Seeding secured for Rosenborg
By Håvard Lindheim, 26 April 2004, 10:14
Saturday evening, Porto won the Portuguese league, and it is final: Rosenborg will be seeded for this autumn's 3rd qualifying stage of the Champion's League.
"Sounds good! Thanks for noticing me," a busy Ola By Rise says to rbkweb.com some hours before the kickoff in the Viking game.
All spring it has looked like things should go Rosenborg's way, and Saturday it was ascertained:
Sporting Lissabon lost 0-1 in an away match against Uniao Leiria in the 3rd last round of the league, and can as a result not overtake Porto, who is six points ahead with one game more to play. Even if Porto should lose all three remaining matches, they will win. In Portugal, if two teams end up on the same number of points, reciprocal matches count.
Early on it was clear that RBK had to count on at least two larger clubs didn't make it into the qualifying rounds. This criteria could be reached in different ways. rbkweb.com picked the two most likely:
Galatasaray finishes 3rd or worse in Turkey.
Neither Porto nor Boavista wins silver in Portugal.
With three matches to go, Galatasaray occupies a 6th position, 20 points behind Fenerbache in second, who in addition has one game more to be played.
When it comes to Portugal, Porto can not take the silver. And Boavista defends an 8th spot, a whooping 26 points behind Sporting Lissabon.
In other words: All in Rosenborg's favour!
Rosenborg shall play a second qualifying round as well, match dates Jul 28th and Aug 4th. Matches in the 3rd qualifying round are 10th/11th and 24th/25th of August.
"Sounds good! Thanks for noticing me," a busy Ola By Rise says to rbkweb.com some hours before the kickoff in the Viking game.
