Europa League - Semi Finals

Defeat number 18 for the season

What a genius Rafa is

Is something is broken, why try to fix it at all.

A new method of management


Utterly pathetic performance, devoid of anything positive at all and amazingly we will probably still make the final as Atleti were equally poor.

0 shots on target from Liverpool

I'd still back them to win in the 2nd leg, but now there's a real danger from just one swing of Aguero or Forlan's boots. If Atletico score, it really will be a case of the home team needing 3 goals, and I don't even need a German to verify that for me.

kas wrote:0 shots on target from Liverpool

I'd still back them to win in the 2nd leg, but now there's a real danger from just one swing of Aguero or Forlan's boots. If Atletico score, it really will be a case of the home team needing 3 goals, and I don't even need a German to verify that for me.

We did score to be fair

It'll be difficult to even celebrate this trophy if we win. What hope is there for the future with a manager who has literally no intention to play any football ?

We should win this tie fairly easily at Anfield but who knows what random selection Rafa will throw up to try and ruin it for us

kas wrote:0 shots on target from Liverpool

I'd still back them to win in the 2nd leg, but now there's a real danger from just one swing of Aguero or Forlan's boots. If Atletico score, it really will be a case of the home team needing 3 goals, and I don't even need a German to verify that for me.

0 shots on target, unless you count the perfectly good goal that was ruled out

Did no one else see the referee kissing his linesman before kickoff?

I'm not making it up!

Effenberg wrote:

Rosicky wrote:

Özil wrote:why fulham thinks a 0:0 is a good result, one goal from hsv and they must score 3

ill take a stab in the dark, and say that maths isnt your strong point

He's talking about the return leg. If HSV scores one there, Fulham will need three.

That must be some magical goal HSV scores

Decent result for Fulham, no away goal, but now it's just down to getting a home win, which they are capable of on their day.


Hopefully Atletico will boot Liverpool out at Anfield.

? wrote:

In regards to tonight, I expect something similar to the Benfica match. Struggle vs Madrid and hope to be still in the tie come the final whistle. With the 2nd leg hopefully beating them .

Yeeeeeeeeah. Both teams looked shit from the 45 minutes I saw. Still at home I'd expect us to win the match. Can't say I'm excited at the thought of reaching the final and possibly winning it

Yes Glenn, I did see it as well. These effeminate continentals. What's wrong with a gentlemanly handshake before the match?

kas wrote:Oh dear, how can you not get a goal against this Atletico defense (even without Torres)

Since January 1st in all competitions :

2-5-6 Away
10-1-1 Home

Doesn't matter how bad a team is, if Liverpool play away from home they'll have 2 or less shots on goal.

Sheffield gunner wrote:Yes Glenn, I did see it as well. These effeminate continentals. What's wrong with a gentlemanly handshake before the match?

I'm not homophobic, they'd be welcome at my B&B anytime but I thought it was a bit odd, informal and something I haven't seen before from match officials.

so Seagal or JCVD this week

What a boring game of football. It's scary how poor we are away from home without Torres. Even with him away we're poor most of the time but if you take him out then we play a 4-6-0 formation.

Damn, I'm turning into Özil.

Fulham

Luis wrote:What a boring game of football. It's scary how poor we are away from home without Torres. Even with him away we're poor most of the time but if you take him out then we play a 4-6-0 formation.

Is Aquilani injured? I only watched the first half hour or so but without torres I think its imperative that he starts in the 2nd leg.

Tweesus wrote:

Luis wrote:What a boring game of football. It's scary how poor we are away from home without Torres. Even with him away we're poor most of the time but if you take him out then we play a 4-6-0 formation.

Is Aquilani injured? I only watched the first half hour or so but without torres I think its imperative that he starts in the 2nd leg.

He hasn't been injured for the majority of the season and isn't injured now

Rafa just doesn't see him as a first team player. He sees him as back up only if both Masch and Lucas are unavailable. He's sort of the new Plessis but costing 20 million pounds more than him.

He looks better than Lucas when he plays Rafa is just showing he has no man management and is an obdurate prick

lrd used a big word

I've said time and time again I don't mind Lucas if he's given a bit of liscence to roam or if he's playing with Aquilani/Gerrard in the middle but a central partnership of Lucas and Mascherano is a disgrace to football and to the fans that have to watch it.

I like Rafa but my patience is starting to run out, I'd give him another season to see if this one was just a horrible blip but if things don't improve by the first 5-10 games of next season then it's time for him to go IMO.

Kimbo wrote:

Liverpool wrote:Yet another EPL team in Fulham playing pussy football in Europe FFS!

A minnow playing minnow football, so what?

Just read that Hodgson had Fulham's Coach stop so they could have a a training session by the side of the Autobahn on their way to Germany

an humiliating 5:1 defeat for HSV against hoffenheim

they must sack them now, a new coach will break all the clinches and then then they have a chance for the final in europe

Hrubesch should take over from Labbadia for the rest of the season.

With Horst in charge, Fulham won't stand the slightest chance of overcoming Hamburg!

So it looks like we have no Ngog, definately no Torres for this game and Kuyt is doubtful as well.

That would mean us playing something like this:

----------------------Reina----------------------------

--Johnson-------Carra---------Kygriakos----------------Agger----------------

------------------Masch------------Lucas-----------------------------------------

---Yossi-----------------Aquilani--------------------Gerrard-------------------

-----------------------------Babel-----------------------------------------------

Fucking hell!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1269455/Burnley-set-win-shock-European-place--Fulham-win-Europa-League.html

Burnley, relegated from the Barclays Premier League, are in line for a Europa League place next season via the Fair Play League.

The highest placed club in the Premier League's Fair Play table who do not qualify for Europe are set to win a place in the Europa League.

Think it's time giving a team a european position spot because they behaved well is looked at. A team could literally lose every game 10-0 but not make any fouls and qualify for europe. It's stupid as hell no other country does this shit.

Luis wrote:So it looks like we have no Ngog, definately no Torres for this game and Kuyt is doubtful as well.

That would mean us playing something like this:

----------------------Reina----------------------------

--Johnson-------Carra---------Kygriakos----------------Agger----------------

------------------Masch------------Lucas-----------------------------------------

---Yossi-----------------Aquilani--------------------Gerrard-------------------

-----------------------------Babel-----------------------------------------------

I like that lineup. It is certainly preferable to Rafa's favoured selection. It'll be hip shot city from Babel, Aqua and Gerrard but it will at least be watchable. The chances of Kuyt not playing however are slim.

Can't wait for this one. I hope Rafa doesn't decide to drain away my excitement before the match even begins with his selection.

Kimbo wrote:Fucking hell!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1269455/Burnley-set-win-shock-European-place--Fulham-win-Europa-League.html

Burnley, relegated from the Barclays Premier League, are in line for a Europa League place next season via the Fair Play League.

The highest placed club in the Premier League's Fair Play table who do not qualify for Europe are set to win a place in the Europa League.

There's quite a lot of ifs in that article. Suggests Fulham are first in line, if they don't win the Europa, which would be good news (although this in turn implies that if Fulham do win the Europa, we could end up with 5 teams there next yr )..

Also with 2 games left, I imagine a red card or something could soon change the table and England isn't guaranteed the spot yet.

L r dd wrote:Think it's time giving a team a european position spot because they behaved well is looked at. A team could literally lose every game 10-0 but not make any fouls and qualify for europe. It's stupid as hell no other country does this shit.

The fair play spots are done across Europe. Basically there's a table with all the countries and they get rated on various categories (player discipline, crowd problems, etc). The top 3 nations each season get given a bonus Europa spot for their best behaved team. So it just happens that England is currently 3rd in the table and an English club is in line to get one of the bonus qualification spots this year.

I think there's only been a couple times before English clubs have qualified this way (Man City, I seem to recall).

It's illogical to let Burnley in there based on anything. Give it to a side who had good results and good discipline.

L r dd wrote:It's illogical to let Burnley in there based on anything. Give it to a side who had good results and good discipline.

How about giving it to a side that qualifies for it. If you don't get a fair play entry into the CL you shouldn't get it for the Europa League either. The Europa League should be 5th, 6th and 7th every season set in stone with no room for any more places IMO.

L r dd wrote:It's illogical to let Burnley in there based on anything. Give it to a side who had good results and good discipline.

I think it's a condition of UEFA - i.e. the country get given a bonus spot for good discipline and they have to give it to the team with best discipline who hasn't already qualified. If that happens to be Burnley than that is what shall be. It's a bit of an odd system all round, but that's UEFA for ya.