It will take Boavista years to be competitive but I can't wait to play those cross town thugs again. They used to have no name players but played such a high pressing and high intensity game that made them a very tough opponent. I still remember when they had Martelinho (little hammer) Timofte, Jorge Couto, Sanchez. They sure knew how to build a a low budget team.
What a collapse by Porto. Sevilla were given a gift PK to get the ball rolling but they also picked up a red in the 2nd half. Porto didn't bother taking a shot and passed the ball around midfield. I understand teams bunker but when they do and you have half an hour start shooting with men in motion. Should have sent (even this) Braga to take care of Sevilla. EDIT: And in injury time Quaresma takes a shot finally and they score...it's not rocket science.
Yeah, Porto was pretty sad today, but Benfica took care of business at home to AZ, so that means one team in the semis of the EL and a total of .5 UEFA points (2 for Benfica's win + 1 for reaching the semis). That puts us at 9.083, though without two teams still in the mix, we can now officially not catch Russia. The better news is that with both PSG and Lyon losing this week, France gained no points and has no teams left, so we're going to finish ahead of them. In terms of ordinal ranking, this means we'll end up sixth in Europe. Not terrible for a poor season overall. But the actual number of points is still in question. We could get to 10, which is a decent haul, but it would mean Benfica would probably have to win just about all its games including the final. They've looked pretty great recently so I'm not ruling that out! Interesting to see who we'll draw tomorrow. Anyone have preferences between Juve, Sevilla, and Valencia?
In the end, 6th in Europe is excellent for a season that started in the worst possible way. How many wins more than Benfica does Juve need in order for Italy to start ahead of Portugal next season?
Nervy but decent win, 2-1. Giving up the away goal hurts a bit, especially because it will be hard to get a result in Torino. Officially now at 9.416, with the 10-point threshold still a possibility. If I'm reading the charts correctly, Portugal is officially .455 points ahead of Italy for starting position next year. If they can beat or tie Juve, they'll stay ahead. If they lose, they'll fall behind. They could lose but win on away goals, then if they won or tied the final they'd stay ahead on points. But the ordinal ranking is not that important, what really matters is that Italy and Portugal will start next year in essentially a dead heat, separated only by tenths of a UEFA point.
Your league earned a massive 18.800 in 10/11. That's incredible. Next year will be interesting to say the least.
That was a banner year, by a wide margin Portugal's best ever. Three teams in the final four of the Europa League, two teams in the final. Everything broke right for us that year, but more than anything else we had three teams do very well in Europe, with one doing credibly well (Sporting won its EL group and got to the Round of 32, losing only on away goals to Rangers). If we're going to get close to that number again, we're going to need more quality performances outside just Benfica and Porto.
This page from Kassies the Great appears to confirm: http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2015.html
Nice, gutsy scoreless draw at Juve puts Benfica into the Europa League final for the second year running. The win takes Portugal to 9.75 points on the season, thanks to both the draw and the bonus for winning the semifinal tie on aggregate. We can reach the ten point threshold if and only if we win the final in regular time. This year's EL final foe will be Sevilla--no slouches but a very winnable matchup. And the venue will be the selfsame place where they just held off Juve, which seems like a good omen. And lord knows they could use a good omen--the streak of lost European finals since their '62 win is at seven and I'd love to see them finally end it.
All right, ladies and germs, with Benfica's loss in the EL final to Sevilla last week, we now have finally concluded Portugal's 2013/14 European adventure. The result in the final actually gained Benfica a point, since it officially goes into the books as a draw, even though they lost on pennos. That said, the point wasn't quite enough to get us to the standard 10-point goal that is the benchmark of a successful season. Instead, Portugal fell just a sliver short, at 9.916--so close, really, that the difference scarcely matters. Those 9.9 points place us sixth in Europe overall, about a half point behind Russia, and well ahead of France in seventh. And next year we'll start just ahead of Italy, though to keep pace with them we'll have to do a lot better since they've left us in the dust the last couple of years. It was an interesting year: things were looking so promising in fall of 2013, with lots of teams alive and poised to rack up points; then things got a little dire midway through the European season as everyone stumbled out of their group (all three EL teams eliminated and both Porto and Benfica out of the CL and into the EL); and finally things were salvaged late on by a great run by Benfica to yet another loss in the EL final. And with that, the year is in the books. Next up: 2014/15. Man, how time flies.