Not only has it been tremendous week for Celtic in Europe, Scotland’s coefficient has been rewarded as a result as indeed has Celtic’s Champions League earnings…
Celtic need two more wins
An unexpected 0-0 stalemate against Atalanta in Bergamo means that Celtic sit 20th in the new look Champions League format.
Two more wins for Celtic in any of their remaining five matches against RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb, BSC Young Boys or Aston Villa would subsequently lead to Brendan Rodgers’ side securing a place in the Champions League play-off round with a shot at the Last 16.
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Scotland’s co-efficient boost
Meanwhile, the draw with Gian Piero Gasperini’s side has added an extra 0.2 points on to Scotland’s coefficient. Through qualifying directly to the Champions League, winning against Slovan Bratislava, and now an admirable point in Italy, the Hoops have accumulated 1.8 total points for their nation. Celtic received a bonus point for reaching the Champions League, whilst gaining 0.4 points for that win in the opening match and 0.2 points for a draw at Gewiss Stadium.
Celtic’s revenues soar
Notably, €700,000 were added to the €25+ million before ticket prices Celtic have already made financially so far in this season’s Champions League campaign. Despite a draw, the Hoops earned €250,000 more than theRangers, and €300,000 more than Hearts this week in Europe despite the two other Scottish club’s victories.
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A European Group stage first for Scottish football
A 4-0 win for theRangers versus Romanian outfit FSCB and Hearts impressively beating Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia have moved Scotland’s points total of 3.4 to 4.4 points in one brilliant unbeaten Scottish week.
Interestingly, matchday three of the European calendar was the first time there were three clean sheets by Scottish clubs in a group style format.
Therefore, Scotland have moved above Israel (who only have one team competing in Europe) in the coefficient table. Sitting 16th place in the rankings, Scotland languish only 0.3 points behind Greece in 13th with Austria 1.4 ahead in 12th. Reaching that 12th position should still be a realistic target given Sturm Graz and RB Salzburg have extremely tough fixtures in the Champions League.
Unbeaten weeks are incredibly rare. Celtic’s resilient performance against the Europa League holders certainly adds to Scotland’s coefficient’s fantastic few days.
Conor Spence
Great result against Atalanta and fantastic to see all Scottish teams doing well to help us avoid the usual banana skins in UCL qualifying in future years.
Two quick comments though – Celtic got 1.2 bonus points for qualifying for the UCL (rather than 1) just as it’s 6 club coefficient points divided by the 5 Scottish teams that played in Europe this season.
Secondly, there’s an amazing twitter account called Scotland’s Coefficient (@Scotlandscoeff1) which it looks like used the exact same sentence to describe Scottish success “the 3.4 to 4.4 points in one brilliant unbeaten Scottish week” and uses the exact same stat as you on the clean sheets, but posted yesterday night.
It might just be a coincidence but journalists (and TV commentators) nick his stuff all the time without giving him credit, so if you’re using his research then please give him a h/t. And if you’re not, apologies – would fully recommend giving him a follow regardless.
HH