THE early exit of Queen of the South from the Uefa Cup is a damaging blow to Scottish football in the wake of Rangers' shock elimination from Europe, with the automatic place in the Champions League group stage for the SPL winners at risk.
Queens threatened to create history last night by becoming the first Scottish team to qualify for the next round of a European competition after losing the first leg at home, but two late goals by home side Nordsjaelland sent the Danes into the Uefa
Cup first round.
It leaves Scotland with only two representatives remaining in this season's European competitions. SPL title holders Celtic go straight into the group stage of the Champions League, the draw for which takes place in Monte Carlo tomorrow, while Motherwell are in the Uefa Cup first round draw on Friday.
The reorganisation of the two tournaments from next season means nations in the top 15 of the Uefa co-efficient ranking table will have five clubs in European competition in the 2009-10 campaign, two in the Champions League and three in the Uefa Cup.
Scotland are currently 10th in the provisional rankings which will determine the access list for next season, but that place is under serious threat from the countries immediately below them. Ukraine, Turkey, Switzerland, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria and Denmark all have more teams remaining in Europe this season than Scotland and could leapfrog them in the table.
If Scotland drop out of the top 12, then the automatic place in the Champions League group stage for the SPL winners will be lost. Both the SPL champions and runners-up would enter the elite tournament in the qualifying rounds. Should Scotland slip even further and out of the top 15, they would also lose one of the additional Uefa Cup places.
It places a significant onus on Celtic to try and repeat their performances of the last two seasons in the Champions League when they reached the last 16 of the competition.
Motherwell will hope to make a positive contribution in the Uefa Cup, but Mark McGhee's side are unseeded in the first round draw and could find a major club such as AC Milan barring their way to the group stage of the tournament.
Queens manager Gordon Chisholm insisted he could ask no more of his players after their first European adventure ended in frustrating defeat.
The Irn Bru First Division club were unable to overturn their Uefa Cup second qualifying round first leg defeat but were more than a match for their Danish top-flight opponents.
Bob Harris' early goal gave Queens real hope of an upset, and the visitors dominated the second half in search of a clinching second goal. But the home side took advantage with counter attacks which produced two late Martin Bernburg strikes.
Chisholm said: "We kept it nice and tight, we got that early goal. Everything was going perfectly. But there was going to be some stage when we had to push forward and get that second goal. Unfortunately, they caught us on the break there and punished us back to 1-1.
"Then we had to really go for it. At least if we'd scored, we'd have taken it into extra-time.
"It was a wee bit of desperation really but we couldn't go out just lying down. We had to give it everything we'd got. I thought their effort, commitment was absolutely first-class. We had a couple of little chances. With a wee bit more luck then we'd have got another goal. It wasn't to be.
"I don't think we've let anybody down but the damage was done in the first game."
The full article contains 620 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
