UEFA Europa League Qualifying Rounds 2018/19

[ViD]

Leipzig is through with a PK goal on 90th minute.

Basel is losing 0-1 which will see them out

CFR is losing to a Luxembourg team at home 0-2

 

[HajdukSplit]

Basel eliminated by Apollon (two Cypriot sides in the ELGS)

First time Basel are not in a group stage of a Euro competition since 2002

 

[Savi]

Amazing job by Dudelange, started all the way back in early July, played 4 qualifying rounds already and eliminated the champions of Poland and Romania.

Sarpsborg from Norway will also make their European group stage debut I think. Molde beat Zenit but came up one goal short to force E.T.

 

[ViD]

Zenit’s reserve squad is absolutely incapable of anything. 0-4 in Minsk and 1-2 in Norway

 

[HajdukSplit]

Norwegian side Sarpsborg qualify for the group stage in their first time every in European competition, they also started from the first round and got by three seeded teams (St. Gallen, Rijeka and Maccabi Tel-Aviv)

 

[HajdukSplit]

Atalanta are out losing to FC Copenhagen on penalty kicks, Denmark are still in play for an automatic CL spot with their coefficients but the fact both Brondby and Nordsjaelland were eliminated today doesn't help, will probably come down to Netherlands/Austria unless Copenhagen do serious damage in the EL

 

[Milos Krasic]

Ironically, Cornelius missed the second penalty for Atalanta. Papu missed the first.

 

[Havre]

Norwegian side Sarpsborg qualify for the group stage in their first time every in European competition, they also started from the first round and got by three seeded teams (St. Gallen, Rijeka and Maccabi Tel-Aviv)

They have played in Europe before, but there wasn´t any group stages back then.

Regardless. Crazy accomplishment considering it is a small club even by Norwegian standards. Probably one of the best ran clubs in the world the last 3-5 years.

 

[MaxV]

Meh, Ufa did it’s job imo. Got through 2 rounds and gave Russia coefficient points.

This is more then I was expecting considering that they might finish in relegation zone this season.

 

[Savi]

Genk beat Brondby again, scored 9 times in total and look in midseason form already. Will be a dangerous opponent for anyone in the group stage. They're also leading the Belgian league at the moment.

Gent are going to lose in Bordeaux which is a bit unlucky as they had their chances (so did Bordeaux though) and conceded an imaginary penalty on a dive by a player they had just sold to Bordeaux a few weeks ago

 

[StevenF1919]

Atalanta undeservedly eliminated. Too bad, they're a ton of fun to watch.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Atalanta undeservedly eliminated. Too bad, they're a ton of fun to watch.

I didn't see the tie since it wasn't on TV but I don't think Atalanta going out is underserved. A team like Midtjylland not even making the group stage of the Europa league after winning their league is underserved. I don't get why the 7th place team in Italy even has a chance to make the group stage and the Danish winner doesn't even go directly in?

 

[Gecklund]

I didn't see the tie since it wasn't on TV but I don't think Atalanta going out is underserved. A team like Midtjylland not even making the group stage of the Europa league after winning their league is underserved. I don't get why the 7th place team in Italy even has a chance to make the group stage and the Danish winner doesn't even go directly in?

Because the 7th place team in Italy is generally better than the Danish winner.

 

[Milos Krasic]

Jesse Joronen was fantastic in both matches for Copenhagen.

 

[StevenF1919]

I didn't see the tie since it wasn't on TV but I don't think Atalanta going out is underserved. A team like Midtjylland not even making the group stage of the Europa league after winning their league is underserved. I don't get why the 7th place team in Italy even has a chance to make the group stage and the Danish winner doesn't even go directly in?

You can't be giving guaranteed spots to every joke league around Europe. If Denmark wants a guaranteed spot they need to raise their coefficient.

The tie should have been put away after the first leg tbh. Can't believe how many chances Atalanta squandered.

 

[HoseEmDown]

Because the 7th place team in Italy is generally better than the Danish winner.

I agree but that's not what the Europa league should be about. The 7th best Italian team shouldn't even be in the competition, too many teams from the big leagues taking up places.

 

[HoseEmDown]

You can't be giving guaranteed spots to every joke league around Europe. If Denmark wants a guaranteed spot they need to raise their coefficient.

The tie should have been put away after the first leg tbh. Can't believe how many chances Atalanta squandered.

I didn't say ever league winner should be in. The Danish league is the 18th best which isn't a joke league, better than Scotland. It's hard for these smaller leagues to build coefficient when they have half the amount of teams as the bigger leagues. The big leagues could suck and still stay ahead just by the sheer amount of teams they have in, a Danish league team would have to go real far to make up that gap. There's 48 teams in the group stage I'm sure they can give a spot to one team in each of the top 24 leagues then have the others be through a playoffs. It would cut out a lot of the super early playoff round starts as there would be less teams competing for a spot.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

This topic of discussion just reminds of the kind of irony that exists in that, when this competition was called the "European Cup", it was limited to domestic champions and the title holder (if the holder wasn't already a domestic champion), but ever since it was rebranded as the "Champions League", all sorts of non-domestic champions make the tournament instead. Each name would've made more sense if they had done it the other way around.

On topic - I don't think I disagree with Hose on this subject, actually. The UEFA Cup used to mean something. Not during my lifetime; I'm much too young for that. But the UEFA Cup, as a secondary tournament, used to be full of top-notch European clubs. Likewise with the Cup Winners' Cup although having two secondary tournaments always felt just a bit redundant, and probably cluttered as well. I know that, despite being synonymous with the European Cup/UCL, one of Real Madrid's most famous games was in the '80s against Inter in the UEFA Cup; it was the game where "90 minutes is a long time at the Bernabeu" originates from, I'm fairly sure.

Instead, as it is today, the Europa League is more-or-less treated like a total waste of time and something that big clubs view as a burden rather than something to fight for, and, frankly, they aren't wrong. Atletico won the Europa League last year just as much because everyone else in the competition was crap compared to them and it was almost impossible for them to lose over 180 minutes. The only big clubs it matters for, not that at least the winner is guaranteed a Champions League spot, are the one or two from the top leagues that find themselves sitting outside the top-4 in a given season. And some of them don't even enter until they finish in 3rd in their Champions League group, at that. I can tell you right now that, as an Inter fan, I would probably rather finish 4th in our group and miss the Europa League altogether and take our chances at finishing in the top-4 of Serie A to reach next year's Champions League, rather than finish 3rd, have to deal with Europa League even for just one matchup, and have conflicting competitions. I wouldn't really rate Inter's chances of winning Europa League, anyway, if I'm being honest (whoever finishes second in Group B automatically becomes favorites, or perhaps co-favorites with Chelsea, anyway).

But I'm getting off the point here. It really doesn't have to be that way, and it really shouldn't be that way. Europa League should mean...something. Whatever that is depends on the person. But even "whatever" would probably be more than what it actually means to people as it is.

 

[robertmac43]

But I'm getting off the point here. It really doesn't have to be that way, and it really shouldn't be that way. Europa League should mean...something. Whatever that is depends on the person. But even "whatever" would probably be more than what it actually means to people as it is.

Last year was the first time I really had exposure too it as an Arsenal fan. It meant something because 1) It was a way into the Champions League and 2) because it was a competition that Wenger had not won ever and it would have been nice to go out with it. This year I think its just congestion in the schedule. I believe we have the squad to get top 4, so for now it means little, but if/when things start going south than the competition will mean more, but just as a stepping stone which is probably how most teams/fans look at it.

 

[sabremike]

Leipzig is through with a PK goal

Good for Jesse I guess???

 

[Incubajerks]

Atalanta undeservedly eliminated. Too bad, they're a ton of fun to watch.

It must be said that Atalanta should have already qualified for the groups and Milan should have been at home. It must also be said that now they come back down to earth.

 

[maclean]

I didn't say ever league winner should be in. The Danish league is the 18th best which isn't a joke league, better than Scotland. It's hard for these smaller leagues to build coefficient when they have half the amount of teams as the bigger leagues. The big leagues could suck and still stay ahead just by the sheer amount of teams they have in, a Danish league team would have to go real far to make up that gap. There's 48 teams in the group stage I'm sure they can give a spot to one team in each of the top 24 leagues then have the others be through a playoffs. It would cut out a lot of the super early playoff round starts as there would be less teams competing for a spot.

While I agree with your sentiment, technically you're not exactly correct about big leagues staying in by the amount of teams they have. I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure points are divided by the total amount of teams a country has, so if a country only has one team that does well, it's a big difference between it being the only one and being one of five, say. So having more teams is also a bigger responsibility for those countries, that their teams have to continue to do well.

 

[Evilo]

I didn't say ever league winner should be in. The Danish league is the 18th best which isn't a joke league, better than Scotland. It's hard for these smaller leagues to build coefficient when they have half the amount of teams as the bigger leagues. The big leagues could suck and still stay ahead just by the sheer amount of teams they have in, a Danish league team would have to go real far to make up that gap. There's 48 teams in the group stage I'm sure they can give a spot to one team in each of the top 24 leagues then have the others be through a playoffs. It would cut out a lot of the super early playoff round starts as there would be less teams competing for a spot.

People can't seem to grasp that you can't raise your coefficient when all the eggs are in the same basket. A league like Denmark has one team competing, and the league coefficient is entirely on their shoulders.
Meanwhile Germany or Italy has 4 teams in the CL, 3 teams in the EL and their coefficient will never ever go down because of it. Even if there are 2 years of failure from all their teams, the other 3 years with that many teams will have some good results.

 

[Evilo]

While I agree with your sentiment, technically you're not exactly correct about big leagues staying in by the amount of teams they have. I'd have to look it up but I'm pretty sure points are divided by the total amount of teams a country has, so if a country only has one team that does well, it's a big difference between it being the only one and being one of five, say. So having more teams is also a bigger responsibility for those countries, that their teams have to continue to do well.

But if one team fails, it's entirely different in terms of consequences. Because in Italy, some other teams will do well.