• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

2015/16 Europa League - Round of 16: Borussia Dortmund

Status
Not open for further replies.
Pretty tough group. Annoyingly we haven't got any gimmes where we can blood a team of under 21s either. With our small squad I can see us having to play a strong side on thursday nights too.
 
Oh, fudge off. Azerbaijan? Seriously?

Sigh. No offense to followers of FK Qarabag, but that's just f*cking sexy.
 
On reflection, I'm pretty happy with that group. The trek to Azerbaijan is a bit of a pain, but I think we can probably leave plenty of key players at home for that... Liverpool will have to take a pretty strong squad to Rubin Kazan if they want to guarantee a victory (as would we) - so it could certainly have been worse.

The other two teams are close to London, which is a bonus. But more importantly, they are proper European fixtures. Replace the team from Azerbaijan with Juventus, and that's a Champions League group right there. Isn't that what we want... to be playing against quality European opposition? I'll be looking forward to Thursday nights this season!
 
DublinSpur said:
On reflection, I'm pretty happy with that group. The trek to Azerbaijan is a bit of a pain, but I think we can probably leave plenty of key players at home for that... Liverpool will have to take a pretty strong squad to Rubin Kazan if they want to guarantee a victory (as would we) - so it could certainly have been worse.

The other two teams are close to London, which is a bonus. But more importantly, they are proper European fixtures. Replace the team from Azerbaijan with Juventus, and that's a Champions League group right there. Isn't that what we want... to be playing against quality European opposition? I'll be looking forward to Thursday nights this season!
Click to expand...

Sure, but that trip to Baku will remind us that, whatever the glitter, at the end of the day it's still the Europey League.

We have a duty to do well in this competition this season, because every other English team seems to be routinely f*cking up in Europe and we might end up losing that fourth CL spot as a consequence...but I'm not looking forward to the lads flying over the machine-gun fire and shells flying back and forth across the currently hot Armenian-Azeri border, to play the closest equivalents to the stereotypical 'ex-Soviet Tractor FC' Europa League team in Baku. Again, absolutely no offense intended to Azeri readers...but the facts are that there is a) literally a team called 'Tractor Sazi F.C.' a few miles from Baku (in Iran), and b) that it makes far more geographic sense for them to play in AFC competitions than in UEFA ones.

Edit: Actually, it doesn't make geographical sense for Azeri teams to play in the AFC either, given that the AFC headquarters in Malaysia is roughly 4,200 miles from Baku. Why isn't there a middle-eastern football federation that could take both the middle eastern countries and the transcontinental ones? Why does the AFC stretch superbly inefficiently from Japan to the shores of the Med?
 
Last edited:
17/09/15 Qarabag (H)
01/10/15 Monaco (A)
22/10/15 Anderlecht (A)
05/11/15 Anderlecht (H)
26/11/15 Qarabag (A)
10/12/15 Monaco (H)
 
jaysea67 said:
17/09/15 Qarabag (H)
01/10/15 Monaco (A)
22/10/15 Anderlecht (A)
05/11/15 Anderlecht (H)
26/11/15 Qarabag (A)
10/12/15 Monaco (H)
Click to expand...
So we fly to Azerbaijan the week of our home game to Chelsea. The upside is that we should have a fair idea of the result we need from the match by that point. I'm a big supporter of taking the Europa League seriously, but there's every chance we'll be happy to send out a "reserve" team for that one game, without it having a terrible impact on our campaign.
 
I'm quite excited by the draw. It means that we will be able to see some quality european games and the travel has been significantly reduced compared to the last year. As @DublinSpur said, this is the standard of european competition that we have all craved. WHL on a european night is just immense.
 
DublinSpur said:
So we fly to Azerbaijan the week of our home game to Chel53a. The upside is that we should have a fair idea of the result we need from the match by that point. I'm a big supporter of taking the Europa League seriously, but there's every chance we'll be happy to send out a "reserve" team for that one game, without it having a terrible impact on our campaign.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, if the past is any indicator, we'll be sending most of the first team, even if qualification is already in the bag.o_O
 
Hoddledro said:
Group stage, matchday one 17/09/15 - home to palace on sunday
Group stage, matchday two 01/10/15 - away to swansea
Group stage, matchday three 22/10/15 - away to bornemounth
Group stage, matchday four 05/11/15 - away to Ar5ena1
Group stage, matchday five 26/11/15 - home to Chel53a
Group stage, matchday six 10/12/15 - home to Saudi Sportswashing Machine

These seem to be our fixtures on return from europa
Click to expand...

Matchday five will be the early saturday kickoff following a trip to Qarabag.

jaysea67 said:
17/09/15 Qarabag (H)
01/10/15 Monaco (A)
22/10/15 Anderlecht (A)
05/11/15 Anderlecht (H)
26/11/15 Qarabag (A)
10/12/15 Monaco (H)
Click to expand...

Edit. brick, I should have finished reading the thread.
 
Looking forward to playing Monaco and Anderlecht; better than playing a load of nobodies.

And then caravan / carrierbag for a laugh... as long as we beat them at home in the first game we'll be looking good... lose that though and...
 
Heda SPURSCZ said:
Group J
Spurs
Anderlecht
Monaco
Qarabağ(AZE)
Click to expand...

Never been to Qarabag ( have to think about that one) great games against the other two though, the old lady has just told me she wants to come on the Monaco trip. I wonder why as she does not do football :)
 
Whiffler said:
Umm .... I've previously got this as moved to Sunday noon for BT Sport coverage. Further move to Monday would be nice, but League CQF due Weds 2nd.
Click to expand...

Sunday would make more sense. I just thought that you had said the game was going to be played on Saturday.
 
Thats a lovely group, almost CL quality, and nice trips to Belgium and the South of France

happy
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back