Europa League 2018/19

Congrats Arsenal!

All 6 English teams in to the QF's

Vazquez and that's the Extra time also done and dusted

Mudo Vazquez heads Sevilla into the lead.

Slavia now need to score two. Looks like Sevilla live to fight another round.

Ferro what a goal, unbelievable shot.

Slavia makes it 3-3

epl the goat lge @hans @norway nick @uncle bill @futball

SLAVIA 4-3

SEVILLA CHOKINGG

Slavia 4 - 3 Sevilla. Incredible effort from the Czech's across both legs.

RIP Machin at Sevilla. Bad league form + knocked out of the EL by a minnow. Can't come back from that.

Sevilla

I'm out.

Fully deserved, congrats to Eintracht
No regrets
It could finish with a larger result
If the elimination was not now It was later
Need to keep 4th place in league now because I don't want to play this cup again

Mkhi's a small game player. Always been good in the EL.

Chelsea
Napoli
Valencia
Villarreal
Eintracht
Benfica
Slavia Prague
Arsenal

Amazing stuff

Slavia players can't hold back tears here. Unbelievable scenes.

Really alarming times for Italian and Spanish football.

Italian football has been lagging behind the big two for more than a decade now and despite the recent efforts to pump the teams with some foreign cash, they still lag far behind England, Spain and even Germany.

As a La Liga fan I see a slow decline of Spanish football in the upcoming years and this has been concerning me for some time. While the big two still reign due to their financial powers, the rest of the league is lagging far behind. Atlético have been on a constant demise despite having modest spending power. They have utilised their cash very poorly and their golden generation players are past their expiry date with nobody to fill in their shoes. The state of the other teams is out there for everyone to see, Valencia and Sevilla consistently out of the top 4 this season, Villarreal around the bottom and barely escaping relegation, and teams which supposed to become the next big thing like Málaga are even out of Primera División.

Let's say that Spanish teams can't compete financially not only with the Gulf-owned riches of those clubs, but also English teams which spend ten times more than their Spanish counterparts. And it is not only the players who seemingly prefer EPL to La Liga now, but also scouts and coaches. Ten years ago we had Pochettino, Guardiola, Bielsa, Emery, Pellegrini, and Nuno in charge of La Liga teams. All coaches with new ideas and tactical mastery. These have now left to England, and been replaced by mediocre, pessimist coaches like Marcelino and Machín.

rincon wrote:Chelsea
Napoli
Valencia
Villarreal
Eintracht
Benfica
Slavia Prague
Arsenal

Legit chance for two English clubs to win the trophy this season imo seeing the teams that are left. There's only Napoli a CL level team. And if Arsenal do win the thing and finish 4th in the league, we could qualify for the CL too if we finish 5th. So, yea rooting for you guys now.

rincon wrote:Chelsea
Napoli
Valencia
Villarreal
Eintracht
Benfica
Slavia Prague
Arsenal

These two surprised me

As a La Liga fan I see a slow decline of Spanish football in the upcoming years and this has been concerning me for some time. While the big two still reign due to their financial powers, the rest of the league is lagging far behind. Atlético have been on a constant demise despite having modest spending power. They have utilised their cash very poorly and their golden generation players are past their expiry date with nobody to fill in their shoes. The state of the other teams is out there for everyone to see, Valencia and Sevilla consistently out of the top 4 this season, Villarreal around the bottom and barely escaping relegation, and teams which supposed to become the next big thing like Málaga are even out of Primera División.

Let's say that Spanish teams can't compete financially not only with the Gulf-owned riches of those clubs, but also English teams which spend ten times more than their Spanish counterparts. And it is not only the players who seemingly prefer EPL to La Liga now, but also scouts and coaches. Ten years ago we had Pochettino, Guardiola, Bielsa, Emery, Pellegrini, and Nuno in charge of La Liga teams. All coaches with new ideas and tactical mastery. These have now left to England, and been replaced by mediocre, pessimist coaches like Marcelino and Machín.

Sevilla were challenging for the title before the winter break. It's only the last two months where things have gone to shit for them, due to a combination of fatigue (their season started in July) and Machin's tactical inflexibility. As for Valencia, they've actually been playing well this season, but they lack goalscorers. Marcelino isn't the problem there; the poor form of Rodrigo and Guedes is. Machin I agree is a small-time coach who still think he's managing Girona or something.

I should point out as well that Emery didn't finish in the top four once with Sevilla and Nuno struggled a lot with Valencia.

Anyway, I don't think La Liga is declining. Atleti went out to a top team, so there's no shame there. Villareal and Valencia are in the EL quarter-finals. Barca are still getting results even if they don't excite as much anymore.

Napoli should win the tournament. But they will bottle it nevertheless.

Wow, Arsenal vs Napoli obviously the focus. The 2 Vs Spanish matchup, and Chelsea lucky draw. Would be an achievement by Sarri if he ends up winning it after all thats happened this season

Imagine Villareal getting relegated but also winning the EL, meaning they would play CL from 2nd division next season

Very sad Suning International didn't make it. Another year wasted with nothing to celebrate except our defeats.

Glad to see we are always in our thoughts

Yeah your team is stuff of nightmares for all italian footballfans nowadays. Congrats.

HUGE match day tonight.

I'm a bit annoyed that for these quarter final games, the mode of having some games at 19h and the others at 21h has been abandoned, because we could be able to follow two games instead of just one now.

I understand all games at this stage deserve to be prime time, but there are sadly 2 games that I would both love to actually watch.

The one is the big name favourites clash of Arsenal vs Napoli, which will once again give a huge indication about the strength of the Premier LEague in realation to the Serie A, what with the 2nd team in Italy being smashed by a team that's struggling for top 4 in England

Where the hell is @breva btw? Did we go too hard on him? I miss him and we could really need him tonight

The other highly, and frankly most, interesting game, is the clash between Benfica and Eintracht.
Eintracht is THE surprise team in European football 2018/19, with an EL campaign that has been nothing short of stunning and incredible.
They have been unleashed, unfettered, flying high this whole season, with the weight of being coached by Kovac lifted off them.
Benfica on the other hand is arguably the greatest club in Portuguese history, and this is a great tie already for the micro-saga of strikers that are facing off each other

Seferovic, Bosnian-born striker played for Frankurt for 3 season until he joined Benfica on the 1st of July 2017, while on the very same day, Serbian-born striker Luka Jovic went the other way, joining Frankfurt from Benfica on a 2 season long loan which has seen him become one of Europe's most interesting young attackers.

Jovic is still a Benfica player on paper, although Frankfurt reportedly have an option to buy for a price as low as 7m-12m €, which they of course will exercise in the summer.

Slavia-Chelsea, yeah I could watch that for a few minutes, Slavia earned our respect and attention after that massive Sevilla game, but in light of the competition, no way

Villareal-Valencia, sorry, noone gives a flying fuck, are these even two separate clubs? I won't even bother to tell them apart, both La Liga upper midtable, both start with an V, basically some local derby, both orange-reddish-blueish in their crest, both surely at some point coached by Marcelino though I wouldn't know whom of the two he is coaching at this moment.
Basically it's the same whoever progresses here.