2014/15 UEFA Champions League

[Big Sam]

Just two days after the World Cup final and the second qualifying round of the CL begins.

Notable entrants which featured in last year's group stage are Celtic and Steaua Bucharest.

As it stands, 22 teams have qualified for the group stage. These are the pots in which they are seeded for the draw:

Seeding pot 1: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea, Benfica, Atlético
Seeding pot 1 or 2 (TBD): Schalke, Dortmund
Seeding pot 2: Juventus, PSG, Shakhtar Donetsk, Basel, Manchester City
Seeding pot 2 or 3 (TBD): Olympiacos, CSKA Moscow, Ajax
Seeding pot 3: Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon, Galatasaray
Seeding pot 3 or 4 (TBD): Anderlecht, Roma
Seeding pot 4: Monaco

 

[Bulldog Force]

Seems very weird not seeing Man U there.

 

[ME SO HORNBY!]

Imagine a group like:

Bayern
PSG
Liverpool
Roma

 

[Big Sam]

Celtic as good as out, going down 4-1 to Legia Warsaw. Lille and Besiktas all but through to the final qualifying stage but Zenit lost in Cyprus.

 

[pennywisealfie]

I don't like Celtic at all because they play shitty football. I would be happy pretty much any other time Celtic lost. But f**k Legia and their racism.

 

[Big Sam]

Celtic eliminated 6-1 on aggregate.

Here are the final 20 teams from which will come the last 10 qualifiers:

Champions Route

Seeded: Red Bull Salzburg, Steaua București, APOEL, BATE Borisov, Ludogorets Razgrad
Unseeded: Maribor, Legia Warsaw, Slovan Bratislava, Malmö, Aalborg

League Route

Seeded: Arsenal, Porto, Zenit, Leverkusen, Napoli
Unseeded: Besiktas, Copenhagen, Standard Liege, Lille, Bilbao

 

[Jimbo]

Seems strange that we're already at the Arsenal round, and the league hasn't even started yet

 

[saint.nick]

Celtic reinstated.

 

[Big Sam]

Celtic reinstated.

2nd time in 3 years they've been saved like that.

This time was even bigger BS than last time. The player came on for 2 minutes in a tie that was already won 6-1. No impact whatsoever on the result.

Hope Maribor do a number on them. Don't need any SPL rubbish stinking up Europe.

 

[Big Sam]

Also in the Europa...

KuipTalk
‏@KuipTalk

Feyenoord draws against FC Zorya Luhansk, a club from the area where a rocket was fired that killed 196 Dutch citizens… #MH17

https://twitter.com/KuipTalk/status/497705277169598465

Pretty spooky coincidence.

 

[Jimbo]

Oscar Pistorius has sacked his legal team and hired Celtic

They can lose two legs and still win

 

[Haffa]

Demba, Demba, Demba Ba, Demba Ba, Demba Ba.

 

[Big Sam]

Besiktas could've scored 5. But didn't.

Advantage still the Goners. Even minus Ramsay.

 

[Game_Breaker]

Jeez, after that game 0-0 is a good result

 

[Big Sam]

Karma for Celtic - Maribor through.

Zenit, Porto, APOEL, BATE also through.

 

[Haffa]

I hope we get Besiktas in the next round. Reunion with Ba.

 

[Jimbo]

Could certainly happen

Looking forward to going over all the permutations tomorrow

 

[Jason Maher]

What is this "Champions League", and why should I give a f**k about it?

 

[Jimbo]

What is this "Champions League", and why should I give a f**k about it?

It's a competition for big clubs who get to play against other big clubs from across Europe

There is quite a lot of prestige and money involved

 

[DB]

Europe is for chumps.... We can buy high calibre players like Di Maria with out playing in it.