GWT: Europa Conference League - Knockout Stages

[Power Man]

Slimani has been amazing since joining Anderlecht

The Algerian Giroud

 

[Evilo]

Yeah, it's a surprise, and old man Slimani slotting home the winner. They defended well in both legs. Hopefully Verscaheren subsitution wasjust precautionary, he did well playing in a bit deeper i central midfield role.

Pavlidis - Karlsson was quite a combo for AZ, I would be surprised if the latter doesn't move to a bigger team next summer.

Todibo with a bad mistake, being a captain and botching his clearance like that. Of corse it didn't matter given thdifference in quality between teams, but not a good look on him.



Could very well happen. Haven't seen too much of Basel or Poznan this season, but none of the others are defensively solid. They can score quite well, though.

Todibo had a rough day with his non-selection and playing injured after first half injury to his knee but here he just slipped.
That cost a goal but he only slipped.

 

[luiginb]

I think after their behaviour in the last few years, Turks should take a bit of a break from European competitions.

 

[Jussi]

 

[Jussi]

Completely, unsurprisingly not, United get a 3rd consecutive trip to Spain. So unexpected. If United win, they'll meet the winner of Juventus/Sporting. Champions Leagues have been won with an easier path than United's Europa League this season.

 

[luiginb]

Haha when Nuno struck that penalty I was like "isn't he going to mention his hair?"

 

[Prntscrn]

It was a fun ride. Unfortunately we are in preseason and played like a team that is in preseason. Hopefully some lessons has been learned and if we were to find ourselves in this situation again we can enter the games better prepared.

We are already qualified for the 2nd qualification round next season, so lets repeat what we did this season

 

[bluesfan94]

Bump. Today's games:
Gent-West Ham
Basel-Nice
Lech Poznan-Fiorentina
Anderlecht-AZ Alkmaar

 

[HoseEmDown]

Orban looks like a fun little player. Wonder if Gent cashes in already or tries to keep him for another season? Not sure Orban is ready for a move to a top league just yet so may be best to stay longer and improve his stock but it looks already pretty high with his displays.

 

[HoseEmDown]

That end to the West Ham v Gent game was interesting. After replay its right to rescind the red because the defender gets ball but he also gets the trailing leg on the tackle. So it looked like a foul, not a red, possibly in the box. The ref looked so fast though I'm not sure he caught the trailing leg part after he saw the player get ball.

 

[gary69]

Todibo with another bad performance in Europe in the Basel match, at fault for both goals against. First unnecessary barging into an opponent from behind, bringing him down not even trying to play the ball and causing a penalty, which Basel converted. On the 2nd goal, he badly misjudged the flight of the ball from a cross, missing his header and allowing Basel freely head home from front of the goal.

Moffi with two goals, the second one was a nice volley. Not sure if he has any more upside left, but even now you could say he is a Odsonne Eduard / Jean-Philippe Mateta level player, so he could play in the Premier league,

 

[gary69]

Anderlecht with a terrible start away to AZ Alkmaar. Their 1st leg lead has been wiped away inside 15 mins.

Why are they playing such a high line with slow CBs, on the 2nd goal Pavlidis just run away from them and scored.

 

[luiginb]

Anderlecht are missing Verschaeren in a big way.

 

[gary69]

Fiorentina in danger of throwing their comfortable first leg win away, as Lech Poznan has scored twice after an hour and are trailing now only by one goal.

Edit: And now they are level. How can an Italian team be losing by three goals at home after 70 mins?

 

[bluesfan94]

Fiorentina in danger of throwing their comfortable first leg win away, as Lech Poznan has scored twice after an hour and are trailing now only by one goal.

Edit: And now they are level. How can an Italian team be losing by three goals at home after 70 mins?

Fiorentina scored, so they have some breathing room. Seems like they've kinda been in second gear all match thinking the tie was over.

 

[gary69]

Yeah, seems that way as they now pick another late goal to make their progress secure.

 

[Savi]

Anderlecht deservedly go out against AZ, albeit after penalties. But really AZ had a million chances to kill the game before that

 

[gary69]

Yeah, especially Odgaard missed ton of opportunities.

West Ham went down at first with questionable defending wheb 5 players all closed down on Orban inside the box, and when he was able to pass the ball past all of them, Gent had 2 guys open. Even then West Ham still had two more players to mark those Gent guys, but neither did so.

At least Aguerd had smarts to go back to his goal line, but the shot went in anyway, even if he tried to block the ball with his chest.

West Ham managed to draw level with an Antonio header from Bowen's free kick. They also had a PK shout turned down when the ball was shot at Gent player's hand inside the box.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

What a horrible penalty decision against Gent. Went off his thigh into the hand.

Paqueta scores.

 

[koyvoo]

Get bent, Gent.

In all seriousness, West Ham has looked much more likely to get the next one.

 

[Jersey Fresh]

Rice with a ridiculous run from his own half to score.

 

[koyvoo]

There’s the floodgates busting open

 

[gary69]

Gent were hammered some ham from west down their throats as home team stormed into victory in 2nd half. Bowen even had an additional goal disallowed for some reason.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Pretty surprising Basel made it this far, they are absolutely struggling in their league (for their standards) and have an interim manager. They weren't overly impressive throughout the campaign in Europe as well

 

[Evilo]

Pretty surprising Basel made it this far, they are absolutely struggling in their league (for their standards) and have an interim manager. They weren't overly impressive throughout the campaign in Europe as well

Oh they were struggling in both legs against Nice too.
But Nice just gifted them the goals. Amazing self destruction.
To be fair the current state of Nice's mindset must be pretty low with a lot of off pitch stuff on their plate.