Scottish Football in Europe

Review of Season 2003/4
Scotland having secured 12th in the European Rankings at the end of Season 2001/2, this guarantees 2 Champions League places and 2 UEFA Cup places for Season 2003/4. European places played for in the domestic season 2002/3 for the 2003/4 European tournaments are as follows:
Champions (Rangers) 3rd Qualifying Round of Champions League
Runners Up (Celtic) 2nd Qualifying Round of Champions League
3rd in League (Hearts) 1st Round of UEFA Cup
Cup Runners Up (Dundee) 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
Celtic 57.187 32nd
Rangers 50.187 47th
Hearts 18.187 141st
Dundee 15.187 167th
To see how this compares to other teams in Europe the full list of European club rankings and coefficients at the end of season 2002/3 to be used in season 2003/4 can be seen in the following page:- 2003 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
Q2: 1st Leg: FBK Kaunas 0-4 Celtic 1 Q1: 1st Leg: Vllaznia Shkoder 0-2 Dundee 1
Q2: 2nd Leg: Celtic 1-0 FBK Kaunas 1 Q1: 2nd Leg: Dundee 4-0 Vllaznia Shkoder 1
Q3: 1st Leg: MTK Budapest 0-4 Celtic 1 R1: 1st Leg: Dundee 1-2 Perugia 0
Q3: 2nd Leg: Celtic 1-0 MTK Budapest 1 R1: 2nd Leg: Perugia 1-0 Dundee 0
Celtic receive 1 bonus point for reaching the group phase 1 R1: 1st Leg: Hearts 2-0 Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 2
Q3: 1st Leg: Rangers 1-1 FC Copenhagen 0.5 R1: 2nd Leg: Zeljeznicar Sarajevo 0-0 Hearts 1
Q3: 2nd Leg: FC Copenhagen 1-2 Rangers 1 R2: 1st Leg: Bordeaux 0-1 Hearts 2
Rangers receive 1 bonus point for reaching the group phase 1 R2: 2nd Leg: Hearts 0-2 Bordeaux 0
R1: Bayern Munich 2-1 Celtic 0 R3: 1st Leg: Celtic 3-0 FK Teplice 2
R1: Rangers 2-1 VfB Stuttgart 2 R3: 2nd Leg: FK Teplice 1-0 Celtic 0
R1: Celtic 2-0 Lyon 2 R4: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-0 Barcelona 2
R1: Panathinaikos 1-1 Rangers 1 R4: 2nd Leg: Barcelona 0-0 Celtic 1
R1: Anderlecht 1-0 Celtic 0 Celtic receive 1 bonus point for reaching the quarter finals 1
R1: Rangers 0-1 Man Utd 0 QF: 1st Leg: Celtic 1-1 Villarreal 1
R1: Celtic 3-1 Anderlecht 2 QF: 2nd Leg: Villarreal 2-0 Celtic 0
R1: Man Utd 3-0 Rangers 0
R1: Celtic 0-0 Bayern Munich 1
R1: VfB Stuttgart 1-0 Rangers 0
R1: Lyon 3-2 Celtic 0
R1: Rangers 1-3 Panathinaikos 0
Summary

Cup

Win

Draw

Loss

Bonus

Points

Average
Celtic

UCL

 8 3 5 2 17
Rangers

UCL

 2 2 4 1 5.5
scohearts.gif (3870 bytes) Hearts

UC

 2 1 1 0 5
scoDundee.gif (7489 bytes) Dundee

UC

 2 0 2 0 2
Scotland Total 14 6 12 2 28.5 7.375
Summary
Scotland officially finished in 11th place in the rankings at the end of season 2003/04.  This means that Scotland will lose their automatic Champions League placing in 2005/6 and revert back to 2 teams in the qualifiers, one of which will have to play 2 qualification rounds.  It is frustrating that only one more draw by any team would have put us in 10th place virtually guaranteeing an automatic Champions League place.

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:-

  • Dundee have become the first Scottish club to win a game in Albania after 4 previous failures
  • Celtic have still never won on German soil in 8 attempts only having 1 draw in those games
  • Hearts become the first non-Old Firm club to reach the 2nd round on the UEFA Cup for 7 years
  • Celtic have never won in 3 attempts on Belgian soil
  • Rangers have never won on Greek soil in 3 attempts
  • Rangers loss at home to Man Utd was their first at home after 15 games unbeaten. Previous loss was to Valencia.
  • After 67 previous occasions when a Scottish team has won away from home in the first leg, Hearts have become the first club ever to be knocked out with a first leg away win.
  • Celtic have now lost all 6 away Champions League games.
  • Celtic have never won on Spanish soil in 11 attempts
  • In terms of wins in Europe, Celtic have now overtaken Rangers with 110 compared to 109.
  • At the end of this season Celtic played more games in Europe (31) over the previous 2 seasons than any other team

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