well that's that, great game I must say, that pissing lucky flick at the end did for us. I must say though Gleeson's goal was a cracker. We need to concentrate on not getting relegated now, but this is only the beginning for AFC, who I think considering our league position and finance played brilliantly, can definitely hold our heads up high. But I guess I won't be bothering this thread for a while again 
Liverpool through in the big one!
Hopefully Spurs can join us in a bit
Ahem, Newcastle are through too. Thank f**k it's over for a bit, we're f**ked.
Ah you were through anyway
I knew that.
It was all good experience for Liverpools kids
And we scraped through.
Now it gets serious, we get all the CL rejects stinking out the tournament.
I hope we don't draw Man City, oh hold on.
Here's the last 32 of the Europa League with the CL third placers at the bottom. I can't deny there are some big teams on the list but they are only there because they haven't played as well in recent years. The rest haven't had a sniff of the knock-out stages of the Champions' League.
Liverpool
Anzhi Makhachkala
Viktoria Plzeň
Atlético Madrid
Fenerbahçe
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Bordeaux
Newcastle United
Steaua București
Stuttgart
Dnipro
Napoli
Genk
Basel
Rubin Kazan
Inter Milan
Lyon
Sparta Prague
Lazio
Tottenham Hotspur
Metalist Kharkiv
Bayer Leverkusen
Hannover 96
Levante
-------
Chelsea
CFR Cluj
Olympiacos
Benfica
Zenit St. Petersburg
BATE Borisov
Dynamo Kyiv
Ajax
If you look at European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup they were all valid competitions. Not everyone could win the league or their domestic cup but if you were second the chances are you'd be a top side too.
If you look at the last 16 in the Champions' League there will be some that go out in the next round who would've had a good chance of winning the Europa League but will have got nowhere near winning the CL. The Europa League includes teams who are just too far down the scale to make it worthwhile which is why I think it's like comparing them with the Premier League with the Championship. They're not on a par.
Paris Saint-Germain
Porto
Schalke 04
Arsenal
Málaga
AC Milan
Borussia Dortmund
Real Madrid
Juventus
Shakhtar Donetsk
Bayern Munich
Valencia
Barcelona
Celtic
Manchester United
Galatasaray
Here are the winners of the three European competitions in the 80/90s:
1984-85 - Juventus / Real Madrid / Everton
1985-86 - Steaua București / Real Madrid / Dynamo Kiev
1986-87 - Porto / Gothenburg / Ajax
1987-88 - PSV Eindhoven / Bayer Levekusen / Mechelen
1988-89 - AC Milan / Napoli / Barcelona
1989-90 - AC Milan / Juventus / Samporia
1990-91 - Red Star Belgrade / Inter Milan / Manchester United
1991-92 - Barcelona / Ajax / Werder Bremen
1992-93 - Marseille / Juventus / Parma
1993-94 - AC Milan / Inter Milan / Arsenal
1994-95 - Ajax / Parma / Real Zaragoza
Typically two clubs were massive in their given years but in the UEFA Cup / Europa League teams like Rangers, Middlesborough and Fulham are now reaching the final. Here's the list of the winners since Liverpool in 2001:
Feyenoord
Porto
Valencia
CSKA Moscow
Sevilla
Zenit Saint Petersburg
Shakhtar Donetsk
Atlético Madrid
Only Porto and Valencia have really done anything in the Champions' League.
Personally I'd go back to the old format, include league stages in each and split the money a bit more evenly but that will never happen so there's no point even suggesting it. To me, it seems that clubs do all they can to get into Europe but if it's the Europa League they can't wait to get knocked out! That never happened in the old days.
Quote: Renegade Carpark @ December 2 2012, 1:34 PM GMTSomething is really rotten at Arsenal at the moment and I can see a full scale revolt by the fans if things don't change soon. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the board is in it for the money only and are milking the fans for all they're worth.
This isn't just about fair weather, glory hunting fans wanting a trophy, it's about a systemic and regular dismantling of the squad to make money from transfers.
Theo Walcott is our top scorer and arguably one of our best players, but if Arsenal flog him in the January transfer window, then I think we're going to see the shareholders force a change of management at the club.
Van Pursestrings wouldn't sign a new contract, Fabregas wanted to play in La Liga, Walcott is troubled by the waking dream that he is Thierry Henry when he is actually Dwain Chambers... Let 'em go. Fans are never happy, but Giroud and Santi Cazorla are quality signings - Poldolski less so (Good player, just doesn't fit in the team). Oxlaide-Chamberlain is coming along nicely.
If you get Demba Ba and sack off Gervinho I can see everything coming together nicely.
QPR better bastard-well win today or one of you will have to die....
As a lifelong Brentford fan with a long memory, I'm always pleased to see QPR suffer.
(See the 1967 abortive QPR takeover of the Bees.)
Michu cracking in with another couple of goals again. Shame they lost although Norwich are doing surprisingly well after a poor start. Stoke too.
Cracking Manc derby today. Action-packed. Pleased United nicked it, just so I didn't have to listen to Fergie wing about the wrongly disallowed Young goal.
Good results for the Merseyside clubs as well.
Any Hammers or Spurs fans on here?.
Sounded a good day. Sadly Radio 5 weren't carrying commentary of the Man Utd game and I wasn't near a Sky TV. Downloading the whole game at present to flick through my own highlights.
A great night's footy 