It's Official!!: Europa League Thread

[The Bear]

FIXTURES

19th Sep - Braga (H) 20:00
3rd Oct - Besiktas (A) 17:55
24th Oct - Bratislava (A) 17:55
7th Nov - Bratislava (H) 20:00
28th Nov - Braga (A) 17:55
12th Dec - Besiktas (H) 20:00


RULES

Group Stage and Subsequent Knockout Rounds:

"There are 12 groups of four teams, with each team playing everyone else in that group on a home and away basis. The top two in each group, plus the eight third-placed teams who depart from the UEFA Champions League group stage, progress to the round of 32."

"In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association can be drawn against each other."


IMPORTANT DATES


16 December: Round of 32 draw, Nyon

FEBRUARY

20 February: Espanyol (H)

27 February: Espanyol (A)

28 February: Round of 16 draw, Nyon (open draw, no seedings)

MARCH

12 March: Round of 16, first leg

19 March: Round of 16, second leg

20 March: Quarter-final and semi-final draws, Nyon

APRIL

9 April: Quarter-finals, first leg

16 April: Quarter-finals, second leg

30 April: Semi-finals, first leg

MAY

7 May: Semi-finals, second leg

27 May: Final - Gdansk Stadium

 

[big mean bunny]

I feel its way to early to overlook Watford beating City in the cup, a La Wigan.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Possibly. But this is a different Manchester City. I don't want to jinx anything but they will be rightful favourites.

 

[StuardoWulf]

Watford beating a, nothing else to worry about Citeh, is unlikely to say the least.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

If it happens so be it. Our season has still been epic

 

[Norman Deeley]

Leicester are 18/1 to win at City and Watford are 5/1 to win the Cup, so I think you can safely discuss a weekend in Kyrgyzstan...

 

[wordsleywolf]

Don't we avoid the earlier qualifiers OF Chelsea/Arsenal win the Europa league but finish 5th or 6th in the league? (Assuming we qualify at all for the superstitious).

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

No

 

[big mean bunny]

Watford beating a, nothing else to worry about Citeh, is unlikely to say the least.

It would be less of a shock than Wimbledon beating Liverpool though.

 

[wordsleywolf]

No

Ok. Sure I'd read somewhere that because they go in the Champions league the 7th place club effectively move up a place but we lose our 3rd Europa spot. Oh well Kazakhstan it is!

 

[Law's Bus]

Don't we avoid the earlier qualifiers OF Chelsea/Arsenal win the Europa league but finish 5th or 6th in the league? (Assuming we qualify at all for the superstitious).

It's incredibly difficult to find out exactly what goes on with this without reading UEFA's official rulebook, which is an utter nightmare.

The team that wins the Europa League goes into the Champions' League, but then its national association loses a Europa place. Effectively it means that instead of the usual 4-3 split between the competitions, there becomes a 5-2 split.

The UEFA Europa League titleholder is admitted to the UEFA Champions League group stage. If the UEFA Europa League titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through one of its domestic competitions, the number of places to which its association is entitled in the UEFA Europa League is decreased by one. The created vacancy is filled accordingly with priority for the UEFA Europa League given to domestic cup winners (in accordance with the entry stage as per the access list).

That bit's easy. Working out exactly what happens to the seedings is not easy.

If the winner of the domestic cup qualifies for the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europa League via the domestic championship, the highest ranking nonqualified domestic championship club qualifies for the UEFA Europa League at the stage initially reserved for the lowest ranking top domestic championship representative. If the winner of the domestic cup qualifies for UEFA Champions League, the access stage initially reserved for the domestic cup winner is reserved for the club which finishes the domestic championship in the highest position out of all the clubs which qualify for the UEFA Europa League from the association concerned (see Annex A). In both cases each representative of the domestic championship then enters the competition at the stage initially reserved for the domestic championship representative ranked immediately above it.

Usually this means that the winner of the FA Cup gets the highest ranked place, fifth go directly into the group stage and whoever ends up sixth gets the qualifying round place. Assuming that Watford don't win the FA Cup, then fifth and sixth (two places) go into the group stages, and seventh goes into the qualifying rounds - which we all know.

Assuming that one of Chelsea or Arsenal win the Europa League and whoever does that does not automatically qualify for the Champions' League, then England loses a place as per 3.07. By my reading of the last sentence, it's actually the FA Cup place that is the one that gets taken away from England rather than the bottom place as might be expected - so Watford (or the top ranked league team) don't get seeded in the Europa League; and the Dutch cup winners do instead.

Either way, whoever wins the Europa Cup won't affect us.


There are only a couple of situations where there are more teams from a national association allowed into UEFA competition, and they're all around if the winners of the Champions League and Europa League don't qualify through their domestic competitions (which won't happen this year):

If the UEFA Champions League titleholder and the UEFA Europa League titleholder come from the same association and do not qualify for the competition through their domestic championship, one of the following scenarios applies:

a. If the association is entitled to four places in the competition and both titleholders qualify for the UEFA Europa League through their domestic championship, the lowest-placed of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Europa League (into the UEFA Europa League group stage where a vacancy is created). In this case, the association of the titleholders is entitled to one additional place (total of five) in the UEFA Champions League, but the combined number of places to which it is entitled in the two competitions does not change.

b. If the association is entitled to four places in the competition and only one titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through its domestic championship, the lowest-placed of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Europa League (into the UEFA Europa League group stage and the access list will be rebalanced accordingly). In this case, the association of the titleholders is entitled to one additional place (total of five) in the UEFA Champions League, but the number of places to which it is entitled in the UEFA Europa League does not change.

c. If the association is entitled to four places in the UEFA Champions League and neither titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through its domestic championship, the lowest-placed of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Europa League (into the UEFA Europa League group stage and the access list will be rebalanced accordingly). In this case, the association of the titleholders is entitled to one additional place (total of five) in the UEFA Champions League and one additional place (total of four) in the UEFA Europa League.

So basically there is a maximum of nine places that can be available to a nation, just only in very specific circumstances.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Regardless what happens with Chelsea/Arsenal, if Watford don’t win then we are In the second qualifying round “main path”.

The draw Isn’t seeded so we could draw the lowest ranked Spanish, Italian, German etc. teams. Obviously that would be a bit rubbish when you could draw some shitmuncher instead.

Still reckon we would get through against Hoffenheim or Atalanta or whoever.

 

[SSB]

Leicester are 18/1 to win at City and Watford are 5/1 to win the Cup, so I think you can safely discuss a weekend in Kyrgyzstan...

I’ve put a £1 on two Leicester wins and a Watford win. It’ll pay for my season ticket if disaster happens.

 

[Rui_CostCo]

The FA Cup still worries me. It's only happened around 6 or 7 times in my memorable lifetime, but Final upsets do happen, and some of them for far worse sides than Watford. Having said that, none of the opponents have been this City side, and upsets have been far less frequent since the establishment of a top 6. It could still happen though.

Not that Watford will need anymore incentives, I would imagine Reg has also put something special on the table for them should they win. Unless City totally blow them away, I think this will be a very tense Final

 

[Norman Deeley]

The FA Cup still worries me. It's only happened around 6 or 7 times in my memorable lifetime, but Final upsets do happen, and some of them for far worse sides than Watford. Having said that, none of the opponents have been this City side, and upsets have been far less frequent since the establishment of a top 6. It could still happen though.

Not that Watford will need anymore incentives, I would imagine Reg has also put something special on the table for them should they win. Unless City totally blow them away, I think this will be a very tense Final

On Betfair City are 1.33 to win in normal time. Lay City to win you £150. If Watford win you get £150. If City win you lose £50 but Wolves are in Europe. Best of all worlds is if City win in ET or pens and then you win your bet AND Wolves are in Europe

 

[The Bion]

Ultimately we've done our bit. It's out of our hands now. Relax, watch the remaining games and try to enjoy them rather than stress over it. If Watford win the cup then fair fucks to them as that will be a real achievement. If Leicester beat both City and Chelsea, likewise (albeit less of an achievement as there'll be no trophy at the end of it)

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Ultimately we've done our bit. It's out of our hands now. Relax, watch the remaining games and try to enjoy them rather than stress over it. If Watford win the cup then fair fucks to them as that will be a real achievement. If Leicester beat both City and Chelsea, likewise (albeit less of an achievement as there'll be no trophy at the end of it)

This. All of it.

We have done everything we can to make it difficult for our fellow Europa challengers. If one of them manages to surmount the barrier we have put in the way, then you just say congratulations. It has been a magnificent season for us either way.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Pretty sure Watfords record against the top 6 is woeful. They just have beat all the lower ranked teams.

 

[Tony Towner]

Pretty sure Watfords record against the top 6 is woeful. They just have beat all the lower ranked teams.

There's a poster called Dalek on their forum who is delighted about this

 

[Johnny75]

There's a poster called Dalek on their forum who is delighted about this

:icon_lol: