***The Un-Official Europa League Draw Thread***

[ja0005]

I'm absolutely buzzing about this draw

Could be another 'Hamburg' for the home leg

home leg likely to be on wednesday 22nd with a 5pm kick off...

rags at home on the thursday and europa league can't clash with chumps league on tv..

Will still be dark by then..hope we fill the ground

Shit time for the kick off but a much better day than Thursday, means we'll play Blackburn on the Sat rather than the Sun. Doesn't disrupt our fixtures. Cup game the weekend before which would prob get moved to the Sunday anyway.

[Green & Blue]

As I don't follow European football that closely and I know some of you do...is anyone going to give their opinions on the present form of Porto since AVB left them? Just how good/bad are they? How easy/hard is this tie likely to be?

Another tough cup draw for us seems to be a pattern developing here, great to be doing things the hard way.

Should be a very challenging two legs.Top of the league unbeaten in portugal at the moment so not doing too badly at all.
Obviously Falcao left for Spain but they still have quality players.Some of the better ones like Hulk, Moutinho, Kleber,Periera, Varela and Ottamnendi are all quality players.
Really feel we will want to be at full strengh against them to progress, would have rathered an easier draw but at least its a game worth getting excited about.

Should be very interesting to see how Mancini approaches this tie, will he be willing to play his strongest side?

I doubt it.

[Lev Bronstein]

Having had a think about this, my priorities would 1) Prem (at least 3rd) 2) Europa 3) FA 4) Carling.

The reason for taking the Europa seriously is our ranking/seeding for future competitions.

See.
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2012.html

Hopefully the link works.

As I understand it, to take an example, should we win it we would go above Liverpool. So, doing well this year means things should be easier in future.

[Goaters 103]

Id prioritise the Prem and Carling first, principally because we are at the semi-final stage of the Carling and a win in that means a lower division side in the final - best opportunity we will have to nail down a trophy by the end of Feb.

I want to beat Man U in the FA Cup obviously, but after that tie I think the Carling deserves priority of the domestic Cups. Id field our 2nd XI in the Europa and prioritise our line-ups for the sunday Prem game that follows.

[PeterParker]

As I don't follow European football that closely and I know some of you do...is anyone going to give their opinions on the present form of Porto since AVB left them? Just how good/bad are they? How easy/hard is this tie likely to be?

Imho, they aren't half the team they were last year. I thought, seeing them in Europe and their league, that they were the second best team in Europe, after Barcelona, but this year things are a lot different.
The new manager was AVB's assistant and in the league they had a good start, but they didn't win games like the past year. In almost every game they had problems.
The departure of Falcao was a big blow for them and they didn't bring anyone at his value and the performances of Hulk, Moutinho Guarin and Ottamendi, the best players last year went down. Beside that, Sapunaru and Alvaro Pereira were injured, so they had a lot of problems.
Imho, we can take them, even if we play a weaker side,

The issue that i have is this: Why Porto wasen't a seeded team, when they are the ex winners of the competition and they have a huge coefficient in Europe. The seeding teams from Ucl were Us, Scum, Olympiakos and Valencia, but not them. Weird

[Chinners]

Chance to knock the holders out ... sweet, happy with that draw. Hope we take it seriously and play a strong side as it will be good for morale, good for the finances, good for our co-efficient score and further down the line, good for our trophy cabinet.

[john68]

I'm not sure whether the rat I think I'm smelling exists or not but there is something deep inside (the old cynic) that makes me feel things are not as wholesome as they might seem at UeFA.

1st, we get drawn in the only CL group that contains teams from all of the 4 power broker European nations; England, Spain, Germany and Italy.
2nd, We pull out the previous winners, who mysteriously and despite excellent Euro credentials, are not seeded.

Added to this are my thoughts on our biggest European critic...Mr Rumminege, who, by all accounts is lining himself up politically to step into Platini's shoes, should Platini succeed in eventually wearing Blatter's
We know th old "G" group has disbanded and another group formed under another name but it is Karl Heinz that is one of its driving forces. His recent pronouncements contained yet another threat to form a breakaway Euro League. The last time these noises were made, we ended up with the restructuring of the old European Cup into the CL, in a manner that greatly benefitted the old order at the expense of just about every other Euro club.

Onething is certain, they don't like us, they are frightened of our potential and the financial Fair Play rules as well as some very dodgy looking European draws....LOOK VERY SHADY TO ME.....

...Or is my nose just a tad too near the rat hole?

[Lev Bronstein]

I'm not sure whether the rat I think I'm smelling exists or not but there is something deep inside (the old cynic) that makes me feel things are not as wholesome as they might seem at UeFA.

1st, we get drawn in the only CL group that contains teams from all of the 4 power broker European nations; England, Spain, Germany and Italy.
2nd, We pull out the previous winners, who mysteriously and despite excellent Euro credentials, are not seeded.

Added to this are my thoughts on our biggest European critic...Mr Rumminege, who, by all accounts is lining himself up politically to step into Platini's shoes, should Platini succeed in eventually wearing Blatter's
We know th old "G" group has disbanded and another group formed under another name but it is Karl Heinz that is one of its driving forces. His recent pronouncements contained yet another threat to form a breakaway Euro League. The last time these noises were made, we ended up with the restructuring of the old European Cup into the CL, in a manner that greatly benefitted the old order at the expense of just about every other Euro club.

Onething is certain, they don't like us, they are frightened of our potential and the financial Fair Play rules as well as some very dodgy looking European draws....LOOK VERY SHADY TO ME.....

...Or is my nose just a tad too near the rat hole?

I'm not sure what hole you're smelling at the moment, but, the 3rd place teams were seeded according to how well they did in the group stage. We did better than Porto, Ajax, Pilzn and Trabsponspor.

We aren't getting any gimmes though are we?

[john68]

Cheers Lev, I'm not wholly sure how this seeding was worked out. Was it based solely on the performances in this years competition or was the coefficient taken into consideration? I would have thought Porto's previous record would have pushed then higher.

Oh...and I have a sensitive nose (toosensitive?) and I don't trust anyone with political ambition at that level.

[SORTED]

As I don't follow European football that closely and I know some of you do...is anyone going to give their opinions on the present form of Porto since AVB left them? Just how good/bad are they? How easy/hard is this tie likely to be?

Imho, they aren't half the team they were last year. I thought, seeing them in Europe and their league, that they were the second best team in Europe, after Barcelona, but this year things are a lot different.
The new manager was AVB's assistant and in the league they had a good start, but they didn't win games like the past year. In almost every game they had problems.
The departure of Falcao was a big blow for them and they didn't bring anyone at his value and the performances of Hulk, Moutinho Guarin and Ottamendi, the best players last year went down. Beside that, Sapunaru and Alvaro Pereira were injured, so they had a lot of problems.
Imho, we can take them, even if we play a weaker side,

The issue that i have is this: Why Porto wasen't a seeded team, when they are the ex winners of the competition and they have a huge coefficient in Europe. The seeding teams from Ucl were Us, Scum, Olympiakos and Valencia, but not them. Weird

Only 4 teams from the Champions league were seeded and this was based on the points accumulated in their respective Champions League groups. The four you mentioned got more points than the four that weren't seeded.

[david yearsley]

As I don't follow European football that closely and I know some of you do...is anyone going to give their opinions on the present form of Porto since AVB left them? Just how good/bad are they? How easy/hard is this tie likely to be?

[highlight]Another tough cup draw for us seems to be a pattern developing here, great to be doing things the hard way.[/highlight]
Should be a very challenging two legs.Top of the league unbeaten in portugal at the moment so not doing too badly at all.
Obviously Falcao left for Spain but they still have quality players.Some of the better ones like Hulk, Moutinho, Kleber,Periera, Varela and Ottamnendi are all quality players.
Really feel we will want to be at full strengh against them to progress, would have rathered an easier draw but at least its a game worth getting excited about.

Should be very interesting to see how Mancini approaches this tie, will he be willing to play his strongest side?

I doubt it.

I´ve got another word for it - BENT!!

[phips]

Imho, they aren't half the team they were last year.
The new manager was AVB's assistant and in the league they had a good start, but they didn't win games like the past year. In almost every game they had problems.
The departure of Falcao was a big blow for them and they didn't bring anyone at his value and the performances of Hulk, Moutinho Guarin and Ottamendi, the best players last year went down. Beside that, Sapunaru and Alvaro Pereira were injured, so they had a lot of problems.

This. I know we shouldnt get cocky and underestimate anymore (especially after our loss in the CL group) but Porto have looked like a shadow of the team they were last year. Falcao leaving has crushed the team, though they still are littered with talent on the pitch.
It should be interesting but I firmly believe, barring key injuries and suspensions, we should be able to beat them.

[PALUS]

Ok we get porto but dont get foll by name porto dont play good this year if u see from witch groop they gone out with Cyprus champion first in groop u see they are not in best form , but they are good team so i belive if we play finaly with good defence we will go trugth , defence is the key we can score evry game but we are just week in defence....

[Ted Hughes]

So now we get to see Hulk do his impression of Suarez without a brain.

I just hope the twat doesn't toe end one in from 30 yards or all the fucking dimwits will be plagueing every forum & phone in, saying we should sign him for 60 million quid..

[PALUS]

So now we get to see Hulk do his impression of Suarez without a brain.

I just hope the twat doesn't toe end one in from 30 yards or all the fucking dimwits will be plagueing every forum & phone in, saying we should sign him for 60 million quid..

who ever wont to buy any striker is stupid we have with barca and real best strikers and they prove that wath we need is security in the back and one gatuso like player who will destroy soft midfilds creators of oponents ... so lets try to find that

[Crossie]

Well happy to play Porto, its almost like the next round of the champs league could/should have been. Porto should have been in the champs league anyway, so this is a continuation of our European education.

I think I've developed a soft spot for Napoli, I quite like the way they play. It will be interesting to see how Chelsea cope with their counter attacking expertise.

Really like to see us go for broke against Porto, just enjoy it, bomb forward and see what we can do, I'm really not bothered if we lose, so might as well show them some attacking football.

[Manx Blue]

Don't know if its been mentioned, Second leg Wednesday 22nd Feb 18:00 KO (apologies...I originally posted Tuesday)

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/se ... index.html