UEFA Europa League 2015/16

[Baddar]

Oh, hello again. 

Draw is today at 12. It's funny, I'd rather we were in the unseeded section. Some horrible potential ties for the English trio, including Fiorentina and Dortmund. Kinda hoping we get Valencia.

[Noah]

9 minutes ago, Baddar said:

Oh, hello again. 

We really need to stop meeting in places like this. What will people think?

[Baddar]

The draw is about to take place. It's live on BT Sport Europe. 

I will update this with the draw as it happens;

Valencia vs. Rapid Vienna 

Fiorentina vs. Spurs

Dortmund vs. Porto

Fenerbahce vs. Lokomotiv Moscow

Anderlecht vs. Olympiakos

FC Midtjylland vs. Man Utd (I'll take that!)

Augsburg vs. Liverpool

Sparta Prague vs. FC Krasnodar

Galatasaray vs. Lazio

FC Sion vs. SC Bragg

Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Schalke

Marseille vs. Athletic Bilbao

Sporting Lisbon vs. Bayer Leverkusen 

Villarreal vs. Napoli

Saint Etienne vs. FC Basel

[Noah]

Trying to watch the draw live on the uefa site. Don't know if it's the website or my connection but I'm getting nothing so far.

Well we didn't get Valencia @Baddar

Tottenham (ENG) vs Fiorentina (ITA)

[Lineker]

Spurs vs. Fiorentina. Fuck.

[Noah]

Midtjylland (DEN) vs Man Utd (ENG)

Liverpool (ENG) vs Augsburg (GER)

[Baddar]

Some very good ties there. Who needs the CL anyway?

Full draw has been edited into my last post on the previous page.

[Noah]

Round of 32

Valencia(ESP)

v

Rapid Wien(AUT)

 

Fiorentina(ITA)

v

Tottenham(ENG)

 

Dortmund(GER)

v

Porto(POR)

 

Fenerbahçe(TUR)

v

Lokomotiv Moskva(RUS)

 

Anderlecht(BEL)

v

Olympiacos(GRE)

 

Midtjylland(DEN)

v

Man. United(ENG)

 

Augsburg(GER)

v

Liverpool(ENG)

 

Sparta Praha(CZE)

v

Krasnodar(RUS)

 

Galatasaray(TUR)

v

Lazio(ITA)

 

Sion(SUI)

v

Braga(POR)

 

Shakhtar Donetsk(UKR)

v

Schalke(GER)

 

Marseille(FRA)

v

Athletic(ESP)

 

Sevilla(ESP)

v

Molde(NOR)

 

Sporting CP(POR)

v

Leverkusen(GER)

 

Villarreal(ESP)

v

Napoli(ITA)

 

St-Étienne(FRA)

v

Basel(SUI)

[stokeriño]

Sorry Tottenham, you're going to have to beat Fiorentina for the sake of our 4th CL spot. :/

[Baddar]

Are we likely to keep it if, say, two out of 3 PL teams make it through to the CL quarter's, and both Juve and Roma are eliminated?

[DavidMarrio]

All this talk of us losing our spot doesn't matter anyway as it's our year this year

[Hobo]

TIL Alex Manninger plays in goal for Augsburg.

[Lineker]

Salah isn't at Fiorentina this year. So that's a plus. He always plays stupidly well against us and usually scores.

[Lineker]

Quote

Manchester United fans are planning a protest against ticket prices on Thursday after being charged £71 to attend the club’s Europa League game away at FC Midtjylland.

Supporters are angry at being asked to pay a premium price to watch their team in what they view as a second-rate European competition. Banners have been prepared by some of the 800 fans attending the game at the 11,800-capacity MCH Arena. One of them, created by Thomas Kearney, has ‘WELCOME TO SCAMDINAVIA’ written on it in black and white letters. It highlights the fact that United fans have been charged £71 per ticket whereas Southampton supporters were charged just £22 when they played at the home of the Danish champions in the Europa League play-off round in August.

United fans are expected to sing about their annoyance at the ticket charge during the game on Thursday.

“£71 to watch a Europa League game is extortionate,” said Andy Mitten, author and editor of fanzine United We Stand.

“The combined cost of all three tickets for Manchester United’s Champions League away games was only £75.

“Do they think United fans are three times wealthier than Southampton fans? Midtjylland are ripping fans off – their own and the 800 travelling fans.”

It is understood United complained to UEFA on the matter when the prices were announced, but there was no reduction.

Currently, the only direct flights from Manchester to Billund, the nearest airport to the ground in Herning, are available at £321 return.

Given that fans will have to pay up to £100 to reach Herning and hotels are charging up to £320 for a room, a two-night trip to Denmark could cost well over £1,000.

“Many fans go to great extremes to work out the cheapest ways to organise trips and to then get clobbered like this on ticket prices is a real slap in the face,” said Duncan Drasdo, of the Manchester United supporters’ trust.

“I feel that UEFA – and similarly the FA and Premier League – should protect away fans as a special case by requiring that in addition to away fans being charged no more than home fans in equivalent seating they should also outlaw ’away categorisation’, so that away fans of all clubs should be charged the same lowest price in the same competition in the same season.

“Clubs need to accept that they are not selling tickets in a normal competitive market as fan loyalty means each club is an effective monopoly so they shouldn’t be applying normal supply and demand economics. They wouldn’t be able to do this in other industries – banking, utilities etc where prices are regulated because the market is not operating efficiently.”

FC Midtjylland failed to respond to requests for a comment on Tuesday.

[Baddar]

Almost £1000 for a 0-0 draw. Ouch.

[Lineker]

Wayne Rooney has been left out of Manchester United’s squad for Thursday’s Europa League last-32 away leg against Midtjylland. Meanwhile, Midtjylland have defended their ticket price hike, saying that they are a small club who must "make the most of their cup final".

A Lokomotiv Moscow footballer has tested already strained relations between Russia and Turkey by removing his shirt at the end of a match in Istanbul to reveal a picture of Vladimir Putin.

Midfielder Dmitri Tarasov’s cut-off T-shirt depicted Putin in a navy cap with the words “most polite president” printed below. Putin power did not work in this case, as Turkish side Fenerbahçe won the match 2-0.

Ties between the two countries deteriorated in November when Turkey downed a Russian jet that it said had violated the country’s airspace after a bombing run in Syria. Russia responded with economic sanctions, and now the countries are locked in a de facto proxy war in Syria as Ankara backs rebels and Moscow supports president Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Syrian Kurds.

The phrase on Tarasov’s T-shirt was an allusion to the unmarked troops who occupied Crimea in March 2014 and were popularly referred to as “polite people” and “little green men”, before Putin admitted that they had been Russian soldiers. Turkey has condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its treatment of Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatars.

Police detained three people on Tuesday after bottles and stones were thrown at a bus carrying Lokomotiv fans to the match, which was the highest-profile sporting event between the two countries since the downing of the jet. Several Turkish news outlets decried Tarasov’s shirt as a “provocation”.

“I didn’t want any provocations, I’m just a patriot of my country, and Putin is the president of our country,” Tarasov later told LifeNews, adding that he might wear a Putin shirt “with a different caption” at his next match.

But European football’s governing body, Uefa, which forbids political statements during matches, is expected to take disciplinary action against Lokomotiv. Tarasov could be disqualified for a minimum of 10 matches, R-Sport news agency quoted a Uefa source as saying.

The match was in the Europa League’s round of 32. Fenerbahçe will play Lokomotiv again in Moscow on 25 February.

[MDK]

German is such a beautiful language 

[Lineker]

The Tottenham captain, Hugo Lloris, will miss Thursday night’s Europa League last 32 first leg at Fiorentina after sustaining a shoulder injury in the Premier League win at Manchester City on Sunday. It will also keep the French goalkeeper out of this Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Crystal Palace.

That's fine, lock the big guns away a long distance from the stadium - with the position we find ourselves in we should now not be prioritizing the Europa League. Kane, Tobes, etc need the rest.

[Baddar]

[The Lusophone]

Man our defensive options are so good nowadays. >_>