2012/13 Europa League thread

[Lineker]

Ade!

[GoGo Yubari]

Lot of awful at the start, but Dempsey and Ade combined well for that goal.

Kyle Naughton has not had a good game.

[Lineker]

3-1, that'll do nicely.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

What "seeding" do the Champions League dropouts get?

And hello Stok by the way.

[EddieG]

It's in Dutch, but you get the drift, you're in the lower seed.

http://nos.nl/artikel/448797-ajax-in-pot-twee-bij-loting-el.html

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Athletico Madrid, Inter, Bayer Leverkusen, Spurs, Ajax....Some first seed teams are going to be unhappy with their draw.

[stokeriño]

A replay of the 1998 Cup Winners Cup Final against Stuttgart would be nice.

Would be nicer if Zola were around to score us the winner as well.

[brenchill]

A replay of the 1998 Cup Winners Cup Final against Stuttgart would be nice.

Would be nicer if Zola were around to score us the winner as well.

Wow, that brought back a really old memory. I just remembered a Chelsea fan where they played in the snow. First time I ever saw an orange ball used, I think. Pretty sure Vialli played.

[stokeriño]

A replay of the 1998 Cup Winners Cup Final against Stuttgart would be nice.

Would be nicer if Zola were around to score us the winner as well.

Wow, that brought back a really old memory. I just remembered a Chelsea fan where they played in the snow. First time I ever saw an orange ball used, I think. Pretty sure Vialli played.

Yes, that was against Tromso in Norway (and only in bloody October!). I actually posted a link of it in the CL thread during the snowy match earlier this week.

The change in conditions between the first half and the second half is madness.

[brenchill]

Chelsea need to bring that kit back. Or at least a variation of it.

[stokeriño]

Yeah, I quite like that one. These days Adidas either don't enough enough yellow (they usually prefer black or white), or they do it in some silly/horrible way, like neon yellow and such.

I would like a proper rehash of the 1970 FA Cup Final Replay kit that was royal/dark blue shirt & shorts but with yellow socks. We did play with yellow socks sometimes with our 1998 home kit, but the blue shirt was much too light for the appropriate effect.

[Colly]

Athletico Madrid, Inter, Bayer Leverkusen, Spurs, Ajax....Some first seed teams are going to be unhappy with their draw.

Can you play against a team in the same country at this stage? With a few exceptions (Lazio, Benfica) I'm delighted to be in Pot 2. Still not massively hopeful of going through unless we get a load of players back before February, but there's a lot of scary teams in the second one.

[stokeriño]

In the round of 32 you cannot play against a team from the same association. Nor can teams that qualified through the Europa League Group Stage play a team that was in their group.

I assume that in the subsequent round of 16 draw there are no such rules, otherwise I'm sure they would just trap themselves in a corner with all the possible connotations.

[Colly]

Superb, so we've dodged everyone Hammy said, Zenit, Kiev, Napoli and can't get Chelsea. All aboard the Genk. Bus!

[stokeriño]

Not desiring a Lazio or Benfica tie, then?

And my God, AVB does talk some garbage.

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has said his former club Chelsea and other Champions League failures do not deserve to be in the Europa League.

"You can't give a bonus to teams who have failed," said Villas-Boas after his side secured Europa League progress with a 3-1 win over Panathinaikos.

"It's extremely unfair. I have said this in Uefa meetings before."

A fair enough viewpoint. The EL format is bullshit for any number of reasons, and dropouts from one competition entering another is certainly one of the-

"It would be much fairer if the clubs came in to the Europa League when they are knocked out of the last 16 of the Champions League," added Villas-Boas, who became Chelsea boss after winning Europe's second competition with FC Porto in 2010.

Can he even hear himself talk?

[Hobo]

Like it matters, UEFA will probably merge the Europa League and Champions League into one thing eventually.

I don't mind that Champions League clubs drop down by finishing third in their group. That's not so bad. It gives the Europa League possible bigger named teams to come in.

You'd think UEFA would give a damn about the Europa League but they really don't.

[Lineker]

CL teams shouldn't enter at all at any stage, imo. But it is what it is, hey ho.

Uefa confirms that Chelsea will join Liverpool among the 16 seeds for the Europa League last-32 draw. Liverpool are seeded as a result of winning Europa League Group A, while Chelsea's total of 10 points in Champions League Group E means they are one of the four-best third-placed finishers dropping down from that competition.

It raises the possibility that one of the English sides could face Europa League holders Atletico Madrid when the draw is made on 20 December.

[brenchill]

I lost all respect for the Europa League when it stopped being a straight knock out from the beginning. It was a brilliant throwback to the old European Cup, now it's just a shit Champions League.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, I don't think Champions League teams should be allowed in, really. It definitely belittles the competition. Though, I'm not sure how much it can be belittled.

[Hobo]

Groups are better ie. Shamrock Rovers got to play six games in the Europa League proper. That's awesome for them and probably earned them a good chunk of money.

Which they're probably glad of now after failing to qualify for Europe this season.