European Football Competitions 2013/14

Post by **BobHelm** » August 1, 2013, 6:30 am

Celtic won, just, but it will be a tough game to finish off next week.
All of the sides who played last night still are in with a chance & only Plzen (with a huge 4 nil advantage after an away leg) & FC Shakhtyor Karaganda (going to the away leg with a 3 nil advantage) look certain to progress so far..

Post by **BobHelm** » August 2, 2013, 11:06 am

Rest of the first leg qualifiers last night..

Of the UK clubs...
St Johnstone got a very good 1 nil scoreline away in Minsk & so should progress.
Motherwell, on the other hand, have to go away to Kuban Krasnodar already trailing by 2 goals to nil. A swift exit I think.
Swansea faced a tricky home tie against European regulars Malmo. They passed the test with ease & will go to Sweden holding a 4 goal advantage from the home leg. Even better news for the Welsh side was that Michu continued his impressive form for the side by scoring the first & new boy Wilfried Bony bagged a couple in his first competitive game for them.

Post by **BobHelm** » August 7, 2013, 9:42 am

Some of the third round qualifiers came to their second leg conclusion last night..

: score.jpg (21.58 KiB) Viewed 2626 times

Not much in the way of interest for me personally but not much in the way of surprises either.

Some more games tonight with Celtic taking a 1 nil lead away being the only UK interest.
The bulk of the games are completed on Thursday night..

Post by **BobHelm** » August 8, 2013, 8:16 am

: score.jpg (25.75 KiB) Viewed 2602 times

Not a very sparkling display by Celtic, or game in general. They had already done enough to gain advantage in the home leg though & so progress..

Tonight..
Kuban Krasnodar V Motherwell - the Scottish side will have to battle back from being 2 nil down..
Malmo V Swansea - the Swans just have to hold their nerve for the first half & give Malmo no encouragement. It will need a very poor display from them to go out though, holding a 4 nil lead.
St Johnstone V Minsk - the Saints hold a 1 nil advantage from the away leg & so will have great hopes of progressing.

All the fixtures here..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fixtures

Post by **BobHelm** » August 9, 2013, 9:39 am

Kuban Krasnodar 1-0 Motherwell

Motherwell limped out of the contest. The 2 nil home defeat had left them in a poor position & they never managed to make headway in the away leg.

Malmo 0-0 Swansea

In the circumstances a good away draw from the Swans. Their 4 nil home leg meant that they had little to do as long as they could keep Malmo from scoring. Into the next round they go quite comfortably.

St Johnstone 0-1 Minsk

St Johnstone threw away the advantage that they had made away as they let Minsk equalise the tie. They then lost on penalties by 3 to 2 in a very poor nights' display.

All the results here..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/results

Post by **BobHelm** » August 9, 2013, 5:47 pm

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW

Full draw for Champions League play-off round: Dinamo Zagreb v FK Austria Vienna, Ludogorets v Basle, Plzen v Maribor, Shakhter Karaganda v Celtic, Steaua Bucuresti v Legia Warsaw, Lyon v Real Sociedad, Schalke 04 v FC Metalist Kharkiv, Pacos Ferreira v Zenit St Petersburg, PSV v AC Milan, Fenerbahce v Arsenal.

The ties are to be played on August 20-21 and August 27-28.

The Gunners play Fenerbahce. Could have had worse draws & away first is a real plus.
These are hard games to play so early in the season though...
The Turkish side are actually on appeal from a ban excluding them from this competition so it does have non footballing issues surrounding it as well..

Post by **stattointhailand** » August 9, 2013, 5:53 pm

PSV v AC Milan looks good Bob ......... get rid of one of them BEFORE the competition proper

Post by **BobHelm** » August 9, 2013, 6:26 pm

EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW
Swansea v Petrolul Ploiesti
Dinamo Tbilisi v Tottenham
The ties will be played on 22/29 August.

Petrolul Ploiesti is in Romania so a bit of an unknown factor & hard to know what the Swans will need to take there by way of a result.
Georgia for Spurs, in what looks a good draw for them..

Agree Statts, the PSV tie looks like the match to watch in the European League...

Post by **BobHelm** » August 20, 2013, 7:22 am

Football every night this week with 3 days of European qualifiers..
Tonight...

Big game for Celtic away where anything better than remaining in the game for the home leg will be a good result.
As Zid said previously also a mouthwatering battle of the capital letters as PSV take on AC...

Post by **Zidane** » August 20, 2013, 8:23 am

Poor statto must be demoralised enough this morning without me getting the credit for his posts :-" Lyon v Real Sociedad is a pretty tasty tie,as well.
Arsenal wont be looking forward to a two legged tie against Fenerbache either.If they get beaten by a couple of goals in Turkey on Wednesday they might struggle to make the Group Stages,which would be "unthinkable" as Alan Hansen says.

Post by **BobHelm** » August 20, 2013, 8:34 am

Sorry Statts, the memory has gone...

Doubt if he will read this until after Saturday though...

Post by **BobHelm** » August 21, 2013, 7:11 am

: score.jpg (14.95 KiB) Viewed 2462 times

Tough night for Celtic.
Artificial pitch, 3,000 miles from home, about 30 of their fans & 30,000 of the opposition. A sheep slaughtering ceremony before the event to bring the home side luck has appeared to have worked as well.
The Kazakhs will need to be pretty poor travellers for the Hoops to pull this one around.
But, sheep slaughtering apart, they will face similar issues to those Cletic faced away.

Lyon appear to be in even tougher straights after their first, home leg though as Real Sociedad take command.

Milan will be happy with the score draw away in Holland & now are just about the favourites to progress.

Tonight the Gunners enter the fray. Away in Turkey against a Fenerbahce side who will not even know if they are legally in this contest until after the second leg has been completed. A bit of a no win game here for Arsenal in what is likely to be trying circumstances..

Post by **BobHelm** » August 22, 2013, 7:01 am

: score.jpg (13.34 KiB) Viewed 2430 times

The Gunners resolve any issues about Fenerbahce out of the sport's courts as they take a commanding lead back to London. Very much 'job done' unless the wheels completely come off for some reason.
Very much a night for being the away side as none of the home sides will have much to be cheerful about facing the second leg..

Large number of Europa qualifiers tonight, with Spurs (away) & Swansea (home) being the UK interest..

Post by **BobHelm** » August 23, 2013, 7:18 am

Well i don't think that there could have ever been a European night quite like it..
Both British teams score 5 goals.

Spurs have the extra add on that they were away & didn't concede any either. The return leg might be quite a night in London.
The Swans conceded 1 but I doubt if they will be too worried that they now have to travel out to Romania for the return.

I though both sides were in with a very good chance of progressing...but not quite that good!!

Post by **Zidane** » August 29, 2013, 8:43 am

Selected Champions League final qualifying round results.....
AC Milan 3 PSV Eindhoven 0 (aggregate 4-1)
Real Sociedad 2 Lyon 0 (4-0)
Celtic 3 Shakhtar Karagandy 0 (3-2)
Arsenal 2 Fenerbache 0 (5-0) played Tuesday.

So,well done to the two British teams who have made the Group Stages,particularily Celtic who overcame a 2-0 deficit =D> .The draw for the Group Stages takes place in Monte Carlo at 5.45pm Thai time today.
Manchester United,Chelsea and Arsenal are in pot 1.
Manchester City are in pot 3.
Celtic are in pot 4.

Clubs from the same country cannot draw each other in this round.

Post by **Zidane** » August 30, 2013, 8:23 am

Yesterdays Champions League Group Stage draw.......
Easy for Chelsea.....could have been worse for United and City......difficult for Arsenal and Celtic.

: UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw 2013-14.jpg (32.41 KiB) Viewed 1678 times

As expected,both Spurs and Swansea have progressed to the Group Stages of the Europa League,the draw of which will be made later today.
Spurs 3 Dinamo Tbilisi 0 (aggregate 8-0),Petrolul Ploiesti 2 Swansea 1 (aggregate 6-3).

Post by **Zidane** » August 31, 2013, 8:27 am

Draw for the Europa League Group Stages,involving English teams....
SWANSEA,Valencia,Kuban Krasnador,St.Gallen.Group A
WIGAN,Rubin Kazan,Maribor,Zulte Waregem.Group D
TOTTENHAM,Anzhi Makhachkala,Sheriff Tiraspol,Tromso.Group K.

Decent draw for the Swans getting Valencia in their group......fair bit of travelling for the Spuds.

Post by **Zidane** » September 17, 2013, 2:19 pm

I am led to believe that the Manchester United v Bayer Leverkeusen UEFA Champions League game will be shown live on Thai TV Channel 3 tonight......kick off is 01.45am Wednesday morning Thai time.

Other games tonight....Plzen v Manchester City,Bayern Munich v CSKA Moscow,Benfica v Andelecht,FC Copenhagen v Juventus,Olympiakos v Paris St.Germain,Galatasaray v Real Madrid,Real Sociedad v Shakhtar Donetsk.

Post by **stattointhailand** » September 17, 2013, 3:32 pm

And if you want to have the English commentary it's on ITV1 (London) on UKTV

http://www.uk-tv.asia/

Post by **Macca** » September 17, 2013, 3:56 pm

Zidane wrote:I am led to believe that the Manchester United v Bayer Leverkeusen UEFA Champions League game will be shown live on Thai TV Channel 3 tonight......kick off is 01.45am Wednesday morning Thai time.

Had a look on their website, no advertising for Champs league to be seen. But definitely a match showing tonight and figured out which button to press for live online.

Here's hoping it's United