Europa League playoffs Hamburg vs. Guingamp Lille vs. Genk Trabzonspor vs. Toulouse Champions League qualifier Lyon vs. Anderlecht
Guingamp will have no chance. Lille has tough opponent. Trabzonspor was 3rd in Turkey so they are tough. Lyon should win. I'm picking Lille and Toulouse to win but I wouldnt be shocked if they lost. They dont have the depth to play 4 competitions at once. I'd be shocked if Lyon lost though.
Guingamp doesn't have a chance. It's also bad see us losing to a German side as we are competing against them for 4th and 5th in the coefficients. I like the other 3 to move on to the next round.
Well we do need them to at least get through the playoffs for the coefffiecents sake, but yea Guingamp will get torched. I'm just hoping it's not a double digit agg.
I'm actually looking forward to Guingamp-Hamburg because I'm interested to see how much of the possession Guingamp gets and to see if they can create any decent chances.
Yeah I think OM will and OL and Bordeaux are 50/50. Cant make any realistic predictions until we see the groups anyway.
Exactally, how do we know who has a realistic chance of making it out, until we see the groups? As far as I'm concerned all 3 could conceivably be knocked out, or all 3 could go through. We must wait...
Well Marseille and Bordeaux won't be seeded first so they're likely to get a team like Liverpool , Man United , Barcelona ect ..
Swiped this from the arsenal board: Pot 1 Rank/team/coefficient 1 FC Barcelona (ESP) 121.853 2 Liverpool FC (ENG) 118.899 3 Chelsea FC (ENG) 118.899 4 Manchester United FC (ENG) 111.899 5 AC Milan (ITA) 110.582 6 Arsenal FC (ENG) 106.899 7 Sevilla FC (ESP) 100.853 8 FC Bayern München (GER) 98.339 ------------------------------------------------ Pot 2 9 Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) 91.033 10 FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) 87.582 11 Real Madrid CF (ESP) 78.853 12 PFC CSKA Moskva (RUS) 71.525 13 FC Porto (POR) 68.292 14 AZ Alkmaar (NED) 64.826 15 Juventus (ITA) 63.582 16 Rangers FC (SCO) 56.575 ----------------------------------------------- Pot 3 17 Olympiacos CFP (GRE) 52.633 18 Olympique de Marseille (FRA) 48.033 19 FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) 46.370 20 VfB Stuttgart (GER) 45.339 21 ACF Fiorentina (ITA) 42.582 22 Club Atlético de Madrid (SPA) 41.853 23 FC Girondins de Bordeaux (FRA) 40.033 24 Beşiktaş JK (TUR) 32.445 --------------------------------------------- Pot 4 25 VfL Wolfsburg (GER) 21.339 26 R. Standard de Liège (BEL) 21.065 27 Maccabi Haifa FC (ISR) 17.050 28 FC Zürich (SUI) 14.050 29 FC Rubin Kazan (RUS) 9.525 30 AFC Unirea Urziceni (ROU) 8.781 31 APOEL FC (CYP) 4.016 32 Debreceni VSC (HUN) 1.633 No teams in the first pot, and only 1 team in the second... poor that means Bordeaux and Marseille are almost assuredly set for tough groups. Hopefully OL can get lucky with their draw, I wouldn't mind Milan Sevilla or Bayern as our pot 1 member.
Marseille had a tough group last year and they are a better team this year so they should be able to get it done. Bordeaux played too defensive last year and this year they are still good so if they play more offensive then they have a good chance. Lets hope Toulouse and Lille can advance today. Lille is up 2-1 agg and Toulouse is up 3-1. Guingamp is down 1-5 of course.
Toulouse lose to Trabzonspor 1-0 but win 3-2 on agg. and advance to the group stages. Lille beat Genk 4-2 and advance 6-3 on agg and advance to the group stages. Guingamp are eliminated.
Great, 5 teams in european competition. Let's hope they all make it out of their respective group stages. Anything else will be bonus (except for Lyon of course who I demand win the whole thing!) Champions league draw: Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux , Maccabi Haifa Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, Apoel FC Group E: Liverpool, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debreceni Group F: Barcelona, Internazionale, Dynamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, VfB Stuttgart, Unirea Uriziceni Group H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege Looking at the groups, Marseille has the toughest test ahead of them. Though I don't rate Milan that highly, they always seem to do better than they really are in europe. Bordeaux has a good challenge as well, but I can legitimately see them making it out, they have been playing at a high level. As long as Blanc doesn't give Juve and Bayern too much respect and actually play with them, they could do something special. Lyon just has to be better than Fiorentina and the knockout round are assured. We could even beat out Liverpool who knows. Edit: here is the fixture list http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/competitions/ucl/87/89/33/878933_download.pdf
In my opinion although Marseille's group looks tough they could finished 2nd , Milan doesn't impress me either , their attacking options minus Pato isn't scary at all . Bordeaux has a chance , as long as they learnt their lesson last season where they should too much respect to their opponents . They have the attacking ability to hurt Bayern and Juventus . Lyon should be ok , I'd be suprised if they don't atleast make 2nd . The only worry for me is the defence , really need a top class CB in there . I believe they're the stronger team over Fiorentina .
Groupe A : Ajax Amsterdam, Anderlecht, Dinamo Zagreb, Timisoara. Groupe B : Valencia, Lille, Slavia Prague, Genoa. Groupe C : Hamburg, Celtic Glasgow, Hapoël Tel Aviv, Rapid Vienna. Groupe D : Sporting Portugal, Heerenveen, Hertha Berlin, FK Ventspils. Groupe E : AS Roma, FC Bâle, Fulham, CSKA Sofia. Groupe F : Panathinaïkos, Galatasaray, Dinamo Bucarest, Sturm Graz. Groupe G : Villarreal, Lazio Rome, Levski Sofia, Red Bull Salzbourg. Groupe H : Steaua Bucarest, Fenerbahçe, FC Twente, Sheriff Tiraspol. Groupe I : Benfica, Everton, AEK Athèns, Bate Borisov. Groupe J : Shakhtar Donetsk, Club Bruges, Partizan Belgrade, Toulouse. Groupe K : PSV Eindhoven, FC Copenhagen, Sparta Prague, CFR Cluj. Groupe L : Werder Brêmen, Austria Vienna, Athletic Bilbao, Nacional Madère.
Rennes should be in the Europa league. Its unfortunate what happened. I think we all know that the only French teams that can go deep in that competition are the ones that may drop down from the Champions League of course. I dont think anyone is expecting Lille, Toulouse, or even Rennes if they were there to make a deep run.
Marseille losing 0-1 currently , if Marseille lose game to this Milan team then they can forget making it out of this group .
Blanc keeps insisting on that 4-5-1. They got a good point on the road but I really wish he'd drop the 4-5-1 for the home matches and play both Chamakh and Cavenghi.
Toulouse beat Partizan Belgrade 3-2 in Serbia despite not playing with half of their normal starters. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIirrNDvZRU&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Partizan vs Toulouse 2-3 Highlights 17.09.2009.[/ame]