UEFa Cup and Champions league

[Shoden]

so people give your oppinions of the draws of these two tournaments

[Resha]

Arsenal should be there. :( But I hope it's not Chelsea that wins.

[Shoden]

nah its gonna be AC Milan or Inter Milan or Juventus thats going to win Liverpool will lose to Juventus one of the top teams in europe

and for the UEFA cup its amzing Newcastle massacred Olympiakos 7-1 on aggrigate which is a team only to be beaten once at home by Man U by an edge but how did Newcastle manage to do that oh well we're out the FA cup Man U will massacre us or maybe just 1-0 or something since we have a brilliant defence now

[Doc Sark]

Do me a favour Shoden, use some punctuation. I'm finding it difficult to understand your posts these days.

The fact that everyone believes that Liverpool will lose to Juventus, can only work to our advantage. See in fixtures like the upcoming quarter final of this season, where the media hype one team as overwhelming favourites, and the other team as no hopers who might as well just let the other go through on a bye, all the pressure is on the favourite.

Take the Chelsea v Arsenal quarter final last year. Despite the millions spent by Chelsea, the media didn't give them a chance. Arsenal were so overwhelmingly the favourites but they couldn't live up to the massive expectations associated with them in that fixture. Take the 1988 F.A. Cup Final, Liverpool 0-1 Wimbledon. It has gone down as one of the biggest cup upsets ever, but what people forget is that Wimbledon, at the time, were a top 6 club. Liverpool however were so heavily favourite to win, the bookies stopped taking bets on them. Again Liverpool couldn't live up to the favourites tag, and lost to a resilient if not abrasive Wimbledon side.

We may not be favourites to beat Juventus, but everyone in Europe expects them to win. This is the first time the clubs have played eachother since Heysel, twenty years ago. What you will see is two very tight games, and Liverpool will undoubtedly put 110% in to the tie. If we lose, and that's if we lose, not when, it will most likely be by the smallest of margins.

It's most likely going to be out of AC Milan and Chelsea. If you look at the draw, they are on opposite sides of the "tree". There is the possibility of a Liverpool v Chelsea semi, should both clubs progress, and that would be fantastic for English football.

As for the UEFA Cup...well really, this competition just gets more absurd every year. There's no teams worth mentioning in the last 8 except Newcastle and Villareal. AZ Alkmaar are going very well in the Dutch league but I expect their inexperience in European football could tell at this stage. Villareal to win it for me, they'll be too strong for Newcastle should the Magpies get by Sporting Lisbon.

[Shoden]

well Olympiakos were a team never to beaten since Man U but 7-1 on Aggregate wtf? i thought it would a massive struggle

even if Liverpool beat Juventus they have AC Milan, Chelsea, or Inter milan

[Doc Sark]

First off, if Liverpool win then we get Chelsea or Bayern Munich. The other teams are on the other side of the draw.

Lyon v PSV
Liverpool v Juve
Chelsea v Bayern
AC Milan v Inter Milan

Semi finals will be....
Liverpool or Juve vs Chelsea or Bayern
AC Milan or Inter v Lyon or PSV.

Second of all, the UEFA Cup was nothing more than the consolation prize for Olympiakos after Liverpool beating them Anfield knocked them out of the Champions League. Liverpool were the first English team to beat Dynamo Kiev in Kiev a few years back. Didn't win us the Champions League though.

Thirdly, I don't know where you get your information from, but you might be surprised to learn that Olymiakos have indeed been beaten at home by teams other than Man Utd. Like Juventus last season. If you meant that Man Utd were the last English team to beat the Greeks on their own back yard, as I suspect you probably were, well that happened two years ago, and they have only played one other English team in Europe since other than Newcastle, that was Liverpool this season, so that's not a very impressive statistic after all really is it?

[Shoden]

well you never know

i got my information from Skysports

[NM]

I wouldn't get all excited because Newcastle beat Olympiacos. It dosn't mean the UEFA Cups' in the bag. That ties over and done with, now they have to beat Sporting Lisbon over two legs.

Moving on to Liverpool. Yes we have a tough game against Juve, but anything can happen in Football. Who would have thought Greece would win Euro 2004! No one. But it happened. If you want to win the top trophie in Club Football, you have to beat the best team's. If Liverpool didn't deserve that chance they wouldn't be in the Quarter Finals.

[Shoden]

Liverpool have many other teams to hammer aswell

dammit i hope Chelsea doesn't win it i want AC Milan to win they beat Manchester United

[Resha]

I never really quite understood how the UEFA Cup works. There are so many legs and all that. Someone care to clarify? :confused: And I think Liverpool have a good chance of beating Juventus.

[Shoden]

the UEFA cup is a lower version of the champions league but thanks to Titus Brambell Newcastle never got to the Champs league but the UEFA cups important too
i think Newcastle are doing pretty well this season except for going from 4th to 11th not good that asshole souness isnt doing as bad as he was though but hes still a wanka

[Doc Sark]

I never really quite understood how the UEFA Cup works. There are so many legs and all that. Someone care to clarify? And I think Liverpool have a good chance of beating Juventus.

The UEFA Cup is basically the secondary European competition. To qualify in the major coefficients, like England, Spain, Italy etc, a cup win or a fairly high league position (between 3rd and 6th depending on the country) needs to be attained. In lesser countries (footballing wise) you may need to win your respective league. Also, the 3rd place losers from the UCL Group stages drop in to the UEFA Cup.

As for how it works, well, it's changed this year. There are a number of two leg ties, where each team plays the team they are drawn against home and away. The team scoring the most goals goes through, obviously. But this year they brought in a stupid group stage. Seriously, it's the most pointelss thing ever and is remniscent of the old Anglo-Italian cup that was abolished in the early nineties. Dunno why they've brought it in, it doesn't really add any more credibility to the competition, but it's still a good trophy to win for teams trying to establish themselves in Europe.

Hope that helps.

[Resha]

Oh, thankee! That does help. :)

[gokufusionss1]

The UEFA is a very valid and important competition, that is until we win the champions leauge.

[Shoden]

if Newcastle an English team win a european competition than it will give them a reputation and show the world who the asshole Souness is so they can complain and get tell him to get stuffed

what happened to the Souness bashing thread?

[tomamar04]

The UEFA cup is only important to second and third rate European sides, and those first rate European sides who got eliminated in the Champions league.

And the Inter-toto cup is full of z-rated eastern block sides