Paullow

Bruno lookalike Icardi just scored a great equaliser out of nowhere for Gala. Edit, it's actually 1-2. I went away for 5 mins and was completely oblivious to the first goal.

It's all Molde, they lead 1-0 and probably should be more. Zaha injured or just not registered?

Hoping for wins for Molde, Young Boys, and Panathinaikos, but bar YB, the other two are fairly significant underdogs. Young Boys and Copenhagen would be great for Pot 3. Reasonably close geographically, both capital cities, shouldn't be any fan hostility or violence, and should be 6 points. I'd defo look to go to either of those cities (without a ticket) if they come through and we drew them.

Maccabi H vs Young Boys Molde vs Galatasaray Braga vs Panathinaikos All on TNT Sports at 8pm. Which match are you mainly going to watch?

Fun fact - Lee Johnson has now managed more European games (this season) than Sunderland, who sacked him early last year, have had in their entire history.

He loves a cup competition but I was surprised about that. I wonder if it was Luzern who came through last week, a similar level side, who were slight favourites for the tie at the bookies, whether he would have gone quite so strong, but the whole England-Scotland thing adds another dimension and they certainly won't want egg on their face. I'm sure they will, but I hope Villa do come through this tie and then get to the quarters / semi's before bowing out (unless it helps with the old co-efficient for 5th) to offer some distractions later in the season, although I'm sure most of their group matches will be far lower profile than today and there will be a chance to play reserves / youngsters.

Celtic are like 99.99% likely to join us in Pot 4, but yeah, if we're mainly looking to progress as opposed to having massively anticipated encounters then Feyenoord (definitely) and Leipzig are among the best choices in Pots 1 and 2, then Red Star and Copenhagen and Young Boys in Pot 3, should the latter two win their playoff. I wouldn't mind one biggish Pot 2 name because it will be more memorable, you always remember the wins over Barca and Juve and 10,000+ going to Inter, but if we got a relatively weak group then there could be a chance we actually qualify with a match or two to spare (which sounds mad) and possibly rest players later on, and less distance will also be beneficial when combining PL fixtures. I was originally hoping for 2 of Real/Barca/PSG types and then a weak Pot 3 side, and a potential crack at the more winnable Europa League should we just come up short and finish 3rd, as would be expected from a group like that, but I'm definitely leaning more towards hoping for a much more straightforward group now. Like others, I'm really looking forward to the draw.

First leg results: Antwerp 1 AEK 0 Rakow 0 Copenhagen 1 Rangers 2 PSV 2

Rakow miss a great chance to equalise. I'm mainly watching Rangers, but it is great just being able to easily switch between a few matches. I would have been almost 8 when we last played Antwerp. Those were some of my earliest memories of football, but they'd also be in Pot 4 should they come through, so extremely unlikely we'd play them this season, unless in the Europa League.

Absolutely no chance we can get that draw.

Toon legend!

Starts at 5pm UK, so probably 5.55pm Edit, presumably will start at 5pm with 15 mins build up. I'm off next week so was hoping for as much build up as possible, and I'd watch every second

Does Bruno Guimaraes DISMISS new signing Lewis Hall!

They were on just over 143,000 followers pre tweet today but have since fallen into the 137,000s, so have lost well over 5,000 followers today thus far.

Lovely goal. Don't really want to play Rangers for geographical reasons, but at the same time, if prefer not to play PSV either given we have played them 4 times in the PL era, albeit nearly 20 years since the last time. Rakow thought they'd equalised vs Copenhagen, but was disallowed. I've got my heart set on the Danes from Pot 3

Antwerp 1 up at home to AEK. Copenhagen lead 1-0 against Rakow. Rangers still 0-0. Didn't realise that since 1997 only one Polish team had featured in the CL group stages, Legia in 2016/17. That's quite surprising.

Playoff matches involving Antwerp, Copenhagen and Rangers tonight (all 8pm and all on TNT Sports), and the other 3 tomorrow night at 8pm. Hope Copenhagen come through as it would be a potential great trip as they would definitely be in Pot 3 and it would also help keep some stronger looking sides, like Sociedad, in Pot 4.

Perhaps, but I think most people assume Luton will be out of their depth this season and are around 2/7 to go down. Sheff Utd not much better and have already lost to two sides likely to be in and around the bottom 6 and are 4/11 to drop, after that most trams are north of 2/1, so if the two more fancied teams drop then itll basically be as you were with the bulk of those mentioned still around in the bottom half in 24/25.

But in all likelihood it will probably be Luton and Sheff Utd plus one other and on paper those two are far weaker than Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton coming down, so I was confused, as it will probably easier to go up next season.

I've read this a few times but I'm still not sure of the general point you're trying to make, given the teams listed? Clubs will obviously want to get promoted if they have a genuine chance but not sure what those clubs, and they are a mixed bag, have to do with it?

I was originally hoping we'd get 2 of Real Madrid / PSG / Bayern etc. some memorable matches that could be talked about for years, and a chance to test ourselves against the very best, and a probable run at the Europa if we do fall a bit short, but now I'm kind of hoping we get Feyenoord, Leipzig and a Red Star / Copenhagen / Young Boys type from Pot 3. Everyone talks about the wins over Barca and Juve far more than those over Kyiv and Leverkusen, but if we had Leipzig H, Feyenord A, and the double header against the Pot 3 side then there'd be half a chance that we'd have already qualified with 2 games to play, or at least within touching distance and that would be great financially to come through the group, but also help with the fixture congestion at the back end of the year.

Greenwood for me, marra!

I originally had a bit more compassion because, reading some of the online comments to the saga the other day, I naturally assumed all 11 fixtures involving the 22 non professional sides in the 3rd tier would have been postponed so players could watch their match in peace, but seeing how every other match went ahead and some involved even longer journeys, then they should defo push for what they want. The only thing is, after seeing Nottm Forest win 7-0 today, and the aforementioned Billericay win 6-0 in the Southern league, without knowing how good Halifax are, and seeing how the league was decided on GD last year, a routine 3-0 win might not be as good as playing the match out, but Halifax should be punished in some other form, maybe a points deduction as well as a 3-0 forfeit (if Newcastle are happy with that). It's looking more like most of the comments were because it was Newcastle and the big, bad Saudi's throwing their new found wealth and weight around.

Just saw in the 'Southern Premier Division' which is the 3rd tier regional equivalent of the league Newcastle and Halifax are in, all 6 matches were played today, including Plymouth vs Billericay at 2.45pm (more than a 4 hour drive to Newton Abbott, Devon), Cardiff vs Ipswich (well over 4 hours), and Rugby vs London Bees (2 hours). I originally naturally thought all matches were off at that level and it was just Newcastle pushing it because they are the only full time side in the 3rd tier, but since the other 11 fixtures could go ahead as planned, then this looks even worse on Halifax. The other 5 fixtures in Newcastle's league were reasonably close geographically.