For the second consecutive season, Ludogorets Razgrad of Bulgaria was eliminated by a Hungarian club with a much worse coefficient. Ferencvaros won 2-1 at home, and today they won 3-2 at Ludogorets Razgrad to win the aggregate 5-3. Ludogorets Razgrad got a straight red card in the 82nd minute, with no goals for either club after that. CFR Cluj of Romania won 3-1 hosting Astana of Kazakhstan to win the aggregate 3-2. Astana would have been seeded in Qualifying Round 3 if they reached it, and Ludogorets Razgrad was next in line. Now APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus will be seeded in Qualifying Round 3 if they reach it. Here are the Qualifying Round 2 fixtures with the first leg home club first: Champions: CFR Cluj vs. Romania vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel BATE Borisov of Belarus vs. Rosenborg of Norway The New Saints of Wales vs. Copenhagen of Denmark Ferencvaros of Hungary vs. Valletta of Malta Dundalk of Ireland vs. Qarabag of Azerbaijan Saburtalo Tbilisi of Georgia vs. Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia Celtic of Scotland vs. Nomme Kalju of Estonia Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) of Serbia vs. HJK Helsinki of Finland Sutjeska Niksic of Montenegro vs. APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus Maribor of Slovenia vs. AIK of Sweden Non-Champions: Viktoria Plzen of Czech Republic vs. Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece PSV Eindhoven of Netherlands vs. Basel of Switzerland
The 26 clubs who start in the Group Stage in alphabetical order are: Atalanta Atletico Madrid Barcelona Bayer Leverkusen Bayern Munich Benfica Borussia Dortmund Chelsea Galatasaray Genk Inter Milan Juventus Lille Liverpool Lokomotiv Moscow Lyon Manchester City Napoli Paris Saint-Germain Real Madrid Red Bull Leipzig Red Bull Salzburg Shakhtar Donetsk Tottenham Valencia Zenit Saint Petersburg The four champions from qualifying rounds have many possibilities. The two non-champions will be from the ten clubs Krasnodar, Porto, Dynamo Kyiv, Club Brugge, Istanbul Basaksehir, LASK Linz, Basel, Viktoria Plzen, PSV Eindhoven, and Olympiacos.
The League path is by no means easy for anyone and seems more wide open than usual. Except for weaker (or perhaps just less famous) than normal teams from Turkey and Austria the rest are sort of the usual suspects.
Definitely, but lets hope we have some sort of difference from other UCL’s. Just like we had Ajax this year who were able to get to the semis
Here are the Qualifying Round 2 scores with the first leg home club first and the winners in bold: Champions: CFR Cluj of Romania vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel (1-0, 2-2, makes 3-2) BATE Borisov of Belarus vs. Rosenborg of Norway (2-1, 0-2, makes 2-3) The New Saints of Wales vs. Copenhagen of Denmark (0-2, 0-1, makes 0-3) Ferencvaros of Hungary vs. Valletta of Malta (3-1, 1-1, makes 4-2) Dundalk of Ireland vs. Qarabag of Azerbaijan (1-1, 0-3, makes 1-4) Saburtalo Tbilisi of Georgia vs. Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia (0-2, 0-3, makes 0-5) Celtic of Scotland vs. Nomme Kalju of Estonia (5-0, 2-0, makes 7-0) Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) of Serbia vs. HJK Helsinki of Finland (2-0, 1-2, makes 3-2) Sutjeska Niksic of Montenegro vs. APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus (0-1, 0-3, makes 0-4) Maribor of Slovenia vs. AIK of Sweden (2-1, 1-2 after regulation and 2-3 after extra time, makes 4-4, decided by away goals 2-1) Non-Champions: Viktoria Plzen of Czech Republic vs. Olympiakos Piraeus of Greece (0-0, 0-4, makes 0-4) PSV Eindhoven of Netherlands vs. Basel of Switzerland (3-2, 1-2, makes 4-4, decided by away goals 2-1 Both times away goals were used, one club won 3-2 at home and the other club won 2-1 at home. The difference was that Maribor and AIK both led 1-0 after regulation and Maribor advanced after each club scored 1 in extra time. Maribor won their Qualifying Round 1 aggregate 5-0. They didn't win the Slovenian league to reach the 2018-2019 Champions League qualifying rounds. In the 2018-2019 Europa League, they started in Qualifying Round 1 and advanced twice before losing to Rangers in Qualifying Round 3. In 2017-2018 they won their Playoff Round on away goals after a 2-1 loss and 1-0 win to reach the Group Stage, where they got 3 draws and 3 losses. Two of their last three Champions League qualifying aggregates had them advance on away goals. Here are the Qualifying Round 3 fixtures with the first leg home club listed first and the seeded club in bold. Clubs with worse coefficients can be seeded if they beat seeded clubs in Qualifying Round 2. The only one of the ten matchups in which this happened was unseeded Maribor with a higher coefficient than seeded Rosenborg, who beat BATE Borisov in Qualifying Round 2. BATE Borisov has a higher coefficient than Maribor and Rosenborg. The draw for Qualifying Round 3 was done before Qualifying Round 2 using the coefficient of the better club in each matchup to determine who was seeded in Qualifying Round 3. Champions: CFR Cluj of Romania vs. Celtic of Scotland (7 and 13 August) APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus vs. Qarabag of Azerbaijan (6 and 13 August) PAOK of Greece vs. Ajax of Netherlands (6 and 13 August) Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia vs. Ferencvaros of Hungary (6 and 13 August) Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) of Serbia vs. Copenhagen of Denmark (6 and 13 August) Maribor of Slovenia vs. Rosenborg of Norway (7 and 13 August) Non-Champions (League): Istanbul Basaksehir of Turkey vs. Olympiacos Piraeus of Greece (7 and 13 August) Krasnodar of Russia vs. Porto of Portugal (7 and 13 August) Club Brugge of Belgium vs. Dynamo Kyiv of Ukraine (6 and 13 August) Basel of Switzerland vs. LASK Linz of Austria (7 and 13 August) I don't know why all the second legs are Tuesday 13 August rather than some Tuesday and some Wednesday.
I doubt they have enough quality to make it out of the group stages, but if I were to pick a complete surprise team it would probably be Dinamo Zagreb. This assumes they hold on to Olmo, but they have a well-rounded squad and played well in Europa League last season.
Two of them - Porto and Kyiv - were potentially pot 2 teams for the group stage draw. Benfica take over Porto's place in pot 2, and the last pot 2 team will be either Ajax or Lyon (I think)
https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2019.html says Porto was the only one of those who would have been in Pot 2 if the best clubs reached the Group Stage. Ajax was already in line to be the bottom club in Pot 2, and that now goes to Lyon. If Ajax is eliminated by APOEL Nicosia, Bayer Leverkusen will be in Pot 2.
My predictions for the play-offs (with my certainty) Dinamo Zagreb (90%) vs Rosenborg Slavia Praha (70%) vs CFR Cluj Young Boys (55%) vs Red Star Belgrad Ajax (90%) vs APOEL Club Brugge (55%) vs LASK Linz Okympiacos (50.1%) vs Krasnodar 3 match-ups have a fairly clear favorite (not that it meant much last round), while 3 are more even.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_UEFA_Champions_League_group_stage The strongest group: Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Lyon, Leipzig The weakest group: Zenit St. Petersburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague
Could Zenit and Shakhtar be in the same group or are they still separating Ukraine and Russian teams? I think Red Star and Genk are both a fair bit weaker than Slavia from pot 4, and I think Brugge is just slightly stronger than Dinamo (even though I picked them as a surprise team) in pot 3. Otherwise, I agree.
I think: Toughest Group possible: Man City, Real Madrid, Inter, RB Liepzig Easiest Group possible: Zenit, Benfica, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague
There's 16 countries represented: Spain, England, Italy and Germany have 4 teams. France has 3 teams. Russia and Belgium have 2 teams. Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine have 1 team. Notable countries with no teams are Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Israel.
A lot of people lost their betting investments in the first round. Are you among of them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_UEFA_Champions_League_group_stage Big surprises: Olympiacos - Tottenham 2-2 Dinamo Zagreb - Atalanta 4-0 Leverkusen - Lokomotiv 1-2 Inter Milano - Slavia 1-1 Chelsea - Valencia 0-1
Feel pretty good about this prediction after round one. Class team in the attack, not sure they have the defense if they get pushed back though. Sort of a reverse Slavia Praha among potential surprise teams, who defend and press well but don't have much attacking creativity.
Olympiacos actually looked like the better team most of the game. But then again, I'm pro-Greek, anti-Brit, LOL
Probably it looked better against Tottenham. Domestic atmosphere. Tottenham plays often boring with less chances...