Man, third decade of the new millennium is already nigh. How tempus fugit, as they say in Latin. Here's the current lay of the CL/EL land: Thanks to a run of relatively down years and falling behind both France and Russia in overall UEFA points, Portugal now has only one direct entry into the CL (Benfica this year) and one team that has to go thru the playoffs (Porto this year). Porto is currently in the process of that playoff, and shortly competes in a home and away against Krasnodar FC from Russia to see if they can make the final playoff for a spot in the main CL draw. Krasnodar is a tough place to play away due to remoteness, and the team has been on the rise in recent years, so it will be a challenging matchup, though a winnable one. In terms of the EL, there are three teams: Sporting is already in the main draw; Braga and Vitoria Guimaraes have to go through the playoffs. VG actually won their first tie (both legs) and now faces Ventspils (Latvia). Braga faces Brondby (Denmark), a much more challenging foe. This is the next to last round; after that both teams need to win one more tie to get to the group stage. Overall, Portugal lies about 2 points off Russia, and Russia already has one of their six teams eliminated so their denominator is going to suck for all year. Portugal has a legit chance to get all five teams into the group stage, which would be a great start because even 1 team sucking ass can really bring the average down. In terms of national pride or whatever it would be great to overtake Russia, but I'm still not sure Portugal has six teams that can realistically compete in Europe, so having five teams (2 CL/3 EL) seems about right.
Nice win by Porto today waaaay out in Krasnodar. 1-0 FCP on a nice Oliveira free kick in the 89th minute. The away win and away goal positions them nicely to advance plus gets max uefa points on the day.
Two EL qualifiers today: Braga at Brondby (DEN), V Guimaraes at Ventspils (LAT). Braga up 2-1 right before halftime; no score in the other match midway thru the first half, but Vitoria has had more of the chances.
Man, what a week. I realize it's just preliminaries, but can't remember the last time Portugal had three wins in three away games. And really impressive margins today, makes advancement almost a lock given the away goals. Vitoria would have to lose at home 4-0 not to advance, for example.
Totally shocked. After they beat Krasnodar abroad I thought it was over. They really got ambushed, and almost came back from that early 0-3 deficit but too little, too late. Only upside is that due to the truly bizarre quirks of the qualification system this does not eliminate Porto from Europe entirely but just puts them into the Europa League, and based on that frango on Tuesday that's just where they belong. That said, holy crap Vitoria Guimaraes!! 6-0 against Ventspils, for 9-0 aggregate win. I don't know much about them, but that's an impressive win by any standard. Hope they can keep it going, make the group stage and do some damage there. Today Braga plays Brondby (DEN) at Braga, with a 4-2 lead from the opening leg in Denmark. Assuming they don't pull a Porto and shit the bed at home, they should advance to the next and final qualifying round as well, where they are likely to face one of the teams from Moscow (Spartak, I believe). That would be a challenge but great if they could knock them out.
Braga got it done, cruising to a 3-1 home win for a 7-3 aggregate victory over Brondby. Results of this week are that Porto will be in the EL group stage along with SCP, while both Braga and Vitoria Guimaraes have to play one more home-and-away match to get there. The draws for that home and away are not out yet but the opponents seem clear if my reading of the very complicated UEFA website is accurate: Braga will play Spartak Moscow, while Vitoria Guimaraes will play FCSB from Romania. It would be huge if they could advance, especially Braga because that would mean they would knock out a Russian team in the process. And both teams getting to the group stage would secure at least a decent haul of points for the two Portuguese teams in Europe outside the big three, who historically have dragged down the national average by getting only a couple points in Europe. As for the opponents, I know next to nothing. Spartak is a familiar name, just not clear how they are this year. Honestly never heard of the team from Romania. Also fun fact: Vitoria Guimaraes had the largest agg win (9-0) of any team this stage, larger even than English team Wolves got against their Armenian opponent. I hope they keep it up next match.
For those of us still thinking "WTF Porto?" after they shat the bed at home to Krasnodar, consider that today Krasnodar lost 0-4 at Olympiacos. https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2020/matches/round=2001139/match=2027017/index.html WTF Porto indeed.
Braga and Vitoria Guimaraes in action today. Braga got a very tough draw in Spartak Moscow, who this year have Andreas Schürrle playing for them on loan. It's a longer shot but not an impossible one; if they could advance past them that would be huge because it would mean Braga would be in a position to pick up a lot more points in the group stage and that they would knock out a Russian team in the process. Early on, the game looks chippy and low on chances. No score for VG in Romania either.
Good day. Braga 1-0 Spartak Moscow FCSB 0-0 Vitoria Guimaraes Win at home, draw away is a foolproof formula. If both teams execute in the next leg they’ll advance. Braga has the harder task traveling to Russia. Getting an early away goal would make the task much easier.
A bit more about these games: I didn't have access to see either but the stats tell pretty encouraging stories. Braga had the run of play, outshooting Spartak 16/8. Numbers looked even in between FCSB and Vitoria G. Point is that in both cases the final scores reflected the play more or less. Going into the next leg, it'll all depend on how Braga can adapt to the tough away environment. If they can get past Spartak that would be a huge development for Portugal's position vis a vis Russia this year. FWIW, today's points put Portugal 16th overall in Europe with 2.5 on average. Russia is 32d with 1.66 but it's waaaay too early for any of this to matter. What's important now is getting as many teams as possible--preferably all five--into the group stages.
Anyone see the FCSB presidents comments about Guimaraes? Considers them weak and says if they score he'll cut his own head off... they should post that in the Guimaraes locker room for motivation.
Whoa I did not see this. Is there a link? Great bulletin board material esp now that guimaraes played fcsb dead even in Romania
Something extraordinary is happening in Russia: Braga leads Spartak 2-0 late on. Game is not over yet but at this point Spartak would have to score 4 goals to win the tie (3 would mean they would be tied but behind on away goals), so barring a historic collapse, Braga appears to be through to the next round. I don't want to jinx anything so I'll cap it there but suffice to say this would be a huge victory on many fronts.
Spartak score in the 90th but its gonna be a win for Braga. Guimarães game just started as well, lets hope they can win at home.
0-0 HT for Vitoria. Edgy feeling about that game; they have home advantage but one away goal would be a tough challenge.
1-0 Vitória. Lets see if the FCSB president chops his own head off like he promised to do if his team conceded a goal.
Great outcome, should/could have been a lot more goals for Guimaraes. But a win is a win, and they are in the group stage too. A second huge outcome. I realized earlier this week that "FCSB" is a new name for Steaua Bucharest, the top team in Romania historically and a former european champion. So the win here is also very credible, as with Braga's win over perennial Russian power Spartak. The implication of this is that now all five of Portugal's teams will be in the group stage of European competiiton--can't recall the last time that happened, if ever. This gives Portugal a great chance to rack up points across all teams, as opposed to needing some of the top teams make up for others' shortfall in the qualifiers. Wonder how the FCSB prez will look like decapitated.
In CL news here’s Group G Benfica Zenit St Petersburg Lyon Leipzig I hesitate to call any CL group easy but this one conspicuously lacks any major power team like Liverpool or juve or Barca or Bayern. That said benfica has been very inconsistent in the CL so it remains to be seen if they will take the opportunity to excel in this group.