It struck me today that we're all talking about the league and whether we can qualify for the Champions League next year but almost no talk about the Champions League we're in this year. Certainly no specific thread outside of the individual match threads. So I thought I'd start one.
As things stand, we're currently 3rd (of four) in the group, 3 points behind second place Basel with one away game (next) and one home game to come. Goal difference does not come in to the equation, only head to head. There's several permutations for qualification to the next round. The easiest is simply win all our remaining games which will give us 9 points and hope that Ludogorets and Basel draw finishing them both on less points than us. Another way, is to win our next two games and win Basel 2-0 which should qualify us with 9 points even if Basel finish on 9 points themselves. The final way and the least best scenario is we loose to Ludogorets by a single goal but beat Basel by more than two goals which should, I believe, mean we finish on six points but go through second in the group because of our head to head against both Ludogorets and Basel.
But the way our season has gone so far and the fact we have so many problem areas all over the pitch, players low on confidence, a manager who seems to have run out of ideas and all our hopes pinned on the return of a single player, will we actually do this? There's another question to ask (and one that doesn't necessarily reflect my own thoughts). Do we want this? Taken within the context of the season so far, would remaining in the Champions League increase the likelihood of our failing to qualify for next season's tournament? Would the lack of any mid-week distractions be a help in the longer term re-development of the club? Or would failure to qualify for the knockout phase be yet another nail in the coffin of our season?
What's your thoughts?
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