29 Jul 2025 21:38:39
I read if Rangers win tomorrow it will be guaranteed Europa League group stages and the bonus is a shot at the Champions league we have a 2-0 advantage the game is hugely important to guarantee either Europa League or a chance for the Champions league.
29 Jul 2025 21:54:02
No it isn't.
29 Jul 2025 21:54:39
I don't think I've been more nervous ahead of a game before.
29 Jul 2025 22:00:55
Beat pana and there are a further 3rd qualifier and play off to get by, Europa is guaranteed only after the CL playoff, lose at the 3rd and its a playoff for Europa/ Conference result depending.
Thinking I'm the only one who sees this along with Star, either that or I'm completely bonkers and wrong, don't think I am, but on that note I'm done trying to explain it, have fun working it out???.
29 Jul 2025 22:06:08
Because of the posts on what route we're going to go EHL ?.
29 Jul 2025 22:07:09
Let's just win it tomorrow night make it easier for everyone
2-1 the Gers bring it on.
29 Jul 2025 22:09:15
Guys have had different opinions on this all day and is Fork correct here?
29 Jul 2025 22:16:19
Yes I am???.
29 Jul 2025 22:16:35
That's right get past Pana and we ARE in the Europa Group stage.
29 Jul 2025 22:19:30
Fork, this is hugely confusing. At the press conference with RM in Athens earlier today a journalist asked RM how big an achievement it would be to just get through this tie and guarantee group stage European football. RM said it would be huge for the club. So he clearly thinks getting past Pana ensures European group stage football.
29 Jul 2025 22:35:14
We go through against Pana then we are guaranteed Europa League group stage football regardless of what happens against Servette/ Viktoria Plzen when we meet them. Similar situation to when we bowed out against Kiev last year in that 3rd Qualifying round.
If we are caught tomorrow and Pana somehow progress it gets complicated. We drop into 3rd Qualifying round of Europa against I would imagine Shaktar Donetsk who carry a 4-2 lead into their home leg against Besiktas. We win against Donetsk/ Besiktas we have a knock out round tie left to progress to Europa league but would be guaranteed Conference League group stage. Lose against Donetsk/ Besiktas we go direct to last chance saloon a knock out round for the Conference League and theoretically opens up possibility of an early exit from Europe all together if we lose it.
Job is half done against Panathinaikos, we just need to get it over the line tomorrow night to avoid all that messy business.
29 Jul 2025 22:38:18
That's not the discussion Bear, people think Europa is guaranteed if we win, it isn't, lose and European football is more or likely guaranteed unless losing to shaktar/ besitkas its a conference playoff lose and we're out.
Definitely the last comment on this, 2 days of mind numbing, exact same arguments as last year, somebody else can do it next year.
29 Jul 2025 22:39:45
BearBlue conference is group stage mate.
29 Jul 2025 22:40:45
Stig, I'm just glad we've got 30+ players in the squad, as it looks like we're definitely playing in multiple competitions.
29 Jul 2025 22:49:24
It's in The Scotsman if we get past Pana we're guaranteed the Europa group stage.
29 Jul 2025 22:56:51
You are 100% wrong Robert we are not, European group stage maybe, but we are not guaranteed Europa group stage until CL playoff.
29 Jul 2025 23:19:05
Fork, you're wrong on this one mate.
We're in the "League" pathway, in which of you lose in the third qualifying round (the one before the playoff round) you go directly into the Europa League phase.
It's only the "Champions" path, such we're not in, who go into the Europa playoff.
It's all explained on the UEFA website and they even have the teams, including us, listed along with who goes where:
Second qualifying round
Teams involved
Champions path: 24 (Ten enter in this round, along with the 14 winners of the first qualifying round)
League path: 6 (enter in this round)
First legs: 22/ 23 July 2025
Champions path
RFS 1-4 Malmö
Hamrun Spartans 0-3 Dynamo Kyiv
Pafos 1-1 M. Tel-Aviv
Lincoln Red Imps 0-1 Crvena Zvezda
Noah 1-2 Ferencváros
Lech Poznań 7-1 Breidablik
Copenhagen 2-0 Drita
Rijeka 0-0 Ludogorets
Shkëndija 1-0 FCSB
Slovan Bratislava 4-0 Zrinjski
Shelbourne 0-3 Qarabağ
KuPS Kuopio 2-0 Kairat Almaty
League path
Brann 1-4 Salzburg
Viktoria Plzeň 0-1 Servette
Rangers 2-0 Panathinaikos
Second legs: 29/ 30 July 2025
Champions path
Kairat Almaty 3-0 KuPS Kuopio (agg: 3-2)
Dynamo Kyiv 3-0 Hamrun Spartans (agg: 6-0)
Drita 0-1 Copenhagen (agg: 0-3)
Crvena Zvezda 5-1 Lincoln Red Imps (agg: 6-1)
Zrinjski 2-2 Slovan Bratislava (agg: 2-6)
Qarabağ vs Shelbourne
Malmö vs RFS
Ludogorets vs Rijeka
FCSB vs Shkëndija
M. Tel-Aviv vs Pafos
Ferencváros vs Noah
Breidablik vs Lech Poznań
League path
Panathinaikos vs Rangers
Salzburg vs Brann
Servette vs Viktoria Plzeň
How does it work?
• The winners of each tie advance to the third qualifying round of their respective path.
• Defeated sides of each tie switch to the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round of their respective path.
Third qualifying round
Teams involved
Champions Path: 12
League Path: 8 (five enter in this round, along with the three winners of the second qualifying round)
First legs: 5/ 6 August 2025
Champions Path
RFS/ Malmö vs Copenhagen
Kairat Almaty vs Slovan Bratislava
Lech Poznań/ Breidablik vs Crvena Zvezda
Rijeka/ Ludogorets vs Noah/ Ferencváros
Dynamo Kyiv vs Pafos/ Maccabi Tel-Aviv
Shkëndija/ FCSB vs Shelbourne/ Qarabağ
League Path
Brann/ Salzburg vs Club Brugge
Rangers/ Panathinaikos vs Viktoria Plzeň/ Servette
Nice vs Benfica
Feyenoord vs Fenerbahçe
Second legs: 12 August 2025
Champions Path
Copenhagen vs RFS/ Malmö
Slovan Bratislava vs Kairat Almaty
Crvena Zvezda vs Lech Poznań/ Breidablik
Noah/ Ferencváros vs Rijeka/ Ludogorets
Pafos/ Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs Dynamo Kyiv
Shelbourne/ Qarabağ vs Shkëndija/ FCSB
League Path
Club Brugge vs Brann/ Salzburg
Viktoria Plzeň/ Servette vs Rangers/ Panathinaikos
Benfica vs Nice
Fenerbahçe vs Feyenoord
How does it work?
• The winners of each tie advance to the play-off round of their respective path.
• Defeated sides in the champions path switch to the UEFA Europa League play-off round.
• Defeated sides in the league path switch to the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.
29 Jul 2025 23:26:55
Fork I don't think you are. UEFA website (link below just copy and paste in browser) says this and we are in the league path:
-Defeated sides in the champions path switch to the UEFA Europa League play-off round.
-Defeated sides in the league path switch to the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.
UEFA page
29 Jul 2025 23:38:33
Gdog, So the defeated side in the champions pathway play a play off round for Europa, but league pathway don't, this will be the confusing part.
29 Jul 2025 23:44:28
Forks right Gdog. And you've just proved it. We're only playing 2nd qualifier v pana .
30 Jul 2025 00:09:11
Some of you guys have real issues with reading comprehension. ?
It literally says it on UEFA's website, which Angus and I have both copied for you.
Yes My Star, according to UEFA the "League" pathway benefits through one less tie to qualify than the "Champions" pathway. I don't know why, but that's what UEFA say.
And No Bazbear, read it again. If we beat Pana in the second playoff we go into the Third Playoff. If we lose the third playoff, as "league" pathway, we go direct into the Europa Groups, we don't go into the Europa Playoff (which was Forks position)
So, as had been said by a few people:
IF WE GET THROUGH TOMORROW, WE'RE IN EUROPA GROUP STAGE REGARDLESS.
Unless, of course, UEFA have made an arse of their own website and you guys know better. ?.
30 Jul 2025 03:06:43
Why can't u see that it's after the CL play off you are posting that same as OT;
The winners of each tie advance to the play-off round of their respective path.
• Defeated sides in the champions path switch to the UEFA Europa League play-off round.
• Defeated sides in the league path switch to the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.
This is after the playoff round not the 3rd qualifier
U talk about reading, u look n are not seeing.
30 Jul 2025 03:13:43
Defeated sides of each tie switch to the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round of their respective path.
Qualifying round not league phase.
30 Jul 2025 03:26:10
Gdog you do realise you are posting the exact same as I did previously and are still not seeing it correctly
"The winners of each tie advance to the play-off round of their respective path".
that's the phrase you are misinterpreting, the 2 bullet points after are in relation to the play off not the 3rd qualifier you are wrong, Europa is not guaranteed after the pana game 100%.
30 Jul 2025 05:51:32
Soooooo if we win are we guaranteed European football????.
30 Jul 2025 07:09:02
I'm with gdog and Angus - go through tonight and we're guaranteed group stage football.
30 Jul 2025 08:14:11
I have posted that I was wrong in a few places, so have fun taking the mince??.
30 Jul 2025 08:22:32
Sorry Fork, but that's not what it's saying at all. That's not an "in order" list, that's an "if this then that" list, with the if this being:
- Win the tie
- Lose the tie (champions path)
- Lose the tie (league pathway)
If it was a linear order list, they would be contradicting themselves by the detail for the playoff round:
How does it work?
• The winners of each tie advance to the league phase.
• All defeated sides switch to the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.
If your interpretation of a linear order was correct, they'd be saying here that all teams drop into the Europa Group stage and play in the Champions League Group stage at the same time.
Obviously that can't happen and they haven't changed the logic on how they represent the data in the last tie, so no, that list isn't linear. It's not saying "you progress to x round and if you lose the you go here" because that would make no sense in the context of the whole page (as above) .
It's an "If this then that" list for that round with 3 potential conditions.
30 Jul 2025 08:47:30
I already answered you Gdog, I interpreted it wrong as in your post and all mine there was no 3rd round heading attached or posted like the link Angus submitted, various UEFA sites added to the confusion.
See below bud
Third qualifying round
The winners of each tie advance to the play-off round of their respective path.
• Defeated sides in the champions path switch to the UEFA Europa League play-off round.
• Defeated sides in the league path switch to the league phase of the UEFA Europa League.
From Angus Post specific to 3rd round with the heading above not include in some sites, hence my confusion, I was wrong guilty as charged, build my gallows ??.
30 Jul 2025 11:15:44
Your post hadn't been posted mate, so I hadn't seen it.
To be fair to you, I can see why you interpreted this way, so that's on UEFA for not being totally clear. We shouldn't have to deduce their intent by comparing their own logic between rounds to see what fits.
30 Jul 2025 12:09:46
Correct mate??.