Coefficient Watch: Aberdeen Romp Through

Scotland sees all three teams go through with Aberdeen displaying a dominant performance.

Onward the coefficient! This round it was actually Rangers turn to drop coefficient points by failing to put a goal past Progres in the second round for a draw, but all three of Rangers, Aberdeen, and Celtic advanced to the next round in what is already a strong campaign for Scotland’s coefficient.

Aberdeen 5 – 0 CHIKHURA SACHKHERE 

After a difficult 1-1 tie in the first leg in Georgia, Aberdeen entered the second leg with a certain advantage. Leading with the away goal and coming home, but they were not content to simply slide through to the next round and put an absolute pounding on the Georgian side from start to finish.

They got the scoring going early with Sam Cosgrove putting in two goals in the first half to effectively put the tie to bed, they continued to pour it on in the second half all the way to 5-0 which saw Cosgrove put in a third for his hat-trick. The performance ranks as the most impressive European outing for Aberdeen in years and should give them excellent momentum into the next round.

Cosgrove’s hat-trick also gives him the distinction of currently being the top goal-scorer in the competition so far.

In the next round, Aberdeen will face Croation side HNK Rijeka. While I don’t know enough about the current team to say anything concrete, they are likely to be a difficult test as they have some history of success in Europe.

Kilmarnock:

Sorry I just wanted to take another moment to shame Kilmarnock for losing to a part-time Welsh team. At least some of their fans who had already booked flights to the next round seemed to enjoy themselves.

Nomme Kalju 0 – 2 Celtic

Building on their 5-0 pumping of Kalju at Park-head in the first leg, Celtic cruised to a 2-0 victory. The Estonian club was clearly overmatched in this matchup and it showed the entire way. New arrival Marian Shved scored one of Celtics goals in impressive fashion.

Celtic advance to face Romanian club CFR Cluj, the railwaymen.

Progres 0 – 0 Rangers

We’ve talked about this and it got its own post. Disappointing outing, should’ve at least snagged a goal to get the full points but Rangers do advance.