Quote (Mr_Mill @ 5 Nov 2014 15:08)
Did a scenario like this every happen before? A team qualifying at an early stage for the knockout rounds while being in the relegation zone?
Celta in 2003-04 spent the whole season season in the relegation zone (and was eventually relegated), and they reached the CL first ko stage. I think they qualified in the 5th game week though.
That same season, Real Sociedad also achieved the same thing, but I'm not sure they were in the relgation zone when they qualified (if they weren't then they were definetely very close to it as they spent the whole season struggling).