UKTexans Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 Tonight and tomorrow night see the first legs of the 3rd qualifying round for next years Champions League. Now that the majority of minnows have departed (unlucky Dundalk), I feel that now is an appropriate time to start this thread. Below is a list of the fixtures lifted straight off Wikipedia, as you can see there are a few tasty looking ties taking place in this round and some "big" names will fall even before they have reached the final playoff stage. Celtic have a tough draw against 24-time Norwegian Champions Rosenborg, although it has been 10 years since Rosenborg managed to make it into the Group Stages. The "league route" fixtures are where it gets really tasty, particularly the Nice vs Ajax tie. Liverpool fans will watch these ties closely as they could be Liverpool's opponents in the final play-off stage. Team 1 Agg. Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg Champions Route Slavia Prague BATE Borisov 25 Jul 2 Aug Astana Legia Warsaw 26 Jul 2 Aug Maribor FH 26 Jul 2 Aug Vardar Copenhagen 25 Jul 2 Aug Celtic Rosenborg 26 Jul 2 Aug Hapoel Be'er Sheva Ludogorets Razgrad 26 Jul 2 Aug Viitorul Constanța APOEL 26 Jul 2 Aug Red Bull Salzburg Rijeka 26 Jul 2 Aug Qarabağ Sheriff Tiraspol 25 Jul 1 Aug Partizan Olympiacos 25 Jul 2 Aug League Route Steaua București Viktoria Plzeň 25 Jul 2 Aug Nice Ajax 26 Jul 2 Aug Dynamo Kyiv Young Boys 26 Jul 2 Aug AEK Athens CSKA Moscow 25 Jul 2 Aug Club Brugge İstanbul Başakşehir 26 Jul 2 Aug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 Tuesday, 25 July Slavia Prague 1-1 BATE Borisov Qarabag FK 0-0 Sheriff Tiraspol FK Vardar 1-0 København Partizan 1-3 Olympiacos AEK 0-2 CSKA Moscow Steaua Bucuresti 2-2 Viktoria Plzeň No huge shocks from last night. København (47th) falling to FK Vardar (202nd) is probably the biggest shock, particularly as the Danes have already started their regular season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeEvans Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 I thought this was the Championship thread and I got really excited. That Oliver Norwood though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 2 minutes ago, LeeEvans said: I thought this was the Championship thread and I got really excited. That Oliver Norwood though... Haha without Kempes it's hard to keep a lower league thread going without me spamming the hell out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeEvans Posted July 26, 2017 Share Posted July 26, 2017 8 minutes ago, texans_uk said: Haha without Kempes it's hard to keep a lower league thread going without me spamming the hell out of it. Ha, that's why I don't post in it much. No one wants to hear about Fulham that much haha. Probably best to roll the EFL into the "Other Leagues" thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted July 26, 2017 Author Share Posted July 26, 2017 1 hour ago, LeeEvans said: Ha, that's why I don't post in it much. No one wants to hear about Fulham that much haha. Probably best to roll the EFL into the "Other Leagues" thread. I think so. I've held back on introducing too many threads until activity picks up a bit. I think once the season gets going properly it gives us something to talk about at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted July 27, 2017 Author Share Posted July 27, 2017 Wednesday, 26 July Astana 3 -1 Legia Warsaw Red Bull Salzburg 1-1 Rijeka H. Beer-Sheva 2-0 Ludogorets Viitorul 1-0 Apoel Nicosia Maribor 1-0 FH Celtic 0-0 Rosenborg Dynamo Kyiv 3-1 Young Boys OGC Nice 1-1 Ajax Club Brugge 3-3 İstanbul Başakşehir Again no huge shocks, Celtic were fortunate to end the evening all square with Rosenborg and will be hoping to ****** an away goal in Norway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marky mark Posted August 2, 2017 Share Posted August 2, 2017 (edited) League Route Seeded teams: Sevilla, Napoli, Liverpool, CSKA, Sporting Unseeded teams: Steaua, Young Boys, Hoffenheim, Istanbul Basaksehir, Nice Champions Route Seeded teams: Celtic, Olympiakos, Copenhagen, APOEL, Maribor Unseeded teams: Slavia Praque, Astana, Rijeka, Hapoel Beer Sheva, Qarabag Play-off draw on Friday Edited August 2, 2017 by marky mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Doesn't look like there will be too much trouble for any of the seeded teams getting through. Have to see the draw, though. I'm hoping Liverpool have a nice tough trip to the other side of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 Celtic absolutely scrapped through. I can see them struggling against any of those unseeded sides. Astana beat Legia who thrashed Celtic a couple of years ago. Rijeka beat Dinamo Zagreb to the Croatian title (most of the year unbeaten too) and knocked out a handy RB Salzburg side. Nobody wants away days in Azerbaijan it Israel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 44 minutes ago, texans_uk said: Celtic absolutely scrapped through. I can see them struggling against any of those unseeded sides. Astana beat Legia who thrashed Celtic a couple of years ago. Rijeka beat Dinamo Zagreb to the Croatian title (most of the year unbeaten too) and knocked out a handy RB Salzburg side. Nobody wants away days in Azerbaijan it Israel. I didn't even look at the seeded champions. I was refering to the league route seeds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted August 3, 2017 Author Share Posted August 3, 2017 2 hours ago, kempus said: I didn't even look at the seeded champions. I was refering to the league route seeds. Sorry I wasn't directly responding to you. Just a comment on Celtic and the threadbare Scottish league they dominate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 9 hours ago, texans_uk said: Sorry I wasn't directly responding to you. Just a comment on Celtic and the threadbare Scottish league they dominate. Yeah, the Scottish league is an absolute joke. I know a few Celtic fans and they're genuinely more happy when Rangers fail to win as opposed to when Celtic do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted August 3, 2017 Share Posted August 3, 2017 Not Champions League, but Aberdeen got knocked out in the Europa League third qualifying round. So, both Rangers and Aberdeen have fallen in the Europa League qualifying rounds. Against Progres Niederkorn and Apollon Limassol, respectively. Its not much of a surprise, but the overall level of Scottish football is probably League 2 or worse. Celtic are probably a Championship team, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKTexans Posted August 4, 2017 Author Share Posted August 4, 2017 I think with the generally lack of activity, so far, on the forum it's a better idea to combine the Europa League and Champions League into a single thread. Particularly as we have several Arsenal fans in here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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