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| Review of Season 2004/5 |
| Scotland having secured 9th in the European Rankings at the end of Season 2002/3, this guarantees 2 Champions League places including 1 automatic place and 2 UEFA Cup places for Season 2004/5. European places played for in the domestic season 2003/4 for the 2004/5 European tournaments are as follows: |
| Champions (Celtic) | Champions League Group Phase |
| Runners Up (Rangers) | 3rd Qualifying Round of Champions League |
| 3rd in League (Hearts) | 1st Round of UEFA Cup |
| Cup Runners-Up (Dunfermline) | 2nd Qualifying Round of UEFA Cup |
| For this season the Scottish teams will be seeded for the various tournaments dependant on each teams UEFA ranking. This is calculated by taking one third of the country coefficient 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. Note that this is a major change for UEFA who in previous years allocated half the country coefficient to each team. Based on this, it is best to use the rank for comparison with previous seasons. The Scottish teams rankings and points total used for this season are as follows:- |
| Team | Points | Rank |
| Celtic | 60.601 | 28th |
| Rangers | 42.601 | 45th |
| Hearts | 17.601 | 119th |
| Dunfermline | 10.601 | 179th |
| To see how this compares to other teams in Europe the full list of European club rankings and coefficients at the end of season 2003/4 to be used in season 2004/5 can be seen in the following page:- 2004 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. Extra bonus points are awarded this year for Champions league group phase participation (up from 1 to 3) and also for reaching the last 16 of the Champions League (up from 0 to 1) | |||
| Champions League Matches | Points | UEFA Cup Matches | Points |
| Q3: 1st Leg: CSKA Moscow 2-1 Rangers | 0 | Q2: 1st Leg: FH Hafnarfjardar 2-2 Dunfermline | 0.5 |
| Q3: 2nd Leg: Rangers 1-1 CSKA Moscow | 0.5 | Q2: 2nd Leg: Dunfermline 1-2 FH Hafnarfjardar | 0 |
| Celtic receive 3 bonus points for reaching the group phase | 3 | R1: 1st Leg: Hearts 3-1 Sporting Braga | 2 |
| R1: Celtic 1-3 Barcelona | 0 | R1: 2nd Leg: Sporting Braga 2-2 Hearts | 1 |
| R1: AC Milan 3-1 Celtic | 0 | R1: 1st Leg: Maritimo Funchal 1-0 Rangers | 0 |
| R1: Shaktar Donetsk 3-0 Celtic | 0 | R1: 2nd Leg: Rangers 1-0 Maritimo Funchal | 2 |
| R1: Celtic 1-0 Shaktar Donetsk | 2 | R2: Amica Wronki 0-5 Rangers | 2 |
| R1: Barcelona 1-1 Celtic | 1 | R2: Feyenoord 3-0 Hearts | 0 |
| R1: Celtic 0-0 AC Milan | 1 | R2: Hearts 0-1 Schalke 04 | 0 |
| R2: Rangers 3-0 Grazer AK | 2 | ||
| R2: FC Basle 1-2 Hearts | 2 | ||
| R2: AZ Alkmaar 1-0 Rangers | 0 | ||
| R2: Hearts 0-1 Ferencvaros | 0 | ||
| R2: Rangers 0-2 Auxerre | 0 | ||
| Summary | |||
Cup |
Win |
Draw |
Loss |
Bonus |
Points |
Average |
||
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Celtic | UCL |
1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | |
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Rangers | UCL/UC |
3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 6.5 | |
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Hearts | UC |
2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | |
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Dunfermline | UC |
0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | |
| Scotland Total | 6 | 5 | 11 | 3 | 19 | 4.750 |
Rankings for the end of this season are shown in the following page :- 2005 Country Ranking
Very poor year with all Scottish clubs out of Europe before Christmas. Finished the season in 10th place. We finished on the same number of points as the Belgians. They are higher ranked though as they had a higher coefficient for season 04/05.
10th place means that next seasons (05/06) champions will play in the 3rd qualifying round of 06/07 Champions League and the runners up will play in the 2nd qualifying round. If the winners of next season Champions League also qualify for the following seasons tournament via their league position, then the Scottish Champions will automatically qualify for the group stages.
Thought I would add a hall of shame for Scottish clubs in Europe in terms of trying to qualify from groups. On 11 occasions that a Scottish team has been involved in trying to qualify from a group stage they have failed on every occasion:-
Champions League
92-3 Rangers finished 2nd, 1 team qualified
95-6 Rangers finished 4th, 2 teams qualified
96-7 Rangers finished 4th, 2 teams qualified
99-00 Rangers finished 3rd, 2 teams qualified
00-1 Rangers finished 3rd, 2 teams qualified
01-2 Celtic finished 3rd, 2 teams qualified
03-4 Celtic finished 3rd, 2 teams qualified
03-4 Rangers finished 4th, 2 teams qualified
04-5 Celtic finished 4th, 2 teams qualified
UEFA Cup
04-5 Rangers finished 4th, 3 teams qualified
04-5 Hearts finished 5th, 3 teams qualified
I don't usually mention the Scottish national team here but if you add the 8 world cup group and 2 European Championship failures to the above, that makes 21 failures by Scottish teams in group stages. Are we jinxed or just rubbish!!!!!!
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