15 Place Battle

[nogomet]

If Iasi don´t beat Hajduk, Croatia can already overtake Romania tonight.

[wannabeontop]

Im thinking about making a "Battle for 25/28th place" thread. Do you think it would gather traffic?

[SteffenM]

Enjoy this my Nordic brothers, Swedish and Norwegian friends, this is the last time you are in front of Denmark

Well, I dunno. But it's fun we are so close.
a battle in the battle.

[Kerberos]

Enjoy this my Nordic brothers, Swedish and Norwegian friends, this is the last time you are in front of Denmark

Well, I dunno. But it's fun we are so close.
a battle in the battle.

Wohoooo eat dust

[Lurker]

Yeah... my fears before yesterday's games sadly came true. But today we take a leap away from our Scandinavian brothers (hopefully)
AIK & Häcken should win. Göteborg can have it tougher in Poland. But maybe they can manage to take at least a draw with them home?
A clash between the Danes & the Norweigans today as well, that should help us: Sönderjyske vs Strömsgodset.

[nogomet]

If Iasi don´t beat Hajduk, Croatia can already overtake Romania tonight.

Iasi did fail to beat Hajduk, but Lokomotiva missed the chance to bring Croatia to 15th place. Dinamo Zagreb have the next chance on Wednesday vs Vardar.

[SteffenM]

14. Greece - 0,200 - 1 W (4 entering later)
15. Romania - 0,100 - 1 D (4 entering later)
16. Croatia - 0,500 - 1 W 2 D (1 entering later)
17. Austria - 0,750 - 3 W (1 entering later)
18. Belarus - 0,750 - 2 W 2 D
19. Sweden - 0,675 - 2 W 1 D 1 L
20. Norway - 0,250 - 1 W 2 L (1 out)
21. Denmark 1,000 - 4 W
22. Poland - 0,250 - 2 D 1 L(1 out)
23. Scotland - 0,375 - 1 W 1 D 2 L

Can this be true.
I took some of it from another guy posting something similar to this, but I did more corrections, so one of us must be mistaken.

If I am right.
Good week for Greece, Austria and Denmark
Bad week for Norway, Poland and Scotland

[SteffenM]

Seems as this is updated.

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14	Greece	0.200	22.300	5/ 5
15	Romania	0.100	21.150	5/ 5
16	Croatia	1.000	21.125	4/ 4
17	Austria	1.125	19.100	4/ 4
18	Belarus	1.750	18.625	4/ 4
19	Sweden	1.625	18.600	4/ 4
20	Norway	0.750	17.700	3/ 4
21	Denmark	2.000	17.500	4/ 4
22	Poland	0.500	16.375	3/ 4
23	Scotland	1.125	15.675	4/ 4

Nordic countries are moving even closer together

[og2002gr]

Best start so far:

1. Denmark 8/8 wins Perfect start with all 4 teams favorites for qualification to the next round.
2. Belarus 6 wins, 2 draws - almost perfect but with two teams having the disadvantage after drawing at home (Dinamo Minsk, Shaktyor Soligorsk)
3. Israel 5 wins, 3 draws - two teams are favorites (Maccabi TA and Beitar), two in question for the 2nd leg (Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheeva)
-. Sweden 6 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss - two teams are favorites (AIK - Goteborg), 1 struggles (Hacken), 1 possibly out (Norrköping)

[SteffenM]

Denmark and Norway switched places.
Well at least until tomorrow...

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20	Denmark	2.250	17.750	4/ 4
21	Norway  	0.750	17.700	3/ 4

[SirHenri]

9 out of 9 , Denmark is still on a perfect run !

[Funkmaster]

Well, for me Croatia is the favourite to take place 15 at the end of the season. Yes, they´ve got a difficult draw for the third round, but Rijeka and Hajduk are still slightly favourites in their ties and also Lok Zagreb has a chance against Oleksandrija, because the ukrainian league is getting weaker every year. I think Dinamo and Rijeka should make their way to the group stage and maybe Hajduk too.

Romania should fall back to place 17-18 at the end of the season in my opinion. They have got an extremely bad draw and I see only Steaua and maybe Astra getting into the group stage. It would be a big surprise if anyone of Viitorul, Pandurii or Iasi would reach the playoff, they are underdogs against their opponents in the next qualification round. For me it´s a miracle how they could hold place 15 for 2 years - no money, low attendance, bad stadiums and no licences for many teams. The reason is that Austria didn´t do well either in the last 2 seasons.

Now my country Austria still has some chances to snatch place 15 after the end of the season, but they are not very high, I would say about 20-25 %. We could have 3 teams in the group stage, because all of them (Salzburg, Rapid, Austria) are seeded, but I would be very surprised if not one of them would fail in the qualification. Especially Austria seemed to be quite weak against Kukesi, it will be a very difficult game for them in Albania on Thursday. Rapid has lost some players but also made some new contracts with new players (Traustason from Norrköping, Mocinic from Rijeka and Joelinton from Hoffenheim), so let´s see how they do in european competion. And as you know Salzburg will fail somewhere in qualification on their way to CL-group stage All of them have a good draw, so it´s up to them to perform well.

Behind these three countries I only see denmark to have small chances to gather place 15 at the end of the season. Danish teams seem to fly really high in this year qualification and I´m sure that Kopenhagen and Midtjylland will reach group stage. SönderjyskE also has some chances to get to the playoff because neither Partizan or Zaglebie seemed to be very strong this year. So they can make surprise. And I would also keep an eye on Bröndby, you knever know how unexperienced german teams will do in these "early" (well, only for them ) qualification rounds.

Concerning the other leagues: I really can´t see Greece and the Netherlands falling out of top 15 at the end of the season. Even though they don´t have a big advance over Croatia and Romania regarding the points, their teams are just too good. Just look at Ajax (although they failed against Rapid and Salzburg in the last 2 years ), PSV and Olympiakos, none of the countries behind them has teams with the same quality and experience. Then they´ve also got PAOK and AZ, which are probably as good as the top teams of the other contenders (Dinamo, Rapid, Salzburg, Legia and Kopenhagen). Like I said before, for me these 2 leagues are just too good.

Looking at Sweden, Norway, Poland and Belarus I don´t think anyone of them will get close to the 15th place. It´s very bad for Sweden and Norway that their best teams (Malmö and Molde) failed to qualify for european competition. They should be happy if one of their clubs get to group stage and end up the season with 4,000-5,000 points, but I think Sweden will have no club left after the end of qualification (but AIK and Goteburg could make some surprises, let´s see). Legia and Rosenborg should reach the group stage, but they won´t be able to hold the country coefficient on their own. And sorry Belarus, but I don´t see them getting higher than their current 18th place. They´ve got the huge advantage of an unbalanced league and playing with the same clubs in european competitions with good seeding points and lucky draws every year. Belarus is really getting the maximum value at the moment, normally they should be around place 22-24.

At the end of the season it will look like this Imo:
13. Netherlands
14. Greece
15. Croatia
16. Austria
17. Denmark
18. Romania
19. Belarus
20. Sweden
21. Norway
22. Poland


After all, this is only my opinion and some speculations. Games have to be played, so let´s see which countries make their way to top 15

[nemesys]

Quick recap after tonight matches:

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Netherlands  22.763  5/5
Greece       22.300  5/5
Romania      21.150  5/5
Croatia      21.125  4/4
Austria      19.350  4/4
Belarus      18.750  4/4
Sweden       18.600  4/4
Denmark      17.750  4/4
Norway       17.700  3/4
Poland       16.625  3/4
Scotland     15.675  4/4

waiting for the remaining of the matches.

[eastbaykid]

Looking at Sweden, Norway, Poland and Belarus I don´t think anyone of them will get close to the 15th place. It´s very bad for Sweden and Norway that their best teams (Malmö and Molde) failed to qualify for european competition. They should be happy if one of their clubs get to group stage and end up the season with 4,000-5,000 points, but I think Sweden will have no club left after the end of qualification (but AIK and Goteburg could make some surprises, let´s see). Legia and Rosenborg should reach the group stage, but they won´t be able to hold the country coefficient on their own. And sorry Belarus, but I don´t see them getting higher than their current 18th place. They´ve got the huge advantage of an unbalanced league and playing with the same clubs in european competitions with good seeding points and lucky draws every year. Belarus is really getting the maximum value at the moment, normally they should be around place 22-24.

Good post. I will only quibble to say that Molde is not Norway's best team (they are 7th in this season's table). Rosenborg is pretty plainly the class of the league this year. Even last year, when Molde went to the EL Round of 32, I think Rosenborg were a stronger side -- although Molde was maybe better suited for European competition. However, I agree that Norway would do better with Molde in the Europa League this year, if nothing else because Molde has a coefficient of about 20, which would have had it seeded through the playoff.

[mieszambeton]

100% agree to funkmaster