Incredible league endings in various countries going on. Where in Spain and England Barca and ManUtd made it clear that they will become champion, in France Marseille stumbled, making Bordeaux coming on the side. In Belgium yesterday Standard lost points, but today also Anderlecht dropped points leaving both too equal on points and 2 exciting matchdays coming up. ALso in Turkey both top 2 teams lost their matches. In Czechia, Slavia keeps on losing: don't they want the title? In Switzerland Basel lost points and has 5 matches to get back into the race, In BUlgaria, CSKA is only 2p ahead, like Kopenhavn in Denmark, in Israel there is a tight fight, in Poland, Georgia, Azerbajan, Albania, Malta, Montenegro. All with only a few matches to go it is absolutely unclear who will win.
In France PSG missed the opportunity to get in the 3rd (CL-qualifying)spot. Lyon could be missed next season in CL, a pity, but it opens up the door for teams like (AZ &) Juv
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And we are ready for the semi finals this week. Who will get to the final? Barcelona? Or will Hiddink beat the favorit this time? Will Chelsea put up another surprise. And will Arsenal profit from the slipping of Man. Utd or can they just do the necessary like they showed agasint Porto (and Tottenham)
And in UC which Ukrainian will meet which German team. Bremen just kicked HSV out of the DBF Pokal final, can they do the same in the UC? And how far does the domination of Dinamo leads? In the domestic league they do surely, but these are 2 seperate matches...
First steps to the final are set this week
Talking domestically: ManUtd and Inter seem suree, but Barca lost points. Wolfsburg too and a bunch of teams are within 3 points. In France Lyon seem to have lost their title. If OM will not grab it, then Bordeaux is too stil in front of OL. Also interesting battles are going on in Romania and Turkey, Greece is ready for the play offs
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Hello everyone, we got a new champion in Holland: AZ, Congratulations!!
It means they are sure of participating in the CL-GS. Currently it looks like they will be put in pot 3, but the 5 winners from the non-champion play off are just above them and so if any of that 5 will lose - not completely unlikely with opponents as Valncia, Rangers, Besiktas, Sparta Praha and Genoa - AZ moves up to pot 2! Leaving behind them teams like Juve, OM, Celtic.
In Spain Barca and Real are so far ahead, it's amazing. In Italy Inter managed a draw with Juve and will be champion, in England, it promises to be tight, though Manutd have given away the FA Cup final by playing a B-team. Very unprofessional!
In France it seems like we get a new champion and in Germany it's Wolfsburg that keeps their little advantage on a big pack...
I had forgotten the link - I was uploading sheets while I had forgotten you didn't see them. Well they are not completely up to date (yet) and only now start to get interesting:
Sometime ago there use to be a double program in the English league, not this year. Maybe because there is no WC or EC this year. Or maybe because there is CL this week. With English teams playing a major role in it (again). Well, it still remains to be seen how many English teams will play in the semi final, as as well Arsenal as ManUtd are both not there, while even ' the great' ManUtd have the hardest task. And we will get the most interesting semi final with Barcelona-Chelsea (or can Liverpool turn it still around? Has Benitez found a way around Hiddinks trickery?)
We'll see.
In the mean time has Barcelona already qualified for the CL 2009/2010. They can not drop out of the top-3 anymore, so are certain for the GS next year.
Sorry for being late. It's been kind of a mess, and of course there is the CL & UC matches that drew my attention away. As well there as in the domestic leagues we are getting closer to the end. We saw yesterday that ManUtd is in trouble for CL, but they are domestically also in trouble. Liverpool is breathing in their neck. France also seem to get an exciting end. Which will cost OM their concentration on the last UefaCup, for sure. Let see what surprises are still ahead..
Congratulations Olympiakos for their next championship! It means we are getting to the final phase of the championships. In other countries - Malta, Cyprus the play-offs have also started. It will be exciting times to come. Talking about the ' big' countries: ManUtd is slipping, while Liverpool is pushing strong. In Spain Barca is holding on to their advantage. In Italy Inter also looks very solid. But in France and Germany there are a number of title-candidates, within just a few points. Fantastic weeks to come there! in Portugal it looks to be Porto (as usual?) and in Holland it is going to be a new name on top: AZ. They are on the border of pot2 and 3 in CL. HSV and Shakhtar can still pass them, so this might be an interesting route to follow in the UC.
Olympiakos have qualified for CL-Q2 and might meet there APOEL or Anorthosis, or BATE(if Artmedia and Dinamo Zagreb qualify). Plenty of chance still to stumble for some big champions in Q2. But that is all still far
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I have reopened the poll about who will win the CL. The teams that are eliminated I put between brackets. I also added the standing as it was voted for in December.
Not very much happened due to last week European matches, despite the 3 Italian elimination, but this is about the top of the ranking, and that is pretty much clear, and besides it doesn't matter that much if you are first or second in ranking- all those teams are seeded anyway.
The domestic leagues are getting closer to the end, but still a lot is to be decided. Though the teams at the bottom of the ranking can lose their faith in playing in Europe next year.
In Cyprus last regular round has been layed and now the play-off wil start. Other countries are not yet that far.
Looking at the top 20 in team ranking we seem to see these teams return next year in CL. SOfar we are missing Bremen- pretty sure it stays like that, AS Roma-they are close of being back in the top 4 again, PSV - out, they need to hope for a UC spot, and Zenit, who can only hope for a UC spot by winning the UC... This makes AZ (number 20) on the border of
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