QuoteThe UEFA Cup has really become a bit like the FA Cup in England. I am not sure people care much about it any more. It certainly gets very little coverage on TV in Ireland or I think the UK.
Tie of the round:
Zenit St Petersburg -v- VfB Stuttgart
Here is the draw for the last 32, I've sectioned it off the last 16 draw too (e.g. winner of Bremen-Milan will play winner of Olympiakos-St.Ettien)
Werder Bremen -v- AC Milan
Olympiakos -v- St Etienne
--------------------------
Aston Villa -v- CSKA Moscow
Shakhtar Donetsk -v- Spurs
--------------------------
Lech Poznan -v- Udinese
Zenit St Petersburg -v- VfB Stuttgart
--------------------------
Paris St Germain -v- Wolfsburg
Braga -v- Standard Liege
--------------------------
Dynamo Kiev -v- Valencia
Sampdoria -v- Metalist Kharkiv
--------------------------
FC Copenhagen -v- Man City
Aalborg -v- Deportivo La Coruna
--------------------------
Marseille -v- FC Twente
Fiorentina -v- Ajax
--------------------------
NEC Nijmegen -v- HSV
Bordeaux -v- FC Galatasaray
--------------------------
Have put my picks for the winners of last 32 in bold and winners of last 16 in bold/underline/italic
The UEFA Cup has really become a bit like the FA Cup in England. I am not sure people care much about it any more. It certainly gets very little coverage on TV in Ireland or I think the UK.
Tie of the round:
Zenit St Petersburg -v- VfB Stuttgart
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Thanks for putting that up in the form you did.
My only prediction is that Metallist Karkiv will beat Sampdoria over two legs.
One of the legs being 1-0 to Metallist.
And one of the three forwards for Dynamo Kiev Aliev, Medievev(?) or Banjoura(?) will score in each game.
I think the UEFA Cup is a 'soft' competition alright. But for me that gives it an unpredictability about it.
" I'll go right up to here,
it can't possibly hurt.
All they will find is my
beer and my shirt."
^ those Ukraine / Kyivan forwards, I think for one you mean Artem Milevskiy ???
Great player by the way! Malkhaz Asatiani (on loan from Lokomotiv) is a great player too, they have a great manager in Yuri Semin too, one of the old guard of Soviet football... had a great season back at Pamir Dushanbe in the 1980s
Some great games in there, moreso than the CL.
Bordeaux Galatasaray
Fiorentina Ajax
Bremen Milan
Kiev Valencia
Man City Depor
The Model Club
Tell all the Bohs you know
that we've gone and won two-in-a-row
and it's not gonna be three
and it's not gonna be four
it's more likely to be 5-1.
Always live games from each round on ITV4 and Channel 5. TV3 used to have the Irish rights but I think Setanta Ireland have them now.Originally Posted by OwlsFan
Watching Galatasaray : Bordeaux on bet365. Bordeaux just got two goals in two minutes. twenty minutes left. 3:3 on the night, 3:3 on agg.
After edit:
4:3 Sabri last 5 minutes.
Gala go through.
Udinese are 1-0 down to Lech Poznan at half-time in Udine. (2-3 agg)
Last edited by HarpoJoyce; 26/02/2009 at 7:49 PM.
" I'll go right up to here,
it can't possibly hurt.
All they will find is my
beer and my shirt."
AC Milan are out on the away goals rule. They drew 2 all with Bremen, after being 2-0 up. Pizzaro got both goals in the final 22 minutes
Brilliant, just brilliant! Werder had a bad last time but this "win" compensated for a lot. To be honest I didn't think they would be able to come back into the game, after they were 2:0 down.
Despite this great success, it was not a good day for german football. Stuttgart and Wolfsburg couldn't qualify for the next round. That's quite poor and disappointing.
The UEFA Cup is dieing on its feet, at least over this side of the world. None of the English sides' games were shown on tv and weakened sides were fielded by the English teams.
I remember a time when it was a big deal to qualify for Europe. Now it's try and qualify for the CL or avoid relegation. Nothing else matters.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
True in respect of most the English clubs and it really annoys me. Only City seen to care but it's all they have to play for as you say - they won't go down and they aren't contention for the CL places. There are smaller clubs all over Europe - think of the eL clubs - who'd kill to be in Villa's position. UEFA should realise that English clubs contribute nothing to that cup and reduce their places accordingly.
The ironic thing is that during the league season the clubs claim to want UEFA qualification but once they get there they treat the competition with contempt. OK, 'boro got to the final but right up until the latter stages they were saying the league is more important. It really highlights the curious business of sport. Fans want big matches and trophies, the owners want to avoid relegation.
City vs Copenhagen was on ITV4 btw.
Here is the full draw for the last 16 (1st leg 12th March, 2nd leg 18-19th March):
Werder Bremen v Saint-Etienne
CSKA Moscow v Shakhtar Donetsk
Udinese v Zenit St Petersburg
Paris Saint-Germain v Braga
Dynamo Kiev v Metalist Kharkiv
Manchester City v Aalborg
Marseille v Ajax
Hamburg v Galatasaray
Actually some very good ties there.
After the last 16 the whole thing is re-drawn and the paths of the quarters, semis and final are all drawn in one go (20th March).
I'd fancy Udinese to get past Zenit
It's a tough one, but Zenit have a strong squad, even without Arshavin they've still got players like Pogrebnyak, Zyrianov and Danny. Also Igor Denisov and Viktor Fayzulin are great young players, Fayzulin came onvs Stuttgart and pretty much tore their defence to pieces. I think Zenit's freshness may just give them the edge, though I think they may lose in Udine before turning it around. Their goalie, Malafeev, is pretty poor though - the sub Slovakian Kamil Contaflasky is better.
Dynamo v. Metalist. Is this the first Ukraine Derby in the UEFA Cup?
I think Metalist will take them, they're having a terricfic tournament.
For me, at least six even matches in this round of games.
" I'll go right up to here,
it can't possibly hurt.
All they will find is my
beer and my shirt."
Very well put. Coverage only on ITV4 just about says it all.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
They played each other in the league last night in Kharkov, with Dinamo winning 2-0...
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uef...id=806668.html
Cheers I didn't know they played.
I will now say I would like Metalist to win but wont be dissapointed if Dynamo go through, as conquerors of Drogheda.
Artem Kravets to score over 90 mins?
" I'll go right up to here,
it can't possibly hurt.
All they will find is my
beer and my shirt."
Milyevsky is a good bet to score for Dynamo, he takes their pks (usually does a Panenka chip too)...
first leg results:
CSKA Moscow 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Dynamo Kiev 1-0 FC Metalist Kharkiv
Hamburg SV 1-0 Galatasaray
Paris S-G 0-0 Braga
Werder Bremen 1-0 St Etienne
Udinese 2-0 Zenit
Man City 2-0 AaB Aaalborg
Marseille 2-1 Ajax
Saw the Zenit match on RU web TV, they conceeded 2 sloppy goals (one dubious pen) on 85 and 88 mins and had a man sent off. It's uphill for them next week but last year they were able to grind out decent results at the Petrovsky against Marseille and Villareal after dissapointing first legs. They picked up a red card and a few yellows so their back line could be a bit messy. A lot of the matches are finely poised and the second legs could be interesting - a shame the only one on TV here will be Man City Aalborg, which is probably the one that's the most decided thus far.
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