The Hardest Geezer. The most incredible achievement. 💪
Russ Cook has finally finished his epic challenge, running the length of Africa - the equivalent of 385 marathons - in 352 days.
Simply sensational. 🏃♂️
The ball has already left Lundstrams foot in this frame we were provided 30 mins after the incident
So they haven’t used the correct frame to draw the lines
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
🚨⚽️🏴SCOTLAND'S COEFFICIENT WEEKLY REVIEW (4 mins reading time)🏴⚽️🚨
⚽️ An average week saw 2 draws and 2 losses, which means that in the season where our "top 5" clubs are in Europe together for the first time; they have now added 2 coefficient points to Scotland's total (we only added 3.5 in the whole of last season)
🖊️I'll summarise each of the 5 teams in turn then provide a quick update on our top 10 rivals
5⃣Our 5th team - Hibs🥬:
⚽️After a 0-5 dismantling by a top EPL side including a hat-trick for the impressive Ollie Watkins🏴, Hibs will now exit at the PO round after adding 0.5 points which is more than our 4th and our 5th teams combined earned last season.
⚽️Although the QR2 loss in Andorra🇦🇩 was a missed opportunity for an extra 0.2 points, 0.5 is still a good effort and they can feel very unfortunate to draw the tournament favourites in the qualifiers.
⚽️The wait for a first ever group stage appearance goes on for Hibs🟢, and they know that winning the Scottish Cup🏆 (or finishing 3rd, if top 2 win the cup) is their best avenue into the new European league stage next season
⚽️They have banked €1,050,000 in prize money and will also receive their part of Scotland's €7m solidarity payment; the money that goes to the clubs that don't play GS European football
4⃣Our 4th team - Hearts ♥️:
⚽️Unfortunate to have the 1st leg at home, as we saw in the last round how advantageous it is to have the 2nd leg at home.
⚽️They played well in parts and took the lead, however the 1-2 defeat means they now travel to a likely hostile Greek🇬🇷 arena next Thursday knowing that anything less than a win will put them out of Europe.
⚽️They overcame a 1st leg 2-1 defeat in the last round, but doing it away is a much more difficult task that at Tynecastle
⚽️Like Hibs, they have seen the difficulties of qualifiers, and if they don't pull off a remarkable result next Thursday then they will have to give everything to try secure guaranteed European league stage football for next season through domestic performance
⚽️Hearts❤️will bank €950,000 in prize money (should they be eliminated) & will also receive part of Scotland's €7m solidarity payment; the money that goes to the clubs that don't play GS European football
3⃣Our 3rd team - Aberdeen 🔴:
⚽️Started their European campaign off with a brilliant Bojan🇲🇰 inspired comeback against the reigning Swedish🇸🇪 champions BK Häcken
⚽️They will be disappointed they didn't manage to steal a 2-3 victory late on however at 2-0 down with 15 minutes to go, 2-2 is a great result and they now start adding to the coefficient with their first 0.1 point of the campaign.
⚽️They conceded a very soft penalty, and had chances of their owns as well as subs that impacted the game, so in front of a sold out Pittodrie🔴 you've got to really fancy them to win the tie next week. Doing so will earn their fans some incredible EL away days and a cool €5m+ in prize money
⚽️They are in a win-win situation, reaching the EL would be fantastic, losing and dropping to the ECL will still be great and still earn them €3.5m-4m+
2⃣Our 2nd team - Rangers🔵:
⚽️Like Hearts, they are unlucky to have the 2nd leg away, as they have previously done brilliantly in the Europa League taking teams back to Ibrox
⚽️Nonetheless, it was Rangers' best performance of the season so far, although they still have lots of improving they will need to do to overcome PSV🇳🇱
⚽️Rangers🔵 were 2nd best for almost all of the 1st half where PSV had about 70% possession and Rangers passing was below par
⚽️However two brilliant goals from Sima🇸🇳 and Matondo🏴, who have both flattered to deceive up until now, got Rangers a decent enough 2-2 draw and another 0.1 coeff point.
⚽️As Aberdeen did, Rangers too will feel disappointed they didn't nick it 3-2 with a rasping Matondo volley in the last minute. Rangers now travel to Eindhoven🇳🇱 knowing they will need to be defensively watertight on Wednesday and clinical on the counter attack if they are to make the CL groups.
⚽️If they knock PSV out for the 2nd consecutive year they will go into CL as a pot 3 team and earn €25m+
⚽️If they lose and drop down to the EL as a likely pot 2 team, then they might make back the 0.8 CL GS bonus points they'll miss out on, if they win a few games. However for their finances, the extra €12m+ they'd miss out on definitely won't be fully recovered.
1⃣Our 1st team - Celtic 🟢
⚽️As a top 10 country our champions don't start their campaign until the CL group stages, and Celtic🍀 fans eagerly await the GS draw next Thursday at 5pm.
⚽️Celtic need 4 favourites to be eliminated in the PO round to see them remarkably moved from pot 4 to pot 3 which would be potentially game changing in the quest for coefficient points and improving on last year's disappointing campaign
⚽️ If they stay in pot 4, which is likely, then at least they avoid Newcastle🏴 who are in pot 4 due to their long absence from European football
⚽️Celtic's massive gulf in finances over the rest of the league will only be extended further as they are guaranteed over €30m in European revenue before a ball is kicked or a ticket is sold. They received less than £5m for winning the domestic treble last season.
💰European money is huge for Scottish clubs.
🇹🇷 As for our rivals this week, this really has been an awakening of a sleeping giant = Turkey.
🚀Lots of investment and improving their performances has seen them rocket up the coefficient table.
🆙They are absolutely capitalising on their extra qualifiers, the fact they have 3 teams in the lowest competition, and that their wins are worth more points this, meaning they are now only 0.8 points behind us this season.
🟡Galatasaray will get 1 bonus point for reaching the CL if they complete the job against Molde next week (they lead 3-2 after the away leg) so if they make it and Rangers don't; then we drop from 9th to 10th before the group stages even begin
👎 All of our main rivals for next season 🇦🇹🇮🇱🇳🇴🇨🇭🇨🇿 put points on the board this week and so we are down from 14th to 15th for the start of next season's race.
🙏Hopefully we can add some more points in the return legs next week and hope for a MUCH improved group stage performance from everyone involved
🚫Reminder that for the CLUB coefficient - points gained for results in qualifying rounds DON'T count and so I will only be posting country coefficient updates until the group stage
🎙️I (should) have new season episode 1 of the podcast released tomorrow morning & will post the link on the page
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