\n<\/p>\n
The sides that come ninth to 24th will compete in the two-legged knockout play-off ties in February and there could be two British sides involved.<\/p>\n
Forest fell to a 1-0 defeat by Braga in Portugal, a result that practically confirms Sean Dyche’s side will be in the play-offs.<\/p>\n
Mathematically, Forest, in 16th, can still finish eighth, but would need to beat Hungarian team Ferencvaros at the City Ground and hope the eight sides directly above them all dropped points.<\/p>\n
However, Forest will still be keen to win next Thursday as the sides coming ninth to 16th will play the second legs of their knockout play-off ties at home.<\/p>\n
Celtic were 2-0 ahead against Bologna, but down to 10 men, before the Italians fought back to earn a 2-2 draw. However, the point leaves Martin O’Neill’s side on eight points and occupying 24th spot, the last of the play-off places.<\/p>\n
They will guarantee a top-24 position if they beat Dutch side Utrecht at home, but are likely to be out if they drop points.<\/p>\n
“We’ve given ourselves a chance – that’s all, a chance – of qualifying and from that viewpoint, I’m delighted,” said O’Neill.<\/p>\n
Rangers secured their first win of the league phase by beating Bulgarian side Ludogorets 1-0 but they are still eliminated after picking up just one point from their opening six games.<\/p>\n
Danny Rohl’s side are 31st and next go to Portugal to face a Porto side aiming to finish in the top eight.<\/p>\n
Rangers are one of six sides who cannot make the play-offs, along with Sturm Graz, Nice, Utrecht, Malmo and Maccabi Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
But every one of the 18 matches to be played on the final day has something riding on it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sides that come ninth to 24th will compete in the two-legged knockout play-off ties in February and there could be two British sides involved. Forest fell to a 1-0 defeat by Braga in Portugal, a result that practically confirms Sean Dyche’s side will be in the play-offs. Mathematically, Forest, in 16th, can still finish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}