Qualification for the 2019/20 Champs League has begun.

The first qualifying round (over two legs) is completed:

Celtic have progressed. The Scottish League is not the strongest as we know.

Second Rnd:

Celtic, Basel, Rosenborg, Copenhagen, Red Star, Dinamo Zagreb, Bate Borisov, Olympiacos, PSV Eindhoven, Viktoria Pilzen are competing this round.

Third Round Teams to enter -

Champions Path:
Ajax
Porto

League Path:

Dinamo Kyiv
Club Brugge
Instanbull BB.
Winner of Basel v PSV
Winner of Pilzen v Olympiacos

First Round Qualifying:

Fixed the image scale.

Second Round Qualifying:

Enter the Champions Path and League Path.

There is one round after this.

Moderators please delete ^ above post HarryCallum.

Round Two returns tonight so if someone is going to post the odds, let it be me.

Olympiakos or Draw x2
Basel to win.
Copehagen

Are my picks for the non-champions Path.

--

BATE (1.)
Cluj (1.) or Maccabi Tel-Aviv (To win or draw x2. Double Chance)
Dundalk (Double chance 1x)
HJH Helskini or Draw (Double chance x2) .

Bolter:

HJK Helsinki good odds @13/1 for $10.00 just for the win.

50/50 Matches:

TNS vs Copenhagen
Cfr Cluj v Maccabi

-- Both could go either way.

Safer bet:

Olympiakos for an away win 3/1.

Oh, I completely missed this. Good stuff as usual Ledley.

Second Round, Results from First Leg 1/2

Goal of the Round:

Leigh Griffiths free kick vs Nomme Kalju was out of team for 1 year.

Second Round, return Leg:

This moves us into the Third Round Qualifying ⚽️

Few more legs to be completed tonight.

Ledley's Tipping:

1. HJk Helsinki or Draw. (1x) Red Star to Qualify.
2. Maribor (2.)
3. Dundalk to qualify. Scoring a draw in this one. (x.)
4. Bate
5. Copenhagen.

Bolter: TNS or Draw (7/1) at 10.00

Safe Bet. Bate Borisov away win. 5/1 for $10.00.

Completed Round Two Results.

Now we get to the business >>:

Enter:

• Ajax (Champions of NEL)
• PAOK (Champions of Greece)
• Istanbull BB (No Adebayor)
• Kyiv
• Club Brugge
• Linz
• Krasnodar
• FC Porto.

Why is Ajax entering the third qualifying round ? Simple answer: Giannini Infantino awarded more champions league spots to his home country of Italy. It used to be Top 4 for England, Spain, Germany and Top 3 for France, Itay and Portugal based on the UEFA Cofficient.

Previously Ajax would have entered the group stage automatically (as champions of Netherlands in the Champions League). As would FC Porto.

But what about lower ranked leagues and clubs?

Celtic previously entered the Second Qualifying round and Third Qualifying rounds meaning it would be 4 games or 6 to qualify, instead of the now 8 required games.

That is the current status of qualification.

--

Third Round starts in one weeks time on the 7th August first leg.

Losers from the third round drop into the Europa League Play-Off round.

The winners proceed to Fourth Round Qualifying UCL Play-Off Round

Why is Ajax entering the third qualifying round ? Simple answer: Giannini Infantino awarded more champions league spots to his home country of Italy.

Why I have never heard about this? This is seriously annoying to hear.

Otherwise, I'm very suprised to see PSV out. I know Basel is good as well but generally, PSV get much closer to the group stage and when they do reach it, they generally do relatively well. A bit dissapointed.

Yes it is annoying because there will only be six teams out of the 100s who attempt to qualify, and are League champions.

Do you remember in the past, where Premierleague, Spain, Germany had a play off round for teams in 4th?

Arsenal qualified a few times this way. BUT Spanish teams and especially German teams like Monchengladbach, TSG Hoffenheim, would lose in the play-off round.. The other big leagues didn't like this and wanted 4th spot to automatically qualifty instead of enter the League Path of Qualifying.

So sadly we are now left with a total of SIX spots from the qualifiers.

This is from the 2017/18 UCL Season Two Seasons Back

**This is how the FINAL Play-Off Round looked.

Liverpool entered straight into the play off Round and defeated 4th placed Hoffenheim**

The season before, FC Porto defeated Roma 4-1 and Villareal were beaten by Monaco leaving 3 league teams for 2016.

A few seasons before it was Arsenal dispatching Udinese i think in 2011 with similar results of big teams clashing.

Also, Notice above 2017/18 the Champions of Netherlands automatically entered the group stage. Feyenoord Rotterdam.

Third Round Leg 1/2 August 6. League Path.

Third Round Leg 1 of 2. August 7 Champions Path.

Third Round Leg 2/2 tonight. Tried to fit all the games in the screenshot, apologies for the scaling.

Ledley's tips:

1. Qarabag to win (1.) and Both teams to score.
2. Maribor or Draw (x2.)
3. Dynamo Kiev or Draw (1x)
4. FC Copenhagen or draw (1x).
5. Ferencvarosi (1.)
6. Ajax to draw (1x). Ajax to qualify in extra time.
7. LINZ.1.
8. Olympiakos or draw (1x.)
9. No odds for Celtic. But both teams will score.
10. FC Porto to qualify. Game goes to ET.

Bolter:

Ajax vs Paok.. PAOK to win: 11/1 @ $10.00.

Safer bet:

Krasnodar vs Porto. Krasnodar to score over 1.5 goals vs Porto. 4/1.

Damn, Krasnodar beating Porto was one heck of a offset. Feel bad for Celtic as well. I wish they would have won.

If we cannot beat Cluj, we do not deserve to be in the Champions League. With all due respect to Cluj. We were shambolic defensively. Almost like having Jeremy Mathieu playing for Barca and Pinto as your GK. I know we missed Tierney and didn't replace him but Celtic cannot concede 4 goals at home and expect to qualify.

As for Krasnodar, it was 3-0 at half time so credit for Porto for a second half comeback.

As for us, we were 3-2 up but threw it away.

Writing up shortly the draw.

Final results Third Round Qualifying:

The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: Champions Path (for league champions) and League Path (for league non-champions). i.e 2nd and 3rd of higher ranked leagues.