EUROPA League
UEFA CHAMPIONS, EUROPA LEAGUES DRAWS: FANS ANTICIPATE OPPOSITIONS
BY APESIN ADEMOLA.
Football fans across Europe and the rest of the world will set their focus on the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland where the draws for the continent’s club competitions will be conducted. That of the elite Champions League will be held from noon local time (same time in Nigeria), followed by the Europa League’s an hour later.
Expecting is high. Which “big” club face-off? And which less-fancied side take on a “giant”?
For the Champions League, the eight group winners will be seeded and host the second leg of their respective Round of 16 tie, while the 12 group winners in the Europa League group phase plus four best third-ranked teams in the Champions League group stage are the top teams in that second tier competition’s Round of 32 draw.
Seeded teams in the Champions League are:
- Real Madrid, record 13-time winners of the competition, including being champions of the last three editions
- Bayern München, five-time champions, the last time being in 2013
- Barcelona, also five-time winners, 2015 being the last time
- Juventus, twice winners (1985 and 1996)
- FC Porto, champions in 1987 and 2004
- Borussia Dortmund, who won it in 1997
- Manchester City, semi-finalists in 2016 when Real Madrid triumphed 1-0 aggregate
- Paris Saint-Germaine, who have never advanced beyond the Round of 16
In the unseeded hat will be the runners-up of the group stage:
- Liverpool, winners on five occasions, the last being 2005
- AFC Ajax, four-time champions, including three successive victories from 1971
- Manchester United, champions in 1968, 1999 and 2008
- Atlético Madrid, who were in the finals of 1974, 2014 and 2016, losing the last two to cross-town team Real Madrid
- AS Roma, losing finalists to Liverpool in 1984
- Tottenham Hotspur, twice quarterfinalists (2011 and 2013)
- Olympique Lyonnais, quarterfinalists in 2005 and 2006
- Schalke 04, quarterfinalists in 2008
By the rules, teams that featured in the same group or are of the same federation will avoid themselves in the Round of 16.
Possible opposition:
Liverpool’s opposition will come from Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, FC Porto or Real Madrid
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P8 W3 D3 L2 F6 A6
Bayern P7 W2 D4 L1 F9 A7
Dortmund P5 W2 D2 L1 F8 A6
Juventus P6 W2 D1 L3 F4 A5
Porto P6 W3 D3 L0 F12 A2
Real Madrid P6 W3 D0 L3 F7 A7
AFC Ajax will challenge either Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Manchester City, ParisSaint-Germaine, FC Porto or Real Madrid
Previous meetings
Barcelona P4 W1 D0 L3 F3 A10
Dortmund P4 W2 D0 L2 F4 A5
Juventus P12 W2 D4 L6 F9 A15
Manchester City P2 W1 D1 L0 F5 A3
PSG P2 W0 D1 L1 F2 A4
Porto P6 W1 D1 L4 F2 A6
Real Madrid P12 W4 D1 L7 F10 A24
Manchester United will go up against Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto, Real Madrid or ParisSaint-Germaine
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P11 W3 D4 L4 F15 A20
Bayern P11 W2 D5 L4 F13 A16
Dortmund P6 W3 D1 L2 F13 A5
Porto P8 W3 D3 L2 F14 A11
Real Madrid P11 W2 D4 L5 F17 A22
PSG No previous meeting
Atlético Madrid may face either Bayern München, Juventus, FC Porto, Paris Saint-Germaine or Manchester City
Previous
meetings
Bayern P6 W2 D1 L3 F4 A8
Juventus P7 W2 D1 L4 F7 A10
Porto P8 W3 D3 L2 F8 A9
PSG No previous meeting
Manchester City No previous meeting
AS Roma will square up against either Barcelona, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City,FC Porto or Paris Saint-Germaine
Previous meetings
Barcelona P6 W2 D2 L2 F10 A12
Bayern P6 W1 D0 L5 F5 A17
Dortmund P2 W1 D0 L1 F1 A2
Manchester City P2 W0 D1 L1 F1 A3
Porto P4 W0 D2 L2 F1 A6
PSG No previous meeting
Tottenham Hotspur will be up against Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, FC Porto, Real Madrid orParis Saint-Germaine
Previous meetings
Bayern P4 W1 D1 L2 F4 A6
Dortmund P4 W2 D0 L2 F6 A7
Juventus P2 W0 D1 L1 F3 A4
Porto P2 W1 D1 L0 F3 A1
Real Madrid P6 W1 D2 L3 F4 A8
PSG No previous meeting
Olympique Lyonnais will take on either Barcelona, Bayern München, Juventus, FC Porto, Real Madrid or Borussia Dortmund
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P6 W0 D2 L4 F7 A16
Bayern P8 W2 D2 L4 F9 A11
Juventus P4 W0 D1 L3 F2 A5
Porto P4 W0 D1 L3 F2 A8
Real Madrid P10 W3 D4 L3 F11 A14
Dortmund No previous meeting
Schalke 04 will encounter either Barcelona, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germaine, Real Madrid or Juventus
Previous
meetings
Barcelona P2 W0 D0 L2 F0 A2
Manchester City P3 W1 D0 L2 F2 A7
PSG P1 W1 D0 L0 F3 A1
Real Madrid P4 W1 D0 L3 F6 A11
Juventus No previous meeting
The first leg of these matches will hold next February 12, 13, 19 and 20, while the reverse fixtures come up on March 5, 6, 12 and 13.
The Champions League final will be stage at Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid on Saturday, June 1.
In the Europa League draw for the Round of 32, the seeded teams in former European champions Inter Milan, Benfica, Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt and Napoli.
Other top seeds are: Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Arsenal, Real Betis, Villarreal, Genk, Sevilla, Dynamo Kyiv and Valencia
The unseeded teams are: FC Zürich, Celtic, SK Slavia Prague, Fenerbahçe, Sporting CP, Olympiacos, Rapid Wien, Lazio, Malmö FF, FC Krasnodar, StadeRennais, FC BATE Borisov, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk andFC Viktoria Plzeň
According to the rules, no club will be drawn against a team that played in their group or a side from their own national association.
But any other restrictions will be announced ahead of the draw.
Seeded group winners are away in the first legs on February 14, 2019, while Return matches hold on a week later.
UEFA has decided to postpone its assessment of the multi-club ownership case involving Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Palace until the French club’s relegation has been confirmed, European football’s governing body said on Monday.
The multi-club ownership regulations do not allow clubs under the same ownership compete in the same European competition, and American businessman John Textor holds a stake in both Palace and Lyon.
Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup last season while Lyon reached the competition by finishing sixth in Ligue 1 but have since been relegated to Ligue 2 by French football’s financial watchdog (DNCG).
Lyon are appealing the decision, which came following an audit of the club’s finances, and UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body will now await the outcome of the appeal before making its decision.
UEFA and Lyon reached a settlement agreement over the club’s breach of the financial sustainability requirements, and as part of the settlement, Lyon agreed to their exclusion from European competition should the DNCG confirm their relegation.
League of Ireland club Drogheda United lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this month over their exclusion from the Conference League, after falling foul of the multi-club ownership rules.
-Reuters
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Tottenham Hotspur have sacked manager Ange Postecoglou, the club said on Friday, little more than two weeks after the Australian guided the London club to a first major trophy in 17 years with victory in the Europa League final.
While Postecoglou’s fate has split opinion amongst the fans, the 59-year-old ultimately paid the price for an horrendous Premier League season which saw Tottenham finish 17th.
“The Board has unanimously concluded that it is in the best interests of the Club for a change to take place,” Tottenham said in a statement.
“Following a positive start in the 2023/24 Premier League (PL) season, we recorded 78 points from the last 66 PL games. This culminated in our worst-ever PL finish last season.”
Postecoglou leaves two years to the day after his appointment and 16 days after his side beat Manchester United 1-0 in Bilbao for the club’s first silverware since 2008, a win that also put them in next season’s Champions League.
The former Celtic manager has had to face questions over his future for several months, yet delivered on his claim early last season that he always wins a trophy in his second season in a job
He also took Tottenham to the League Cup semi-final but their league campaign was their worst since 1976-77, the last time the club suffered relegation from the top flight.
Several of the club’s first team have voiced their support for Postecoglou since beating United, but chairman Daniel Levy is now searching for his fifth full-time manager in six years since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019.
“At times there were extenuating circumstances — injuries and then a decision to prioritise our European campaign,” the club said. “Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the Club’s greatest moments, we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph.”
Several managers have been linked to the Tottenham job, including Brentford’s Thomas Frank and Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner.
GOOD START
Postecoglou will walk away with his pride intact and a handsome bonus, but his recent comment to fans at the Europa League victory parade that the third season of a TV series is always better than the second now looks hollow.
It all started so well for Postecoglou. He began the 2023-24 campaign by guiding Tottenham to their best start to a top-flight season since the 1961 title-winning team.
That form soon dipped though and despite finishing fifth in his first campaign the momentum had long since gone.
This season Tottenham earned only 38 points and lost 22 top-flight matches. They managed five points from their last 12 league games and the only win they earned during that run was against a Southampton side who narrowly avoided becoming statistically the worst team ever in the Premier League.
Postecoglou has pointed to a long injury list which denied him the likes of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dejan Kulusevski, Destiny Udogie, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Son Heung-min for significant periods.
But while it has clearly been one of long-serving chairman Levy’s toughest calls, he has concluded that Postecoglou is not the man to lead the club forward.
“We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision,” the club statement said.
“We have a talented, young squad and Ange has given us a great platform to build upon. We should like to express our gratitude to him. We wish him well for the future — he will always be welcome back at our home.”
Many fans reacted to the news of Postecoglou’s sacking with surprise, but England manager Thomas Tuchel said that sometimes even winning a trophy is not enough.
“I feel for every manager and I have huge sympathy for every manager in these moments because I was in the same spot,” the German, who was sacked by Chelsea despite taking them to the Champions League title, said on Friday.
“If the trust is not there anymore then sometimes it’s not enough to win a trophy.”
-Reuters
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UEFA apologised for running out of winners’ medals during the Europa League final trophy ceremony on Wednesday after more Tottenham Hotspur players lined up to receive their prizes.
Spurs captain Son Heung-min and two other players, the last to line up for individual medals, were left empty-handed after their team beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the club’s fourth European title on Wednesday.
Son lifted the trophy without a medal around his neck.
“To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count …” British media quoted European soccer’s governing body as saying on Thursday.
“More team members – including injured players – participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated.
“The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight.”
-Reuters
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