Europa Conference League 2021-22: the Road to Tirana, Albania

[isaac94]

Upsets in the ties involving both the Irish sides tonight! Linfield, with a real chance of making the group, have lost 2-1 at home to Fola Esch of Luxembourg - they definitely need a turnaround. But a famous European night for Bohemians at Lansdowne Road as they beat PAOK 2-1

Watched the paok game, surprising result PAOK have some decent players kagawa, Živković, Vieirinha, credit to Bohemain

 

[Neon_Knight_]

To be honest I think those two sentences are contradictory. By correctly pointing out it could help create that mentality and confidence, you know it isn't at all like the Audi Cup.

How about same shelf but the Audi Cup tucked in behind the ECL trophy?

Beating Real and Bayern to win the Audi Cup should have given us confidence tbh, but our downwards trajectory had started 6 months earlier (when Dembele left - not coincidentally).

 

[Saoirse]

We'll get an indication of who we'll face tonight as Paços de Ferreira take on Larne at 7pm in their first leg.

Also plenty of other British and Irish sides in action. At 4.45pm (live on BBC Scotland, the BBC Sport site and iPlayer) Celtic play away to Jablonec in the Europa League, with the losers dropping into the Conference League - Joe Hart makes an immediate debut in goal here. On the same channels and competition there's Galatasaray vs St Johnstone at 7pm. At 8pm on Premier Sports Aberdeen go to Breiðablik in the Conference League. Other untelevised ties are in the Europa League, Lincoln Red Imps vs Slovan Bratislava (6pm). And in the Conference League, Shamrock Rovers vs Teuta (8pm), Hibernian vs Rijeka (7.45pm), The New Saints vs Viktoria Plzeň (7.45pm) and Vitesse vs Dundalk (6pm)

 

[chrissivad]

Pacos de Ferreira won 4-0 in the first leg

 

[Lumiere]

Pacos de Ferreira it is then

 

[JeremyPaxton]

Pacos de Ferreira it is then

So we know the timing of our home game on the 26th? ie is KO 5.55pm or 8pm?

 

[Marty]

So we know the timing of our home game on the 26th? ie is KO 5.55pm or 8pm?

Pre-COVID English and Portuguese clubs always kicked off home fixtures at 8pm because it's harder for spectators to get from work to the stadium on time for a 5.55 kickoff than it is at 6.55 CET.

I don't know if that remains the same. It should.

 

[E17yid]

We should be aiming to win this absolutely. Taking the piss out of it is a very small club mentality. Personally I think we end up facing Jose's Roma in the final in Albania ....

If say, Barca or Bayern Munich fans were taking the piss out of it would you say they are demonstrating a very small time club mentality?

This tournament is absolutely fair game to take the piss out of, we’re not Brighton FFS. I would actually argue the opposite, saying what a great competition this is and being thankful for having an opportunity to win a cup that have no half decent clubs asides from us and Roma is a small time mentality. We should strive for the best and not be happy with a 3rd rate competition.

Having said that I hope we win it. Just won’t really care that much if we do. Not bothered by it in the slightest.

 

[Marty]

If say, Barca or Bayern Munich fans were taking the piss out of it would you say they are demonstrating a very small time club mentality?

This tournament is absolutely fair game to take the piss out of, we’re not Brighton FFS. I would actually argue the opposite, saying what a great competition this is and being thankful for having an opportunity to win a cup that have no half decent clubs asides from us and Roma is a small time mentality. We should strive for the best and not be happy with a 3rd rate competition.

But when we've played badly enough to find ourselves in the third rate competition the least we should do is prove we're better than that and win the thing.

 

[E17yid]

But when we've played badly enough to find ourselves in the third rate competition the least we should do is prove we're better than that and win the thing.

Definitely. I mean, we fucking better, you’ve seen the teams in it, we should cruise to the final to be honest (which means we probably won’t which will be pretty embarrassing)

That still doesn’t mean it’s not a shit competition that no one should ever take the piss out of (especially for the reason stated that it makes us small time)

 

[Kingellesar]

The wildcard for champions league being introducted in 2024 should be reason enough to go out and get as far as we can in this competition.

You'd like to think we would be back in the CL by then but its best to have as many opportunuties to get back in as possible.

 

[Bobbins]

I’m weirdly getting quite excited by the idea of this competition now.

Brand new tournament, everything will be shiny and new. Teams you’ve never heard of and we’ve never played before. Random locations all over Europe, bizarre stadiums and watching Spurs play a man and his dog etc. Getting to see youth team players.

And to top it off we’ll be one of the favourites - we should get to see Spurs spanking some teams in entertaining wins, and there’s a real chance we could be the inaugural winners of the tournament - which is proper history which no-one could ever achieve again.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I echo those who are actually looking forward to this competition.

At the beginning of the 70s we became the inaugural winners of a European competition that was created basically for the clubs that weren’t winning leagues or cups.

I bet everyone who remembers it has Big Chiv’s stranger etched in their mind for all eternity.

 

[SonicSarr]

I’m weirdly getting quite excited by the idea of this competition now.

Brand new tournament, everything will be shiny and new. Teams you’ve never heard of and we’ve never played before. Random locations all over Europe, bizarre stadiums and watching Spurs play a man and his dog etc. Getting to see youth team players.

And to top it off we’ll be one of the favourites - we should get to see Spurs spanking some teams in entertaining wins, and there’s a real chance we could be the inaugural winners of the tournament - which is proper history which no-one could ever achieve again.

That 2nd para made me go all Fast Show. Jumpers for goalposts, young boys in the park, Julio Geordio... ?

 

[chrissivad]

Larne won 1-0 so lost 4-1 overall

Paços de Ferreira it is

 

[Delboy75]

If you look at the whole competition it’s unbelievably weak. Will be 22 teams from the play off winners and 10 from Europa play off losers. There might be 5 or 6 half decent teams. If we don’t win this we’ve really screwed up.

 

[Saoirse]

If you look at the whole competition it’s unbelievably weak. Will be 22 teams from the play off winners and 10 from Europa play off losers. There might be 5 or 6 half decent teams. If we don’t win this we’ve really screwed up.

There'll also be whoever comes 3rd in the Europa League groups dropping in after Christmas.

 

[JeremyPaxton]

There'll also be whoever comes 3rd in the Europa League groups dropping in after Christmas.

Yes, but the teams finishing third in. Europa group will be quite weak and even then they drop into a playoff round with the Conference group runners up. As long we win our (incredibly weak) Conference group, we skip a round.

 

[isaac94]

Roma look like the biggest direct rival for this comp, and have a tough tie against Trabzonspor. Followed by Feyenoord, Rennes, Union Berlin, maybe some decent Europa league team will join (Celtic or AZ for example)

 

[Marty]

Full draw:

Champions path
Žalgiris Vilnius (LTU) vs Bodø/Glimt (NOR)
Neftçi (AZE) vs Maccabi Haifa (ISR)
Flora Tallinn (EST) vs Shamrock Rovers (IRL)
Riga (LVA) vs Lincoln Red Imps (GIB)
Fola Esch (LUX) vs Kairat Almaty (KAZ)

Main path
Qarabağ (AZE) vs Aberdeen (SCO)
Basel (SUI) vs Hammarby (SWE)
Viktoria Plzeň (CZE) vs CSKA-Sofia (BUL)
Paços de Ferreira (POR) vs Tottenham (ENG)

Rennes (FRA) vs Rosenborg (NOR)
Anderlecht (BEL) vs Vitesse (NED)
LASK (AUT) vs St Johnstone (SCO)
Shakhter Karagandy (KAZ) vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR)

PAOK (GRE) vs Rijeka (CRO)
KuPS Kuopio (FIN) vs Union Berlin (GER)
Feyenoord (NED) vs Elfsborg (SWE)
Raków Czestochowa (POL) vs Gent (BEL)

Sivasspor (TUR) vs Copenhagen (DEN)
Santa Clara (POR) vs Partizan (SRB)
Trabzonspor (TUR) vs Roma (ITA)
Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR) vs Anorthosis Famagusta (CYP)
Jablonec (CZE) vs Žilina (SVK)

------

The ten losers of the ties below also drop in.

EUROPA LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Crvena zvezda (SRB) vs CFR Cluj (ROU)
Slavia Praha (CZE) vs Legia Warszawa (POL)
Omonoia (CYP) vs Royal Antwerp (BEL)
Randers (DEN) vs Galatasaray (TUR)
Mura (SVN) vs Sturm Graz (AUT)

Fenerbahçe (TUR) vs HJK Helsinki (FIN)
Rangers (SCO) vs Alashkert (ARM)
Olympiacos (GRE) vs Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Rapid Wien (AUT) vs Zorya Luhansk (UKR)
Celtic (SCO) vs AZ Alkmaar (NED)