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Europa League 2012/13 - Benfica 1 - 2 Chelsea


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Guest MalcolmW

From this season the cup winners of the top 6 ranked nations, currently England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal, go straight into the group stage. Plus the actual champions of the Europa League, unless they are qualified for the Champions' League. Atletico Madrid, as holders, are not qualified for the CL, so there will be 7 clubs direct to the group stage if (and only if) Athletic Bilbao beat Barcelona in the Spanish cup final.

Speculation about who NUFC can/cannot meet is wholly dependent on whether they are above or below the seeding line. Meanwhile elimination of any of these clubs in the earlier rounds will improve NUFC's standing:

Round 1 entrants: Twente, Lech Poznan, Rosenborg;

Round 2 entrants: APOEL Nicosia, Spatra Prague, Austria Vienna, Anorthosis Famagusta, Young Boys;

Round 3 entrants: Inter Milan, Liverpool, Marseilles, Hannover, Heerenveen.

There are a few more whose entry points are not known (e.g. Athletic Bilbao will enter at QR3 if they lose the Spanish cup final).

Additionally there are a number of clubs in the Champions' League who would push NUFC down the sedding order if they are beaten in the QR3 of that competition.

So it's fine if Basel, BATE Borisov, Salzburg or Dinamo Zagreb fail in QR2, but if they make QR3 it's better that they win. Similarly it's better for NUFC if Celtic and Anderlecht both win in QR3.

By the time QR3 comes around it will be clear how many seeding upsets are needed (if any) to get into the seeded half of the draw.

The following entrants at the same stage as NUFC are higher ranked (and so can only be opponents in that round if NUFC are unseeded):

Sporting Lisbon, CSKA Moscow, PSV Eindhoven, whichever French club qualifies (Bordeaux/St Etienne/Rennes/Toulouse), Stuttgart, Metalist Kharkiv, AZ Alkmaar, Rubin Kazan, Napoli/Lazio.

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Guest MalcolmW

When will we find out if we are seeded or not?

 

Possibly after completion of QR2, but very likely not certain until QR3 - the day before the draw!

Incidentally the clubs will be arranged in balanced groups, probably 5 of 10 and 1 of 12, a few hours before the draw. A draw of 10 numbers will then apply to all groups of 10 (5 seeds plus 5 non-seeds) - otherwise the draw will last longer than the matches. So shortly before the draw the opponents will be known to be 1 of 5 (or 6) teams.

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When will we find out if we are seeded or not?

 

Possibly after completion of QR2, but very likely not certain until QR3 - the day before the draw!

Incidentally the clubs will be arranged in balanced groups, probably 5 of 10 and 1 of 12, a few hours before the draw. A draw of 10 numbers will then apply to all groups of 10 (5 seeds plus 5 non-seeds) - otherwise the draw will last longer than the matches. So shortly before the draw the opponents will be known to be 1 of 5 (or 6) teams.

i've a book by john gibson "the newcastle united fc story" which is mainly about the fairs cup run, in it he says that we weren't even sure we were in it till the actual draw was made.
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Good job Malcolm is here like. Signs up and is the knowledge when it comes to the Europa League. I suspect he may indeed be Radomel Falcao.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion MalcomW may be Rob and Ian W's dad.

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Chelsea winning the Champions League would give the average league coefficient for England a slight boost. Our ranking is built entirely on that so with us being potentially very close to the cut-off for seeded/non-seeded mebz we could do with Chelsea winning.

 

:dontknow: Malcolm?!

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Guest MalcolmW

Good job Malcolm is here like. Signs up and is the knowledge when it comes to the Europa League. I suspect he may indeed be Radomel Falcao.

 

All my 'knowledge' comes from following Bert Kassies's site for many years. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to follow, but it gets easier with experience (Like most things!). There is another Dutch site by Ricardo uclpredictions.ucoz.com which projects round-by-round, assuming all seeds progress (which obviously rarely happens), which shows NUFC  30th of the 62 - so just seeded, and then in pot 4, but with a decent expectation of reaching pot 3.

Normally one third party match doesn't make much difference, but since Young Boys are .003 ahead of NUFC a Chelsea win will gain a place, so bring it on!

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Good job Malcolm is here like. Signs up and is the knowledge when it comes to the Europa League. I suspect he may indeed be Radomel Falcao.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion MalcomW may be Rob and Ian W's dad.

 

:lol:

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