From the category archives:

Europa League

Man City v Juventus Highlights Europa League Draw

by David Wilson on August 27, 2010

Manchester City face a tough test in the Europa League group stages after they were drawn with Juventus. As well as the Italian giants, Roberto Mancini’s team also face Salzburg of Austria and Lech Poznan of Poland.

Liverpool had an unkind draw too, the Reds put into Group K along with Romania’s Steaua Bucharest, Italy’s Napoli and Utrecht of the Netherlands.
The draw saw the 48 clubs divided into 12 groups of four teams, with the top two from each set progressing.

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Europa League Preview Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid

by Philip Mboya on April 29, 2010

After an entertaining 2 days of Uefa Champions League action, attention shifts back to Europe’s second tier club competition the Europa League. Tonight Liverpool host Atletico Madriod while Hamburg SV travel to Craven Cottage to face Fulham. This will be a night of tense emotion as all clubs involved will be looking to make it through to the final. 

Liverpool’s only realistic chance of ending the season with some silverware depends on the outcome of their return leg fixture against Ateletico Madrid at Anfield tonight.

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Arenal

With volcanic ash still spewing from the volcano in Iceland the skies over Europe are still cloudy, but airlines have run test flights and found no damage to their planes’ engines.  This coupled with the ability to travel by train and ferry in Europe has caused UEFA to allow the matches in the Champion’s League on Tuesday and Thursday to go on as scheduled.

They are also trying to figure out what to do in the Europa League as they said in a statement:

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Amazing Night In Europe

by Philip Mboya on April 2, 2010

When Valencia forward Juan Mata said that their Europa League tie against against fellow Spanish club Atletico Madrid would produce a significant number of goals, i was very skeptical. Considering the number of injuries and suspensions that both clubs faced a barren draw is what i had envisioned.

However, not only did the tie live up to its billing, it also set fans up for an interesting return leg fixture.  A late David Villa goal salvaged a 2-2 draw for Valencia that gives the hope when they head to the Vicente Calderon stadium in a week’s time for the return leg fixture.

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Valencia vs Atletico Madrid Preview

by Philip Mboya on April 1, 2010

Tonight’s all Spanish Europa League quarter final fixture between 3rd place Valencia and 10th place Atletico Madrid should be an entertaining fixture considering the fact that both these teams are way off the pace in the La Liga title race.

Coming off yet another bad result over the weekend, Valencia will want to erase the memories of the 3-0 drubbing they received at the hands of Real Zaragoza. This is the second time in as many weeks that the club have lost 3-0 the first coming at the hands of Barcelona.

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Fulham vs Juventus Preview

by Philip Mboya on March 18, 2010

Attention shifts back to Europe’s second tier club competition with Fulham welcoming the Bianconeri to Craven Cottage for their return leg fixture of their last 16 tie. Juventus won this match 3-1 two weeks ago and they are in pole position to progress to the quarter finals.

Alessandro Del Piero was the mastermind of their victory and his performances have left Alberto Zaccheroni with no other option but to include him in his squad for tonight’s game. Juventus have had one of their worst seasons in a very long time. This has left the club fighting for a top four finish and a spot in the lucrative Champions League.

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We Need To Go With What We Know

by Patton on February 18, 2010

309/365 - its so they cant read your miiiiind maaaaan.
Creative Commons License photo credit: B Rosen

Let’s use our heads people!

There seems to be some confusion over what some people thought were harsh and uninformed comments about Fabio Capello.  Listen, I know what a good Soccer mind is and that’s not at question.  I know he won Serie A like 5000 times.  I get it!  Here’s the problem:  What do we know now?

For example:  Liverpool starts there Europa League campaign today.  They saay they’re ready to breakout from this pathetic season.  Do you believe them?  I’m going with what I know…they’ll have a hard time.

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Soccer at Warp Speed

by Patton on September 13, 2009

Today I’m reading an article at MLSnet.com about Dallas committing to what the writer called “attacking” soccer.  I like to call it “Soccer at warp speed”.

Let me give you some background.  Soccer was the only sport I played as a kid and I played like a lunatic.  We ran hard, we kicked hard, we tackled hard (I even once broke a kid’s leg slide tackling him.  It was probably just bad luck our parts, but I wasn’t messing around and neither were my teammates.)

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Shakhtar and Werder look strong in UEFA Cup

by David Wilson on April 10, 2009

Tottenham‘s conquerors Shakhtar Donetsk took a big step towards the last four of the UEFA Cup after beating Marseille 2-0 in their quarter-final first leg. Tomas Hubschman set the Ukrainian side on their way in the first half and Rodrigues Jadson added a second after the break as Shakhtar continued their impressive run.

Shakhtar beat Spurs and CSKA Moscow in the last two rounds and looked superior to their visitors, who went into the game on the back of an eight-match unbeaten run in the French Ligue 1 which included six wins.

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Milan Tumbles Out Of UEFA Cup

by David Wilson on February 26, 2009

AC Milan were dumped out of the UEFA Cup after throwing away a two-goal lead in their last-32 second-leg clash with Werder Bremen. Having drawn the first leg 1-1 in Germany, there was some pressure on the Italians going into the return match. First-half goals from Andrea Pirlo and Alexandre Pato seemed to set Milan on a smooth path into the next round only for Claudio Pizarro’s brace to put Bremen through on away goals.

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