The people from Volga on a visit in Thessaloniki

In the last round of the group phase in Europa League the Greek team P.A.O.K will be host to Rubin Kazan on Toumba stadium. In their local tournaments both teams are ranked as 5th. In their group, however, P.A.O.K. are right now 1st with 11 points, while the Russians are behind them with only 1 point difference. Tottenham are surprisingly for many fans 3rd, having 7 points, which still gives them the chance to replace Rubin Kazan on the second place. Tottenham are playing today against Shamrock and need a miracle to qualify. They need to get 5 goals difference so that they could have a chance to qualify and Rubin should fail to get a point from the game today.
During the last round PAOK won against Tottenham and this secured their participation in the next phase of the tournament. This was though concidered by many as something normal, because at that time they were competing for their place in the more prestigeous Champions League. In my opinion the game between PAOK and Rubin Kazan will end with a result similar to the one before, which was 2-2. Rubin, however, will be the team that will seek the victory from the game, because it will guarantee them the place in the next phase.

Last night in Europa league groups- Lost hopes and training matches along with some derbies

Here it is-the last day in the Europa league groupstage. Some dissappointments were seen along with brilliant matches and outstanding results. But anyway the points are all thath matter disregarding the good games. Now some teams are sure about their qualification in the next round and are aimig for the gold medals and the cups: Manchester City, Lech Poznan, Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting Lisbon, Villarieal, PAOK, Dinamo Kyiv, Bate Borisov, CSKA Moskva, Sparta Prague, Zenit, Stuttgart, Young Boys, PSV Eindhoven, Metalist Kharkiv, Paris Sait-Germain, Sevilla, Liverpool, Napoli, Porto and Besiktas. On the other hand there are still battles(some direct, some indiect) for a place in the last round. Team such as Anderlecht and AEK Athens, Lille and Gent, Atletico and Aris are in a desparate need of points to insure their place in the next round. Even though these teams will give the maximum of their skills some of them will evenually be eliminated. At last teams such as Zaszburg, Juventus, Rosenborg, Levski,Dinamo Zagreb, Club Brugge, Sheriff, Loussane Sport, Hajduk Split, Getafe, Odense, Debreceni, Sampdoria, Karpaty Lviv, Borussia Dormund, Steaua, Utrecht, Rapid Wien and CSKA Sofia have lost their chancesfor the last 32 teams to continue. Nevertheless there are some other factors such as the internal cups that are the most important for some of these tams and their elimination is not such a big deal.

Europa League: Matches, Results and Tables

In the middle of the Europa League matches it’s beginning to come clear some of the clubs that will qualify for the knock-out stage of the tournament. There are some outstanding results as well, but in general the strongest teams in Europe have easy time playing their matches. Here are the results and the possible rotations of the teams till the final stage in the groups.

Group A:
1. Lech Poznan 1-1 Juventus
2. Manchester City 3-0 Red Bull Zalzburg

Table

1. Manchester City FC - 10p.
2. KKS Lech Poznan - 8p.
3. Juventus – 5p.
4. FC Red Bull Zalzburg – 2p.

Manchester City 100% qualifies for the next stage, Lech Poznan needs only 1 point or Juventus to lose their match to insure their qualification, Juventus needs a victory in their last match + a lost of Lech Poznan form the last Zalzburg, while Zalzburg is eliminated from the tournament.


Group B:
1. Club Atletico de Madrid 2-3 Aris Thessalonici
2. Rosenborg BK 0-1 Bayer 04 Levekusen

Table

1. Bayer 04 Levekusen - 11p.
2. Aris Thessalonici – 7p.
3. Club Atletico de Madrid – 7p.
4. Rosenborg Bk - 3p.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 100% qualifies for the next stage, If Aris wins they will qualify, but if the lose or make a draw Atletico will have to lose otherwise they will be eliminated, opposite with Atletico, while Rosenborg Bk is already eliminated.

Group C:
1. Sporting Clube de Portugal 1-0 LOSC Lille Metropole
2. KAA Gent 1–0 Levski Sofia

Table

1. Sporting Clube de Portugal – 12p.
2. Kaa Gent – 7p.
3. Lille – 5p.
4. Levski - 4p.

Sporting Lisboa 100% qualifies, Gent will have to get a draw or win in their last match to insure their qualification, Lille will need only vitory and Gent to lose to qualify, while Levski is eliminated.

Group D:
1. PAOK FC 1-0 Villareal
2. Club Brugge 0-2 Dinamo Zagreb

Table

1. PAOK FC – 7p.
2. NK Dinamo Zagreb -7p.
3. Villareal CF – 6p.
4. Club Brugge -2p.

In this group nothing is certain because there are still 2 more rounds to play so everything’s possible.


There are still more groups to be added...

Weak Atletico against reinforced Liverpool

Atletico Madrid will play on 22 of April on their stadium against one of the most famous football clubs-Liverpool. The semi-final will be played despite the tough weather in Western Europe. Both teams will have the chance of reaching the final in the first year of this tournament that continues the previous "Uefa league". The two teams had a dissapointing season so far and that's the last chance for them to "save the season" and win a precious trophy. Atletico is inconstant in their matches in the Primera Division, by winning against strong opponents and loses agaist very weak ones. Despite that they did very well in Europa League, defeating Valencia very hard while Liverpool managed to defeat Benfica with excelent game and a win of 4-1. While Atletico is currently at the 10th position in Primera Division and struggles to win more points to qualify for the European tournaments next year, Liverpool start to return their form by winning first against Benfica and then recently a win against West Ham with 3-0 was achieved. Now they have a strong opponent to defeat, but the ambitions of the Board are big so they have to deal with it and fulfill the aims of their fans with a great win. Of course, Atletico are playing on their Stadium and will have to win to increase their chances to continue but it would be very hard to achieve that. I expetc a deuce or a win for Liverpool, because of their recent form and the lot of wins they made. Expectations-X2

Ambitious Liverpool against defensive Lille

In match for a 1/4 final place Lille and Liverpool will battle for prestige and qualifying for the next stage. In the first match Lille scored goal in the 83th minute to win the game and increase their chances of advancing the 1/4 finals. But Liverpool is a team with great history and players and should never be counted off a tournament and they have the chance to improve their form by winning this match. They're desperately fighting to get in the Big 4 till the end of the season against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City. Improvement is seen during Liverpool last games despite the lost form Wigan. In the other hand Lille have a very good league position and 99% will qualify again for the Europe club tournaments. Their won in the first match wasn't a big surprize but they will have to repeat the good performance again to defeat the team from "Anfield". Besides Lille have a strong defence and powerful attack completely equal to their opponents. I expect a hard match with lots of fouls and a hard win for Liverpool with 1-0 or 2-0 and maybe extra time will be played.

Fulham - Juventus

This will be one of the most interesting matches in Europa League. Fullam lost the last game with 3:1 on the stadium of Juventus. It is expected that Juventus will continue to the next stage of Europa League, but this type of game is always full of surprizes. We saw that Chelsea lost the last game with 0:1 although they were the favorits in this match. Fulham are not in a good shape, but they will do their best to qualify for the next stage. they need to keep a result of 3:1 in order to have another 30 minutes of game. Roy Hodgson will change his tactics and will probably rely mainly on his best players to at least try to maintain the result draw until the 30 minutes come. Fullham had several recent matches lost and they haven't won a match since 25.02. Fulham are on the 10th position in the UK and now their effort is doubled, because they have to play in both: The Premier League and Europa League. We will wath an interesting derby between representatives of the 2 best countris in soccer: England and Italy. Chances for Juventus to classify for the next stage - 80%. Chances for Fulham to classify for the next stange - 20%.