Tough groups / travels for Man Utd and Soton in the Europa. But at least Soton get to play Inter Milan (Bale link ) .
And that should be a good enough reason for clubs to want to compete in the Europa. Ok, we're a little bit jaded from being in it so many times and never looking like winning it, but that's not true of many other sides. How often do fans from clubs other than about seven of the regulars in Europe get to see these sides at their grounds? Man Utd supporters won't be that bothered, but they've got two decent sized clubs and one total unknown. Makes it a bit more interesting and the van Persie link could spice it up even more. Good chance of progress if they take it vaguely seriously and I think that Mourinho will. Southampton have one big name, one medium European regular and an unusual Israeli side. There's a generation of Saints fans that have never experienced this sort of thing and they've got a good chance of getting through. I don't know anything about their manager though, so I have no idea how he'll approach it. Astra Giurgiu ended up in a group with Roma, by the way. I think that'd be a big enough draw for the fans.
PNP.We have never looked like winning the EL because we didn't want to win it.We've been trying for the PL crown instead! Unlike Sevilla.They know they won't win the Spanish championship and concentrated on the EL with successful results!
Monaco beat PSG 3-1 yesterday! And they are generally acknowledged to be our 'easier' opponents in the CL!!!
Could be PSG doing a bit of pre-CL WUMmery on the Goons. You know they'll be going : Spurs > Monaco. Monaco > PSG. We > Spurs. Therefore We >> PSG. <FACT>
I'd laugh at him + tell him several reasons, but he won't hear it as his walkie talkie don't work in the OS.
There's certainly no reason why Payet can't be playing in the Champions League within the next five months...
Somebody on Twitter PLEASE post this amended version in response : There's absolutely no reason why Dimitri Payet can't be playing in the Champions League for a PL club within the next five months.
"As a manager, in every game you go into you have to believe you can get a positive result...We have to try to come up with a plan that can get us a positive result." - Brendan Rodgers "Fat ****ing chance" - Neymar, Andres Iniesta, Luis Suarez (twice), Lionel Messi (thrice)
Are UEFA making all games in the same group be played at the same time ?? I noticed that Schalke vs Salzburg is already FT, but there was no other reason for KO that early when the St Etienne vs Anderlecht game is still in progress.
Here's the list of seeded and unseeded teams SEEDED Fenerbahce APOEL Nicosta Saint-Etienne Zenit St Petersburg Roma Athletic Bilbao Ajax Shakhtar Donetsk Schalke Fiorentina Sparta Prague Osmanlispoor FC Copenhagen Olympique Lyonnais Tottenham Hotspur Besiktas UNSEEDED Manchester United Olympiacos Anderlecht AZ Alkmaar Astra Fahkin' GooGoo Genk Celta Vigo Gent Krasnodar PAOK Salonika Hapoel Be'er Sheva Villarreal FC Rostov A German Club Legia Warsaw Ludogrets Razgrad
As he'll likely miss the first leg due to a cruciate injury, that would help us a little. Personally I'm looking forward to hearing anti-semetic chants aimed at our fans during an away trip to Beersheba...
But a dream scenario for some of us, and an utter nightmare for clan Baddiel : Our away support chants "Yid army" . And so do the home crowd.