A new update on all files. It is starting to get shape, but still high coefficient-teams are on the edge of qualifying or not. Will Chelse, Inter, Lyon, Liverpool, Atletico, Marseille, Schalke make it to CL? THey are all in the top-20 of team ranking and qualifyin or not, or playing the Non-CHampions Qualifiers will turn it upside-down completely.
The countryranking of this year seems to be made. Or can Spain with 5 teams still close the gap with England...My predictionsheet says so! Of course France could still pass Portugal, but with Marseille current form I think it's hardly possible
I can't wait for next year where Spain will start above England. Can England come back? And of course who will become 4th?
Everybody is getting ready for the returns this week in CL& EL 1/8 finals. ANd Friday the draw till the final. We'll know when Real and Barca will meet eachother. On one hand I hope it's the final, as I think these are the 2 best teams this year. On the other hand I hope before, as I don't like a 1-country final.
In EL Spain could make another 1-country final. Bilbao is on the brink of eliminating ManUtd. And who will stop Valencia, whil Atl. Madrid is also still playing. I guess Spain could end up overtaking England this year already again on Europe's top-spot.
More interesting is the fight for 5th. France lost Lyon. This week we will see what Marseiile can do, and what Sporting can bring for surprise. Benfica awaiting th CL draw already. Barca would not be good, but will APOEL be better? I think underestimation is too close then.....
I have updated the predicted country&teamranking'12 after this weeks EL MD6. Shocking to see 3 English teams being eliminated! But that's what EL is all about: surprises. I like it, despite it is because big teams don't take it serious all the time.
Looking at the graph we see a big downfall of Holland. That is because of the draw. PSV was supposed to reach the semi-final of EL, but now drew Valencia in the next round and will already be eliminated.
On the other hand we see a big rise of Belgium. That is not just because they did fantastic, but also because Anderlecht and Standard were of the lower half of the seeded teams, but still qualify for the quarters as they have drawn even lower teams (Anderlecht(9) drew PAOK(17) and Standard (13) drew Brugge(14)). That was at the cost of PSV(3) drawing Valencia(2) and Manchester City(8) drawing Sporting(5)
Lyon- APOEL can be a very interesting fight - looking at
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Finaly an update again. It's a mess, sorry. But I have new updates
I have completed checking all teamnames so e.g. the Croatioan teams have all the correct coefficient (the asame as Bert says it must be :) )
Sumemr leagues have ended, even some of their cups!. In RUssia still half a competition is played to switch to winterseasn starting 12/13. I hope they will not get into too much trouble with the weather.
CL GS is finsihed. With quit some surprises. 2 English/Manchester teams out to EL. Lille out, who last year let the EL go to win the title and play CL. Unfortunately they couldnt keep that domestic level.
Ajax eliminated/Lyon qualified after a shocking 1-7. ANd to me more devastating were the 2 disallowed Ajax-goals. It would have been another match if.....
Strangely enough this week in EL the same kind of stuff can happen: If AZ draws and Austria wins by more than 6 goals, Austria c
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Just before some NT play their most important matches, I found some time to update domestic leagues.
All summer leagues have their champions crowned, congratulations to them all of course. Now you can see what is their fate. Well, with the new EL system there will be a massive 39 EL-Q1 matches played in June, directly followed by 40 EL-Q2 matches. In 1 month a lot of the teams already are out of the competition, while the summer has not even begun. Sorry, I don't like the new system
For now it looks like we will have an interesting CL non champion play off again, with Chelsea, Shakthar, AC Milan, CSKA, Sporting, Olympiakos, Twente, Lille. Of course a lot will still change (except CSKA, they are qualified already)
Sorry for the long time there is no update. This week there were the GS MD4's. Things are getting clearer already, though some groups are still very much open. I have updated the prediction for the team- and countryranking 2012. Cyprus is doing wonderfull. That is even if APOEL will not make it to the CL_KO rounds. We see Portugal in a fight with Italy over te 4th spot. With Porto falling down to EL, they are the highest coefficient team there andso will win it (again) That does help them. France on a distance. Russia getting ahead for 7th, Holland falling a little back, though Porto's visit to EL is one of the reasons for it, as 3 out of the 4 Dutch teams are already at least secured of the next round EL(Only AZ has moved themselves into trouble) Belgium is clear 12th. A challenging for 10th is still far away.
Cyprus is moving in on Switzerland and Austria! They are only 1.051 points behind Switzerland and Austria is just 0.275 ahead of that. This is counting APO
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Just before I go on vacation ( I leave in 6 hours) I updated the CL/EL candidateslist for 12/13. With the National Teams playing, not that much happened last week, but Some changes did happen.
I have updated the EL format to the new qualification system, I don't like the system, I already explained on Bert's forum (1).
Next week I will be gone, so I will miss the first teams that qualify (?) for next round CL or EL. Well I will be following it, but al not sure yet is I can comment on it on Bert's forum. I certainly will not be able to update my predictions for team and country ranking '12. With the new acces list out, I can also start with predicting team- and countryranking'13. Hmm that will too need some work. Nice.