*** Official Viktoria Plzen v Heart of Midlothian Match Thread - 1st Leg, KO 6pm BST

[Bender]

PAOK/LASK at home. 
Bratislava away. 
Hoffenheim/Wien away. 
Shamrock Rovers/TNS at home. 
Brondby away. 
Anyone from pot 6 at home. 
 

🙏

[Gundermann]

20 minutes ago, Bender said:

Latest update to the projected pot. 
 

 

 

We're behind the New Saints and Shamrock?! I guess because they qualify from their wee leagues each year?

[Bender]

2 minutes ago, Gundermann said:

 

We're behind the New Saints and Shamrock?! I guess because they qualify from their wee leagues each year?

I'm assuming it’s because they play more qualifiers to raise their coefficient but I’m not 100%. 

[Gundermann]

Just now, Bender said:

I'm assuming it’s because they play more qualifiers to raise their coefficient but I’m not 100%. 

 

Probably.  👍

[PapaShango]

37 minutes ago, FionaHmfc said:

I’m just really hoping PAOK can win their league and get out of these projected pots. Really, really cba with another away trip to there. Place was a dump 😂 

Yeah I'm not keen a return to Greece or Istanbul for that matter. Don't know what it was about Istanbul but I didn't like it one bit. Not up for another one hour bus trip to that soulless stadium either. Besiktas might be a little different but I would quite like a jaunt to somewhere we haven't been to before. 

[FionaHmfc]

57 minutes ago, PapaShango said:

Yeah I'm not keen a return to Greece or Istanbul for that matter. Don't know what it was about Istanbul but I didn't like it one bit. Not up for another one hour bus trip to that soulless stadium either. Besiktas might be a little different but I would quite like a jaunt to somewhere we haven't been to before. 

Eastern European places are all a bit shady and soulless to be honest. Decent enough experience visiting those places with Hearts in the past but certainly wouldn’t be mad keen to go back. Seville, Naples, Lyon and Hoffenheim look the standout trips for me. We also stopped in Helsinki after one of the away games over the last few years just to extend our time away and loved that but my god it was expensive 😂 

[Daveandal]

30 minutes ago, FionaHmfc said:

Eastern European places are all a bit shady and soulless to be honest. Decent enough experience visiting those places with Hearts in the past but certainly wouldn’t be mad keen to go back. Seville, Naples, Lyon and Hoffenheim look the standout trips for me. We also stopped in Helsinki after one of the away games over the last few years just to extend our time away and loved that but my god it was expensive 😂 

 

I'd love to head some of the more random Eastern European places you'd never go do outside of football.

 

The beauty of the draw is we might all get our wish.

[Jamboross]

2 hours ago, Bender said:

I’m definitely in the ‘Central Europe’ camp here when it comes to potential trips. Preferably not eastern or south eastern like Greece, Turkey or Georgia. 

 

Batumi seems like a fun city, loads of casinos and nightlife, huge beach on the Black Sea, decent weather without being as extreme as Greece etc and a good sized, modern stadium. Georgia an expensive, almighty pain in the arse to get to though sadly. 

[Jambo dans les Pyrenees]

4 hours ago, Bender said:

Latest update to the projected pot. 
 

 

 

LASK at Home - 1 point.

Bratislava away - 0 points but I’d love to go there.

Nicosia at Home - 1 point.

TNS away - 3 points.

BBL home - 3 points

Reykjavik away - 3 points.

 

 

[Jambo dans les Pyrenees]

Just now, Jambo dans les Pyrenees said:

 

LASK at Home - 1 point.

Bratislava away - 0 points but I’d love to go there.

Nicosia at Home - 1 point.

TNS away - 3 points.

BBL home - 3 points

Reykjavik away - 3 points.

 

 

 

PS I would go to all those matches, except TNS away.  Wales, feck that.

[Ricardo Quaresma]

4 hours ago, Gundermann said:

 

We're behind the New Saints and Shamrock?! I guess because they qualify from their wee leagues each year?

 

We'll probably overtake 1 but, with a bit of fortune, both of them this year

[Chuck Berry]

3 hours ago, Jamboross said:

 

Batumi seems like a fun city, loads of casinos and nightlife, huge beach on the Black Sea, decent weather without being as extreme as Greece etc and a good sized, modern stadium. Georgia an expensive, almighty pain in the arse to get to though sadly. 

 

Been to Batumi, it's different I'll give you that. New buildings getting chucked up everywhere and cheap as chips. Full of Russian tourists (or was).  New stadium just built.  Sadly, the Cha Cha fountain which dispenses free grog for an hour a day wasn't working (top tip, stay off the Cha Cha...)

 

Turkish Airlines via Instanbul was reasonable. Kutaisi is a cheap route with the bucket airlines.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Chuck Berry

[Chuck Berry]

Dinamo Minsk is probably one to avoid.   Minsk is a decent city to go to and a big stadium, but I don't think Belorussian clubs are allowed to play in Belarus due to their involvement in the Ukraine war (has that changed?)

 

Celje in Slovenia is a nice little town, easy to get to from Ljubljana or Maribor and a decent stadium. Ljubljana is a good night out.

 

FC Ordabasy would sort the wheat from the chaff that's for sure. Kazakstahn not cheap to get to (its further east than Iran), both Almaty and Astana are worth a visit although the latter gets exceptionally cold in winter being on the Russian steppe. However they play in Shymkent, so it would either involve an internal flight (choose your airline carefully if you're not a big fan of flying), or fly to Tashkent in Uzbekistan if you can get a bus across the border.  Remember, Kazakhstan is the size of western Europe, or bigger.

Edited May 7, 2024 by Chuck Berry

[RENE]

8 hours ago, Bender said:

Latest update to the projected pot. 
 

 

Be great to get Brann and get to see Roald Jensen's statue. Loved seeing him play for us in the sixties.

Edited May 7, 2024 by RENE

[periodictabledancer]

4 hours ago, Jambo dans les Pyrenees said:

 

PS I would go to all those matches, except TNS away.  Wales, feck that.

A nice little town but zero prospect of us playing there, if drawn. Have seen Dundee & QOTS play them there and the ground could not possibly cope. Could be  a trip to Wrexham, I'd say. 

In which case you'd be right. 

[periodictabledancer]

9 hours ago, Bender said:

I’m definitely in the ‘Central Europe’ camp here when it comes to potential trips. Preferably not eastern or south eastern like Greece, Turkey or Georgia. 

Please , not Bosnia again. I've done it twice. 

[gregzy2k7]

Some big teams in there, We will no doubt probably end up with Chelsea and Real Betis away.

 

Only way i can see us getting anything from pot 1 and 2 is if we get Lask and Cluj as home ties imo,

 

I wonder if that's even possible?

[JAYEL]

5 hours ago, RENE said:

Be great to get Brann and get to see Roald Jensen's statue. Loved seeing him play for us in the sixties.

Was my first thought when I saw the possibles

[Ricardo Quaresma]

3 hours ago, gregzy2k7 said:

Some big teams in there, We will no doubt probably end up with Chelsea and Real Betis away.

 

Only way i can see us getting anything from pot 1 and 2 is if we get Lask and Cluj as home ties imo,

 

I wonder if that's even possible?

 

Pretty sure it's home and away for 3 group-pairs

 

1 home 1 away from:

 

i) Pot 1 & 2

ii) Pot 3 & 4

iii) Pot 5 & 6

[Dayman]

15 hours ago, FionaHmfc said:

Eastern European places are all a bit shady and soulless to be honest. Decent enough experience visiting those places with Hearts in the past but certainly wouldn’t be mad keen to go back. Seville, Naples, Lyon and Hoffenheim look the standout trips for me. We also stopped in Helsinki after one of the away games over the last few years just to extend our time away and loved that but my god it was expensive 😂 

This is a worse take than some of the stuff from the transfer thread in the past few days.
 

Far safer than Western Europe and with a huge amount to offer when visiting. Personally hope we travel solely to Eastern Europe! 

[Joey J J Jr Shabadoo]

41 minutes ago, Dayman said:

This is a worse take than some of the stuff from the transfer thread in the past few days.
 

Far safer than Western Europe and with a huge amount to offer when visiting. Personally hope we travel solely to Eastern Europe! 

It's as if they have never been. Central and Eastern Europe is brilliant, and that is where I hope to be going (as well as Seville).

[JimmyCant]

16 hours ago, FionaHmfc said:

Eastern European places are all a bit shady and soulless to be honest. Decent enough experience visiting those places with Hearts in the past but certainly wouldn’t be mad keen to go back. Seville, Naples, Lyon and Hoffenheim look the standout trips for me. We also stopped in Helsinki after one of the away games over the last few years just to extend our time away and loved that but my god it was expensive 😂 

So you want to avoid shady and soulless but you’re happy to go to Naples. a complete shithole of a place, full of mad stabbers and robbers

 

Anyway folk should realise that all these lists of possible opponents are purely provisional and guesswork in a lot of cases at this stage. It’ll become more accurate as the weeks go on of course but for now you’d be as well sticking a pin in a map and discussing the merits and accessibility of the nearest city with a decent football team in it.

 

For what it’s worth, San Sebastián would be the best Hearts trip ever undertaken IMO (Bilbao also a possible oponent - also a great trip)

Edited May 8, 2024 by JimmyCant

[Penrices left boot]

18 hours ago, Bender said:

Latest update to the projected pot. 
 

 

 

Napoli

Betis

Apoel

Shamrock or TNS

Us

No idea

 

Great choice of away games.

 

 

[Penrices left boot]

18 hours ago, Gundermann said:

 

We're behind the New Saints and Shamrock?! I guess because they qualify from their wee leagues each year?

 

Yeah, In  Europe every season.

[Bender]

37 minutes ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

Napoli

Betis

Apoel

Shamrock or TNS

Us

No idea

 

Great choice of away games.

 

 

 

We can't play ourselves.

[Chuck Berry]

12 hours ago, Jim_Duncan said:

You been on the most nominative determinative airline ever, SCAT air?

 

SCAT was avoided like the plague, their 737's are held together by duck tape.

[Victorian]

A kind draw should enable us to compete well for 3 wins from the pot 4, 5 & 6 teams.  3 wins should be enough to finish in the top 24 of 36 for knock-out stage.  Points from the pot 1, 2 & 3 teams look somewhat hopeful.

[I P Knightley]

19 hours ago, Bender said:

PAOK/LASK at home. 
Bratislava away. 
Hoffenheim/Wien away. 
Shamrock Rovers/TNS at home. 
Brondby away. 
Anyone from pot 6 at home. 
 

🙏

 

15 hours ago, Jambo dans les Pyrenees said:

 

LASK at Home - 1 point.

Bratislava away - 0 points but I’d love to go there.

Nicosia at Home - 1 point.

TNS away - 3 points.

BBL home - 3 points

Reykjavik away - 3 points.

 

 

 

29 minutes ago, Bender said:

 

We can't play ourselves.

I've not read the instructions and am working on an assumption that there'll be one club from each pot in a group. 

 

In the Hearts group, we'd be the club from pot 5, so wouldn't be pitted against Brondby or BBL. 

 

Have I missed something? 

[Dayman]

18 minutes ago, Victorian said:

A kind draw should enable us to compete well for 3 wins from the pot 4, 5 & 6 teams.  3 wins should be enough to finish in the top 24 of 36 for knock-out stage.  Points from the pot 1, 2 & 3 teams look somewhat hopeful.

2 or 3 winnable ties in pot 2/3 I’d say. Pot 1 really is just LASK that we’d have a chance against. 

11 minutes ago, I P Knightley said:

 

 

I've not read the instructions and am working on an assumption that there'll be one club from each pot in a group. 

 

In the Hearts group, we'd be the club from pot 5, so wouldn't be pitted against Brondby or BBL. 

 

Have I missed something? 

Changed don’t this year. It’s one giant league table. You play a team from each pot, including your own, and the top 24 teams in the group go to a knockout stage. 
 

You only play each team once though, so you still get 3 away days but only against half of the teams you play.

[I P Knightley]

8 minutes ago, Dayman said:

2 or 3 winnable ties in pot 2/3 I’d say. Pot 1 really is just LASK that we’d have a chance against. 

Changed don’t this year. It’s one giant league table. You play a team from each pot, including your own, and the top 24 teams in the group go to a knockout stage. 
 

You only play each team once though, so you still get 3 away days but only against half of the teams you play.

Cheers, Dayman. I'm glad that there's some extra confusion added to my life!

[RustyRightPeg]

There's elements of this new format I like but I'd still prefer the old home & away element too. For example having been in Florence I'd be gutted if we drew Fiorentina at home and never got the chance to go back...and our away days were in Istanbul 

[Joey J J Jr Shabadoo]

2 hours ago, RustyRightPeg said:

There's elements of this new format I like but I'd still prefer the old home & away element too. For example having been in Florence I'd be gutted if we drew Fiorentina at home and never got the chance to go back...and our away days were in Istanbul 

I know what you mean, it's similar to the Europa League,  when we qualified.  I was a bit gutted at not going to Schalke, but then I was delighted with Feyenoord. Still my favourite away trip, despite the result.

[Daveandal]

Union SG won the Belgium Cup today.

Meaning they are likely to be in the Europa League play offs. They do still have a chance of Champions League qualification though so it's not 100% confirmed.

[If carlsberg did rivals...]

On 08/05/2024 at 10:04, JimmyCant said:

So you want to avoid shady and soulless but you’re happy to go to Naples. a complete shithole of a place, full of mad stabbers and robbers

 

Anyway folk should realise that all these lists of possible opponents are purely provisional and guesswork in a lot of cases at this stage. It’ll become more accurate as the weeks go on of course but for now you’d be as well sticking a pin in a map and discussing the merits and accessibility of the nearest city with a decent football team in it.

 

For what it’s worth, San Sebastián would be the best Hearts trip ever undertaken IMO (Bilbao also a possible oponent - also a great trip)

Any Scotsman going to Naples just wear a Maradona top and you'd be fine! I'd imagine.

[gregzy2k7]

4 hours ago, If carlsberg did rivals... said:

Any Scotsman going to Naples just wear a Maradona top and you'd be fine! I'd imagine.

Yeah Maradona is a God to them, They even named there stadium after him, I was there watching a serie A match a couple of years ago and have got to say I was not impressed by Naples at all, in fact would go as far to say that it's a bit of a bear pit/sh!thole kind of place, the atmosphere was brilliant inside the stadium though, their fans are ****ing mental imo and a bit intimidating tbh.

 

If I was to recommend anywhere in Europe for a great away day, It's got to be Vienna!! An absolutely fantastic city imo, hopefully we draw Rapid Vienna away.

[GarryJ-o-s]

Apologies if posted elsewhere but just read on Twitter, so pinch of salt required, but allegedly if Atalanta and Dortmund win their respective cups, we go straight into Europa League groups

[Ricardo Quaresma]

10 minutes ago, GarryJ-o-s said:

Apologies if posted elsewhere but just read on Twitter, so pinch of salt required, but allegedly if Atalanta and Dortmund win their respective cups, we go straight into Europa League groups

 

You mean Champion's League and Europa League Cups?

[GarryJ-o-s]

20 minutes ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

You mean Champion's League and Europa League Cups?

yeh, you are correct.

 

sharing the tweet here for all to judge

 

https://x.com/scotlandscoeff1/status/1788707608666280184?s=46&t=AIHYpwwXSZOmNsTvpOdrbQ

[Ricardo Quaresma]

7 minutes ago, GarryJ-o-s said:

yeh, you are correct.

 

sharing the tweet here for all to judge

 

https://x.com/scotlandscoeff1/status/1788707608666280184?s=46&t=AIHYpwwXSZOmNsTvpOdrbQ

 

The boy's usually correct and he's predicting a trickle-down effect of these teams gaining qualification to CL next year and vacating spots for Europa

 

Edit to add: the 2 teams also need to occupy a Europa spot in their Domestic League, for the spots to be vacated 👍

 

 

Edited May 10, 2024 by Ricardo Quaresma

[Ricardo Quaresma]

^^^^ Further to add (firefox has arsed up the previous post for editing)

 

There are also other scenarios for Atalanta 'gifting' us their spot

 

-

Edited May 10, 2024 by Ricardo Quaresma

[Ricardo Quaresma]

Interesting find, @GarryJ-o-s 🤔🤯😁

[Ricardo Quaresma]

Had a deeper look and it seems that, simply, if BVB Dortmund win the Champions League, everything thing is really likely to fall into place, having looked at the other factors

 

We'll also know in advance if Atalanta win the Europa League

[Midloth_Iain]

6 hours ago, GarryJ-o-s said:

yeh, you are correct.

 

sharing the tweet here for all to judge

 

https://x.com/scotlandscoeff1/status/1788707608666280184?s=46&t=AIHYpwwXSZOmNsTvpOdrbQ

 

HEARTS CAN AUTOMATICALLY ENTER THE EUROPA LEAGUE

 

We now have the possibility of the winners of the top two European trophies not finishing in their domestic Champions League slots (Dortmund & Atalanta) 

 

If this happens, our Cup Winner (Hearts due to an Old Firm cup final) would be positively affected by UEFA's rebalancing of the Europa League qualifying rounds! @dpnina10 is the expert on all aspects of UEFA rebalancing and has informed me of a scenario that would result in the jambos receiving a bye straight into the Europa League phase If BOTH Dortmund & Atalanta are the European trophy winners AND finish in a Europa League position domestically - both countries will have one less Europa League spot

 

This causes rebalancing in the Europa League qualifiers & the cup winners from the highest ranked association will be promoted forward one round Belgium in 8th place would be the highest ranked nation with their cup winner in Europa League qualifying & would receive a bye in the event of the Dortmund scenario

 

By virtue of our 9th place finish last season, Scotland would be the next ranked nation and so we'd also see our cup winners promoted directly to the league phase, if the Atalanta scenario were to ALSO happen.

 

In terms of finances, prestige, and 'glamour' of fixture, this would be fantastic news for Hearts to go straight into the Europa League!

 

In terms of competitiveness within the tournament and the earning of coefficient points - I'm not sure it would be great, as believe Hearts would likely perform a lot better in the Conference League...

 

 

 

[savage]

As much as it would be great to get all the glamour ties I would much prefer to go to tynie on a euro night with realistic hope of getting a result

[Ricardo Quaresma]

Ok, what effect are the performance spots going to have?

 

Currently Italy and Germany are also in line for these and it looks certain; I believe Dortmund and Atalanta are 5th in their respective Leagues, but the performance spots give them 5 CL-GS stage spots

 

They are both 👇 Dortmund 2 games left; Atalanta 3 games left

 

 

 

As can be seen, they sit in 5th, already assumed or indeed confirmed CL-GS

[Star Lizard]

It would improve the players playing against the best level of competition possible

[Ricardo Quaresma]

14 minutes ago, savage said:

As much as it would be great to get all the glamour ties I would much prefer to go to tynie on a euro night with realistic hope of getting a result

 

If you can see the post 2 posts above, it seems the guy has overlooked stuff, maybe he's accountant for it; we still can qualify for EL regardless via the PO, but the Conference League should yield more coefficient points; if we qualify we qualify, at least EL is more lucrative and we'll endeavour to take our chances

 

Bigger transfer / wage budget for EL? I should hope so

 

-

Edited May 10, 2024 by Ricardo Quaresma

[Ricardo Quaresma]

I'm guessing this boy is still right, because they would have 6 CL-GS spots, so the EL spots would go to Belgium and Scotland still

 

Sorry for the running commentary style, but I'm thinking live here

 

-

Edited May 10, 2024 by Ricardo Quaresma

[Midloth_Iain]

4 minutes ago, Ricardo Quaresma said:

 

If you can see the post above, it seems the guy has overlooked stuff; we still can qualify for EL regardless vio the PO, but the Conference League should yield more coefficient points; if we qualify we qualify, at least EL is more lucrative and we'll endeavour to take our chances

 

Bigger transfer / wage budget for EL? I should hope so

 

The prize money in the groups of the Europa is usually not that much more than the Conf, it only gets very significant if you qualify through the group, which is very unlikely in our case.

 

Not sure if Uefa have documented how this changes in the new format though

[Ricardo Quaresma]

2 minutes ago, Midloth_Iain said:

The prize money in the groups of the Europa is usually not that much more than the Conf, it only gets very significant if you qualify through the group, which is very unlikely in our case.

 

Not sure if Uefa have documented how this changes in the new format though

 

EL prize money now up from previous year by €100M