and all teams below will be put down a place. Pot 1 Barcelona Bayern Munich Real Madrid Manchester United Chelsea Arsenal Porto Atletico MadridPot 2 Lyon Benfica Shakhtar Donetsk Milan Schalke 04 Marseille CSKA Moscow JuventusPot 3 Paris Saint-Germain Zenit St. Petersburg Manchester City Ajax Olympiakos Basel Borussia Dortmund Bayer LeverkusenPot 4 Galatasaray F.C. Copenhagen Napoli BATE Borisov Celtic Steaua Bucuresti APOEL Zulte-Waregem All highly speculative, I know. Right now there is a slim chance of us making Pot 3, however that will involve us getting a bit lucky with the European leagues over the next month or so. Right now 21 of the 22 teams who will qualify for the group stages automatically have a higher coefficient than us. At best, we’re looking at 20 of those teams being ranked higher than us. That doesn’t leave us much wriggle room if we want to avoid being in the last pot, and we’ll be relying on results going our way elsewhere. Article by Moravcik67.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 21:07:05 +0000
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