The Big Europa League Adventure

alderz

OutcastLondoner said:

In Bangladesh I saw a calf on a rickshaw.

Any advances on calf on a rickshaw?

Ravel49

What about a Local with a lampshade on their head

yoyo

yoyo said:

If we do then I'd love it soooo much if Coufal crushed him like the insect he is.
Aslef said ,Payet left for family reasons and took a pay cut to leave. I respect him for that.

Aslef, you may be right and I'm doing him a disservice. I kind of recall that he went on strike and refused to play in order to force a move. If I'm wrong then I apologise to Payet . If the rumours were true then he's still a insect and I hope Coufal ( should they meet) slide tackles him Into row Z

Cuz1

I saw coufal on a calf threatening the poor thing for walking past him

IronHerb

Hungary has a population of 9.7m, England 56m, why shouldn't we have more teams in Europe?

So Brazil has a population of 213.5m. Should they have four teams in the World Cup?

Bazshuayi

alderz said:

OutcastLondoner said:

In Bangladesh I saw a calf on a rickshaw.

Any advances on calf on a rickshaw?

I once saw Jack Grealish's calf on Luke Shaw, does that count?

Expat_Hammer

I saw Grealish left a gibbering wreck after meeting Vlad

ASLEFshrugged

IronHerb said:

So Brazil has a population of 213.5m. Should they have four teams in the World Cup?

UEFA want two things; money and competitive games.

Teams from big countries like England, Germany, Spain or Italy bring large TV audiences and have strong teams.

Teams from the top flights of smaller countries like Hungary, Scotland or Norway aren't anywhere near the same level and aren't as popular with a worldwide market

Hungary's top flight is ranked 28th in Europe, the league's record transfer was Myrto Uzuni, signed by Ferencvaros last season for £1.4m.

If more teams from smaller nations got places it would be the equivalent of us playing our Europa League Group matches against Middleborough, Blackpool and Aberdeen

Not the level of entertaining football UEFA are hoping to sell to the world

IronHerb

claretandbluesky said:

They should just make a draw instead of giving already advantaged teams even more advantage. When you read this stuff it makes that super league idea seem perfectly in line with it all. It;s not too many steps from a club coefficiant to allowing a team into the comp just because they are a big club.

I know it's all about money but I was responding to C&B's post regarding straight knockout.

alderz

ASLEFshrugged said:

IronHerb said:

So Brazil has a population of 213.5m. Should they have four teams in the World Cup?

UEFA want two things; money and competitive games.

Teams from big countries like England, Germany, Spain or Italy bring large TV audiences and have strong teams.

Teams from the top flights of smaller countries like Hungary, Scotland or Norway aren't anywhere near the same level and aren't as popular with a worldwide market

Hungary's top flight is ranked 28th in Europe, the league's record transfer was Myrto Uzuni, signed by Ferencvaros last season for £1.4m.

If more teams from smaller nations got places it would be the equivalent of us playing our Europa League Group matches against Middleborough, Blackpool and Aberdeen

Not the level of entertaining football UEFA are hoping to sell to the world

Isn’t there an argument that giving the smaller nations sides more exposure would also give them more money, and subsequently increase the quality of their leagues and level the playing field

ASLEFshrugged

alderz said:

Isn’t there an argument that giving the smaller nations sides more exposure would also give them more money, and subsequently increase the quality of their leagues and level the playing field

It might help but unless their domestic leagues received as much TV coverage as the Premier and the other big four get I suspect the difference would be negligible.

I also doubt if UEFA would be interested in sacrificing short term gains for long term improvements, its obvious from the way they've rigged the competitions that they want the big names playing as much as possible

IronHerb

Away goals rule scrapped for UEFA competitions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57599780

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Odds on us losing out in the knockout stages because this rule has been scrapped?

Although I do agree with it.

IronHerb

This is how the last 32 of the Europa League is shaping up. (In no particular order)

1 Olympique Lyon
2 West Ham United
3 Napoli
4 Olympique Marseille
5 Beyer Leverkusen
6 Real Sociedad
7 Lazio
8 Real Betis
9 Sporting Braga
10 Eintracht Frankfurt
11 Leicester City
12 Lokomotive Moscow
13 Olympiacos / Ludogorets Razgrad
14 Red Star Belgrade / Sheriff Tiraspol
15 Malmo / Rangers
16 Ferencvaros v Slavia Prague
17 Malmo / Rangers v Red Star Belgrade / Sheriff Tiraspol
18 CFR Cluj / Young Boys v Dinamo Zagreb / Legia Warsaw
19 Ferencvaros / Slavia Prague v Olympiacos / Ludogorets Razgrad
20 Kairat / Alashkert v Lincoln Red Imps / Slovan Bratislava
21 Omonia Nicosia / Flora Tallinn v Antwerp
22 Mura / Zalgaris Vilnius v Sturm Graz
23 Fenerbahce v Neftci Baku / HJK
24 Jablonec / Celtic v AZ Alkmaar
25 Anorthosis Famagusta / Rapid Vienna v Zorya Luhansk
26 Randers v Galatasary / St Johnstone

The remaining 6 teams will qualify from the teams below who are in the Champions League. (The draw has not been made for these games yet).

Red Bull Salzburg
Brondby
Legia Warsaw v Dinamo Zagreb
Young Boys v CLF Clug
Slavia Prague v Ferencvaros
Malmo v Rangers
Olympiacos v Ludogorets Razgrad
Red Star Belgrade v Sheriff Tiraspol
Shaktar Donetsk v Genk
Sparta Prague v Monaco
Spartak Moscow v Benfica
PSV Eindhoven v Midtjylland

The EL 3rd Qualifying Round starts tonight along with the CL 3rd Qualifying Round. The CL losers drop to the EL Play Off round.

Clear as mud. 🤯

whupathman

Still no Spurs that’s all that counts

ValiantIron

whupathman said:

Still no Spurs that’s all that counts

To be fair, they're probably kept out by Red Star Belgrade being on it three times!

I find Wikipedia is best at explaining these convolutions if I really feel the need to know.

ASLEFshrugged

Well done, IronHerb

The teams that qualify for the Group Stage into four pots of 8 based on their co-efficient. We're currently 10th out of the 12 teams confirmed in the Group Stages so the best we can hope for is Pot 2 but there are plenty of teams with a better co-efficient than us still in the mix so more likely we'll be in Pot 3

ASLEFshrugged

The Play Off round is starting to shape up and there are plenty of teams ranked above us in the coefficients (we're ranked 76)

Rangers (ranked 52) were knocked out of the Champions League last night by Malmo (88) and will play either Kariat (189) or Alaskart (179) . If Malmo get knocked out by Ludogorets Razgrad (58) they could end up in the same group as Rangers which would be amusing.

Celtic (46) beat Jablonec 4-2 in the first leg, if they win they have to play AZ (66).

Also in the Play Offs are Olympicacos (37) v Slovan Bratislava (152), Slavia Prague (35) v Legia Warsaw (98) and Red Star Belgrade (50) v CFR Cluj (97).

If all five teams ranked above us got through to the Group Stage we'd be 15th so still in Pot 2 but there will also be the losers of Champions League play off round and two of those see Monaco (40) v Shakhtar Donetsk (18) and Benfica (24) v PSV Eindhoven (56)

Pot 3 looking even more likely

IronHerb

The last 32 taking shape. 16 confirmed with 16 ties to play.

Olympique Lyon
Napoli
Beyer Leverkusen
Lazio
Sporting Braga
Eintracht Frankfurt
Lokomotive Moscow
Leicester City
Genk
Olympique Marseille
West Ham United
Real Sociedad
Real Betis
Spartak Moscow
Sparta Prague
Midtjylland

Sheriff Tiraspol v Dinamo Zagreb (Loser)
Young Boys v Ferencvaros (Loser)
Monaco v Shakhtar Donetsk (Loser)
Red Bull Salzburg v Brondby (Loser)
Benfica v PSV Eindhoven (Loser)
Malmo FF v Ludogorets Razgrad (Loser)

Red Star Belgrade v CFR Cluj (Winner)
Rangers v Alashkert (Winner)
Celtic v AZ Alkmaar (Winner)
Fenerbahce v HJK (Winner)
Legia Warsaw v Slavia Prague (Winner)
Olympiacos v Slovan Bratislava (Winner)
Rapid Vienna v Zorya Luhansk (Winner)
Randers v Galatasary (Winner)
Omonia Nicosia v Antwerp (Winner)
Mura v Sturm Graz (Winner)

(Loser) - CL ties where the loser drops into the EL Group Stage.
(Winner) - EL ties where the winner enters the EL Group Stage.

Ties to be played over the next two weeks.

ASLEFshrugged

Ex-player alert. Sofiane Feghouli scored for Galatasary v St Johnstone tonight

ASLEFshrugged

Dinamo Zagreb and Monaco took a big step towards joining us in the Europa League by losing 3-0 away and 1-0 at home last night. Red Bill Salzburg beat Brondby 1-0 at home


Just for giggles Tottenham's big European adventure begins on Thursday when they play Pacos de Ferreira in the Estádio Capital do Movel (capacity 9077). The city is tiny, you could fit the entire population into the stadium with room to spare, its about 20 miles from Porto and it takes about an hour to get there by bus.

So glad we finished 6th

alderz

ASLEFshrugged said:

Dinamo Zagreb and Monaco took a big step towards joining us in the Europa League by losing 3-0 away and 1-0 at home last night. Red Bill Salzburg beat Brondby 1-0 at home


Just for giggles Tottenham's big European adventure begins on Thursday when they play Pacos de Ferreira in the Estádio Capital do Movel (capacity 9077). The city is tiny, you could fit the entire population into the stadium with room to spare, its about 20 miles from Porto and it takes about an hour to get there by bus.

So glad we finished 6th

Fortuneseeker

See Tottenham are taking their European adventure seriously?

steve

Shame was looking forward to seeing them go to places i had never heard of

Fortuneseeker

steve, They probably still will when they bother to put out a proper team. I do hope we don't think we can just play the reserves in the Europa League otherwise what is the point of trying to qualify & then not give it a real go?

Bazshuayi

That doesn't sound like Moyes. I dont see the point of being ambitious aiming for Europe etc and not bothering to make an effort when in it

OutcastLondoner

I was pretty frustrated with our efforts under Bilic but would be much more so if we didn't take this seriously now we're in the group stages.

nychammer66

OutcastLondoner said:

I was pretty frustrated with our efforts under Bilic but would be much more so if we didn't take this seriously now we're in the group stages.

I’m frustrated that a minimum of six matches in Europe is not enough to attract anyone decent. I think that is odd.

ASLEFshrugged

After last night's Champions League playoffs the pots are

Lyon (FRA)
Napoli (ITA)
Bayer Leverkusen (GER)
Lazio (ITA)
Braga (POR)
Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)
Leicester City (ENG)
Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS)

Genk (BEL)
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
Marseille (FRA)
Ludogorets (BUL)
West Ham (ENG)
Real Sociedad (ESP)
Real Betis (ESP)
Spartak Moskva (RUS)

Sparta Praha (CZE)
Midtjylland (DEN)
Ferencváros (HUN)

Tonight
Shakhtar Donetsk v Monaco (1-0)
Brondby v Red Bull Salzburg (1-2)
Dinamo Zagreb v Sheriff Tiraspol (0-3)

Roll on Friday!

IronHerb

You've missed Pot 2. We will be in Pot 3.