Does anyone think theres a team in the comp (before teams from the CL come down) that can better us at home? Theres some great team but I'd be quietly confident at home against the like of Inter, Napoli, Lyon etc, the trickiest would be Ath Madrid but we are more then capable! Perhaps we can get Tiote to "eliminate" Falcao! But with our home advantage we can do well in this comp! But do you guys think the longer this comp goes on the stronger our team will get or will we play our fringe-ish players all the way through?
Horses for courses, Pards will pick a team that he thinks can get us through without risking injury to some of the big hitters.
With this group of players, and the massive hump in our pitch, St James' is definitely a massively difficult away day fixture. Bordeaux are not a bad side at all, and probably in the upper echelons of the teams currently in the competition. I say currently, because the rejects are coming, and they might count Man City among their number. With what we are putting out at present, barring a major injury-fest, I think we'd get to the Quarters. First team squad choice and we could go further. As long as we keep up reasonable 7th/8th place league form, I'd be happy with a good run in the Europa. But watch me say this and then us get tanked at home by West Ham Overall, very optimistic about the competition. 3pts still required for progression though!
I wouldn't fancy us to beat Napoli mind. And West Ham have every chance of beating us on Sunday. I think its unfair that the CL teams drop into the Europa to be honest. Round of 16 is a good run, Quarters is tremendous.
Equally ridiculous, to me, is the fact the winner of the Europa doesn't get a CL spot. Surely it's called the Champions league for a reason?
Agree. It's terrible. To be honest I always thought they did until about a year ago when I argued about it at work with someone and looked into it. The winner of the EL doesn't get into the CL but finishing FOURTH in a domestic league does!?
