First Round Valletta 1-0 B36 Tórshavn B36 Tórshavn 2-1 Valletta (agg: 2-2, Valletta win on away goals) Second Round 13, 20 July Rosenborg (NOR) v IFK Norrköping (SWE) Dundalk (IRL) v FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL) Crusaders (NIR) v FC København (DEN) BATE Borisov (BLR) v SJK Seinäjoki (FIN)
Welcome @IASocFan to the boards. Glad to see some new material on the Scandy boards. Also glad to see someone from the great state of Iowa. GO HAWKS!!!
Second Round Results 12,13 July Rosenborg (NOR) 3-1 IFK Norrköping (SWE) Dundalk (IRL) 1-1 FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL) Crusaders (NIR) 0-3 FC København (DEN) BATE Borisov (BLR) 2-0 SJK Seinäjoki (FIN)
Third Qualifying round, draw : Rosenborg (NOR)/IFK Norrköping (SWE) v The New Saints (WAL)/APOEL (CYP) Astra Giurgiu (ROU) v Crusaders (NIR)/FC København (DEN) BATE Borisov (BLR)/SJK Seinäjoki (FIN) v Dundalk (IRL)/FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL)
Second Round Results 19,20 July IFK Norrköping (SWE) 3-2 Rosenborg (NOR) Rosenborg advances 4-5 FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL)2-2 Dundalk (IRL) Dundalk advances 3-3 on away goals FC København (DEN) 6-0 Crusaders (NIR) København advances 9-0 SJK Seinäjoki (FIN) 2-2 BATE Borisov (BLR) BATE advances 4-2
Third Qualifying round, matches (26,27 July; 2,3 August): Rosenborg (NOR) v APOEL (CYP) Astra Giurgiu (ROU) v FC København (DEN) Seeded APOEL (CYP) 35.935 FC København (DEN) 24.720 Unseeded Rosenborg (NOR) 12.850 Astra Giurgiu (ROU) 11.076
Full Time Rosenborg 2-1 APOEL Gytkjaer 23 Efrem 67 Skjelvik 45+1 Astra 1-1 København Filipe Teixeira 7 Delaney 64
I was quite surprised by the poor shape of Astra ... they managed a to score a goal early on, but then were defending with 10 men in the rest of the game, hardly leaving their own half of the pitch ... had it only been for tactical reasons, just to keep a 1-0 lead, then it could be understandable, but the truth of the matter is that their players seemed quite out of shape ... some of them looked so exhausted at the start of the 2nd half, that they could hardly move, and there seemed little to nothing their coach could add from the bench ... it was only a question of how may goals FCK would be able to score in the last 45 minutes, so perhaps it could be argued that 1-1 seem a bit too slim a result for FCK ... but if Astra are not in better shape for the return leg in Copenhagen, progressing to the CL play-off's should not be a difficult task for FCK.
Rosenborg had advancement in hand until added time in the second half. They gave up three goals in the 91st, 96th and 99th minutes. APOEL advanced 4-2 on aggregate. I couldn't find much more info on the game
Could easily have been 5-0 at half-time ... so excellent performance by FCK ... the 2nd half was on the other hand just a waste of time ...
Playoff Matchup FC København v APOEL (CYP) – 16 & 24 August APOEL just finished beating Rosenborg in the previous round.
I would rate APOEL to be about the same level as the Romanian Champions Astra that FCK beat in the 3rd Qualifying round ... Rosenborg are not as good as they used to be, but were still a bit unlucky not to win by a larger margin in the home game against APOEL, just as they seemed to be struck by the heat and a bit of panic in the very last minutes when they lost in Cyprus ... after some years finishing behind Midtjylland, AaB Aalborg and FC Nordsjælland in the Danish league, only being on pair with the top teams in the Danish Superliga, this FCK team is by far the best and most solid team we have seen since they drew with Barcelona in the CL group stage in 2011 ... So I'm not too worried about an APOEL team that probably think they are on top, because they beat Rosenborg and also were a bit lucky to beat Midtjylland on away goals last season ... because this FCK team is at least a level better than both Midtjylland and Rosenborg.
APOEL has a 35.935 coefficient and Astra Giurgiu has an 11.076. I'm not saying APOEL will beat FCK, but I think APOEL is better than Astra Giurgiu. In the previous two seasons, APOEL beat a Danish club in a Qualifying or Playoff Round. APOEL beat Midtjylland in 2015-2016 and AaB in 2014-2015. In the last seven complete seasons, there are three clubs that reached the Group Stage from the Champions Path at least three times. They are APOEL, BATE Borisov, and Dinamo Zagreb.
Their past results and statistics won't help them in this tournament ... and they are far from as experienced at reaching an Europa Cup Group Stage in compare to FCK, that has made it to a CL or EL group stage the past 10 years in a row, which is far more than APOEL, so past experience will not be in their favor either .... Midtjylland had never qualified for a Group Stage and AaB had not been in a Group Stage for 6 years when they faced APOEL ... I also know that AaB were underestimating APOEL while Midtjylland simply did not have the experience last season, though they actually managed a win on Cyprus in the second leg, but still lost narrowly on away goals ... this season FCK have never looked stronger and are a level better than the AaB, Midtjylland and Rosenborg teams that faced APOEL .... in fact, APOEL probably believe they have been lucky to draw FCK, based on their past results against Scandinavian teams , so the chance is that they will be underestimating FCK and surely not the other way around ...
A good start by FCK: København 1-0 APOEL Pavlović 43 Ståle Solbakken's København claim narrow lead to take to Cyprus next week Andrija Pavlović rounds Boy Waterman to give Danes 43rd-minute initiative FCK now unbeaten in all ten matches this season, scoring every time Thomas Delaney unable to add to Danish advantage with added-time opportunity Key player: Andrija Pavlović (København)
Champions League Play-off's 2nd leg : APOEL v FC København 1-1 (agg : 1-2) Though the scoreline seem tight, FCK were in full control throughout the match on Cyprus, mainly forcing the home team to play long-ball, which was easy for the FCK midfield and defense to deal with, so while FCK were creating a handful decent opportunites on target, APOEL were not allowed to create any danger except for the one opportunity that gave them the goal ... so you could praise APOEL for being 100% efficient, which show their experience at this level, but it was way too little to win this tie and the goal did not make FCK panic or lose control, they just kept to their tactics, expecting to score that one goal that would settle the tie ... which they did ... So FCK are now in the Champions League Group stage, facing the English Champions Leicester, FC Porto and Belgium Champions Club Brugge ... an interesting group where FCK also should be able to do some damage : Group G: Leicester (ENG) FC Porto (POR) Club Brugge (BEL) FC København (DEN)
Might very well be the best-case scenario group for FCK... Worst case would have been Real Madrid, Dortmund, Tottenham, FCK
Leicester is a good team, but they have no experience playing in Europe and they have not come off to a good start, losing to Hull in the EPL ... on the other hand, it reminds me of SønderjyskE that also did a "Leicester" last season in the Superliga, but now are 2nd from the bottom in the Superliga this season, though having done a fairly good job in Europe, despite having no experience at all ... but SønderjyskE also choose to go all-in, actually resting key players in the Superliga to do well in Europe, because they know this most likely will be their only season in Europe for a very long time to come ... and I doubt Leicester will do the same ... and again ... English players are simply not used to playing abroad outside England, which in itself is a huge disadvantage, as we have seen so often with the English NT, that always seem to fail when they are playing big tournaments abroad ... so this could also be a problem for an inexperienced Leicester. Just looking at their past experience, FC Porto must be the favorite to win this group, however they have no recent experience with Danish or Scandinavian teams ... at least not since they lost (2-0 and 1-1) in the CL Group stage to Rosenborg in the very late 90's , while Porto beat (2-0 and 2-2) Danish AaB Aalborg in the 1995-96 CL group stage ... but that is all just useless old statistics ... I't a bit up and down how Danish clubs do against Brugge ... in 2012-13 FCK eliminated them from the CL by beating them 3-2 in Belgium ... on the other hand FCK got beaten 4-0 by them in the EL group Stage in 2014-15, where Brugge also beat Brøndby and AaB Aalborg both home and away ... but then last season Midtjylland beat Brugge 3-1 in Belgium in the EL Group stage ... all we can say is that FCK right now are a level above the Danish teams that lost to Brugge in the past few years, but I'm nor sure how strong Brugge are this season ... if they are no better than the team that lost at home to Midtjylland last season, then it's looking good for FCK.
Btw ... in this summer transfer window FCK have sold Nicolai Jørgensen to Feyenoord, but have replaced him with an even more skilled Rasmus Falk who has been an instant success, so they have not lost flair or become weaker in that posisiton ... they have also replaced the unsuccessful German striker Marvin Pourié with the young Serbian international Andrija Pavlović ... and have sold their creative midfield engine and absolute key player (and team captain) Thomas Delaney to Werder Bremen, but he is not moving to Germany before January 2017, so this wont be a problem in this Group stage ... and to replace Delaney in the longer run, they had already signed Slovakian international Ján Greguš .... otherwise they have replaced their Belgian keeper Thomas Kaminski with the Swedish international Robin Olsen. To reinfoce the defense they have sigend Peter Ankersen from Red Bull Salzburg .... and yesterday they signed Danish international Nicolai Boilesen from Ajax .... I dont know if more reinforcements are on the way in the days to come, but having qualified for the CL group stage they now expect to make a US$ 38 million (euro 33.6 million) profit this season, so there should be room for more expensive reinforcements .... they have until 1 September to sign more players.
... and I see that the Romanian Champions Astra, that FCK so easily beat in the CL 3rd Qualifying round, managed to bump off West Ham in the EL play-off's ...
According to the Sun, Jores Okore is going to leave Aston Villa in favor of FCK : https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...and-could-face-leicester-in-champions-league/
It's now official ... FCK have signed Okore as of today and until 2020 : http://www.fck.dk/#/nyhed/2016/08/27/jores-okore-skifter-til-fc-koebenhavn