Europa League 25/26

[wassy04]

It dawned on me yesterday that we had been drawn to play 5 of the current top 8. With hindsight it was clearly a tough draw

Yeah and we drew away at Betis (if only we'd held on) and beat Porto so we've shown we can match these teams.

Not beating Sturm hurt us a lot too.

As said above, the positive of the tough draw is at least we can affect the outcomes for Braga and Ferencvaros. Braga are currently 5th in Portugal and 15 points behind Porto (what a win that was). They've also had a ridiculously easy draw, yet to play anyone above 16th (partly because they beat them) and got to play Rangers and Celtic! In fact looking at that, we should be beating Braga.

In fact, its a similar story for Ferencvaros, largely played weaker teams, maybe a marginally harder schedule but still I'd fancy us to win at the City Ground, particularly if they are already qualified.

I am more confident now after looking at this, lets just hope the festive period doesn't burn us out before the Braga game. We have Arsenal at home at the CG the weekend before which is not ideal! 

On the plus side, how exciting to have two meaningful competitive European matches in January and even if we don't win both, we'll still likely make the next round anyway and we saw what PSG did in the CL from that position. We've matched the best teams in this competition, if we can get some form going over christmas, we could make a dent in this!

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Pretty certain we need 2 wins to get automatic. Looking at remaining games for those ahead of us, Braga have ourselves and Go Ahead Eagles. Porto have Plzen and a useless Rangers at home.
Its hard to believe either will pick up less than 3 points therefore to get top 8 we will need at least 6 more points. Still wonder if we may live to regret not scoring a few more vs Malmo.

Ferencvaros can secure their place with a home win vs Panathinaikos next round, hopefully they do that and send their kids out when they play us.

[wassy04]

Pretty certain we need 2 wins to get automatic. Looking at remaining games for those ahead of us, Braga have ourselves and Go Ahead Eagles. Porto have Plzen and a useless Rangers at home.
Its hard to believe either will pick up less than 3 points therefore to get top 8 we will need at least 6 more points. Still wonder if we may live to regret not scoring a few more vs Malmo.

Ferencvaros can secure their place with a home win vs Panathinaikos next round, hopefully they do that and send their kids out when they play us.

Beating both would mean we'd overtake both so only need to overtake one other team and Stuttgart actually play Roma (both above us) so I think that would likely take us at least level with 8th and then yeah could come down to GD if other teams don't drop points, surely someone will.

Anyway, lets just beat Braga in January first!

[Paplane]

I wouldn't be too fussed if we had to play a qualifying game. Playing games, after all, is what it's about, isn't it?

[Username]

Got my Braga ticket

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

I wouldn't be too fussed if we had to play a qualifying game. Playing games, after all,  is what it's about, isn't it?

You don't win anything if you don't play any games.

[Username]

So with Kali leaving, does that mean another striker can join the 25 man squad and play against Braga and Ferencvaros or are we left with just Igor Jesus up front?

[Salvatore Matrecano]

So with Kali leaving, does that mean another striker can join the 25 man squad and play against Braga and Ferencvaros or are we left with just Igor Jesus up front?

Nope can’t replace him until the end of the group stage.

[stirred]

So with Kali leaving, does that mean another striker can join the 25 man squad and play against Braga and Ferencvaros or are we left with just Igor Jesus up front?

Nope can’t replace him until the end of the group stage.

And Taiwo isn’t registered. So we only have Jesus for the Europa league. So that means he’d have to play Premier League and Europa league? 

And Jesus is one booking away from a suspension in the Europa…

So surely we must be confident of bringing someone in sooner rather than later to allow Kali to go at the beginning of the window? <<Thinks of that meme with the young Anakin and Natalie Portman>>. Surely?

[Username]

So with Kali leaving, does that mean another striker can join the 25 man squad and play against Braga and Ferencvaros or are we left with just Igor Jesus up front?

Nope can’t replace him until the end of the group stage.

Surely the Club should have been saying that he was not leaving until after those two games then?!

Seems utterly bonkers to me that we have allowed that to happen.

[ozzyten10]

Letting Kali go isn’t great but we do have options - MGW or JMc can play as a false 9 and Ndoye has the attributes to do a job there. Not great but how often does a team stumble on a solution through adversity? Next man up attitude of cooper was great- we had players chomping at the bit and willing to commit to the team at expense of their own games - e.g. Colback at left back. Trouble is I don’t see SD doing that and using it as an excuse and commenting against the squad. Cooper was brilliant on the whole of squad management and team spirit (Worrall may disagree!).

[Salvatore Matrecano]

So with Kali leaving, does that mean another striker can join the 25 man squad and play against Braga and Ferencvaros or are we left with just Igor Jesus up front?

Nope can’t replace him until the end of the group stage.

Surely the Club should have been saying that he was not leaving until after those two games then?!

Seems utterly bonkers to me that we have allowed that to happen.

I don’t understand it either. First european competition in 30 years, our only chance to salvage something from the season and EM has stated he wants to win it and we go into our last 2 group games with one CF who is on the brink of a suspension.

I can only suggest Kalimuendo has either gone on strike or done something behind the scenes where Dyche has bombed him out. That seems unlikely as he has been in the match squad even if not getting on. It doesn’t really make any sense.