Scots clubs all ready to begin Euro adventures
SCOTTISH sides will find out their European fates today as the draws for the qualifying rounds of the Champions League and Europa League take place.
Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic faithful will have their fingers crossed as the Scottish champions aim to reach the group stage of European football’s top club tournament for the first time in three years.
The opponents for the first competitive match of Rodgers’ (inset) reign at Parkhead will emerge when the second round of qualifying is drawn at 11am in Nyon. Swedish champions IFK Norrkoping, Hungarian side Ferencvaros or Dundalk from the Republic of Ireland are all among the clubs potentially lying in wait when the ties take place on July 12/13 and 19/20.
Should the Parkhead club progress to the third round of qualifying they would be seeded in the ‘Champions’ side of the draw featuring 20 domestic title winners. Potential opponents at that stage include FK Astana of Kazakhstan, Norway’s Rosenborg and Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade.
Celtic would once more be seeded if they make it through to the playoff round where they could come up against Danish champions FC Copenhagen or Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb. There could even be a reunion with Legia Warsaw, who knocked Celtic out of the Champions League qualifiers under Ronny Deila in 2014 only for the Scots to win a short-lived reprieve when it emerged the Poles had fielded an ineligible player.
Meanwhile, Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen will all find out their Europa League opponents as their respective continental adventures get underway.
Aberdeen and Hearts will both be seeded in the first round and could face Cliftonville of Northern Ireland, Welsh side Connah’s Quay, Malta’s Hibernians FC or a nightmare trip to Azerbaijan to face Kapaz PFK or Kazakhstan to face Ordabasy Shymkent. Ties take place on June 30 and July 7.
From there on in, the obstacles in the way increase markedly with English Premier League outfit West Ham, French side Lille or Russia’s Spartak Moscow all awaiting in the third round of qualification.
With teams of that strength joining even before the final play-off round, Hearts boss Robbie Neilson admits it would be a ‘phenomenal achievement’ to become the first Scottish team outwith Rangers or Celtic to reach the group stage of the Europa League since Jimmy Calderwood’s Dons had their run in the tournament halted in the last 32 by Bayern Munich in 2008.
‘We want to try and get into the group stage, as all teams do,’ said Neilson.
‘But it is very difficult for Scottish teams to get through. Aberdeen and ourselves would need to come through four rounds of qualifying to get there and every round will be difficult. It is a tough ask but we want to do it.
‘It would be phenomenal to get there, to be honest with you, especially when you look at the different budgets of teams across Europe.
‘People think these are just teams from wee countries but there are some huge teams from huge countries.
‘I was over in Bratislava a couple of weeks ago and the team (Slovan Bratislava) there had a £12million budget.
‘That’s the kind of team you are up against, so for any Scottish team to get through to the groups would be massive in terms of prestige.
‘But it will require a lot of tough work.’ As Scottish Cup winners, Hibs, now managed by Neil Lennon, enter at the second round of qualifying and will be unseeded alongside Derek McInnes’ Aberdeen, who last year beat Holland’s Groningen and Croatian outfit Rijeka before falling to big spending Kazakhstan side Kairat Almaty. In the second round, Hibs and Aberdeen could face the likes of Israel’s Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Slovenia’s Maribor and the Belgian side Racing Genk. Hearts, who will still be seeded for the second qualifying stage, could meet teams including Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers, Poland’s Cracovia or FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein.
And Neilson admits Euro fever is currently sweeping through Gorgie ahead of the club’s first continental tie since pushing starstudded Liverpool — featuring Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling — close over two legs in August 2012.
He said: ‘It’s exciting, it’s something different for the players as well as the staff.
‘Generally in Scotland you play each other four, five or six times in a season. You know each other. But in Europe we will be preparing for teams we don’t know. You have to travel, prepare properly and it’s all a good experience.
‘We have to work hard and the players have to be right on the night.’