Paullow

Yeah true. I'd purposely avoid home Celtic matches because they're pretty pointless. They won 17 of their 19 home matches last season, drew the other 2 and they were both in their last 3 matches when they had either won the league, or all but won it. Might watch a bit of Rangers, but if I was going to catch a match tomorrow then it would probably be Schalke vs Kaiserslautern in the German 2nd tier.

Really annoying how there's no Championship match on Sky tomorrow, but THREE on Sunday, and I won't get to see any of them with going to the Sunday SELA Cup match(es).

Newcastle play 3.30pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday.

Oi, I've waited 20 for this. I deserve this!

Yeah, the Ashby thing is strange, but maybe he just wasn't as far along (or as good) as they thought when he arrived. Kraft did do well, but there was still a bit of nervous apprehension when he played, and kind of more a relief that he wasn't actually bad, rather than someone who you would want to start a significant number of games, now as an established top half club pushing on, plus while they are in a similar boat in terms of injury, you might be more concerned about how a 28 year old kind of journeyman comes back than a young prospect, although definite risks to both.

We could well play 60 matches this season if we do OK in Europe / go on a run in either cup. Guaranteed 46 and, baring the ultimate group of death where we finish bottom, should really have at least 2 more in Europe. I went into this window thinking LB was the ultimate priority but I'd rather have Tripps and Tino starting 40 and 20 matches and Burn and Targett doing similar on the other side than either Manq or Kraft starting 20 at RB. We always want better than we have and to improve less strong positions, but RB definitely needed addressing more than LB this particular window IMO.

Thanks both, so by my reckoning the teams in bold have higher co-efficients than us, so ANY of those progressing to the groups stages and we'll be in pot 4. There could be a few of the non bolded coming through with lower co-efficients than us, but surely at least one of those bolded will make it and then potentially be pot 3 opponents for us. Rakow vs Aris Limassol Slovan Bratislava vs Maccabi Haifa AEK Athens vs Dinamo Zagreb Olimpija Ljubljana vs Galatasaray Copenhagen vs Sparta Prague Klaksvik vs Molde Young Boys Antwerp Braga vs TSC Rangers vs Servette Panathinaikos vs Marseille PSV Eindhoven vs Sturm Graz

How do you find out the co-efficients of the teams still involved in quals? We need 6 teams with lower co-efficients than 21.914 to come through to boost us up to Pot 3, although this sounds extremely unlikely. I'd imagine we'd need TSC and Servette to come through the league path and a few proper minnows to come through the league route.

Tonight's results: Astana 0 Dinamo Zagreb 2 (Zagreb win 6-0 on agg) Qarabag 1 Rakow 1 (Rakow win 4-3 on agg) Hacken 3 Klaksvik 3 (3-3 on agg, Klaksvik win 4-3 on pens) Genk 2 Servette 2 (3-3 on agg, Servette win 4-1 on pens) Maccabi Haifa 4 Sheriff Tiraspol 1 (Maccabi Haifa win 4-2 on agg, AET) Molde 2 HJK Helsinki 0 (Molde win 2-1 on agg) Copenhagen 6 Breidablik 3 (Copenhagen win 8-3 on agg) Galatasaray 1 Zalgaris 0 (Galatasaray win 3-2 on agg) Starting to take shape now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023–24_UEFA_Champions_League#Third_qualifying_round Champions Route: Rakow vs Aris Limassol Slovan Bratislava vs Maccabi Haifa AEK Athens vs Dinamo Zagreb Olimpija Ljubljana vs Galatasaray Copenhagen vs Sparta Prague Klaksvik vs Molde 6 3rd qual round winners will join Young Boys and Antwerp in the Play-off round where 4 teams will advance to the group stage. League Route: Braga vs TSC Rangers vs Servette Panathinaikos vs Marseille PSV Eindhoven vs Sturm Graz 2 of those above 8 teams will also make it to the groups stages via a Play-off round.

Haifa and Sheriff into extra time. Israel side were well on top and have been for most of the match, but Moldovans have just hit the bar in the opening stages of ET.

And now they are 2-1 up 20 seconds later . Probably tie over now. Inspired sub...

They're not at the races tonight. 0-1 down and have made a sub on 27 mins and didn't look like an injury. The bigger and better side 2-0 Up from the away leg, I assumed the tie was over and was just half watching during half time of the Haifa match, but will keep it on a bit longer. They do have a FK in a dangerous position here though. Edit - and they score from it. 1-1 and 3-1 on agg.

3 matches, and all 3 ties are currently finely poised. TNT 1, 2, and 3.

Tie on in Copenhagen on TNT. Icelanders a goal up on the night away from home and have halved the deficit.

Lively start to the Maccabi match. Visitors took a surprise lead from a penalty against the run of play, match briefly stopped for crowd trouble, but Haifa have just equalised (on the night, not agg) through a cracking strike.

8 more 2nd qualifying round 2nd legs now / tonight as we start getting towards the business end of qualifying. FT - Astana 0 Dinamo Zagreb 2 (Zagreb win 6-0 on agg) 5pm - Qarabag vs Rakow (currently 0-0, 2-3 on agg) 6pm - Hacken vs Klaksvik (0-0 on agg) 6pm - Genk vs Servette (1-1 on agg) 6pm - Maccabi Haifa vs Sheriff Tiraspol (0-1 on agg) - Live on TNT Sports 2 6pm - Molde vs HJK Helsinki (0-1 on agg) 7pm - Copenhagen vs Breidablik (2-0 on agg) - Live on TNT Sports 3 7.30pm - Galatasaray vs Zalgaris (2-2 on agg) - Live on TNT Sports 1

I'm not too worried about the midfield / attack, obviously you always want better than you have, but there's a lot of options there now. Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton; Barnes, Isak, Almiron Then can add in Anderson, Longstaff, Willock, Gordon, J Murphy, Wilson, and there's a lot of versatility with many being able to play multiple positions, e.g. Big Joe being able to go left etc. Miley could well get a few more 10 minute cameos than expected, and maybe even start the odd cup game / possible dead rubber Euro match. One more addition wouldn't hurt, but we can effectively name 2 XIs of front 6 players and there wouldn't be a significant drop off in quality, and that should be enough to cater for the extra matches this season, assuming there's no horrific injury crisis. The defence is a different matter because Manq/Kraft-Lascelles-Dummett-Targett as a potential PL back four is horrifying, you'd think only really Targett was of adequate quality, and if any of the other 3, or worse, 2 at the same time, were to come in, then it would seriously impact games and expected outcomes. We probably can get by with Burn and Targett as the 2 LB options this season as they are at least decent enough to start / come in, but adding a RB and a CB is an absolute must, but that's largely common knowledge, and hopefully it's addressed soon.

Slovan Bratislava just about come through. 1-0 up from the away leg, go 3-0 up on agg on the night, but the Bosnians pulled 2 goals back and they were hanging on at the end. Mad match / tie between BATE and Limassol with the latter winning 11-5 on agg . Panathinaikos beat Dnipro 5-3 on agg, and maybe a minor upset in the final match with Olimpija putting out Ludogorets 3-2 on agg with a stoppage time winner. Ludogorets used to often qualify for the group stages, but I'm not sure if they are quite as good now. They've won like 12 Bulgarian titles in a row but they were second with 2 games to go and won it on the final day, and they also lost 2-0 to their Kosovan opponents in Q1 before turning the tie around at home. 3 more matches on TNT Sports tomorrow

Hell of a long day If you get in for the Nice vs Villarreal match in the Saturday and plan to watch the lasses. I'm going on the Sunday and will aim to get in for the second half of Nice vs Fiorentina, but will be a long wait from full time in that one until the Newcastle match starts.

I guess they will just get what they are given but seems that BT / TNT always seem to show effectively redundant second legs. Haifa were 4-0 up from the away leg in the previous round, and now BATE 2-6 down from the first leg. Match held in Hungary tonight and no fans in the stadium. I'll probably switch over to the Bratislava match at 7.30pm. Edit - BATE really needed to score early to make it somewhat of a contest, but it's the Cypriots that are ahead on the night inside 10 mins.

Just 4 2nd qualifying round 2nd leg matches tonight: 6.30pm - Panathinaikos vs Dnipro-1 (agg 3-1, winner plays Marseille) 7pm - BATE Borisov vs Aris Limassol (agg 2-6, winner plays Rakow or Qarabag) - Live on TNT Sports 3 7pm - Olimpija Ljubljana vs Ludogorets Razgrad (agg 1-1, winner plays Galatasaray or Zalgiris) 7.30pm - Slovan Bratislava vs Zrinjski Mostar (agg 1-0, winner plays Sheriff Tiraspol or Maccabi Haifa) - Live on TNT Sports 1

We've obviously not taken the piss with the fee, but it doesn't feel too bad to me. He started 12 PL games last season, 13 more as a sub, so completely missed 13 PL matches. Started 2 of the 8 cup games (and 4 more subs), so he only started 14 of the 46 games. 1 goal and 5 assists - very talented, but being a year older and getting to the stage now where after 3 or so years at a new club, there wouldn't be too much resale value, his stock is definitely lower than what it was this time a year ago, so we couldn't really expect any more than £35-40m at the absolute most. Apart from maybe Almiron at a push, he's the only one of our squad that we could afford to lose and command a reasonable fee, there really is no one else - we'd struggle to get £15m for Targett these days, Murphy similar, and you wouldn't want to lose any of the 15/16 core players that we have, so while it's a shame to see him go, I'm OK with the fee / transfer. Just hope we can get two more defenders in within the next week or two.

Full time, 3-3. Chelsea vs Fulham is a 'Summer Series' decider with whoever wins taking it, or Villa if they draw. We'll finish 2nd if Chelsea draw 0-0, joint second if it's 1-1, or 3rd with any other outcome.