Winners of each game will face each other with the winners of the Preliminary Round going on to face Malmo
In the First Qualifying Round: - Celtic face Alashkert (Armenia) and will go on to face either Valur (Iceland) or Rosenburg - The New Saints have Shkëndija (Macedonia) and will play either Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) or Crusaders (NI) - Cork City are up against Leiga Warsaw who stopped fellow Irish side: Dundalk from reaching the Group Stages a few years ago, winners will face either Spartak Trnava (Slovakia) or Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia)
Surprised that Celtic, Ludogorets and Legia still come in at that stage, all have been the group stages in the past 2 years, surely they earned the right to at least skip a round.
Laughable that they enter at the same stage as sides like TNS and teams from Malta, Luxembourg and the Faroes.
Surprised that Celtic, Ludogorets and Legia still come in at that stage, all have been the group stages in the past 2 years, surely they earned the right to at least skip a round.
Laughable that they enter at the same stage as sides like TNS and teams from Malta, Luxembourg and the Faroes.
Not really seeing that Rangers failed to get past a side from Luxembourg last season
Although its not helped by the fact that the Group Stages have now been revised to completely favour the sides from England | Spain | Germany | Italy as none of those Leagues have to go through the Qualifying route now
Crazy that from Qualifying there are only six spots available in the Group Stages
Surprised that Celtic, Ludogorets and Legia still come in at that stage, all have been the group stages in the past 2 years, surely they earned the right to at least skip a round.
Laughable that they enter at the same stage as sides like TNS and teams from Malta, Luxembourg and the Faroes.
Not really seeing that Rangers failed to get past a side from Luxembourg last season
Although its not helped by the fact that the Group Stages have now been revised to completely favour the sides from England | Spain | Germany | Italy as none of those Leagues have to go through the Qualifying route now
Crazy that from Qualifying there are only six spots available in the Group Stages
Yeah, top 4 teams from the top 4 leagues get automatically qualified for the group stages.
Done purely to dampen any talk of a possible European Super League.
Thought I would start this early as 1st matches are today.
FC Santa Coloma(Andorra) v Drita(Kosovo) La Fiorita(San Marino) v Lincoln (Gibraltar)
Winners play each other to enter 1st Qualifying Round
Are these over two legs Paulie?
Yeah all Qualifying rounds are over two legs
Not the prelim according to Flash Scores 1 leg Neutral ground
Interesting... Says the same on Wiki that the Preliminary Game will be a one off game - Looking properly at Wiki (and not just presuming) it appears three games (Semi-Final and Final) are being held in Gibraltar
Has always been over two legs in previous years so wonder why the change
Thought I would start this early as 1st matches are today.
FC Santa Coloma(Andorra) v Drita(Kosovo) La Fiorita(San Marino) v Lincoln (Gibraltar)
Winners play each other to enter 1st Qualifying Round
Are these over two legs Paulie?
Yeah all Qualifying rounds are over two legs
Not the prelim according to Flash Scores 1 leg Neutral ground
Interesting... Says the same on Wiki that the Preliminary Game will be a one off game - Looking properly at Wiki (and not just presuming) it appears three games (Semi-Final and Final) are being held in Gibraltar
Has always been over two legs in previous years so wonder why the change
Probably same reason they are changing kick off times this below is from Wiki
From this season, there will be staggered kick-off times in the group stage at 18:55 CET and 21:00 CET. Kick-off times starting from the knock-out phase will be 21:00 CET.[8]
Thought I would start this early as 1st matches are today.
FC Santa Coloma(Andorra) v Drita(Kosovo) La Fiorita(San Marino) v Lincoln (Gibraltar)
Winners play each other to enter 1st Qualifying Round
Are these over two legs Paulie?
Yeah all Qualifying rounds are over two legs
Not the prelim according to Flash Scores 1 leg Neutral ground
Interesting... Says the same on Wiki that the Preliminary Game will be a one off game - Looking properly at Wiki (and not just presuming) it appears three games (Semi-Final and Final) are being held in Gibraltar
Has always been over two legs in previous years so wonder why the change
Because of the restructuring of the qualification (now the top four leagues auto qualify) the number of games played in the qualifying rounds have changed.
This is the first year there is a preliminary round. So there is nothing to compare it with.
Thought I would start this early as 1st matches are today.
FC Santa Coloma(Andorra) v Drita(Kosovo) La Fiorita(San Marino) v Lincoln (Gibraltar)
Winners play each other to enter 1st Qualifying Round
Are these over two legs Paulie?
No 1 leg Neutral Ground
Just had a quick look on the UEFA website and you are 75% correct Paulie as both games are being played at the Victoria Stadium in Gibraltar (so technically it's not a neutral ground for the Red Imps). Games kick off at 4pm and 8pm respectively.
Surprised that Celtic, Ludogorets and Legia still come in at that stage, all have been the group stages in the past 2 years, surely they earned the right to at least skip a round.
Laughable that they enter at the same stage as sides like TNS and teams from Malta, Luxembourg and the Faroes.
Not really seeing that Rangers failed to get past a side from Luxembourg last season
Although its not helped by the fact that the Group Stages have now been revised to completely favour the sides from England | Spain | Germany | Italy as none of those Leagues have to go through the Qualifying route now
Crazy that from Qualifying there are only six spots available in the Group Stages
That was the Europa though, plus Rangers hadn't been in Europe in recent years so natural that they were in an early round. Celtic, Ludogorets and Legia shouldn't have to come in at the same stage as some of these teams, many of whom have never got beyond this round in their history.
Progrès Niederkorn the team that beat Rangers finished fourth in the Luxembourg season prior to beating them though, they werent even the Champions of Luxembourg so you'd expect the League winners to do better - Not to mention it was only Progres' seventh ever European campaign so they're not exactly experienced
In fact F91 Dudelange who did win the League only just got beaten by APOEL last season who havent done badly in Europe over the last decade - Leiga Warsaw on the other hand only just beat Dundalk (same league at Cork City) a few years ago so shouldnt really be coming into the competition much later than the Irish sides
Well I see Ludogorets impressively underlined @Chris_from_Sidcup point. Malmo dragged into this round too. Ridiculous. They could well have had a player ineligible because of WC duty (they may well have had, I just haven't checked). Ajax in the 2nd qualifying round...
I get that the threat of a breakaway European league drives this, but we should still call this nonsense out on behalf of the fans of such clubs. Well, I support one myself - but actually this season Viktoria have qualified for the group stage; I think because of the number of domestic titles they have collared in the last few years. Measured by ground capacity they are easily the smallest club in the group stage as automatic.
The World Cup has reignited my passions for football in general. Want to pay much more attention to the prem and champs league this season now. With a special eye on how England squad members and potential squad members are getting on
Rosenborg coach Kare Ingebrigtsen has been sacked six days before the Norwegian club face Celtic in the Champions League.
The 52-year-old has been dismissed the day after his side scored a stoppage-time penalty to earn a 3-2 aggregate win over Icelandic champions Valur.
That set up a second qualifying round meeting with the Scottish champions.
Rosenborg are two points behind leaders Brann in the Norwegian top flight, and have won nine of their last 13 games.
Ingebrigtsen took over in the summer of 2014, initially on an interim basis, and has won three successive league titles as well as lifting the Norwegian Cup twice.
I notice that UEFA will stagger the kick offs from this season.
Instead of all matches starting at 7:45pm (Russian/Kazahk aside), there will now be four kick offs at 6pm and four kick offs at 8pm. Much like they already do with the Europa League.
Means a nice evening of football between 6 & 10 o'clock rather than only being able to enjoy the one match at 7.45... :-)
Comments
Winners of each game will face each other with the winners of the Preliminary Round going on to face Malmo
In the First Qualifying Round:
- Celtic face Alashkert (Armenia) and will go on to face either Valur (Iceland) or Rosenburg
- The New Saints have Shkëndija (Macedonia) and will play either Ludogorets Razgrad (Bulgaria) or Crusaders (NI)
- Cork City are up against Leiga Warsaw who stopped fellow Irish side: Dundalk from reaching the Group Stages a few years ago, winners will face either Spartak Trnava (Slovakia) or Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia)
Laughable that they enter at the same stage as sides like TNS and teams from Malta, Luxembourg and the Faroes.
Although its not helped by the fact that the Group Stages have now been revised to completely favour the sides from England | Spain | Germany | Italy as none of those Leagues have to go through the Qualifying route now
Crazy that from Qualifying there are only six spots available in the Group Stages
Done purely to dampen any talk of a possible European Super League.
1 leg Neutral ground
Has always been over two legs in previous years so wonder why the change
From this season, there will be staggered kick-off times in the group stage at 18:55 CET and 21:00 CET. Kick-off times starting from the knock-out phase will be 21:00 CET.[8]
This is the first year there is a preliminary round. So there is nothing to compare it with.
In fact F91 Dudelange who did win the League only just got beaten by APOEL last season who havent done badly in Europe over the last decade - Leiga Warsaw on the other hand only just beat Dundalk (same league at Cork City) a few years ago so shouldnt really be coming into the competition much later than the Irish sides
Currently
Lincoln(Gibraltar) 2-0 La Fiorita(San Marino)
So looks like
Drita v Lincoln for a place in 1st qualifying round
Prelim
Drita 4-1 Lincoln AET
Drita(Kosovo) now face Malmo (Sweden) in the next Champions League Qualifying round
H.Beer Sheva(Israel) 4-1 Flora(Estonia)
Torpedo Kutaisi(Georgia) 2-1 Tiraspol (Moldova)
Celtic(Scotland) 3-0 Alashkert(Armenia)
Dudelange(Luxemberg) 1-1 MOL Vidi(Hungary)
HJK(Finland) 2-1 Vikingur(Faroe Islands)
Shkendija(Macedonia) 5-0 TNS(Wales)
Legia(Poland) 1-0 Cork(Ireland)
Malmo(Sweden)3-0 Drita(Kosovo)
Results from tonight
Astana(Kazakhstan) 1-0 Sutjeska(Montenegro)
Spartaks(Latvia) 0-0 Red Star Belgrade(Serbia)
Suduva(Lithuania) 3-1 APOEL(Cyprus)
Trnava(Slovakia) 1-0 Zrinjski(Bosnia)
Kukesi(Albania) 0-0 Valletta(Malta)
Ludogorets(Bulgaria) 7-0 Crusaders(N.Ireland)
Qarabag(Azerbaijan) 1-0 O.Ljubljana(Slovenia)
Valur(Iceland) 1-0 Rosenborg (Norway)
Despite their National Team being on the up, the Icelandic League isnt anything to shout about
I get that the threat of a breakaway European league drives this, but we should still call this nonsense out on behalf of the fans of such clubs. Well, I support one myself - but actually this season Viktoria have qualified for the group stage; I think because of the number of domestic titles they have collared in the last few years. Measured by ground capacity they are easily the smallest club in the group stage as automatic.
Barcelona 7/1
Munich 8/1
Real 8/1
Juventus 8/1
PSG 9/1
The 52-year-old has been dismissed the day after his side scored a stoppage-time penalty to earn a 3-2 aggregate win over Icelandic champions Valur.
That set up a second qualifying round meeting with the Scottish champions.
Rosenborg are two points behind leaders Brann in the Norwegian top flight, and have won nine of their last 13 games.
Ingebrigtsen took over in the summer of 2014, initially on an interim basis, and has won three successive league titles as well as lifting the Norwegian Cup twice.
Seems a bit harsh.
Instead of all matches starting at 7:45pm (Russian/Kazahk aside), there will now be four kick offs at 6pm and four kick offs at 8pm. Much like they already do with the Europa League.
Means a nice evening of football between 6 & 10 o'clock rather than only being able to enjoy the one match at 7.45... :-)