Well No Serie A teams that started in Europe this season are out yet!!! So good to see. Last time that happened was 2014-15 season which turned out to be a great season for Italian teams. Hoping for a similar season if not better. Pretty good for EPL teams as well except for Everton. Everton embarrassed themselves. Horrific season for Bundesliga teams though. Started with 7 teams in Europe. One did not even make the actual Europa League, while 2 are already out (very likely a third one as well).
EPL Sevilla vs Man Utd Chelsea vs Barcelona Basel vs Man City Porto vs Liverpool Juventus vs Spurs Ostersund vs Arsenal Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City, and Arsenal should make it through. Bundesliga Bayern Munich vs Besiktas Napoli vs RB Leipzig Dortmund vs Atalanta Bayern will definitely go through. The rest is a tossup. This could play huge in the Europa League coefficient honestly. I will be adventurous and say Dortmund will fail but Leipzig will make it through. Serie A Juventus vs Spurs Shakhtar Donetsk vs Roma Ludogorets Razgrad vs Milan Dortmund vs Atalanta FCSB vs Lazio Napoli vs RB Leipzig All Serie A teams will make it through except Napoli. I don't see Napoli being serious enough about this to advance. Atalanta however look like the hungriest team in the whole league, and Dortmund honestly do not look good this season. I know they just sacked their manager, but their new one really does not look to be any better if you ask me. His history is even worse or at least the same. Also Dortmund will likely be trying to fight for a UCL spot in the Bundesliga.
Napoli will go out to Liepzig and Dortmund will probably go through against Atalanta. Other than that the rest of the Italian teams in EL should go through. Juve and Roma will have a tough time but should be considered the favourites.
Red Bull Leipzig is second in the Bundesliga but with the eighth best goal differential. I expect Napoli to advance. Arsenal allowed 10 aggregate goals in the Round of 16 last season. This time they could score a lot of goals because they had the best coefficient of the clubs in the Europa League Group Stage and Ostersund had the worst coefficient.
Under normal conditions, I'd say ya we should pass. We're 2nd place in the league, 1 point behind an Inter side that can blowup any time and 1 point ahead of Juventus who still needs to play Roma. We haven't won the title in almost 30 years and if we're winning the league going into that tie or within 3 points, we will put out the whole bench against Liepzig who will be loving the fact that they are still in Europe and can go far in a european competition.
Leipzig has the aspiration and $$$ to be a top team in the world. They might not take the EL that seriously.
Leipzig has a small fanbase and many fans in Germany actually hate them for how they were created and with a lack of (no) history. They definitely have the money tho
Yeah but we have not even faced an EPL side in the knockouts since being revamped with Conte. Since we got revamped we have faced 2 EPL teams in two UCL group stages and got better results: 2012-13: Chelsea 2-2 Juventus Juventus 3-0 Chelsea 2015-16: Man City 1-2 Juventus Juventus 1-0 Man City
Really? I honestly think they will because Leipzig has no history and will want to make history in Europe.
I doubt it. Dortmund has been playing shit lately. Look at their standing in the Bundesliga? Have not even won a single game in UCL, let alone failing to advance. Yes they sacked their manager, but they hired the former Kohln manager who is no better if you ask me. He failed to get Kohln to the knockouts and stayed at the very bottom of the whole Bundesliga. Atalanta are an extremely hungry team, especially in Europe, and they will be playing their guts off. Have you seen them play in Europe? Have you noticed the anger on their faces, and the determination they have? And let me tell you that Atalanta drew Juventus, beat Roma, and Napoli last season. This season they also drew Juventus. Also on another note, Dortmund are not even in a Europa League place in the Bundesliga at the moment. I am not even sure how seriously they will be taking this tournament because they will want to get a UCL place in the Bundesliga. No way are they winning this tournament with Atletico in here, and even Arsenal is probably better than them.
Dortmund has made a habit of playing better in the second-half of the season lately. They were 5th-6th last year at this point and wound-up comfortably finishing 3rd. we'll see, but I'll be surprised if they don't improve somewhat this season.
I'm gonna take the time to disect this stupidity. 1 point off a EL spot and 2 points off a UCL spot while Atalanta is 7 points off EL spot and 15 points off a UCL spot. Cool shit what they did last season, Dortmund came 3rd last season, 15 points ahead of 5th place. They also won the German cup last year beating Bayern Munich in the semi-finals. Like I said, 1 point off EL spot and 2 points off a UCL spot. How seriously can you take a team ranked 11th in Serie A with already little hope of making EL next season nevermind UCL. Keep your italian bias in the Italy forums bud
Possibly yeah. Its really a 50-50 chance if you ask me. However they performed a lot better in Europe last season than they are doing this season.
Other than Bayern Munich, Serie A has much superior teams than Bundesliga these days. That has already been proven. And also look at number of points. Right now both teams played 15 games. Dortmund 22pts Atalanta 20pts Its really close, and while Dortmund does have 2 more points, Bundesliga is a lot easier than Serie A. Its a clear toss up.
Then again over the last decade Italian teams have a winning record against EPL sides in CL. Juve are 3W 1T vs Chelsea and City since returning to the CL under Conte and Allegri. Juve are also unbeaten at home in the CL since the 2012/13 QF vs Bayern. I believe that is their only CL home loss since the opening of their new stadium. For Tottenham to advance, they will likely have to at least tie in Turin. I'm not sure any of this will matter come February. A bigger factor could be that Tottenham have an absolutely brutal two weeks prior to the first leg. 31st Jan: Tottenham vs Man Utd 3rd Feb: Liverpool vs Tottenham 10th Feb: Tottenham vs Arsenal 13th Feb: Juventus vs Tottenham By the time Tottenham face Juve, they could be 2nd or 6th in the table!
I never meant to say Tottenham is weak, they are a really strong team and the owner has some nice pieces like Kane, Dele Alli, Lloris, and I'm a big fan of Alderweird. The rest of their team is really good too and they have a solid bench. The only reason I say Juventus is favourites is because 1) Experience. Juventus has players who have been in 2 of the past 3 finals, and 2) Juventus has an extremely strong bench that could probably compete for the Serie A title as well. When you have the luxury of bringing on Marchisio, Rugani, and Bernardeschi, not to mention other players such as Bentacur and Barzagli with a backup goalie being Scnzney(definitely spelled his name wrong) you have other dimensions to your game that you can bring on to the field without losing any class. This is the strongest Juventus team of the past 5 years without a doubt.
The EPL does its teams no favours, all the English clubs will have to go through a brutal schedule during Feb and March. Spurs best chance maybe if the top 4 is out of reach. Man City are the best team I've ever seen in the EPL they are dominating clearly a very talented league (anyof the current top six are better than some recent champions). It will be fascinating to see how they shape up in the UCL, they were miles better than Napoli, who I consider to be one of the best teams in Europe.
City are the most complete team. Although the other top teams are good, each have pretty glaring flaws Napoli are overrated. They were in total control vs City until Ghoulam's injury. To be considered a great team in Europe, it's not enough to have a strong starting eleven. Depth matters and it I'd be shocked if the CL winner didn't have a very strong bench. As far as City, they are a complete team where the other top EPL teams all have deficiencies (United too reactive in big games, Chelsea lack depth, Liverpool lack quality and depth in defense, United are getting the most of a starting eleven that lack WC quality). Guardiola's Barca faced another juggernaut in Real. There isn't anything comparable to them to stop City from dominating the league.
I agree with you 100%. Man City is best team in EPL because the rest lack depth. Chelsea is second best but again they lack depth and are starting the same players over and over again. Napoli is way overrated. There are three superior teams in the Serie A.
ohhh another retarded comment. Besides Juventus, there are no other teams in Italy we are WORSE than. If anything Roma is just behind us and if you want to be very nice to them you can say they're even with us .... if you want. Inter is a pile of shit and will fail, you say we lack depth but we have a great starting 11. Inter doesn't even have a great starting 11 they have 3 players carrying the team. (Handanovic, Skriniar and Icardi).