[Thryleon]

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	COMMENTS
Fenerbahce	Monaco	No clear advantage here.
Rostov	Anderlecht	Clear advantage on Anderlecht
Shakhtar Donetsk	Young Boys	Clear advantage for the Ukranians
Spartak Prague	Steaua Bucuresti	Slight advantage for the Romanians.
Ajax	PAOK	Stats say Ajax. Friendlies say PAOK.
Astra	Crusaders or Copenhagen
Viktoria Plzen	Qarabag or Dudelange	Slight advantage on the Czechs
Olympiacos	Sheriff Tiraspol or Hapoel Beer Sheeva	No brainer this one for Olympiacos FC
Partizani or Ferencvaros	Salzburg or Liepaja
Ludogorets or Mladost	Valletta or Red Star Belgrade	Another no brainer for Red Star
Bate Borisof or SJK	Dundalk or FH	Third no brainer for Bate Borisov
Trencin of Olimpia Lju	Zrinjski or Legia
Astana or Zalgiris	Lincoln or Celtic	It should be a no brainer for Celtic but noone knows now!
Vardar or Dinamo Zagreb	Dinamo Tbilisi or Alashkert	Either of the two Dinamos have the advantage here.
Rosenborg or Norrkoping	TNS or APOEL	Based on the recent years I would suggest that APOEL has the advantage in this group.

[lonnloe]

Great insight. Thanks

[Honeybadger44]

Just wanted to add some of my thoughts on some of the matchups.

We could hardly say that Red star is a no brainer against Ludogorets. Sure, they signed many quality players to help them qualify to CL. But it was obvious in first game against valetta that they are not on a high level with their team play at the moment. Too many new pieces and they will need some time to gel and get to know each other. Also, they have some problems in defense, primarly at LCB and RB positions. Ludogorets have many quality options up front which could exploit that.
Also, bulgarian team is seeded here and considered as a favorite. They are financialy strong club and are dominating their league for last couple of years. Red star will look for their chance at home, in front of 50k fans. But still slight edge in this tie to Ludogorets at the moment.

Trencin-Legia. Slovak team is a new face in this competition. But from what I saw in first match, they could be the dark horse. Solid team which plays well together, with couple of good individuals which are able to take it on another level, when given opportunity. loaded with solid foreign players, mostly from Africa. Polish teams on the other side struggled in european cups in last couple of years, from what I can remember. We have a potential upset here.

Dinamo Zagreb-Dinamo Tbilisi. Zagreb with clear edge here. They just have too much quality in their squad.

[Duckshit]

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	COMMENTS
Fenerbahce	Monaco	No clear advantage here.
Rostov	Anderlecht	Clear advantage on Anderlecht
Shakhtar Donetsk	Young Boys	Clear advantage for the Ukranians
Spartak Prague	Steaua Bucuresti	Slight advantage for the Romanians.
Ajax	PAOK	Stats say Ajax. Friendlies say PAOK.
Astra	Crusaders or Copenhagen
Viktoria Plzen	Qarabag or Dudelange	Slight advantage on the Czechs
Olympiacos	Sheriff Tiraspol or Hapoel Beer Sheeva	No brainer this one for Olympiacos FC
Partizani or Ferencvaros	Salzburg or Liepaja
Ludogorets or Mladost	Valletta or Red Star Belgrade	Another no brainer for Red Star
Bate Borisof or SJK	Dundalk or FH	Third no brainer for Bate Borisov
Trencin of Olimpia Lju	Zrinjski or Legia
Astana or Zalgiris	Lincoln or Celtic	It should be a no brainer for Celtic but noone knows now!
Vardar or Dinamo Zagreb	Dinamo Tbilisi or Alashkert	Either of the two Dinamos have the advantage here.
Rosenborg or Norrkoping	TNS or APOEL	Based on the recent years I would suggest that APOEL has the advantage in this group.

I'm on Bate Tue and D Zagreb Wed.....glad we're on the same page!

[Thryleon]

Here is how the board is now set:

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	COMMENTS
Olympiacos	Hapeol Beer-Sheva	Despite the problems in the last friendly I still think that Olympiacos is the strong favorite
Astra Giurgiu	Copenhagen
Ludogorets	Red Star Beograd	I saw Lodogorets but I still think that Red Star is a better team
Rosenborg	APOEL	My view on the advantage for the Cypriots remains
Dinamo Zagreb	Dinamo Tbilisi	This is a tough one.
Bate Borisov	Dundalk	Ok this is probably the easiest of the lot for Bate
Partizani	Salzburg	The Albanians made it this far but I still think Salzburg has the advantage
Trencin	Legia Warsaw
Astana	Celtic	The Scotts made it through and now I think they will be more serious
Viktoria Plzen	Qarabag	The Czechs still have the clear advantage
Ajax	PAOK	I think that at this stage PAOK is in better condition
Sparta Prague	Steaua Bucuresti
Shakhtar Donetsk	Young Boys	Shakhtar no questions asked
Rostov	Anderlecht	This one still goes for Anderlecht
Fenerbahce	Monaco

[Thryleon]

First leg results:

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	SCORE	THOUGHTS
Olympiacos	Hapoel Beer Sheeva	0-0	I still think that Olympicaos will go through
Astra Giurgiu	Copenhagen	1-1	Conhagen with the advantage
Astana	Celtic	1-1	Celtic with the advantage
Rosenborg	APOEL Limassol	2-1	The away goal gives the Cypriots an advantage
Trencin	Legia	0-1	I think the Polish have wrapped it up
Fenerbahce	Monaco	2-1	Still undecided. The French are not as reliable as before
Ajax	PAOK	1-1	PAOK now has to prove they are worth it. They have failed in the past
Shakhtar	Young Boys	2-0	The Suisse have no chance
Bate	Dundalk	1-0	Dundalk has a chance but 1-0 is the troickiest score around
Sparta Prague	Steaoua Bucuresti	1-1	I wouldn't bet on the ROmanians yet
Viktoria Plzen	Qarabag	0-0	Unexpected result but I still vote for the Czecs
Partizani	Salzburg	0-1	This goes as expected for the Austrians
Rostov	Anderlecht	2-2	Also as expected, Anderlecht will go through
Dinamo Zagreb	Dinamo Tbilisi	2-0	The score gives the Croats the advantage.

[Thryleon]

Qualification sheet:

TEAM 1	TEAM 2	1st	2nd	THOUGHTS
Olympiacos	Hapoel Beer Sheeva	0-0	0-1	FAIL
Astra Giurgiu	Copenhagen	1-1	0-3	Conhagen - SUCCESS
Astana	Celtic	1-1	1-2	Celtic - SUCCESS
Rosenborg	APOEL Limassol	2-1	0-3	Success on the qualification of the Cypriots but the script of the match must have been devised by Hitchcock himself! 0-0 after 90 minutes and 3 goals scored on injury time? Seriously?
Trencin	Legia	0-1	0-0	Legia - SUCCESS
Fenerbahce	Monaco	2-1	1-3	Not touching this one...
Ajax	PAOK	1-1	2-1	PAOK - FAIL
Shakhtar	Young Boys	2-0	0-2	Shakhtar - THE SECOND WORST FAIL
Bate	Dundalk	1-0	0-3	*** This must be the worst fail of all time ***
Sparta Prague	Steaoua Bucuresti	1-1	2-0
Viktoria Plzen	Qarabag	0-0	1-1	SUCCESS
Partizani	Salzburg	0-1	0-2	Salzburg - SUCCESS
Rostov	Anderlecht	2-2	2-0	Anderlecht - THE THIRD WORST FAIL
Dinamo Zagreb	Dinamo Tbilisi	2-0	1-0	SUCCESS
Ludogorets	Red Star	2-2	4-2	Was it Hitchcock's anniversary yesterday? 2-2 on regulation, overtime and 4-2 on overtime? Seriously?

7 successfull predictions on who would advance... Need to do a lot better next round....