UEFA Playoff Round Draws Complete!

A preview of this weeks matches following a favourable outcome for all five sides

The Playoff round draws for each of UEFA’s three competitions were completed earlier today, with favourable outcomes for all five Scottish teams - given the options they each faced. Every season the fate of the Scottish teams in Europe seems to lie with the “luck of the draw gods”; so hopefully they continue to smile on us this season.

Following the last minute defeat Hibs suffered on Thursday evening, I read lots of (understandable) posts on social media from rival fans taking joy in Hibee heartache. In response, I posted on my twitter account a reminder of what awaits Scottish football if we don’t arrest the slide in the coefficient - something which will take a huge collective effort.

This tweet was seen by over 800,000 people, with a lot of the shares coming from fans that did not realise just how perilous the coefficient situation was. A warm Hello to the tens of new subscribers that signed up to this website as a result of seeing the tweet - I hope you enjoy the content here, where I cover lots of niche aspects of Scottish football, especially the coefficient.

We started the season in 17th position, and have already lost ground on some of the rival nations above us. The actual points earned in qualifiers will of course help, but they will make up less than 20% of our overall total. The main aim in July and August is to keep progressing to the next round with as many teams as possible still in Europe, with the ultimate aim of reaching the league phases with more teams than any of our rivals.

All five Scottish clubs are still in by QR3 - which is an improvement on some seasons - and if all five are still in by the playoff round, today’s draw has certainly provided a massive opportunity for them all.

A recap of each team’s opponents, followed by other nations results to look out for this week now follows. But first - a question I get asked a lot on social media:

WHICH TOURNAMENT TO QUALIFY FOR?