Nothing is impossible, things are just going to get a bit tougher!

The problem is that these qualifying games come so early that it's a level playing field.

Lack of match fitness and sharpness is a big handicap. On paper, Rangers had a better team than both Malmo and Maribor but we saw what happened.

Imagine what it'll be like playing qualifying games in July?

Fair call HtH, hopefully tho the earlier rounds will be against smaller teams, which might help get us ready for the later rounds (or alternatively just see us stuffed by smaller teams).

Professor, you are not in denial.....we are where we are on merit. We need to start stepping up to the plate and deliver results or else we are not good enough! end of.

Im guessing we cant blame our financial situation when we cant beat malmos and marribors, we are not talking about household names!

I think ordinarily we would have gubbed both of them but ....well you know the rest.

The SFA need to start thinking about how they can provide the best competitive platform for Scottish teams if we have to play qualifying games in july.

3 qualifying stages in a couple of years time,

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Sooner than that bud - next year for both 1st & 2nd in the SPL....

The Euros run between 8 June and 1 July 2012 the WC in 2014 12 June – 13 July.

Where does that leave the CL/EL qualifiers?

We lost these 2 qualifying ties against weak opposition.

It was a result of bad management, poor discipline and a total lack of professionalism.

We can't blame finances, the state of scottish football, the time of year or anything else as it was completely our own fault.

Both the OF should be beating this level of opposition more easily........I think we have to look at both managers as a reason for recent Euro failings.

well if we need to start playing qualifiers in june then we really need to consider startimg the league campaign earlier, much earlier that way fitness should not be a problem. Its getting the clowns at the sfa to see sense

No. The point of having to play more qualifiers is that we may not be seeded. Which means we cld face an Italian , German, Spanish or English side in the qualifiers. Which makes it much tougher to qualify for the group stages

Tougher yes esctosh, but maybe that is the problem.

Both OF players get put into this fake you are playing for a good side mentality and think they are better than they are, so they expect to walk past team like the ones who just gubbed us both.

Maybe if we were to face the big guns we would have a better success rate as the players would need to be at their best.

We definitely went into the games thinking we were already through and played nowhere near our best.

Saying that we created enough chances against Malmo and Maribor to win 10 ties we just didn't take them. Happens sometimes.

The answer to get past pub teams in the qualifiers even 3 rounds is...summer football. Thoughts?

I think summer football would help european qualification, I reckon it'd see better football played on better pitches too, maybe appeal to Sky more as well in that the English footy wouldn't be on.

I reckon the transition to a season starting in late Feb/ March might be awkward (although I'm sure some other countries have done it in the last 20 years), also the international tournaments might be an issue,

At the same time whilst I think it would be a good idea and benefitcial to the european campaigns, I still think it's reasonable to think we should be making a better fist of it than we did this season.