First tournement under the new format.

Play-off draw done today.


Rapid Vienna.. really no nothing about these guys anymore, used to be decent, but I'm sure they shouldn't give us much to worry about.

The only thing I know about them is that they won the German Cup in 1938. But I guess they're as mediocre as the entire Austrian league now.

Carew out of squad to face Vienna.

Now we're 1-0 down in the opening minute. This season has got off to the worst imaginable start. Just seen the goal when the stream came up, Davies pushed to the floor. Judging by the start of this seasons football the game would be better off without refs, they seem to only be there to make wrong decisions.

Villa's not exactly playing their strongest XI though (no Friedel, Gabby, or Petrov).

Roma drew 3-3 away to Koprovice. 2 of the goals conceded were from defensive errors (one of those a penalty conceded by Mexes).

Hamburg are beating up on French cup winners Guignamp. 3-0 so far.

i love Hamburg's attack of guerrero and Zidan they are great for the team, then again they did lose VDV and Olic(who is a personal favorite)

Fishdoll adores Olic, even though he now has Bayern cooties. The Swedish kid, Marcus Berg, has scored for Hamburg too. Rar!

Shakhtar are winning too -- and Dario Srna is NOT playing.

I REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY wanted us to get into the Berg sweepstakes, last really young forward we signed did fairly well for us

uh oh, i can see the goal.com story now SRNA TO MILAN

(Your avatar is scaring Fishdoll, mtl.)

No surprises in Lazio's lineup for their game (which starts in 20 mins or so). The only real surprise I see for Genoa is that Crespo's not playing (not even on the bench) -- but I think he may be injured.

Fishdoll has decided that his underdog team will be Qarabag, from Azerbaijan. They started in the first qualifying round and are currently up 0-1 against Twente, in the Netherlands.

EDIT: Oh, and Giuseppe Rossi has scored for Villareal.

Stabæk vs Valencia and Trmsø vs Athletic Bilbao...Stabæk are out, but I think Trmsø just might do it.

mine was DK maribour but they failed:(
slovenia will have to wait a little longer for world football domination...

Athletic Bilbao 0-1 Tromsø HT.

Go Tromso?

Go TrmsØ indeed...

I was surprised when I heard the score on this one. Poor display from Villa?

I'm not sure what to think. We looked good at times, but just can't seem to create any great chances. We're really going to struggle to score goals this season, particularly at home. Not sure what happened to the Villa of the first 2 thirds of last season, we were ruthless in front of goal, we ripped the best of teams apart, we never stopped running, we'd have things go against us only to bounce back and win games, even when we did play poorly we'd somehow pull it ouf the bag.

Liverpool on Monday, Fulham and Vienna after that, then the derby game at Sty Andrews. Unfortunately with some of the supporters we have and the pressure they put on the manager, I think the derby game is his final chance. If we are out of Europe and don't beat Fulham, nothing but victory will save his job. He may get away with a draw if we beat Fulham and stay in Europe. Not looking good for MON, shame, some of our support won't know how much we need him until he's gone.

Tromsø ended up losing 3-2, courtesy of a last-minute goal by Bilbao.

Go Bilbao!!!!!

So the second leg of the UEFA Cup games are today.

Lazio go through on aggregate though they lost today 1-0 v Elfsborg.

Genoa are currently scorless against Odense (really really good eel restaurant in Odense, fyi)

Roma are up 3-0 on Kozice....after 7 minutes. 2 by Totti and 1 by Guberti. Hopefully they'll save SOMETHING for the gobbi, who they face this weekend.

EDIT: Make that 5-0 in the 18th, additional goals by Menez and Cerci. It's raining goals at the Olimpico.

Genoa went through on aggregate.

The Roma game ended 7-1. Maybe they're finally exorcising their Old Trafford demons.

Fishdoll is really really sorry, Kurt. Villa go out on away goals rule.

Things I learned today.

*Spanish refs are the most useless of all. Everytime anyone won the ball, it was a foul. The only way either team could get the ball back was a misplaced pass or if it went out of play.
*John Carew is awesome.
*There's a limit to how many penalties you can have. We were given 2, but should have had 4 (the 2 we weren't given were even more nailed on than the 2 we were).
*Vienna's strikers are useless. 4 open goals, they missed 3. They eventually scored by a miss-hit shot rolling to another player who made an air-kick, then put it in.
*Rapid Vienna fans are great, possibly the best set off away supporters I've seen before.
*Football is cruel. Away goals is bad enough, but if we'd have won 4-1 I would have said we were still unlucky, we could have had 7 or 8 on another day, seriously.
*Stephen Warnock unveiled as a Villa player before the game. Awesome!

If it is any consolation at all, despite the Uefa Cup's name change to the Europa league, and despite the format change, it remains the Consolation Cup for Europe's nobodies to compete in - teams which weren't good enough to get into the CL.

Villa are better set trying to concentrate on breaching the top 6 in England.

Europa League will always be a tournament of no credibility in which the winners are barely remembered, never mind the losers.

The Europa League is for nobodies, but it's about the best we can hope for. To get in the CL we need to consistantly play so well that we finish above one of the top 6/7 teams in World football, which would in turn mean we'd have to be of that quality, just not going to happen. It also helps in attracting new players.

Better to win it than not win it.

(Um. didn't Rangers play in the final of said tournament a couple of years ago?)

Yup. It was pleasant to reach a European final, but it didn't come close to what I felt in 2006 when we were the first Scottish club to reach the last 16 of the CL. Uefa Cup/Europa League is not a great competition to be in. The only value in it is winning it, to build upon for preparation for the CL. Benitez with his Valencia side then Liverpool and Mourinho's Porto are good examples. Zenit aren't.

We're (applies to Rangers and Milan) back in the CL which has all the prestige, glamour, and is the Promised Land of European football. Hopefully we (More Rangers than Milan) start being in it consistently every year. I really don't want to end up in the diddy cup again, as we call it up here in Scotland.

You mean finish fourth in the EPL? Or...I'm confused as to what you mean.



Europa league is as much a carrot for new players as the Uefa Cup is. Ie, isn't.



Winning it I agree is the single value of the Europa League.

For too long Rangers have been inconsistent in Europe, all too often ending up in the Europa league - basically that was about our level. Which is pretty depressing for the best team in Scotland. This year Celtic are there, where they belong. Here's to them getting honked out

What I meant is that to get into the CL in England, you need to finish above at least one of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and United. The problem being that these 4 clubs are all in the top 7 or so in the World. So to represent England in the Champions League, you don't need to be good, or even very good. You need to be one of the very, very best. It really is a near impossible task. I know we had a very good season last time out and at one point it looked like we might get it, but even though we went on a record breaking 8 straight away wins, we still finished 10 points off 4th. It just isn't going to happen unless one of those 4 sides has a nightmare season.

Being honest, I'd also argue there are 3 sides ahead of you in terms of trying to breach the top 4 - Man City, Spurs, Everton and 2 sides competing with you for the scraps behind them - Fulham and West Ham.

While the SPL is utterly awful, at least Rangers don't have to struggle to get into the CL or its qualifying rounds.

Of course the flip side of that argument is our domestic league has no attraction for the world class players the EPL gets, and we have way less money to say the least. Which means that we end with hope in the CL rather than the expectation the big 4 in England get.

However, I wasn't actually suggesting Villa even try for a CL spot - and you shouldn't either. Just focus on a higher place than last year - as much as I hate to say it you have a superb manager, and some very good players. With some more depth, 6th place is realistic this season.

I agree with most except this.

As timmy (Celtic) are in this competition, it may be worth my attention to keep up to speed with what's going on.

Who's the favourites - Roma, Sporting, Bremen and Hamburg?

(frolm Bet365)

Roma - 11/1
Hamburg - 12/1
Villarreal - 14/1
Bremen - 16/1
Everton - 16/1
Shakhtar - 16/1
Valencia - 18/1
...........................
Lazio - 28/1
Genoa - 33/1
Fulham - 33/1
Celtic 40-1

I'd give Genoa better odds than that even with the full infirmary they have right now.

So the Europa League group stage starts today. There are lots of games.

Genoa and the two Rome clubs are Italy's representatives.

It only took Genoa 3 minutes to score on Slavia Prague -- Zapater with the goal (I think on a free kick). Genoa also have Bocchetti back from injury.

Why don't they make this a cup winner's cup again and give the winner (or runner-up) the chance to play in the CL? It would help both the dmostic cup competitions and it would give this some prestige.

Roma lost away to Basil 2-0. Hamburg lost to Rapid Vienna 3-0 (this one surprises Fishdoll a lot). Genoa won 2-0.

The new 5 officials system is being applied in EL this season. It seems to be working already, there was an occasion in the Panathinaikos - Galatasaray game where Baros went down hard but from the view of the official next to the goal it was clear that the defender had gotten the ball.

That game also saw Rijkaard go head to head with ten Cate. The former won fairly (3-1) but I think he was outplayed tactically.

The Cup Winners' Cup wouldn't work anymore.

Because the Champions League is such a joke of a tournement and seems to let anyone in, too many clucs qualify. The clubs that qualify for the CL are often the teams that win the main Cup competition, so it'd just go to the next highest placed team in the league instead, so it'd basically be the same entrants as the Europa League.

I think the Champions League needs to revert back to Champion + holders. Since when did being 4th best in your own league entitle you to fight for the crown of 'Champions of Europe'. How stupid.

EDIT: Just looking through the Europa League scores: Rapid 3-0 Hamburg. Sort of puts our result against them into perspective, a good week looks even better.

Litchsteiner is huge [watching lazio vs. Levski Sofia

This would be much more entertaining than the CL if the teams in it actually cared.

Based on the team sheets of teams I know marginally, they mostly seem to be taking it seriously. Only regular starter who's not playing today that I see easily is Lazio's Muslera. Bremen are fielding their full squad, for example. So are Hamburg.

Bremen are AMAZING!!!!!, this isn't their first Squad ?!?!?!
i would take Ozil (20), Marin(20) or Hunt (23) in a heartbeat
they look exceptional, the whole squad does for that matter, how about thomas Schaaf for the next milan Coach?

That's true but it does not seem to me that they players care 100%.

nono, mtl. That IS Bremen's best XI (with possibly a couple of exceptions. Marin for example doesn't always start). Ozil is one of Fishdoll's favorite BUndesliga players and star of his bundesliga fantasy team.

Schaaf is a one team guy. He played his entire pro career at Bremen and now he's their coach. He gets a cookie for that one.

So, Lazio are having a good day. It's currently Levski Sofia 0 - 4 Lazio. 4 different goalscorers.

sadly though, that was a boring game to watch. it was constant loss of possessions and 4 tmes did the game get interesting...

Genoa- Valencia is going on right now and Genoa are leading ( ) 1-0 at valencia-->good game

Roma is also ahead.

Valencia 2-1 Genoa they're falling apart

Genoa equalized...but David Villa has just come on.

3-2 valencia

Fishdoll prefers samp anyway. And, well, ALbertazzi just scored for the U20s. AGAIN.