Europa League 2017/2018: Groups J K L

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Dragonite
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Europa League 2017/2018: Groups J K L

Post by Dragonite »

Group J:
ImageImageImageImage

Athletic Bilbao will play the EL group stages for the 6th time, the 3rd in a row (and the EL for the 7th time, the 4th in a row, since in 2014/2015 they joined it later after starting in the CL groups)
In their previous five EL group stage experiences they advanced four times and failed once, in 2012/2013.
They have a new coach, José Ángel Ziganda, without EL experience.
But what he lacks in EL experience, his squad has to spare, as several of their players were in multiple EL campaigns for them. Susaeta for instance has 42 EL appearances for them, Muniain has 41, De Marcos 38, Iturraspe 32, San José 31, etc. And others like Raúl García, combining his appearances for them with the ones he already had in his previous clubs, also have 39.
Last season, although they advanced from the group stages, they were still disappointing, as they were “only” second placed behind Genk, and then they were immediately eliminated by APOEL in the following round.
Actually that’s their most usual EL outcome, “out in the last 32 round”, it happened in three of their six participations. And yet they’re eternally famous for reaching the EL final once.
Some teams just have this “feature” of people always looking only at their hits and ignoring their misses, while with others precisely the opposite happens, their hits are ignored and their misses are endlessly remembered.
They had to eliminate Dinamo Bucharest and Panathinaikos to be here - easy, but still harder than the direct qualifications that many worse teams benefited from.

Hertha Berlin will play the EL for the second time.
They were directly qualified to the group stages, and if that wasn’t already scandalous enough, on top of that they were also a pot 2 team!!
Someone may ask, if Hertha Berlin, Hoffenheim and FC Koln were all inexistent teams in the last half-decade, why is the first in pot 2 and the other two in pot 3?
That’s because Hertha Berlin wasn’t completely “inexistent”, they were in the EL qualifiers last season, when they were immediately eliminated by Brondby. And what was their “reward” for LOSING to Brondby last season?
For starters, a direct spot, to prevent that disaster from happening again… and if that wasn’t already enough, an extra coefficient point to put them above their inexistent neighbours, and Partizan, Astana and Nice as well!
Congratulations UEFA! Your system is flawless!
Having said that, Hertha Berlin does seem to have “something” that his neighbours don’t… But perhaps it’s just a consequence of being in pot 2 instead of 3, so being compared to worse teams and look better in comparison.
Or perhaps it’s also a consequence of having that EL campaign back in 2009/2010 when they advanced from the group stages.

Zorya will play the CL for the 2nd time, the 2nd in a row.
They’re almost like Konyaspor. They too got a direct qualification last season, and despite that were unable to win a single game, 0-2-4 (while Konyaspor was 0-1-5). And despite that, they were once again rewarded with a direct spot!!
But in their case, they even got more than that; they climbed from pot 4 to pot 3!!!
How can a 0-2-4 be enough to climb a pot (but not a 0-1-5 in Konyaspor’s case)?
Is it the Ukrainian country contribution making the difference over the smaller Turkish one? Is it the breadcrumbs that Zorya gathered in unsuccessful attempts to survive the qualifiers in the two seasons before these? Is it the 2 points instead of just 1?
In a perfect system, Zorya wouldn’t be directly qualified, and wouldn’t climb a pot!
Then, unlike Konyaspor, they haven’t even changed coach, which means they’re not exactly unhappy with what happened to them last season.
In terms of players, lots of activity too, that can be briefly explained by taking in some Dnipro refugees, while sending some of their players to the bigger brother Shakhtar Donetsk.

Ostersund will play the EL for the 1st time.
Unlike the Hertha Berlin and Zorya parasites, they played the qualifiers, three rounds.
And they were outstanding, eliminating much bigger teams than these two parasites that they’ll now face in the group stage.
They eliminated Galatasaray in ELQR2, which allowed them to temporarily adopt Galatasaray’s coefficient in ELQR3 and get an “easier” team in ELQR3, Fola Esch.
But in ELQR4 they were back to the unseeded pot, and their final opponent was PAOK. And they eliminated them too!
It’s a more impressive path than Athletic Bilbao’s, and it’s definitely more impressive than they way that Hertha Berlin and Zorya got there.
And now, if they eliminated the “better” Galatasaray and PAOK, can they also eliminate the “worse” Hertha Berlin and Zorya?
Yes, they can. But I don’t think they will. But if they do, I’ll be delighted!

Prediction
1. Athletic Bilbao
2. Hertha Berlin
3. Ostersund
4. Zorya
Last edited by Dragonite on Thu Sep 14, 2017 18:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Dragonite »

Group K:
ImageImageImageImage

Lazio will play the EL for the 6th time.
In their previous five participations they advanced from the groups 4 times and failed once, in the inaugural season in 2009/2010.
They’ve always improved their group stage performance from one attempt to the next:
Only 6 points and elimination in 2009/2010, followed by 8 points in 2011/2012, followed by 12 points (3-3-0) in 2012/2013, followed by 12 points again (3-3-0) in 2013/2014, followed by 14 points in 2015/2016.
On one hand, every time they improve, it gets the task of keep improving harder. On the other hand, in a simple group with Nice, Zulte Waregem and Vitesse, that’s a possibility. Maybe they can get 14+ points.
They were directly qualified, one of the few cases this season where it wasn’t a waste of a direct spot, their previous half-decade record is worthy of that privilege.

Nice will play the EL for the 2nd time, the 2nd in a row.
Last season they were last placed in their EL group.
And yet one 4th place in an EL group + elimination against Apollon in the qualifiers in 2013/2014 + the French country contribution were enough for them to climb two pots in one year!! Unbelievable!!
At least they haven’t benefited from direct qualification too, and in order to be here, they had to eliminate last season’s EL beaten finalist Ajax in the CLQR3.
They have 12 new players compared to last season. The most famous is Sneijder, and the most expensive was Saint-Maximin (10M€).
Their coach is still the same though, Lucien Favre, who may have been responsible for their elimination last season, but already qualified other teams from EL groups in the past: Borussia Monchengladbach twice in 2012/2013 and 2014/2015.

Zulte Waregem will also play the EL for the 2nd time.
In their first participation in 2013/2014 they couldn’t advance from a group with Rubin Kazan, Maribor and Wigan. At least they had the decency to start in the qualifiers and eliminate APOEL to qualify.
In the following season they were again in the qualifiers but were eliminated by Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
And then they disappeared for two seasons, to return now directly qualified!! Really?!
UEFA is wasting EL direct spots with these worthless teams when there are much better teams in the qualifiers fighting for few spots!!
These teams aren’t even attractive from a TV point of view, there’s no possible reason for anyone (other than themselves of course) to prefer these guys in the group stages over Gent or Club Brugge who were thrown into the qualifiers and couldn’t survive there.

Vitesse will play the EL for the first time.
They couldn’t go further than ELQR3 in 2012/2013 (eliminated by Anzhi)… the same in 2013/2014 (eliminated by Petrolul Ploiesti)… and again the same in 2015/2016 (eliminated by Southampton).
No problem, let’s give them a direct spot in 2017/2018!
This awesome team, which is much more important to have in the competition than the…. Last season’s beaten finalist Ajax! Or AZ Alkmaar or PSV Eindhoven... any of them deserves this much more than this Vitesse, they were the ones that worked for this privilege, not Vitesse who did nothing apart from repeatedly losing and then stealing what others worked hard to get.
Plus, everybody was so worried about the FC Salzburg – Leipzig connection, but the connection that Vitesse has with Chelsea doesn’t seem too different. I see no problem at all with it, quite the opposite, if Chelsea indeed loaned them several good players, it would actually be an advantage as Chelsea has a fantastic academy. But do they? I don’t think so.

Prediction
1. Lazio
2. Nice
3. Zulte Waregem
4. Vitesse
Last edited by Dragonite on Thu Sep 14, 2017 18:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Dragonite »

Group L:
ImageImageImageImage

(Comments tomorrow)

Prediction
1. Zenit
2. Real Sociedad
3. Rosenborg
4. Vardar
Last edited by Dragonite on Thu Sep 14, 2017 18:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by og2002gr »

Group J

Athletic Club is considered as one of the favorites to win EL (3rd behind Milan and Arsenal).
I wasn't impressed in their summer qualification rounds. So this is maybe because they are a spanish team.

Hertha BSC is a way for UEFA to kindly show us its middle finger. This is the most unfair thing in this Europa League edition.
They could be a new-debutant-rising team like Leipzig, so we could wait and see to prove themselves.
This case is even worse: we already know after watching them being eliminated in 3rd round last season.
But UEFA rewarded them with a direct group stage spot and a Pot 2 status just because they finished 6th in Germany! :roll:

Zorya Luhansk is trying to be the 3rd team of Ukraine after Metalsit and Dnipro disappeared.
Last season they failed, but it was in a difficult group.
This season they should at least finish 3rd and threaten Hertha for second.

Östersunds has already made two miracles against Galatasaray and PAOK. Both their victims had major problems as it was too early for them to be competitive in summer.
Autumn group stage is a different story and I expect them to be an easy prey for all three teams.

1. Athletic Club 80%
2. Hertha BSC 60%
3. Zorya Luhansk 40%
4. Östersunds 20%


Group K

Lazio is looking strong in the start of the season.

Nice jumped from Pot 4 to Pot 2 after finishing last in their group!
blablabla you have bad draws because you had results in the past blablabla
Propably they will finish 2nd (?) because of lack of competitiveness in this group.

Zulte Waregem won Belgian Cup early and then stopped playing. If they don't start playing again they will finsih last in this group like they finished last in Belgian championship play-offs despite starting from 3rd place.

Vitesse is another Cup Winner with a direct spot. I guess Dutch fans would prefer a different winner in the Cup FInal last season.
Vitesse had some hard luck in previous attempts drawing rich Anzhi and Southampton (failing against Petrolul between these seasons).
At least now they can enjoy a full 6 games experience against all kind of teams.

1. Lazio 80%
2. Nice 60%
3. Zulte Waregem 30%
3. Vitesse 30%


Group L

Two levels of teams here.
Zenit and Sociedad have the quality and the experience to prevail.

1. Zenit St Petersburg 70%%
2. Real Sociedad 65%
3. Rosenborg 40%
4. Vardar Skopje 25%
fewer spots :arrow: weaker leagues :arrow: fewer spots :arrow: weaker leagues :arrow: fewer spots :arrow: weaker leagues

http://kassiesa.net/uefa/forum2/viewtop ... 52#p359852
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Post by bugylibicska »

Group J: I`d be surprised if Bilbao and Hertha won`t progress from this group. Zorya don`t stop disappointing, this looked like the only game they might have fetched some points.
Group K: This group seems done and dusted, Lazio and Nice just too strong for the other two.
Group L: I`ve thought Vardar could put up a stiffer resistance to Zenit, but not complaining, though feel for Vardar. I hope they`ll recover for the next rounds. Next round Zenit - Real Sociedad could decide the 1st spot. Both look too strong for Vardar and Rosenborg.
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Post by Dragonite »

Dragonite wrote:(Comments tomorrow)

Prediction
1. Zenit
2. Real Sociedad
3. Rosenborg
4. Vardar
I just have to write the Group L PREview now… :roll:
Still better than last season, where I had more previews missing than just one, and when I wrote them after round 1 some of them already looked foolish (“Inter is great”+”Hapoel Beer-Sheva is weak” right after Hapoel Beer-Sheva’s win in Italy comes to my mind).
The two teams that I expected to advance from this group and start with wins won comfortably.
And the two smashed teams still have merit to be here, so I hope the comments now won’t be influenced by that.

Zenit will play the EL group stages for the third time, 2nd in a row (and the EL for the 5th time, since twice they joined it later after starting in the CL groups).
In their previous two EL group stage experiences, they got a perfect 6-0-0 in 2010/2011, and last season they were close to it with five wins in the first five matches, but then they lost the sixth match.
That defeat in the sixth match wasn’t too important, but the one that followed it, 0-2 away against Anderlecht, was. Zenit still tried to reverse it in the second leg, and when they thought that they’d just did it, Thelin scored a last minute away goal and Zenit was eliminated despite a 3-1 home win.
It was the first time in seven seasons that Zenit failed to reach the last 16 (CL or EL), so Mircea Lucescu had to go, and he was replaced by Roberto Mancini.
Roberto Mancini is not exactly the right guy to take them further that the last 16 round, which was also as far as Zenit went in five of those six seasons (the exception was EL quarters in 2014/2015).
Why not? He too was already there (EL last 16) thrice, and never managed to go further, even though he kind of was “supposed to” I guess.
First time, in charge of Manchester City in 2010/2011, they were eliminated by Dynamo Kiev. Second time, again in charge of Manchester City in 2011/2012, they were eliminated by Sporting. And third time, in charge of Inter Milan in 2014/2015, they were eliminated by Wolfsburg.
Three times he was in charge of the most expensive team and still lost to cheaper teams. And I think that will happen again in charge of Zenit, he is a bad manager of the resources at his disposal.
He already started by spending 84.5M€ in 14 new players, more than half of his squad of 25 is new. Five of these 14 players came from Rostov (Terentyev, Mevlja, Noboa, Erokhin and Poloz). These were kind of cheap, they only paid 10M€ for the quintet. The fortune was spent on five Argentineans, which seems a very clever thing to do indeed, as Argentina’s youth system is better than it ever was, right?!
Back to the group stage chances though, Zenit should advance easily and win the group, another 6-0-0 or close wouldn’t be a surprise, as the gap between them and the others in the group is (supposed to be) huge.

Real Sociedad will play the EL for the first time.
They were directly qualified, which is extremely unfair, and as if that wasn’t enough, they were also in pot 2!!
So what is their last half-decade record that explains their direct qualification and pot 2 status?
In 2013/2014 they were bottom of a CL group with a 0-1-5!
And in 2014/2015 they were eliminated in the EL playoffs by Krasnodar.
So a 0-1-5 in a group plus an EL playoff elimination plus Spain’s country contribution was enough to give them a direct qualification this time (to surely avoid an inconvenience like the Krasnodar one to happen again) and also a place in pot 2, which in turn gave them a very favourable draw and the possibility to finally win some matches and advance for a change, which they weren’t able to do in over a decade!

Rosenborg will play the EL for the 4th time.
In their previous two participations they were never able to go further than the group stages.
In 2010/2011 they only got 3 points (1-0-5), in 2012/2013 they doubled their score to 6 points (2-0-4), which still wasn’t enough, and then in 2015/2016 they regressed and got their worst ever campaign with only two points (0-2-4).
At least they aren’t a parasite like Real Sociedad, so even though they collected more points than Real Sociedad over the last half-decade (2 wins and 2 draws in EL groups vs. only 1 draw in a CL group), they still had to play qualifiers to be here.
They eliminated Dundalk (who made it to EL group stages last season) in CLQR2, then they were eliminated by Celtic in CLQR3… And then they had a second chance in ELQR4, where their opponent was Ajax, last season’s EL beaten finalist.
And Rosenborg advanced with two wins! Rosenborg did what Legia Warsaw, FC Copenhagen, Schalke 04 and Lyon were all unable to do last season!
So, if they’ve just eliminated the EL beaten finalist, and with the EL holders Manchester United also absent, that makes Rosenborg the favourite to win the EL?
Of course not, not even close. They aren’t even supposed to advance from this group.
Their coach Kare Ingebrigtsen may have just eliminated Ajax, but he was also the one in charge when they got that 0-2-4 winless campaign in 2015/2016. The first goal should be doing better than that and actually winning some games. If he gets 7 points, it won’t be enough to advance probably, but it will be the club’s best ever campaign.

Vardar will play the EL for the first time.
Like Rosenborg, they too started in the CL qualifiers, where they eliminated Malmo in CLQR2, before being eliminated by FC Copenhagen in CLQR3, and getting a second chance in ELQR4.
Their playoff opponent was Fenerbahçe, and eliminating them with two wins like they did was no smaller feat than Rosenborg’s elimination of Ajax.
And now, what should they do in the group stages? Like Rosenborg, just because they eliminated Fenerbahçe, they aren’t supposed to behave better than Fenerbahçe “used to” (no EL group stage eliminations in four participations).
They are just a small team that eliminated a much bigger team, it’s not enough for them to become a big team, and it can’t happen in just one or two games, it takes time.
If they manage to get a campaign like for instance Hapoel Beer-Sheva did last season, then maybe they can start being seen with “different eyes” – Hapoel Beer-Sheva was already seen by many, where I’m incuded, as “supposed to” get in the CL group stages already this season (failed), and now “supposed to” advance from its group (let’s wait and see if they’ll do it or not).
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Post by Duketown »

Vitesse
Since 2010, Aleksandr Tsjigirinski invested €140 million in Vitesse while they already played in 1 of the first European stadium (27.000 seater) with retractable roof system. Or was it the first?
They also have a great trainings-facility (shared with Dutch Olympic training centre). Vitesse is known for their strong ties with Chelsea, with yearly around 6 rentals.
Their problem is it's fans. Fan visit peaked in 2000 with 25.814 but declined to only 14.200 current season. This match against Lazio, was sold-out in their shrunken stadium, 21.250 fans. However, they managed to win the Cup and now have a strong team consisting of a solid core of their own players, enforced with 5 Chelsea rentals.

Pasveer (Houwen)
Dabo (Lelieveld) - Kashia (vd Werf) - Miazga/Kruiswijk - Buttner (Faye)
Bruns (Ali) - Serrero* (Colcket) - Foor (Mount)
Rashica (v Bergen) - Matavz (Castaignos) - Linssen
*injured

Although, once Immobile entered the field, they lost to Lazio. Bruns should have made the 3-1 for Vitesse. Motm was Rashica who made Lukaku look like a child. With either Serrero or Kruiswijk instead of v/d Werf, this team will continue to grow this season. Even some rentals might outperform i.e. Foor.
So 4/6 point should be doable and maybe a tie in Rome. If Lazio doesn't fuck up against Zulte, Vitesse probably end 3rd.
Last edited by Duketown on Fri Sep 15, 2017 15:10, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Malko »

Perfect start for Nice. after putting 4 goals in the Ligue 1 vs Monaco, they beat Zulte-Waregem 1-4. A clear differecne of shape was seen this time.
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Post by Duketown »

Dragonite wrote:Group K:
Zulte Waregem will also play the EL for the 2nd time.
In their first participation in 2013/2014 they couldn’t advance from a group with Rubin Kazan, Maribor and Wigan. At least they had the decency to start in the qualifiers and eliminate APOEL to qualify.
In the following season they were again in the qualifiers but were eliminated by Shakhtyor Soligorsk.
And then they disappeared for two seasons, to return now directly qualified!! Really?!
UEFA is wasting EL direct spots with these worthless teams when there are much better teams in the qualifiers fighting for few spots!!
These teams aren’t even attractive from a TV point of view, there’s no possible reason for anyone (other than themselves of course) to prefer these guys in the group stages over Gent or Club Brugge who were thrown into the qualifiers and couldn’t survive there.

Vitesse will play the EL for the first time.
They couldn’t go further than ELQR3 in 2012/2013 (eliminated by Anzhi)… the same in 2013/2014 (eliminated by Petrolul Ploiesti)… and again the same in 2015/2016 (eliminated by Southampton).
No problem, let’s give them a direct spot in 2017/2018!
This awesome team, which is much more important to have in the competition than the…. Last season’s beaten finalist Ajax! Or AZ Alkmaar or PSV Eindhoven... any of them deserves this much more than this Vitesse, they were the ones that worked for this privilege, not Vitesse who did nothing apart from repeatedly losing and then stealing what others worked hard to get.
Plus, everybody was so worried about the FC Salzburg – Leipzig connection, but the connection that Vitesse has with Chelsea doesn’t seem too different. I see no problem at all with it, quite the opposite, if Chelsea indeed loaned them several good players, it would actually be an advantage as Chelsea has a fantastic academy. But do they? I don’t think so.
As far as I know it's up to national FA's how to reward Cup winners. So most countries choose to reward Cup winner with Direct Access. But it indeed makes more sense to reward highest ending league team with Direct Access spot. But their reason is to reward Cup winner with a real prize, UEFA football. I think the Cup-winner should win 3rd Dutch UEFA berth.

And they difference between a single-owner owning the 2 Red Bulls, this should now be fixed on paper, and seperate owners for Chelsea and Vitesse. So a English team renting out 6 players to a Dutch team is no problem to me. I actually like it since it doesn't hurt integrity of the game. I must add that a hate excessive trade since it hurts football, clubs and players. But what happens if Porto rents out 6 players to Braga (imagine last matchday they meet to determine 3rd place)? Or if Jorge Mendes owns 19 players in a Portuguese league match?
Last edited by Duketown on Fri Sep 15, 2017 21:31, edited 8 times in total.
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Post by AlanK »

Malko wrote:Perfect start for Nice. after putting 4 goals in the Ligue 1 vs Monaco, they beat Zulte-Waregem 1-4. A clear differecne of shape was seen this time.
Perhaps the "shape" was clearer than the score :?: :rollfloor: :rollfloor: :rollfloor:
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Post by Dragonite »

EL experience in Group J squads:
Athletic Bilbao 416, Hertha Berlin 105, Zorya 49, Ostersund 0

The entire squad of Ostersund has ZERO experience in EL, and they have no experience either in other serious competitions like CL or Euros or World Cups.

Yet despite being a bunch of players that nobody ever heard about, they already eliminated the “celebrities” of Galatasaray and PAOK to be here, and now they started with a fantastic win in Ukraine against Zorya! :applause: :banana: :bouncy: :clapping: :mol: :thumbs:

Image

They won where Fenerbahçe and Feyenoord couldn’t win last season!

So now that they already won against Zorya, the question is, can they also do something against Athletic Bilbao or Hertha Berlin?

These guys’ success is a big slap in the face of much more expensive teams who can’t be this successful.
On one hand they have a lot of supporters, it’s the Cinderella story. But on the other hand they must have a lot of haters too by now, people who are envious of their success.

In the other match, I was a little bit disappointed that Hertha Berlin wasn’t able to win against Athletic Bilbao. But it’s not worrying yet, as long as they win the next three matches.



EL experience for Group K squads:
Lazio 169, Nice 98, Zulte Waregem 78, Vitesse 54

EL experience for Group L squads:
Zenit 198, Real Sociedad 15, Rosenborg 62, Vardar 0
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Post by bugylibicska »

Group J:
Athletic Bilbao 1.61
Hertha Berlin 3.60
Ostersunds 6.00
Zorya 17.00

Group K:
Lazio 1.73
Nice 2.10
Vitesse 21.00
Zulte 34.00

Group L:
Zenit 1.73
Real Sociedad 2.00
Rosenborg 34.00
Vardar 67.00
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Post by Dragonite »

Group J is the craziest in the Europa League!
Ostersund won again, this time against Hertha Berlin, and currently tops the group with 6 points!
And that’s not even the strangest thing that happened here, it was Zorya winning in Spain against Athletic Bilbao!! :clapping:

Image

Zorya was unable to win a single match in EL last season (0-2-4).
This season they started with a home defeat against the Swedish “nobodies”.
And right after that they win away against this group’s allegedly “strongest team”!?

Even Portuguese SportTV’s journalist that hosts the EL show couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw this result, he triple checked it and still suspected he was being victim of a prank.

Athletic Bilbao and Hertha Berlin must focus now, they only have 1 point each, Zorya has 3 and Ostersund already has 6! They can still finish top 2 like they’re “supposed to”, but their leeway is gone – if Ostersund wins against Zorya again they’ll reach at least 9, so Athletic Bilbao and Hertha Berlin must defeat the minions thrice to get to at least 10.


Groups K and L were predictable again, nothing unexpected happened here yet.

Nice already got as many points in just two games as in its entire EL campaign last season. Should I congratulate them, or the reason for that is that last season they were in a real group with pros like Schalke 04, Krasnodar and FC Salzburg, while this season they’re playing against amateurs like Vitesse and Zulte Waregem?
Not only they already collected as many points as last season, last season their wins were “short”, just 1-0 and 2-1, while this season they’re huge, 5-1 and 3-0.
Hopefully Lazio will be a tougher opponent, but since there’s room for both, this is just another case where Lazio and Nice are practically qualified to the EL last 32, being in the same group of these two frauds.

Group L “seems” more balanced but only because the top 2 teams (and the bottom 2) already faced each other.

Rulli’s goalkeeping skills would be heavily criticized if the circumstances were different. But since he plays for a “civilized” team he is pardoned.

As for Rosenborg, they interrupted their winless streak of 8 EL matches, and they did so with their biggest ever EL win (their previous 3 wins were all by one goal margin).
Can they still make this group “interesting”? On one hand, I have more faith in them than in Zulte Waregem or Vitesse, because of what they did to Ajax earlier this season. On the other hand, when I look at their EL history, the optimism vanishes…
Another case of “neighbours” being meaningless I suppose, as their neighbours Molde actually won an EL group only two years ago.
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Kjello
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Post by Kjello »

Dragonite wrote:As for Rosenborg, they interrupted their winless streak of 8 EL matches, and they did so with their biggest ever EL win (their previous 3 wins were all by one goal margin).
Can they still make this group “interesting”? On one hand, I have more faith in them than in Zulte Waregem or Vitesse, because of what they did to Ajax earlier this season. On the other hand, when I look at their EL history, the optimism vanishes…
Another case of “neighbours” being meaningless I suppose, as their neighbours Molde actually won an EL group only two years ago.
But wasn't able to keep a clean sheet this time either. Rosenborg hasn't held a clean sheet in a group match since 0-0 against Club Brugge in 2008. It's now 23 matches in a row without a clean sheet.

Will Rosenborg be able to make this group interesting? I doubt it.
First of all, Rosenborg looks a bit to happy with making the group stages. It's of so big importance for Rosenborg to actually get to the group stage. So important that when they do, they're so relieved that they don't have the right focus for getting good results in the group stage. This was at least the case in 2015. And it looked to be the case against Real Sociedad. In 2015 it looked like everything was achieved when we qualified for the group stage. We had a big enough lead in the league so only a major slip would take it away. And it didn't look like we had any ambitions to fight for a top 2 spot in the group.

While our neighbours Molde and Östersund (it's actually faster to drive between Trondheim and Östersund, than Trondheim and Molde) could attack the group stage in a totally different way.
They weren't relieved to make it to the group stage. They had no pressure to make it in the first place, so why should they be relieved? For them, everything past the first qualifying rounds was a bonus. Also, where Rosenborg have to keep focus on securing another title, neither Molde in 2015, nor Österrund this year have to do that. Makes it a bit easier mentally.

For Rosenborg to make it interesting, they have to take a surprising point in Saint Petersburg. However, I don't see that happening. Especially since Rosenborg got Tromsø away the weekend before, and Brann away the weekend after. So that's three long away trips the same week. So they have to take some precautions. And the league got the first priority. Though we will have at least a 10 point lead if we win over Sarpsborg on Sunday. And even 12 points should Molde fail to win away to Sogndal.
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Post by Dragonite »

Another interesting thing about Ostersund, regarding “neighbours”:

:arrow: They are already Sweden’s best ever team in EL history! :shock:

In just 2 matches they already collected 6 points, more than Helsingborg’s 4 in 2012/2013, Elfsborg’s 4 in 2013/2014, AIK Stockholm’s 4 in 2012/2013, and Malmo’s 1 in 2011/2012.

It’s a pity that Malmo was eliminated so early by Vardar; it would have been nice to see them in the EL group stages. :(
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