We have several qualifying rounds to wait through until we get back on the field, but the EL started yesterday. There were 50 first leg matches, mostly between minnows. Looking through the scores, I don't see any real upsets among the clubs I recognize. Nonetheless, the season is started.
Q1 is in the books, and it looks like Rangers were the only big name to be upset. As a casual Celtic fan, that delights me, although I have no idea whether they fielded a team to try to advance or not. There are 33 matches in Q2, but none of them jump out at me as being worth trying to watch. Q2 matches will be held 7/13 and 7/20 with the Q3 draw being held 7/14. We will know which 2 teams Milan could face then, and we may know which one is more likely based on the 7/13 match result.
and our first victims of the new season will be... CS Universitatea Craiova. the first leg is in romania on 7/27 with the return leg at san siro on 8/3. the romanians finished 5th in their league last season. they have won the romanian league 4 times but not since 1991. they're managed by an italian, devis mangia, who i've never heard of. i don't recognize any names on their roster, but that's not surprising. they look like mostly young romanian players.
Q2 is finished. again, there was only one big surprise as far as big names crashing out with galatasaray losing out to ostersund from sweden. Q3 begins next week with 29 matches. there are several matches with familiar names facing off. we're into the interesting part of qualifications now.
anyone have an idea of what the best way to watch a replay of the game on thursday? or should i sneak out of work early? hmmmm......
it's game day. we're lining up in a 433 without a lot of our new signings, but we should still be able to take care of business and come home with a win and a few away goals. i'm at the office so i'll be following on twitter only. i have no idea if there are streams available or not. forza milan. here's the 11:
0-1 milan. rodriguez scored from a fk in the 44th minute. borini drew the foul. ETA: and the ref blew for HT shortly after the restart.
0-1 ft. good enough result going home to san siro next week. we'll need a quick goal to step on their necks.
that seems to be the consensus. just remember how many of our former first 11 and new purchases were unavailable though. i don't think we'll be counting on either of them much once everyone is up to speed. looking at the rest of the first legs in Q3, the only big upset i see was psv going down at home to osijek from croatia. they'll have their work cut out for them next week going to croatia and needing to score twice. otherwise, there aren't any big upsets, and it looks like most ties aren't settled yet.
yea, once biglia and hakan are available i expect for montolivo and niang to see little more than the bench. though niang is so frustrating because his speed is such a good outlet, his decision making is just so bad though.
niang has always struck me as a poor man's balotelli. he's got potential. he's got flash. he's got controversy. he can't finish though, and he's not worth the frustration. i'd rather get rid of him than be frustrated by the apparent ability without any end product.
they all say sticky. it's a sponsor. lol. i didn't have a chance to watch or follow or anything. 2-0 win is good enough though. on to the playoff round against stickier competition. anyone see the game? 65k+ for an EL qualifier is great. hopefully they keep packing san siro.
Saw bits, Musacchio looks very good, Conti is good going forward too, Cutrone tries but is inexperienced. Will be more interesting when/if Bonucci big Lia are added
so several biggish names ended up losing their Q3 ties: psv, bordeaux, gent, and sc freiburg are all out. the playoff round is set with 22 matches to determine which qualifiers move on to the group stage. in addition, there are 16 teams who directly qualified for the groups. those 38 will be joined by the 10 losers of the CL playoff rounds to get to 48 total in the EL group stage. we face kf shkendija from macedonia on 8/17 and 8/24 for our chance to move on to the group stage. the macedonians finished second in their league last year. i don't recognize any names on their roster or management list. so far they've dumped out finnish side HJK, who currently lead the finnish league, and lithuanians fk trakai, who are second in their league. we shouldn't have any problem advancing, but that's why they play the games, as they say. forza milan.
Anyone know where to get tickets for the next match(the one in Skopje in August 24th)? I checked some sites but nothing. I was thinking of going to watch the team.
here's the best scouting report on shkendija that i've seen so far. it sounds like they can be dangerous going forward, but they're crap in the back. hopefully we can put a big number up on them this evening and break them before we head to their place next week. http://www.football-italia.net/108315/shkendija-scouting-report
3-0 now in the 29th minute. montolivo got the second, and silva got another for the third. this is getting out of hand quickly for the albanians from macedonia.