Europa League 09-10 Thread

[Herr Matzat]

Bremen is causing me way to much hair loos... and deliverd the second extremly booring match this week.

[mikevandam]

Well. FC Copenhagen looked awful against Cluj on thursday. 2-0 to Cluj

[Scott McFly]

Just realised some of these were early kickoffs. I actually had to Google to find where the Everton game was being shown as Five have the Fulham game in a bit and ITV4 has the Werder Bremen game. I literally searched all the Sky Sports channels (even though I was pretty sure they don't have the rights), all the ITV channels (2, 3, 4, ITV England), all the Five channels (which I didn't have a clue to the channel number of in the first place, so had to fanny about for a bit there.) and only after a Google search told me did I think to check on the ESPN channels >_<

Anyway, 1-0 down half time. WTF are they playing at?

[Darloboy]

The goal against Everton was a scorcher by all accounts.

[Cadj]

Celtic 1 down to Rapid Vienna already

Loved the wee signs too.

"UNFORGIVEN" was my particular favourite from the Celtic crowd.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Looks like Fulham were robbed yet again by Roma.

Didn't see the entire game and missed the first sending off, but the second one wasn't far from a disgrace, seeing though nine point nine times out of ten that'll get a yellow at most. Shame really and really harsh on Fulham.

[stokeriño]

The BBC text guy says "Fulham lost that match because of the referee", but the only reference he made to poor refereeing was the second red card, which was after Fulham were 2-1 down. What else was there?

[IAceI]

The first red card when Fulham were 1-0 up.

To be fair Nevland went in and the way his legs were it looked like he was going to go in two footed. He barely clipped De Rossi, but it still had the image of looking like it was going to be nasty.

Neither should have been red cards, whether De Rossi and Taddei's theatrics helped the referee's cause I'm unsure. I'd imagine so though.

[Liam]

Yeah, it was an idiotic challenge, but it looked way worse than it ended up being. When I first saw it, I could see why the ref made that decision, but when you saw it again, Nevland made a bit of a lunge, but almost instantly pulled out, just clipping the back of De Rossi's heels. Theatrics probably did for him, for sure.

Was a shame, really deserved more than 1 point out of those two games. Considering how good our disciplinary record is in the Premiership, 3 red cards in 2 games is insane.

Plus, arguably, if Kelly was sent off in the first game, the Roma defender should have gone in this game, for a very similar challenge which stopped Kamara having a goalscoring oppurtunity.

[Herr Matzat]

Horray Bremen!

[Liam]

There is indeed only one Bobby Zamora.

[badotori]

EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW: 1200 GMT

Pot one: Anderlecht,Benfica, Fenerbahce, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Galatasaray, Juventus, Marseille,PSV Eindhoven, Roma, Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sporting, UnireaUrziceni, Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg, Valencia.

Pot two: Ajax,Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, Club Brugge, Everton, FC Copenhagen,FC Twente, Fulham, Hamburg, Hertha Berlin, Lille, Liverpool,Panathinaikos, Rubin Kazan, Standard Liege, Villarreal.

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 32 (TO BE PLAYED ON THE 18TH AND 25TH FEBRUARY)

Rubin Kazan vs. Hapoel Tel Aviv

Athletic Bilbao v Anderlecht

FC Copenhagen v Marseille

Panathinaikos vs. Roma

Athletico Madrid vs. Galatasaray

Ajax vs. Juventus

Club Brugge vs. Valencia

Fulham vs. Shakhtar Donetsk.

Liverpool vs. Unirea Urziceni

Hamburg vs. PSV Eindhoven

Villarreal vs. Wolfsburg

Standard Liege vs. Salzburg

FC Twente vs. Werder Bremen

Lille vs. Fenerbache

Everton vs. Sporting

Hertha Berlin vs. Benfica

EUROPA LEAGUE LAST 16

Hamburg/PSV Eindhoven vs. Athletic Bilbao/Anderlecht

Rubin Kazan/Hapoel Tel Aviv vs. Villarreal/Wolfsburg

Athletico Madrid/Galatasaray vs. Everton/Sporting

Hertha Berlin/Benfica vs. FC Copenhagen/Marseille

Panathinaikos/Roma vs. Standard Liege/Salzburg

Lille/Fenerbahce vs. Liverpool/Unirea Urziceni

Ajax/Juventus vs. Fulham/Shakhtar Donetsk

Club Brugge/Valencia vs. FC Twente/Werder Bremen

Tough draw for Everton and Fulham, but Liverpool look like they've got it pretty good, providing they don't underestimate Unirea. I'm still sticking with my thought that Wolfsburg will win though.

Your thoughts?

Edited December 18, 2009 by badotori

[Pesci]

Can't say I'm nuts about that, but at least we didn't get one of the bigger teams. All year I've been wanting Unirea to win because I love the little dodgy Romanian teams and telling people that it's not surprising they're panning Rangers because they play in a much better league, so it is isn't the greatest draw in the world. But hopefully we'll beat them and looking at it in the bigger picture, Unirea and then Fenerbahce or Lille isn't that hard a road to the quarters... at least on paper anyway, we'll find a way of gifting them a stupid goal or four.

[IAceI]

Liverpool have it easiest, Everton and Fulham have been fucked and Athletic Bilbao may win the first but they'll struggle with PSV or Hamburg. Interested to see how serious Liverpool take it. A cups a cup, but they need to focus on getting back up the league table and if they put out a good side and were beaten it'd be more humilating than this season's already been for them.

[mikevandam]

If Marseille fucks this up, then i wont support them ever again >_<

[Liam]

I didn't see the choice of teams we might play if we beat Shaktar until now.......pretty savage.

Ah well, the Europa League has worked nicely as a way of getting some fringe players a competitive run-out.

[Guest TonyWellard]

Well there is some good games in that draw.

Liverpool are in the Europa League though.

Liverpool vs. Juventus in the final and Liverpool win on penalties

[Hobo]

Best thing about Liverpool being in the Europa League is I'm not in college so I defiantly get to watch.

This will be interesting to say the least. I haven't paid much attention to the UEFA Cup outside of the final in the last few years.

[Age Of The Lariat]

This is probably not the right thread, but I'm watching Liverpool vs Lille and Pool aren't playing well, but Eden Hazard is outstanding for Lille. I've never seen him play before, but he's got some talent. He's so quick on the turn and seems to have a great sense of positioning and what's around him. And he's awesome on Football Manager!

[stokeriño]

^ *moved into correct thread*

Away goal for Fulham, huzzah!