2013/2014 Europa League

Clubs from big leagues struggling quite a bit here.

St Etienne went out against Esbjerg (Denmark).
Udinese out against Liberec (Czech).
Stuttgart out against Rijeka (Croatia).
Nice went out against Apollon Limassol (Cyprus).

FT Eintracht Frankfurt 2:1 Qarabag Agdam

So Frankfurt are in the EL group stage! What a run for the Eintracht! In 2012 freshly promoted to the Bundesliga and in 2013 already back in Europe!

EL could be a battle of the 2 North London-teams this season.

Slask Wroclaw 0 - 5 Sevilla (9-1 on aggregate). A 35-yarder from Rakitic, a brace from Bacca and goals from Jairo and Perotti. Sevilla were largely comfortable throughout the game.

They had a bayerischen saying when I studied within Bayern.

Went something along the lines of "The seasons will change, the world will spin. But Stuttgart will always remain the same."

Stuttgart the Udinese of Germany.

Doesn't reflect on league strength.

I hope Pandurii will make a big surprise against Braga.. It would be great

There will be two draws tomorrow. The first will involve all the losers from tonight's play-off ties and will determine which team will replace Fenerbahce in the group stages. The second is the group stage draw, which is at 13:00 (CET).

The pots are:

Pot 1
Valencia, Lyon, Tottenham Hotspur, Dynamo Kyiv, PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux, Rubin Kazan, Sevilla, Standard Liege, Fiorentina, Lazio, Besiktas,

Pot 2
PAOK, Red Bull Salzburg, Genk, Dinamo Zagreb, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Trabzonspor, Anzhi Makhachkala, Real Betis, Wigan Atheltic, Swansea, Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt

Pot 3
Vitoria di Guimaraes, Legia Warsaw, Maccabi Haifa, Rapid Wien, Pacos de Ferreira, Estoril, Sheriff, Chormomorets, Maribor, Kuban Krasnador

Pot 4
Elfsborg, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Slovan Liberec, FC Thun, Zulte Weragem, Apollon, St. Gallen, Esbjerg, Rijeka, Ludogorets, Karagandy

AZ/Atromitos was abandoned, Braga/Pandurii is still going and another team will be added tomorrow, so there'll be a little bit more shuffling around in the pots still.

Spurs and Fiorentina looks to be the champion in making. Yes, there will be some strong teams from CL drop-outs too. Whats the issue with Fenerbache!

By the way, at 9:00 CET, there will be a draw of one club of the 30 clubs that were eliminated in the play-offs today. That club will then take the place of suspended Fenerbahce.

Wow, horrible tournament this year.

Kuban Krasnador?? Chormomorets? Ludogorets?

WTF.

AltoZ wrote:Kuban Krasnador?? Chormomorets? Ludogorets?

Evil people could say these sound like hunting grounds for new Dortmund players ^^

-Emil- wrote:I hope Pandurii will make a big surprise against Braga.. It would be great

Oh, yeah! Ciucur scored! Braga 0-2 Pandurii and romanians are going into the group stages!

Ciprian wrote:

-Emil- wrote:I hope Pandurii will make a big surprise against Braga.. It would be great

Oh, yeah! Ciucur scored! Braga 0-2 Pandurii and romanians are going into the group stages!

Pandurii won! We have a team in the Europa League group stages!

Let's hope that today after the draw, we'll have another team in Europa League.

Also, I am glad that Petrolul have beaten Swansea and Astra didn't lose against Maccabi.

APOEL FC of Cyprus was drawn to re-enter the EL group stage this morning to replace Fenerbahce.

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2014/draws/index.html

Swansea out! That's a loss for EL.

iftikhar wrote:Swansea out! That's a loss for EL.

No, Ifty, they just lost the second leg but progressed comfortably on aggregate.

Draw is about to get underway. The pots are:

Pot 1
Valencia, Lyon, Tottenham Hotspur, Dynamo Kyiv, PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux, Rubin Kazan, Sevilla, Standard Liege, Fiorentina, Lazio, AZ

Pot 2
APOEL, PAOK, Red Bull Salzburg, Genk, Dinamo Zagreb, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Trabzonspor, Anzhi Makhachkala, Real Betis, Wigan Atheltic, Swansea, Freiburg

Pot 3
Eintracht Frankfurt, Vitoria di Guimaraes, Legia Warsaw, Maccabi Haifa, Rapid Wien, Pacos de Ferreira, Estoril, Sheriff, Chormomorets, Maribor, Kuban Krasnador, Elfsborg

Pot 4
Maccabi Tel Aviv, Slovan Liberec, FC Thun, Zulte Weragem, Apollon, Tromso, St. Gallen, Esbjerg, Rijeka, Pandurii, Ludogorets, Karagandy

Interesting that Eintracht Frankfurt are in Pot3. They were only in the 2nd Bundesliga in 2011/12 still... Must be Germany's basis coefficient then.

Good to see Viola and Lazio in Pot 1.Somebody take it seriously ffs !

Group A
Valencia
Swansea
Kuban Krasnador
St. Gallen

Group B
PSV Eindhoven
Dinamo Zagreb
Chornomorets
Ludogorets

Group C
Standard Liege
Salzburg
Elfsborg
Esbjerg

Group D
Rubin Kazan
Wigan Athletic
Maribor
Zulte Waregem

Group E
Fiorentina
Dnipro
Pacos de Ferreira
Pandurii

Group F
Bordeaux
APOEL
Frankfurt
Maccabi Tel Aviv

Group G
Dynamo Kyiv
Genk
Rapid Wien
Thun

Group H
Sevilla
Freiburg
Estoril
Liberec

Group I
Lyon
Real Betis
Vitoria de Guimaraes
Rijeka

Group J
Lazio
Trabzonspor
Legia Warsaw
Apollon

Group K
Tottenham
Anzhi
Sheriff
Tromso

Group L
AZ
PAOK
Maccabi Haifa
Shakhter Karagandy

(click to enlarge)

Legia Warsaw in a good group

Legia vs. Lazio---the class of hooligans

Frankfurt's group is really challenging with Bordeaux, APOEL and Maccabi Tel Aviv!

Happy with Sevilla's group. They don't have to do an awful lot of travelling and have a great chance at winning it.

Interesting groups for Swansea and Wigan, but I think both will get through. Valencia/Swansea should be a great game. Spurs will walk their group.

Fiorentina should finish atleast 2nd in their group.Dnipro have been consistently performing well in the EL.

Lazio should top their group,if they take it seriously like last year.

Swansea - Valencia will be 2 great games, and it would be interesting to see La Liga fans reaction if Swansea beat them.