If I were you I'd be keeping an eye on who is finishing 3rd in the French and Italian leagues and who is finishing 4th in La Liga and the Bundesliga to see what pool of opponents you can expect.
You must have sent that while I was typing mine. No point us speculating about who we might get in the group if we don't even get there.
My bad - and see edit to my post above. We'll definitely be seeded for the qualifiers. We're currently 10th highest in the UEFA rankings, with only Juve who can feasibly overtake us if they win the CL this year. Real, Barca, Bayern, Chelsea, Benfica, Porto, Arsenal and Juve have already qualified for the groups and Schalke haven't qualified. Atletico are the only side ranked higher than us who might also be in the play off round, and that's unlikely. Five seeded teams will almost certainly be Utd, Leverkusen, Sevilla / Valencia, and Napoli and Monaco if they both qualify.
I can't see our coefficient or whatever will have dropped that much by being out of Europe for ONE season. We were CL quarter finalists the year before.
Right now: French league 3rd place is Monaco, but they can still be caught by Marseille Serie A 3rd place is currently Lazio but they can still be caught by Napoli La Liga 4th place is currently Valencia, but they can still pip Atletico for 3rd or get pipped for 4th by Sevilla Bundesliga 4th place is Leverkeusen and that cannot change If I were you I would check the coefficients of the clubs I have highlighted, also check the Portugese league aswell, as they may have a decent enough coefficient
Weird...how have United earnt 2.7 points of European coeffifients for 14/15 when they havent played in Europe? Looking at those stats on the UEFA site, you should be okay regardless.
Clubs get 20% of their country's coefficient added to their score each season. That's pretty much the only reason Liverpool weren't seeded fourth in their group this year... The biggest risk for us would actually be if Marseille, Lazio or Roma qualified, as they might not be seeded and we'd have to play them. Although tbh if we can't beat any of those three in a two legged match then we wouldn't deserve to be in the CL in the first place!
Indeed. Though I hadn't figured that with the influx of mega clubs, that being seeded may actually be a disadvantage in this day and age. Just saying, with the possibility of playing a tough club in the qualifier, actually getting to the group stage should not be taken for granted.
Depends which cash influxed opponents that are unseeded qualify. Like Napoli for example are ranked 21st, so may not be seeded, yet if they qualify, they would be a much harder proposition than say Shahktar Donetsk, who are ranked higher and could therefore be seeded.
Of course you can't take it for granted, any more than you can take getting out of the group stage or winning the second round match if you win the group for granted. But being seeded will still never be a disadvantage - would you rather risk being drawn against Lazio or be almost certain of getting Valencia, Leverkusen, Napoli or Monaco? And ultimately even if you face a newly enriched club a top club should still have the ability to get past them in the early years before they earn their own seeding - look how long it took City to get any CL traction.
But like I said, there are powerful clubs who could get into the qualifiers, who could end up unseeded. Zenit for example, are ranked higher than AC or Inter......but which would you rather face? (Though neither Milan clubs look like they will qualify this year)
Any club in any league that went from 7th to 4th and secured qualification to the CL would consider it a success. Success is relative afterall so based on everything, yes its been a success. The doom mongers will of course claim its been a disaster and how the clubs is rubbish, the players are rubbish and the manager is rubbish and how unimpressive it all is. The negativety is ****ing boring. Weve been in thr top 4 almost all season. Liverpool got as close as two points away, once..... Most of you have been in a hilarious meltdown though.... No idea why. Theres been many highlights this season. Battering almost all out rivals for one thing. Refinding our home form for another. Have a bit of confidence in the club. Weve done what we set out to do with room to spare. If it isnt a success because we didny win a trophy... I can only feel sorry for you.
Didn't Liverpool get them one year? Think it was the year they had to start at the first qualifying round (2006?).
There are, but then that's the case in any stage of the competition. There are also powerful clubs like Real and Arsenal who will now end up second seeds in the groups, when the first seeds will probably include Zenit and PSV. And you could end up like we did in 2013 - winning the group and facing Real who finished 2nd. Nothing can prevent a club getting a bad draw, but ultimately you are less likely to get one if you are seeded compared to it you aren't.
Wouldn't it have been easier (and saved 2 pages on this thread) if we'd simply finished 3rd or god forbid 2nd? #restedonourlaurels
Would have been nice but then we would argue over why we didnt win the title and if we won the title, we'd argue over why we didnt win the champions league. #differentviewpoints
