pash

It's not the worst thing that the EL has much better competition than before. I do think our goal should be to win it and not need that slot, though. I.e.,: win the league too. I think we have a pretty deep bench (finally), so we should be able to make it through the first stages without a ton of trouble here. Focus on Europe and the league, but expect a deep run here regardless.

Perfect timing considering he seems to be in form!

It is wild to me that Kedziora played at all today. Like...what, is Michailidis completely out of the team or something?

Game ends 2-0. Honestly, didn't seem a very difficult win. At the moment, it's 1-1 in the Olympiakos vs PAO game. I think I'm hoping that stays the score.

For anyone listening to the commentary in the first half, Sastre took a shot at 93kph...it's almost like that was foreshadowing, because him hitting Schwab in the head just now was friggin' scary. Seems to be fine though. VAR check for a Brandon Thomas goal!

That second one had two questionable actions in its lead-up, but confirmed as a goal by the ref/VAR. Whew. Does anyone else get riled up every time they see Tzavellas? Good lord this guy thinks he's a freaking god, huh?

Yeah even against a toothless Atromitos this is risky. Do we really need to rest that many players? After 2.5 weeks of no action??

Just signed up for that net tv plus site - I can confirm the quality is pretty damn good

NFC Volos? Or the other thirty teams with that name? Though considering what's going on with NFC Volos I guess I should be happy either way!

Ahh so Aris asked nicely to get a nice little advantage right

For sure, and that'll be great. Just have to ask Boto to come back and choose a new GK every few years; very good business!

I believe Poyet had said a few weeks ago that he was caught off guard by the Dutch changing shape early in their first game. Perhaps this is the reaction to that. Seems to be working so far...

Kotarski extended through June of 2028. This is a very, very good move for us. Key player IMO - I can't believe he's only 23.

Koulierakis got a few minutes at the end. No Konstantelias, unsurprisingly. Pelkas with some good attempts (and an assist) today as well.

@PaokCT here is the relevant link: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/f99da4f73212220/original/edbm045h0udbwkqew35a-pdf.pdf And an excerpt from the first page is below. Seems participation in those tournaments provides greater weight, but qualification does not provide a bonus. The second page goes into the formulas - I never thought they'd go so far as to use exponents in these calculations. Guess it makes sense; it actually would make the impact of beating a better team even better than UEFA's version (which just gives a set number of coefficient points for a simple win/draw result). Was this like this before? (Probably)

Penetration.

Agreed, but we're losing an even better season. That 2.125 is gonna hang around our necks like a cannonball when the 8 is gone. Every team making it to the knockouts this season would go a long way towards not letting that matter, tho!

Hmmmm...dare we hope? -edit- and another video I just stumbled upon for anyone who wants to see some on-the-ground sights and sounds:

What was Antonio's buy-out option for? 6 million? If so, we may have just made that much from the Conference league. Or, conversely, we could now buy Meite with cash left over. Puts us in a good position for next year, if either of those guys ends up being must-have players. MORE TO COME, FOLKS!

You're right, that does make it worse. But Tsiggaras and Schwab are at least a proven duo at this point. I don't think Ozdoyev is better than either of them, too. Just means Lucescu needs to leverage Ozdoyev and Meite in the games leading up to that match, just to avoid any chance of injury. Would be just our luck for him to do the opposite and have us down a midfielder.

I don't think we should be concerned at all. Let him get minutes in the league and play another guy there. We'll be just fine! -edit- ALSO - Trapp is their starter This is a big problem for them - Santos has a note saying he's not eligible until 2024, and Simoni is injured. They will need to call up youth players to fill their roster. # Player Date of birth / Age Nat. Market value 1 Kevin Trapp Goalkeeper Jul 8, 1990 (33) €8.50m 40 Kauã Santos Goalkeeper Apr 11, 2003 (20) €400k 33 Jens Grahl Goalkeeper Sep 22, 1988 (35) €200k 41 Simon Simoni Goalkeeper Jul 14, 2004 (19) €200k -edit again- if transfermarkt is right, Grahl has only played twice in the last seven years? Insane if true

I am seeing that on twitter too, but the app I use shows yellow for Meite (and nothing for Trapp). I wonder what happened? I stayed watching as long as I could and didn't see anything strange.

Their entire game seemed to be to lob the ball at that squirrely guy (who was also their goalscorer). We kept them in the game by letting our foot off the gas. TWENTY GOALS IN THE AWAY LEG, LET'S GOOO

Glad I put money on this one. Frankfurt is not scary. We will defeat them in Germany, too. Feels great to be in the driver's seat for once. The other game is 1-1 and seconds to go

Samatta not passing at the end there F***ed us over