Europa League Group G H I

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Gorandinho
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Post by Gorandinho »

Dragonite wrote: In Group G, the minnows are having the time of their lives…
Genk is winning games! I didn’t know that they could do that, they already did it twice. The first time was against other minnow, but now it was against a big team.
Genk is no minnow. They are the 3rd best team in Belgium, they have some very talented players and they were unbeaten at home in the CL last year against Chelsea, Valencia, Leverkusen.
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Malko
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Post by Malko »

Of course we have to count with the belgian football again, and i would like if it gets the place where it was in the 70s...second in UEFA-ranking !!!!!
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AlanK
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Post by AlanK »

Inre Athletic:

Bielsa has destroyed the morale and the confidence of his team. He did fairly well last year, but ended the year on an awful note when he publicly (?) criticized his players for crying over their losses in the finals vs Atleti and Barça. He showed all the sensitivity of a brick. I know fútbol isn't about sensitivity, but goodness, reading the emotional situation of your players is part of managing. Llorente, arguably Athletic's best player, was sufficiently offended that he decided he wanted out of Athletic--something unheard of for a Bilbao player, so he must have really been affected. This season has been one disaster after another. It looks as though Bielsa has to go if this is to be turned around. Mind you, this team has the quality to turn things around . . . but it looks as though they won't turn it around in time to give themselves a chance to make it through the GS. Let's see what they do in Granada at 19:45 today--will they be going through the motions or playing tough? That might be the indicator for the game vs Lyon in the Cathedral on Thursday. :dontknow:

Edit: Jury still out. Athletic wins 1-2 in Granada; a fairly good game by the Leones, but . . . good enough to beat Lyon? Llorente started on the bench, at least partially because Aduriz is red-hot--scored twice today to run his league total to eight.
Last edited by AlanK on Sun Nov 04, 2012 23:44, edited 1 time in total.
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Dragonite
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Post by Dragonite »

AlanK wrote:Inre Athletic:

Bielsa has destroyed the morale and the confidence of his team. He did fairly well last year, but ended the year on an awful note when he publicly (?) criticized his players for crying over their losses in the finals vs Atleti and Barça. He showed all the sensitivity of a brick. I know fútbol isn't about sensitivity, but goodness, reading the emotional situation of your players is part of managing. Llorente, arguably Athletic's best player, was sufficiently offended that he decided he wanted out of Athletic--something unheard of for a Bilbao player, so he must have really been affected. This season has been one disaster after another. It looks as though Bielsa has to go if this is to be turned around. Mind you, this team has the quality to turn things around . . . but it looks as though they won't turn it around in time to give themselves a chance to make it through the GS. Let's see what they do in Granada at 19:45 today--will they be going through the motions or playing tough? That might be the indicator for the game vs Lyon in the Cathedral on Thursday. :dontknow:
AlanK,
Isn’t it funny that their 100% Basque policy doesn’t apply to the coaching spot? :roll:
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AlanK
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Post by AlanK »

@Dragonite:

There is some flexibility in their policy--Llorente is actually from Pamplona, which is "sorta Basque," although I'm not sure how those from Navarra would feel about being told that. :wink:
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Lyonnais
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Post by Lyonnais »

Although it is not mathematically done yet, Lyon should win the group and Sparta become second. Well, at that stage, only Lyon is officially qualified; Sparta can theoretically win the group or be caught by either Shmona or Bilbao for the second spot. I would however be very surprised if the group didn't end with Lyon and Sparta qualified in this order.

Bilbao eliminated is a huge upset but the truth is that this team currently doesn't have much to do with the superb team we've seen last season. They were ok in the first game at Gerland but much less convincing yesterday at San Mames. They were physically apathic and technically surprisingly poor (how many easy balls they lost?!?).

Anyway, happy of the performance of our boys. The way they have reacted after the Athletic goals was good. They kept quite in the storm and finally rather easily controlled the second half in spite of the hostile pressure. We're still fragile defensively speaking but overall, that was good.
Now Remi Garde can comfortably make a larger turn-over as the games of the group become irrelevant from a qualification perspective and that's fortunate because we have an awful schedule in the upcoming weeks.
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SirHenri
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Post by SirHenri »

I wouldn't be surprised if Praha-Lyon ends with a friendly draw.

Lyon would be secured 1st ans Praha secured 2nd, no matter what happens in the other match.

And if the other match between Shmona and Bilbao ends with a draw, then Praha is through too, even if they lose both their matches with 0-10

So very good chances for the chechzs, maybe they can get closer to the Top 15, where 4,125 points are needd atm to overtake Denmark. That's 5 wins 4 draws and 3 bonus points for example.
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CrabCZ
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Post by CrabCZ »

SirHenri wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if Praha-Lyon ends with a friendly draw.

Lyon would be secured 1st ans Praha secured 2nd, no matter what happens in the other match.

And if the other match between Shmona and Bilbao ends with a draw, then Praha is through too, even if they lose both their matches with 0-10

So very good chances for the chechzs, maybe they can get closer to the Top 15, where 4,125 points are needd atm to overtake Denmark. That's 5 wins 4 draws and 3 bonus points for example.
It's probably not gonna happen this season but it's only 2.025 points to overtake Israel next season.
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Post by Aliceag »

Sporting showed some signs of recovering on second half and they got a good pressing period there and even a goal with 10 man. I think if they start playing the whole time like that period they will start winning games.

Genk was dangerous and the tie deserved, Patrício (GK) was the best guy in the field.

I still have hopes that in 2 weeks time Sporting will have recovered enough morale to be able to do what they are capable to do and win their 2 last games.

Somehow this campaign reminds me of Porto in 2005, when they were with 2 points at MD4, and in the end they went to win in Moscow and win over Chelsea (2 difficult games in the paper) to qualify on 2nd place with 8 points. Perhaps Sporting can pull that miracle for Portugal again?...
Play fair and square!
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Dragonite
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Post by Dragonite »

Image


In Group G, Basel finally woke up, and Sporting is still sleeping.
Sporting is the champion of red cards in this EL edition, 3 in just 4 games. They also had 3 coaches in 4 games. Now that the Belgian Vercauteren hasn’t helped them to defeat Genk, they should dump him, and go get Heiko Vogel for the match against Basel next. And after that, they should dump him too and sign Videoton’s Paulo Sousa right before their match against the Hungarians.
A stupid team without a strategy, three months ago they thought that Onyewu was no longer necessary and loaned him, now Vercauteren probably thinks differently so they want him back, in 3 months who knows what the situation will be?!
Probably they’ll be out of the EL already. I no longer believe that they will advance from this group.

Aliceag wrote:Somehow this campaign reminds me of Porto in 2005, when they were with 2 points at MD4, and in the end they went to win in Moscow and win over Chelsea (2 difficult games in the paper) to qualify on 2nd place with 8 points. Perhaps Sporting can pull that miracle for Portugal again?...
Advancing from the EL groups shouldn’t me a miracle to Sporting, should be a routine. A miracle should be winning the CL.
They don’t remind me FC Porto 2004/2005, they remind me Benfica 2008/2009 winless UEFA Cup campaign.




In Group H, Inter and Rubin qualified, as expected.



In Group I, Athletic Bilbao is Pathetic Bilbao. The result in the other match was perfect for them, they only had to win their own game, and they would have 4 points, qualification would be in their hands again. They were losing 0-2 at half time, then they recovered to 2-2, but they ruined it again and lost 2-3.
Now they can still qualify, but they need Lyon’s charity… And from what has happened so far, Lyon’s charity seems far more likely than Pathetic winning doing its part by winning its games.
As usual, Lyon is France’s super team, the only one who’s already qualified. I hope to see them in the CL again next season, they’re the ones who should be representing France, not Montelul Pelleti and Lol.
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og2002gr
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Post by og2002gr »

Dragonite wrote: In Group I, Athletic Bilbao is Pathetic Bilbao...
...they’re the ones who should be representing France, not Montelul Pelleti and Lol.
:lol: :lol: Dragonite at his best :lol: :lol:
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Post by zender »

Looking forward to coming Thursday.
It might just be the last game of Videoton that I will catch this season and I have seen 4 of them so far.
Hopefully for Genk they will get a win secure that first place in the group.
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Lyonnais
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Post by Lyonnais »

Happy to see that Yacine Benzia scored the first goal of his professional career vs. Sparta. Called "the new Benzema", Benzia did an interesting U17 WC last season and he is one of the most promising players of our academy.

Another good satisfaction, among the numerous kids who played this game, Rachid Ghezzal, 20, "the new Ben Arfa", is a brilliant left winger with good dribbling capabilities.

We'll see them again for the last game vs. Shmona.
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Post by reisanibal1 »

Possible final rankings after MD5:

Group G:

Genk - 1/2
Basel - 1/2/3
Videoton - 2/3
Sporting - 4

Group H:

Rubin - 1
Inter - 2
Neftchi - 3/4
Partizan - 3/4

Group I:

Lyon - 1
Sparta - 2
I.Kiryat - 3/4
Athletic - 3/4
patje13
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Post by patje13 »

First time genk reaches spring. There qualification is totally deserved. They dominated the group from matchday 1!
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