Champions League & Europa League 2018/19

[Winston Biscuit]

CL 1st round matches going on this week

Crusaders go out 9-0 on aggregate to Ludogrets, which included this marvellous own goal - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44867704

Welsh Champions New Saints were 5-0 down in the first leg against the Macedonian champions and came close after winning 4-0 last night

Celtic playing their 2nd leg tonight against someone bobbins and are 3-0 up.

Rangers through in the Europa league winning 2-0 on aggregate

[From Despair To Where?]

Crusaders go out 9-0 on aggregate to Ludogrets, which included this marvellous own goal - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44867704

He scored an own goal in the first leg as well.

[Winston Biscuit]

Benfica Vs Fenerbahce in the CL 3rd round of qualifying.

Along with Ajax they look to be the biggest names in the draw.

[Stranded]

Celtic beat Rosenberg 3-1 in the first leg at Parkhead last night.

Ajax comfortably see off Sturm Graz 2-0 in Amsterdam.

[Sanguine]

Liverpool still suffering for their relative lack of European football in the last few seasons. They are lined up to be in pot 2, but Benfica and Basel, who need to go through qualifying, are ranked above them by UEFA; if those two qualify, Liverpool will drop into pot 3.

This year's dream ticket in the group stage will be Lokomotiv Moscow, who are in pot 1 as the Russian champions, but are the third lowest ranked team confirmed in the competition so far.

On the coefficients, Portugal in 7th are less than a point behind Russia in 6th, and if they change around, the winners of the Portugese league will be pot 1 next season.

TNS play Lincoln Red Imps tonight in the Europa league second qualifying round.

[Stranded]

MIldly surprised that no channel has picked up the Aberdeen-Burnley "Battle of Britain" game tonight.

[stealthpapes]

MIldly surprised that no channel has picked up the Aberdeen-Burnley "Battle of Britain" game tonight.

second leg is on BT sports

fairly sure this is the sort of thing BBC2 or channel 5 used to pick up, remember watching endless Aston Villa InterToto games a few years back.

[Winston Biscuit]

Benfica beat Fenerbahce 1-0 last night in the Champions League 3rd round first leg

The winner faces a play off against either PAOK or Spartak Moscow with the winner going into the CL group stage.

[Sanguine]

Champions League group stage draw today at 5pm. Despite their run to the final last season, Liverpool will be in pot 3 again, after Benfica, who have a higher coefficient, got through their final qualifying game. That being said, I think pots 2 and 3 are fairly evenly matched.

Possible 'group of death' - Madrid, Dortmund, Liverpool, Inter.
Easiest teams in each group probably Lokomotiv Moscow (in pot 1 as Russian champions), Shakhtar Donetsk, PSV, Young Boys.

[Stranded]

Potentially tough draws for Liverpool, Spurs and Utd. City will be fairly happy.

In the Europa League, Burnley crash out whilst Celtic and Rangers both make the group stages. Also F91 Dudelange become the first club from Luxembourg to reach the group stages of either UEFA competition.

[Sanguine]

Potentially tough draws for Liverpool, Spurs and Utd. City will be fairly happy.

In the Europa League, Burnley crash out whilst Celtic and Rangers both make the group stages. Also F91 Dudelange become the first club from Luxembourg to reach the group stages of either UEFA competition.

Yep, only City got the good end of that draw. Remains to be seen how much of a force Napoli are under Ancelotti, but that's a tough draw for Liverpool. And their first two games are PSG (h), Napoli (a). I wouldn't fancy United to beat Young Boys right now, nevermind the other two in their group.

[LUX]

In the Europa League..... F91 Dudelange become the first club from Luxembourg to reach the group stages of either UEFA competition.

yep, delirious scenes here last night. They did it impressively too, winning home and away to the Romanian champions, plus knocking out Legia Warsaw in the previous round.

Being a glory boy, I'll go and see them play their three home group games. Great list of teams in the draw: Lazio, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, Marseille......

Luxembourg football is improving steadily:

last season Niedercorn knocked out Glasgow Rangers.......and, far more impressive, the national team drew 0-0 away to subsequent world champions France in the qualifying stages of the 2018 WC (could/should have beaten them too).

[Sanguine]

Has the Europa League got even bigger? There is a group L this year. That's 12 (TWELVE) groups.

[Stranded]

Has the Europa League got even bigger? There is a group L this year. That's 12 (TWELVE) groups.

It's always 12 groups.

Round of 32 is 24 qualifiers from the groups plus the 8 3rd place finishers in the CL.

[Sanguine]

I see.
BLOLoated.

Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Leipzig drawn in the same group (with Celtic and Rosenborg).
Chelsea have BATE Borisov, PAOK and Vidi FC of Hungary.
Arsenal have a tough draw against Sporting Lisbon as well as two long trips to Qarabag (Azerbaijan) and FC Vorskla (Ukraine).

Lazio and Marseille drawn together in Group H.

Luxembourg's Dudelange will be delighted with Real Betis, Olympiakos and AC Milan.

[Old Man Andrews]

The Red Bull derby that we have all been craving!

[Stranded]

In the Europa League..... F91 Dudelange become the first club from Luxembourg to reach the group stages of either UEFA competition.

yep, delirious scenes here last night. They did it impressively too, winning home and away to the Romanian champions, plus knocking out Legia Warsaw in the previous round.

Being a glory boy, I'll go and see them play their three home group games. Great list of teams in the draw: Lazio, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC Milan, Marseille......

Luxembourg football is improving steadily:

last season Niedercorn knocked out Glasgow Rangers.......and, far more impressive, the national team drew 0-0 away to subsequent world champions France in the qualifying stages of the 2018 WC (could/should have beaten them too).

Milan, Olympiakos and Real Betis heading to Luxembourg.

Couple of intersting games for my local side, Frakfurt, drawn with Lazio and Marseille.

English sides will expect to walk their groups.

[Winston Biscuit]

Cracking draw for Dudelange!

[LUX]

indeed. They are playing their home games in the national stadium (capacity 6000 ). Not much chance of a ticket for the AC Milan game, but I'll have a go.

[Winston Biscuit]