Europa League thread

Mar 8, 2007
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Not saying United were not outplayed by a young, hungry, success starved side.

Just believe there was no way we would sacrifice the title for Europa.

Once we were embarrassed out of ECL the title was always the priority.

Hopefully this shows we need to buy some big names to get back to being amongst Europe's Elite again.

Plus I am a glass half full sort of guy!!
 

mojito

misfortune comes in threes...
Feb 21, 2010
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Not saying United were not outplayed by a young, hungry, success starved side.

Just believe there was no way we would sacrifice the title for Europa.

Once we were embarrassed out of ECL the title was always the priority.

Hopefully this shows we need to buy some big names to get back to being amongst Europe's Elite again.

Plus I am a glass half full sort of guy!!

I wonder if Fergie's made some sort of enquiry over Muniain, Martinez et al. after this. Be silly not to.
 

mojito

misfortune comes in threes...
Feb 21, 2010
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Will be having a closer look at Bilbao results from now on. I know I've prorbably said it before, but they're a class act.

eldorado, has your brother gone mental yet?
 
Mar 8, 2007
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For me our European embarrassment shows 2 things.

How average our squad is when we don't have our best 11 up and firing and how far the EPL has dropped in such a short period.

For United to be bundled out of both European leagues yet be top of EPL highlights both above comments IMO.
 
Will be having a closer look at Bilbao results from now on. I know I've prorbably said it before, but they're a class act.

eldorado, has your brother gone mental yet?

:p

Haven't spoken to him, I'm assuming he went to the game and then got too drunk to ring me.

Our young players from the cantera have always been quality, but Bielsa certainly deserves credit for crafting a pattern of play where the movement of the ball is so fluent and systematic. The locals says it's the best football we've played for years (since we came second in 98, pretty much).

We're currently paying the price of only taking 2 points from our first 5 games; on form, since then, we've been easily the third best team in La Liga.

Hopefully, we can clinch the last ECL spot.

A bit funny listening to the Mancs "Oh, obviously we decided not to take it seriously" Pfft, come on, guys. :p
 

mojito

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:p

Haven't spoken to him, I'm assuming he went to the game and then got too drunk to ring me.

Our young players from the cantera have always been quality, but Bielsa certainly deserves credit for crafting a pattern of play where the movement of the ball is so fluent and systematic. The locals says it's the best football we've played for years (since we came second in 98, pretty much).

We're currently paying the price of only taking 2 points from our first 5 games; on form, since then, we've been easily the third best team in La Liga.

Hopefully, we can clinch the last ECL spot.

A bit funny listening to the Mancs "Oh, obviously we decided not to take it seriously" Pfft, come on, guys. :p

think I read somewhere (might have been a Sid Lowe article) that that team cost under 30m euro's to put together.

:eek:

That's nuts.
 

Kompany

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This is a good read about the match -> http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/03/15/athletic-bilbao-2-manchester-united-tactics/

The guy who writes these articles is always spot on. No idea who he is - he also writes for The Guardian.

It's not just that they beat Utd, it's how they beat them. Coming from behind in the first game and they should've won both games with more than 1 goal really.

Against Barcelona they were also great (2-2 draw).
 
Sep 11, 2003
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Holman scored a peach this morning and assisted the second. Going to be a hit at Villa IMO. AC if you are reading what do you think about Villa signing Holman?
Not sure to be honest mate. He puts in a shift and has definitely improved over the past 2 or 3 seasons.

Happy to have an Aussie playing for Villa though and really hope he's a success.

Hopefully he settles in well.
 
Spoke to my brother last night from Bilbao...

Some of you may (or may not) have heard about the death of a fan at the hands of the police. My brother witnessed it.

Completely unprovoked. Two fans were apparently having a scuffle. Because it was a football crowd, more than 10 squad cars rolled up, and despite absolutely no other violence happening...a completely peaceful crowd, Shalke, Bilbao and other fans mingling happily...they began to fire rubber bullets down the laneway, hitting a fan in the head.

My brother was extremely shaken. It could just as easily have been him.

Normally, the police are able to brush off their systematic violence by claiming provocation, retaliation, rioting etc etc...but on this occasion there were too many witnesses to it, including completely impartial visitors from many other areas of Spain, and the guy died a couple of days later.

Entirely unprovoked craven brutality

Hopefully, murder charges will ensue, and the thugs who pass for police in the Basque region will somehow face some kind of justice.

Absolute disgrace.

RIP Inigo Cabacas
 

jethro11

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How does the english qualification work for next year with so many teams qualifying down different paths?

If Chelsea finish 5th and Newcastle 6th (top four stays as is) and Liverpool wins the FA Cup, do they count as qualifying through the League Cup or the FA Cup? Would Cardiff qualify as the League Cup team or would the place move to the 6th placed team in the Premier League?

If Cardiff were to qualify it seems a little unfair that we play the way we have throughout the season without reward and they get through by finishing runner up in the League Cup (good effort, but really?)

Glad to hear your brothers ok eldorado, that's horrible news.
 

Ed_Gein

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Dec 17, 2003
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wow. ref lost the plot a bit in this valencia v atletico madrid game.

ball came into the box from a valencia cross, the ball came off a valencia players hand in the air in the box and the ref gave a penalty. there ended up being a bit of a scuffle over the decision between both teams and an atletico player got sent off for slapping another player. and somehow in there the penalty ended up not being given. lol. but atletico are still a player down.

atletico going through, but valencia have had chance after chance in this game, just couldnt find the net.
 

mojito

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Feb 21, 2010
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Only watched the last 20 minutes of the Bilbao-Sporting game, but **** me, what an atmosphere at San Mames.
 
Sep 24, 2008
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Well done Bilbao. At least there's one team in the two European finals this season that isn't supported by moronic right wing skinheads.
 
I was under the impression that Welsh sides could not qualify for a Europa League pot allocated to an English team.
Hasn't ever gotten to that point IIRC, questions were asked over Cardiff both now and when they made the FA Cup final but neither time did they get the place (FA Cup Pompey won, League Cup finalist doesn't get a spot)
 
Well done Bilbao. At least there's one team in the two European finals this season that isn't supported by moronic right wing skinheads.

An Athletic - St Pauli game would be an event...:D
 
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