Thinker

The play-off round is referred to as the "4th qualifying round" in that list. We'd be one of the 6 teams to enter the Europa GS that way (4 from the Champions' path, 2 from the League path).

Straight into the Europa group stages.

It's a real shame when you can't post an article on the forum without being forensically double-teamed by pedantic smarty pants (Do they really have nothing better to do?) I'd like to draw your attention to the forum's ignore function.

It doesn't look like a legit account.

I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure we join at the 2nd qualifying round. As I understand it, since Scotland were ranked 11th at the start of this season, that's the spot we've been playing for, which is a 2nd QR entry. (Russia's expulsion actually upgrades us to 10th, but that doesn't effect the round we start in - 2nd place teams from leagues ranked 10-15 enter at the 2nd QR). Over the course of this campaign, we've dragged the national ranking up to 9th, so whoever finishes 2nd in the SPL in the coming season (hopefully Septic) will start in the 3rd qualifying round for the 2023/24 CL (3rd place teams from leagues ranked 5-6, and 2nd place teams from leagues ranked 7-9, start in the 3rd QR).

It's actually two qualifying rounds, plus a play-off round. If we win the first qualifier we're guaranteed group stage football of some sort. The "League Path" (as opposed to the "Champions' Path") to the Champions' League Group Stages is actually extremely tough, mainly because there are only two group stage spots up for grabs. The final play-off round will almost certainly see us up against a team of the quality of PSV, Benfica or Marseille. We're capable of beating these teams, but by no means can we expect to do so. If we make the CL group stages next year it will be a big achievement.

Das ist nicht das, was ich gehört habe.

If you read up on what Red Bull did to Salzburg, you wouldn't want them anywhere near us.

That's the positive to take here. There was a point where I think we all feared that Gio might crash and burn, but he's steadied the ship and got us moving in the right direction. Postecoglou had a rotten run initially when he took over and so did GVB, it's the form during the rest of the season where they've edged it. The timing of SG's departure certainly didn't help things.

He was raised as one but, credit to him, he chucked it later in life.

Great news for Everton fans.

To have beaten every club currently in the league, it would have to be a former top flight team that is now at the bottom, and has had chance to play and beat Forest Green etc. Oldham, or Bradford?

When I bought my shares in the IPO I considered it a donation rather than an investment - I never had any expectation that I'd make money. What irks me about it isn't that the share price has plummeted, it's that the money we put in was squandered/purloined by the arseholes who were in charge at the time. Still, it all more-or-less worked out in the end when we lifted 55.

I'm not a fan of this idea, but going by the reactions of others, I'm in one of the low percentiles of pissed-offness. I hate being in the same stadium as their fans. I'm glad we stopped giving them a whole stand at Ibrox, and any excuse to shut them out completely suits me. But I've no intention of going to Sydney, so in that regard this exhibition match makes no difference to me. If others are happy to pay their money for it that's their business. Also, to play devil's advocate, it was a certainty we'd have organised warm weather training during the world cup break, and probably have arranged attendance at an invitational mini-tournament too. That's an expensive business. By agreeing to play them not only is the cost covered, but we'll also get enough money for a signing or two. None of that changes my opinion of Septic or the groin brigade.

No, but it's just a rumour. I could start a rumour that we're getting more money than them if that helps?

The coefficient system for those playoff rounds is contrived even by UEFA standards. No points awarded for the actual results, but we are guaranteed a bonus point for reaching the last 16 proper. We're currently sitting on 9 for the campaign.

There are a few teams in there that are struggling domestically, but I'd love a tie against West Ham. I wonder how they'll handle the Moscow situation.

Apparently he still has an outstanding 6 match touchline ban to serve. Can't remember how he earned it exactly - I expect it was for being a chunt?

Am I alone in thinking that an honourable exit to a Bundesliga side wouldn't be too bad a result given the increased importance of racking up domestic points? Particularly if the lot across the city have a lengthy, energy-sapping, (but ultimately fruitless) diddy-Europa cup run...

The Hearts match is definitely of more importance, but the €570,000 and 2 coefficient points that come with a Europa League win are not to be sniffed at. Probably more dosh than you get for winning the Scottish Cup.

I hope it's Gio too. Any new managerial appointment is a bit of a gamble, but it's even more so for us these days as we're not operating at a financial level where we can bring in a tried and tested top European quality manager. We can offer European football, and a reasonable amount of publicity, but the lack of dosh in Scottish football means we're forced to take a punt on a manager who's still trying to build a reputation - and hope he succeeds. That's how it was with SG, and that's how it'll be if we get Gio. No doubt he'd also see us as a stepping stone to the big time and might depart mid-season if the right opportunity arose. Not ideal but we are where we are

I'm no virologist, but surely being vaccinated (or having antibodies from a previous infection) would lead to an immune response that destroys the virus - thus making transmission less likely than via an individual who has no immune response and therefore has the virus living / replicating within their body. How would herd immunity work otherwise?

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I wouldn't say so. The majority of that team have put in exceptional performances in European competition in front of a full stadium in past seasons.

I imagine he 3rd best team in Czechia are going to be pretty decent. Probably as likely to get a result against Timmy as Hibs at least. Ideally they'll get dumped into the Conference and end up having to play glamourless midweek group fixtures against gritty teams from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.