Playoff to Play On

Two rounds down, and so far we’ve seen Scottish sides lose three ties and win two. It’s not a great record, is it?

For St Mirren, it’s the end of the road as there’s no parachute from the Conference League. For Rangers, the Europa League group stage awaits with the Champions League qualification League Path dropouts not having to face the Europa League playoff round.

The third is of course Kilmarnock, who made up for Europa League second qualifying round disappointment against Cercle Brugge by seeing off Tromso in the Conference League third round qualifying last week. After the 2-2 draw at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock won 1-0 in Norway to win 3-2 on aggregate.

So next up is the Conference League playoff and a trip to Denmark to take on FC København. The game at Parken kicks off at 6pm oor time and is only live on the SolidSport streaming option.

Whilst Kilmarnock have never faced Danish opposition in Europe before, Copenhagen (I’ll anglofy the name for the rest of this) are no stranger to Scottish opposition.

The 2006/07 Champions League group stage was their first encounter with a Scottish side where they faced Celtic. We’ll come back to the game at Celtic Park next week, but the game in Denmark saw Celtic beaten 3-1. I was at the game I can confirm it was a regular disappointing Celtic away game in Europe performance but did at least have Jiri Jarosik scoring to give us something to cheer. The hotdogs were the best I’ve ever had though!

Anyway, apparently I can do Daily Motion videos on here too so… enjoy?

The only other time Copenhagen have hosted a Scottish side was again Celtic in the 2019/20 Europa League round of 32. The game in Denmark was a 1-1 draw, again I’ll save the Celtic Park leg for next week (although, spoiler, much like 2020 when this game was played it doesn’t end well).

Copenhagen have also played Aberdeen, but since it was the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage, it was that set up where they only played at Pittodrie and not at Parken so again that’s one for next week.

Copenhagen have come through two Conference League qualifying rounds so far to get to this point. In the second qualifying round, they beat Bruno’s Magpies of Gibraltar 8-1 on aggregate. Whilst in the third qualifying round, they took penalties to see off Banik Ostrava after each leg finished 1-0 to the home side. The penalty shootout was in Czechia.

Copenhagen are currently second in the Danish Superliga, a point behind leaders Silkeborg after five games. They drew 1-1 at home to Viborg on Sunday. They go to Nordsjaelland this coming Sunday.

Kilmarnock are bottom of the Scottish Premiership after two defeats from two games. On Sunday they lost 1-0 at Motherwell after extra time in the League Cup. They go to Aberdeen this Sunday in the league.

Well. Maybe. It all depends on whether or not their request to get the game postponed to help with their qualification is approved or not. You suspect not.

Meanwhile, over in the Europa League playoff, Hearts are entering the fray. They’re in Czechia to take on Viktoria Plzeň at the Doosan Arena. This game also kicks off at 6pm oor time, and is also on SolidSport streaming.

Hearts last game in Europe was the 4-0 defeat to PAOK at this stage in the Conference League last season, losing 6-1 on aggregate in the process. PAOK then, of course, went on to face Aberdeen in the group stage. But let’s skip over that one.

Hearts have faced Czech opponents on three occasions previously, and they have as yet not managed to score against them in the away leg.

The first meeting was with Dukla Prague in the 1986/87 UEFA Cup first round where Dukla won 1-0. Then in the 1992/03 UEFA Cup first round they faced Slavia Prague and again lost 1-0. Both of these games taking place in the then Czechoslovakia, the latter being just a few months before the country divided into the two we know today. Neither of which can I find footage of, not even on Daily Motion, so you’ll have to wait until next week to see the home legs.

The third and final one does have footage, but it was a 0-0 draw in the UEFA Cup first round in 2006/07 with Sparta Prague. So there’s no goals in it.

So it will be a slight difference this time as Plzeň is not Prague. Moreover, Viktoria Plzeň have never faced Scottish opposition.

However, if the name sounds familiar for some reason, it may be because they were the team competing with Rangers in the 2022/23 Champions League for the dubious record of worst Champions League group stage record. Viktoria Plzeň finished that campaign on zero points with a -19 goal difference in a group with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Barcelona. That record matched the previous record held by Dinamo Zagreb from 2011/12, but both were ultimately just marginally better than the record of Rangers who finished on zero points with a -20 goal difference.

A record that will now stand forever since the group stages are completely different as of this season (but more of than that in a few weeks time when we’ll have at least three and hopefully four teams in the new style group stages)

Viktoria Plzeň reached this stage by knocking out Ukranians Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 3-1 on aggregate, winning 2-1 in Slovakia (Kryvbas played their home leg there) and then 1-0 at home.

Incidentally, to show the pedigree of this Plzeň team, last season they made the quarter final of the Conference League where they lost out to eventually runners up Fiorentina. And even then they drew the home leg, it was defeat in Italy that cost them.

Vitoria Plzeň are five games into their Czech First League campaign, and are second in the table, two points behind leaders Sparta Prague. On Sunday they won 3-0 away to SK Dynamo. Their match this coming weekend at home to Sigma Olomouc has been postponed.

Hearts are 10th in the Scottish Premiership after two games with just one point. On Saturday they lost 2-0 away to Falkirk in the League Cup. On Sunday they go to Motherwell in the league. And unlike Kilmarnock there’s no chat of postponement.

Good luck to both Kilmarnock and Hearts tonight! Hopefully we have to results that mean two exciting and preferably positive matches when the second legs take place in Scotland next week!