pash

Agreed on Konstantelias. Great that he's getting into these positions (the commentator on the service I was using called him Zidane-like at one point, hahaha) - but that can only take you so far when you don't score on those chances. I guess Frankfurt losing their goalie for a game meant little, considering their result. Back in Lucescu's first stint with the club, one of the best things about the team is that they had a "never say die" attitude. When everyone is firing on all cylinders, it's truly a sight to behold. Btw: Samatta probably not good enough. I can see us moving on without him next year.

Oooh that makes sense. Especially considering when I glanced through the games I couldn't identify any Romanian teams... But yes I think we'd basically need to have, what, three or four teams make it into the knockouts? Very tall order.

Rough day in Europe today, but at least we gained a few vs the #10 league (thanks again my sweet PAOK, luv u baby). I can't believe Romania still has all teams in the comps. I saw a pair of Serbian teams got slammed today, which is also great for us. 10 Scotland 9.750 8.500 7.900 3.500 3.000 32.650 3/ 5 11 Austria 5.800 6.700 10.400 4.900 3.200 31.000 3/ 5 12 Switzerland 6.400 5.125 7.750 8.500 3.000 30.775 3/ 5 13 Czech Republic 2.500 6.600 6.700 6.750 5.750 28.300 3/ 4 14 Denmark 5.125 4.125 7.800 5.900 5.250 28.200 2/ 4 15 Norway 3.750 6.500 7.625 5.750 4.250 27.875 2/ 4 16 Serbia 6.000 5.500 9.500 5.375 1.400 27.775 3/ 5 17 Ukraine 7.200 6.800 4.200 5.700 2.700 26.600 2/ 5 18 Israel 2.375 7.000 6.750 6.250 4.000 26.375 2/ 4 19 Greece 4.900 5.100 8.000 2.125 6.000 26.125 4/ 5 20 Poland 2.125 4.000 4.625 7.750 5.125 23.625 2/ 4 21 Croatia 4.375 5.900 6.000 3.375 3.375 23.025 1/ 4 22 Cyprus 5.125 4.000 4.125 5.100 3.500 21.850 1/ 4 23 Sweden 5.750 2.500 5.125 6.250 1.875 21.500 1/ 4 24 Romania 5.875 3.750 2.250 6.250 3.250 21.375 4 25 Hungary 4.500 4.250 2.750 5.875 3.250 20.625 1/ 4

Think he heard you, which is why he gave it to our newest starlet for the 2-1?

HELL YEAH BROTHERRRR

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.