Potential last 32 opponents as it stands

Let's see if we fucking qualify first eh?


Aye, this.

But there are a fair few winnable ties in there if we do. I'll tell ye something, the top teams will want to avoid us as much as we would rather avoid them.
 
What about champions league drop outs which teams are likely to drop down at the moment

A - Club Brugge or Galatasary
B - Crvena Zvezda or Olympiakos
C - Dinamo Zagreb or Shakhtar Donetsk
D - Lokomotiv Moscow or Bayer Leverkusen
E - Red Bull Salzburg
F - Inter or Slavia Prague
G - Zenit or Benfica
H - Valencia or Ajax or Chelsea
 
A lot of work for us to do before we talk about potential opponents, think we should calm down a bit.
2 Europa games left and 2 champions league games left, that list can change massively too.
 
And if we finish second, as it stands:

Sevilla
FC Copenhagen
Basel
Sporting Lisbon
Arsenal
Espanyol
AA Gent
Istanbul Basaksehir
Braga
Manchester United
Valencia
Dinamo Zagreb
Salzburg
Inter Milan

Some incredibly difficult ties in there.

Winning the group is big. Would be great if we could do that. :D
 
Fancy us against anyone but wouldn't want to get Wolves or any of the German teams.
 
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Too many variables but it is exciting!

And to think there were mentalists on here saying it wouldn't be a good thing to qualify for the group stages.
 
Monchengladbach team to avoid there.

One step at a time and all that, but Rangers will turn Feyenoord over imo, Dick or no Dick.
 
Not sure why Leverkusen are on the list , they are bottom of their champions league group so wouldn’t go into EL as it stands.

Yup, as it stands the teams dropping in to the Europa League from the Champions League are

Valencia
Dinamo Zagreb
RB Salzburg
Inter

Zenit
Red Star
Lokomotiv Moscow
Club Brugge

Still a lot of points up for grabs though

Brugge have to go away to Galatasaray in Group A and they only have 2 and 1 points in that group with PSG and Real Madrid

Red Star are battling it out with Olympiakos for 3rd place and need to go to Greece in match day 6.

Atalanta aren't dead yet in Group C. 4 points behind Shakhtar and Dinamo Zagreb with both to play in their last 2 games. Those teams also have to play Man City in their other game.

Lokomotiv Moscow just need a win at home to Leverkusen to finish above them after winning in Germany.

Inter could still push Dortmund into 3rd place in Group F as they are 3 points behind and have the edge on head to head.

Benfica, Lyon and Zenit could all finish 3rd in Group G.

And Group H has Ajax, Chelsea and Valencia all tied on 7 points. That one will go down to the last game but I think Ajax have the edge there and Chelsea will probably need to win in Valencia to qualify.
 
Selfishly a wee trip up the road to Dinamo Zagreb would be great. Would be a fun trip as the BBB best buddies with the scum :)
 
think you missed what the term "as it stands" means.

He has a point though. There's a total of 48 games yet to be played in the Europa League group stages - never mind the remaining CL group stage matches. The 'as it stands' is highly unlikely to represent how it finishes.
 
The fact that both Rangers and Celtic easily disposed of Porto and Lazio indicates that we could both go quite far. Those two teams are usually your "favourites" for the tournament and Porto especially are a Champions League team.

The rest of Scottish football denied that they needed a strong Rangers, yet here we are propping them up.

Some tricky ties in there, but nothing that much harder than anything we've already faced.

I agree, genuinely, with a bit of luck in the draw Rangers and Celtic could conceivably make it quite deep into the competition.
 
He has a point though. There's a total of 48 games yet to be played in the Europa League group stages - never mind the remaining CL group stage matches. The 'as it stands' is highly unlikely to represent how it finishes.
Oh agreed, its very unlikely that things will finish as they are now. Loads of changes can and probably will happen. I just dont understand folk being negative in reply to a thread. If you dont like the content, just move along. No need to get all negative and moan about things.

We all know there are games to play. We all know there is a chance we dont even qualify. So what if we want to discuss theoretical scenarios. Its a forum for discussing football things, this is one of those things that interests people so why not just let them discuss instead of dragging the conversation down into some sorta negative slant.

Anyway... I'll go and get a can of juice to calm myself down :D
 
If we make it through it’s a massive bonus imo.
so Id take anyone. Of course an easier draw would be nice but I don’t think at that stage anyone will be easy.

out of interest, does anyone know the financial aspect of progression to the knockout stage?
 
If we make it through it’s a massive bonus imo.
so Id take anyone. Of course an easier draw would be nice but I don’t think at that stage anyone will be easy.

out of interest, does anyone know the financial aspect of progression to the knockout stage?

Think we get over £1m for finishing top but there is no 'bonus' as such for qualification. Not sure the prize for 2nd.
 
Is that a genuine friendship mate or just in the head of the poets?

I'm sure Dinamo are RC fascists and would not be friendly with Rangers. I'm sure it was them, but might have been Hajduk that had a "Protestant Scum" banner aimed at Dado.
 
Nope, I refuse to think of this until it happens.

Too many times have we looked great and must be going through in group stages, only to monumentally fuck it up at Ibrox in the last home game. I'll worry about who we face when we get through :D
 
Hope not, Wolves are a right good side, been really impressed with them every time I’ve watched them. They played some excellent football too and have a couple of cracking flair players who can make something out of nothing.

Made hard work of their relatively simple group though, and havent been outstanding in the EPL this year.
 
Hope not, Wolves are a right good side, been really impressed with them every time I’ve watched them. They played some excellent football too and have a couple of cracking flair players who can make something out of nothing.
Agreed, think they'd be a very stiff challenge.
 
Far too soon to look at this - we haven't qualified and we haven't finished first - lets wait till we have before speculating
 
The manager couldn't be any clearer, we look to the next game each time but for some supporters this is too difficult a task and expectations go to unachievable levels.

Hamilton away is as far as we should be looking.
Tbf I think he was talking about the players and coaches.
 
More than anything this emphasises just how important winning the group will be.

As much as there will be changes in the groups, many of the top teams which would be avoided by winning our group are pretty handily placed to win their group and therefore you have to fancy them to do so. I’d be surprised if the Turkish side currently leading their group finish in that position. Irrespective of the toing and froing to come in the last two games, it is clear that the quality in the likely sides in the two sides of the draw is marked.

Furthermore, the lower ranked 4 of the 8 sides dropping down from the CL will also be considerably weaker than the higher ranked 4.

Nothing wrong with discussing the potential of what lies ahead, and it is clear that winning our group will provide an infinitely better chance of future progression than finishing second.

Based on games so far, you would be hard pushed to find anyone arguing that we are not the best side in there. Therefore it stands to reason that the best side finished top.

One last thing. Winning the group would give us the luxury of the second leg at Ibrox in the last 32, which could prove crucial in itself.
 
PS From what little I saw of Cluj against the filth they looked pretty poor. Would take them in a heartbeat!
 
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