With Hearts advancing to the second round of Europa League qualifying and Aberdeen likely to join them, Scotland will have all four of its clubs three rounds away from the group stages of their respective tournaments. At this point, the goal for Scotland is to finish the year ranked in the top 15 leagues. Is it possible?
Scotland was tied for fifth with over 10 points in 2007-2008. Since then, they haven't even had 5 points in any season. Scotland trails 15th place Greece by 6.075 points. Greece has 3 clubs still competing and Scotland has only Celtic. It would make Scotland look good relative to Greece if Scotland can beat Hapoel Be'er Sheva, who beat Olympiakos Piraeus. Scotland leads Israel by 0.925 points, and Celtic vs. Hapoel Be'er Sheva is important because the winner will get Bonus Points for reaching the Champions League Group Stage. Since the first post of the topic, here is how Scottish clubs were eliminated from the Europa League: In Qualifying Round 2, Brondby IF of Denmark beat Hibernian 5:3 on penalty kicks after each club won one leg 1:0. In Qualifying Round 2, Hearts played a scoreless draw at Birkirkara of Malta, who has a 2.966 coefficient. Then Hearts somehow lost 2:1 at home. Aberdeen had an easy time with FK Ventspils of Latvia in Qualifying Round 2 before being eliminated by NK Maribor of Slovenia in Qualifying Round 3. FK Ventspils was seeded, but their coefficient was only a little higher than Aberdeen's. NK Maribor has a 21.625 coefficient compared to 5.460 for Aberdeen. Aberdeen played a 1:1 draw at home and lost 1:0 at NK Maribor.
Celtic with a 5-2 start to the final Champions League qualifying stage. Almost there! It's fantastic to watch Celtic Euro games. Even this qualifying game, vs. an Israeli team, atmosphere is just electric. Celtic park is an amazing stadium.
Scottish football is back! Sort of! Glorious game vs. Manchester City. 3-3. Celtic just attacked with no fear. Up 3 times, City drew 3 times. Celtic attack was just fearless, not what you normally see in an underdog, but of course it opened them up to counterattacks. Very calm defensively too, not trying to chuck the ball out of defense, calmly playing it into attack. Confident team. Brendan Rogers is the real deal. What a difference a great coach makes! I was thinking during this game, maybe this is the only Euro style that really made sense for Celtic all along? Attack, no negative football. It will result in 0-7 blowouts vs. Barca sometimes, but it's not like Celtic will ever be a great defensive team. Their defense rarely gets tested in domestic competition. Everyone tries to bunker vs. them. You can't be an ultra-positive team domestically and then become a good negative team all of a sudden in Europe. Anyway, wonderful game!! Great day for Scottish football, even if most Scots won't agree!
michael cox had a good article about this conundrum on soccernet. teams like celtic, basel, shakhtar, etc. struggle to play on the counter in europe when they attack at will domestically. he noted that porto focused on their defending when they won the CL in 2004. sure their portugese record wasn't as overwhelming as it was in other years, but playing one system for both competitions let them compete in europe as well as in portugal. worth the read, imo. Basel, the tactical difficulty of going from a minor league to the Champions League and how Porto managed it in 2004 https://t.co/vFqfSzTiyG— Michael Cox (@Zonal_Marking) September 28, 2016