Europe Awaits

Ditto, up there with the very best stadiums in the world. Veltins-arena as well apparently but its not as iconic and sorta trapped in Dortmunds shadow a bit..though the fans give it their all.

 

Ok. I did a conference in Berlin couple of years back, but not somewhere I often. Our factory is 45 minutes south of Frankfurt.

 

So like Darmstadt area?

 

If we get a German team, I will be definitely getting a ticket.

 

Yep. It's in Ladenberg

 

Cool, havent made it that far south yet. Well like i said i'll be back in the Berlin/Brandenburg area from next year hopefully a lot more possibilities to go to games then... but the way things are going it seems its just a matter of time before everyone comes my way to go to the Olympiastadion for some final or another anyway

 

Bloody hell,FLT. Just choked on my croissant. I was checking as I was talking to a group of Bordeaux fans who said they didn't think they'd make Europa League. Anyway, France Telecom have got me up and running again so can check.

FLT, please take a cold shower now!

 

I personally hope that we're drawn against at least three Scottish teams. I wouldn't even need Easyjet!

 

I'd actually love a trip that way. No family trip to the Dordogne this year as the house is hopefully being re-wired. Can't afford both!

 

Can we make this the official saints in Europe thread?

I've a planning question

The way flights and hotels usually work is that it pays to book early as prices rise the more popular demand becomes.

So if you're planning on going to a game will you be arranging travel as soon as the draw is made or wait until you get a match ticket?

Also, Chicken and Egg..which was first?

 

Not wishing to "show-off" but depending where it is, I may be able to take the gamble of buying the flight/hotel first as if I don't get a ticket, I can still use the trip for work.

 

Have Bala town qualified ? I can get there cheap enough

 

Imagine if we ended up getting West Ham

 

It's got to be The New Saints surely? Imagine the coverage for that game. Saints v The New Saints and as we like to consider us as new era Saints under the Liebherr era, it could be New Saints v The New Saints

 

Dortmund lost the German cup final yesterday, so they'll be in the 3rd qualifying round with us, and Schalke will go straight into the group stage.

 

From Wiki, so thankfully that scenario cannot occur

"In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2015 UEFA club coefficients,[25][26][27] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other."

"Home Nation" Teams - All start in 1st qualifying round unless stated

Wales; - Bala Town, Airbus UK Broughton, Newtown
N.I.; - Glentoran, Linfield, Glenavon
Scot; - Aberdeen, St Johnstone, Inverness CL (2nd Quali)
R.O.I; - St Patricks, Cork City, Shamrock Rovers, University College Dublin

As well as the above home nations who will have to win a few games for a potential glamour tie at St Marys, the following sides have automatically qualified for the 3rd round with Southampton and are unlikely to be seeded;

From Romania - Targu Mures
From Turkey - Istanbul Basaksehir
From Israel - Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona F.C
From Cyprus - AEK Larnaca
From Czech Republic - FK Baumit Jablonec

 

Of the 34 sides in the 2nd CL qualifying round, only 8 have a coefficient higher than our 16.078. Thus out of the 17 who qualify for the 3rd CL qualifying round, a minimum of 9 of them will be ranked lower than us. Possibly even more than 9.

The 3rd CL qualifying round is split into two; the "league route" and the "champions route". 10 automatically qualified teams play in the former, 3 automatically qualified teams plus the 17 winners from round two play in the latter. Of the league route, it looks like 9 out of the 10 will be ranked higher than us. So of the 5 losers who will all drop into the EL play-off round, at best only 1 will be ranked lower than us. Of the champions route however, although the 3 automatically qualified teams are all ranked higher than us, there will of course be those 9 (or more) sides ranked lower to us from round 2 helping to make up the 20 teams. It is quite likely therefore that most, if not all, of those 9 (or more) sides will make up the 10 losers from the champions route who will drop into the EL play-off round.

So overall, of the 15 sides who will drop into the EL play-off round, potentially 10 or 11 could be seeded below us. And if that is the case, then we would have an excellent chance of being seeded for the play-off round.

Interesting to see what they do if ourselves and West Ham find ourselves equal 22nd place in the EL play-off round. Who would they give the 22nd, and final, seeding place to, and who would be deemed to be 23rd and unseeded? (We have equal coefficients of 16.028, given that neither of us have played in Europe in recent years - but are both English teams). I would guess we would get it, due to entering at a later qualifying round, but I don't know.

 

A trip to Cyprus might be quite niec!

 

Ah.... I see

*thinks "I'll just wait and see"

 

Would love to play the dons in the qualifiers. That would be amazing to see.