Clyde1998

Depends what you mean by serious. We won in Armenia without either; before that it was the 1-0 win over the Czechs in the previous Nations League campaign. The two was Kazakhstan (H) and Cyprus (A) at the back end of our last Euro qualifying campaign - winning both.

Two draws would be enough, as head-to-head record is the primary tie-breaker in UEFA competitions. If we avoid defeat against Ireland, Ukraine will have to beat us to win the group.

I guess with Doig it gives Clarke a serious opportunity to check him out. I don't think we'd need another right back in the squad, given Hickey and Ralston are there and Ryan Jack can play there is absolutely required. I can't see him starting a game ahead of Taylor if Tierney is unavailable for a game, unless there's a minor injury we don't know about or we've already won the group come the second Ukraine game. Gallagher coming in is maybe a result of not replacing Hanley in the original squad, leaving us with only three out and out centre-backs. An attacker might've been worthwhile, given Adams and Christie are on yellow cards (as are McGregor and McTominay, but we have plenty of central midfielders to cover).

That was a fantastic performance; I can't remember that last time we were that convincing against a side of that level of ability.

Dykes!! 👊

I hate it went it happens. Not like it's gonna happen again 🤣😉

Finally!

How on earth are we not winning this!?

That was an horrific 'challenge'; absolutely no attempt for the ball. Adams did brilliant before it.

Looks like Patterson's injured - hopefully nothing too serious. At least we've got Hickey to come on for him.

This is much better than that - and the Ireland game - we actually look like we can cause them problems tonight.

It's only these four we've not played before, whilst we've not played a competitive game against Turkey or Hungary. Armenia were on the list of teams we've not played prior to this Nations League campaign and we hadn't played Albania or Kazakhstan before 2018.

I can't see Steve Clarke wanting to change the system for this one, however he may be forced to due to the lack of natural centre-backs we have available. Assuming everyone in the squad is fit, I'd think we're going to see something like: Gordon Hickey - Hendry - McKenna - Tierney McTominay - Gilmour - McGregor McGinn Dykes - Adams

Well done to Hearts last night; controlled the game and looked really composed on the ball. It really should've been a much more comfortable scoreline in the end, with the fear being Hearts wouldn't kill the game and end up drawing that game. Craig Gordon was forced to make a couple of really good saves, which is a little concerning, but otherwise Hearts managed the game well. With the Basaksehir-Fiorentina result, perhaps we can't draw too much from Hearts' opening group game - however Fiorentina were the better side based on the stats I've seen in that one. Hopefully Hearts can give Fiorentina a good go at Tynecastle in a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure if Anderson even officially "switched" to England, as the game he played in for England U19s was a friendly against Arsenal U23s. I can't imagine anyone really cared about FIFA eligibility rules for that game.

Yeah - I haven't seen any of that tie, but from the BBC match report it seems Linfield battered them last night. You'd hope that implies Hearts should be able to beat them twice; on paper, at least, there were much tougher opponents from Pot 4.

Hearts get Istanbul Basaksehir, Fiorentina and RFS (Latvia) in the Conference League. My first impressions is Fiorentina to win that group, there's potential to get something against Basaksehir and RFS are a team Hearts should be getting four points minimum from. An interesting range of opponents for Hearts.

Looking at the draw, there's potential here for both teams. For Celtic: Shakhtar are significantly weaker than they were last season, in which they were the weakest they've been since the mid-2000s, due to basically every foreign player leaving due to the conflict in Ukraine; still not an easy game mind, but are almost certainly the weakest side from Pot 3. Leipzig were obviously knocked out the Europa League by Rangers last season and have started slowly in the Bundesliga, but are now an established side in the Champions League and started slowly last season. There's a decent chance Celtic could get points off of Leipzig, especially at home. Real Madrid will be expected to win both matches against Celtic, but were lucky not to be knocked out of the competition at basically every stage last term. I'd say they're probably slightly weaker than last season though and wouldn't rule out Celtic getting a point at home. Verdict: A third place finish is realistic, but second is possible. They'll need better performances than they've had in Europe for much of the past decade though. For Rangers: Napoli seem comparable to many of the sides Rangers beaten (or avoided defeat against) in the Europa League in recent seasons. If Rangers are going to be in Europe beyond Christmas this season, they'll need to take points off of them. Liverpool are probably the strongest team in the group and were unlucky not to be going into this season as European champions. Their slow start in the league is perhaps evidence of fatigue from the their intense style of play, which has been worsened by their large amount of first team injuries. If Liverpool are in a similar situation in regards to limited first team options by the time they play Rangers, there could be points to grab. A clear step up on the Europa League opponents Rangers have faced. Ajax arguably should've gone further than the last sixteen last season with the ease they progressed through their group. Not entirely sure what Ajax have done in the transfer market (both in and out) as a whole, as they're one of the sides who's relative strength can fluctuate very quickly - I think they're on the downswing right now compared to their recent peak. Ajax could drop points against Rangers. Verdict: Anything other than fourth is a bonus, but performances like in recent European campaigns could yield a decent points tally and an outside chance of progressing.

And 2-1 Zurich: not the greatest defending.

1-0 Hearts - Shankland penalty. Not quite sure why the penalty was given though.

I agree. Using ClubElo to predict who'll reach the group stages and producing example groups (with the pots being determined by UEFA coefficient; didn't bother adjusting for country clashes) shows how stark the difference in quality between the Champions League and Europa League groups is. Rangers would be in Pot 4 in the Champions League, unless Benfica fail to knockout Dynamo Kyiv, but would be easily Pot 1 in the Europa League. Celtic will be Pot 4 in the Champions League. In the Champions League, Rangers end up with Porto, Chelsea and Salzburg, while in the Europa League it's Rennes, Midtjylland and Fenerbahçe (with much easier groups available); Celtic had Ajax, Tottenham and Leverkusen. With a good run, perhaps Rangers could finish third in that group, but I couldn't see Celtic finish third in their example group. Even the weakest group according to the ClubElo ratings would be Frankfurt, Juventus and Shakhtar. While there are major financial benefits being in the Champions League, progression is best achieved by being in the Europa League. The problem is the financial distribution between clubs - the rich keep getting richer, inflating transfer fees and wages for everyone else and reducing the competitiveness of all but the biggest clubs. I think the book Soccernomics suggests wage expenditure is the biggest single (measurable) factor determining club success. The wages of the Old Firm will be comparable to that of top English Championship clubs, while the rest of our league is comparable to English League One at best. The Europa League, and now Conference League, will have much more even wages between clubs than the Champions League - especially once discounting the outliers.

Great finish by Middleton.

To confirm, Rangers will drop into the Europa League group stage if they lose either Champions League qualifier.

They'd go directly into the Europa League group stage if they lose the tie. Not the worst draw for Hearts. You'd expect Zurich to win, should they get through, but it's a good side to test themselves against ahead of which ever group stage they end up in.