2011/12 Europa League thread

I hope Legia is well prepared for their match. Gaziantepspor are good and this is Legia's first competitive match of the season. And erm... Legia have a reputation for being inconsistent despite probably having the strongest team in Poland.

polska. wrote:I hope Legia is well prepared for their match. Gaziantepspor are good and this is Legia's first competitive match of the season. And erm... Legia have a reputation for being inconsistent despite probably having the strongest team in Poland.

Gesundheitspor?

I actually can't wait for 5th August when we find out who we are playing

Split v England should be very interesting. I wonder what the odds were for having two teams from the same town to be drawn with the two English sides in this round??

Next round will be Poland versus Bulgaria as well.

polska. wrote:Next round will be Poland versus Bulgaria as well.

Ahhh, well this is not quite the same thing I was talking about because Gaziantepspor is from Turkey not Bulgaria.

Actually, Wisla is playing Litex in the Champions League.

Told you all that Differdange would do well.

polska. wrote:Actually, Wisla is playing Litex in the Champions League.

Ohh, well I was just looking at the Europa League at the moment

Pip wrote:Told you all that Differdange would do well.

That surprised me I did not see that happening. I am shocked that the two main teams from Tallinn are out of Europe as they seems miles ahead of the rest of Estonia and capable of good results in Europe previously.

I found an interesting change for the 2012/13 Europa League in format. Now the Cup Winners from the top six confederations (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Portugal) will get direct entry to the Europa League Group Stage. This sounds great but what happens if the Cup Winners qualify for the Champions League? I do not feel that a cup loser should go straight to the group stage.

Is this the final round before the groups then?

Weather130 wrote:I found an interesting change for the 2012/13 Europa League in format. Now the Cup Winners from the top six confederations (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, and Portugal) will get direct entry to the Europa League Group Stage. This sounds great but what happens if the Cup Winners qualify for the Champions League? I do not feel that a cup loser should go straight to the group stage.

In Poland something similar happened.

Legia beat Lech Poznan in the Cup Final, and qualified through the cup, whilst they also qualified through the league. Lech didn't get the the spot though, it just transferred over to Jagiellonia Bialystok whom was the next best placed team in the league to not get a European spot.

Pip wrote:Is this the final round before the groups then?

Nope you still have the Playoff Round that takes place in the middle of August and then after that the group stage finally takes place.

One game today;

Bnei Yehuda (Israel) 1 Helsingborgs IF (Sweden) 0

Weather130 wrote:One game today;

Bnei Yehuda (Israel) 1 Helsingborgs IF (Norway) 0

I think helsingborg is swedish.

Potato-7 wrote:

Weather130 wrote:One game today;

Bnei Yehuda (Israel) 1 Helsingborgs IF (Norway) 0

I think helsingborg is swedish.

I must be losing my mind here.

It seems that differdange will be in the Play-off round.

Olympiakos volou has been relegated and banned from european competitions early this morning.

Potato-7 wrote:It seems that differdange will be in the Play-off round.

Olympiakos volou has been relegated and banned from european competitions early this morning.

WTF happened??

Weather130 wrote:

Potato-7 wrote:It seems that differdange will be in the Play-off round.

Olympiakos volou has been relegated and banned from european competitions early this morning.

WTF happened??

Olympiakos Volou's president has been accused of matchfixing.Early this morning,the greek league decided to ban Olympiakos Volou from the league and the Europa league.The matches between them and differdange will take place though,until the final decision is taken.But if the decision doesnt change(which is the most likely course of action),then differange will automatically qualify for the next round,regardless the results of the 2 matches between them and Olympiakos Volou.

Potato-7 wrote:It seems that differdange will be in the Play-off round.

Olympiakos volou has been relegated and banned from european competitions early this morning.

Good team.

I heard Slask lost by a fluke goal despite completing dominating the game with Levski. Apparently Levski were shitter than Dundee, but Slask couldn't finish to save their lives.

watching the Stoke match

Weather, in your honest and knowledgeable opinion, who are the favorites to win this thing?

EDIT: by this thing I mean the whole Europa League

fluffy_kittens wrote:watching the Stoke match

Weather, in your honest and knowledgeable opinion, who are the favorites to win this thing?

EDIT: by this thing I mean the whole Europa League

Ohh gees probably someon who falls out from the Champions League. Best teams that are in the Europa League right now?? A very good question and I have various ideas. I know it might be odd to say but this Greek match fixing thing could be huge if Differdange advances because they might be good but I think in the next round they will get destroyed and if a big team draws them it could give them positive momentum for the group stage and the rest of the competition. Atletico Madrid and Fulham should be high on the list of contenders since they were the final two years ago. I think any of the English teams could win this other than Birmingham City but since they have so many fixtures that will be a tough task.



My final would likely be Athletic Bilbao v Roma

top 10 other clubs possibly in the final

1 Sevilla
2 Tottenham Hotspur
3. Lazio
4. Athletic Madrid
5. Fulham
6. PSG
7. Sporting CP
8. Celtic
9. Schalke 04
10. Anderlecht

UK & ROI teams

Karpaty Lviv (Ukraine) 2 St Patrick's Athletic (ROI) 0
Stoke City (England) 1 Hajduk Split (Croatia) 0
Vorskla Poltava (Ukraine) 0 Sligo Rovers (ROI) 0
Paks (Hungary) 1 Heart of Midlothian (Scotland) 1
FC Split (Croatia) 0 Fulham (England) 0



ties all but over (3 goals +)
AEK Larnaca (Cyprus) 3 FK Mladá Boleslav (Czech Republic) 0
Aalesund (Norway) 4 Elfsborg (Sweden) 0
Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel) 4 Vaduz (Liechtenstein) 0
Metalurgi Rustavi (Georgia) 2 Rennes (France) 5
Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur (Iceland) 1 Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia) 4
AC Omonoia (Cyprus) 3 ADO Den Haag (Netherlands) 0
Club Brugge (Belgium) 4 FK Qarabağ 1 (Azerbaijan) 1
Differdange (Luxembourg) 0 Olympiakos Volou (Greece) 3 result may be overturned
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) 5 FK Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) 0
Nacional (Portugal) 3 Hacken (Sweden) 0

upsets (in my eyes)
Alania Vladikavkaz (Russia) 1 Aktobe (Kazakhstan) 1
Palermo (Italy) 2 Thun (Swizerland) 2
Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus) 0 FK Rabotnički (Macedonia) 2
SV Ried (Austria) 2 Brøndby IF (Denmark) 0

Sligo

Did me proud, just need a home win and they are through

I think if tottenham keep their best players they are main contenders.Roma looks good aswell.

Potato-7 wrote:I think if tottenham keep their best players they are main contenders.Roma looks good aswell.

http://www.cj-sports.com/



Stoke v Hadjuk, More hoofball than Blackburn



0-0 at halftime btw

Stoke doing well at the moment.

Dinamo Tbilisi just scored.