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2013-14 Champions League

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
OK, it's early, but the first and second round draws were held today.

First Qualifying Round - to be played July 2, 3 and 9, 10

Shirak (Armenia) v Tre Penne (San Marino)
Lusitanos (Andorra) v EB/Streymur (Faroe Islands)

Second Qualifying Round - to be played July 16, 17 and 23, 24

Neftci (Azerbaijan) v Skenderbeu (Albania)
Steaua Bucuresti (Romania) v Vardar (Macedonia)
Plzen (Czech Republic) v Zeljeznicar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
FC Sheriff (Moldova) v Sutjeska (Macedonia)
Birkirkara (Malta) v Maribor (Slovenia)
Sligo Rovers (Ireland) v Molde (Norway)
IF Elfsborg (Sweden) v FC Daugava (Latvia)
HJK Helsinki (Finland) v Nomme Kalju (Estonia)
FK Ekranas (Lithuania) v FH Hafnarfjordur (Iceland)
The New Saints (Wales) v Legia Warsaw (Poland)
Celtic (Scotland) v Cliftonville (Northern Ireland)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) v CS Fola Esch (Luxembourg)
Gyor (Hungary) v Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel)
BATE (Belarus) v Shakhtyor Karaganda (Kazakhstan)
Shirak - Tre Penne winner v Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) v Ludogorets (Bulgaria)
Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) v Lusitanos - EB/Streymur winner

These are the 17th - 53rd ranked associations according to the 2012 UEFA country coefficient.
 
Well ... my Celtic Bhoys drew well, getting Cliftonville. At least nobody has to blow a bunch of money of travel expenses.
 
Fenerbahce has been banned from European competitions for 3 years, with the 3rd year deferred for a probationary 5 year period. That moves 3rd place Besitkas up from the Europa League to the Champions League...except they were banned too. Both bans are due to match fixing. Fourth place Bursaspor moves up to the CL. Steaua Bucharest from Romania has also been banned from 1 European competition over the next 5 years.

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1...-league-ban-besiktas-given-europa-ban?cc=5901
 
Match fixing has become a bit of an epidemic. I understand that there's some rumblings that there might be yet another scandal brewing in Italy in addition to Turkey and Bulgaria. I don't think ANYBODY wants to go turning over too many rocks in the Ukrainian and Russian leagues either ... FWIW.
 
andyt said:
Fenerbahce has been banned from European competitions for 3 years, with the 3rd year deferred for a probationary 5 year period. That moves 3rd place Besitkas up from the Europa League to the Champions League...except they were banned too. Both bans are due to match fixing. Fourth place Bursaspor moves up to the CL. Steaua Bucharest from Romania has also been banned from 1 European competition over the next 5 years.
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Except, of course, that Fenerbahçe has appealed that ban so they get to play Arsenal at home today in the qualifying round. The case will be decided after the return leg. How upset would I be as Besitkas' management knowing that I don't have the right to determine my own European future on the pitch? The craziness that is UEFA.


First leg, 70th minute: Fenerbahçe 0-2 Arsenal
 
Cali Ed said:
Except, of course, that Fenerbahçe has appealed that ban so they get to play Arsenal at home today in the qualifying round. The case will be decided after the return leg. How upset would I be as Besitkas' management knowing that I don't have the right to determine my own European future on the pitch? The craziness that is UEFA.


First leg, 70th minute: Fenerbahçe 0-2 Arsenal
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Besitkas was also banned so they have no rights to cry over Fenerbahce's appeal. They appealed too so they could play in the Europa League.

Arsenal won 3-0 with the last coming on a Giroud penalty in the 77th. It sucks that I can't watch or listen to CL matches without a subscription, so I'm stuck with the Chelski-Villa match.
 
andyt said:
It sucks that I can't watch or listen to CL matches without a subscription, so I'm stuck with the Chelski-Villa match.
Click to expand...

Which ended up being a better match anyways. I stopped flipping over as often once Arse was up two, and stopped once Giroud converted the penalty.


Here were the other results today
Dinamo Zagreb 0 - 2 Aust Vienna
Ludogorets Razgrad 2 - 4 FC Basel
Schalke 04 1 - 1 Paok Salonika
Steaua Buch't 1 - 1 Legia Warsaw
 
Last of the playoff matches today.

Zenit St. Petersburg v. Pacos de Ferreira. ZSP leads 4-1
AC Milan v. PSV Eindhoven. Tied 1-1
Celtic v. Shakhter Karagandy. Shakhtar leads 2-0
NK Maribor v. Viktoria Plzen. Plzen leads 3-1
Real Sociedad v. Lyon. Real Sociedad leads 2-0

Yesterday's results:

Austria Wien 2-3 Dinamo Zagreb Austria Wien advances 4-3 aggregate
Basel 2-0 Ludogorets Razgrad. Basel advances 6-2 aggregate
Legia Warsaw 2-2 Steaua Bucuresti. Steaua advances on away goals
PAOK Salonika 2-3 Schalke 04. Schalke advances 4-3 aggregate
Arsenal 2-0 Fenerbahce. Arsenal advances 5-0 aggregate.

After their match, Fenerbahce received a 2 year European ban, effective immediately. They were removed from this year's Europa League and banned from any UEFA competition next year. A decision on who will replace them in the Europa League Group Stage will be made on Thursday in Monaco. Additionally, the CAS confirmed Metalist Kharkiv's expulsion. They had beaten PAOK Salonika in the 3rd qualifying round but were removed before the playoff round and replaced by PAOK.
 
Wow! Stirring comeback so far by Celtic, scoring late in the first half and early on in the second to level the score at 2 on aggregate.
 
And with that James Forrest goal in the 92nd minute, the Hoops comeback is complete. WOW!

Final from Celtic Park

Celtic 3-0 Shakhter Karagandy

(Celtic advance 3-2 on aggregate)
 
James Forrest just potted one in the 92nd minute. Looks like my bhoys are through again .... improbably after how crappy they played last week. That result for Celtic was worth about 16 million quid and a truck load of having something to play for. HUGE.

Should have hit refresh I see. Ed was all over that one.
 
Here are the rest:

Zenit St. Petersburg 4-2 Pacos de Ferreira. ZSP advances 8-3 aggregate
AC Milan 3-0 PSV Eindhoven. AC Milan advances 4-1 aggregate
NK Maribor 0-1 Viktoria Plzen. Plzen advances 4-1 aggregate
Real Sociedad 2-0 Lyon. Real Sociedad advances 4-0

Here are the seeding pots:

Pot 1 - Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Man U, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica

Pot 2 - Atletico Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan, Schalke 04, Marseille, CSKA Moscow, PSG, Juventus

Pot 3 - Zenit St. Petersburg, Man City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, Basel, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4 - Copenhagen, Napoli, Anderlecht, Celtic, Steaua Bucuresti, Viktoria Plzen, Real Sociedad, Austria Wien

The draw is 8/29.
 
Jeff, no big deal. I was watching the entire match (yes Celtic and not PSV/AC Milan) and never left this page so I had my comment in as soon as James struck that shot. Of course if not for that mesmerizing run by Anthony Stokes, he's not in a position to score that goal.

Andy: thanks for post that. I realized shortly after the match I hadn't posted the further updates but was too tired to come back to post it. ;)
 
Cali Ed said:
Andy: thanks for post that. I realized shortly after the match I hadn't posted the further updates but was too tired to come back to post it. ;)
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Wikipedia had the pots listed before anyone updated the last 2 final scores. You can also see how much Man City got punished for finishing last in their group last year. They aren't even in the top 25; Spurs are the 4th rated BPL team at 21. With the 18th best club coefficient in the CL, they dropped all the way to the 3rd pot, while 2 teams (Porto and Benfica) from the 5th rated league ended up in Pot 1. Porto made the round of 16 in the CL last year, Benfica lost the Europa League final to Chelsea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_club_coefficient#Club_coefficient
 
And Celtic got no bump whatsoever from making it out of Groups last season. Thanks a lot UEFA.

For what it's worth, with the selling off of Hooper and Wanyama, there's virtually no way that Celtic get out of Groups this season. So at least it's not that big a deal to remain stuck in the fourth pot.
 
jeffbear said:
And Celtic got no bump whatsoever from making it out of Groups last season. Thanks a lot UEFA.

For what it's worth, with the selling off of Hooper and Wanyama, there's virtually no way that Celtic get out of Groups this season. So at least it's not that big a deal to remain stuck in the fourth pot.
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It's going to be hard for them to get an traction in the rankings until the SPL coeffecient recovers. They're 23rd, up 1 spot from the last ranking. Napoli and Real Sociedad could get huge bumps with any result based on their league rankings.
 
And the draw:

Group A: Man United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad

Group B: Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, FC Copenhagen

Group C: Benfica, PSG, Olympiakos, Anderlecht

Group D: Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Man City, Viktoria Plzen

Group E: Chelsea, Schalke, FC Basel, Steaua Bucharest

Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli

Group G: FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria Vienna

Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax, Celtic
 
andyt said:
It's going to be hard for them to get an traction in the rankings until the SPL coeffecient recovers. They're 23rd, up 1 spot from the last ranking. Napoli and Real Sociedad could get huge bumps with any result based on their league rankings.
Click to expand...

I really do think that recent success in the Champions League ought to count for something more than it does in the point matrix. Still, it's a transitional year for Celtic regardless, so landing in a group with Barca, AC Milan and Ajax hurts less than it would have last season. And I truly look forward to seeing all three of those teams in Celtic Park.
 
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