Europa League/Champions League Lounge

[HugoStiglitz]

Well, things aren't that fancy in Europa league draw. Probably most interesting pair is Lazio vs Sevilla. Meanwhile Chelsea and Arsenal got probably easiest possible opponents. There are few other pairs which looks pretty interesting, like Sporting - Villarreal, Zenit - Bayer, Celtic - Valencia or Galatasaray - Benfica, but these teams aren't among main favourites to win UEL.

Zenit is playing vs Fenerbahce, Bayer - vs Krasnodar.

Klopp vs Bayern is gonna be really hot. I wonder to see what will happen if Hoeness and Rummenigge decide to fire Kovac and ask Jupp Heynckes to become a crisis manager once again)

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[LTU_btc]

Well, things aren't that fancy in Europa league draw. Probably most interesting pair is Lazio vs Sevilla. Meanwhile Chelsea and Arsenal got probably easiest possible opponents. There are few other pairs which looks pretty interesting, like Sporting - Villarreal, Zenit - Bayer, Celtic - Valencia or Galatasaray - Benfica, but these teams aren't among main favourites to win UEL.

Zenit is playing vs Fenerbahce, Bayer - vs Krasnodar.

Yeah, my bad, thanks. Fixed.

[tomahawk9]

Despite Arsenal, Inter, and Chelsea (my top 3 to win the whole thing) got some really weak teams in the RO32, I really liked the rest of the Europa League draw, I think we're going to see some really interesting games, the following are probably the best draws:

Shaktar vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Celtic vs Valencia
Olympiacos vs Dinamo Kyiv
Lazio vs Sevilla
Fenerbache vs Zenit
Sporting vs Villareal
Galatasaray vs Benfica

@tomahawk9, I really can't understand logic of these LFC fans. Maybe Bayern aren't that this season so far, but it's strange how they can feel relieved after drawing this team. It's still top class team, even if their results aren't perfect so far. There are almost 2 months until match, lot of things can change until it as you say.

Yeah, I just happen to read those comments at random, but I'm sure it's just a minority who feel that way, it's never good to underestimate these type of teams. Btw, van Dijk will miss the first leg, that could be a major handicap for Pool.

[Pab]

Liverpool has good drawing
Bayern team is old an Liverpool has all chances to goes through
Most interesting to me will be  Real-Ajax
Young wolfs Ajax-old master Real i think we will see many goals

Still planty of time until first games so we will see

Don't tell Buffon that final will be Juve-PSG and he will remain without  CL win

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Bayern it is then, bring it on! We have all the tools to hurt any team in Europe.

Edit -

Btw, van Dijk will miss the first leg, that could be a major handicap for Pool.

Thomas Mueller got a red card in their last group game so he’s out too.

As a Liverpool fan only really Porto could have been seen as a good draw.

The other options were -

Real
Barca
Juventus
Dortmund
Bayern

I’d rather play Bayern than Real, Barca, Juventus or Dortmund. Dortmund are 9 points clear of them in Germany & the rest are European heavyweights.

[Pab]

Bayern it is then, bring it on! We have all the tools to hurt any team in Europe.

Edit -

Btw, van Dijk will miss the first leg, that could be a major handicap for Pool.

Thomas Mueller got a red card in their last group game so he’s out too.

As a Liverpool fan only really Porto could have been seen as a good draw.

The other options were -

Real
Barca
Juventus
Dortmund
Bayern

I’d rather play Bayern than Real, Barca, Juventus or Dortmund. Dortmund are 9 points clear of them in Germany & the rest are European heavyweights.

Next round will be really easy against Manchester Citi

[tokeweed]

Bayern it is then, bring it on! We have all the tools to hurt any team in Europe.

Edit -

Btw, van Dijk will miss the first leg, that could be a major handicap for Pool.

Thomas Mueller got a red card in their last group game so he’s out too.

As a Liverpool fan only really Porto could have been seen as a good draw.

The other options were -

Real
Barca
Juventus
Dortmund
Bayern

I’d rather play Bayern than Real, Barca, Juventus or Dortmund. Dortmund are 9 points clear of them in Germany & the rest are European heavyweights.

Yup.  They're not what they used to be.  But keep in mind that this is the KO stages.  Anything can happen and luck plays a much bigger factor in KO football.  But good luck.  I hope to see at least two EPL clubs in the quarter finals.

[swogerino]

I think all games are predictable of who will come out on top of this elimination stage except Juventus vs Atletico Madrid. This is like a pre final game we will watch sooner than the real final. All other couples seems easy for one of the teams, of course Real Madrid will come out as victorious from this game, same with Dortmund, and why not Roma and Manchester City together with PSG. There is no real competition except in the game of Atletico Madrid vs Juventus.

[Juggy777]

I think all games are predictable of who will come out on top of this elimination stage except Juventus vs Atletico Madrid. This is like a pre final game we will watch sooner than the real final. All other couples seems easy for one of the teams, of course Real Madrid will come out as victorious from this game, same with Dortmund, and why not Roma and Manchester City together with PSG. There is no real competition except in the game of Atletico Madrid vs Juventus.

I totally disagree with your predictions, except Juventus match that'll be a tough one for both the teams as Atletico Madrid will face their old rival Ronaldo. I'm surprised you feel Dortmund will have a walk in the park, have you even been seeing how Tottenham have been playing it'll be a very close contested match. Also Bayern are a different team in Champions league and Liverpool won't win it easily. Manchester United have just got a new coach, and this shall cause plenty of problems for PSG as it'll make Manchester United unpredictable.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Manchester United have just got a new coach, and this shall cause plenty of problems for PSG as it'll make Manchester United unpredictable.

I think PSG will destroy Man Utd, Solksjaer has absolutely no pedigree as a manager at all so I don’t think he’ll have much of an impact. United have problems throughout the squad. I’d be surprised if any more than 3 of their current squad will be starters in 2 seasons time, they need to tear it all up & start again.
De Gea is wasting his career there.

See below for Solksjaer’s managerial career -

[swogerino]

Manchester United have just got a new coach, and this shall cause plenty of problems for PSG as it'll make Manchester United unpredictable.

I think PSG will destroy Man Utd, Solksjaer has absolutely no pedigree as a manager at all so I don’t think he’ll have much of an impact. United have problems throughout the squad. I’d be surprised if any more than 3 of their current squad will be starters in 2 seasons time, they need to tear it all up & start again.
De Gea is wasting his career there.

See below for Solksjaer’s managerial career -

While I agree with you I want to point out that at Molde he did a really great job as he was or almost reached Europa League group phase which for a team like Molde is a great achievement.

Of course I am not comparing these levels with the one who he will actually face but I am saying that he is not totally unpreparated for the task, so as a new manager he may beat Manchester United.

[LTU_btc]

I think PSG will destroy Man Utd, Solksjaer has absolutely no pedigree as a manager at all so I don’t think he’ll have much of an impact. United have problems throughout the squad. I’d be surprised if any more than 3 of their current squad will be starters in 2 seasons time, they need to tear it all up & start again.
De Gea is wasting his career there.

See below for Solksjaer’s managerial career -

https://i.ibb.co/F4gJtsm/1-E331-F55-F8-E4-477-F-B3-E2-A474514-CE61-C.png

I agree that PSG will probably will advance further, but I wouldn't understimate Solskjaer just because he arrn't experienced. Just few examples: Zidane started to manage Real almost without experience - he only worked in Real reserve team. Or Roberto di Matteo - he was only caretaker in Chelsea, but he managed to win UCL in his second season at Chelsea.

[Pab]

Ole can give new life to Manchester i guess he will has some help
Man United has enough very good players to perform quality football
We will see at least United play will be not such boring

Spurs-Dortmund is wide open
Dortmund first eleven are so young guys
Some of them are teenagers still
Young wolfs same like Ajax players
I think we will see many goals and maybe a  little crazy games

[Barcode_]

I think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would surely be having a headache now as he have to sort out the mess in Manchester United left by Jose Mourinho, and Manchester United would need to play against Paris Saint Germain in the round of 16 at the Uefa Champions League. I do not see much hope for Manchester United to progress to the quarter-finals in this tournament as it would usually take more than a few months for a new manager to stabilize a team, with the round of 16 starting in February 2019, I think Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might not have enough time to sort out everything before facing Paris Saint Germain.

[cluit]

Seriously europa cup looks so weird right now, its like potentially champions league level of games there. There are teams like Villareal, Valencia, Shaktar, CHELSEA, Napoli, Inter and many teams of that level seems to be in there. It really makes no sense how all of these teams are here, some of them potentially be good enough to make it to europa only but teams like Chealsea being here is really creating and unfair advantage over other teams.

The purpose of europa has always been making the lesser smaller clubs to have an European cup chance as well but recently the champions league became such huge deal that even teams like Chealsea and Inter are relegating to europa now. This will create a system where even the semi-finals of europa will be all filled with huge teams and the smaller teams in all around Europe will have hard time winning the cup.

[LTU_btc]

Seriously europa cup looks so weird right now, its like potentially champions league level of games there. There are teams like Villareal, Valencia, Shaktar, CHELSEA, Napoli, Inter and many teams of that level seems to be in there. It really makes no sense how all of these teams are here, some of them potentially be good enough to make it to europa only but teams like Chealsea being here is really creating and unfair advantage over other teams.

The purpose of europa has always been making the lesser smaller clubs to have an European cup chance as well but recently the champions league became such huge deal that even teams like Chealsea and Inter are relegating to europa now. This will create a system where even the semi-finals of europa will be all filled with huge teams and the smaller teams in all around Europe will have hard time winning the cup.

In recent decades Europa league is usually won by big clubs. And I don't think it's bad. Fans can enjoy top class football. Because for example group stage of Europa league is full of small clubs and it's not very interesting to watch these matches, unless you're fan of that team.
Now UEFA are planning to create third club tournament:
https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2585829.html. They will reduce number of teams in Europa league and will send small teams to third tournament. Small clubs aren't beneficial for UEFA. This new tournament basically means that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[Barcode_]

Seriously europa cup looks so weird right now, its like potentially champions league level of games there. There are teams like Villareal, Valencia, Shaktar, CHELSEA, Napoli, Inter and many teams of that level seems to be in there. It really makes no sense how all of these teams are here, some of them potentially be good enough to make it to europa only but teams like Chealsea being here is really creating and unfair advantage over other teams.

The purpose of europa has always been making the lesser smaller clubs to have an European cup chance as well but recently the champions league became such huge deal that even teams like Chealsea and Inter are relegating to europa now. This will create a system where even the semi-finals of europa will be all filled with huge teams and the smaller teams in all around Europe will have hard time winning the cup.

Even though the winners of the Uefa Europa League are usually the bigger and famous football clubs, but I think the Uefa Europa League still provides a very good opportunity for smaller football clubs to gain some experience from this tournament as all of the smaller football clubs might have a chance to play against bigger and stronger football clubs. And if this tournament never exist in the first place, the smaller football clubs around Europe will rarely have a chance to play against big teams, so I believe the Uefa Europa League still serves its purpose for the growth of European football.

[Pettuh4]

I think you have a point there because the bigger clubs that exit the champions league group stages after finishing third gain automatic entry into the Europa league and it's indeed biased against the smaller clubs looking at the annual expenditure of some of those clubs like Chelsea for instance, they can virtually pay off opposing teams for them to loose or outplay them with their big stars and win the trophy easily and so i will admonish Uefa to develop systems in the near future to curb these imbalances and promote fair play.

[Juggy777]

I think you have a point there because the bigger clubs that exit the champions league group stages after finishing third gain automatic entry into the Europa league and it's indeed biased against the smaller clubs looking at the annual expenditure of some of those clubs like Chelsea for instance, they can virtually pay off opposing teams for them to loose or outplay them with their big stars and win the trophy easily and so i will admonish Uefa to develop systems in the near future to curb these imbalances and promote fair play.

While I agree that Champions League rules give an unfair advantage to the big clubs, I believe it's an opportunity for the small clubs to step up and gain more experience against the big clubs. Also there have been calls to scrap the champions league exit and entry rule into Europa League, but I don't see it happening as clubs and the leagues will loose out on revenue. I don't think Chelsea would do it especially for a cup like Europa, many top teams don't really prioritise it. They only will try winning it if they will be finishing outside top four in their league, and wish to have direct entry in champions league by winning the Europa cup.

[Naida_BR]

While I agree that Champions League rules give an unfair advantage to the big clubs, I believe it's an opportunity for the small clubs to step up and gain more experience against the big clubs. Also there have been calls to scrap the champions league exit and entry rule into Europa League, but I don't see it happening as clubs and the leagues will loose out on revenue. I don't think Chelsea would do it especially for a cup like Europa, many top teams don't really prioritise it. They only will try winning it if they will be finishing outside top four in their league, and wish to have direct entry in champions league by winning the Europa cup.

The rules are unfair for the small clubs indeed but the structure of Champions and Europa league is like this in order to give big matches between the biggest clubs in Europe. As the competition reaches near the finals, the crowd wants to see great matches that will give them adrenaline and excitement. Same goes for the clubs that come third they have the advantage to go to the Europa League and play together in the final, semi-final and give to the fans an interesting match.