yea but I've already penciled that in, I just don't think they have the efficiency or sharpness to beat FCK 2-0 at home. We saw against Nancy last week-end how much trouble they had mounting any sort of threatening offense and in last years Champions League how they failed in a do or die match at home against Trabzonspor (and the choke against CSKA who put them in that position in the first place). I hope I'm wrong and stranger things have happened but as for now I'd say they have a 25% shot at best.
very true, I still think they can at least score one and push to win in extra time they do have an upcoming game vs Nice and we'll see if they have worked on offense vs Nice a team who can create chances just needs help in finishing Lille need to overcome this to really get into the next level of clubs, those that have regular CL and can still play well at home
0-0 for bordeaux, bit surprised with how many chances both teams had, a lot of players will be kicking themselves on both sides while the GKs will receive praise as they should OM won 2-1 away
Well looks like I was wrong about Lille, a steady performance and they won 2-0 and qualified for the group stage. at worst they are now guaranteed 20M euro + the ticket revenue. I wonder if they got any signings planned with the extra money or plan to put it away for a rainy day. Anyway, a big boost for the club to get to play champions league football the first year with the new stadium and all the positive momentum that surrounds it.
LILLE SHOPPING LIST Losc should buy playmaker Sergi Roberto from barca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergi_Roberto or Rafael Alcântara do Nascimento from Barca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafa_Alcântara Yaya Sanogo would be prefect backup striker! why not 10-15 million euros would get Antoine Griezmann
You guys were telling me how much better Nolan Roux is than Moussa Sow yet Garcia keeps starting De Melo over Roux and yes he finally delivered only after quite a few missed chances which could have wrapped things up much easier. Payet is so inconsistant and fustrating. Kalou and Martin are fine I think. I expect them to buy Ryan Mendes of Le Harve and buy a RB to replace Debuchy.
So tonight we have: Olympique de Marseille - Sheriff Tiraspol 20:30 (2-1 aggr) FC Girondins de Bordeaux - FK Crvena Zvezda 20:30 (0-0 aggr) As well as the Champions League draw at 17:45 Pot 1 Chelsea Barcelona Manchester United Bayern Munich Real Madrid Arsenal FC Porto AC Milan Pot 2 Valencia Benfica Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St Petersburg Schalke 04 Manchester City SC Braga Dynamo Kiev Pot 3 Olympiakos Ajax Amsterdam Anderlecht Juventus Spartak Moscow Paris Saint Germain Lille Galatasaray Pot 4 Celtic Borussia Dortmund BATE Borisov Dinamo Zagreb CFR Cluj Malaga Montpellier FC Nordsjaelland With Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux not playing CL we got some bad seeding, If PSG can finish top 2, Lille top 3 and Montpellier get a few points I'd be happy with their performances.
Yup, not having any teams in pot 1 or 2 sucks ass and will hurt us. I had no idea Juventus was in pot 3. Thats weird to see. Portugal has 3 teams in pot 1 and 2, geeze no wonder why they passed us.
yea it's a big advantage to have the same team to qualify for Europe each year so they can keep gaining coeffiecent points for their club seeding (Porto/Benfica/Braga/Sporting). France always have these random teams popping in and out like Touluse, Auxerre, Montpellier etc. which I guess speaks well to the unpredictably of Ligue 1, or how badly run our "big" teams are.
Group A: FC Porto, Dynamo Kiev, PARIS SG, Dinamo Zagreb Group B: Arsenal, Schalke 04, Olympiakos, Montpellier Group F: Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, BATE Borisov PSG very very lucky. They have a highest budget than the other teams in their group by far. Major flop if they cant get out of this group. Montpellier, too tough of a group. Probably will finish 3rd or last. It does remind me a lot of Marseille's group last year and they went through so who knows. Lille will battle Valencia for 2nd but Valencia will be favored. I think most of us expected PSG to carry us in the Champions League. We have to hope we can pick up the slack in the Europa League.
Decent draw for all teams, PSG avoided the group of death, Montpellier ended up in a group were they have a reasonable chance for taking points of each of the teams at home and Lille should at the very least finish 3rd.
I feel all our teams should make an effort to get out their groups. It's more than possible for all three.
Bordeaux and Marseille both qualified for the group stage, Marseille played a boring but stable 0-0 at home to go through while Bordeaux managed to qualify after some last second heroics, scoring a penalty in the 93rd minute after the serbs had equalized just minutes before. All french team will be seeded in pot 1 for tomorrow's draw.
All the French teams are heading into the group stages, only 5 other leagues can say that. Even fewer can claim that all teams are in the best possible competition (Italy and Germany had teams fall to EL in the CL playoff).
Montpellier has to have the smallest budget in its group. It will be very hard for them to duplictae their success of last year so perhaps they should focus on Europe over L1. Valencia is a bigger club than Lille, I will not dispute that but I need to see what happens to them before the transfer window closes to guage my confidence in them.
Europa League Groupe C : MARSEILLE, Fenerbahçe, Mönchengladbach, Limassol Groupe D : BORDEAUX, Club Brugge, Newcastle, Maritimo Groupe I : LYON, Athletic Bilbao, Sparta Prague, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona
Pretty tough draws, especially for Marseille. On the other hand though I'd rather see a more packed (well as packed as is possible with the current re-construction) Velodrome vs Fenerbache or M'gladbach then an half empty one vs Rubin Kazan or Rosenborg.
Marseille's group looks tough on paper but Marseille had little trouble with Dortmund last year and Dortmund is better than Mönchengladbach. Lyon's group looks a lot like PSG's year. I'd put Sparta Prague on a similar level with Salzburg. I like Bordeaux's chances a lot. Looking forward to them playing Newcastle.
My thought's on Lyon's group. Athletic Bilbao were last years runners up, so you know they've taken Europa League seriously in the past. Everyone knows they (for now) have Llorente, as well as Muniain and a host of other talented players. Will be tough both home and away, but hopefully get the 3 points in Lyon and a point Bilbao Sparta have a very talented team, although they lack in experience, of their 5 best players Krejci and Kadlec are 20, Husbaur is 22, Kweuke is 25, and Matejovsky is the veteran at 30. The backline is more experienced, but a bit suspect if pressed. They thoroughly outplayed Feyenoord in Praha though, the Dutch team not even getting a shot on goal until just before halftime. Will be a very tough match away, but I think in the Gerland should definitely be 3 points. Kiryat Shmona I've seen a little bit of from Chapions League qualifying, they are a solid team, and kind of remarkable as they come from a rather remote and small city, though they'll play their home matches in Haifa. They'll put up a spirited fight, especially in Israel, though I still expect to win both matches against them.
but the upside is the EL seedings and for rating points the two competitions are just as important, something previous french clubs like rennes, lille and PSG never took into account. marseille has the toughest draw on paper, like SB said, but there's no reason for them to have an inferiority complex facing either fener or m'gladbach and should aim for the top spot. bordeaux and lyon will have a harder time winning their groups but you only need to finish second to go through and only bruges is a plausible threat to making that not happen. i'm very pleased with OL's group. we get to measure ourselves against the team that was the most fun to watch in either cup last year, but the other two should be patsies.
Games this week: Tuesday Paris S.G. - Dynamo Kiev 20:45 @ Parc des Princes, Paris Montpellier - Arsenal 20:45 @ Stade de la Moisson, Montpellier Wednesday Lille OSC - BATE Borisov 20:45 @ Grand Stade Lille Metropole, Lille Thursday Fenerbache - Olympique de Marseille 19:00 @ Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul Bordeaux - Club Brugge 19:00 @ Stade Chaban-Delmas, Bordeaux Lyon - Sparta Prague 21:00 @ Stade de Gerland, Lyon Five important home games + one very difficult road game, PSG and Lille probably under the most pressure to start off their campaign with three points at home.
on paper Montpellier has it the hardest ... i want to see them all win !!!! all french clubs that is....