mat said:
so we have to play one game before the groups whilst spurs could get dicked by some latvian peasent farmers 11 (arry put 5 grand on them before the ties) and end up straight in the group stages?
What a crock of shit.
Well the Champions League is designed to be the tier above the Europa League. If we had won the match against them and qualified for the CL instead, it would be our safety net, remember. But it's not all rosy for Spurs. For a start, they don't get to play any Latvian peasants, that's what we get. For Spurs, because of the way that the CL was restructured for last year, they HAVE to play one of only a handful of other non-champion teams. That means their likely opponents (depending solely on results in the CL 3rd round) are one of the following teams:
Fenerbahçe
Dinamo Kiev
Sporting Braga
Sampdoria
AJ Auxerre
several of which have a higher UEFA coefficient than us. By contrast we will likely face a team such as the following:
Sibir Novosibirsk
Wisla Kraków
Racing Genk
Tavria Simferopol
Karpaty Lviv
Young Boys
Maritimo Funchal
Baník Ostrava
IF Elfsborg
FC Utrecht
Sheriff Tiraspol
DVSC Debrecen
Dundee United
Omonia Nicosia
AIK Stockholm
HJK Helsinki
FK Aktobe
The New Saints