Qualifiers.

Here's a look at the teams we can face in the third qualifying round. Remember, we have to play two qualifiers overall: the third qualifying round and then a play-off round.

The good news is that from now on the SPL Champions will not have to face clubs from bigger leagues, because of the new "Champions Route" meaning we will play the Champions of other countries and because Celtic are seeded we will also miss out on playing the likes of Anderlecht or Basel in the third qualifying round, and if we are seeded in the Play-Off round then that too.


Third Qualifying Round-Champions Route

Twenty clubs will participate in this qualifying round: the seventeen winners from the second qualifying round and Celtic, Anderlecht and CFR Cluj.

Since the second qualifying round is not decided, we cannot be certain that these are definitely the clubs we may face in the third qualifying round. However, these teams were seeded for the second qualifying round and are likely to progress:

Celtic could play:

Debrecen
Sheriff Tiraspol
Maribor
Ventspils
Slovan Liberec
Slask Wroclaw
HJK Helsinki
AEL Limassol
Ekranas
Zestafoni.

Yet again, this may not be the case some of these clubs may fail to progress to the third qualifying round. However, you can take comfort in the fact that since they were seeded for the previous qualifying round, then they are the most difficult clubs we can face in this particular qualifier.

If we win this qualifier then we are guaranteed a place in the group stages of the Europa League, regardless of our result in the Play-Off Round.

Third Qualifying Round- Non Champions

This is for Motherwell, if anyone is interested.

Eight clubs will enter at this "Non-Champions" stage and Motherwell will be unseeded, meaning they will play one of these four clubs:

Dynamo Kyiv
Panathanaikos
FC Copenhagen
Fenerbache


*For the Play-Off round I am unsure if the clubs who were seeded in previous rounds are seeded, but Celtic could face any of these clubs (most likely!).

All I know is that the ten winners of the third qualifying round for Champions would play again in the Play-Off round, the other nine clubs would likely be:

Basel
Anderlecht
BATE Borisov
Red Bull Salzburg
Dinamo Zagreb
CFR Cluj
Zilina
Partizan Belgrade
Helsingborg

I assume that five clubs will be seeded, and five unseeded, but I am unsure of which clubs are seeded and which clubs are not. Although, yet again if we are in the worst case scenario and are unseeded, then any one of those nine clubs are the worst we can expect.



Henrik.