Resident Twitter Euro Bhoy @Moravcik67_ was on hand to explain to Celtic fans what the result in the Mestalla meant last night, not in terms of being knocked out but where Scottish Football stands when it comes to coefficient and we’ve come agonisingly close to dropping an early qualifier.
If Celtic or The Rangers got a draw or win in their final game of the group stage or if Celtic managed a draw at the Mestalla then a whole round of qualifiers would have been dropped from the Scottish schedule for 20/21.
The bhoys could have nicked a win or draw in Valencia had they not got the sending off so early on in the game. Below Moravcik67_ explains how it all works and what needs to be done going forward to make sure there are less Euro qualifiers.
1. That’s Scottish involvement in European football over for another year. While we’ve undoubtedly made progress, we blew our chance to move above Serbia into 19th place – which could have been enough for our champion to skip the 1st qualifier from 2020/21.
2. Here are the numbers for Scottish teams this season P38 W15 D13 L10 We gained 6.750 coefficient points, the highest for Scotland since the 10.250 we got in 07/08. We ended last season ranked 26th in Europe.
3. Not getting 19th place is disappointing. We finished just 0.125 coefficient points behind the Serbs – the equivalent of a single draw, over the last 5 seasons. That’s a remarkably small margin, made more pronounced by Scottish propensity for stupid results in stupid places.
4. Over the last 5 seasons in question, consider these abominations. – Lincoln Red Imps v Celtic – Niederkorn v Rangers – Fola Esch v Aberdeen – Hearts v Birkirkara Any one of these defeats turning into a win would have been enough to take 19th place.
5. We’ve only needed that one draw since the final round of group games. A single draw for Celtic v Salzburg or Valencia, or a draw for Rangers in Vienna would have done it. The chance was there. We just didn’t take it.
6. Anyway. There have been a lot of positives this season. We had 2 teams in the group stage for the first time since 2009/10. And along the way, there were some decent performances from all 4 teams. What we need now is to ensure this year wasn’t a one off. Consistency is key.
Celtic lick their wounds on a night of what could have been but can hold their heads up high as they gave everything they could in Spain.
