What a thriling end it was in Manchester. Unbelievable come back from City. United knows that it's possible, Bayern also. Furthermore it was Newcastle who missed teh CL in the end, the known teams Arsenal and Tottenham managed to win and wualify. Also Malaga held on to theri CL spot, though Atletico was rushing in, but the season was too short for them. I guess they can be happy with the EL-trophy!. In Italy Udinese won and so didn't make it really interesting. Lazio made Inter not even thinking about CL. Spartak took the second spot in Moskou.
In Greece AEK's loss and Panathinaikos win, makes the score almost square for all 4 teams now with just 2 matches to go.... Still 10 CL-spots to be forgiven
An update just before the weekend really explodes with some last weekend football. Some leagues play still on, some are already finished, but these are the last weeks.
After this weekend some more blue will be shown on the CL participant list, as it starting to be more and more complete. EL ismore white, but there are also still some cupfinals to be played.
And again some mor blue spots are filled. The Dutch league has ended, The Polish league too. In Belgium Anderlecht has become champion. A lot happening
The Fair play spot have been awarded to Norway, Finland and Holland. It's all happening , it;s all changing every time you look. I'll try to keep up!
As there were a lot of midweek matches I decided to give an update with all latest scores included.
Where I was exciting about the English fight for CL -spots, it seems now Chelsea's best(only?) chance is to win the CL. In Italy Inter has lost and will receive Milan this weekend, who is fighting for the title. Will Inter miss out completely on European football, though I guess they won't be interested in EL... In France Lyon will miss CL very probable, despite their pot-1 coefficient. In Portugal Braga keeps losing points, will the end of the season be close enough? In Russia CSKA has taken a little lead for econd spot, but the way things go in the play-offs nothing is sure, with 2 matches to go. In Holland Feyenoord won again and so still leads the fight for CL-Q4(Ajax take the CL-GS spot)with 1 match to go. PSV is behind them on 1 point and Heerenveen on 3 points. And this weekend is: Heerenveen- Feyenoord. Because PSV is cupwinner and Hercles cup-loser an
... Read more »
OK, I have taken the teams as if all leagues had ended today and put them in the acceslist and let the matches start. Basic is that all rounds are using seeding system with the higher coefficient being seeded. The mathc is won by the home team if that's the higher coefficient team and otherwise it ens up in a draw.
Result is the Predicted Countryranking'13 We see there an extreme close fight for first spot, a clear top-9, a clear top-12, a fight for 15th spot that is won by Switzerland over Denmark because of an(other) extreme bad year for Denmark.
The last column is for Ryan, it's meant to be the maximum a country can get if it could choose their best teams on the best spots to collect as many points as possible(all other country allocations have stayed the same).
@Ryan, I was working on the maximum-points-per country. And it is possible, but you can't take it logical. I mean you have to try count
... Read more »
We are reaching the endstage of this season. And we are heading for an interesting end of the season. INcredible how many CL (and EL) spots are still open and how close the competition is.
In England we have Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle and Chelsea all within 2 points with 3 matches to go. in Spain Valencia and Malaga seem to just fight for who is in GS and who in the qualifying round, but Levante is just 3 points behind and also here are just 3 matches to go. In Germany all is clear, in Italy Napoli, Udinese, Inter and Lazio all have the same number of points with 3 matches to go. Just 1 will be allowed to go into the qualification rounds of CL In France Lyaon and Rennes seem to be too far behind to get into the CL spots. In Portugal Braga begins to choke and let Sporting get closer. In Russia the play off is 3 matches before the end, but it's impossible to say who will take the spot beside Zenit: DInamo, CSKA, Spartak, Anzi(can Hiddink pull out another rabbit
... Read more »
We're getting closer to the end. The league overview sheet start to show more and more white and blue stripes in stead of the brown, and the CL& end EL particpants also starts to get more blue. In the mean time we get this week the returns for the semifinals in CL and EL. All 4 are sill not (completely) decided. Bayern deserved the win and Real has to really show what they can to win. I rdon't think it will be a problem. In the other Chelsea won first elg 1-0 and Barcelona now really has to start scoring. They had quite some chances last week, but how hard will the loss vs. Real be felt. Chelsea will try to defend as good as they can to pull the 0-0 over the line, but with a little moreaccuratesse Barca will win 2-0 ....
In EL Valencia made the game interesting with their second in the 4-2 loss. 2-0 is a possibility. But can they keep Madrid from scoring. IN the other half Sporting fought brave and good for their 2-1 win. Now what can Bibao do to over come thi
... Read more »
And latest domestic league results are in. Who can tell what will happen. In England 2 Manchesters ahead(Utd win?), but then 4 teams for the other 2 CL and 2 EL spots. Also in Spain you have the big 2 and then....(Real for the title, Barca for CL?)? In Germany Bayern wont make it. Dortmund will be the new champion. In Italy Juventus now has the momentum, In France I don't know Further we have Porto, Zenit and Ajax going for the title but Shakthar or Dynamo?
And all quarterfinals are played. We have 5 Spanish teams left. What an overpowering. Too much in my opinion, but apparently there is no team who can stop them.
In the mean time Spanish domestic is also getting more and more interesting. Barcelona is closing in on Real. With a Classico still coming up, Barca could be within 1 point only! Wow. And for the other CL spots, hard fighting is going on. Malaga has jst pushed Valencia back to 4th. I wonder how much effort Valencia will still put in the EL now. A pity.
In other leagues its also interesting. ManUtd seem to have shaken City off. Juve has passed Milan, Wednesday is Dortmund-Munchen, IN France PSG and Montpellier are on the same level on top. Porto has just put Brag back on its pace, and Benfica lost from SPorting, leaving also a little gap to Porto. In Russia Zenit is clear, but behind them all is still possible, In Holland 6 teams are within 5 point, with 6 more matches to play, and in Ukraine Shaktar
... Read more »