Europe

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Originally Posted by Paul1642

The X page Football Rankings that you have linked is great for showing the confirmed teams, but I’m not always sure how they decide which unconfirmed teams to include. For the most recent one you have linked, they have included FC Paksi as making it from round 1 over FC Sheriff, and also being seeded which I don’t understand since the QR2 draw isn’t made until the QR1 fixtures are completed (and QR1 not yet drawn).

Entering QR1 will be

Seeded

Ukraine - Shakhtar Donetsk
Poland - Legia Warsaw
Serbia - Partizan
Moldova - Sheriff Tiraspol
Romania - CFR Cluj
Israel - Hapoel Be'er Sheva
Slovenia - Celje
Slovakia - Spartak Trnava

Unseeded

Cyprus - AEK Larnaca
Sweden - Häcken
Hungary - Paks
Bulgaria - Levski Sofia
Azerbaijan - Sabah
Finland - Ilves
Kazakhstan - Aktobe
Kosovo - Prishtina


Eight of these teams will be joining us in QR2, Four of which will be seeded. The only thing I don’t understand is why FC Paksi, with the lowest coefficient score of the whole lot (even lower than us) could end up seeded. Drawing them is the dream.

I guess the best thing that could happen in the short term is as many as possible from Shakhtar Donetsk, Legia Warsaw and Partizan Belgrade loosing in QR1.

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Thanks mate, that’s really interesting.

Cheers

I have now figured out that anyone who beats Sheriff, Shakhtar, Warsaw or Partizan enters our draw seeded.

Clearly bored on a quiet Sunday night, I’ve ran our potential QR2 opponents through Transfermkt for squad value with the following results: Hibs squad comes in at £15.5 million for reference.

Seeded confirmed:

Braga £137 Million
Midtjylland £64 Million
Anderlecht £103 Million
Lugano £64 Million

Seeded unconfirmed:

Shakhtar: £165 Million
Legia Warsaw £36 Million
Sheriff - £7.5 Million
Partizan £27 Million

Unseeded from QR1 who we could face if they win against either of the seeded unconfirmed teams in QR1:

Larnaca - £12.3 Million
Häcken - £20 Million
Paks - £9.5 Million
Levski Sofia - £20 Million
Sabah - £12.5 Million
Ilves - £4.3 Million
Aktobe - £7.8 Million
Prishtina - £4.8 Million


If I’m correct these are the only possible draws for us. I think it’s safe to say that Sheriff winning and the rest of the seeded but unconfirmed teams losing is probably the best we can hope for prior to our own draw being made. That’s enough Wikipedia for today.

Waiting for the song "I shot the sheriff and we're winning the Europa League"

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Originally Posted by Springbank

Waiting for the song "I shot the sheriff and we're winning the Europa League"

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Holding aloft that Prishtina trophy would give us Braga rights over the Gorgie Partizans right enough....

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Originally Posted by Hibees1973

Indeed, at present Lugano, Sheriff & Partizan are our best hope.

As Lugano are a seed for the 2nd qualifying round they are currently showing as 'to be confirmed' as a seed in the 3rd qualifying round. Their seeding is likely to be confirmed after the 1st qualifying round ties. Sheriff & Partizan have a higher coefficient than Lugano. It is possible, albeit a bit remote, that if we are drawn against either of these sides and beat them, we will assume their seeding and could play an unseeded side in the 3rd qualifying round.

Wolfsberg, Fredrikstad and Brann currently unseeded in the 3rd round.

Draw Braga at any point you can bin the above.

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Sheriff and/or Lugano would only be seeded for Q3 if Shaktar, Legia or Partizan are knocked out in Q1, which is highly unlikely.

Considering that, I think I'd like to avoid Lugano or Sheriff as even if we put them out, we'd then be unseeded for both Europa Q3 and the the conference play-off draws, making it extremely difficult to qualify.

To have any chance of making the groups we need to successfully "steal" a good teams seeded coefficient for the next again round at some point.

That could either mean beating someone like Partizan or Anderlecht in Europa Q2 and then being seeded for Europa Q3 - or alternatively losing Europa Q2 (ideally at least with a great trip like Braga), then being drawn against someone like Shamrock Rovers, Macabi Haifa, Jagiellonia, or Omonia in conference Q3, who we could beat over 2 legs on a good day, but would also have us seeded for the play off.

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Originally Posted by Fergus52

Sheriff and/or Lugano would only be seeded for Q3 if Shaktar, Legia or Partizan are knocked out in Q1, which is highly unlikely.

Considering that, I think I'd like to avoid Lugano or Sheriff as even if we put them out, we'd then be unseeded for both Europa Q3 and the the conference play-off draws, making it extremely difficult to qualify.

To have any chance of making the groups we need to successfully "steal" a good teams seeded coefficient for the next again round at some point.

That could either mean beating someone like Partizan or Anderlecht in Europa Q2 and then being seeded for Europa Q3 - or alternatively losing Europa Q2 (ideally at least with a great trip like Braga), then being drawn against someone like Shamrock Rovers, Macabi Haifa, Jagiellonia, or Omonia in conference Q3, who we could beat over 2 legs on a good day, but would also have us seeded for the play off.

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I agree with avoiding Lugano because it means we face a strong team, but with none of the seeding benefits.

Drawing Sheriff would be a good thing IMO. Draw a team we have a decent chance of beating, and worry about the next round should we get there. Getting through QR2 then dropping to the conference league from QR3 is far from the worst case scenario.

Better than drawing a good side like Braga whose seeding we could latch onto, only to then get humped.

Partizan or Liga Warsaw are probably the only two we have a chance to beat, and use their seeding.

Perhaps it would be better for us to lose the EL qualifying round and take our chances with the Conf League teams.

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Originally Posted by Sioux

Perhaps it would be better for us to lose the EL qualifying round and take our chances with the Conf League teams.

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Regardless, we drop to the conference league qualifiers if / when we loose at any stage in the Europa league qualifiers, so better to win at least one round then drop in to the conference league playoffs than dropping down at the first hurdle.

No matter what, we need to win two rounds of qualifiers to reach the Conference league groups, with the leeway of one defeat allowed along the way. It doesn’t matter where we win those two rounds.

Surely the ideal scenario is we win two EL games, get Aberdeen (can we play a team from our country?) in the final EL qualifier and then relegate them to conference groups while we sail on to EL groups, satisfied we get the bigger rewards and, even if only a little, get our revenge back on them.

Ambitious but not impossible?

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Originally Posted by Jock O

Surely the ideal scenario is we win two EL games, get Aberdeen (can we play a team from our country?) in the final EL qualifier and then relegate them to conference groups while we sail on to EL groups, satisfied we get the bigger rewards and, even if only a little, get our revenge back on them.

Ambitious but not impossible?

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As nice as it would be it is impossible as we couldn’t draw them unfortunately

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Originally Posted by JasonC1875

As nice as it would be it is impossible as we couldn’t draw them unfortunately

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I did wonder if there was some limitation, my Aberdeen supporting mates obviously don't know as i have been taunting them with that. Mind they are still not happy with me wanting them to lose final so they are maybe still just ignoring me.

I see Crystal Palace are at UEFA today pleading their case to stop being kicked out of the Europa League
Their majority owner who owns 43% of Palace, is the majority shareholder of Lyon, who are in the same tournament
Seemingly they could ask to go down to the Conference League, but Brondby are owned by the Palace other Co-owner, are in the conference league

I’m really surprised these things have surfaced frequently in the past

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Originally Posted by Billy Whizz

I see Crystal Palace are at UEFA today pleading their case to stop being kicked out of the Europa League
Their majority owner who owns 43% of Palace, is the majority shareholder of Lyon, who are in the same tournament
Seemingly they could ask to go down to the Conference League, but Brondby are owned by the Palace other Co-owner, are in the conference league

I’m really surprised these things have surfaced frequently in the past

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They have, City & Girona last season.

Funny how it wasn't an issue for them.

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Originally Posted by Thatdayinmay16

They have, City & Girona last season.

Funny how it wasn't an issue for them.

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Also Leipzig and Salzburg, Brighton and Union SG.

I think it comes down to technicalities in the structure – percentages of ownership or arms-length stuff through an intermediate company.

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Originally Posted by Thatdayinmay16

They have, City & Girona last season.

Funny how it wasn't an issue for them.

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This explains how it was sorted.

https://www.catalannews.com/sports/i...ampions-league