EL 2018-19 - Round of 32

[AlanK]

What if both London clubs play against Instabul clubs, for example? Surely one of the first legs and one of the second legs would be moved to Tuesday/Wednesday? I guess the Metropolitan Police in London wouldn't be too happy about games against Celtic or Lazio either.

What about Betis and Sevilla (same city), Valencia and Villarreal (60 km apart)? Both pairs will also have their home games on the same day. There's obviously no problem in Italy with Milan and Napoli, and Germany is safe as well - Frankfurt and Leverkusen are 200 km apart. What about Prague and Plzen (about 90 km)?

There will be a change of venue for sure in Sevilla. Valencia and Villarreal--no problem.

I remember, not fondly, what happened in 2008 when Benfica and Sporting both had home games the same week in what is now the EL. I was living in Oviedo at the time; planned a trip to Lisboa to see both games, which I (foolishly) assumed would both be played in Lisboa as scheduled, but on different days, as you suggest here. Benfica's games were flip-flopped, so they played the second leg in Getafe; Sporting played at home. Was I mad At least I got to see Sporting beat Bolton, 1-0. I watched Benfica's home game on television in Oviedo.

[spoonman]

There will be a change of venue for sure in Sevilla.

So you mean either Betis or Sevilla would have to give up the 2nd leg home advantage (which they earned by winning their groups)? Has this happend in EL R32 before? And which of the two would keep the advantage: Sevilla, because they're ranked higher in the 5-year-ranking, or Betis, because they were ranked higher in La Liga?

[AlanK]

There will be a change of venue for sure in Sevilla.

So you mean either Betis or Sevilla would have to give up the 2nd leg home advantage (which they earned by winning their groups)? Has this happend in EL R32 before? And which of the two would keep the advantage: Sevilla, because they're ranked higher in the 5-year-ranking, or Betis, because they were ranked higher in La Liga?

No, that's not what I expect to happen, just as it wasn't what I expected to happen back in 2008. I would expect one game to be played Tuesday, the other to be played Thursday. I shoulda said "change of dates"--just realized I misspoke. I do remember that, for some reason, Getafe was apparently (well, reportedly) OK with the change (change was made very late); Benfica went along, perforce . . . And no, I don't remember this ever happening in the dieciseisavos (round of 32).

[spoonman]

Okay, thanks for clarifying.

As we all know, English clubs hate early kick-offs for home matches, so Arsenal or Chelsea wouldn't be happy about a Tuesday/Wednesday match. Since they've got the 2nd leg at home, they would probably have to kick off at 18:00 CET (17:00 GMT) to make sure that a possible penalty shootout is over when the CL kicks off.

[nogomet]

UEFA already decided that Fenerbahçe will play their home first leg on Tuesday 12 February at 18:55CET. Likewise, Sevilla and Arsenal will play their home second legs on Wednesday 20 February at 18:00CET.

[Forza AZ]

I remember, not fondly, what happened in 2008 when Benfica and Sporting both had home games the same week in what is now the EL. I was living in Oviedo at the time; planned a trip to Lisboa to see both games, which I (foolishly) assumed would both be played in Lisboa as scheduled, but on different days, as you suggest here. Benfica's games were flip-flopped, so they played the second leg in Getafe; Sporting played at home. Was I mad At least I got to see Sporting beat Bolton, 1-0. I watched Benfica's home game on television in Oviedo.

That was in the 1/8 finals. In that round (as in all other knock-out rounds except the first after the group stage) matches can indeed be swapped between the 1st and 2nd legs.

In the 1/16 finals the regulations say that the seeded teams will play the 2nd leg at home, so when 2 games can't be played on the same day, 1 of them will be moved ahead 1 or 2 days.

[AlanK]

I remember, not fondly, what happened in 2008 when Benfica and Sporting both had home games the same week in what is now the EL. I was living in Oviedo at the time; planned a trip to Lisboa to see both games, which I (foolishly) assumed would both be played in Lisboa as scheduled, but on different days, as you suggest here. Benfica's games were flip-flopped, so they played the second leg in Getafe; Sporting played at home. Was I mad At least I got to see Sporting beat Bolton, 1-0. I watched Benfica's home game on television in Oviedo.

That was in the 1/8 finals. In that round (as in all other knock-out rounds except the first after the group stage) matches can indeed be swapped between the 1st and 2nd legs.

In the 1/16 finals the regulations say that the seeded teams will play the 2nd leg at home, so when 2 games can't be played on the same day, 1 of them will be moved ahead 1 or 2 days.

With all the confusion back then, I never realized that the possibility was written into the rules Thanks for the info

[Firnen]

My ranking from easiest to most difficult for each sub-group:

SEEDED TEAMS

EASY

Dinamo Zagreb : weakest 1st place team easily.
Zenit St Petersburg, Dynamo Kyiv : neither of them justified their heavy name, Zenit will probably focus in the league too.
Genk, Villarreal, Bayer Leverkusen : worst Spanish team that will focus on avoiding relegation, a bad German team this year with a heavy name, Belgium's league leaders. Decent draw for most teams.


MEDIUM

Salzburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Benfica : Benfica has only won against weak opponents in Europe, Eintracht is the surprise of the season but they might focus on a CL spot in Germany, Salzburg is always dangerous in the EL.
Internazionale, Valencia : Inter has a terrible mentality considering EL, Valencia is struggling this year but they both remain quality teams.

TOUGH

Arsenal, Napoli : No unseeded team can knock them out if they are fully motivated. Question is if they will be.
Real Betis, Sevilla, Chelsea : No words needed for Sevilla. Chelsea is even better on paper but they play with a B squad so far. Betis is my bet for a non-Sevilla winner, and 5th place in Spain says it all.

UNSEEDED TEAMS

EASY

BATE Borisov, Rennais : BATE would not qualify if PAOK wasn't so suicidal in a really weak group. Rennais also from a weak group, medium French club.
Zürich, Malmö, Rapid Wien, Fenerbahçe : Maybe I overestimate Malmo but they will fully focus in the EL since there is no league. Zurich and Rapid are probably in their ceiling, Fenerbahce is a tragedy this year.


MEDIUM

Slavia Praha, Viktoria Plzeň, Krasnodar : The Czech teams proved to be quite dangerous, Krasnodar is a R32-R16 team usually.
Celtic, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Club Brugge : Three very dangerous home teams, and Brugge that seems really improved from last year.

TOUGH

Sporting CP, Lazio, Shakhtar Donetsk : By far the most dangerous unseeded teams, Lazio only if they appear motivated and not care just about 4th place in Italy.

Generally unseeded teams are far weaker than seeded this year.

[fillow]

"We've never met" mock draw. Possible for all teams this time. (Also somewhat balanced per current club ranking)

Sevilla v Rennes
Arsenal v Zurich
Napoli v Slavia Praha
Zenit v Malmo
Chelsea v Rapid Wien
Dynamo Kyiv v Galatasaray
Benfica v Viktoria Plzen
RB Salzburg v BATE
Villarreal v Fenerbahce
Bayer v Celtic
Valencia v Krasnodar
Inter Milan v Club Brugge
Dinamo Zagreb v Lazio
Genk v Olympiakos
Betis v Shakhtar Donetsk
Eintracht Frankfurt v Sporting CP

[nogomet]

What a weird feeling anticipating a draw for a Croatian club after the group stage is over. Hajduk Split survived the CL group stage in 1994/95, but as an 8-year old boy I wasn't into draws and seedings too much.

[nogomet]

And as for the wishes, as usual I don't want anywhere near the Greeks and Scots. Of course, the Italians, the French, Portuguese, Ukrainians and Russians are on the unwanted list as well.

Everybody else - bring it on.

[Club-Mate]

for Salzburg I would like Stade Rennais because Simulator told me this and it's a beatable team it's not such a cold climate there and it's a French team which means no stress with forumites here. The matches with Marseille I have in good rememberance.
Another team I would wish is Olympiakos, it's an attractive club with a big stadium and enthusiastic fans on the limit of normal behaviour. I think these kind of teams could favour Salzburg.
I would not like to play them against Lazio again because to beat them twice in a row could be very tricky because Italian teams learn and change a lot in tactics.
For Rapid maybe Zenit could be the right team because they had good results in the past against Russian teams. Even Austria Wien beat them in CL years ago clearly. I would not mind Eintracht Frankfurt or even Arsenal could be a good draw because Rapid wishes attractive teams at this level.

[BurningStorm]

Two wishes:

no Shakhtar for Frankfurt
no Lazio for Leverkusen

[og2002gr]

15th place decider!
Czech champions against Croatian ones!

[BurningStorm]

Salzburg against Brügge. Not the easiest opponent from pot 2, they did a good job in the CL.

Rapid against Inter. Funkmaster will be happy, huge name.

Leverkusen against Krasnodar. Not so interesting and surely not easy.