Euro footie comps 2014/15

Post by **stattointhailand** » July 9, 2014, 3:45 pm

Congrats to Linfield for overcoming the "mighty" ?? B36 Torshavn in the Europa Lge Qual Rnd 1 ... (good job that not toooo many of their players had to get back from Brazil in time to play)

Ist leg B36 Torshavn 1 - 2 Linfield
2nd leg Linfield 1 - 1 B36 Torshavn

Post by **BobHelm** » July 16, 2014, 9:27 am

Second round of qualifying underway...

British interest...
Not a bad result by Wales' New Saints. Only down by 1 goal after the first leg away in Slovakia. Still in with a chance in the second leg next week.
At least the Northern Ireland part timers, Cliftonville, go to Hungry all square. Any sort of score draw would see them through, but it will be a tough ask..
Ronny Deila's Celtic start off with an away win & should walk through to the next round now - but you never know in Scottish football...

Post by **BobHelm** » July 17, 2014, 7:21 pm

Irish champions St Patrick's Athletic were unlucky not to record an away win with the hosts equalising in stoppage time.
Next Wednesday in Dublin should see them through though...
Then only another two levels of qualification & they will be in the Group stage. Something Manchester United can do this season..

Post by **BobHelm** » July 18, 2014, 12:52 pm

Crusaders FC got a bit of an away pasting in Sweden & it didn't look unlucky!! Probably the end of Europe for them next week.
Sligo Rovers produced the shock of the round though. Great away win in Norway against fancied opposition. Only blot was that they scored all the goals themselves & gave Rosenborg a bit of hope for the return leg.
St Johnstone looked poor & edgy in the first half, but grew into the game. A real chance to progress is still there..
Aberdeen had plenty of chances but just could not put them away. They will need to perform much better away in Holland.
Derry City face an uphill struggle to make the third qualifying round after losing narrowly to Belarusian side Shakhtyar Soligorsk'
Linfield waited until the death to score, but take the advantage to Sweden next time.
Motherwell lost out on the win via a penalty in extra time. Might be tough to carry on to the next round now..

Post by **BobHelm** » July 23, 2014, 7:50 am

New Saints made a good battle of the game against Slovan Bratislava, trailing 1 nil from the first leg. Sadly with 15 minutes to go they conceded which all but ended their hopes. Their heads dropped & they conceded another to let the Serbian side through looking rather comfortable winners.

Cliftonville just couldn't score but were holding their own against Hungarian champions Debrecen. However they had Jaimie McGovern given a straight red & the hosts scored from the resultant free kick.

No such scoring issues for Celtic though. They strolled through the second leg looking the better side by far. The visitors started brightly enough but that just served to wake Celtic up. After 20 minutes they had scored 2 ending the match as any sort of contest..

Post by **BobHelm** » July 24, 2014, 8:25 am

Oops... Commentators' curse on poor St Patrick's Athletic.

After the heroics away last week this was a second half disaster for the club.
The were behind in the tie after 25 minutes & from that point on never really looked like troubling the visitors. The Polish champions came out in the second half full of intent & just ran away with the game..

Post by **socksy** » July 25, 2014, 9:19 am

A great win for Aberdeen last night in Holland against Groningen where they went through to the next round of the Europa tournament. The first leg at Aberdeen was 0-0 but they won 2-1 away.

Post by **BobHelm** » July 31, 2014, 7:04 am

Terrible first leg loss for Celtic.
That will take some recovery from..
They actually went into an early lead. However they were behind by the break & had Efe Ambrose sent off.
Warsaw also missed a penalty & Fraser Forster played a blinder in goal otherwise it could have been a rugby score for the hosts..

Post by **BobHelm** » August 1, 2014, 7:22 am

Well just about everyman & his dog was playing in Europe last night - except Manchester United..

So here is a cut down version of the results..

The first game ever in Europe for Hull City. A draw was probably not the result that they were hoping for. However it was away from home & also did represent the best result last night from the British contingent.
Still in with a great chance to progress, although in past seasons progression has often been at the expense of Premiership results. This is a 'jolly' compared to the main task of staying in the top flight.

Aberdeen were facing a tough away task at Real Sociedad & couldn't manage it. It will be hard work to progress now.

St Johnstone will be bitterly disappointed to lose at home to Spartak Trnava & this looks like a short European adventure for them as well,,,

Post by **socksy** » August 1, 2014, 9:30 am

If Celtic win 3-0 at home they're through and not impossible, but even one of their players quoted in a Scottish newspaper that it could easily have been at least 7-1 and this is only the third qualifying round for the group stages so they need to step up a gear. Not surprising that their keeper is on the radar of some English clubs.

Post by **BobHelm** » August 7, 2014, 6:33 am

The Hoops show is over already & they can concentrate on the league..

This was as bad as the first leg. They never looked like scoring themselves & conceded 1 in each half.
Given the ease with which the won the title this is a pretty damming statement of just how dire the football is North of the border..

Post by **socksy** » August 7, 2014, 8:00 am

Dire Bob? It's pure nonsense. Watch out for the possible exit of Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk. They now have to play in a Europa League play-off spot. Two season's ago they reached the last 16 and last season were in the Ggroup stages of the Champions League which brought in £33m in prize money.

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 7, 2014, 1:08 pm

Just shows what happens when the Scots are left to do something on their own

And this only 24 hrs after they failed miserably to get their "live debate" shown worldwide on the internet

Post by **socksy** » August 7, 2014, 1:15 pm

Doubt any f*@%er would want to watch it Statto. I didn't even consider watching two ***** politicians going head to head with each other - a little fat one and the silver haired one with jet black eyebrows (weird) who was part of the Labour Government under Bliar.

Post by **Macca** » August 7, 2014, 1:26 pm

A couple of weeks ago the Celtic boss was saying it was a disgrace they were having to play in the qualifying rounds, not so noisy today.

Just how far has Scottish football fallen.
The Scottish Premiership is over before it's started with 3 of the 4 biggest teams playing in the 2nd tier this season.
There's always been big Scottish names in the English top flight Bremner, Jordan, Daglish, Hansen, Strachan etc. Nowadays the biggest name is Fletcher whom I am a fan of but hardly a man to build a nations hopes upon.
The financial loss for Celtic is massive as are the implications for future European campaigns for Scottish teams, I worry about footy north of the border.

Last weekend planned to watch Queen of the South v Elgin City until I discovered it was going to cost £16 no thanks. No wonder only 939 bothered to turn up.

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 7, 2014, 2:04 pm

"Last weekend planned to watch Queen of the South v Elgin City until I discovered it was going to cost £16 no thanks. No wonder only 939 bothered to turn up."

I believe the ACTUAL attendance was 3407 Macca, but that figure included the ballboys who get in free, those with "press" passes, and all card holding members of the SNP who were given free entry to get a glimpse of the future of sport in Scotland :-"

Post by **BobHelm** » August 8, 2014, 6:42 am

Hull the only 1 of the British sides to progress,
They had a nightmare start (going behind in the tie & so contest after 2 minutes) but battled back. They got their second with 10 minutes to go to slip through to the next qualification stage.

St Johnston managed a brave 1 all draw away but the home defeat put them out.

Aberdeen had a 2 goal deficit to overcome from the first leg. Despite scoring twice they could not even win the home leg against Real Sociedad.

Celtic might have been thrown an (undeserved) life line by EUFA..

Celtic: Legia Warsaw face Uefa probe over Champions League tie

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28693855

Whatever they find given that Celtic lost 6-1 the fact that Bartosz Bereszynski might have been illegible when he came on for the final TWO minutes yesterday anything more than a slap on the wrist fine would seem excessive..

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 8, 2014, 6:11 pm

Celtic were today dramatically re-instated to the Champions League after Legia Warsaw were found guilty of fielding an ineligible player in their third round qualifying tie against the Parkhead club.

Post by **BobHelm** » August 8, 2014, 7:44 pm

Personally think this is a disgrace..
Lose by 6 goals to 1 & go through because the other side field a player that should not have played for 2 minutes??
Come on, where is the fairness in that??

Rules are there to be upheld, I agree, but punishments must be sensible & fit the crime, otherwise the complete game is bought into disrepute by the governing body...
Oh, OK, I forgot... This is football, the governing body is already completely in disrepute...

Post by **Zidane** » August 8, 2014, 7:58 pm

Legia Warsaw have 5 days to appeal and I hope they do and get this ludicrous decision overturned.
They hammered Celtic 6-1 on aggregate.Its not as if it was 4-3 and the ineligible guy scored a hat trick.
He played for just two minutes and it was a genuine mistake as Legia thought he was eligible after missing two matches against St.Patricks Athletic in the last round but they forgot to register him for the tie against the Irish side,so it didnt count.
A small fine would have been appropriate.....talk about useing a sledgehammer to crack a nut !