Thursday Night Lights: The 2014/15 Europa League thread

clashed heads a couple of mins earlier, hopefully nothing more serious than concussion

good stuff, glad seville won.

Sampdoria made a massive fuss about qualifying for the Europa League this season, having risked disqualification over a betting scandal, and have just managed to lose 4-0 at home to FK Vojvodina in the preliminary round.

poor old samp (a great-grandfather i never met was a Genoese samp fan so i have some affection for them). i remember very clearly five years ago when they were on the cusp of qualifying for the champions league and threw it away http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/08/25/sampdoria-3-2-werder-bremen-aet-pazzini-puts-sampdoria-in-charge-but-subs-prove-crucial/

odd night for dortmund

Richard Whiteley RIP

hello darkness my old friend

^ sad like :-(

Celtic website spinning brilliantly like it's all one big tournament.

Get behind the Bhoys as the European campaign continues

ha!

the draw for the groups is 12pm GMT tomorrow. Not sure when the fixtures are announced. I know when the dates will be played, and know that if I'm lucky and Celtic play at home on the match day that falls on Thursday September 17th I will be able to go to two home matches at Celtic Park when I'm home to visit for a fortnight. Ha, fingers-crossed to be able to attend a Europa League Group game, what has become of me...

but, you know, nothing like a Thursday night tie against a team half the punters haven't heard of with the top-tier of the stadium closed is there?

Well I assume all the punters have heard of all the teams, at least. 17th September is an away game though.

I'm out of the country when Fenerbahce come to town.

aye im gubbed. no Europa league action for me.

Fenerbahce should be interesting. Hopefully Deila plays Mulgrew at left-back again, he'll have Nani in his pocket no bother.

And Dear Dedryck will have RVP running scared.

That's an interpretation for sure. I'm glad I'll be watching it in a bar where beer is a euro. I may not come back home.

Some potentially good matches on:

Fiorentina / Basel
Ajax / Celtic
Dortmund / Krasnodar
Anderlecht / Monaco
Dnipro / Lazio
Sporting / Lokomotiv

If Spurs are going to get out of the group i think they have to win tonight but i'm not sure it's going to happen.

Rodgers' attitude towards the Europa League is infuriating and should actually be grounds for dismissal imo.

Wtf is this formation? 3 at the back again with emre can back on defensive duty.Gomez a cb by trade I believe but generally playing lb so far for lfc now playing in midfield??

Ah actually Gomez one of the 3 CBS and can in midfield that makes more sense. Outrage retracted. Still Rodgers out anyway.

Commentator just described last season's 6-1 defeat at Stoke as "rather disappointing". Gonna take a lot for him to succumb to hyperbole I guess.

Dortmund losing at home?

Mingolet wipes out kolo toure, looks crocked.

Pulling every single player back to defend a corner is such an idiotic tactic. Just end up clearing the ball to nobody. So basic.

Pedro Chirivella on for LFC. Never seen him before. A DM apparently. Can back in defence and a CM pairing of Rossiter/Chirivella. Lol.

I think I may hate Adam Lallana just a little. Which I feel kinda bad about as he seems like a nice enough guy.

Okay I hate him more than a little now the dawdling prick.

This really is Hodgson level tedium. Bereft of attacking ideas and play, unable to construct dangerous moves. Scored 3 goals this season, 2 absolute spectaculars and 1 that should have been disallowed for offside. Rancid.

I'm kind of glad I don't have BT Sports, watching Liverpool in the EL is excruciating at the best of times

and yeah Rodgers Out

Molde are killing Fener in Istanbul. 3-1 now.

Hahahaha Lallana with an excellent goal. Back to hating him just a little

3 players try to tackle one guy so the ball drops to someone else. 1-1

In general the 2nd half has been marginally better. Gomez looks good at CB and I would always have Sakho in defence ahead of Lovren.

Trippier settling in well. Conceded a penalty after four minutes.

Two in two minutes from Son. Nice work from Alli.

Lamela is playing so badly it's impossible not to feel sorry for him. Nobody is playing well apart from Alli but he looks like a broken man.

Yay! He scored!

he was really good at the weekend when he came on tbh

enjoying this. Danny rose having fun.

lamela cleans up an alli rebound after Charlie carves em up. counter attack in waves there.

nacef Charlie

Annoyed to be on a train and missing this.

after going one up and looking good for another we conceded more and more space and eventually ended up lucky to draw it tbh. Monaco not good at all.

still enjoyed it. cb pairing really a cut above.

Kane, eriksen and lamela all woeful!

Monaco made much smarter substitutions, they looked dangerous in the last 20mins or so that I watched.

There is no reason for Andros to be anywhere near our team any more. On any occasion.

There is no reason for Ambrose to be anywhere near our team any more. On any occasion.

Turns out that hatred of Efe Ambrose transcends international borders. Several nationalities in the pub on Thursday night, all united in facepalming.

Oh get in

oh get out

(p much everyone involved in the running of celtic football club)

p interested in what klopp had clyne doing tonight. Had him going forward a lot (no surprise there since rubin sat deep and didn't attack) but he seemed to specifically task him with taking up attacking positions infield rather than overlapping on the wing. Sort of what pep has alaba doing when he starts at LB.

anyway lfc were alright tonight, v comfortably in control but still having problems scoring. would give can and firmino tick jpegs. still don't understand why sakho wasn't first choice CB under rodgers, he can sometimes hesitate to make a decision on the ball but when he has made his choice his passing is actually v good imo.

yeah there's always been a kind of lol big lad plus mild racism in people's attitude to his poise and his passing. he can appear ungainly on the ball but he actually is a fine footballer. rodgers' dislike was bizarre, anyone i know watching liverpool is a massive fan, he can be a huge player for that team.