United should not denigrate the Thursday Cup. Ajax have won the Wednesday Cup four times, so it is an exciting draw. Do you think SAF field a weakened side like he did v Basel?
Aye, I was just saying on another thread - that is probably a bigger tie than any in the CL, possibly barring Arsenal vs Milan and Barca vs Bayer. Tho' the game itself might not be up to much - with Utd and Ajax both trailing a bit in the league they may not give the game a great deal of importance. It'll probably depend on their respective form and league positions in Feb, as well as injuries etc. If we have Ando, Cleverley, Hernandez, Rafael, Fabio, Berb and Owen back by then we'll probably put out a strong side. If not, we probably won't risk getting any more injuries. Damn, just listing all the injuries we have makes me feel depressed...
Ajax did well in a v tough group (prob harder than United's) v Real, Lyon, Dinamo. Swarbs, how do you think Benfica will get on.
I reckon Benfica could do pretty well - they played very well against us in both games. I'd expect them to beat Zenit, and could present a problem for anyone bar Barca or Real in the semis.
If nobody finds a trip to Amsterdam exciting then you are ****ing idiots. First time United have played Ajax in something like 35 years.
Well what is the ****ing point? If we win the Europa League we will have achieved nothing. It won't show we're the best in England, it won't show we're the best in Europe. We'll have won it because we ****ed up our Champions League Group. I don't give a **** about the Europa League and I'd rather we concentrate on the League and the FA Cup.
You could say the same thing about the FA Cup - if we win it we won't be the best in England (unless we also win the league) or in Europe.
I hope not. Mainly cos that wouldn't be fair to Basel - apparently it's the first time since the 1970s that they've reached the 2nd round of the EC / CL, really hope they don't get booted out just cos FIFA and Sion are involved in some power struggle / pissing contest...
Europa League is that good that Spurs couldnt be arsed taking enough players to fill the bench for some games. Says it all really. It falls below the Carling Cup thats for sure, just above the FA Vase and way above the Scottish premier League title......like everything else.
sion were completely out of order but basle shouldn't be punished regardless of what sion did - they were given a transfer embargo and still went out and signed about 6 players - as you say it would be very unfair on basle who have done nothing wrong
Not sure on the whole Sion thing - apparently FIFA may have enforced the transfer ban whilst the appeals process was still in place. But either way I agree that Basle shouldn't be punished when they've done nothing wrong.
United don't have a God given right to be in the Champions League every season. We are going to make mistakes down the line. That's how you live and learn. I for one can't wait for it. I won't be attending any home games becuase the atmosphere will be shocking. In fact I have booked to go Amsterdam but I am not entirely bothered about the result either. Yesterday at QPR there was 3000 of us taking the piss out of ourselves being in the Europa League. Let's be honest we were never going to win the Champions League either. So why not add this and become the only English team to have won every major European trophy.
I think from this point the EL is likely to be more exciting, after all the CL is now a forgone conclusion!
