Battles for important ranking positions

[Lubomir25]

That's not so easy.
Many teams can reach top15 when they have only 4 teams and easy points in the first QR.

But it gets more difficult to fight with #12 leagues who start with 2-3 teams already in GS.
Scotland will have to put unseeded Aberdeen in GS through many rounds just neutralize Lugano, Jablonec, Wolfsberger etc

It depends how far the Old Firm go, back in the mid to late 00s Scotland were top 9-12 with only the odd season where another team helped out

[og2002gr]

Ι guess this isn't so easy anymore.
Current access list gives many direct EL GS spots to top12.

[Funkmaster]

That's not so easy.
Many teams can reach top15 when they have only 4 teams and easy points in the first QR.

But it gets more difficult to fight with #12 leagues who start with 2-3 teams already in GS.
Scotland will have to put unseeded Aberdeen in GS through many rounds just neutralize Lugano, Jablonec, Wolfsberger etc

It depends how far the Old Firm go, back in the mid to late 00s Scotland were top 9-12 with only the odd season where another team helped out

Celtic would need to improve a lot to make Scotland a top12/15 contender. Now they are far below clubs like Ajax, PSV, Salzburg or Olympiakos. Rangers would need to improve also, they didn‘t look that good last season in GS.

Many countries have the potential to join top15 for 1-2 seasons. But it takes more to stay there. When you look back the past 5 years 13 of the 15 countries in the top15 stayed the same.
There were only 2 changes: 3 years ago Austria replaced Romania in top15 and this year Croatia Switzerland. Coincidence? I think not. Top15 stays pretty much the same.

[Lubomir25]

That's not so easy.
Many teams can reach top15 when they have only 4 teams and easy points in the first QR.

But it gets more difficult to fight with #12 leagues who start with 2-3 teams already in GS.
Scotland will have to put unseeded Aberdeen in GS through many rounds just neutralize Lugano, Jablonec, Wolfsberger etc

It depends how far the Old Firm go, back in the mid to late 00s Scotland were top 9-12 with only the odd season where another team helped out

Celtic would need to improve a lot to make Scotland a top12/15 contender. Now they are far below clubs like Ajax, PSV, Salzburg or Olympiakos. Rangers would need to improve also, they didn‘t look good last season in GS.

Many countries have the potential to join top15 for 1-2 seasons. But it takes more to stay there. When you look back the past 5 years 13 of the 15 countries in the top15 stayed the same.
There were only 2 changes: 3 years ago Austria replaced Romania in top15 and this year Croatia Switzerland. Coincidence? I think not. Top15 stays pretty much the same.

I disagree with your observation all those teams are miles ahead., AEK were the greek champions least year, and they deserved to knock Celtic out but there was not a lot in it. I would also fancy Celtics chances against the swiss champions Young boys - Basel just knocked PSV out.

Ajax and Salzburg are clearly better teams by a lot more than PSV and Olympiacios.

I am aware how good teams need to be to stay top 12 - Scotland spent a long time there.

Rangers are improving year on year and with that push Celtic will as well - unlike Austria i think you will see in the next few years both the Old Firm will reguarly play in the knock out stages of Europe again

[nogomet]

Scotland and Hungary have (temporarily) the best Country Coefficients for this season

Not really. Scotland is #1, but Hungary is still only #6 currently.

[wannabeontop]

Scotland and Hungary have (temporarily) the best Country Coefficients for this season

Not really. Scotland is #1, but Hungary is still only #6 currently.

He means among countries that actually played games this season so far (and not just 1 like Germany).

[nogomet]

Scotland and Hungary have (temporarily) the best Country Coefficients for this season

Not really. Scotland is #1, but Hungary is still only #6 currently.

He means among countries that actually played games this season so far (and not just 1 like Germany).

I'm pretty sure he meant the overall ranking including all 55 associations, because if you exclude top countries, Scotland and Hungary were #1 and #2 last week also. Nothing changed last night from that perspective.

[EarlofBug]

Not really. Scotland is #1, but Hungary is still only #6 currently.

He means among countries that actually played games this season so far (and not just 1 like Germany).

I'm pretty sure he meant the overall ranking including all 55 associations, because if you exclude top countries, Scotland and Hungary were #1 and #2 last week also. Nothing changed last night from that perspective.

I thought that Hungary went to the 2nd place after yesterday matches. I rushed, sorry for the wrong calculation.

[wannabeontop]

With a draw?

[V Yo-Yo]

Scotland is quickly catching up, I am interested to see how far they can go this season. A repeat of last season would be a success in my opinion.

[Ginaro]

Scotland really needs two clubs in either group stage to match last season's score. Though Celtic in the UEL group stage would at least replace the 4.000 that dropped off the total. And even if we don't get to 15-17th this season, we only lose 3.000 next season so we'll start in a higher position.

A lot will depend on Monday's draw - Celtic will be looking to avoid Young Boys, Rangers and Aberdeen need to avoid the strongest teams (assuming they all get through of course).

[nikola_belgrade]

Serbia lost too many points in early rounds - Radnicki Nis against Flora, Red Star against Suduva and Helsinki.

Now only way to give some kind of fight would be to put both - Red Star and Partizan - into GS.

But in reality our league is closer to 20th position, it's hard to fight for 15th without constantly having two clubs with a lot of points. Though, Croatia with Dinamo is maybe exception.

[Firnen]

Serbia lost too many points in early rounds - Radnicki Nis against Flora, Red Star against Suduva and Helsinki.

Now only way to give some kind of fight would be to put both - Red Star and Partizan - into GS.

But in reality our league is closer to 20th position, it's hard to fight for 15th without constantly having two clubs with a lot of points. Though, Croatia with Dinamo is maybe exception.

Croatia has the same clubs in Europe EVERY year, which results in them getting seeded status in many rounds.

[Kerberos]

Serbia lost too many points in early rounds - Radnicki Nis against Flora, Red Star against Suduva and Helsinki.

Now only way to give some kind of fight would be to put both - Red Star and Partizan - into GS.

But in reality our league is closer to 20th position, it's hard to fight for 15th without constantly having two clubs with a lot of points. Though, Croatia with Dinamo is maybe exception.

Denmark has not had 2 teams for some years now.

[amenina]

The battle for the bottom four places (52-55) are over, which means the four associations playing in the 2021-22 UCL preliminary round will be:
Kosovo, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino

For reference, here are the associations playing in the UCL PR since the new format has been introduced:
2018-19 (last season): Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino, Kosovo (host: Gibraltar; won by: Kosovo)
2019-20 (this season): Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino, Kosovo (host: Kosovo; won by: Kosovo)
2020-21 (next season): Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Andorra, San Marino (host: TBD; won by: TBD)
2021-22 (two seasons later): Kosovo, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino (host: TBD; won by: TBD)