2010-11 European soccer outpost

[Viper]

Speaking of Villa, Bob Bradley just put his hat into the ring to be their next head man.

[NEW.ERA]

Lets hope this wasn't like a Blackpool result, Newcastle is a so-so good team but Villa on paper is better. I'm going to say the Magpies we're angry with there result at Old Trafford and Villa is also in shambles.

Resident bad boy Joey Barton starts the scoring off. I missed the game so I'm pumped to watch the replay.

Also nothing is better then opening up St James' Park back into the Premier League without a thrashing of the team that sent us to the Championship.

[patsox]

well that f:censored:ing sucked. Own goal Fulham off Hangellan's knee

edit: Followed by a b.s. handball call on Duff.

NICE SAVE SCOTTDALE!

still 2-1 87'

And Hangellan redeems himself with the equalizer of a corner in the 90th minute!!!!!

edit:

FINAL Fulham 2-2 Man Utd...awesome game

[WJMorris3]

Looks like Manchester United won't get to 114 after all, I was thinking this would be the year they did.

[Jarred Revolver]

So since Newcastle wins, is Joey Barton really going to shave his mustache off?! I hope not!

[MattF]

Looks like Manchester United won't get to 114 after all, I was thinking this would be the year they did.

Of course you did.

Also:

[NEW.ERA]

Liverpool is currently in the midst of a beat down in Eastland's at the hands of Man City 3-0.

[TFoA]

Definitely wasn't expecting the City-Liverpool game to be a rout in City's favor since they almost never beat Liverpool by that much of a margin...but hey, I'm not complaining one bit. I still have no idea what they're going to do with all of the players, especially up front with Balotelli who Mancini has huge expectations for, but tonight they looked pretty damn good. Joe Hart was outstanding once again, and the offensive flow looked MUCH better than in the Spurs game, as evidenced by the 3 goals. Adam Johnson was great in his efforts to spark the offense. Defense still hasn't let one in yet, so no complaints there. Very impressive result from City.

[MattF]

City's first goal made me want to smash my head through a window.

[WJMorris3]

I think that Anderlecht might want to invest in some pitch improvements before their Europa League matches. I mean, skying three penalties like that?

[TFoA]

I caught the shootout in that match after watching Werder Bremen come back from a 4-3 deficit on aggregate (they scored in the 94th minute to tie the aggregate) against Sampdoria to win it in extra time. That was some of the worst penalty kicking that I've ever seen, especially from Anderlecht.

[WJMorris3]

You know, golf can teach lessons too. For instance, it taught the folks at Anderlecht to always replace their divots.

[WJMorris3]

And the draw for the Champions League is on FSC as we speak.

Pot 1: Inter Milan, Barcelona, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Olympique Lyonnaise

Pot 2: Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, AS Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Benfica, Valencia, Olympique Marseille, Panathinaikos

Pot 3: Tottenham Hotspur, Rangers, Ajax, Schalke, Basel, Braga, Kobenhavn, Spartak Moscow

Pot 4: Hapoel Tel Aviv, Twente, Rubin Kazan, Auxerre, Cluj, Partizan, Zilina, Bursaspor

Remember, no country can have more than one team in one group, and a country's teams are divided equally between groups A-D and groups E-H.

GROUP A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur, Twente

GROUP B: Olympique Lyonnaise, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv

GROUP C: Manchester United, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor

GROUP D: Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Kobenhavn, Rubin Kazan

GROUP E: Bayern Munich, AS Roma, Basel, Cluj

GROUP F: Chelsea, Olympique Marseille, Spartak Moscow, Zilina

GROUP G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre

GROUP H: Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga, Partizan

[TFoA]

• Welcome to the Champions League Spurs. You get Inter & Werder Bremen. Nice.
  
• Oh look, SAF gets to go back to Ibrox
  
• Barcelona got the easiest draw, IMO.
  
• Holy @ Group G. Milan, Real Madrid, & Ajax in the same group? That's like the posterchild for Champions League groups. Wow.

This should be entertaining, as always. Too bad the draw itself was a complete & utter bore.

EDIT:

Manchester City to stream tonight's Europa League match on their website.

Last week, they got together with the local radio station & had it streamed on their website. Now, they're streaming the video. City continuing their mastery of the internet.

[NEW.ERA]

C'MON AJAX!!!!

Though it'll be tough with Superman in the group.

[scottyvoodoo]

Group B is going to be a crap shoot as it looks to be weakest of the groups. Group G should be the most difficult but the Champions League seems to rarely play out the way a "group of death" should.

[NEW.ERA]

Predictions

Group A

Inter

Tottenham

Twente

Werder Bremen

Group B

Schalke

OL

Benfica

Hapoel Tel Aviv

Group C

Valencia

Manchester United

Rangers

Bursaspor

Group D

Barcelona

Kobenhavn

Panathinaikos

Rubin Kazan

Group E

Bayern Munich

AS Roma

Cluj

Basel

Group F

Chelsea

Marseilles

Spartak

Zilina

Group G

Real Madrid

Ajax

AC Milan

Auxerre

Group H

Arsenal

Shaktar Donetsk

Braga

Partizan

And my half assed predictions on how the Knockout Stage will look (Can't be from the same federation or played each other in the Group Stage)

Inter v Kobenhaven

Real Madrid v AS Roma

Schalke v Manchester United

Bayern Munich v Marseilles

Arsenal v Lyon

Chelsea v Ajax

Barcelona v Tottenham

Valencia v Shaktar Donetsk

[TFoA]

The teams in the Europa League were set today. Here's how England did:

Tabzonspor 1-2 Liverpool (Liverpool advances to group stage on 3-1 aggregate)

Aston Villa 2-3 Rapid Wien (Rapid advances to group stage on 4-3 aggregate) [That's 2 straight years that Aston Villa has fallen to Rapid Wien in the playoff stage of the Europa League. Wow.]

Manchester City 2-0 FC Timişoara (City advances to group stage on 3-0 aggregate.) [Timişoara were up against it all night. They basically played 10 man defense, and City still beat them twice. No problems at all for City here.

Here's the rest of the teams that have qualified for the group stage. The draw will be tomorrow.

[MattF]

Rapid Vienna can go away....please.

[WJMorris3]

Just a thought, the Bundesliga is the only league in Europe that has every team that qualified for Europe in the group stage of the tournament they qualified for. La Liga and Serie A may have all their teams in group stages, but they have had teams sent down to the Europa League.