Europa League 2014-15 - Pt.1

Ugh Fiorentina.

That one could go either way....we beat them handily in the league, but they did eliminate us just as easily in the Coppa though.

Very even tie. If we play like we did in the first half yesterday, I like our chances though familiar landscapes of Serie A sides will likely be more a hindrance to us than a help.

The devil you know and all that...

GoonerJay29 wrote:Everton vs Dynamo Kyiv
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk vs Ajax
Zenit vs Torino
Wolfsburg vs Inter
Villareal vs Sevilla
Napoli vs Dinamo Moscow
Club Brugge vs Besiktas
Fiorentina vs Roma

From an English perspective, Everton will be quite pleased with their draw. Ukrainian and Russian teams traditionally do not travel well, and Everton have been very good playing away from home in Europe this season.

Sevilla and Villareal will now play each other three times between the 12th and 22nd of March. It's a really even tie where Villareal play the better football but Sevilla have more experience and "know how". Obviously I'm a bit biased here but I think that, and their very impressive home form, will give Sevilla the edge.

Interesting draws.

Wolfsburg Vs inter, Villarreal vs Sevilla and Fiorentina vs Roma the best matches. Also the most unpredictable ones.

Hoping for Inter, Sevilla and Roma to win from those teams. but Wolfsburg are probably favourites


Everton vs Dynamo Kyiv
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk vs Ajax
Zenit vs Torino
Wolfsburg vs Inter
Villareal vs Sevilla
Napoli vs Dinamo Moscow
Club Brugge vs Besiktas
Fiorentina vs Roma

Can see a Wolfsburg Vs Napoli/Sevilla final

I wouldn't be surprised if Ajax lost or won. They've been very underwhelming this season. If Veltman and Klaassen are healthy and driven they can win though. Should be lining up a midfield of Klaassen - Bazoer - Sinkgraven tbh with El Ghazi - Milik - Kishna or even a 2-3-1 with Schone central and Bazoer as a substitute but FdB does not show a lot of tactical flexibility. He will live or die with the 4-3-3. Thankfully it seems like Viergever, Kishna and Milik are in good form at the moment.

With Liverpool, PSV and Feyenoord all out Ajax is my last hope in Europe this season.

On paper Wolfsburg is better than us  , for me best team in Europa League ,  but we aren't a mid table club anyway so it might be an interesting match  .... We are paying negatively that half season under Mazzarri and we're improving for results and gamestyle now  ( finally football after hoofball under Mazzarri ) under Mancini , we are creating a good structure for future ( Juan Jesus 91, Brozovic 92 , Kovacic 94 , Shaqiri 91 , Icardi 93 etc)  but of course Wolfsburg is ahead in this growth process . It is also normal when you can spend 30 mln easily for Schurrle ..
We have also a good overall quality , Icardi ( he is better than Dost, even if Dost will look like prime Torres with our defence) , Shaqiri , Guarin , Kovacic, Hernanes etc can  be difference makers .. so I think we can score.
Our real weakness is surely the defence. We should complete our structure and superstructure improving this in summer.
It's enough to think Santon , regenerated by Pardiola , is our most reliable player in defence atm .
It's frustrating to think we passed by Zanetti Samuel Lucio Maicon who was impassable even for Barca of Guardiola to this current defence who is more fraud than Maginot line.
And it is a serious  problem if you must face KDB , Schurrle , Perisic, Dost ... not exactly Guidetti and Armstrong (3 goals anyway...) with due respect.
About mdfield I'm sorry my man Brozovic can't play in EL . I appreciate him not only because he has a beautiful sister , but because he gives something of different to our midfield , he makes everything basically. Now instead we must choice or Hernanes who is basically a CAM he can't defend much , or Kuzmanovic who is meh , when he plays well  it means he was average ( Mancini rates Kovacic just as CAM in 4-3-1-2 , and I don't agree with it ) .
 so Inter must hope Guarin ( golden period for him) and Medel continue to performe as they are doing in this last month , they 2 were fundamental keys for these 4 victories in a row.

Perisic is injured anyway . Will he be back for Inter match ?

salmano9 wrote:Lol, funny tie... Would be happy if Roma progressed and if they lost too... If they won, they would have less energy available in Serie A lol

Seriously do you rate still Roma as contender for title ? lol

Robespierre wrote:Perisic is injured anyway . Will he be back for Inter match ?

That's not known as his injury is only listed rather unspecific as "problems with the adductors".

Wolfsburg vs Inter
Villareal vs Sevilla
Fiorentina vs Roma

The way I see these games,

Wolfsburg, Sevilla & Roma are well positioned in their respective leagues and might focus on their league campaigns to ensure CL for next season. While Inter, Villareal & Fiorentina have better chance of CL (or even EL) qualification via this years Europa League and would be more motivated to give everything here.

iftikhar wrote:Wolfsburg, Sevilla & Roma are well positioned in their respective leagues and might focus on their league campaigns to ensure CL for next season.

Wolfsburg are currently very secure BL second who will neither be able to move up nor down much:

Roma are on some horrific form right now, and if they don't beat us on Monday, finishing 3rd is a legit possibility for them. And that means they could end up playing a real threat in a 2 legged CL qualifier, something i'm sure Roma aren't massively confident in doing.

Ehh I wouldn't say horrific...not like we're losing left and right. It's just very indifferent form. We're not leaking multitudes of goals, but we're also not scoring tons either. We're the definition of average over the last 10 games or so.

That said, the longer we go in the EL, the less energy we have to hold 2nd in Serie A. Luckily Napoli are in the same boat and could go far in the EL as well.

Either way, I kinda don't care. Just need to hold CL qualification. I'd rather not have to play in August, but I do know we'll take a lot more seriously than we did the last time we had to do that under Luis Enrique.

Not winning against scrubs who could barely get a shot off against you not so long ago is pretty horrific from a certain perspective. Roma have easily the 2nd best team in Serie A, on paper it's not significantly behind Juves but since CL elimination, you'd be forgiven for not knowing it.

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Not winning against scrubs who could barely get a shot off against you not so long ago is pretty horrific from a certain perspective. Roma have easily the 2nd best team in Serie A, on paper it's not significantly behind Juves but since CL elimination, you'd be forgiven for not knowing it.

That much I agree with. The football has been dire, the results...less so much. Tough for most to separate that, us Romanisti especially. I, for one, am thankful for where we are as it really could be much, much worse.

Romas only shot at a title is the EL. I say lets go for it. League is over since January tbh

I think that this new Salahed Fiorentina are favorites for the EL tie I know the previous posts were before they beat Juventus in Turin, but still. What happens if Rossi does recover? Too small quick forwards or rotation for Rossi and Salah with Gomez the traditional CF?

Salah is sure starter for his great performances, it' d  be Rossi as CF and Gomez on bench .  Montella hasn't problem to do it , he criticized also publicy the German because he  didn't perform under them , a disappointing signing , he preferred sometimes even Babacar to him.

Didn't Gomez bag 4 goals in the last 5 matches or so, though?
(Genuine question, I only read the match reports because Serie A tends to clash with either my work hours, or the Bundesliga matches, and watch the Bundesliga sides in the EL (though this is a problem of the past for this season))

He is getting better recently,but imo if he must choose Rossi or Gomez,  he'll choose the first . I can't imagine Salah benched.
Rossi is perfect for Firoentina gamestyle, he was always great even when he didn't score , his only problem are the injuries .
Gomez also when he was fit didn't look like really integrated in Fiorentina  .
They can play together of course, it depends on how Montella will decide to play , he was enigmatic about it on purpose this year ... .. 3-5-2 , 3-4-2-1 (Diamanti is another signing appreciated by him , already well integrated at Fiorentina) , 4-3-3 ..... it's just a matter if he wants to play with only one CF and  who among Rossi and Gomez  in that case .. and I think Rossi is milestone for Fiorentina

TBH back when Gomez moved, I thought he'd play all the time because of his name and price tag, but besides that... I wondered, Fiorentina didn't really, to my mind, play in a way that really benefited a poacher. This is just from watching them maybe 3 or 4 times, mind you, as mentioned before, don't really have the time.

Yes Fiorentina is not a team for a poacher . Gomez was signed because it was a great name and so it was seen as a chance really intriguing, Fiorentina had just sold Jovetic and on mercato there was the chance to sign a  name so important, and how many times can have Fiorentina the chance to sign the Bayern Munchen  CF ?  Fiorentina was much enticed losing sight of the reality , because they could put that money ( considering the salary, Fiorentina is not used to pay so much for a player) for player valid as Gomez, but more functional , useful to team.
Gomez would have performed better in other Italian teams , he didn't find the tune with Fiorentina system from the beginning and after this adaption period ( not always easy for foreign players in serie A ,also for language etc) he was decimated from injuries ... and his  experience in Fiorentina was as climbing the Everest.
Probably he was also unlucky to meet the Firoentina among all important Italian teams.
Fiorentina is basically the only Italian important team who looks like allergic to a poacher.

First match in 1.5 hours

Das Auto, at 19:00

Panic . Simply panic .

Wolfsburg: Benaglio; Vieirinha, Knoche, Naldo, Rodriguez; Guilavogui, Luiz Gustavo; Caligiuri, De Bruyne, Schürrle; Dost

Wolfsburg bench: Grün, T Klose, Jung, Schäfer, Träsch, Perisic, Bendtner

Inter: Carrizo; D'Ambrosio, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus, Santon; Medel, Guarin, Hernanes; Shaqiri; Palacio, Icardi

Inter bench: Handanovic, Vidic, Andreolli, Dodò, Kovacic, Puscas, Kuzmanovic

I have a feeling it'll turn out much like the Tottenham-Inter, Wolfsburg going to win at home but Inter are going to shock them at home. Wolfsburg to go through.

Red card against Torino and a goal under. RIP Torino's EL.

Edit : Criscito makes it 2-0 now