Celtic will face Armenian champions Alashkert in the Champions League, first qualifying round, with the away tie first. Alashkert faced Andorran opposition in the corresponding round last season, winning 2-1 on aggregate, before losing to BATE Borisov in round two.
The travel is far from ideal but that aside, this should be a straightforward round for Celtic to negotiate. There is no summer football in Armenia, so Alashkert will be no further forward in their fitness regime than Celtic.
The first leg takes place on 10th or 11 July with the return in Glasgow on the 17th or 18th. The draw for the Champions League second round takes place this afternoon.
CQN Golf Annual Charity Open
This year’s CQN Open is set for Friday 29 June at the first class Aberdour Golf Club once again. It is a day of sport, entertainment, Celtic chat and is always good fun.
After the golf, we head up the road to the CQN friendly Woodside Hotel for our evening meal. We’ve the usual round up of all things Celtic by Paul67, and our very funny after dinner speaker is Willie Allan. Then musical entertainment from Scoogz, who you may have seen if you’ve been to Celtic Park entertainment nights. Plus all the usual prizes and charity fundraising, for the Petrov Foundation this year. Cost is £40 night only and £80 all day including golf. Please contact cqnopen2018@outlook.com if you’d like to attend this fun event.
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HH
Beat St Johnstone on away goals a couple of years back.
Oh we’re all off to Armenia in the green in the green!
UEFA regional draw for first qualifying round, we end up in Asia!!! Who’s in charge of the draws at UEFA, Dave King????
Playing Sparta Prague in an away friendly on the 3rd July. Perhaps we should just stay over for another week’s training and travel to Armenia from there rather than fly back and then fly the 2.500 miles to the away game.
We could send a development team to play against Shamrock Rovers in-between fixtures.
Could have been worse.
Lot of football to qualify for a group mauling though,so I hope we can perform better in 2018 if we make it.
New Celtic Away Kit
2nd round draw at 1pm CP time
Year cup rnd
2018 CL Q2 BATE Borisov Bls Alashkert FC Arm 1-1 3-1
2018 CL Q1 Alashkert FC Arm FC Santa Coloma And 1-0 1-1
2017 CL Q2 Dinamo Tbilisi Geo Alashkert FC Arm 2-0 1-1
2017 CL Q1 FC Santa Coloma And Alashkert FC Arm 0-0 0-3
2016 EL Q2 Kairat Almaty Kaz Alashkert FC Arm 3-0 1-2
2016 EL Q1 Alashkert FC Arm St. Johnstone Sco 1-0 1-2
If we get through and everything goes as per seeding possible 2nd round opponents
FC Midtjdylland
Red Star Belgrade
Hapoel Beer Sheva
Rosenborg
HJK Helsinki
The New Saints
Videoton
FK Kukesi
CFR Cluj
Zrinjski Mostar
Regional rivals, indeed!
Unless you’ve got your own plane, I think those travelling to the away tie from Scotland will face 2 or 3 changes on another almighty trek …
What about the zombie club?
If they had to play in such a far away destination, how would they even get there?
Our everyday reality is a zombie nightmare.
Think about it.
HH. ?
GARY67
Qualifying never gets any easier!
Some decent looking teams in that mob.
We play Sparta Prague in Austria on 3rd July, one week before tie in Armenia. Rather than fly home, play Shamrock Rovers on 7th, then have a 7 hour flight to Armenia, should we extend training camp in Austria and fly direct to Armenia from there (3 hour flight). We could play an extra friendly in Austria on the 6th or 7th and send a development team to Dublin.
Scotland’s ‘ secret liquidation ‘ that never happened, seems to have earned a right few bob for messrs Duff and Phelps, whom you’ll recall were hired by original Rainjurz and whose placemen were seen sitting in the directors box months before the plug was eventually pulled on them.
Scandalous ,scandal hundreds of creditors stiffed and left with pennies from the arcade that haven’t even been paid yet
Meanwhile Raman Bhardwaj and Scottish Television are elsewhere with ‘Rainjurz’ covering a pre season training tour during the World Cup would you believe , all for the great unwashed.
You really couldn’t make it up and it could only have happened in Scotland.
starry plough on 19th June 2018 11:44 am
I’d hope for The New Saints or HFK Helsinki from that lot (provided they get through)
So Alashkert knocked out St. Johnstone, got a draw at home to Tblisi, and an away draw with BATE Borisov in recent years.
We should beat them but we have to be ready.
EMBRAMIKE SAYS ” YER TEAM’S DEID…BEAT IT!” on 19TH JUNE 2018 11:31 AM
Playing Sparta Prague in an away friendly on the 3rd July. Perhaps we should just stay over for another week’s training and travel to Armenia from there rather than fly back and then fly the 2.500 miles to the away game.
We could send a development team to play against Shamrock Rovers in-between fixtures.
……………………….
That’s one of the reasons so many Irish fans turned their backs on Celtic. It’s bad enough the Club having taken our Irish fans for granted without our fans doing the same thing. We should play a strong team against Shamrock Rovers and our strongest available team against the Armenians.
TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 19th June 2018 12:07 pm
Possibly jeopardise CL qualification for a friendly where we wouldn’t play any first team players anyway? Re-arrange for 21st or 28th if possible.
Harry & Meghan coming to Dublin on 10th July and leaving the following day.
If the away tie is on the 11th they could watch the match in the Bad Ass Café and then nip up the road to one of the global warming cultural occasions across various parts of the North.
The speed at which these qualifiers will be coming,I don’t for on minute think that Brendan will not have most of the 1st team squad playing regularly in the friendlies.Even the 2nd round is fraught with danger.They have to be totally tuned up for these games.£50 million on the line here.
Hope the hunt for a class CH is the top priority.
We don’t care what the Armenians say
This should be a straightforward tie. If we cannot beat this team we don’t deserve to play in the next round! That’s not a sense of entitlement or arrogance, juts plain facts. To be good enough to progress, we need to dispatch these teams fairly comfortably. If we can’t ECL is a bridge too far.
KTF
One good thing about these days is that we are always liable to score goals away from home, in European fixtures.
Even when Ronnie was in charge.
James Forrest and Callum McGregor in particular always seem to play well in the European games.
HH.
The future is bright – the future is green & white…
HH. ???
on 19th June 2018 12:24 pm
They should be straight forward ties but its when the games are played makes them more difficult than they should be. We shouldn’t have lost to Red Imps, drew with Rosenborg, hung on against Beer Sheva or Astana but we did because we weren’t ready. And there was no way we could have been ready as we play these games before any other competitive football.
Can you imagine if Scotland had qualified for the WC (I know, I know) we’d be going to Armenia with the development team.
….”an’ the green an’ white upon my chest,
it’s such a joy
for us to see,
an’ play football The Celtic way…..”
HH.
DD’s private jet required in next few weeks….
Private jets and chartered flights…
The Celtic way.
Indeed.
HH. ✈️
Top Scots referee Bobby Madden is being to forced to sell off property in a bid to avoid bankruptcy.
Madden, 39, faces the threat of going bust if he fails to reach an agreement after being taken to court by the taxman over unpaid debts.
Yerevan .
Lovely city — went there a few times -working ! .
Over a million inhabitants -lots of big scale Soviet architecture and some great Armenian Orthodox cathedrals . Really good brandy and fruit vodka . Mighty fine food . Friendly people as long as you aren’t Turkish / Kurdish . It’s possible to see the legendary Mt Ararat from Yerevan . Best and possibly the most appropriate place to do it -is from the Armenian Genocide memorial.
Lots of proud men of ireland turned back on celtic cause they prefer to watch thier english teams. We dont need them and dont want them, those men than continue to follow the celtic will always come be welcome
HH
Gone are the days when the huns took care of their friends tax bills.
…apparently,
debts an’ taxes are for little peepil…
An Armenian American-
https://youtu.be/BjHSOzVU5j0
Ganbare Nihon!
one more –
https://youtu.be/bS3O5zg290k
Off oot
New quality signings will need to be brought in . As it stands only young Lewis has arrived , but we lost wee paddy R , so for me no gain . We at present are facing qualifiers with the same squad as last year , and although we got to the group stage ,we were well out of our depth. One thing I noticed , The scouser is buying really big lads , well over 6 footers . I also wondered what his rapour will be with the sun rag now . The Liverpool folk have no time for that rag , will be sad to if the friendship with the two clubs changes now , with him coming to them . They know who was first to offer help after Hillsborough. Time will tell .