If we overcome Inter i think we will win it

bit concerned about chelsea.

but aside from that, if we beat Inter there is no one else i would be worried to play

I feel under Rafa they are very fragile and over 2 legs or even a final we would have no problem beating them.


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in a final one off game, i am 99% sure they would beat us.

if we meet them in this competition i hope it is over 2 legs

strangely Chronic I don't fear Chelsea or any of those teams in a one off. We beat them in the Carling Cup with arguably a weaker team than we have now and they were stronger than they are now.

Over 2 legs teams that (with the run in of the Prem to cope with as well) I would not be so confident of over turning would be Anzhi, Zenit & Chelsea, purely because of the away leg

The Europa League tends to be very unpredictable and throws up a lot of surprises. This year the Russians look handy (Zenit even won it a few years ago, Rubin and Anzhi have already beaten Inter and L'pool this season); Benfica are nearly always competitive in Europe and just beat Bayer Leverkusen home and away; one of Lazio or Stuttgart will still be there, and Lazio have already held you twice this year; Plzen already topped the group Atletico were in before making light work of Napoli...might not be teams to 'fear', but underestimate them at your own peril.
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Only one of the sides I mentioned actually made it through to the semis. Guess that just underlines the unpredictable nature of the cometition.

Commiserations on going out, better luck next time.

As an aside, I think this year's the first time all of the semifinalist are CL dropouts. It might indicate that teams are starting to take the EL more seriously, but it would be far better imo if the quality was there from the start.

Sadly though, I don't see the big clubs/leagues allowing it to happen.

"As an aside, I think this year's the first time all of the semifinalist are CL dropouts. It might indicate that teams are starting to take the EL more seriously"

Or that rewarding CL group stage failure is a joke.
The sooner UEFA revert back to the old three tournaments, the better.

Or that rewarding CL group stage failure is a joke.
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I fully agree, hence the second part of my remark.

The point though is that this being, as far as I'm aware, it's the first time it's happened might indicate that it's starting to be taken more seriously.

Unfortuately, the big teams and leagues have got UEFA by the short and curlies, and I don't think they're prepared to accept fewer CL slots in exchange for a more prestigious 2nd tier tournament. An increase of the rewards for taking part in the EL might help, but they'd need to be very big to spell enough of an incentive for the big leagues/sides to accept.

England used to do ok in terms of success with the Champions/UEFA/CW Cup formats for the decade prior to Heysel. The CL has added a greed aspect to the former tournament, and devalued the competitiveness of the others.

If UEFA are so worried about "wealth distribution" , then pay the minnows a bigger share of the overall pot to compensate for them not getting the revenue of the additional 4 "group" games they lose if we go back to the 2 leg KO format.

This dead thread has been brought back to life... I'm sure Don wishes he hadn't posted this drivel now

We could discuss and agree on a range of potential solutions, but if they all boil down to the big fish receiving less, it's something I don't think they'll allow. All they have to do is play the breakaway league card and the UEFA suits will cráp themselves.

(Also, beside the point, but England did have the advantage of being able to field more non-nationals players than clubs from other countries.)

How was the draw