30 May 2018 13:20:57
Full list of teams we can face in UCL qualifying (we'll need to beat 4 of these) .
Shkendija, Dudelange, Spartak Trnava, Valletta, Vikingur Gota, Crusaders, Olimpija Ljubljana, Alashkert, Sutjeska Niksic, Suduva Marijampole, Spartaks Jurmala, Cork City, Valur, Flora Tallinn, Torpedo Kutaisi, Midtjylland, CFR Cluj, Red Star Belgrade, Hapoel Be-er Sheva, Rosenborg, HJK Helsinki, The New Saints, Videoton, Kukesi, Zrinjski Mostar, AEK Athens, BATE Borisov, Dinamo Zagreb, Qarabag, Sheriff Tiraspol, Malmo, Young Boys, Astana, Legia Warsaw, APOEL
Realistically 1 from the bottom 4/ 5 in the play off round, 1 from the 8 or so before that in the 3rd qualifier, and two from the top half in the earlier rounds.
Very difficult, but not impossible.
1.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 13:47:48
Feeling we will get Legia Warsaw at some stage.
2.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 14:06:21
only a matter of time before we run into them again.
For me, as long as we stick to western europe we should be ok - Crusaders/ Cork for the first couple of rounds would be ideal, then maybe helsinki/ malmo something like that.
3.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 15:56:55
Guys most of us Celtic fans if not exactly worried about us making the group stages again, are not counting our chickens as we could meet a team well into their season, or Celtic could have a bad day or be fatigued, especially if we get Astana again on the other side of the universe.
Now compare our cautious attitude to a sevconian fan, who almost to a man, have got the new club not only in the group stages of the Europa League but quarter final at worst.
Despite them falling flat last year, having an inexperienced manager and probably most of last season's failures.
Their arrogance and self entitlement knows no bounds.
4.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 16:29:21
It's getting to be a great achievement to qualify for the group stage considering the timing of the qualifiers in relation to our season and the number of games we have to play - even as champions.
CL nights are a unique experience at Celtic Park, even though we have suffered some heavy defeats recently; however, the reality of being a Celtic supporter as opposed to the delusional dumplings in denial is we have used the CL cash to ensure financial security, attract and keep the best players in the country and employ an experienced, quality manager, who lives and breaths our club and it's successes.
5.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 16:37:08
I'm completely on the side of Legia for that last time. They hammered us fair and square.
Our board should have done the decent thing and asked UEFA to keep Legia in.
Uefa would have still kicked them regardless, but I think it made our club look small time and it was zombie patter.
{Ed007's Note - So you think that Celtic should have accepted a fine and possible five-year ban from UEFA competition? What Legia Warsaw done wrong had absolutely nothing to do with Celtic, Celtic didn't break any rules which wouldn't have been the case if we had been stupid enough to do what you wanted.
So who should have taken Legia Warsaw's place?}
6.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 16:52:11
Well we better get into the champions league since it’s been confirmed if we don’t that we will fold like a pack of cards😱.
7.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 17:54:06
No, I didn't say break the rules. I didn't say to forfeit the competition.
I said we should have made a statement basically saying we got beat fair and square and it's an unfortunate mistake by Legia.
As I said either way we were going to be put in place of Legia, but we should have shown them some support as their error was tiny and had no impact on the result at all.
Instead the way we handled ourselves was disrespectful.
Like when Legia appealed, Celtic said they were "disappointed" - what do they expect Legia to do? roll over and accept getting kicked out after absolutely humiliating us?
{Ed007's Note - Yes. They broke the rules by fielding an ineligible player and they should have accepted their punishment. Celtic done nothing wrong and weren't disrespectful - whatever that's meant to mean - to anyone.}
8.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 18:29:07
Young Boys are a decent side, be good to avoid them .
9.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 18:50:30
Ed007 . It is surely true Celtic is a club for all, even those who want the club to exit Champions League illegally.
{Ed007's Note - You can't just pick and choose what games you want to play, without there being serious repercussions.}
10.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 19:17:08
They pumped us silly lol and we didn't deserve to go through as was seen against Maribor.
they brought that guy on as a sub in the last 2 minutes and we were already 6-1 down on agg.
If we won 6-1 and fielded a sub in last 2 mins and they kicked us out, not one of us here would say the other team we hammer 6-1 deserves it lol.
{Ed007's Note -. Legia received the standard punishment for for fielding an ineligible player, their opponents (Celtic) were awarded a 3-0 win and so we qualified on away goals with a 4-4 aggregate result, I'd say that had a pretty big bearing on the result. Legia weren't kicked out the competition, they went out on the away goals rule, do you understand that?
So how did you expect UEFA to keep Legia in the competition without us forfeiting it?
And if Celtic made the same stupid mistake I would be fuming but I'd like to think we're far too professionally ran not to know if a player is banned or not.}
11.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 20:37:05
Tesla369. There is no way we should have given way to Legia.
If an athlete gets caught taking drugs, you wouldn't let him keep his medal by arguing that he would have won the race without taking drugs, that has got nothing to do with it.
We may have got lucky on that occasion, but it's not up to a club who followed the rules to take the side of a club who broke them.
Would you say that if we were to win a match with a controversial penalty in the last minute that we should ask the authorities to change the result if it was shown later to be a wrong decision? . This is what you seem to be arguing for.
12.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 20:41:50
Tesla369 I do not know if you know this but Legia blamed a female member of their office staff and SACKED her, hardly the actions of a team with virtue.
13.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 21:03:19
But we had a handicap that no other team taking part had,
14.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 21:53:28
good point Timalloy.
The club secretary is usually the responsible person for ensuring procedures and paperwork are in order. That, would surely include keeping track of bans, rule compliance etc.
I think the original intent of the post was that he felt Celtic should have shown some sympathy.
The question is WHY?
They made a "schoolboy" error by bringing on a player who was not eligible to play. Not rocket science.
As previously pointed out, Legia were given the mandatory punishment.
If Celtic had not scored then Legia would still have gone through even with the punishment.
Bottom and basic line. They cheated and we benefited.
15.) 30 May 2018
30 May 2018 21:59:50
Timalloy Legia knew she wouldn't have the balls to stand up to them.
Tesla369, if you are just a supporter of Scottish Football, I sympathise. With the fact in your association Rangers 1872 and Rangers 2012 cheat with impunity .
Rangers are and were above the laws.
16.) 31 May 2018
30 May 2018 23:24:10
There was absolutely no need for Ed and his "do you know that? " condescending patter.
Also adding things I never suggested. I never once said we should have thrown ourselves out of the tournament.
I'm saying we should have been aware that UEFA would have kicked Legia out regardless and it would have been respectful and good sportsmanship from our end to admit that as a club we recognise that Legia beat us fair and square and we didn't feel they got an advantage.
an 88 minute sub when we are 6-1 down is not an advantage, we got beat fair and square and It would have been good to admit that and give our condolences to Legia before we moved on to the next round.
However our club hit out with things about being disappointed in Legia appealing even though we would have appealed in the same position. I felt our attitude was disrespectful.
{Ed007's Note - Did you say this?:
"Our board should have done the decent thing and asked UEFA to keep Legia in."
That's all you need to answer, a simple yes or no question.}
17.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 06:05:00
Nevermind the bollox. They broke the rules by being incredibly naive and we capitalised. Are we in the sympathy game now?
18.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 07:43:58
Europe next season, their must be improvement defensively. We will see the usual "we need to spend 10 billion" patter
but it's not stopped the likes of BATE qualifying as much as us and on a fraction of our budget.
there is zero excuse for conceding 6/ 7 goals a game as regularly as we do against big sides.
We weren't outspending them in the past when getting some decent results so makes no sense why we can't now.
No reason why we can't be a solid Europa league side like Ajax or Marseille have been recently.
19.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 09:08:27
Legia broke the rules. End of. We should have let them go forward? Feck me, talk about bollocks?
The mental season is well and truly here.
20.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 09:43:21
Yes Ed, as said state that we didn't deserve to go through (which we didn't)
Say to UEFA we supported Legia to go through if possible. Which UEFA wouldn't have done anyway.
Then our club don't look like a desperate, greedy and low level.
We got hammered 6-1 on the pitch, 11 vs 11. The broken rule on the 88th min of the 2nd leg had zero impact on the result.
FC Sion game was different, they played 5 players that were not supposed to play and that impacts the result.
Even at that though losing to the likes of Sion was embarrassing as well.
{Ed007's Note - So how could we have asked UEFA to keep Legia in the tournament without us forfeiting our place?}
21.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 11:40:44
Tesla369. We are talking about a situation where millions of pounds are at stake. It's not the egg and spoon race at a school sports day.
If I drive at 35mph in a 30 limit, I can't argue that I shouldn't get fined because it was only slightly over the limit and nobody was hurt. The rule is there and it's nobody's fault but mine if I get caught.
I don't imagine that the rest of the clubs in the competition would have been too impressed if Legia had been allowed through after breaking the rules. They would then think that they could break the rules without sanction. It would lead to chaos.
22.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 12:31:44
Simple Ed, UEFA were going to enforce the rule regardless of what we thought of it.
So even if we shown support for Legia we would still go through, still have a chance to get CL money.
However we would have also gained respect for publicly supporting a team which fairly beat us.
So it was a win/ win for us to support Legia cos we wouldn't have had to give up our spot even if we wanted to.
It's a more sportsman and diplomatic thing to do, to show respect to a team who played very well and had us chasing shadows.
{Ed007's Note -
23.) 31 May 2018
31 May 2018 14:40:13
Good response mate, enjoy your 12th birthday next week.
{Ed007's Note -