ALL OR NOTHING
One-off ties put Scots’ Euro hopes on tightrope
SCOTTISH clubs in Europe next season will face fraught one-legged qualifiers to reach the group stage of the Champions League and Europa League.
UEFA’s executive committee announced yesterday that next season’s rescheduled Champions League qualifying stages will consist of three one-legged matches and then a two-legged play-off to reach the group stage.
That means Celtic, who enter in the first round, kick off the road to Istanbul on August 18 or 19.
The second qualifying round takes place on August 25/26; the third on September 15/16, before the two-legged play-off on September 23/24 and 29/30.
The venue for the one-off qualifiers will be decided by the draw and there will be no away goals. In the event of a stalemate, the matches will go to extra time and then penalties.
These changes will allow the Champions League group stage to continue as originally planned from October 20.
However, Rangers, along with fellow Europa League contenders Motherwell and Aberdeen, must play all of their qualifiers on a one-off basis.
The first qualifying round kicks off on August 27 with round two on September 17 and round three on September 24, before a single play-off tie on October 1.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said: ‘Where the match will be will be decided by the draw. As for whether fans will be allowed to travel, we don’t know yet.’
However, first the Ibrox side must complete this season’s campaign, in which they trail Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on aggregate from their last-16 home leg at Ibrox in March before football was locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The second leg is now on August 5 or 6 but Steven Gerrard and his men are yet to learn whether it will be played at the BayArena or at a neutral venue in Germany.
No newly transferred players will be allowed to play in the remainder of the 2019-20 competition.
But Ianis Hagi, a £3million summer signing from Genk, will be eligible since he was part of the Rangers squad in last season’s tournament while he was on loan from his Belgian parent club.
The quarter-finals onwards in the Europa League will be played over one leg in four German cities: Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen between August 10-21.
The final will now take place in Cologne, with original host venue Gdansk set to host the 2021 event instead.
After the four outstanding last-16 Champions League ties are completed, the quarter-finals onwards will be held on neutral territory in Portugal, with no fans present and over just one leg.
The tournament will come to a climax with a final-eight World
Cup-style tournament, held in Lisbon, from August 12 to 23.
Istanbul, originally appointed to stage the 2020 final, will now host the 2021 final, with St Petersburg staging the 2022 final, Munich the 2023 final and Wembley Stadium the 2024 final. The Women’s Champions League, where Arsenal and Glasgow City have already reached the last eight, will be held in Bilbao and San Sebastian between August 21 and 30. The final will be in San Sebastian on 30 August.
To that end, City say they must be allowed to return to training as soon as possible.
City will take on newly-crowned German champions Wolfsburg in a one-off quarter-final. However, all Scottish football activity is currently suspended with the exception of men’s top-flight first-team squads, who are limited by social-distancing rules.
Wolfsburg have clinched their fourth consecutive title after the Frauen Bundesliga resumed, but a start date for the women’s game in Scotland appears some way off.