Mixed fortunes for Scottish clubs in Europe

Three clubs competed in Europe this week with only Celtic progressing in the Champions League with Motherwell and Dundee Utd losing their ties.

Celtic were first up away to HJ Helsinki in the third qualifying round of the Champions League with a comfortable away win. Goals from Joe Ledley and Giorgios Samaras in the second half allowed them to progress 4-1 on aggregate. This was despite a sending off for Victor Wanyama.

This is a massive result for Celtic who need the revenue a run inEuropecan bring, particularly if they can move on from the play off round to the Group stages, depending on their draw today.

It would also be good for Scotland if they can progress as this would be a massive boost for the UEFA co-efficient and help boost the number of places we will have in future competitions.

On the down side Motherwell lost 3-0 to Panathinaikos inAthenson the same night. In a sweltering hot night, with temperatures in the high 30s, Motherwell competed well in the opening period but a goal from a Lazarous free kick after six minutes of the second half well and truly ended the tie.  Two more goals made the aggregate 5-0 which was no real reflection on the Motherwell performance over the two ties.

Motherwell do have the consolation of dropping into the Europa League play off stage but will face a tough draw today, but at least will have the opportunity to make a good amount of cash in the tie.

In the Europa League Dundee United looked to have made a decent fist playing against Dinamo Moscow in the first leg, but an early goal in the second leg last night seemed to knock the stuffing out of them and they went on to lose 5-0 which meant a 7-2 defeat on aggregate.

This was a bit of a blow for the Arabs who had taken confidence from the first leg and the three nil win over Hibs in the SPL, but they will have to re-group and concentrate on getting things back on track this weekend.

The latter two games also show how difficult for our clubs to compete with clubs that would be classed as being in the second tier of European football but still have huge resources compared to what we have.