Paullow

I believe we have faced at least 4 of those in the PL era (Barcelona x2), Feyenoord, Benfica, and Inter, possibly another I've missed, (and Porto in the much earlier campaigns) so I would probably hope to avoid those having seen us play them, but aye, pretty surreal, probably more so for those under 25/30. Although in terms of actually progressing from the group, Feyenoord would probably be the best to get in Pot 1.

Stream is almost unwatchable. Like one of the old Firstrow things.

FIFA U20 World Cup final between Uruguay and Italy coming up at 10pm on the below link for anyone interested: https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en

Where at? Can't find any odds anywhere. Edit - just found them on SkyBet.

Quite enjoying this. Thought Man City would be at least a goal up by now, but the longer it stays 0-0, the more intriguing it is.

Arsenal were in a title race, played some great football, and made massive strides, but effectively their season was pretty similar to ours - no trophy and a return to the Champions League. They certainly wouldn't have swapped their season for West Ham if offered, despite the latter winning the Conference League, nor Brentford, if (hypothetically) they finished where they did and won the League Cup. I think our season was generally better (than West Ham) - like Arsenal, we made massive strides, played great football, no team lost fewer games nor conceded less goals, and a real chance to continue to build, attract better players, and really push on as a club, so as a business you wouldn't swap, it's obviously just as fans, the vast majority of us haven't seen us win anything in our lifetime, and we are desperate for that to change. I probably would have preferred us to finish 6th or 7th and win the LC than finish 4th and lose the final this season (as was widely discussed leading into the final, and those Magpie TV type YouTube channels), just because of the emotion of finally winning a cup, but in a general sense, if your club is right up there in the upper echelons, have won plenty of trophies in reasonable recent memory, then a top 4 finish would normally top winning lesser competitions like the Europa Conference (and even the League Cup), but at this stage, we're obviously not 'above' those competitions.

Oh, don't worry, I'll be vigorously bumping this thread throughout June and July Aye, that will likely be a factor, although the mighty Football Club Ballkani of Kosova don't enter until the next round.

Ludogorets win their 12th straight Bulgarian title, 1 point ahead of CSKA Sofia, to take the final CL qualifying spot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023–24_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round Preliminary draw on Tuesday, which sounds crazy early - obviously that's the absolute minnows, the champs of San Marino, Andorra, Iceland, and Montenegro, one of which will make it through to the first qualifying rounds. I don't know anything about the Montenegrin league, but I thought it might have been considered better than the Gibraltar, Faroe, Malta, or Luxembourg leagues. Iceland too, to a lesser extent.

West Ham outnumbered the Fiorentina fans by 2 to 1 in the stadium? Didn't they both get less than 5,000 tickets for this?

I can just about remember Everton winning the FA Cup (and subsequently knocking us out of Europe) and Dalian Atkinson for Villa in the League Cup, but since 1996, hardly any clubs have won anything outside of the obvious. Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and now Man City have won loads, Spurs a couple of League Cups, Leicester the league, FA Cup and probably a couple of League Cups, Portsmouth, Wigan the FA Cup, Swansea, Birmingham, Blackburn, Boro the League Cup, don't think there are any others, so if you're under 35 you've only seen 13 English clubs win anything significant in your life time.

Think I'd like to see West Ham win tonight. It will be another English club winning something in my lifetime before Newcastle do, but I've never really disliked them, they're probably not a massive threat to us going forward, and it's obviously been a very long time since they won anything, so would be good to see them have a bit of joy. There's no doubt this time two years ago under Ashley and Bruce I'd have been wanting them lose

Looks largely correct, but guess it mainly depends where you are, as there are a few notable omissions. Darlington are in a higher league so will possibly be more attractive to attend a match, but Newton Aycliffe are now in the same league as the likes of Consett, and closer to Newcastle than Darlington.

1-5 on agg at the moment with just over 5 to go. A 6th season in the 2nd tier for Hamburg, which is mad, but each season that goes by, the more normal it will seem, a bit like with Leeds. 53k ave crowds, main club in Germany's 2nd city with a near 2m popn, former European champions. Constant top half finished from 1997 to 2013, yet another season in the wilderness beckons for them. The GFA are probably content that it's effectively just 2 changes to the league each season, but they should probably look into changing the system to freshen things up, and maybe to the system we have over here with 3 guaranteed to go down each season. Probably won't be easy to get top 2 next season either with Schalke and Hertha dropping down this season.

Don't really mind who goes up / stays up, but hope Hamburg can get an early goal tonight to make the tie more interesting for the neutral.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023–24_UEFA_Champions_League#Qualifying_rounds All the group and qualifying spots have now been filled, apart from the Bulgarian league which will be decided on Wednesday - Ludogorets now big faves over CSKA Sofia to take it yet again.

Those matches were one of my earliest memories of Newcastle United as I would have not even been 8. Pretty sure one of the ties was on TV (probably the away 5-0). The home 3-2 leg against Bilbao in the next round definitely was, although I can remember frequently checking teletext / ceefax in the away leg where we lost 1-0. Surprised it's been nearly 70 years since they won the league as it's obviously a relatively huge city there.. Anderlecht and now Club Brugge have kind of taken over these past 15 years or so, but the likes of Gent, Genk (2) and Standard (2) have won it in reasonable recent memory. Lierse too, but that was a bit further back because they were the reigning champs on the old classic Championship Manager 97 game.

One of most crazy ends to a season I have ever seen in Belgium. The League switched from Union SG after 89 mins to Genk, who were winning the title for 5 mins, and then Antwerp score in the 95th minute to equaliser and take the title themselves. First title since 1957. Antwerp and Genk take the two CL spots in Belgium, both have to go through quals, Antwerp the Champions route, Genk the League route. Madness.

Antwerp drew 2-2, Union lost 1-3, so Antwerp have WON their first title since 1957. 1. Antwerp 2. Genk 3. Union SG Union were winning the title after 90 mins, but ended up finishing 3rd and missing out on the Champions League as well.

Antwerp with a 95th minute equaliser, 2-2, and they look like winning the league now. The title has changed with 3 different teams in the space of 5 mins, crazy stuff. Antwerp down to 10 as someone was sent off for celebrating . Absolute mad end to the season.

Brugge now 2-1 up, so USG won't win in and probably not even in the CL now. All down to whether Antwerp can get an equaliser.

Wow, 90th min equaliser for Club Brugge vs USG. Genk back on top as it stands. Antwerp just need one goal to win it now. The lead has switched many times.

That's pretty cool. There's loads of fans at Antwerps stadium presumably watching a beam back, and there will be a trophy presentation there later on if Antwerp win the title.

Union SG ahead in Belgium and on course to win the league as it stands. The commentator in the Genk-Antwerp match was saying that USG had never been top all season. Antwerp now level with Genk, but still need another goal to go back top. They are at least in the CL qual positions as it stands, and Genk will slip into the Europa. It is quite exciting

Bilbao Black Cats, marra.

Racing Genk have taken the lead in the Belgian title decider against Antwerp so they are to top of the league at half time, and Antwerp slip from 1st to 3rd for now and not even in the Champs League places. Union SG currently 0-0 with Club Brugge at H/T, and 2nd for now, but one goal for them would win the league, unless Antwerp scored twice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022–23_Belgian_Pro_League#Play-off_I It's a weird set up they have with halving the points and then the top 4 play each other another 2 times after the regular season, but it makes it very interesting. Both matches are on Mola TV, which I signed up to yesterday