2013/14 UEFA Champions League first qualifying round ;

First leg:
FC Lusitanos (And) v EB Streymur (Far), 2-2
1-0 Cristian Martínez (Pen.) (24)
2-0 Cristian Martínez (29)
Gert Åge Hansen, EB Streymur

(62)
Bruninho, FC Lusitanos misuse penalty (62)
2-1 Arnbjørn Hansen (67)
2-2 Levi Hanssen (Pen.) (69)
---
Second leg:
EB Streymur (Far) v FC Lusitanos (And), 5-1 (agg: 7-3)
1-0 Arnbjørn Hansen (3)
2-0 Levi Hanssen (38)
Manuel Machado, FC Lusitanos

(55)
2-1 Luis Dos Reis (66)
3-1 Gunnar Zachariasen (72)
Levi Hanssen, EB Streymur misuse penalty (84)
4-1 Levi Hanssen (85)
5-1 Leif Niclasen (90+3)
---

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League first qualifying round :


First leg:

Drogheda United (Irl) v Malmö FF (Swe), 0-0
Ryan Brennan, Drogheda

(75)
---
Trans Narva (Est) v Gefle IF (Swe), 0-3
0-1 Aleksandr Dubõkin (owngoal) (43)
0-2 Mikael Dahlberg (57)
0-3 Jonas Lantto (90+3)
---

Crusaders Belfast (Nir) v Rosenborg BK (Nor), 1-2
1-0 Jordan Owens (22)
1-1 John Chibuike (45+1)
1-2 Jonas Svensson (77)
---
Tromsø IL (Nor) v NK Celje (Slo), 1-2
1-0 Miika Koppinen (30)
Hans Norbye, Tromsø

(83)
1-1 Sebastjan Gobec (pen.) (84)
1-2 Andraž Žurej (75)
---

Jeunesse d'Esch (Lux) v TPS Turku (Fin), 2-0
1-0 Khalid Benichou (21)
2-0 Chu Wang (52)
---
Inter Baku (Azb) v IFK Mariehamn (Fin), 1-1
1-0 Asif Mammadov (7)
1-1 Alanzo Adlam (72)
---
Víkingur (Far) v FC Inter Turku (Fin), 1-1
0-1 Ville Nikkari (20)
1-1 Finnur Justinussen (75)
Vatnhamar, Víkingur

(81)
---

KR Reykjavik (Ice) v Glentoran (Nir), 0-0
---
Breidablik (Ice) v FC Santa Coloma (And), 4-0
1-0 Thordur Hreidarsson (19)
2-0 Ellert Hreinsson (23)
3-0 Ellert Hreinsson (25)
4-0 Gudjon Lydsson (pen.) (61)
---
IBV Vestmannaeyjar (Ice) v HB Torshavn (Far), 1-1
1-0 Gunnar Gudmundsson (16)
1-1 Jóhan Davidsen (66)
---
IF Fuglafjørdur (Far) v Linfield Belfast (Nir), 0-2
0-1 Andy Waterworth (68)
0-2 Philip Lowry (74)
---


Second leg:

Malmö FF (Swe) v Drogheda United (Irl), 2-0 (agg: 2-0)
1-0 Emil Forsberg (45)
2-0 Simon Kroon (90+4)
---
Gefle IF (Swe) v Trans Narva (Est), 5-1 (agg: 8-1)
1-0 Marcus Hansson (17)
Ilja Shesterkov,Trans Narva

(30)
2-0 Johan Oremo (47)
3-0 Mikael Dahlberg (50)
4-0 Erik Törnros (71)
4-1 German-Guri Lvov (82)
5-1 Johan Oremo (90+1)
---

Rosenborg BK (Nor) v Crusaders Belfast (Nir), 7-2 (agg: 9-3)
1-0 Jon Inge Høiland (15)
2-0 John Chibuike (35)
2-1 Paul Leeman (49)
3-1 John Chibuike (50)
4-1 Borek Dockal (67)
5-1 Tobias Mikkelsen (60)
5-2 Jordan Owens (68)
6-2 Alexander Sørloth (73)
7-2 Jonas Svensson (90)
---
NK Celje (Slo) v Tromsø IL (Nor), 0-2 (agg: 2-3)
0-1 Magnus Andersen (4)
0-2 Morten Moldskred (16)
Saliou Ciss, Tromsø

(81)
---

TPS Turku (Fin) v Jeunesse d'Esch (Lux), 2-1 (agg: 2-3)
1-0 Alexandre Vitali (owngoal) (30)
Wayne Brown, TPS misuse penalty (66)
1-1 Chu Wang (80)
2-1 Roope Riski (87)
---
IFK Mariehamn (Fin) v Inter Baku (Azb), 0-2 (agg: 1-3)
0-1 Bachana Tskhadadze (Pen.) (21)
0-2 Vagif Dzavadov (86)
---
FC Inter Turku (Fin) v Víkingur (Far), 0-1 (agg: 1-2)
0-1 Hanus Jacobsen (pen.) (78)
Pim Bowman, Inter Turku misuse penalty (80)
---

Glentoran (Nir) v KR Reykjavik (Ice), 0-3 (agg: 0-3)
0-1 Gary Martin (24)
0-2 Jonas Gudni Sævarsson (65)
0-3 Jonas Gudni Sævarsson (90+2)
---
FC Santa Coloma (And) v Breidablik (Ice), 0-0 (agg: 0-4)
Isma Quiñones,Santa Coloma misuse penalty (45+1)
Isma Quiñones,Santa Coloma

(47)
Sverrir Ingason,Breidablik misuse penalty (48)
---
HB Torshavn (Far) v IBV Vestmannaeyjar (Ice), 0-1 (agg: 1-2)
0-1 Arnar Bergsson (Pen.) (90)
---
Linfield Belfast (Nir) v IF Fuglafjørdur (Far), 3-0 (agg: 5-0)
1-0 Michael Gault (40)
2-0 Jamie Mulgrew (55)
3-0 Philip Lowry (61)
---

Lots of red cards and misused penalties in this first qualifying round, but the Nordic countries have done as well as could be expected so far, except for Finland that had an absolutely disastrous first qualifying round, where Inter Turku, TPS Turku and Mariehamn all surprisingly got eliminated by teams from the Faroe Islands, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan in no doubt the worst performance in many years.

... the Faroe Islands on the other hand managed to get 2 of their 4 participants to the 2nd qualifiyng round, and already have secured their best season in 20 years (since 1993/94), where they managed to pick up an average coefficient of 1.000, so they now need one more win, or two more points, to beat their all-time best result in Europe.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round ;

First leg:

IF Elfsborg (Swe) v Daugava Daugavpils (Lat), 7-1
1-0 Marcus Rohden (20)
2-0 Jurijs Sokolovs (owngoal) (48)
3-0 Lasse Nilsson (61)
4-0 Marcus Rohden (62)
5-0 Mohammed Bangura (68)
5-1 Koichiro Iizuka (78)
6-1 Viktor Claesson (89)
7-1 Sebastian Holmén (90+2)
---

Sligo Rovers FC (Irl) v Molde FK (Nor), 0-1
0-1 Daniel Chima (42)
---

HJK Helsinki (Fin) v JK Nõmme Kalju (Est), 0-0
---

FK Ekranas (Lit) v FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice), 0-1
0-1 Petur Vidarsson (30)
---

Dinamo Tbilisi (Geo) v EB Streymur (Far), 6-1
1-0 Aldekoaotalora Astarloa Ustaritz (40)
1-1 Darko Glishikj (owngoal) (42)
2-1 Jaba Dvali (43)
3-1 Ioseb Grishikashvili (72)
4-1 Francisco Munoz Xisco (75)
5-1 Djily Arsene Patrick Vouho (77)
6-1 Djily Arsene Patrick Vouho (81)

Second leg: 23/24 July
---


Swedish Elfsborg had no problem trashing their Latvian opponent, while both Norwegian Molde and Hafnarfjördur from Iceland managed a slim away win in this first leg of the Champions league 2nd qualifying round....

The teams from Finland unfortunately keep disappointing this season, though not all is lost for HJK Helsinki, despite a 0-0 result at home in the first leg against Nõmme Kalju from Estonia. HJK was dominating possession throughout, but had great trouble breaking down a solid looking Estonian defense, so the crowd of around 7,000 saw little in the way of clear-cut opportunities in the first 45 minutes. The visitors were hardly much of a threat, except around half-way through the second half when Hidetoshi Wakui saw his header strike the post. HJK kept pushing forward after the break but even the former Chelsea striker Mikael Forssell failed to inspire the home team in the second half, so no goals in this first leg, but perhaps an away goal or two will be enough to progress from this 2nd qualifying round.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round :

First leg:

Dila Gori (Geo) v AaB Aalborg (Den), 3-0
1-0 Irakli Modebadze (61)
2-0 Mikhail Gorelishvili (68)
3-0 Mikhail Gorelishvili (90)
---


Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyp) v Gefle IF (Swe), 3-0
1-0 Gonzalo Garcia (penalty) (12)
2-0 Roberto Colautti (33)
3-0 Roberto Colautti (84)
---

Sparta Praha (Cze) v BK Häcken (Swe), 2-2
1-0 David Lafata (33)
2-0 David Lafata (66)
2-1 Nasiru Mohammed (69)
2-2 Rene Muzola Makondele (77)
---

IFK Göteborg (Swe) v AS Trencin (Svk), 0-0
Robert Mazan, Trencin

(10)
---

Malmö FF (Swe) v Hibernian FC (Sco), 2-0
1-0 Jiloan Hamad (11)
2-0 Magnus Eriksson (13)
---

Rosenborg BK (Nor) v Saint Johnstone FC (Sco), 0-1
0-1 Frazer Wright (18)
---

Strømsgodset IF (Nor) v Debrecen VSC (Hun), 2-2
0-1 Ibrahim Sidibe (36)
1-1 Jørgen Horn (53)
1-2 Ibrahim Sidibe (penalty) (55)
Adam Bodi,Debrecen

(67)
2-2 Peter Kovacs (90+3)
---

Tromsø IL (Nor) v Inter Baku (Azb), 2-0
1-0 Zdenek Ondrasek (43)
2-0 Magnus Andersen (62)
---

IL Hødd (Nor) v FC Aktobe (Kaz), 1-0
1-0 Espen Standal (28)
---

FC Honka Espoo (Fin) v KKS Lech Poznan (Pol), 1-3
0-1 Vojo Ubiparip (11)
1-1 Jussi Vasara (17)
1-2 Lukasz Teodorczyk (53)
1-3 Marcin Kaminski (71)
---

KR Reykjavik (Ice) v Standard Liège (Bel), 1-3
1-0 Kjartan Finnbogason (35)
1-1 Kanu (44)
1-2 Michy Batshuayi (62)
1-3 Paul-Jose M'Poku (90+1)
---

Breidablik (Ice) v Sturm Graz (Aus), 0-0
---

Crvena zvezda (Srb) v IBV Vestmannaeyjar (Ice), 2-0
1-0 Nejc Pecnik (12)
2-0 Nikola Mijailovic (76)
---

Petrolul Ploiesti (Rom) v Víkingur (Far), 3-0
1-0 Pablo De Lucas (26)
2-0 Gheorghe Grozav (49)
Younes, Petrolul miss penalty (53)
3-0 Gheorghe Grozav (68)
---

Second leg: 25 July
---

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round draw :


Randers FC (Den) v FK Jagodina (Ser)/FC Rubin Kazan (Rus)
Hajduk Split (Cro)/FK Turnovo (Mac) v Dila Gori (Geo)/AaB Aalborg (Den)

IFK Göteborg (Swe)/Trencin (Svk) v Astra Ploieşti (Rom)/AC Omonia (Cyp)
Häcken (Swe)/Sparta Praha (Cze) v FC Thun (Sui)/Chikhura Sachkhere (Geo)
Qarabağ FK (Aze)/GKS Piast Gliwice (Pol) v Anorthosis (Cyp)/Gefle IF (Swe)
Swansea City (Eng) v Malmö FF (Swe)/Hibernian FC (Sco)

Valletta FC (Mal)/FC Minsk (Blr) v Rosenborg (Nor)/Saint Johnstone (Sco)
FK Jablonec (Cze) v Strømsgodset (Nor)/Debrecen (Hun)
Inter Baku (Azb)/Tromsø IL (Nor) v Differdange 03 (Lux)/Utrecht (Ned)
IL Hødd (Nor)/Aktobe (Kaz) v Sturm Graz (Aus)/Breidablik (Ice)

VMFD Žalgiris (Lit)/FC Pyunik (Arm) v Honka Espoo (Fin)/Lech Poznan (Pol)

Skoda Xanthi (Gre)/Linfield (Nir) v KR Reykjavik (Ice)/Standard Liège (Bel)
Chornomorets Odesa (Ukr)/Dacia Chisinau (Mac) v Crvena zvezda (Srb)/IBV Vestmannaeyjar (Ice)

Petrolul Ploiesti (Rom)/Víkingur (Far) v Vitesse (Ned)


First leg: 1 August
Second leg: 8 August
---

Worst possible draw for Randers FC that most surely are going to face Rubin Kazan from Russia... while Malmø FF also seem on a mission impossible against Michael Laudrup's Swansea City, though this at least seem much more interesting than going to Russia.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round draw ;


FC Nordsjælland (Den) v FC Zenit St Petersburg (Rus)

Celtic (Sco)/Cliftonville (Nir) v IF Elfsborg (Swe)/Daugava Daugavpils (Lat)

Sligo Rovers (Irl) /Molde (Nor) v The New Saints (Wal)/Legia Warszawa (Pol)

HJK Helsinki (Fin)/Nõmme Kalju (Est) v Viktoria Plzeň (Cze)/Željezničar (Bos)

Austria Wien (Aus) v FK Ekranas (Lit)/FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice)

Dinamo Tbilisi (Geo)/EB Streymur (Far) v Steaua Bucureşti (Rom)/Vardar (Mac)

First leg: 30/31 July
Second leg: 6/7 August
---

Yet another terrible draw for Denmark... FC Nordsjælland are surely heading for the Europa League play-offs, while this doesnt look too bad for Elfsborg and Molde.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round ;

Second leg:

Daugava Daugavpils (Lat) v IF Elfsborg (Swe), 0-4 (agg: 1-11)
0-1 James Keene (41)
0-2 Viktor Claesson (61)
0-3 Niklas Hult (66)
0-4 Martin Andersson (Penalty) (86)
---

Molde FK (Nor) v Sligo Rovers FC (Irl), 2-0 (agg: 3-0)
1-0 Martin Linnes (5)
2-0 Aliou Coly (77)
---

JK Nõmme Kalju (Est) v HJK Helsinki (Fin), 2-1 (agg: 2-1)
1-0 Yanbuka Ceesay (28)
2-0 Damiano Quintieri (35)
2-1 Demba Savage (64)
---

FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice) v FK Ekranas (Lit), 0-1 (agg: 3-1)
0-1 Arsenij Buinickij (Penalty) (26)
1-1 Björn Daniel Sverrisson (38)
Oscar Reyes, Ekranas

(52)
2-1 Atli Vidar Björnsson (90+2)
---

EB Streymur (Far) v Dinamo Tbilisi (Geo), 1-3 (agg: 2-9)
0-1 Francisco Munoz Xisco (Penalty) (7)
0-2 Jaba Dvali (12)
1-2 Niels Danielsen (27)
1-3 Darko Glishikj (84)
---

Elfsborg and Molde had no problem eliminating their Latvian and Irish opponents, while yet another team from Finland was eliminated, when HJK Helsinki did not manage to win the away leg in Tallinn Estonia, unlike Honka Espoo, that beat Nõmme Kalju 2-0 away in a Europa League qualifier in 2011-12, but this season has so far been a huge disappointment for Finland....

On the other hand this seem to be an excellent year for Iceland and Hafnarfjördur that managed to beat their Lithuanian opponent FK Ekranas both home and away, though they suffered a slight scare when Ekranas took the lead through a penalty and nullified their advantage in the 26th minute, but Hafnarfjördur soon scored the equaliser and when Ekranas suffered a further blow ear,ly in the second half when Reyes was red-carded for a professional foul on Atli Björnsson, it was more or less game over for the Lithuanian champions, though they did manage to put up a good fight, despite being reduced to 10 men. But Hafnarfjördur confirmed their win when Atli Björnsson managed to score in 2 minutes injury time.


2013/14 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round draw ;


FC Nordsjælland (Den) v FC Zenit St Petersburg (Rus)

Celtic FC (Sco) v IF Elfsborg (Swe)

Molde FK (Nor) v The New Saints (Wal)/Legia Warszawa (Pol)

FK Austria Wien (Aus) v FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice)

First leg: 30/31 July
Second leg: 6/7 August
---

 

It's all about the TV-money - Scandinavian EC history in short

Written by Ceres.

Swedish Clubs were the first in Scandinavia to leave the days of amateur football and become semi-professionals and in the late 70's to mid 80's it was Malmö FF and later also IFK Göteborg producing great results. Malmö FF reached the Champions Cup final in 1978/79, eliminating AS Monaco, Dynamo Kiev, Wisla Krakow and then Austria Vienna (0-0 & 1-0) in the semi-finals, but losing the final 0-1 to Nottingham Forest. The very next season it was IFK Göteborg producing their very first big result in Europe by reaching a Cup Winners Cup quarter-final, though they got soundly beaten by Arsenal (1-5), but it would only take a few more years before IFK Göteborg won the UEFA Cup final in 1981/82. Actually IFK were in huge financial trouble and close to bankruptcy only a week before their quarter-final vs. Valencia. But despite Danish international Frank Arnesen scoring twice for Valencia, IFK managed to secure a 2-2 result in Spain, so in the return leg in Sweden around 50,000 people showed up and more or less saved the club financially, while the players also did the job by beating Spaniards 2-0.

In the semi-finals IFK Göteborg narrowly got passed Kaiserslautern (1-1 & 2-1) and in the UEFA cup Final 42,000 people watched them beat a rather defensive minded Hamburger SV team in the first leg in Sweden, but not many belived they would be able to defend their small lead in the return leg in Hamburg. Never the less, they surprisingly beat the Germans 3-0 and won the Cup !:

_qT2_QlG9wI

In 1985/86 IFK Göteborg were eliminated in the Champions Cup quarter-finals by Barcelon on penalties, but in 1986/87 the semi-professional Swedish team reached yet another big triumph, beating the Scottish side Dundee United (1-0 & 1-1) in the UEFA cup final. However, 1986/87 was also the very same season when Danish Brøndby IF were the first Scandinavian side to turn full-time professionals, also reaching the Champions Cup quarter-finals that same year. The very next season the Semi-professinal UEFA cup champions IFK Göteborg and Brøndby IF faced eachother in the very first round of the UEFA Cup. Full-time professional Brøndby IF now showed to be the stronger side and won the tie (2-1 & 0-0). Still, IFK Göteborg were not quite finished as a top team in Scandinavia, since they also reached the Champions League group stage in 1992/93 and the CL quarter-finals in 1994/95, but the late 80's to early 90's mainly belonged to a Brøndby IF team that produced their best result in 1990/91 when they were only 5 minutes from reaching the UEFA Cup final, but narrowly lost the away leg to AS Roma by 1-2. On their way to the UEFA cup semi-finals, Brøndby IF had trashed the solid German sides Eintracht Frankfurt (5-0) and Bayer Leverkusen (3-0).


Among other big results, Brøndby eliminated English giants Liverpool in the 1995/96 UEFA cup, when Norwegian defender Dan Eggen secured the 1-0 victory on Anfield. But Brøndby were mainly known as the "German killers" back then, with one of the more remarkable result being the 5-0 away trashing of Karlsruhe in 1996/97. Brøndby a bit surprisingly had lost the home leg by 1-3, more or less defeated by the excellent playing German international Thomas Hässler, who simply was a one-man army for Karlsruhe. However, Hässler then got injured and was not able to play in the return leg in Germany and the rest is history. Brøndby progressed to the UEFA cup quarter-finals and the 0-5 Karlsruhe loss to Brøndby still stands as one of the absolut biggest home defeats by a Germans side in the history of the Europa Cups !.

VxJG2DSvzwo

In the mid and late 90's Norwegian Rosenborg emerged as a new giant in Scandinavian football. While the success of semi-professional IFK Göteborg was one of the reasons why Brøndby took it a step further by turning full-time professionals, then it was partly the success of Brøndby that now made Rosenborg belive in turning full-time professionals as well. In 1995/96 Rosenborg made their first big result by reaching the Champions league group stage and the very next season (1996/97) they reached the CL quarter-finals by beating Panathinaikos, AC Milan (2-1 away) and also Swedish IFK Göteborg both home and away (3-2 & 1-0). Though in the quarter-finals Rosenborg were eliminated by Juventus (1-1 & 0-2). Rosenborg managed to reach the group stage of the Champions League 11 times in 13 years between 1995 to 2007 and 8 of them were consecutive (from 1995 to 2002), which was a record until 2004, when Manchester United qualified for the group phase for a ninth successive year.

_2akHu0i2B4

While Rosenborg relied manily on experienced Norwegian internationals and a good professional team-work, times were now changing through bigger TV-deals and more and more money to be earned in Champions League, leaving the bigger clubs from smaller leagues behind, like Rosenborg, Brøndby and the top Swedish clubs. However, newly ermerged Danish giants FC København were aware that it would now take great difficulties and huge investments to get a share of the cake, which they eventually did, leaving the other Scandinavian clubs behind both financially and in Europe. But they were also forcing other Danish clubs to invest in better players, to keep up, which made the Danish league improve in Europe and eventually secure two spots in the Champions Leauge qualifiers and even more importantly, a place in the Champions League group stage in the 2012-13 season, not having to go through qualifiers. But ironically, FC København did not manage to become Danish Champions that season, losing out to a very low budget FC Nordsjælland team, which shows that money is not everything, but that more TV-money has change everything in professional football. You just have to look at the distribution of TV-money (the so called market pool ) in Champions League from last season to understand where this is heading :

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/Finance/01/97/52/97/1975297_DOWNLOAD.pdf

As you can see, it is mainly the big countries taking most of the TV-money (market pool ), though rich Scandinavia is also able to carve out their fairly big share, so that FC Nordsjælland, despite only collecting one point in the group stage, actually got away with a bigger market pool than Ajax and bigger clubs from countries with smaller TV-deals. So Scandinavia is not actually left hoplessly behind financially. But you obviously need to qualify for a group stage to get your share of the money, and this is now the tricky part, how much money to risk and invest, to arrive at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
.

 

Nice post man. :thumbsup:

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round :

Second leg:

AaB Aalborg (Den) v Dila Gori (Geo), 0-0 (agg: 0-3)
---


Gefle IF (Swe) v Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyp), 4-0 (agg: 4-3)
1-0 Jakob Orlov (25)
2-0 Alexander Faltsetas (67)
3-0 Jakob Orlov (86)
4-0 Mikael Dahlberg (87)
---

BK Häcken (Swe) v Sparta Praha (Cze), 1-0 (agg: 3-2)
1-0 Martin Ericsson (84)
---

AS Trencin (Svk) v IFK Göteborg (Swe), 2-1 (agg: 2-1)
1-0 Fanendo Adi (15)
2-0 Fanendo Adi (71)
2-1 Philip Haglund (84)
---

Hibernian FC (Sco) v Malmö FF (Swe), 0-7 (agg: 0-9)
0-1 Magnus Eriksson (21)
0-2 Emil Forsberg (26)
0-3 Markus Halsti (30)
0-4 Miiko Albornoz (42)
0-5 Tokelo Rantie (60)
0-6 Jiloan Hamad (64)
0-7 Simon Kroon (73)
---

Saint Johnstone FC (Sco) v Rosenborg BK (Nor), 1-1 (agg: 2-1)
0-1 Alexander Søderlund (4)
1-1 Steve May (21)
---

Debrecen VSC (Hun) v Strømsgodset IF (Nor), 0-3 (agg: 2-5)
0-1 Peter Kovacs (35)
0-2 Bismarck Adjei Boateng (51)
0-3 Øyvind Storflor (58)
Storbæk, Strømsgodset

(71)
---

Inter Baku (Azb) v Tromsø IL (Nor), 1-0 (agg: 1-2)
1-0 Bachana Tskhadadze (77)
---

FC Aktobe (Kaz) v IL Hødd (Nor), 2-0 (agg: 2-1)
1-0 Sergey Davidov (6)
2-0 Sergey Davidov (61)
---

KKS Lech Poznan (Pol) v FC Honka Espoo (Fin), 2-1 (agg: 5-2)
1-0 Lukasz Teodorczyk (6)
1-1 Sampo Koskinen (8)
2-1 Tomasz Kedziora (41)
---

Standard Liège (Bel) v KR Reykjavik (Ice), 3-1 (agg: 6-2)
1-0 Frederic Bulot (26)
2-0 Imoh Ezekiel (68)
2-1 Emil Atlason (69)
3-1 Imoh Ezekiel (73)
---

Sturm Graz (Aus) v Breidablik (Ice), 0-1 (agg: 0-1)
0-1 Ellert Hreinsson (39)
Bjarki Adalsteinsson,Breidablik

(80)
---

IBV Vestmannaeyjar (Ice) v Crvena zvezda (Srb), 0-0 (agg: 0-2)
Danijel Mihajlovic, Crvena zvezda

(76)
Gunnar Mar Gudmundsson, IBV misuse penalty (77)
---

Víkingur (Far) v Petrolul Ploiesti (Rom), 0-4 (agg: 0-7)
0-1 Per Gregersen (owngoal) (4)
0-2 Hamza Younes (11)
0-3 Hamza Younes (63)
0-4 Gheorghe Grozav (77)
---

While St Johnstone pulled off one of the biggest shocks in the club's history by completing a surprise 2-1 aggregate win over Rosenborg, Malmö FF were writing real history by trashing Hibernian FC by 7-0 in Scotland, which is the biggest ever European home defeat in Scottish football history, just as the 0-9 on aggregate oficially is the the biggest two-legged European defeat in Scottish football history. So congrats to Malmö FF and to Sweden, because we also got some great results by Gefle IF that overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit and BK Häcken that managed to eliminate Sparta Praha ....

For Norway this 2nd qualifying round was abit up and down, with a great 3-0 away win by Strømsgodset against Debrecen and Tromsø eliminating Inter Baku, but they cant be happy about losing Rosenborg this early on, just as it was a disastrous result for Denmark to lose seeded AaB Aalborg, that btw produced no less than 27 attempts to score against Dila Gori in the return leg in Aalborg of which 18 attempts were on target, but they did not manage to score a single goal against a bravely defending Georgian team, just showing that AaB has poor depth and desperately need to find a replacement for Nicklas Helenius. This also revealed that AaB is a young team that has great trouble produce results when they are suppose to dominate and keep possession, while they do better against more attacking minded teams, like in the Superliga against FC København.

It is now all over and out in Europe this season for the Faroe Island and more surprisingly also for Finland, while Icland keep impressing, this time by Breidablik eliminating Sturm Graz, beating them 1-0 away in Austria.


2013/14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round draw :


Randers FC (Den) v Rubin Kazan (Rus)

BK Häcken (Swe) v FC Thun (Sui)
Qarabag FK (Aze) v Gefle IF (Swe)
Swansea City (Eng) v Malmö FF (Swe)

FK Jablonec (Cze) v Strømsgodset IF (Nor)
Tromsø IL (Nor) v FC Differdange 03 (Lux)

FC Aktobe (Kaz) v Breidablik (Ice)

First leg: 1 August
Second leg: 8 August
---


No huge surprise here, except for Tromsø facing FC Differdange from Luxembourg that bumped off Dutch FC Utrecht in the 2nd qualifying round.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round ;

First leg:


FC Nordsjælland (Den) v FC Zenit St Petersburg (Rus), 0-1
0-1 Alexandr Kerzhakov (49)


Celtic FC (Sco) v IF Elfsborg (Swe), 1-0
1-0 Kris Commons (76)
---

Molde FK (Nor) v Legia Warszawa (Pol), 1-1
1-0 Daniel Chima (29)
1-1 Vladimir Dvalishvili (68)
Fredrik Gulbrandsen, Molde

(74)
---

FK Austria Wien (Aus) v FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice), 1-0 [/B]
1-0 Daniel Royer (25)


Second leg: 6/7 August
---



2013/14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round :


First leg:


Randers FC (Den) v Rubin Kazan (Rus), 1-2
0-1 Dmitri Torbinski (12)
0-2 Jose Salomon Rondon (42)
1-2 Jonas Borring (61)
---


BK Häcken (Swe) v FC Thun (Sui), 1-2
0-1 Luca Zuffi (33)
0-2 Luca Zuffi (63)
1-2 Martin Ericsson (64)
---

Qarabag FK (Aze) v Gefle IF (Swe), 1-0
1-0 Reynaldo (89)
---

Swansea City (Eng) v Malmö FF (Swe), 4-0
1-0 Michu (37)
2-0 Bony Wilfried (55)
3-0 Bony Wilfried (59)
4-0 Alejandro Pozuelo (86)
---


FK Jablonec (Cze) v Strømsgodset IF (Nor), 2-1
1-0 Karel Pitak (penalty) (17)
1-1 Vit Benes (owngoal) (39)
2-1 Jan Vosahlik (90+1)
---

Tromsø IL (Nor) v FC Differdange 03 (Lux), 1-0
1-0 Zdenek Ondrasek (76)
---


FC Aktobe (Kaz) v Breidablik (Ice), 1-0
1-0 Marat Khayrullin (penalty) (90)


Second leg: 8 August
.

 

Malmö FF should have been awarded a penalty against Swansea but otherwise they could not keep up with the higher pace of an English PL side

... as for FC Nordsjælland and Randers, then they did surprisingly well against their Russian opponents in open play, the problem being that these Russian teams defend rather low, Rubin Kazan even with a 5 man defense and some very fast and efficient counter attacking ... dispite possession and the general flow of play and attempts to score were rather 50/50, then the Russians simply got much better strikers, which made all the difference in these games... after a slow and too cautious start by Randers, which Rubin Kazan were quick to take advantage off, Randers then totally dominated the second half, also prouducing all but one of the attempts in the last 45 minutes, but only scoring once and striking the woodwork once, while the Rubin Kazan left back struck the Randers top bar on their only second half (long range) attempt on target, which just show that you get punished by every little mistake you do against these Russian teams, that dont really open up too much in defense, but just wait for a few opportunites to score the needed goals to progress...
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round ;

Second leg:


FC Zenit St Petersburg (Rus) v FC Nordsjælland (Den), 5-0 (agg: 6-0)
1-0 Roman Shirokov (26)
2-0 Hulk (50)
3-0 Danny (62)
4-0 Andrey Arshavin (68)
Luis Carlos Novo Neto, Zenit

(72)
Nicolai Stokholm, FCN misuse penalty (74)
5-0 Roman Shirokov (90+3)
---

IF Elfsborg (Swe) v Celtic FC (Sco), 0-0 (agg: 0-1)
---

Legia Warszawa (Pol) v Molde FK (Nor), 0-0 (agg: 1-1, Legia Warszawa win on away goals)
Emmanuel Ekpo, Molde

(79)
---

FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice) v FK Austria Wien (Aus), 0-0 (agg: 0-1)
Markus Suttner, Austria

(62)
---

Well... that was the end of the Scandinavian teams in CL this season, except for FC København that did not have to play qualifiers, but considering that they are dead last in the Danish Superliga at the moment, they will probably not do any better than FCN did last season ...

Fortunately these Scandinavian teams will all get a second chance in the Europa League play-offs ... though FC Nordsjælland is the only team that is going to be seeded... if some people wonder how FCN are able to be seeded to progress from the play-off, considering that they have not managed a single win in Europe since 2009, it is because they qualified directly to the Champions League group stage last season, which gave them 4 bonus points on top of the only 1 point they actually gained in the group stage ... but in qualifiers you only get 1 point for each win, so FCN's 1 point + 4 bonus points = 5 wins in the qualifiers when their seeding is calculated...so despite the fact that FCN have performed rather terrible in Europe in the past, they are still going to get seeded.



2013/14 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round :


Second leg:


Rubin Kazan (Rus) v Randers FC (Den), 2-0 (agg: 4-1)
1-0 César Navas (18)
2-0 Roman Eremenko (86)
---


FC Thun (Sui) v BK Häcken (Swe) 1-0 (agg: 3-1)
1-0 Sekou Junior Sanogo (69)
---

Gefle IF (Swe) v Qarabag FK (Aze), 0-2 (agg: 0-3)
0-1 Marinaldo Cicero da Silva (41)
0-2 Reynaldo (50)
---

Malmö FF (Swe) v Swansea City (Eng), 0-0 (agg: 0-4)
---


Strømsgodset IF (Nor) v FK Jablonec (Cze), 1-3 (agg: 2-5)
1-0 Michal Hubnik (16)
1-1 Ola Kamara (71)
1-2 Ondrej Vanek (81)
1-3 Karel Pitak (90)
---

FC Differdange 03 (Lux) v Tromsø IL (Nor), 1-0 AET (agg: 1-1, Pen:3-4, Tromsø win on penalties)
1-0 Er Rafik (46)
Penalty shoot-out:
Thomas Drage, Tromsø misuse penalty
1-0 Gauthier Caron
1-1 Zdeněk Ondrášek
Mathias Jänisch, Differdange misuse penalty
1-2 Remi Johansen
2-2 Geoffrey Franzoni
2-3 Josh Pritchard
3-3 Antonio Luisi
3-4 Steffen Nystrøm
Philippe Lebresne, Differdange misuse penalty
---


Breidablik (Ice) v FC Aktobe (Kaz), 1-0 AET (agg: 1-1, Pen:1-2, FC Aktobe win on penalties)
1-0 Finnur Orri Margeirsson (27)
Penalty shoot-out:
Ingason, Breidablik misuse penalty
Badlo, Aktobe misuse penalty
Lydsson, Breidablik misuse penalty
Khayrullin, Aktobe misuse penalty
K. Jónsson, Breidablik misuse penalty
0-1 Kenzhisariev
1-1 Rohde
1-2 Kapadze
Troost, Breidablik misuse penalty
---

Not much to cheer about in this third qualifying round considering that only Tromsø managed to progress to the play-offs and even were in need of a penalty shoot-out to get past Differdange from Luxembourg... on a positive note, Iceland have been doing great this season, with FH Hafnarfjördur reaching the Europa League play-offs and Breidablik only missing out by losing on penalties.
.

 

So... Saint-Etienne will play Esbjerg in Europa League. Anyone here could talk about this club?
I've just heard of the name, but I know nothing about it. Thanks in advance

 

Regarding Esbjerg as such, then they won promotion to the Danish Superliga last year and did surprisingly well by finishing in 4th place...

It's a very young team that they have mainly build while playing in the Danish 1. Division, but they have also done well on the transfermarket.... and some of their yong players have been called up for the Danish NT of lately ... striker/winger Martin Braithwaite,centre back Kian Hansen and right back Peter Ankersen, while also their keeper Frederik Rønnow is regarded to be among the very best keepers in the Superliga, despite his young age, so clearly it is their defense that was the main key to their success last season, when they defensively were the best in the league by only letting in 32 goals in 33 games. ... But obviously they have no Europa Cup experience.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League Play-off round draw ;


Esbjerg fB (Den) v AS Saint-Étienne (Fra)

IF Elfsborg (Swe) v FC Nordsjælland (Den)

Tromsø IL (Nor) v Besiktas (Tur)

Molde FK (Nor) v Rubin Kazan (Rus)

FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice) v Racing Genk (Bel)
---

We are sure to get either Elfsborg or FC Nordsjælland in the group stage, but otherwise Tromsø may surprisingly be our biggest hope, considering that the last and only time they managed to qualify for a group stage, they also won on penalties in the qualifying round, and then went on to eliminate a Turkish side (Galatasaray ) in the play-offs... so hopefully this is a bit of history repeating....

Elfsborg have only twice faced other Scandinavian teams in the Europa Cups, in 2012 they were soundly beaten by Aalesunds from Norway, while they got eliminated by Danish AC Horsens last season... the best FC Nordsjælland result in Europe was when they beat Scottish Queen of the South both home and away back in 2009, but since then they have only managed a 0-0 result against Sporting CP and the 1-1 result at home against Juventus in CL last season, though it should be said that they have also faced some very tough opponents.... FCN have been looking terrible in the Danish Superliga and in Europe so far this season, so perhaps they need to pin their hopes on the fact that AC Horsens were heading for relegation from the Superliga when they managed to eliminate Elfsborg last season.

Saint-Étienne do not get to play all that often in Europe, but they have won all their games against Nordic teams so far in the history of the Europa Cups, and the last time they played in Europe (in 2009 ), they beat both Rosenborg and FC København in the Europa League group stage... Esbjerg have never faced a French side in the Europa Cups, but they did manage to reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Intertoto Cup by eliminating French side Nice back in 2004.

Molde managed to eliminate CSKA Moscow in the CL qualifiers when they reached the group stage back in 2000, but this is 2013 and their Russian opponent Rubin Kazan reached the EL quarter-finals last season, and also looked too strong against an otherwise well playing Randers FC team this season... So a very strong opponent for Molde I'm sad to say.

Hafnarfjördur have never faced a Belgium team before in the Europa Cups, while Racing Genk has never faced an Icelandic side, but obviously Genk is huge favorite to progress.
.

 

thanks for those information!

 

thank you so much for all those information, very helpful. I think we should really not be too confident before playing this team, their current ascension is quite impressive tbh.

We also have a fantastic defence, so it might be a defensive game, we'll see.

The danish coach said he was expecting Saint-Etienne to underestimate Esbjerg, I hope he's wrong about that. Coz if he's right, we can totally lose that game.

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League Play-off round ;

First leg:

Esbjerg fB (Den) v AS Saint-Étienne (Fra), 4-3
0-1 Franck Tabanou (22)
1-1 Peter Ankersen (26)
1-2 Romain Hamouma (42)
2-2 Mick van Buren (64)
2-3 Loïc Perrin (70)
3-3 Hans Henrik Andreasen (75)
4-3 Peter Ankersen (80)


Highlights:
ehaozOZWkjg
---

IF Elfsborg (Swe) v FC Nordsjælland (Den), 1-1
0-1 Morten Nordstrand (34)
1-1 Johan Larsson (74)
---

Tromsø IL (Nor) v Besiktas (Tur), 2-1
0-1 Hugo Almeida (10)
1-1 Thomas Kind Bendiksen (Penalty) (49)
2-1 Josh Pritchard (69)
---

Molde FK (Nor) v Rubin Kazan (Rus), 0-2
0-1 Jose Salomon Rondon (21)
0-2 Jose Salomon Rondon (90)
---

FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice) v Racing Genk (Bel), 0-2
0-1 Jelle Vossen (44)
0-2 Sam Tillen (owngoal) (79)
---

Last season Saint-Étienne and Esbjerg only let in 32 goals in their respective leagues, so you would expect a rather low-scoring game between to defensively and tactically solid teams. However, league games are one thing while cup games are something completely different because you need a home result, and when the opponent manage to score an away goal or two, you need a win, so when Saint-Étienne used their very first free-kick opportunity to take the lead in the first half and Esbjerg did the very same a few minutes later, it completely changed the Esbjerg game plan for the second half. But it was still a defender who impressed the most, considering that it was the young highly talented Esbjerg right back Peter Ankersen who managed to score two excellent goals for the home team in this highly entertaining match. Still, neither the Esbjerg coach or Saint-Étienne coach Christophe Galtier were all too happy about their defending, also considering that an Esbjerg attempt struck the woodwork at the end and there could have been even more goals, but as written, then you often need to change the tactical approach in cup games.

The match between Elfsborg and FC Nordsjælland was played on a wet artificial turf that made the ball very difficult to handle, so the Elfsborg players were mainly trying to bully their opponents physically, which the Spanish referee did not really allow and the match became a study in the difference between a fast moving physical game and quick foot speed, because FCN showed that they through better passing technique and quicker foot speed easily were able to get Elfsborg in trouble every time they were able to just string 3-4 passes together in midfield, while Elfsborg mainly looked dangeruos at corner kicks and set pieces, though the by far best Elfsborg player and big star of the match for the home team was the highly attacking minded right back Johan Larsson. He is surely going to attract big interest from abroad after his performance in this match, while it was easy to see that FCN is still a "work in progress", that lack the last bit of quality in defense and at the last ball in attack.... the return leg is also going to be played on artificial turf in Denmark, but a different kind of artificial turf that should be an advantage for FC Nordsjælland and their quicker foot speed.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Europa League Play-off round ;

Second leg:

AS Saint-Étienne (Fra) v Esbjerg fB (Den), 0-1 (agg: 3-5)
0-1 Mustapha Bayal Sall (owngoal) (73)
---

FC Nordsjælland (Den) v IF Elfsborg (Swe), 0-1 (agg: 1-2)
0-1 Mikkel Beckmann (71)
---

Besiktas (Tur) v Tromsø IL (Nor), 2-0 (agg: 3-2, Trømsø porgress by UEFA decision to kick out Besiktas)
1-0 Hugo Almeida (51)
2-0 Oguzhan Özyakup (54)
---

Rubin Kazan (Rus) v Molde FK (Nor), 3-0 (agg: 5-0)
1-0 Aleksandr Prudnikov (33)
2-0 Roman Eremenko (50)
Ryazantsev, Rubin Kazan miss penalty (53)
3-0 Serdar Azmun (84)
---

Racing Genk (Bel) v FH Hafnarfjördur (Ice), 5-2 (agg: 7-2)
1-0 Jelle Vossen (5)
1-1 Olafur Pall Snorrason (27)
1-2 Björn Daniel Sverrisson (48)
2-2 Serigne Mbodji (52)
3-2 Anthony Limbombe (57)
4-2 Fabien Camus (59)
5-2 Fabien Camus (78)
---

It was nice to see a young talented Esbjerg team that actually managed to do the job quite convincingly away from home as well ... So Esbjerg won this tie fair and square against a Saint-Étienne team that do remind very much of Esbjerg tactically... so this second leg became more like what was to be expected from two defensive solid teams, with very little real opportunities created, and with Esbjerg having the advantage of being able to defend a result, because they were only in need of 0-0 or 1-1 result to be sure to progress.

FC Nordsjælland are on the other hand just tragic to watch at the moment... they seem to have full control in midfield most of the time, passing the ball nicely around, though just not as well as they did it last season and to no effect and with no efficiency, while you just feel that they are bound to slip up in defense... So Elfsborg were mainly waiting for FCN to make a defensive mistake, while they did not have much trouble keeping FCN from looking all too dangerous, because the FCN last ball was quite horrible throughout the match.... so obviously the decisive goal then came in the second half when the FCN team seemed too pleased to settle for a 0-0 result, scored by no other than the former FCN winger Mikkel Beckmann who played for them in Champions League last season... but honestly, having watched Esbjerg in this play-off round and then FCN play against Elfsborg, then Esbjerg are a level better than this tactically tragic and slow moving inefficient FCN team.

As expected Besiktas lost its appeal to CAS against expulsion from this season's Europ Cup and got kicked out of the Europa League by UEFA ... the Besiktas players already seemed to know the result yesterday, when they did not celebrate their win against Tromsø, but looked rather sad and disappointed.

.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage draw:

--------
Group B.
--------

                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
Real Madrid (Spa)         0  0  0  0  0-0  0
Juventus (Ita)            0  0  0  0  0-0  0
---------------------------------------------
Galatasaray (Tur)         0  0  0  0  0-0  0
[B]FC København (Den)[/B]        0  0  0  0  0-0  0

Group C with Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain and Olympiakos would no doubt have been better for FC København, but this group is on the other hand more interesting... first of all, we will be able to see if FCK are able to do better than FC Nordsjælland did last season in CL against Juventus (where they managed a 1-1 result at home) ...and the last time FCK did well in the CL group stage and finish second, it was in a group with Barcelona, while they now are up against Real Madrid, so that will be interesting as well... Turkish teams often have trouble tactically when dealing with Scandinavian clubs, so the games against Galatasaray will be an interesting tactical battle for FCK.
.

 

Europa League 2013/14, Group Stage draw:

--------
Group C.
--------

                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
Standard Liège (Bel)      0  0  0  0  0-0  0
FC Salzburg (Aut)         0  0  0  0  0-0  0
---------------------------------------------
[B]IF Elfsborg (Swe)[/B]         0  0  0  0  0-0  0
[B]Esbjerg fB (Den)[/B]          0  0  0  0  0-0  0

To be played :

19 September:
FC Salzburg v IF Elfsborg
Standard Liège v Esbjerg fB
03 October:
Esbjerg fB v FC Salzburg
IF Elfsborg v Standard Liège
24 October:
IF Elfsborg v Esbjerg fB
07 November:
Esbjerg fB v IF Elfsborg
28 November:
IF Elfsborg v FC Salzburg
Esbjerg fB v Standard Liège
12 December:
FC Salzburg v Esbjerg fB
Standard Liège v IF Elfsborg


All the teams in this group seem to praise themselves lucky and believe they have a golden opportunity to progress... so this is where I come in, to have a look at some facts and figures... Standard Liège have had an excellent start in the Belgium league with 5 straight wins and 10-0 score, but just as importantly, they have looked just as solid in the Europa League qualifiers... so my prediction is, that they are the absolute favorites to win this group, while Salzburg perhaps do well in thew Austrian Bundesliga, but on the other hand were eliminated by Dudelange from Luxembourg in last seasons CL qualifiers and by Fenerbahçe this season, so I'm not really impressed...

Elfsborg are producing modest results in the Swedish league this season and came here by eliminating a terrible inefficient FC Nordsjælland team that is not only under reconstruction and doing horrible in the Danish Superliga, but also had not won a match in Europe since 2009. Elfsborg did lose narrowly to Celtic in the CL qualifiers and also produced a huge win against a Latvian side, but they did much the same last season against Floriana from Malta but still lost to Danish AC Horsens, that later suffered relegation from the Danish Superliga.... and I do suspect that they are going to believe that Esbjerg is an easier task than FCN and Horsens, which is quite the opposite.

.. which brings me to Esbjerg... a team that was playing in the Danish 1. Division only two years ago and are inexperienced in Europe and therefore are very easy to underestimate, but they did much better than could be expected as a newly promoted Superliga team last season, finishing in 4th place and also winning the Danish Cup final, which is why they are here... Most of the better Scandinavian sides usually rely on a few older slightly over-the-hill former big "name" internationals, but when you look at the Esbjerg squad, it is mainly a team of young rising stars, of which some still are playing for the Danish U21 NT or have already earned their debut for the Danish or Norwegian NT and easily could have been on their way to bigger leagues this summer... and the fact that we are talking about a fairly young but still very defensively solid looking team on the rise, that now also are going to be reinforce with 2-3 new players in the last days of the transfer window because they have reached this group stage, makes me think that they could progress from this group... I predict, that because they have recently been promoted and are seeded to finish at the bottom of this group, they are going to be underestimated by the other teams, despite the home and away win against Saint-Étienne and despite their 4-0 trashing of FC Nordsjælland in the Superliga. Though their results in the Superliga have been like night and day this season, this has mainly to do with their Europa Cup games, which has made them do poorly in a few Superliga games, but this is also why they now are signing more reinforcements, so they can cope with playing Europa League and Superliga at the same time, which they obviously are not used to... their first reinforcement is btw the Norwegian international Mohammed Fellah, but a few more will follow before the transfer window is closed.... As I have written in the Danish Superliga thread, then Esbjerg is a team that actually could become Danish Champions this season, and this is how they should be regarded.
.



--------
Group K.
--------

                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
Tottenham Hotspur (Eng)   0  0  0  0  0-0  0
FC Anzhi (Rus)            0  0  0  0  0-0  0
---------------------------------------------
FC Sheriff (Mol)          0  0  0  0  0-0  0
[B]Tromsø IL (Nor)[/B]           0  0  0  0  0-0  0

To be played :

19 September: Tottenham v Tromsø IL
03 October: Tromsø IL v FC Sheriff
24 October: FC Anzhi v Tromsø IL
07 November: Tromsø IL v FC Anzhi
28 November: Tromsø IL v Tottenham
12 December: FC Sheriff v Tromsø IL


As for the Tromsø opponents in group K, then Tottenham surely took the Europa League seriously last season and also very much seem like they do the same this season, so they should easily be able to win this group, while it is much more difficult to make an assessment of Russian Anzhi Makhachkala, because they have made some serious changes to their team and have had a horrible start to this season in the Russian league.... Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova is a solid and experienced Europa Cup team, but far from impossible to beat.
.

 

2013/14 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage:


--------
Group B.
--------

                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
Real Madrid (Spa)         1  1  0  0  6-1  3
Juventus (Ita)            1  0  1  0  1-1  1
---------------------------------------------
[B]FC København (Den)[/B]        1  0  1  0  1-1  1
---------------------------------------------
Galatasaray (Tur)         1  0  0  1  1-6  0

FC København v Juventus, 1-1
1-0 Nicolai Jørgensen (14)
1-1 Fabio Quagliarella (14)
Attendance: 36,524

Possession : 44% - 56%

Lineups and match stats from Football-Lineups.com

Considering the fairly poor shape FC København are in at the moment, this was the very best performance they could be expected to deliver, not that that seemed more solid in defense or were any better than usual, except for Johan Wiland, who used to be the best keeper in the Superliga, but has been quite terrible so far this season... or that is, until this CL match where he suddenly was at the very top of his game and saved FCK several times, producing some absolutely brilliant saves, just as we have seen from him in the past... Tactically FCK did the best they could do throughout the match and they also did play a fairly good first 45 minutes. But as the match progressed, Juventus were much too fast for the slow FCK defenders and so they would and should have won if not for Johan Wiland who surely was the man of the match.

But an excellent result for FCK, especially considering how poorly Galatasaray looked in defense and tactically as a team at home against Real Madrid in the other group game... Galatasaray seem to have spend all their money on offensive players, but forgetting to reinforce their defense, so with a bit of luck, FCK could outsmart this Turkish side for the 3rd spot in this group, which is the best FCK and Galatasaray can hope for.
.

 

Europa League 2013/14, Group Stage:


--------
Group C.
--------

                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
FC Salzburg (Aut)         1  1  0  0  4-0  3
[B]Esbjerg fB (Den)[/B]          1  1  0  0  2-1  3
---------------------------------------------
Standard Liège (Bel)      1  0  0  1  1-2  0
[B]IF Elfsborg (Swe)[/B]         1  0  0  1  0-4  0

Standard Liège v Esbjerg, 1-2
0-1 Mick van Buren (63)
1-1 Geoffrey Mujangi Bia (74)
1-2 Mushaga Bakenga (90+5)
Attendance: 14,000

Possession : 44% - 56%

Lineups and match stats from Football-Lineups.com
------

Salzburg v Elfsborg 4-0
1-0 Alan (36)
2-0 Jonathan Soriano (penalty) (45)
3-0 Jonathan Soriano (69)
4-0 Jonathan Soriano (79)
Attendance: 7,879

Possession : 59% - 41%

Lineups and match stats from Football-Lineups.com


To be played :

03 October:
Esbjerg fB v FC Salzburg
IF Elfsborg v Standard Liège
24 October:
IF Elfsborg v Esbjerg fB
07 November:
Esbjerg fB v IF Elfsborg
28 November:
IF Elfsborg v FC Salzburg
Esbjerg fB v Standard Liège
12 December:
FC Salzburg v Esbjerg fB
Standard Liège v IF Elfsborg

Esbjerg made a terrible clumsy mistake when they failed to include newly signed Norwegian international Mohammed Fellah in the list of players for the Europa League, but never the less they came off to a good start and managed an excellent away win against the absolute favorites to win this group... Standard Liège are leading the Belgium Jupiler league, with 7 straight wins and 16-2 score, just as they had also won all their 6 Europa League qualifying games against KR Reykjavik, FK Minsk and Xanthi from Greece on their way to this group stage, but Esbjerg did not seem all too impressed by their undefeated Belgian opponents that had a tough time creating opportunities against a solid looking Esbjerg defense, while Esbjerg produced the biggest opportunity in the first half, when an attempt by Emil Lyng was cleared on the goal-line by Liège captain Jelle Van Damme.

However, no goals in the first 45 minutes, but Esbjerg seemed to have the upper hand when they took the lead in the 63th minute as a powerful cross by Emil Lyng was met by the head of the young Dutch Esbjerg topscorer Mick van Buren, who has been a reall scoop and excellent so far this season. This goal obvioulsy forced the Standard Liège head coach to send in the heavy artillery Mujangi Bia, while Esbjerg at the same time suddenly seemed too happy to defend too low, just to keep their lead, so Mujangi Bia levelled thescore only 3 minutes after he entered the pitch and then Esbjerg were in all sorts of trouble in the following 10 minutes or so, where the home team seemed highly confident that they could secure a win and suddenly produced a string of good opportunities, but Esbjerg managed to withstand and the pressure then eased off as Esbjerg were able to drag down the pace and hold on to the ball, but the home fans should perhaps not have cheered so loudly for the 5 minutes injury-time, because it was not Standard Liège but Esbjerg that managed to take advantage of this by scoring through a counter attack in the very last minute... and it was the young Norwegian U21 international Mushaga Bakenga on loan from Club Brugge, who secured the the win for Esbjerg.

I didnt get to watch the FC Salzburg 4-0 win against Elfsborg, but according to reports, the so far undefeated and absolute top team in the Austrian Bundesliga were just better, stronger and faster in all aspects of the game and even saw a goal wrongly disallowed for being offside, so Elfsborg were nowhere near getting a result and now surely need a win at home in their next match against the group favorites Standard Liège.


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Group K.
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                          P  W  D  L  F-A Pts
Tottenham Hotspur (Eng)   1  1  0  0  3-0  3
FC Anzhi (Rus)            1  0  1  0  0-0  1
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FC Sheriff (Mol)          1  0  1  0  0-0  1
[B]Tromsø IL (Nor)[/B]           1  0  0  1  0-3  0

Tottenham v Tromsø IL 3-0
1-0 Jermain Defoe (21)
2-0 Jermain Defoe (30)
3-0 Christian Eriksen (86)
Attendance: 26,581

Possession : 71% - 29%

Lineups and match stats from Football-Lineups.com


To be played :

03 October: Tromsø IL v FC Sheriff
24 October: FC Anzhi v Tromsø IL
07 November: Tromsø IL v FC Anzhi
28 November: Tromsø IL v Tottenham
12 December: FC Sheriff v Tromsø IL


As expected, Tromsø were no match for Tottenham in their first match. They can on the other hand be happy about the 0-0 result between FC Sheriff and Anzhi Makhachkala.. The Russians seem far from as strong as last season, being 3rd from the bottom in The Russian league and not having won any of their first 8 games, just as they didnt manage a win in this first group game against Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldova....

I'm actually tempted to believe that besides Tottenham, this seem like one of the weakes groups in this tournament, considering the very poor shape of Anzhi and that Tromsø are doing just as poorly in the Norwegian Tippeliga, trying to escape the relegation play-off.
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Wow I just can't believe Esbjerg is doing so well in EL. They were really good against us, and now they just keep being awesome against great teams like Standard or Salzbourg... I mean, are they really 6th in Danish League? how is that even possible?

In a way, I should say that I'm happy that in the end, we didn't lose that play-off against a weak side. Esbjerg is really a great team, even without Braithwhite.

 

I think their rather poor form in the Danish Superliga has to do with the fact, that they are a young team and not used to playing both Superliga and in Europe at the same time...

There are only 12 teams in the Superliga... and a few seasons ago the Danish 1. Division was cut from 16 to 12 teams while also getting a bigger share of the TV-money, which has improved the level in the 1. Division greatly, so that there is no longer much difference between the supposed bottom half in the Superliga and the top half, because of a tougher relegation battle and the 2 newly promoted teams doing much better...

Last season Randers and Esbjerg (that had won promotion) both finished in top-4 in the Superliga... this season the newly promoted teams are Viborg and FC Vestsjælland, and they are also doing better than could be expected, so the Superliga has simply become more tight, which makes it more difficult for Esbjerg to do well in the Superliga while also having to focus on doing well in Europe...

 

Europa League 2013/14, Group Stage:


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Group C.
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                          P  W  D  L   F-A  Pts
FC Salzburg (Aut)         4  4  0  0  11-3  12
[B]Esbjerg fB (Den)[/B]          4  3  0  1   6-4   9
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Standard Liège (Bel)      4  0  1  3   4-8   1
[B]IF Elfsborg (Swe)[/B]         4  0  1  3   2-8   1

Standard Liège v Esbjerg, 1-2
Salzburg v Elfsborg, 4-0
Esbjerg v FC Salzburg, 1-2
Elfsborg v Standard Liège, 1-1

To be played :

28 November:
IF Elfsborg v FC Salzburg
Esbjerg fB v Standard Liège
12 December:
FC Salzburg v Esbjerg fB
Standard Liège v IF Elfsborg


Elfsborg v Esbjerg, 1-2
0-1 Hans Henrik Andreasen (7)
0-2 Hans Henrik Andreasen (67)
1-2 Jon Jönsson (69)
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Esbjerg v Elfsborg, 1-0
1-0 Marcus Rohdén (owngoal) (71)
Attendance: 10,049


Elfsborg have had a fairly disappointing season that they had hoped to "revenge" by doing well in Europa League, while Esbjerg have suffered 4 straight defeats in the Superliga this past month, so neither Esbjerg or Elfsborg were at the top of their game when they faced eachother in these two group games... The Esbjerg players have seemed much too nervous to follow the usual game-plan that otherwise has been such a great success for them, but they still showed to be more in control when it really mattered, so there is not much to say about the results, though Elfsborg will no doubt feel that they got close to a better result and missed a golden opportunity against a wounded Esbjerg team that had suffered a string of poor results. The Esbjerg coach and players on the other hand feel they should have been able to kill off Elfsborg instead of letting them into the game, because a slim lead were making them nervous and less efficient .... But Elfsborg are now eliminated, while Esbjerg have progressed from this group since neither Elfsborg or Standard Liège are able to catch up, no matter the results in the last two rounds.



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Group K.
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                          P  W  D  L  F-A  Pts
Tottenham Hotspur (Eng)   4  4  0  0  9-1  12
FC Anzhi (Rus)            4  2  1  1  2-2   7
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FC Sheriff (Mol)          4  0  2  2  2-5   2
[B]Tromsø IL (Nor)[/B]           4  0  1  3  1-6   1

Tottenham v Tromsø IL, 3-0
Tromsø IL v FC Sheriff, 1-1
FC Anzhi v Tromsø IL, 1-0

To be played :

28 November: Tromsø IL v Tottenham
12 December: FC Sheriff v Tromsø IL


Tromsø IL v FC Anzhi 0-1
0-1 Karlen Mkrtchyan (90+4)


Tromsø have been fighting for their life in the relegation battle at the bottom of the Norwegian Tippeliga while also playing Europa League, so it's hardly a surprise that they have had great trouble producing good opportunities in this group stage, even in the 1-1 draw at home against a 10 men FC Sheriff they only managed one attempt on target and this match against FC Anzhi was no different, though Tromsø seemed to be heading for a 0-0 result until the very last minute of injury-time. So a bitter defeat for Tromsø in a match were they were in need of a win if they were to have any real hope of progressing. Now they are out but still have an interesting home match against Tottenham to look forward to, where they will be able to play more freely without having to worry too much about the result.
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