Champions League FC Basel - Group Stage YB - 3rd Qualifying Round Europa League FC Zurich - Group Stages FC Luzern - 3rd Qualifying Round GCZ - 2nd Qualifying Round
GCZ will play the winner of Kukesi (Albania) and FK Rudar Pljevlja of (Montenegro). Match in Zurich on 14 July and the return on 21 July.
GCZ with a 2-1 home win. Nice job. 28 Jul/4 Aug Luzern vs Sassuolo (Italy) - Not bad, but not good either. GCZ vs Apollon Limassol ( Cyprus) - I do not like this one at all. Really bad draw for YB 26 Jul/3 Aug Shakhtar Donetsk vs YB - Ouch. This seems to happen to YB each season. 2015/2016 - Monaco Q3 for CL 2014/2016 - Everton 1/32 for EL 2012/2013 - Group Stage for EL Lost to Midtjylland in CL PO. 2011/2012 - Braga - EL PO 2010/2011 - Zenit SP - 1/32 for EL 2009/2010 - Tettenham Hotspur Q4 for CL 2008/2009 - Atheltico Blibao Q3 for EL
Checked the CL seedings. Basel are top of the 3rd pot. If Man City or Porto get eliminated they will be in the 2nd. Could make a huge difference. Hopefully Porto gets Gladbach and we'll get some Swiss help.
I saw the same thing. That would be great if they could be in the 2nd Pot. FCZ will be in Pot 4, so the odds of they getting out of their group are slim to none.
YB goes down in the Ukraine 2-0. They would need a 3-0 victory in Bern to advance. It looks like they are headed to the Europa League Play-Off round.
The club coefficient is a great marker for long term success. But not short term. 2013 - Cypriot Cup winner 2013-2014 - Defeated OCG Nice in Europa League playoff. In the group stages they defeated Legia Warsaw in Poland. Drew at home vs Lazio. They ended up 3rd in a group that contained Trabzonspor, Lazio, Legia Warsaw and themselves. 2014-2015 - Defeated Lokomotiv Moscow Europa League Playoff round. Then ended up 4th in a group that contained Borussia Monchenglabach, Villarreal, FCZ and themselves. 2015-2016 - They were in the 1st Qualfying Round and defeated Saxon of Moldova. In the 2nd Round they defeated Trakai of Lithuania, they lost to Gabala of Azeribijan in the 3rd Round. I guess that they have a recent history of knocking of better teams than themselves. That is why this one scares me some. I hope that it is easy, but I am apprehensive.
For the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014 Champions League Group Stages, I looked at what pot each club was in for the draw and compared it to what the pots would have been if the club coefficients went back only three seasons. The reason I didn't do it for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 Group Stages is that I made the file a while ago and I didn't spend time today doing it for more seasons. That's a sample size of 128, with clubs counting multiple times if they were in multiple Group Stages. In 108 out of 128 cases (84.4 percent), changing the club coefficients to three seasons would have left the club in the same pot. In 2011-2012, changing the club coefficients to three seasons would have left every club in the same pot. This is because Barcelona will probably get more points than CSKA Moscow every season (I'm using those clubs as an example), so changing the amount of seasons won't change which one of them has the higher club coefficient. I admit that for clubs with lower coefficients, reducing the club coefficients to going back three seasons would make a big difference sometimes. For example, APOEL Nicosia had a club coefficient of 13.124 for the five seasons ending 2010-2011, which is an average of 2.625 per season. Then they reached the 2011-2012 Champions League Quarterfinals and had a 20.835 club coefficient that season, which is 7.94 times 2.625. The average season for APOEL Nicosia for the five seasons ending 2011-2012 was 6.720. The average season for APOEL Nicosia for the three seasons ending 2011-2012 was 10.267, which is much higher than 6.720 because the great 2011-2012 makes up a greater percentage of the seasons used. Beating clubs from France and Russia is an accomplishment, but beating Saxon and Trakai is not. Gabala has a very low coefficient, but they had a good 2015-2016 season, as after beating Apollon Limassol, they eliminated Panathinaikos on away goals to reach the Group Stage. Gabala had 2 points and a -10 goal differential in the Group Stage.
I think that we are saying the same thing. Saxon and Trakai were not massive wins, and at the time the loss to Gabala was odd. Looking back, it was not so odd. I guess this match-up is one that GCZ should win. But if they approach it poorly, they could see themselves on the wrong end and out of the Europa League.
Luzern - Sassulo 1-1 Early goal from Marco Schneuwly was a great start. Sassuolo scored on a PK right before HT. GCZ - Apollo Lomassol Haris Tabakovic with an early goal to put GCZ up 1-0. Apollon scored in the 76th. Apollon was reduced to 10 men in the 87th and Numa Lavanchy scored in the 90th for the win. Two very difficult 2nd legs to contest.
GCZ match was played in St Gallen as a Bruce Springsteen concert was in Zurich. Only 2330 showed up for the match. Markus Neumayr had a PK for Luzern that he missed in the 2nd half.
YB plays at home today. It has not been a great week for them. Loss in Ukraine, loss to Luzern. Her is to a 3 goal victory.
Along with Hapoel Beer Sheva beating Olympiakos Piraeus, Young Boys had one of the two most impressive performances from the ten games today. UEFA says Shakhtar Donetsk had been in the last six Champions League Group Stages.
YB will get one of the following teams in the Play-off round Manchester City CC: 99.256 Porto CC: 92.616 Villarreal CC: 60.142 Ajax CC: 58.112 Borussia Mönchengladbach CC: 42.035 Of that list Ajax or Borussia would be my choices. If YB were to lose, they will go to the group stages of the Europa League. If either Man CIty or Porto are defeated, Basel will be in Pot 2.
GCZ with a crazy match. They were down 0-1. Tied it up 1-1 only to lose 2-1, thus causing extra time. They quickly went down 3-1, then came back and scored 2 more goals in the last 4 min to tie the match and advance. Luzern not so lucky. They lose 3-0.
Apollon 3:3 Grasshoppers (Grasshoppers won aggregate 5:4) After regulation, Apollon led 2:1, which was the score Grasshoppers won the first leg by. Apollon scored first in extra time and then Grasshoppers scored twice. Sassuolo 3:0 Luzern (Sassuolo won aggregate 4:1) In the 38nd minute with Sassuolo leading 1:0, Luzern got a straight red card, which led to a penalty kick goal in the 39th minute.
YB - Gladbach GC - Fenerbahce ...could've been worse Porto - Roma leaves Basel with a chance for the 2nd pot