UEFA should be embarrassed at how much they have c0cked up the European tournaments.
UEFA should be embarrassed at how much they have c0cked up the European tournaments.
Not sure if your reply is to my post or you meant it for afc1903 post but if mine I think we are at cross purposes. I fully understand we won't be seeded in QR2 assuming that is where we start. My post was trying to imagine what sort of seeded team we would want in QR2 to look forward to give us the best chance of making the Group stages given the way the draws are done before the prior round is complete so you "inherit" the seeding of the team you beat if a seeded team. If I have thought it through properly this is how I see it
19 June Drawn in QR2 against a team that will not be seeded in QR3 e.g. Dundalk of Ireland
23 July Drawn in QR3 against a team that will be seeded in PO round e.g. AZ Alkamar of Netherlands
26 July/2 August Play and win QR2 against Dundalk
6 August Drawn in PO round against non-seeded team (because our QR3 opponent is seeded) take your pick from any team with low coefficient that has made it through to QR3 draw (so has to include a QR2 lowly seeded team and unseeded team) e.g. Zalgiris Vilnius of Lithuania v Sarpsborg of Norway
9/16 August Play and win against AZ Alkamar
23/30 August Play and win against Osijek/Sarpsborg
Hopefully I have thought that through properly, if so we would need the luck of the draw to avoid a team like Sevilla/Zenit in QR3 but if so its not an impossible task to make it through to Group stages - would need to beat one team clearly better than us like we did with Rijeka/Gronigen plus two teams of a similar standing that we have so far failed to do like Kairat/Maribor. I'm not saying it's easy by any stretch of the imagination but we can dream!!
Yes there is a round after Q3 but it's called the Play Off round. There is a new round this year called the Preliminary Round which is before QR1, but only 14 diddy teams start in it. So to get to the Group Stages we need to win 3 ties if Celtic win the cup or 4 if Motherwell win