By Tony Attwood
Had Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Vitoria in Germany, Arsenal would have finished second in their group in the Europa League and been faced with the prospect of meeting the best Champions League dropouts in the next round of the Europa League.
But it didn’t happen and so we’ve got a slightly easier draw for the knock out stages of the Europa starting with the round of 32. The draw takes place on December 16 at noon, GMT.
The clubs left in the competition will be the group winners such as Arsenal and the runners-up, along with eight teams that came third in the Champions League group stages and now drop into the Europa.
So as a group winner, Arsenal are among the seeded teams which gives a fractional advantage for this round, but not for any rounds after that.
Also seeded are four Champions League drop downs, that being decided by their results thus far. The seeding system is simple – unseeded teams are drawn against seeded teams, with the seeded team playing at home in the second leg. So we already know we have an away game first.
As a result of all this, to help those of us in Untold’s crowded office keep tabs with who is who we’ve got the list of clubs together just to show us who we can and can’t play.
| Group | Winners | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|
| A | Sevilla | APOEL Nicosia |
| B | Malmo | Copenhagen |
| C | Basel | Getafe |
| D | LASK | Sporting CP |
| E | Celtic | CFR Cluj |
| F | Arsenal | Eintracht Frankfurt |
| G | Porto | Rangers |
| H | Espanyol | Ludogorets |
| I | Gent | Wolfsburg |
| J | Istanbul Basaksehir | Roma |
| K | Braga | Wolverhampton Wanderers |
| L | Manchester United | AZ |
So that’s three English teams and two from Scotland in the knock out stages.
And here are the teams dropping down from the Champions League with their results from their Champions League group stage games this season
| Seed | Team | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajax | 2 | 1 | 2 | +6 | 10 |
| 2 | RB Salzburg | 2 | 1 | 3 | +3 | 7 |
| 3 | Inter Milan | 2 | 1 | 3 | +1 | 7 |
| 4 | Benfica | 2 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 7 |
| 5 | Bayer Leverkusen | 2 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 6 |
| 6 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 1 | 3 | 2 | -5 | 6 |
| 7 | Olympiacos | 1 | 1 | 4 | -6 | 4 |
| 8 | Club Brugge | 1 | 3 | 3 | -8 | 3 |
For this next round in the competition teams from the same group in the earlier stages cannot meet again, nor can teams from the same member association, so we can’t play another English club. But after this round there are no more restrictions and anyone can play anyone.
So that is it for the European set up, but there was one other thing I thought of while taking a quick review of what’s what in the football world.
Maybe you can remember when Eddie Howe was said to be the next Arsenal manager? Now that Arsenal need their next manager he is not mentioned any more, largely because Bournemouth have won just one of their last 11 matches and lost their last five games. Yet there was a time when multiple journos and bloggers were talking him up as the man to replace Mr Wenger. Makes one think that maybe not every current hot shot is the right man for the job.
But more to the point, the journalists who talked him up so much have hidden the story, largely because it reflects badly upon themselves as judges of how things should be in the future. Wenger out, Howe in was the call. So what went wrong? We don’t know because the journalists will not go back and revisit their past failures of judgement.
Moving on, here is a sentence I really liked in the papers this week.
“I do not like to criticise managers, because I have never managed or coached myself.”
That was from Ms Eni Aluko writing in the Guardian. Unfortunately the next sentence began with “But,,,” which rather spoiled the effect.
Club Brugge please…. 😉
Had Freddie Ljungberg’s interim coached Arsenal team lost their last 2 matches away to West Ham in the PL and Standard Liege in the ELC competition, probably a new substantive Arsenal head coach would have been appointed by the club to take charge of the Gunners from their next match at home against Man City on Sunday in the PL.
Freddie Ljungberg is currently looking to be hampered in selecting his senior team players who he would have liked to select for the Man City match but for the injuries that ravaged possibly 6 of them he’ll be shorthanded in the selection of his senior team Gunners. But have a selection of senior team Gunners that is mixed with the youth ones to make do to beat Man City tomorrow. For, the injuries picked by some of his key senior team Gunners will not be an excuse tender by him as a reason for if Arsenal did not beat Man City tomorrow in one of the 3 big game matches iineup for Arsenal to play in quick succession which he has got to coach his understrenghed Gunners available to him to select from to win all. Which if he won them will convince the club’s hierarchy he’s the one who they should give the next Arsenal substantive head coach job to.
Ljungberg has been reported to have talked of lacking in enough staff he needs to assist him in his interim coaching job of the Gunners as he saddled with Per Mertasacker to assist him. Okay, let Ljungberg be patience to wait and in the time being focus totally on how he’ll coach the Gunners to win all the 3 big game matches that Arsenal will soon be playing. I believe when Ljungberg gets these 3 big game matches wins done for Arsenal, all other things he needs to continue in his interim role coaching capacity for the Gunners will I believe be provided to him. So. Let Ljungberg first delivers big, then thereafter he’ll have the cause to be happy and satisfy doing the senior coaching job at the club he’s given to do.
I was enjoying the Chelsea vs 8ournemouth PL match but the public light had gone off with match resumed for only some few minutes in the 2nd half. scores are 0-0 but Bournemouth have come strongly into the match after half time but only for one of their players who was release down to the Chelsea box failing to shoot to beat the Chelsea keeper as he lost the ball to Blues who rallied round to dispossess him.
Had Freddie Ljungberg’s interim coached Arsenal team lost their last 2 matches away to West Ham in the PL and Standard Liege in the ELC competition, probably a new substantive Arsenal head coach would have been appointed by the club to take charge of the Gunners from their next match at home against Man City on Sunday in the PL.
Freddie Ljungberg is currently looking to be hampered in selecting his senior team players who he would have liked to select for the Man City match but for the injuries that ravaged possibly 6 of them he’ll be shorthanded in the selection of his senior team Gunners. But have a selection of senior team Gunners that is mixed with the youth ones to make do to beat Man City tomorrow. For, the injuries picked by some of his key senior team Gunners will not be an excuse tender by him as a reason for if Arsenal did not beat Man City tomorrow in one of the 3 big game matches iineup for Arsenal to play in quick succession which he has got to coach his understrenghed Gunners available to him to select from to win all. Which if he won them will convince the club’s hierarchy he’s the one who they should give the next Arsenal substantive head coach job to.
Ljungberg has been reported to have talked of lacking in enough staff he needs to assist him in his interim coaching job of the Gunners as he saddled with Per Mertasacker to assist him. Okay, let Ljungberg be patience to wait and in the time being focus totally on how he’ll coach the Gunners to win all the 3 big game matches that Arsenal will soon be playing. I believe when Ljungberg gets these 3 big game matches wins done for Arsenal, all other things he needs to continue in his interim role coaching capacity for the Gunners will I believe be provided to him. So. Let Ljungberg first delivers big, then thereafter he’ll have the cause to be happy and satisfy doing the senior coaching job at the club he’s given to do.
I was enjoying the Chelsea vs 8ournemouth PL match but the public light had gone off with the match resumed for only some few minutes in the 2nd half. Scores are 0-0 but Bournemouth have come strongly into the match after half time but only for one of their players who was released down to the Chelsea box but he failed to shoot in times to beat the Chelsea keeper as he lost the ball to the Blues who rallied round to dispossess him.
I know it is off topic but can someone explain these stats
Leicester v Norwich Fouls 11 – 15 Yellow cards 0 – 5
I wonder what are the odds?
Les Williams – you know that Leicester do not foul enough to get Yellow cards. It is a King Power Law of football. Includes far east holidays for the select. Pork is a much loved meat and pigmob is a delicacy.
Menace – thanks that explains it
Sorry Walter, ManU got them.