Good luck to St Johnstone tonight who kick off their campaign in Turkey against Eskişehirspor in the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa league. St Johnstone line up as follows - 1. Mannus 3. C.Davidson 5. Wright 18. McCracken 19. Miller 4. Cregg 7. Millar 8. M.Davidson (c) 10. Craig 20. Adams 17. Higgins
EskişehirsporEskisehirspor 2 Alper Potuk (41) Wright o.g. (65) St Johnstone 0 Not looking good for the Perth men. The o.g. is a killer. From the looks of it neither team created a mountain of chances but St. Johnstone hardly threatened. One goal from the Turkish side in the 2nd leg and the games over, and they seem to be able to hit the net regularly when playing away from home. Interesting to see ex-Celtic player Diomansy Kamara playing for them. Celtic and Motherwell will learn their opponents for the Champions League qualifying at lunchtime today.
Celtic (32.728 coefficient) should easily beat HJK Helsinki (5.326), although you could have said the same thing last season when Rangers (56.028) was eliminated by Malmo (2.825). I don't give Motherwell (6.728) much chance against Panathinaikos (50.920). St. Johnstone was eliminated from the Europa League after a 1:1 draw in the second leg.
Celtic 2 - 1 HJK Helsinki I, for one, was very impressed with Celtic's performance against Helsinki yesterday. They controlled possession for much of the early going, and got a lot of opportunities to score that they just couldn't convert. After going down 1-0 early in the second half, they responded well with goals by Gary Hooper (53) and Charlie Mulgrew (60). The return leg will be net Wednesday at 6 PM Glasgow time, 1 PM my time. Let's hope that away goal by Helsinki and their inability to score that third goal late in second half don't come back to haunt them.
Dundee United with a 2 - 2 draw with Dynamo Moscow. I didn't see the match, from what the guys on SportSound said, they probably should have won this one and played really well. Also, there was some fan problems http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/...ts/europa-league-qualifier-dundee-utd-1209268 The fan incident article. Sounds like it was some Russian fans that started it. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/dynamo-moscow-fans-fought-with-dundee-1209284
Good luck to Hearts (v Liverpool) and Motherwell (v Levante) tonight in their 1st leg Europa League ties. I have a feeling they're going to need it.
A big, big ask for either team to qualify now after last nights 1st leg results. Motherwell 0-2 Levante Hearts 0-1 Liverpool Not entirely unexpected but a pity nonetheless.