Other Domestic Leagues 17/18

Pouchkine

Registered User
May 20, 2015
2,731
294
Mancini's Zenit in 4th place with 2 games to go in Russia, huge failure in the making for the 2nd year in a row Zenit would miss on the Champions League.
It's also refreshing to see a competitive league and meaningful games all around until the end of the season.
 

les Habs

Registered User
Sep 21, 2005
22,236
3,964
Wisconsin
Wow. Another huge win for Celtic. Rangers need some stability and getting the manager right should be priority #1.
 

sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
22,532
33,769
Brewster, NY
Who says I am a Rangers fan? Sorry to tell you this buddy but other Scottish club fans really like either one of the Old Firm clubs,
You had a Sevco avatar on another board. And Celtic have more fans than every non Old Firm club in all of Scotland combined (and I'm even including Berwick Rangers who despite being in the Scottish League actually are located in England).
 

Albatros

Registered User
Aug 19, 2017
12,273
7,723
Ostsee
Beşiktaş fined 4 million liras and banned from the Turkish Cup for the next season after their refusal to continue the fixture against Fenerbahçe. The match had been suspended after Fenerbahçe hooligans bombarded the Beşiktaş team with projectiles which left head coach Şenol Güneş injured and hospitalized with a head wound. Fenerbahçe was thus granted a walkover victory.

It's certainly interesting how certain teams emerge on top even after trouble caused by themselves.
 

HajdukSplit

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
11,034
762
NJ
Lokomotiv Moscow win their first Russian league title since 2004, Portuguese international Eder scoring the 90th minute winner over Zenit to confirm that.

Zrinjski Mostar won their third straight BiH title, their next hurdle is actually getting some results in Europe
 

Acallabeth

Heart ablaze
Jul 30, 2011
9,934
1,232
Moscow
thumb.925.925.1525608145.jpg


Some facts about Lokomotiv championship:

Yuri Semin becomes the eldest coach to lead his team to the Russian title - he'll be 71 in 5 days.
His assistants Dmitry Loskov and Oleg Pashinin become 3-time champions, as they were the part of Lokomotiv sqauds that won the 2002 and 2004 titles.
His other assistants Sarkis Oganesyan and Yuri Baturenko become the champions for the 1st time, as they only won silver and bronze with the team in the 90s.
Igor Denisov becomes the 5th player to win 4 or more Russian championships with different teams.
I think the team manager Stanislav Sukhina becomes the 1st ever former referee to win the Russian championship :huh:
This season is highly likely to break the RFPL attendance record.
Loko will have the fewest points as a champion since at least 2009 (60 with one game to go).
Most fans and experts expect Manuel Fernandes to be the 1st Lokomotiv player to get the player of the season award since Sychev in 2004.
 
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sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
22,532
33,769
Brewster, NY
Beşiktaş fined 4 million liras and banned from the Turkish Cup for the next season after their refusal to continue the fixture against Fenerbahçe. The match had been suspended after Fenerbahçe hooligans bombarded the Beşiktaş team with projectiles which left head coach Şenol Güneş injured and hospitalized with a head wound. Fenerbahçe was thus granted a walkover victory.

It's certainly interesting how certain teams emerge on top even after trouble caused by themselves.
I know it obviously would never happen for many reasons but I wish UEFA would hit the Turkish FA with sanctions for being a vile disgrace and embarrassment to the sport. Seriously this is so disgusting on so many levels.
 

HajdukSplit

Registered User
Nov 9, 2005
11,034
762
NJ
Happened yesterday but Strum Graz won the Austrian Cup in ET over Red Bull Salzburg, their second defeat in ET in less than a week

Exciting title race in Belgium; Standard Liege won a massive game against Anderlecht (actually watched the 2nd half on some fringe sports channel here in the US) and pretty much knocked Anderlecht out while Club Brugge came from behind to beat Charleroi to keep a 4 point advantage

1. Brugge 45
2. Standard 41
3. Anderlecht 40

Two rounds to go, Brugge go to Liege on Sunday which is a must win for Liege, anything else and Brugge pretty much secures the title
 

Savi

Registered User
Dec 3, 2006
9,276
1,862
Bruges, Belgium
Exciting title race in Belgium; Standard Liege won a massive game against Anderlecht (actually watched the 2nd half on some fringe sports channel here in the US) and pretty much knocked Anderlecht out while Club Brugge came from behind to beat Charleroi to keep a 4 point advantage

1. Brugge 45
2. Standard 41
3. Anderlecht 40

Two rounds to go, Brugge go to Liege on Sunday which is a must win for Liege, anything else and Brugge pretty much secures the title

If Standard don't win, Brugge are champions no matter what because they hold the tiebreaker over Anderlecht.

Brugge have been the best team all season and they started the playoffs with a 12 point lead, actually 6 points because all point totals get cut in half "to make the title race more exciting" :laugh: so you can build a healthy lead over 30 regular season games and as a reward for being so good you get half of that lead taken away.
Having said that Brugge should have really wrapped it up by now. They lost 1-0 at both Anderlecht and Gent despite outplaying and outchancing them, last week they lost 2-1 at home to Anderlecht in large part thanks to many referee/video assistent referee mistakes, in the home game vs Standard they had 2-0 and 3-1 leads with Standard racing back to a 3-3 tie, then went up 4-3 on a late PK only to see Standard drawing even in the 94th minute.
Standard were 12 pts behind at the start of the playoffs after a highly disappointing regular season (they only secured a playoff spot on the final day) but somehow they are destroying everyone now :huh: Their two standout players are Mehdi Carcela (he should be at the World Cup with the Morocco NT) who is on loan from Granada and is way too good for the Belgian league, and young winger Edmilson Junior who is starting to get some hype to be included in the Belgian NT.
 

Savi

Registered User
Dec 3, 2006
9,276
1,862
Bruges, Belgium
Yeah at some point they will change it back I think. There's been plenty of criticism.

Brugge finished the regular season with a 24(!) pt lead over Standard Liege. That gets cut in half to start the playoffs so suddenly it's 12. Then Standard gets hot for a couple of games, Brugge has a stretch with some bad luck, now it's only 4 points.

You can basically throw the regular season because in the end those 30 games barely seem to matter anymore. Just make sure you play well enough in April/May.
 
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sabremike

Friend To All Giraffes
Aug 30, 2010
22,532
33,769
Brewster, NY
They may as well just go to a North American style playoff system and be done with it. At least in MLS they have a one off title match played at the higher seed so there is some reward for the regular season. I wish they would do single game playoffs with games played at the higher seed for the whole thing to really give an advantage for regular season performance.
 
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Savi

Registered User
Dec 3, 2006
9,276
1,862
Bruges, Belgium
Turkish league seems set for a crazy final day as well. Galatasaray are in first place on 72 points, Basaksehir have 69, and if Fenerbahce beat the last placed team tomorrow they will be on 69 as well.

Galatasaray have a tricky away game on the final matchday as they travel to 6th place Goztepe. Both Basaksehir and Fenerbahce have winnable games at home.

If Galatasaray lose, a couple of scenarios are possible; (1) if Gala and Basaksehir are tied, Basaksehir wins the title; (2) if Gala and Fenerbahce are tied, then Gala will be champions unless Fenerbahce manages to overturn a -7 goal differential in their final two games; (3) in case of a three-way tie, Fenerbahce will have the best head-to-head record amongst all three teams and win the league
 

Pouchkine

Registered User
May 20, 2015
2,731
294
Wild finish in Russia on the last matchday with big wins and European qualification by CSKA Krasnodar and Ufa while Spartak and Zenit end the season with big failures especially Zenit.
 

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