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Europa League 2014/15

Really disapppointed AVB's Zenit failed to progress to the semi finals. But it was a dubious penalty that was awarded against Zenit so early in the match. The Sevilla player clearly dived and there was minimum contact, if any at all. It was clear the Italian referee was looking to give the penalty against Zenit. To make it worse, the ref even booked the Zenit player to make it look like a clear penalty. He didn't even bother to check with his assistant.

Maybe, it was more a political match against Russia, rather than a football one. Afterall, the West badly wanted to punish Russia due to their Ukraine issue. It would have been embarassing for them if a Russian side go all the way to win it. You won't see the Western media question the Italian ref. Afterall, the refs from the top European leagues don't make mistakes, right ?
 
Spurs7891 said:
Really disapppointed AVB's Zenit failed to progress to the semi finals. But it was a dubious penalty that was awarded against Zenit so early in the match. The Sevilla player clearly dived and there was minimum contact, if any at all. It was clear the Italian referee was looking to give the penalty against Zenit. To make it worse, the ref even booked the Zenit player to make it look like a clear penalty. He didn't even bother to check with his assistant.

Maybe, it was more a political match against Russia, rather than a football one. Afterall, the West badly wanted to punish Russia due to their Ukraine issue. It would have been embarassing for them if a Russian side go all the way to win it. You won't see the Western media question the Italian ref. Afterall, the refs from the top European leagues don't make mistakes, right ?
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o_O Wow. Can't tell if serious...
 
Good game, good atmosphere.......the trophy plus added CL qualification adds a new dimension

2-2.....
 
milo said:
I think that everyone agrees that it is a good competition once it gets to the knock out stages, the problem is that it is so gruelling to get there.
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Not necessarily, the group stage of the competition is not particularly difficult, you can get by the majority of the group games by playing fringe players, particularly at home. We've been progressing for the past 3 or 4 seasons now by playing a mixture of fringe players that need game time and first team regulars. People often go on about the ridiculous amount of matches that the the Europa League has but the reality of the situation is that you only really need to play your full first-team consistently for the last 8 or so games, possibly not even that.
 
jurgen lineker said:
Not necessarily, the group stage of the competition is not particularly difficult, you can get by the majority of the group games by playing fringe players, particularly at home. We've been progressing for the past 3 or 4 seasons now by playing a mixture of fringe players that need game time and first team regulars. People often go on about the ridiculous amount of matches that the the Europa League has but the reality of the situation is that you only really need to play your full first-team consistently for the last 8 or so games, possibly not even that.
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I think that is fine in theory but it has not worked out like that for us. It is not just the physical exertion, it leaves you with little time to prepare for the weekend fixture and you are always playing catch up. I think that it is no accident that the seasons when Liverpool and us broke into the top four was when we did not have European football.
 
Great cross by Konoplankya. Bit of a wild card player we could introduce chasing a game me thinks. He has to worth punt for a few mil now before he gets thrown into the free agent trough.
 
That victory is going to feel pretty hollow when they remember that AVB's Zenit were cheated out of the competition by a global conspiracy
 
milo said:
I think that is fine in theory but it has not worked out like that for us. It is not just the physical exertion, it leaves you with little time to prepare for the weekend fixture and you are always playing catch up. I think that it is no accident that the seasons when Liverpool and us broke into the top four was when we did not have European football.
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We finished in the top 4 in 11/12, a year that we had European football earlier on in the season. In 12/13 we ended up with our highest point tally ever in the premier league, a year that we also had European football. I agree that it may disrupt preparations to a degree but not to the level of severity that many make out.
 
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jurgen lineker said:
We finished in the top 4 in 11/12, a year that we had European football earlier on in the season. In 12/13 we ended up with our highest point tally ever in the premier league, a year that we also had European football. I agree that it may disrupt preparations to a degree but not to the severity that many make out.
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As we know from bitter experience, the gap between success and failure can be very small.
 
milo said:
As we know from bitter experience, the gap between success and failure can be very small.
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Yes, but the point is that the Europa League does not have as much of a negative impact on our point tally as is made out. We have performed just as well in the league, and better in 12/13, whilst playing in the Europa League as we had done in the year that we had qualified for the Champions League.

The Europa League gets us in the Champions League and therefore should be taken seriously, imv anyway.
 
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