Let's get this started. Here's what we're dealing with: Champions League: Benfica and Porto already in the group stage, both as seeded teams. That's the good news. Bad news is that the third team is/was Pacos Ferreira, who got eviscerated *at home* earlier this week by Zenit St. Petersburg, 4-1. Pacos might be able to salvage a pride-saving draw in Russia since the result of the tie is not really in doubt, but regardless the overwhelming likelihood is that we'll see them in the Europa League shortly. Speaking of... Europa League: Vitoria de Guimaraes gets an automatic berth as the Taca winner. Pacos will be there. And the good news from this week is that both Braga and Estoril are well-situated to advance to the group stage of the EL as well. Braga beat Pandurii 1-0 in Romania, while Estoril topped Pasching 2-0 in Estoril. Neither tie is clearly settled yet, but both teams have the clear edge, and if they follow through, that would mean four teams in the Europa League group stage. The Pacos debacle might seem a disappointment at first glance, but as I look at it more closely, I actually think it could be a good outcome. Pacos was never going to do much damage in the CL, but they might gain points in the EL. And the most important thing about UEFA points is making sure all the teams have a chance to gain max points. In the past, our UEFA point totals could have been even better if there hadn't been 1-2 teams that just shat the bed in Europe and got like a half-point to bring down our overall average. We have a real chance to have all six teams in Europe perform respectably and bring in points, and that's exciting.
Zenit St. Petersburg 4-2 Pacos Ferreira Expected result from Russia ends Pacos Ferreira's very very brief run in the Champions League, 8-3 on aggregate. It's basically a decent outcome, since PF will still have a chance to compete in the Europa League. The way they were outclassed by Zenit, though, they're going to have to raise their game if they want to make an impact in the EL.
Today's UCL draw: Group C SL Benfica PSG Olympiacos Anderlecht Group G FC Porto Atletico Madrid Zenit St. Petersburg Austria Wien Tough groups, but both teams should advance, and both teams have a very plausible chance to top their group.
Eff. While Estoril did well to win at Pasching, 2-1, to advance to the group stage of the EL, Braga managed to blow a 1-0 away goals lead to lose 0-2 at home to a Romanian team, Pandurii, to get eliminated. So now we'll only have two, not three, teams capable of accruing points (let alone advance deep into) the EL.
EL draw: Group E Fiorentina Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Pacos de Ferreira Pandurii (!) Group H Sevilla Freiburg Estoril Slovan Liberec There it is. Group favorites pretty clear. Other opponents are a mystery to me, except for the interesting re-matchup with Braga-slayers Pandurii.
SL Benfica 2-0 RSC Anderlecht Nice, comprehensive win to start the campaign. Early goal meant that the result was never really in doubt. Tougher rows to hoe ahead though. Tomorrow: FC Porto at Austria Wien. Hoping for full UEFA points again!
FC Porto 1-0 FK Austria Wien Strong start from Porto too. Austria looks to be the weakest side in the group, but there are no guarantees at this level and they played well today, with only a 55th minute strike by Lucho the difference. Two days, two CL wins. Let's see if Pacos Ferreira and Estoril can keep it up tomorrow. It'll be a longshot in both cases. They play away to Fiorentina and home to Sevilla, respectively.
Oh and forgot about the third team we have in the EL: Vitoria Guimaraes. They play Croatian side HNK Rijeka in Guimaraes tomorrow. The other two teams in the group are Olympique Lyon and Real Betis. Europa League is no joke this year.
I watched the Estoril vs Sevilla game and it was a very good game. 1st half was slow but Estoril played a heck of a second half. You couldn't even tell that their budget is only 3Mil. I thought they would get the win because they were pressing hard but when Rakitic came on, he was able to get Sevilla attacking again to get the winner. Estoril made Sevilla sweat. Funny to see how one side of the stadium was all Sevilla fans and the other side was Estoril. Great atmosphere from the tiny stadium.
Wow good thing I remembered about Vitoria. They were the only bright spot in the EL yesterday: a 4-0 home thrashing of Rijeka. But Pacos got burned 3-0 at Fiorentina and Estoril dropped a home decision to Sevilla 2-1. The latter was especially disappointing. Sevilla is the top seed in that group and if Estoril had been able to get a point out of that game that would have been a very promising start, but they were sunk by a late goal despite an impressive effort. So that's three wins and two losses from five games. Not a bad week all told. But overall the ratio of points to teams is not looking that good. Hence we're now at 3.083, for 12th overall. Way too early to make any calls but what we really need is consistent point accumulation across all teams, especially with Braga out of the EL (and Sporting not even qualifying).
Cool, I haven't been able to see Estoril play yet but just based on their results in the EL so far they've looked really good and I think they may be Portugal's best shot of the three teams to get through to the next round of the tournament (though Vitoria looked great yesterday albeit against weaker competition).
I'm not looking for excuses. No way Porto should of lost to a team like Atletico Feels like the Malaga loss last year.
Ignominious week for Portuguese teams: Porto 1-2 Atletico PSG 3-0 Benfica Liberec 2-1 Estoril Lyon 1-1 V. Guimaraes Pacos Ferreira 1-1 Pandurii That's two really bad losses in the CL--losing a home lead to Atletico in Porto's case, and then getting blown out (Benfica was down 3-0 after the first half in Paris). The best result on the week was Guimaraes'--that's a pretty impressive road point. Disappointing that Pacos couldn't get full points at home to what would appear to be on paper the weakest of the other three teams in that group. And Estoril looked great in the prelims, and credible in their first two games but still sits on zero points in the group. This all places Portugal 13th on 3.416 points--not a good start, and by now most of the better nations have established themselves somewhere around where they usually stand in the hierarchy. But it's early days, so let's hope for better results on matchday 3.
So the middle two weeks of the group stage of the European season are make-or-break time where each team has a home and away with some other team in the group. Before these crucial two games, anything could happen. But by the time they're over, fates are often largely sealed. This year, Portugal's European season went from shaky to shite in this crucial period. Five teams in Europe managed a total of four draws against six losses, with not a single win. That? Is awful. I won't even recount the score lines because I don't want to have to relive these games for a moment. Where does that leave our once-promising European cohort? Champions League: Not really that bad, considering how putrescently they both played these past two weeks. Benfica and Porto each sit third in their groups, and Porto is only 1 point out of second (Benfica is three points out so they're not toast yet officially either). So hope is not lost but when you consider how they've performed in Europe so far I'm not filled with optimism. And when you consider that both teams were top seeds it's even more disappointing. Europa League: Pacos de Ferreira is last in Group D, with one point, and officially eliminated from European contention since the second place team is on nine points. Estoril is last in Group H with two points. Not totally eliminated, and they've had some promising moments, but qualification is a longshot at this point. Finally, Vitoria Guimaraes is the big winner in the Europa League so far, sitting only third (not last!) in Group I with four points and a reasonable shot at qualification (and they would look even better if they had been able to tie Real Betis yesterday instead of giving up the losing goal in the 94th minute). That's impressive from Vitoria since they're in a real group of death with Real Betis and Olympique Lyonnais. So to recap: five teams in Europe, three third in their group, two last, one eliminated. And 2/3 of the way through the group stage, we are 15th overall this year in UEFA points, sandwiched between Croatia and Israel, with a very unimpressive 4.083 points. Things are looking grim, but with two games left it's not too late to turn things around.
The only thing that can save this year is if Porto and Benfica make a good run in the Europa league or else this will be a massive disaster.
yeah, the optimistic note is well-taken. They are both well-situated to at least finish third (though neither fourth nor second are out of the question) and a deep run in the EL would salvage some points and some UEFA pride. Not having Braga or Sporting in the EL is a shame, but they didn't earn it. Sporting didn't finish high enough in the Liga and Braga blew an away-goal lead to lose to Pandurii at home. Neither team deserved to be there---that's the unfortunate truth.