Guys - much as it pains me to say it, but plain and simple we lost to Basel over 2 legs and Chelsea beat them!! Now, you can wrap that up anyway you like but the bottom line is that against the same opposition, in the same competition, only a couple of weeks apart, they achieved something - quite comfortably in the end - that we failed to achieve. Yes, we fought adversity to hang in there for extra time and pens, but they won 5-2 on aggregate...... Missing Bale and Lennon was obviously important for us, but the points raised about relative European experience and probably more significantly 'belief' are the main issues. I think AVB and the club invested a lot in EL success this year - quite rightly - but we came up short against a team who we thought we could beat. Now is not a great time to get churlish about the success of one of our rivals even if they do have access to far greater resources than ourselves. Better that we focus on making sure we get our own back in a weeks time - in a battle (for CL) that for me at least is far more significant for the club as a whole.
Chelsea had the benefit of already being able to have their slip up in European competition this season, though. They've been knocked out of one of them and now have a second bite of the cherry.
Ditto Benfica who finished behind Celtic in their CL group. 3rd in Group E plays 3rd in Group G in the final. It devalues the competition when it becomes a consolation prize for CL failures.
Not disputing that mate - but that's history and another debate entirely! We lost to Basel, they beat them - that's the unfortunate fact.... (I have said from day 1 that the CL 'failures' should not get that opportunity, but 'thems the rules' unfortunately!!)
I saw DL's comment about experience, but forgot to reply. I completely agree. All I was getting at, was that Basel didn't play as well against them as they did against us, IMO. That takes nothing away from Chelsea's ability to be able to see off opposition. Especially that goal from Luiz. - stunning. But we have to remember that they have a squad full of exceptional talent that cost a lot of money. They have players all over the pitch to hurt the opposition with goals that can come from just about anywhere. We are lucky to see a goal from one of our midfielders and we came up short because he don't have the resources or options Chelsea do. congratulations to Chelsea on making it though. Thank god that this year a European win can't do to us what it did last year!
Said it all along. Not our problem though I think what also helps Benfica and Chelsea is that not only can they learn from the mistakes by getting a 2nd bite at the cherry (As PNP was maybe eluding to), but the competition is also nowhere near as strong or as experienced as they are in the CL.
Thank you Roo that was a refreshingly honest comment. I must say that I agree with your fellow Spurs posters though in the sense it devalues the competition by having CL dropouts fall into the Europa League.
Same happens in rugby union's european competitions - my team lost the second rung quarter final to leinster FFS! I do, hoqwever, appreciate you may only have been talking football.
Yes i know Dan, however at least they provide an automatic Heineken cup place for the winner of the Amlin cup, as well.
I don't know why people get so worked up about this: EVERY team in the Europa League was behind the teams in the CL in the previous season's domestic league table. How can it devalue a competition by having better teams drop into it? If they called the pre-Christmas league competitions the Champions League qualifiers and the Europa League qualifiers then it would not look at all odd for the 3rd place team in the Champions qualifiers to qualify for the Europa. Its actually a very good idea to have a consolation prize for 3rd place as it keeps the lower teams honest.
And your problem with Sarries is????? lol - my local team years back when they played down the road in Cockfosters - followed them ever since. Mind you, they do polarise opinion - I was in Ireland recently and a few Munster fans were less than friendly when the subject came up!!!
Power - apart from giving clubs who qualified for Tournament A a chance to lose and still have another competition to play in, this leads to the EL being overlong and clearly lessens the chances of an originally qualified team winning through. No-one would have considered a team losing in an early stage of the old European Cup being allowed to drop into the the UEFA Cup - and if they had, we might not have had a couple of victories in that tournament!!
My best mate supports Sarries. Dragged me down to see them a few times. Always like the Grand Slams in the Summer.
