This year the four teams we sent a pretty solid Benfica Porto Sporting Braga Arouca weren't going to do any better and if anything they would've gave away points to our opponents like France and Russia so having the big four teams there really does well for us
I mean, if I were to choose four teams to represent Portugal it would be these four. That said, however, Arouca and Rio Ave are going to be incorporated into our overall UEFA coefficient for this year regardless. It's an average of the points accrued by *all teams* that enter Euro competitions, so our denominator is 6, even though those two teams aren't adding to the numerator. This is something we can overcome--and have in previous years--but if we can field only four competitive teams in European competition then the others will inevitably drag us down coefficient-wise.
Good and bad news on the day. Sporting right the ship with a decisive 2-0 home win vs Legia Warsaw, while Porto fall 0-1 at Leicester City. Benfica tomorrow, Braga Thursday. Forca, y'all.
Braga were down 1-0 after 5 minutes, later on Shakhtar were reduced to 10 men but Shakhtar scored minutes later for a 2-0 final score. W1 L3 D0 Although the three losses were all away and to the favourites or co-favourites in the groups, all the performances were bad. Retched time for Portuguese football (Futsal as well), draws or losses for Portugal against Andorra and Faroe Islands next
It's almost unthinkable to not beat those two teams (Andorra and Faroe Islands) - we have way too much quality compartively, so we'll turn it around. Next round of European games is a bit more promising although there are three away games: Club Brugge vs. FC Porto Dynamo Kyiv vs. Benfica Sporting vs. Borussia Dortmund Konyaspor vs. Braga Porto are facing Club Brugge away, but Brugge have not looked convincing at all. It has to be a win and Porto need to go for it. Benfica won't have an easy match but they do have more quality - if they recover from some of the injuries they have and play the right squad they can win. Sporting have the toughest match (even if at home, Dortmund are one of the best sides in Europe at the moment) although I'm hopeful for a good result if we smart. Braga are travelling to the 9th place Turkish team at the moment, I'm hoping they can show enough quality for a win.
This week did indeed bite, some really disappointing losses in there. Next couple of rounds will be key for all four teams; there's still time to turn it around but no more room for error.
I was thinking - at what point would it be a good thing to have the Portuguese teams go to Europa League this season? They might lose out on money but they would have a better chance of getting coefficient points.
This is the eternal question. Most of Portugal's banner years have been when teams did OK in the CL, but got 3d, then tore it up in the EL. One issue though is that merely by qualifying for the CL out of your group you get like four points, so that's not trivial. A good balance might be having two teams end up third in their group and then go deep in the EL, and then another have a solid run in the CL to pick up points that way.
Not a terrible week in the CL at all: Sporting CP 1-2 Borussia Dortmund Club Brugge 1-2 FC Porto Dynamo Kyiv 0-2 SL Benfica So that's two wins--both away--and a loss. Obviously great results in the former two cases. FCP remains third, since they have a worse goal differential (by three) than Kobenhavn, and if they're going to advance they probably need to (1) beat Brugge again at home, and (2) get a positive result against FCK in Denmark--not an easy task. Benfica's group is bananas at this point, since Besiktas beat Napoli in Italy, meaning that the top three teams are all separated by two points: Napoli 6, Besitkas 5, Benfica 4. Benfica also need to take care of business at home next week vs the Ukrainians to stay in the mix, and also to assure that at worst they'll get an EL spot. SCP has only one win and three losses on the campaign but they are well ahead of whipping boys Legia Warsawa, so they are almost certainly going to end up in third and get into the EL. Wouldn't be the worst thing for them to get an upset against Real or Dortmund just to shake things up and get some UEFA points tho. Speaking of, looking at Portugal's overall standing in Europe, things are still not good despite two wins so far this week. Portugal is 13th, while France & Russia are 5th and 6th, respectively, almost a full point ahead. There's still plenty of time for us to pick up the pace but it's going to take some seriously consistent wins, plus some Russian and French stumbles (not to mention several other nations).
Just a small correction - SCP has two losses and 1 win. Anyways the good news is there's a really strong chance that all Big 3 teams will stay in Europe beyond the group stage in some fashion - if they all ended up in Europa League and Braga qualified as well, it may yet be an interesting season for our teams.
Sporting CP 1-2 Borussia Dortmund Club Brugge 1-2 FC Porto Dynamo Kyiv 0-2 SL Benfica Konyaspor 1-1 Braga
Yep, SCP beat the crap out of Legia Warsawa, who is shaping up as a truly staggering group whipping boy. So while getting drawn into a group with Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund is rough, SCP has a pretty clear line straight thru to the EL. Speaking of, not counting out Braga at all--they just hadn't played when I wrote yesterday's post. Today they disappointed a bit with a single point at Konyaspor, a team that had not gotten a point in Europe in the history of their franchise. Braga now with two points after three games. Not great but if they can get full points at home against the Turks and Shakhtar beats Gent again Braga could be in good position to qualify second in the group. But they will face Gent in the away leg for what will tell us a ton about who is going to qualify out of that group. Should be intersting.
Two decent days: Benfica 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv Porto 1-0 Club Brugge Dortmund 1-0 SCP Narrow games all, two wins one loss for Portugal. Benfica and FCP are now both in second place in their respective groups, but there's a lot to play for in both of those. Legia's shock draw against Real Madrid makes it a little less lock-solid that SCP will qualify third in their group and make the Europa League. Sadly Portugal is still well back in the overall European standings, since the two teams that flamed out early limit the overall average on which those rankings are based (compare, for example, Denmark, which is doing great despite having only one team--Copenhagen--in Europe--the reason is that they have only four teams in Europe and they all got a few points before bowing out). Even after today's wins, Portugal remains mired in thirteenth place overall on 4.916 points. A win by Braga tomorrow would help, though marginally.
Probably going to need Benfica/Porto to qualify for last 16, SCP getting at least Europa qualification and Braga qualifying from the group stage in the Europa League to really surge up the table...this is could all 'very well' happen. Braga vs Konyaspor tomorrow at 20:00 should be 3 points and up to 7 points, hopefully Shakhtar Donetsk keeping winning (3 wins in 3 games) vs Gent (who have 4 points now), Braga's main opponent for 2nd place and qualification.
If Sporting somehow manages to lose in Poland and come in last behind Legia, even I'd start asking for Jorge Jesus to get fired.
Week 4 SLB 1 Dynamo Kyiv o FCP 1 Brugge 0 B. Dortmund 1 SCP 0 Braga (SCB) 3 Konyaspor 1 So 3 wins and a loss and more importantly all three teams that won have set themselves up either first (SLB) or second (FCP/SCB) in the group stages with two games left. However all three still have plenty to do, SLB have to play Besiktas away and Napoli at home, FCP have Copenhagen away and Leicester at home and SCB have Gent away and Shakhtar Donetsk at home. All three thus play 2 of the top 3 teams in their group and so no 'easy' games versus Brugge/Kyiv/Konyaspor (all in 4th place). Today Braga had a near handful of decisions go their way after Mauro was very harshly sent off for two yellows (a dive and a small pull back). They should of conceded a penalty and their second goal was from a back pass that was not (scored from that free kick). Braga seem to have good fortune in the EL I remember not too long ago they had another game that was a 'hometown decision', not that I am angry about it SCP still have a chance to qualify but have to beat Real at home and Legia away and hope that B. Dortmund get a draw (I think) away at Real. They should however make the EL and hopefully get far there if Real does not fold in the last two games.
Real won't fold realistically. Sporting should go to EL and at least make some sort of run there. A positive week for Portugal finally. I think France is too far in 5th for us to think about catching them - they had a better week than us with 3 wins (PSG, Monaco, St. Etienne) and a draw (Lyon), but 6th place is a possibility since we've gained points on Russia (6th) this week - only Russian team that won this week was Zenit
Yep with Braga's win this was the best week for Portugal so far by far. We're still mired pretty deep back in the standings this year, thanks to a lot of smaller countries who are having unusually good years--Denmark, Turkey. But let's hope this is a turning point. Very realistic to get two teams into CL and two into EL. Next fixture will probably tell us a lot, it's still all to play for.
PS Anyone understand why Benfica is listed as first in their group? http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2017/standings/index.html They have the same points as Napoli, but lower goal differential and lost the head to head matchup with Napoli.
Why isn't it a back pass? The defender clearly passed the ball. It was the gk's fault, not the referee's. And that happening after unluckily having a player sent off in a harsh decision, and conceding a goal in a stupid mistake by the defender when Konya hadn't made a single attack yet is hardly being lucky.
I took that from the commentary (the back pass) as the link was bad. The commentators said that it was not a back pass but from the referee's position you could see why he gave the decision, thought this might come back to bite me. However after the sending off which was harsh from what I saw (which was a bit on and off) Braga had things go their way and I think the ref may have overcompensated for his bad decision in sending off Mauro, maybe if I rewatch the whole game again I might change my mind. Well done in the turn around.
As I said, it was not just Mauro being sent off but also the first Konya goal that went wrong for Braga, i.e., a bad start and a "lucky" come back. Luck had nothing to do with it, since good things even bad ones out. Braga simply has the necessary European experience that teams like Konya lack: some players from last year's team are still there and Alan is a vet from many wars (he changed the game in Braga's favour when he came in). Regarding the referee, he was completely clueless. In multiple occasions, he missed the right call; it had to be an assistant to point it out. Unfortunately, too often you get poor referees in these Europa League matches: they are often overzealous.