UEFA Europa Conference League - Alkmaar, Legia and Zrinjski

[AV82EC]

If anyone’s interested or has a love of overblown nonsense with UEFA suits drawing plastic balls from serving dishes the Europa Conference League Play off draw is live at 1pm on UEFA.tv.

[AV82EC]

Sturm Graz v Slovan Bratislva
Servette v Ludogorets
Union St Gilloise v Eintracht Frankfurt
Real Betis v Dinamo Zagreb
Olympiacos v Ferencvaros
Ajax v Bodo/Glimt
Molde v Legia Warsaw
Maccabi Haifa v Gent

[Hookeysmith]

Presumably Warsaw will be playing with no fans again

[PeterWithe]

They are not allowed to take travelling fans, I dont think they were banned from home games but I might have got that wrong.

[hipkiss92]

Sturm Graz v Slovan Bratislva
Servette v Ludogorets
Union St Gilloise v Eintracht Frankfurt
Real Betis v Dinamo Zagreb
Olympiacos v Ferencvaros
Ajax v Bodo/Glimt
Molde v Legia Warsaw
Maccabi Haifa v Gent

Would be happy with the winners of either Real Betis / Dinamo Zagreb or Olympiacos / Ferencvaros ties as a glamour fixture for our Round of 16 game.

[PeterWithe]

If anyone’s interested or has a love of overblown nonsense with UEFA suits drawing plastic balls from serving dishes the Europa Conference League Play off draw is live at 1pm on UEFA.tv.

Ah right, so this is the 'extra' game we avoided by winning the group.

[AV82EC]

As easy as possible please so the winner of the Sturm Graz/Slovak Bratislava or Servette/Ludogorets. Or maybe Maccabi Haifa/Gent.

[UK Redsox]

Da Beeb

Aston Villa are favourites to win the Conference League according to our Euro Club Index. Villa are ranked 21st in Europe and the highest ranked team they could draw in the last-16 is Real Betis (29th).

However, the Spanish team have to first negotiate the knockout play-off round tie against Dinamo Zagreb after being surprised by Rangers in the Europa League last week.

There are only three possible last-16 opponents for Villa amongst the top 64 teams in Europe according to our index - Real Betis (29th), Eintracht Frankfurt (44th) and Union Saint-Gilloise (49th).

[AV82EC]

If anyone’s interested or has a love of overblown nonsense with UEFA suits drawing plastic balls from serving dishes the Europa Conference League Play off draw is live at 1pm on UEFA.tv.

Yep

Ah right, so this is the 'extra' game we avoided by winning the group.

[rob_bridge]

I think the bye for winning the groups in 2nd and 3rd competitions is a really good incentive and removes some of the dead rubbers.
Does anyone know if they are planning something similar in Champions League next year

[UK Redsox]

I think the bye for winning the groups in 2nd and 3rd competitions is a really good incentive and removes some of the dead rubbers.
Does anyone know if they are planning something similar in Champions League next year

Yes....ish

The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition. Teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated, with no access to the UEFA Europa League.

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0268-12157d69ce2d-9f011c70f6fa-1000--new-format-for-champions-league-post-2024-everything-you-ne/

[usav]

Champions league will be a completely different format next year.  Moving to 8 games in a “Swiss league” format.

[LeeB]

Champions league will be a completely different format next year.  Moving to 8 games in a “Swiss league” format.

It's mental, I'm playing through it on Football Manager.

[Richard E]

Unfair on Ajax that they have to beat both Bodo AND Glimt.

[DeKuip]

I think the bye for winning the groups in 2nd and 3rd competitions is a really good incentive and removes some of the dead rubbers.
Does anyone know if they are planning something similar in Champions League next year

It changes completely next season - four team groups will be a thing of the past. Everyone plays in one big 36 team group but plays eight games against eight different opponents. Top eight go through to last 16 and the teams finishing 9th to 24th go into a play off round. Same or similar with the other two competitions.
So that’s an extra two group dates to fit in, and there’ll still be dead rubbers, maybe even more.