Scottish Football in Europe

Review of Season 2002/3
Scotland having secured 16th in the European Rankings at the end of Season 2000/01, this guarantees only 1 Champions League place for Season 2002/3 with 3 UEFA Cup places. European places allocated for the 2002/3 European tournaments are as follows:
Champions (Celtic) 3rd Qualifying Round of Champions League
Cup Winners (Rangers) 1st Round of UEFA Cup
3rd in League (Livingston) Qualifying Round of UEFA Cup
4th in League (Aberdeen) Qualifying Round of UEFA Cup
For this season the Scottish teams were seeded for the various tournaments dependant on each teams UEFA ranking. This is calculated by taking half the country coefficients and adding all points gained by that team (2 for a win 1 for a draw) from the 1st round on, over the previous 5 years in Europe. The Scottish teams rankings and points total used for this season are as follows:-
Team Points Rank
Rangers 46.062 54th
Celtic 36.062 70th
Aberdeen 13.062 193rd
Livingston 13.062 193rd
To see how this compares to other teams in Europe the full list of European club rankings and coefficients at the end of season 2001/2 to be used in season 2002/3 can be seen in the following page:- 2002 Team Ranking
All seedings and results for this years participation in Europe can be seen in the following pages:-
A table containing all rankings points gained by Scottish clubs this season is shown below with points being awarded as follows. In the Qualifying rounds, 1pt is awarded for a win and 0.5 pts for a draw. From the 1st round onwards:- 2 pts are awarded or a win and 1pt for a draw. Celtic receive 1 bonus point for reaching the 1st League phase of the Champions League.
Champions League Matches Points UEFA Cup Matches Points
Q1: 1st Leg: Aberdeen 1-0 Nistru Otachi 1 Q3: 1st Leg: Celtic 3-1 FC Basel 1
Q1: 2nd Leg: Nistru Otachi 0-0 Aberdeen 0.5 Q3: 2nd Leg: FC Basel 2-0 Celtic 0
Q1: 1st Leg: FC Vaduz 1-1 Livingston 0.5
Q1: 2nd Leg: Livingston 0-0 FC Vaduz 0.5
R1: 1st Leg: Viktoria Zizkov 2-0 Rangers 0
R1: 2nd Leg: Rangers 3-1 Viktoria Zizkov 2
R1: 1st Leg: Aberdeen 0-0 Hertha Berlin 1
R1: 2nd Leg: Hertha Berlin 1-0 Aberdeen 0
R1: 1st Leg: Celtic 8-1 FK Suduva 2
R1: 2nd Leg: FK Suduva 0-2 Celtic 2
R1: 1st Leg: Sturm Graz 5-2 Livingston 0
R1: 2nd Leg: Livingston 4-3 Sturm Graz 2
R2: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-0 Blackburn Rovers 2
R2: 2nd Leg: Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Celtic 2
R3: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-0 Celta Vigo 2
R3: 2nd Leg: Celta Vigo 2-1 Celtic 0
R4: 1st Leg: Celtic 3-1 Vfb Stuttgart 2
R4: 2nd Leg: Vfb Stuttgart 3-2 Celtic 0
Celtic awarded 1 bonus point for reaching Quarter Final 1
QF: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-1 Liverpool 1
QF: 2nd Leg: Liverpool 0-2 Celtic 2
Celtic awarded 1 bonus point for reaching Semi Final 1
SF: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-1 Boavista 1
SF: 2nd Leg: Boavista 0-1 Celtic 2
Celtic awarded 1 bonus point for reaching  Final 1
FL: Celtic 2-3 FC Porto 0
Summary

Cup

Win

Draw

Loss

Bonus

Points

Average
Celtic

UCL

 9 2 4 3 22
Rangers

UC

 1 0 1 0 2
scoaberdeen.gif (3870 bytes) Aberdeen

UC

 1 2 1 0 2.5
scolivingston.gif (7489 bytes) Livingston

UC

 1 2 1 0 3
Scotland Total 12 6 7 3 29.5 7.375
Summary
Due to Celtic's amazing run to the UEFA Cup Final Scotland's coefficient for this season finished up being an impressive 7.375 for the season which brought Scotland up to 9th place overall on the Country Ranking list

What this means is that Scotland will have an automatic Champions League entrant in 2004/5 which will be allocated to next seasons PremierLeague champion.  They will also have 1 other Champions League representative and 2 UEFA Cup places.   9th is the best position to finish in anyway as Scotland could not sustain 6 teams in Europe without it having a detrimental effect on the coefficient. 

Rankings for the end this season for all countries are shown in the following page :-

Some interesting facts about Scottish participation in this years European tournaments:-

  • Celtic become the first Scottish club for 16 years to reach a European Final.
  • 2 Scottish teams winning (even though another two lost) on away goals was a total surprise.  Now brings our record up to an impressive Won 5 Lost 25 !!!
  • Celtic won on away goals for the first time after 4 previous losses in this manner
  • Rangers have still never overturned a 2 or more goal 1st leg deficit in 17 (14 of which they were away in first leg) attempts.
  • Scottish clubs in general (4 out of 14) and Rangers in particular (0 out of 3) very poor record against Czech!! clubs continues.
    •
  • 6 seasons and still no-one outwith the Old Firm has got by the first round in Europe. 
  • Aberdeen have now only beat German clubs once out of 8 attempts.
  • Scottish clubs in general (1 out of last 7) and Celtic in particular (1 out of last 4) have a very poor recent record against Swiss!! clubs. Only Celtic v Young Boys Berne (after extra time as well) broke the trend.
  • Celtic having now played FC Basel 4 times in Europe, is the most times they have played against one team.  The Scottish record is 5 (Rangers v Bayern Munich)
  • Celtic now have a won 3 lost 3 record against English clubs.
  • Celtic have knocked out a Spanish Club for the first time in 8 attempts.
  • Celtic's victory over Celta Vigo was the first for any Scottish club over a Spanish team since 1986-7 (Dundee Utd bt Barcelona)
  • Celtic now have a won 2 lost 5 record against German Clubs.
  • Celtic have now lost 2 of their 3 European finals with both losses being late into Extra time.

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