From: Werner Pichler on
Europa League Matchday 4

* = qualified for the round of 32

Group A

RSC Anderlecht - FC Timişoara 3-1
(Suárez (pen) 30', Boussoufa 69', Legear 90'+5; Parks 51')

The Costa Rican Winston Parks scored Timişoara's first goal of the
competition, from a corner, but it wasn't enough against a very
decent Anderlecht side.


NK Dinamo Zagreb - AFC Ajax 0-2
(Pantelić 14', de Zeeuw 45'+1; Red Cards: Cufré (Zag) 36', Calello
(Zag) 73')

Last week Dinamo were deducted 3 points for crowd troubles in their
away match in Timişoara, which effectively already eliminated them
before
this match was played. Additionally, they were sentenced to play this
and the
next home game behind closed doors.
The two red cards probably didn't help either.


Table

1 Anderlecht 6-2 8*
2 Ajax 5-2 8
3 Timişoara 1-6 2
4 Dinamo Zagreb 4-6 0 (3 points deducted)

Anderlecht are through. Ajax need one more point.
Dinamo are out.


Group B

SK Slavia Praha - Valencia CF 1-2
(Janda 79', Grajciar 82'; Joaquin (pen) 22'; Maduro 47';
Red Cards: Šenkeřík (Sla) 48', Baraja (Val) 90'+4)

Valencia again carelessly threw away 2 points against ten-man Slavia,
which could prove very costly in the end. This, and Baraja's
suspension.


Genoa CFC - LOSC Lille 3-2
(Palacio 14', Crespo 58', Sculli 90'+3; Frau 76', Gervinho 84')

Important win for Genoa. Crespo's goal could be used as definition
for 'garbage goal', a corner headed across goal, missed, deflected,
parried on the goal line by a player of the own team, onto the post,
back to Crespo and finally in. In response, Scarpi bungled the ball
over his goal line from Frau's header and Gervinho's shot from an
acute angle was also somehow deflected into the Genoa net.
In the last seconds of the match Sculli, who despite Landreau's wild
gesticulating at the linesman was not offside, coolly controlled the
ball from a Palladino cross, side-stepped a defender and secured
three points for Genoa.


Table

1 Lille 11-5 7
2 Valencia 7-6 6
3 Genoa 7-8 6
4 Slavia Praha 4-10 2

Group wide open, even Slavia have still a chance if they
win their home game against Genoa.


Group C

Hamburger SV - Celtic FC 0-0

Balanced, rather poor game. Watching this you'd never have
realised that Celtic absolutely needed a victory. Rost parried
two chances by McDonald early on, from then on HSV was
in control without really threatening to score.


SK Rapid Wien - Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC 0-3
(Yadin 12', Vermouth 64', Natcho 70')

Total score over two matches: Rapid 1, Hapoel 8.
This Vermouth is bitter! (And that Natcho was
a little hard to digest, too)

A mirror image of the game two weeks ago, with a balanced
first half (both teams defensively dodgy, Yadin's goal from
wide range a little lucky because of a deflection) and Rapid
completely falling apart in the 2nd.
Very good performance by Hapoel in the second half, exposing
Rapid's defensive weaknesses (Dober! Katzer!! Patocka!!!) again
and again.

Table

1 Hapoel Tel Aviv 12-6 9
2 HSV 5-5 7
3 Rapid 5-9 4
4 Celtic 2-4 2

Who'd have thought? Hapoel only needs one more point
to secure qualification to the round of 32.
Rapid could still qualify with two wins over HSV and Celtic,
fat chance. A HSV win against Rapid in the next round
will put them through.


Group D

Sporting Clube de Portugal - FK Ventspils 1-1
(Saleiro 22'; Zamperini 15')

Zamperini's header from a freekick put Ventspils in front. The Italian
has an interesting career, eight years ago he debuted as a
19-year-old for Portsmouth in the First Division but he subsequently
ended up in Serie C2 before moving to Latvia, obviously a good
move, career-wise.
Saleiro equalised with another header 8 minutes later. Kolinko
(remember him from Euro 2004?) parried a couple of chances
to earn the Latvians their third point.


SC Heerenveen - Hertha BSC Berlin 2-3
(Papadopoulos 3', 36'; Domovchiyski 21', 52', Wichniarek 89')

So everyone had already written of the Old Lady of Berlin? Me too,
I've got to admit, especially after Papadopoulos (a Czech by the way)
capitalised on yet another defensive error after a corner 3 minutes
into
the game. But Heerenveen had more pity on Hertha than Sven and
Matthias and returned the favour with lots of defensive lapses of
their
own. Artur Wichniarek, so far the epitome of Hertha's terrible season,
assisted two goals and scored the decisive one himself, his first
since his return from Bielefeld.

Probably Hertha's best performance so far this season.


Table

1 Sporting 7-4 10
2 Hertha 4-5 4
3 Heerenveen 5-6 4
4 Ventspils 3-4 3

Sporting need one point to qualify although a 1-2 defeat
against Hertha or a 0-1 defeat against Heerenveen would
also suffice.
This must be the weakest group of the competition.


Group E

AS Roma - Fulham FC 2-1
(Riise 69', Okaka 76'; Kamara (pen) 19';
Red Cards: Nevland (Ful) 49', Konchesky (Ful) 90')

Clash of the Riise brothers, pt. II, and this time John Arne was the
clear winner, although it didn't look like that in the first half.
Andreolli fouled
Kamara in the box, who converted the resulting penalty himself.
Roma was much better in the 2nd half, especially after Nevland, who
had been introduced to the match only at half-time, was sent off for
a
needless tackle from behind on De Rossi.
Riise (J.A.) finally levelled the score with a shot that took two
deflections off Fulham players, and I think one of them was Bjørn
Helge. Okaka scored the winner with an emphatic header that Schwarzer
just couldn't keep out and Fulham had another player sent off in the
dying
seconds after another late tackle from behind by Konchesky .


FC Basel 1893 - CSKA Sofia 3-1
(Gelabert 35', Frei (pen) 41', 67'; Yanchev 61')

Quiet and consistent, Basel move steadily towards the next round.
I'd give the first Basel goal to Huggel who deflected Gelabert's shot
decisively. To give the Bulgarians some consolation, I think Yanchev's
goal was one of the best this matchday.


Table

1 Basel 7-2 9
2 Roma 5-4 7
3 Fulham 4-4 5
4 CSKA Sofia 2-8 1


Group F

FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti - Galatasaray AŞ 0-3
(Kewell 22', Nonda 24', Topal 56'; Red Card: N'Doye (Din) 68')

A convincing victory puts Gala through to the next round...


SK Sturm Graz - Panathinaikos 0-1
(Katsouranis 70')

....while Sturm are out, and deservedly so, 80 minutes
of timid football won't bring you anywhere.
Still, a valuable experience for a young team.

Table

1 Galatasaray 11-3 10*
2 Panathinaikos 4-3 9
3 Dinamo Bucureşti 2-8 3
4 Sturm Graz 1-4 1

Panathinaikos only need one more point.
Sturm are eliminated.


Group G


Levski Sofia - Red Bull Salzburg 0-0
(Schiemer 90'+3; Red Card: Sarmov 62')

Janko hit the post early on and Yovov missed the net from 5 metres
out, after that not much happened until Levski 'keeper Petkov decided
to make a bizarre excursion outside the area, lost the ball and Sarmov
had to bring down Å vento which got him sent off. Again, not much
happened but just when I thought the night would be an unmitigated
desaster for the Austrian clubs (0 goals, 1 point), in the 93rd minute
Schiemer headed in a Schwegler throw-in that crossed almost the
entire penalty box - the Swiss might not be the very best rightback
around but boy can he throw the ball far.


Villarreal CF - S.S. Lazio 4-1
(Pirès 2', 15' (pen), Cani 13', Rossi (pen) 83'; Zárate 72';
Red Cards: Baronio (Laz) 4', Gonzalo (Vil) 32')

Pires scored with a free kick that sailed past everyone. Minutes later
Baronio got sent off for slapping Llorente (who went down in a heap,
poor
boy) only he didn't even touch him. Cani made it 2-0 and Pires
converted
a penalty after a foul on Nilmar. Lazio were given a lifeline when
Gonzalo
was sent off for fouling Rocchi as last man but Foggia shot the
ensuing
penalty against the bar. Zárate finally pulled one back in the 2nd
half and
both sides missed further chances before Rossi converted the 3rd
penalty
of the night after a foul on Cani.


8 yellow cards, 2 red cards, 3 penalties, 5 goals.
Highly entertaining game. Has the Yellow Submarine finally surfaced?


Table

1 Salzburg 6-1 12
2 Villarreal 6-5 6
3 Lazio 8-7 6
4 Levski Sofia 0-7 0

Levski are eliminated, Salzburg have 4 victories in 4 games but
are not mathematically qualified yet, although even a defeat
by 1 goal to Villarreal would be enough to secure the next round.


Group H

FC Twente - FC Sheriff 2-1
(Stoch 7', 89'; Tioté (og) 68')

In the last minute of the match Sheriff goalkeeper Namaşco let
Stoch's savable shot squirm through to put Twente back on track
towards qualification.


Fenerbahçe SK - FC Steaua Bucureşti 3-1
(André Santos 15', Bilica 51', Alex 67'; Kapetanos 38')

Three Brazilians combined to give Fenerbahçe a comfortable victory.


Table

1 Fenerbahçe 6-3 9
2 Twente 4-4 6
3 Sheriff Tiraspol 3-3 4
4 Steaua Bucureşti 1-4 2


Group I

AEK Athens - FC BATE Borisov 2-2
(Blanco 1', Manduca 38'; Rodionov 17', Volodko 26';
Red Card: Shitov (Bor) 75')

Blanco opened the scoring after 14 seconds. BATE's
2nd was a gift by AEK 'keeper Saja.
The deliciously named Shitov was sent off with 2
yellow cards but BATE held on to the point that keeps
their qualification hopes alive.


Everton - SL Benfica 0-2
(Saviola 63', Óscar Cardozo 76')

Eusébio was in the stands and saw a convincing
Benfica side beat a harmless Everton, again.

Cardozo's goal was probably offside, but in the
end this didn't really matter.


Table

1 Benfica 9-1 9
2 Everton 6-8 6
3 BATE Borisov 5-7 4
4 AEK 4-8 4


Group J

Toulouse FC - FC Shakhtar Donetsk 0-2
(Luiz Adriano 49', Hai 63')

4th straight win for the reigning champions although
this time they 'only' scored 2.

FK Partizan - Club Brugge KV 2-4
(Ljajić 52', Washington 66'; Perišić 28', Kouemaha 36', 57', Odjidja
74';
Red Card: Krstajić (Par) 80')


Table

1 Shakhtar Donetsk 14-2 12*
2 Brugge 9-8 7
3 Toulouse 5-10 4
4 Partizan Beograd 5-13 0

Partizan are out. Brugge host Toulouse on the last
matchday.


Group K

FC København - PSV Eindhoven 1-1
(Grønkjær (pen) 40'; Dzsudzsák 72')

Grønkjær converted a soft penalty, PSV's young Hungarian
Dzsudzsák equalised from close range.


CFR 1907 Cluj - AC Sparta Praha 2-3
(Traoré 25', Dubarbier 90'+1; Holenda 6', 13', Wilfried 90'+5;
Red Cards: Mureşan (Clu) 64', Mara (Clu) 88')

Cluj's highly international team suffered drama when they,
reduced to 9 men, heroically scored a last-minute equaliser
by the Argentine Dubarbier before they went down to a
last-gasp-effort by Ivorian Bony Wilfried (I really love some
of these names).


Table

1 PSV 5-3 8
2 Sparta Praha 7-5 7
3 København 2-4 4
4 Cluj 4-6 3


Group L

Werder Bremen - FK Austria Wien 2-0
(Borowski 81', Almeida 84')

I might be biased here, but Austria should have won this game.
They had a number of gilt-edged chances, but an excellent Wiese
and bad finishing kept a poor Werder side in the game, before
Borowski scored an obvious offside goal. Tell me again, what did
they put two extra refs on the field for? Especially bitter, since
in the first game Austria were denied a legitimate goal for offside.
Immediately afterwards, Almeida finished off a demoralized Austria
with his first goal after coming back from injury.


CD Nacional - Athletic Club 1-1
(Edgar (pen) 64'; Etxeberria (pen) 85'; Red Card: Nuno Pinto (Nac)
79')

Another game, another penalty, this time for a foul by Athletic
'keeper Iraizoz on Slovenian international Pečnik. More than a little
strange was the fact that the Scottish referee Callum wanted to do
away with the penalty entirely and instead award Athletic a freekick
after a Nacional player ran too early into the penalty area, only the
penalty box ref could convince him to simply let retake Edgar the
penalty, for God's sake.

Athletic equalised through, you guessed right, a penalty, awarded
for a foul on Díaz de Cerio.


Table

1 Werder Bremen 10-5 10*
2 Athletic Bilbao 7-5 7
3 Nacional Funchal 5-7 2
4 Austria Wien 3-8 2

Werder are through, Bilbao need one point in Vienna.



I'll finish again with the current Country Ranking
from Bert Kassies' site:

Season 2009/10

1 Italy 8.285
2 Spain 8.071
3 England 7.928
4 Germany 7.583
5 France 7.500
6 Austria 7.375
7 Netherlands 6.583
8 Israel 6.500
9 Turkey 5.600
10 Switzerland 5.500



Ciao,
Werner
From: Enzo on
On Nov 6, 2:07 am, Werner Pichler <wpich...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Europa League Matchday 4
>
> * = qualified for the round of 32
>
> Group A
>
> RSC Anderlecht   - FC Timişoara 3-1
> (Suárez (pen) 30', Boussoufa 69', Legear 90'+5; Parks 51')
>
> The Costa Rican Winston Parks scored Timişoara's first goal of the
> competition, from a corner, but it wasn't enough against a very
> decent Anderlecht side.
>
> NK Dinamo Zagreb - AFC Ajax 0-2
> (Pantelić 14', de Zeeuw 45'+1; Red Cards: Cufré (Zag) 36', Calello
> (Zag) 73')
>
> Last week Dinamo were deducted 3 points for crowd troubles in their
> away match in Timişoara, which effectively already eliminated them
> before
> this match was played. Additionally, they were sentenced to play this
> and the
> next home game behind closed doors.
> The two red cards probably didn't help either.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Anderlecht 6-2 8*
> 2 Ajax 5-2 8
> 3 Timişoara 1-6 2
> 4 Dinamo Zagreb 4-6 0 (3 points deducted)
>
> Anderlecht are through. Ajax need one more point.
> Dinamo are out.
>
> Group B
>
> SK Slavia Praha  - Valencia CF 1-2
> (Janda 79', Grajciar 82'; Joaquin (pen) 22'; Maduro 47';
> Red Cards: Šenkeřík (Sla) 48', Baraja (Val) 90'+4)
>
> Valencia again carelessly threw away 2 points against ten-man Slavia,
> which could prove very costly in the end. This, and Baraja's
> suspension.
>
> Genoa CFC - LOSC Lille 3-2
> (Palacio 14', Crespo 58', Sculli 90'+3; Frau 76', Gervinho 84')
>
> Important win for Genoa. Crespo's goal could be used as definition
> for 'garbage goal', a corner headed across goal, missed, deflected,
> parried on the goal line by a player of the own team, onto the post,
> back to Crespo and finally in. In response, Scarpi bungled the ball
> over his goal line from Frau's header and Gervinho's shot from an
> acute angle was also somehow deflected into the Genoa net.
> In the last seconds of the match Sculli, who despite Landreau's wild
> gesticulating at the linesman was not offside, coolly controlled the
> ball from a Palladino cross, side-stepped a defender and secured
> three points for Genoa.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Lille 11-5 7
> 2 Valencia 7-6 6
> 3 Genoa 7-8 6
> 4 Slavia Praha 4-10 2
>
> Group wide open, even Slavia have still a chance if they
> win their home game against Genoa.
>
> Group C
>
> Hamburger SV - Celtic FC 0-0
>
> Balanced, rather poor game. Watching this you'd never have
> realised that Celtic absolutely needed a victory. Rost parried
> two chances by McDonald early on, from then on HSV was
> in control without really threatening to score.
>
> SK Rapid Wien - Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC 0-3
> (Yadin 12', Vermouth 64', Natcho 70')
>
> Total score over two matches: Rapid 1, Hapoel 8.
> This Vermouth is bitter! (And that Natcho was
> a little hard to digest, too)
>
> A mirror image of the game two weeks ago, with a balanced
> first half (both teams defensively dodgy, Yadin's goal from
> wide range a little lucky because of a deflection) and Rapid
> completely falling apart in the 2nd.
> Very good performance by Hapoel in the second half, exposing
> Rapid's defensive weaknesses (Dober! Katzer!! Patocka!!!) again
> and again.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Hapoel Tel Aviv 12-6 9
> 2 HSV 5-5 7
> 3 Rapid 5-9 4
> 4 Celtic 2-4 2
>
> Who'd have thought? Hapoel only needs one more point
> to secure qualification to the round of 32.
> Rapid could still qualify with two wins over HSV and Celtic,
> fat chance. A HSV win against Rapid in the next round
> will put them through.
>
> Group D
>
> Sporting Clube de Portugal - FK Ventspils 1-1
> (Saleiro 22'; Zamperini 15')
>
> Zamperini's header from a freekick put Ventspils in front. The Italian
> has an interesting career, eight years ago he debuted as a
> 19-year-old for Portsmouth in the First Division but he subsequently
> ended up in Serie C2 before moving to Latvia, obviously a good
> move, career-wise.
> Saleiro equalised with another header 8 minutes later. Kolinko
> (remember him from Euro 2004?) parried a couple of chances
> to earn the Latvians their third point.
>
> SC Heerenveen - Hertha BSC Berlin 2-3
> (Papadopoulos 3', 36'; Domovchiyski 21', 52', Wichniarek 89')
>
> So everyone had already written of the Old Lady of Berlin? Me too,
> I've got to admit, especially after Papadopoulos (a Czech by the way)
> capitalised on yet another defensive error after a corner 3 minutes
> into
> the game. But Heerenveen had more pity on Hertha than Sven and
> Matthias and returned the favour with lots of defensive lapses of
> their
> own. Artur Wichniarek, so far the epitome of Hertha's terrible season,
> assisted two goals and scored the decisive one himself, his first
> since his return from Bielefeld.
>
> Probably Hertha's best performance so far this season.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Sporting 7-4 10
> 2 Hertha 4-5 4
> 3 Heerenveen 5-6 4
> 4 Ventspils 3-4 3
>
> Sporting need one point to qualify although a 1-2 defeat
> against Hertha or a 0-1 defeat against Heerenveen would
> also suffice.
> This must be the weakest group of the competition.
>
> Group E
>
> AS Roma - Fulham FC 2-1
> (Riise 69', Okaka 76'; Kamara (pen) 19';
> Red Cards: Nevland (Ful) 49', Konchesky (Ful) 90')
>
> Clash of the Riise brothers, pt. II, and this time John Arne was the
> clear winner, although it didn't look like that in the first half.
> Andreolli fouled
> Kamara in the box, who converted the resulting penalty himself.
> Roma was much better in the 2nd half, especially after Nevland, who
> had been introduced to the match only at half-time, was sent off for
> a
> needless tackle from behind on De Rossi.
> Riise (J.A.) finally levelled the score with a shot that took two
> deflections off Fulham players, and I think one of them was Bjørn
> Helge. Okaka scored the winner with an emphatic header that Schwarzer
> just couldn't keep out and Fulham had another player sent off in the
> dying
> seconds after another late tackle from behind by Konchesky .
>
> FC Basel 1893 - CSKA Sofia 3-1
> (Gelabert 35', Frei (pen) 41', 67'; Yanchev 61')
>
> Quiet and consistent, Basel move steadily towards the next round.
> I'd give the first Basel goal to Huggel who deflected Gelabert's shot
> decisively. To give the Bulgarians some consolation, I think Yanchev's
> goal was one of the best this matchday.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Basel 7-2 9
> 2 Roma 5-4 7
> 3 Fulham 4-4 5
> 4 CSKA Sofia 2-8 1
>
> Group F
>
> FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti - Galatasaray AŞ 0-3
> (Kewell 22', Nonda 24', Topal 56'; Red Card: N'Doye (Din) 68')
>
> A convincing victory puts Gala through to the next round...
>
> SK Sturm Graz - Panathinaikos 0-1
> (Katsouranis 70')
>
> ...while Sturm are out, and deservedly so, 80 minutes
> of timid football won't bring you anywhere.
> Still, a valuable experience for a young team.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Galatasaray 11-3 10*
> 2 Panathinaikos 4-3 9
> 3 Dinamo Bucureşti 2-8 3
> 4 Sturm Graz 1-4 1
>
> Panathinaikos only need one more point.
> Sturm are eliminated.
>
> Group G
>
> Levski Sofia - Red Bull Salzburg 0-0
> (Schiemer 90'+3; Red Card: Sarmov 62')
>
> Janko hit the post early on and Yovov missed the net from 5 metres
> out, after that not much happened until Levski 'keeper Petkov decided
> to make a bizarre excursion outside the area, lost the ball and Sarmov
> had to bring down Å vento which got him sent off. Again, not much
> happened but just when I thought the night would be an unmitigated
> desaster for the Austrian clubs (0 goals, 1 point), in the 93rd minute
> Schiemer headed in a Schwegler throw-in that crossed almost the
> entire penalty box - the Swiss might not be the very best rightback
> around but boy can he throw the ball far.
>
> Villarreal CF - S.S. Lazio 4-1
> (Pirès 2', 15' (pen), Cani 13', Rossi (pen) 83'; Zárate 72';
> Red Cards: Baronio (Laz) 4', Gonzalo (Vil) 32')
>
> Pires scored with a free kick that sailed past everyone. Minutes later
> Baronio got sent off for slapping Llorente (who went down in a heap,
> poor
> boy) only he didn't even touch him. Cani made it 2-0 and Pires
> converted
> a penalty after a foul on Nilmar. Lazio were given a lifeline when
> Gonzalo
> was sent off for fouling Rocchi as last man but Foggia shot the
> ensuing
> penalty against the bar. Zárate finally pulled one back in the 2nd
> half and
> both sides missed further chances before Rossi converted the 3rd
> penalty
> of the night after a foul on Cani.
>
> 8 yellow cards, 2 red cards, 3 penalties, 5 goals.
> Highly entertaining game. Has the Yellow Submarine finally surfaced?
>
> Table
>
> 1 Salzburg 6-1 12
> 2 Villarreal 6-5 6
> 3 Lazio 8-7 6
> 4 Levski Sofia 0-7 0
>
> Levski are eliminated, Salzburg have 4 victories in 4 games but
> are not mathematically qualified yet, although even a defeat
> by 1 goal to Villarreal would be enough to secure the next round.
>
> Group H
>
> FC Twente        - FC Sheriff 2-1
> (Stoch 7', 89'; Tioté (og) 68')
>
> In the last minute of the match Sheriff goalkeeper Namaşco let
> Stoch's savable shot squirm through to put Twente back on track
> towards qualification.
>
> Fenerbahçe SK - FC Steaua Bucureşti 3-1
> (André Santos 15', Bilica 51', Alex 67'; Kapetanos 38')
>
> Three Brazilians combined to give Fenerbahçe a comfortable victory.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Fenerbahçe 6-3 9
> 2 Twente 4-4 6
> 3 Sheriff Tiraspol 3-3 4
> 4 Steaua Bucureşti 1-4 2
>
> Group I
>
> AEK Athens - FC BATE Borisov 2-2
> (Blanco 1', Manduca 38'; Rodionov 17', Volodko 26';
> Red Card: Shitov (Bor) 75')
>
> Blanco opened the scoring after 14 seconds. BATE's
> 2nd was a gift by AEK 'keeper Saja.
> The deliciously named Shitov was sent off with 2
> yellow cards but BATE held on to the point that keeps
> their qualification hopes alive.
>
> Everton - SL Benfica 0-2
> (Saviola 63', Óscar Cardozo 76')
>
> Eusébio was in the stands and saw a convincing
> Benfica side beat a harmless Everton, again.
>
> Cardozo's goal was probably offside, but in the
> end this didn't really matter.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Benfica 9-1 9
> 2 Everton 6-8 6
> 3 BATE Borisov 5-7 4
> 4 AEK 4-8 4
>
> Group J
>
> Toulouse FC - FC Shakhtar Donetsk 0-2
> (Luiz Adriano 49', Hai 63')
>
> 4th straight win for the reigning champions although
> this time they 'only' scored 2.
>
> FK Partizan - Club Brugge KV 2-4
> (Ljajić 52', Washington 66'; Perišić 28', Kouemaha 36', 57', Odjidja
> 74';
> Red Card: Krstajić (Par) 80')
>
> Table
>
> 1 Shakhtar Donetsk 14-2 12*
> 2 Brugge 9-8 7
> 3 Toulouse 5-10 4
> 4 Partizan Beograd 5-13 0
>
> Partizan are out. Brugge host Toulouse on the last
> matchday.
>
> Group K
>
> FC København - PSV Eindhoven 1-1
> (Grønkjær (pen) 40'; Dzsudzsák 72')
>
> Grønkjær converted a soft penalty, PSV's young Hungarian
> Dzsudzsák equalised from close range.
>
> CFR 1907 Cluj - AC Sparta Praha 2-3
> (Traoré 25', Dubarbier 90'+1; Holenda 6', 13', Wilfried 90'+5;
> Red Cards: Mureşan (Clu) 64', Mara (Clu) 88')
>
> Cluj's highly international team suffered drama when they,
> reduced to 9 men, heroically scored a last-minute equaliser
> by the Argentine Dubarbier before they went down to a
> last-gasp-effort by Ivorian Bony Wilfried (I really love some
> of these names).
>
> Table
>
> 1 PSV 5-3 8
> 2 Sparta Praha 7-5 7
> 3 København 2-4 4
> 4 Cluj 4-6 3
>
> Group L
>
> Werder Bremen - FK Austria Wien 2-0
> (Borowski 81', Almeida 84')
>
> I might be biased here, but Austria should have won this game.
> They had a number of gilt-edged chances, but an excellent Wiese
> and bad finishing kept a poor Werder side in the game, before
> Borowski scored an obvious offside goal. Tell me again, what did
> they put two extra refs on the field for? Especially bitter, since
> in the first game Austria were denied a legitimate goal for offside.
> Immediately afterwards, Almeida finished off a demoralized Austria
> with his first goal after coming back from injury.
>
> CD Nacional - Athletic Club 1-1
> (Edgar (pen) 64'; Etxeberria (pen) 85'; Red Card: Nuno Pinto (Nac)
> 79')
>
> Another game, another penalty, this time for a foul by Athletic
> 'keeper Iraizoz on Slovenian international Pečnik. More than a little
> strange was the fact that the Scottish referee Callum wanted to do
> away with the penalty entirely and instead award Athletic a freekick
> after a Nacional player ran too early into the penalty area, only the
> penalty box ref could convince him to simply let retake Edgar the
> penalty, for God's sake.
>
> Athletic equalised through, you guessed right, a penalty, awarded
> for a foul on Díaz de Cerio.
>
> Table
>
> 1 Werder Bremen 10-5 10*
> 2 Athletic Bilbao 7-5 7
> 3 Nacional Funchal 5-7 2
> 4 Austria Wien 3-8 2
>
> Werder are through, Bilbao need one point in Vienna.

Great reports and a welcome addition to rss coverage.
Thanks for doing this consistently!

>
> I'll finish again with the current Country Ranking
> from Bert Kassies' site:
>
> Season 2009/10
>
> 1 Italy 8.285
> 2 Spain 8.071
> 3 England 7.928
> 4 Germany 7.583
> 5 France 7.500
> 6 Austria 7.375
> 7 Netherlands 6.583
> 8 Israel 6.500
> 9 Turkey 5.600
> 10 Switzerland 5.500
>

Hmm. Is this only Europa league? I could swear the ligue 1
sides are outperforming quite a few others in the ECL.

> Ciao,
> Werner

From: Adama on

"Enzo" <s_debgupta(a)yahoo.com> a �crit dans le message de news:
148e0e26-bd90-4b62-a436-307bb96d05e4(a)i12g2000prg.googlegroups.com...

>> 1 Italy 8.285
>> 2 Spain 8.071
>> 3 England 7.928
>> 4 Germany 7.583
>> 5 France 7.500
>> 6 Austria 7.375
>> 7 Netherlands 6.583
>> 8 Israel 6.500
>> 9 Turkey 5.600
>> 10 Switzerland 5.500

>Hmm. Is this only Europa league? I could swear the ligue 1
>sides are outperforming quite a few others in the ECL.


There is no separate rankings for UCL and EL.
The rankings are an average of the number of points (2 pts a win, 1 pt a
draw, 1 pt the win and 0.5pt the draw in the qualifying, 4 bonus points for
playing the CL group phase) gained by all the teams of a country, so
Guingamp (0 pt), and to a lower extent Toulouse (4pts) are dragging the
ranking of France down. (but then, Everton 5.5 pts and Villa 1 pt aren't
that much better for England)

Counting only the Champions League, the coefficient of the top 5 countries
would be :

England : 10.5
France : 10.16
Italy : 9.75
Spain : 9
Germany : 8.16

Of course, it's doesn't mean anything. Bordeaux and Lyon may qualify in a
grand fashion, they are still likely to fall in the last 16 or quarters at
best.

Counting only the Europa League, their coefficients would be :

Germany : 7
Spain : 6.83
Italy : 6.33
England : 4.5
France : 4.33


From: El Kot on
Werner Pichler wrote:
> Europa League Matchday 4
>
> Group G
>
> Levski Sofia - Red Bull Salzburg 0-0
> (Schiemer 90'+3; Red Card: Sarmov 62')
>
> Janko hit the post early on and Yovov missed the net from 5 metres
> out, after that not much happened until Levski 'keeper Petkov decided
> to make a bizarre excursion outside the area, lost the ball and Sarmov
> had to bring down �vento which got him sent off. Again, not much
> happened but just when I thought the night would be an unmitigated
> desaster for the Austrian clubs (0 goals, 1 point), in the 93rd minute
> Schiemer headed in a Schwegler throw-in that crossed almost the
> entire penalty box - the Swiss might not be the very best rightback
> around but boy can he throw the ball far.

That goal was yet another Petkov blunder. He should have either
gone out to catch the ball, or blocked the shot. The distance of the
throw probably surprised him, but it is no excuse.


> Table
>
> 1 Salzburg 6-1 12
> 2 Villarreal 6-5 6
> 3 Lazio 8-7 6
> 4 Levski Sofia 0-7 0
>
> Levski are eliminated,

In practice, yes, but theoretically not yet.

--
No, no, you can't e-mail me with the nono.
From: Matthias Mühlich on
Thanks for summarizing all results plus short comments in one posting.
It's so tedious to click through 12+ web pages for all EL groups...