Europa League Match-day 6

After two night's exhilaration of CL, it's time for the serenity of EL. With 9 of 24 places still up for grabs, there's still a bit of drama left for night # 6.

Swansea can join Valencia (surprised!!!) if they draw with Gallen. Ludogorets have qualified and so can PSV if they draw with Chornomorets. Salzburg along with Esbjerg have qualified. Kazan have qualified but Zulte (7), Wigan (5) and Maribor (4) are locked for the other place. Fiorentina along with Dnipro have qualified. Frankfurt have qualified while Maccabi, face eliminated Bordeaux, are almost there too.

Genk have qualified while Kiev (7) and Vienna (6) face-off for the other place. Sevilla (9), Liberec and Freiburg (both on 6) have kept this group alive. So have Lyon (9), Betis ( and Guimaraes (5) in Group I. Trabzonspor, Lazio, Spurs, Anzhi, Salonik and AZ have sealed their respective groups.

Freiburg have to play Sevilla tonight. Will they be able to defeat the Spanish team? I'll keep my fingers crossed for Christian Streich's team!

I think Freiburg will focus on league survival from this point on.

Well, I heard some interviews by the Freiburg guys - they totally want to win the match and will give everything. They even intend to play their strongest team as for them playing in Europe is a very great thing to do. They also expect a full house today. ^^

On the flip side, Lyon is qualified already and Bordeaux isn't since they kept playing 5-6 bench players in every game... and the bench players at Bordeaux aren't fit for Div 3. Kind of a disgrace how French teams other than Lyon approach Europa. Lyon actually speaks of this as if they care and put a good team forward.

Oh well. Money is a problem in Ligue 1 and, as Telefoot showed recently, the cost involved with playing and traveling for pool play in Europa isn't recovered by the revenue (attendance + UEFA monies). Most clubs end up losing money in Ligue 1. Reason? Attendance is awful for these games. Nobody goes to them unfortunately. For example, the top game in pool for Bordeaux was Frankfurt this year... their stadium holds 35k and only 19+k bought tickets with 15k showing up. Just nobody cares here for some reason.

It's strange and sad. England, Italy or Spain have teams fighting in CL so poor attendance for EL can be a logic. But very few French teams stay long in CL these years.

And in Germany, Armin Veh just said in the PK that he expects at least 30 000 people in the Commerzbank-Arena even though Frankfurt is already qualified and they play "only" Nikosia and so it is his duty to play his best team for the audience.

I just checked - in the last match, there were 19013 people in the stadium of Bordeaux - and 12 000 (!!) of them were supposedly travelling fans from Frankfurt...
Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/uefa/spielrunde/europa-league/2013-14/5/2313472/spielanalyse_girondins-bordeaux-974_eintracht-frankfurt-32.html

Reason is that French people only watch football if it's Ligue 1, NT or really high level European play... just the way it is.  Rugby is actually the preferred sport in a lot of places + peeps would rather go wine tasting, find some good food, etc and lounge.  No joke.

Reminds me of Los Angeles crowds.  You better be the best or nobody shows up.  There's a lot of other entertainment options that people will easily switch to.

This generalizing... you have places like OM, Nantes, Lyon, PSG, etc.  The bottom line is that footy isn't a national craze in France.  It's club specific and region specific...  BUT, with PSG and now Monaco, it's coming into style and more middle + upper class people are getting into it.  In the past, only blue collared peeps got really into it.

There's also a lot of general footy fans who would pay to see the likes of Ibra, Falcao, etc.

iftikhar wrote:It's strange and sad. England, Italy or Spain have teams fighting in CL so poor attendance for EL can be a logic. But very few French teams stay long in CL these years.

 That's not true.  That's only a very recent phenomenon.  Through the 2000s, you always had 2 and sometimes 3 french teams that went into elimination rounds in CL.  Lyon was always there and then Bordeaux, OM, Monaco, etc. had good years here and there.

sportsczy wrote:

iftikhar wrote:It's strange and sad. England, Italy or Spain have teams fighting in CL so poor attendance for EL can be a logic. But very few French teams stay long in CL these years.

 That's not true.  That's only a very recent phenomenon.  Through the 2000s, you always had 2 and sometimes 3 french teams that went into elimination rounds in CL.  Lyon was always there and then Bordeaux, OM, Monaco, etc. had good years here and there.

Yes, French presence in CL has been in decline for last 5-6 years.

Out of 24 games, they have picked Swansea and 'Would You Believe WIGAN' games for telecast. Gosh, this PL ass-licking should have some limits.

HT - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:0 APOEL Nikosia

Looks like Frankfurt forgot to drink their target water before the match

iftikhar wrote:Out of 24 games, they have picked Swansea and 'Would You Believe WIGAN' games for telecast. Gosh, this PL ass-licking should have some limits.

If you want to watch Freiburg vs Sevilla - it will be streamed for free at ran.de. With a German proxy you can take a look in pretty good quality.

http://www.ran.de/fussball/europa-league/news/fluch-oder-segen-freiburgs-endspiel-um-europa-112540

Yay! Stephan Schröck scored!

Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0 APOEL

shocking scenes in the Swansea match

a goal line official has actually ruled out a goal

I thought they were just there for the front row seats and half time cakes

Wat? (Goal ref)

-------------------

Well, fortunately Constant Djakpa's goal for the Eintracht stood, and it is now 2:0.

FT - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:0 APOEL Nikosia

rwo power wrote:

iftikhar wrote:Out of 24 games, they have picked Swansea and 'Would You Believe WIGAN' games for telecast. Gosh, this PL ass-licking should have some limits.

If you want to watch Freiburg vs Sevilla - it will be streamed for free at ran.de. With a German proxy you can take a look in pretty good quality.

http://www.ran.de/fussball/europa-league/news/fluch-oder-segen-freiburgs-endspiel-um-europa-112540

Thanks hun, but I browse from mobile so no streaming.

Valencia drew with Kuban (1-1), Swansea lost to Gallen (1-2) and Wigan lost to Maribor (1-2).

Iborra from Sevilla scores in the 38th minute. Typical. Freiburg misses all the good chances and the first good chance by Sevilla leads to a goal. The story of Freiburg this season...

Valencia and Sevilla scraping through the group stages I see

Fiorentina with a comfortable win over Dnipro. Cuadrado beasting with a goal and assist.

La Viola have won their group. At least one Italian side taking the comp seriously.

Aww, the linesman in the Freiburg match got a muscle strain in the calf and has to be subbed XD

halamadrid2 wrote:Valencia and Sevilla scraping through the group stages I see

Not really scraping considering Sevilla qualified in the last round and have been top since matchday one. They've had a couple of complacent performances but the group has been a breeze.

Well, so Freiburg is out. The players and coach were a bit sad, but they now want to concentrate on the Bundesliga. This means of the three BL teams originally qualified for the EL, only Eintracht Frankfurt made it, while Stuttgart stumbled at the very first hurdle and Freiburg today.

Funnily, of the 4 BL teams starting in the CL all survived there. So much for the BL only improving the UEFA coefficient via the EL

I think BL teams are unpredictable, except d two thugs.
My boy Holtby showing the over-hyped MF from Spurs how to play football from the middle
Soldado hattrick how d frrack they managed to put 4 goals just before they play us on weekend