Yeah ,Me and some other neutral footy fans asked and wonder too,.'@REF Section on the big soccer. There is some good response about it. You my check it Regards,
So here's the R32 teams for the EL: Teams that are LIKELY to get to the UCL group stage through Domestic League: Roma Wolfsburg Zenit PSV Dynamo Kyiv Teams with a fair chance (~25-75%) to get the the UCLGS through league/qualifying stages Celtic Borussia Monchengladbach with FCB/RM. Besiktas Ajax Salzburg Olympiakos Sevilla- This might be a bit generous, but I'll say Atletico is more with the 2nd tier of La Liga this year than they are Anderlecht - With Belgium's playoff format you never can be too certain Club Brugge - See above Teams with an unlikely chance (~5-25%) to reach the UCLGS through league/qualifying stages: Villarreal - maybe a bit harsh considering where I put Sevilla but it's not that much of a gap Young Boys Everton Spurs Liverpool Dynamo Moscow Feyenoord Fiorentina - Just A lot of teams competing or a single playoff spot Napoli - See above Dnipro Teams with very remote/no chance of getting to the UCLGS through league/qualifying stages: Torino Inter Guingamp Trabzonspor
Yes, as a Ukrainian fan, I have to admit, Agdam got robbed. As happy as I am about Dnipro advancing, it should have been Garabagh in their stead.
Good post! I would have grouped the teams using slightly different criteria, namely on the basis of how likely they are at getting an automatic spot in the UCL group-stage through their domestic league. So, for e.g., a team like Celtic and Young Boys would have 0% chance. And so would Fiorentina and Napoli (ok maybe 1-2% for those 2 teams). Because the question ultimately is, which teams have an added incentive to win the EL this season? So in Celtic's case, winning the EL would give them something they can't get through their domestic league.
Good point, that's a distinction worth making. Celtic have been a little disgruntled about playing 6 matches to get to the group stage given the relative prestige of their club compared to most of the others they are up against in the Champions route. Probably the only thing that's terribly important is the top 5. Particularly when you look at Wolfsburg and Roma playing in top leagues, it's not hard to envision them going with at least a handful of squad rotation players in the R32 because you want all your first choice players available every weekend given their current league position.
My prediction: The last 16 teams will be: Everton, Torino, Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Ajax, Brugge, Dinamo M, Olympiacos, Napoli, Dynamo K, Villarreal, Roma, Zenit, Beşiktaş, Fiorentina, Inter.
While you are right techincally you are wrong. The EL winner gets the play off spot (but i have no ideea if on the league route or champions one) They reach the group directly if the CL winner qualifies through their league place as in no Chelsea 2012, Milan 2007 or Liverpool 2005
Sure, but less than 10% chance of that happening this season so its pretty safe to say the EL winner goes automatically to the CL 20-15/16 group-stage.
3 out of 8 CL droputs made it: Ajax Roma and Zenith Liverpool Bilbao Sporting Anderlecht Olympiakos were eliminated
@PaulieJay : I sort of updated your review on incentive based on the final 16: Below is a rough approximation of teams’ incentive to win the 2015-16 Europa League. High =Need to win EL to qualify for Champions League group-stage Pretty high = Probably won’t qualify for CL group-stage through their domestic league, so EL is their best hope. Medium = Roughly 50/50 chance of qualifying for CL group-stage through domestic league, so EL still fairly important Low = Most likely will qualify for CL group-stage anyway, so winning EL doesn’t add anything beyond a nice trophy to have. Very low = EL not a top priority at all and team may field “B” teams (bigger fish to fry). Round of 16 draw (ties 12 & 19 March) Everton FC (High) v FC Dynamo Kyiv (Low) FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Pretty high) v AFC Ajax (Pretty high) FC Zenit (Low) v Torino FC (High) VfL Wolfsburg (Low) v FC Internazionale Milano (High) Villarreal CF (Pretty high) v Sevilla FC (Pretty high) SSC Napoli (Medium) v FC Dinamo Moskva (Pretty high) Club Brugge KV (Medium) v Beşiktaş JK (Medium) ACF Fiorentina (High) v AS Roma (Medium) Wolfsburg probably have the lowest incentive to win the EL. However, I didn't rate it as "very low" incentive because they aren't really in a title race either, so the EL still gives them their best hope for silverware this season.
UEFA released the details of how the Europa winners get into the Champ's Lg: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=2215121.html Main point: if a country with four CL bids wins both tournaments (by two other teams), then the "limit of five teams" rule would send the #4 league team into the Europa. The access lists for both tournaments are given. The Europa list does look like the list from the first post in the "UEFA has ruined the Europa League" thread (where 16 team directly qualify for the Europa, ten more from the UCL play-offs, thus forcing many, many teams to start in Europa Qualifying Round 1); maybe even identical, but I didn't parse through the list line-by-line: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/uefa-just-ruined-el-starting-2015-16.2008670/ Europa access list: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2015/accesslist/nextseason/index.html Champions access list: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2015/accesslist/nextseason/index.html One other confirmation is that a domestic Cup runner-up no longer qualifies for Europa, if the Cup champion has qualified for the UCL: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=2137611.html
Can't say that I agree with most of those. I feel like most teams outside of England/Italy value this competition (especially at this late stage) and won't risk putting out a weakened side. Sure, teams like Dynamo Kiev, Club Brugge, and Besiktas are likely to qualify to next year's Champions League through their league .. but the EL is their only realistic chance of winning a European trophy. I think they'll take it pretty seriously.
Sure, but that wasn't the point behind my post. I agree that teams from smaller leagues will always take this competition seriously, but fact is when we get down to the latter stages most of the teams in it are from the bigger leagues. And teams from those leagues may (or may not) have bigger priorities.
Napoli's first priority should probably be on Serie A right now. That's their best chance to qualify for the group-stage of the CL next season.
To me, if you looked at Spurs not starting Kane, that told me all I needed to know about how they felt about the EL. It was a bit of a tricky spot because they were turning around to the LC on Sunday but I think if their best shot still resides within the Premier League. Should Spurs get any points from Old Trafford on Sunday, they will be in great position compared to the other UCL contenders considering their remaining schedule.
The English not caring is their problem. They play the most overloaded schedule anywhere in Europe. Nobody is forcing them to have 2 domestic cups + a 38 game schedule + flying around the globe for exhibitions all the time. Even their lower leagues play an absurd 46 game schedule. Not to say that UEFA hasn't botched their format. Their group stages are a waste of time. But honestly an EPL club should be able to compete at group stage with their B teams. But once you advance to knockout round I don't understand how they can't motivate to play prestigious clubs like Besiktas and Fiorentina. It shows a lack of respect to the sport and to competition in general. That sort of conceit and contempt is exactly why England has been very average in CL this decade relative to their spending and it probably rubs off on their national team too.
Yes,I noticed it too.English teams do not care too much about Europa league.Everybody aims at Champions league probably.
Yeah, although Spain is just as grueling. They seem to be the 2 most grueling leagues. But isn't the same thing true for Serie A clubs? Anyway, I think Everton is taking EL seriously this season. They know its the only way to salvage something from this miserable season. For Tottenham, their best chance to qualify for the CL is through the league so I can't blame them too much for resting Kane. It has nothing to do with motivation and conceit. It's about not wrecking your season and setting priorities. Can't just field the same XI twice per week every week from December to May.
This is marketing for English clubs They fly each year in Asia especially, they are very loved there, especially Manchester United and Liverpool. This year, Liverpool will fly in Australia for a friendly.
Teams with low priority have a very good chance and getting into the UCL group stage through their domestic league and do not have to concern themselves much with the UEL for that purpose. Medium priority= Still in the running for UCL group stage/late round qualifying spots, but far from having it secure. High priority = The UEL is realistically their only route to the UCL. Update for the quarters based on league standing: Clubbe Brugge (Medium-low) Dnipro (Medium-High) Dynamo Kyiv (Low) Fiorentina (High) Sevilla (Medium-High) Zenit St. Petersburg (Low) Wolfsburg (Low) Napoli (High) Interestingly, all of the Medium-high and high teams are matched up against the teams for whom the Europa League may not be as important as their league position. I realize that by this time, everyone really wants to win a cup, but there will be more of a sense of urgency and a top XI going out for the teams where this is their only shot to get to the Big Show. I think that's a pretty important factor in how this round plays out.