UEFA Europa League Qualifying Rounds 2019/20

[Moncherry]

It's impressive for a minnow like Rangers.

 

[HajdukSplit]

So one tie in the playoffs will be Dudelange vs Ararat, Dudelange made the group stage last season while Ararat will be looking to be the first Armenian side to make a UEFA group stage

 

[HajdukSplit]

Riga knock out HJK while Maccabi are on their way out against Suduva

 

[Savi]

Pretty impressive from Riga. They are only in their 5th year of existence. Won their first title last year and are on their way to another. Eliminated both the Poland and Finland champions and now will play Copenhagen.

 

[Savi]

Antwerp holding on for 80 minutes in Plzen but then finally conceding and now going to extra time

But really Plzen should have won it already, plenty of chances but very wasteful in their finishing

 

[HajdukSplit]

Antwerp score an away goal in ET

Big turnaround for Aris against Molde, the Greeks lost 3:0 in the 1st leg and have just scored the goal for 3:0 in the return leg, so looks like that's going to ET

 

[Ajacied]

Van Bommel is a really, really bad coach this early in his career. So much talent and he can't seem to make it work at all.

 

[HajdukSplit]

All three Dutch sides advance but with every coefficient point vital to get back that automatic CL spot the draws from Feyenoord and PSV won't help especially against the opposition they played. The teams from the top leagues all cruised this round, only slight slip up was Torino who won big in the 1st leg and only got a draw today

 

[Savi]

Antwerp score an away goal in ET

Absolutely crazy game. Plzen had SO many wide open chances, this game should have never gone to ET to begin with, then in the first half of ET they go up 2-0 and Antwerp had a man sent off. Tie over. No way Antwerp have anything left. But they did. Unbelievable. Football can be cruel

Gent easily beat AEK from Cyprus and will play Rijeka in the playoff round. Antwerp will meet AZ in a Bene-League preview

 

[HajdukSplit]

Molde scores an away goal in ET, Aris has 15 minutes to score two goals

 

[HajdukSplit]

Not too many surprises in the league path of this competition, two ties went into ET with Antwerp winning on away goals against Plzen while Aris overturned a 3:0 deficit in the 90 minutes but lost 4:3 overall on aggregate to Molde. The two big surprises in the champions route were Riga eliminating HJK and Suduva eliminating Israeli champs Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

Here is the playoff ties to be play August 22 & 29. Winners of these ties progress to the group stage
Champions Route
Suduva (LTU) vs. Ferencvaros (HUN)
FC Copenhagen (DEN) vs. Riga FC (LVA)
Celtic (SCO) vs. AIK (SWE)
Ararat (ARM) vs. F91 Dudelange (LUX)
Ludogorets Razgrad (BUL) vs. Maribor (SVN)
Linfield (NIR) vs. Qarabag (AZE)
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) vs. PAOK (GRE)
Astana (KAZ) vs. BATE Borisov (BLR)

Ties like Astana-BATE and Ludogorets-Maribor would have only recently been seen in the Champions League qualifying playoffs, so it shows how poorly they did this season in Europe (all four also recently played in Champions League). Great opportunities for clubs from countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Armenia, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland to get a side into the group stages. For Armenia, Northern Ireland and I think Lithuania(?) it would be the first time ever while F91 Dudelange made it last season and Latvia had one many years ago so not a frequent occurrence

League Route
Torino (ITA) vs. Wolves (ENG)
Legia Warsaw (POL) vs. Rangers (SCO)
Steaua Bucharest (ROU) vs. Vitoria Guimaraes (POR)
PSV Eindhoven (NED) vs. Apollon Limassol (CYP)
AEK Athens (GRE) vs. Trabzonspor (TUR)
Feyenoord (NED) vs. Hapoel Beer Sheva (ISR)
Gent (BEL) vs. Rijeka (CRO)
Espanyol (ESP) vs. Zorya Luhansk (UKR)
Partizan Belgrade (SRB) vs. Molde (NOR)
Braga (POR) vs. Spartak Moscow (RUS)
Malmo (SWE) vs. Bnei Yehuda (ISR)
Strasbourg (FRA) vs. Eintracht Frankfurt (GER)
AZ Alkmaar (NED) vs. Royal Antwerp (BEL)

The two standout ties are ones involving teams from the top five leagues: Torino vs. Wolves and Strasbourg vs. Frankfurt. In terms of coefficient race there is a Portugal-Russia matchup which is always important. Throw in a Greece vs. Turkey & Dutch vs. Belgium tie.

 

[Savi]

So with the roof of the AZ stadium collapsing last week, the game between AZ and Antwerp is now going to be played in the Twente stadium, which is on the other side of the country. There will only be a few thousand "home" fans and the local mayor has denied any Antwerp fans access to the stadium I don't know if he fear riots but there weren't any problems with Antwerp fans in Plzen.

So we finally have a Dutch v Belgium matchup again and it could just as well have been played in an empty stadium.

 

[Ajacied]

So with the roof of the AZ stadium collapsing last week, the game between AZ and Antwerp is now going to be played in the Twente stadium, which is on the other side of the country. There will only be a few thousand "home" fans and the local mayor has denied any Antwerp fans access to the stadium I don't know if he fear riots but there weren't any problems with Antwerp fans in Plzen.

So we finally have a Dutch v Belgium matchup again and it could just as well have been played in an empty stadium.

Yeah the atmosphere will be lacking. Not sure many fans from Alkmaar will attend the match. Hopefully a few locals show up.

Sucks so bad for AZ. They won't be able to play a real home game for the entire season. This will affect them when it's all said and done.

 

[Savi]

The entire season???

 

[Ajacied]

The entire season???

Yes, the entire stadium had its flaws upon a more firm check. It's not deemed safe now. AZ will play their "home" games in whichever stadium is free and nearby. They've already played two games in the stadium of ADO Den Haag.

 

[Savi]

Yes, the entire stadium had its flaws upon a more firm check. It's not deemed safe now.

Holy shit. How did that happen? Sounds like they should be happy nothing has ever happened during an actual game.

 

[Ajacied]

Holy ****. How did that happen? Sounds like they should be happy nothing has ever happened during an actual game.

Yeah.

The stadium was built during the recession. AZ had already committed to build it, and then Dirk Scheringa's (the owner of AZ) bank chains collapsed on top of it. Apparently they finished the stadium with cheap labor and materials.

 

[Prntscrn]

Celtic looks way better than AIK, nice to see

 

[hatterson]

Hmm, is there a way to catch the Wolves game today?

BR Live says coverage starts at 3PM est which was 10 minutes ago.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Frankfurt losing at halftime to Strasbourg. Easy wins for Astana, Malmo and Feyenoord at home. Ararat one step closer to being the first Armenian side in a UEFA group stage but they did concede an away goal to Dudelange. Ten man Maribor held Ludogorets to a scoreless draw

 

[HajdukSplit]

Important third goal for Copenhagen in the final minute against Riga to give them a two goal lead going into Latvia. Espanyol losing to Zorya at home while Wolves have a one goal lead in Torino

 

[Ajacied]

Feyenoord beat Hapoel Beer Sheva with 3-0. Fine game by them, albeit vs a lousy opponent. Leroy Fer scored twice. I like that acquisition. One of the more underrated players to come out of the Eredivisie these past few years. He will be very valuable for them this season.

PSV beat Apollon 3-0. It was 0-0 at half time with PSV barely creating anything. But their youngsters came through in the second half. Ihattaren (17), Gakpo (19) and Dumfries scored. Malen still a bit unfortunate and uncomfortable at the striker position.

AZ and Antwerp finished at 1-1. AZ was the only one deserving of a victory here. I like their all-round game. Antwerp was more physical and were winning most aerial battles. While he scored, I thought Boadu was unlucky today. Stengs was very lively and all over the pitch. Idrissi was a big threat on the wings. Some scuffles at the end will make for an interesting return in Belgium.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Linfield up 3:1 on Qarabag, they are looking to be the first North Irish side to make a UEFA group competition. Wolves up two now in Torino while Espanyol equalized

 

[Savi]

AZ and Antwerp finished at 1-1. AZ was the only one deserving of a victory here.

I don't agree to that
I think a tie was the only fair result. This game was way more open than I anticipated and really Antwerp did have several good chances as well. Refaelov hitting the post and two big chances just before AZ tied it up as well. Both teams could have scored more and will feel they could have won this game. And because of this I have no clue who's going to win next week. /edit/ also AZ should have gotten a red card at the end with Midtsjo(?) kicking an Antwerp player while he was down. Lucky for him there was no VAR

Gent came from a goal down to beat Rijeka 2-1 at home in a game they dominated but won't be happy they conceded. Still think they're favourites to go through although Gent away from home this season have been pretty bad.

 

[Pensionsraddare]

Wolves wins easily and Premier League are so much better than Serie A.