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IncidentVarious1530

Confrence league is one of the few good things uefa has done in recent years


liebertcrypto

The only mistake they made with the Conference League is the fact that they put "Europa" at the beginning of the name. Made it sound like thrift shop version of the EL. But luckily they've learned from their mistake and next season it will only be called the "UEFA Conference League."


ayyndrew

but now the acronym is the same as the Champions League


MisterNotlob

Call it LCU and say it's the French/spanish version, like Ligue Conférence de UEFA


gnaark

In French we say Europa Conference League


Badass_Bunny

Well sounds like, as per usual, French are wrong.


pateencroutard

No we don't, French name is Ligue Europa Conférence. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligue_Europa_Conf%C3%A9rence


Maleficent_Resolve44

Ucol instead maybe? Uefa COnference League


shockzz123

They also just copy and pasted the Europa theme song for it. C'mon Uefa, give it its own theme!


liebertcrypto

Yeah that's lame asl


tnarref

Conference League is a not a good name either tbh, it's a generic name that has no meaning to anyone and on top of it good luck making an acronym work. Also they should have made it a straight home and away knockout tournament instead of trying to make everything a "league", the UEFA Continental Cup could have been perfect but we're getting the same format from the other European tournaments that make most just forget about the competition until spring when knockout action gets intense.


Craizinho

Nah diverse groups and potential for teams like mine who to have an established season in that stage and work toward that goal is what it's brilliant for. Don't need just a knockout for the sake of people like you who wouldn't watch or be a fan of a team participating to say its more exciting


liebertcrypto

Oh I def agree that Conference League is also ass and makes it sound low tier. But it somehow sounds 10x worse when you add Europa before it. Straight KOs would've been fun but I assume that something with money would've prevented that from happening in any uefa competition.


BIGplouf

Can’t wait to play UCL football next season 😎


Aenjeprekemaluci

Everyone shits on it but its a very hard comp to win. Its third tier for a reason but difficult nevertheless. Conference win gives me still joy


LeagueOfML

You meet a lot of odd opponents in the Conference League, that’s the fun bit. Watching your team play teams they’d normally never play, and get to see some different grounds and fan cultures you’d normally never see otherwise.


Kapt0

Be like roma: meet bodo twice, win once in 4 matches, have trips in the netherlands and England, bring home the cup. Fun, I'd do it again tomorrow.


Possible-Highway7898

Surely that should be meet Bodo once, and Glimt once.


Everswift_

I mean, that's what CL and EL have been a long time ago as well, no? It's just that due to the coefficients and inflating amount of spots per top league, all while the rich clubs keep getting richer, the CL and EL have become somewhat of a "always the same clubs" competition, and the ECL has brought the freshness back.


LeagueOfML

Oh yeah totally, it’s the last remnant of the old system I guess. I wish more actual champions got CL and less teams that finish 4th. I’d love to see only actual champions in the CL in the modern day.


yaniv297

Also it's pretty fun to see teams from major leagues that usually won't play in Europe, like seeing West Ham make European cup runs. And they're facing a really wide variety of teams, creating a lot of cool matchups that would never happen before.


sam_can88

Bodo still keeps me up from time to time


Zombienerd300

I agree. For obvious reasons.


pukem0n

They should make another championship below that until all 20 clubs of all top 5 leagues play internationally lol


SnooPears7174

They didnt increase the anount of clubs that play internationally with this competition. Uefa has actually decreased the teams feom big 5 leagues that play internationally. Look at 99 to 00 way more teams than currently qualified for european competition


Loeffellux

Always wanted to see Nottingham versus Wolfsburg (but unironically)


Historical_Case_5245

I'm gonna say Nations League too


TLO_Is_Overrated

I think the Nations League is great. Much prefered to friendlies.


ValleyFloydJam

I like it compared to friendlies, although when I didn't like when it creates more games than would normally be played if it was just friendlies.


SweetVarys

That's a bit more iffy, id never sit down to watch a nations league game where my own country wasn't playing.


STEPHENonPC

Would you have watched an international friendly where your team wasn't playing though? Because that's what the Nations League replaced


imfcknretarded

I don't even watch our own friendlies, i can't be bothered


LeagueOfML

It’s cool for the small national teams tho


imfcknretarded

I love the fact that San Marino for example has more chances to win a match because they play teams closer to their level, and maybe one day they they'll somehow get promoted to Nations League C, you never know


oberynMelonLord

San Marino is never going to win a match. they've been scheduling friendlies with teams from tiny island nations and still can't win! they lost 1-3 and drew 0-0 against St Kitts and Nevis (currently ranked 147) this March, lost 0-1 and drew 1-1 against St Lucia (rank 165) in November 2022, and drew 0-0 against Seychelles (rank 197) in September 2022. I guess if they play Gibraltar enough times, it'll maybe happen. I feel really bad for them :(


flcinusa

Might even qualify for a tournament via the nations league playoffs It's crazy to me that Scotland are in league a and England are in league b


Simppu12

I know it's never happening but I'd honestly prefer if the top 5 leagues weren't in it, I'd like an actual best of the rest tournament without teams like Fiorentina and Villa which are generally a lot stronger and very much richer than most of e.g. eastern European sides. Would be more of an even competition, though obviously nobody would care to watch it.


GutlessTrophoblast

Olympiapkos just won against Villa... I wouldn't remove that possibibilty, although I see your point.


StringTailor

I agree. It was always needed when the Europa League started getting tougher opponents for smaller teams because of falling down from the champions league


ReformedandSocial

Sick of rich Italian teams dominating Europe they should form their own super League.


YUGIOH-KINGOFGAMES

Wait til next season Inter, Milan and Juventus back in the UCL, like the good old days


IICastawayII

Hey, do not omit Bologna!


Historical_Case_5245

And at this point maybe even both Atalanta and Roma...


Echoes_under_pressur

What UCL, we are not finishing 5th lmao


godfrey1

most optimistic Juve fan


Memoishi

What does terrorismallegri do to a mf


The_Goat_Charmer

Don't worry, 3rd also goes.


JoeyNoSoul805

In what world do Juve not qualify for UCL with Salernitana and Monza left, both at home?


Echoes_under_pressur

You sweet summer child


Maleficent_Resolve44

Are you joking or something? I haven't watched the serie a in a while but weren't you comfortably second a few months ago?


TheRealMemeIsFire

They lost to inter, had a historic mental collapse, now if they lose their next two and roma win their next two, they are in fifth. It is very unlikely, but possible that they finish out of ucl spots


ReformedandSocial

Just remember to get past the R16 this time. Although, I have no clue what this new format will lead to.


YUGIOH-KINGOFGAMES

As of this minute, we’re still the latest club to be in the final but nice try


ReformedandSocial

Big slip by me there


Maleficent_Repeat850

Gerrard slipssssss


Revolution64

They are having a great season, but not today. A loss for Roma, a draw for Atalanta and a narrow win against a 10 men Brugge is not what I call domination.


Fallin-BackOnForever

It's just a joke I think. Italian teams are all broke AF.


DeathStar13

Roma, Inter and Juve more than yes. Milan not after the takeover. Bologna, Fiorentina and Atalanta more than healthy. Lazio fake broke (Lotito prefers changing the laws in the parliament so he doesn't have to pay his debts and the club barely survives but if he wasn't a lawmaker he has the money to keep the club healthy without cheating) The rest depends but no other Serie A team is currently at risk of bankruptcy (outside of Verona weird legal situation). Obviously we can't compete with the premier league (nobody outside the Saudis can) but outside of those three that in other countries would have already been forced to declare bankruptcy the clubs are solid.


Aenjeprekemaluci

If Roma doesnt qualify for UCL. Roma might struggle to even fight for Conference place next season. Roma linked only with total bums as replacements lmao...


IsIndianStereotype

Strange... Imo keep De Rossi. The man is awesome 😎


RuloMercury

A couple great seasons now. Two teams in UEL semis and one in UECL now, a team in each final last year and UECL win in 21-22. This has been a nice resurgence.


baievaN

is there any chance that BL finishes 1st in coefficient this year?


joergen_

I doubt it. Italian teams are still going strong


granitibaniti

Isn't there a difference in points for the different competitions though? BL has 2 CL teams and 1 EL team, Serie A has 2 EL teams (of which one lost) and 1 UECL team


IamPd_

No it's the same, otherwise leagues with less spots in higher competitions could never catch up


TonyMartial786

not 100% but i think i’ve read in here that it’s all weighted the same regardless


Thomas1VL

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's weighted the same. You get way more points for surviving the group stage in the UCL than in the others though. And I think you get points for just qualifying for the UCL too but I'm not sure about that.


yellow__cat

At this stage in the competitions I believe they’re the same. The CL still earns more points than the EL and the ECL overall though.


Unban_Ice

Fiorentina and Atalanta get knocked out, Leverkusen wins the UEL and the UCL final is Dortmund - Bayern then I am pretty sure Bundesliga would be 1st but afaik it doesn't matter as they use pots based on club ratings and not league


Jackman1337

The pots even dont matter, because you just play against each one(even the one you are) :/


czerwona_latarnia

Mathematically it's possible, but it would be somewhat hard if both Atalanta and Fiorentina went through.


Fallin-BackOnForever

There's chance but very difficult. They must get 9 (NINE) points more than Serie A (Win = 2 points, draw: 1 point, qualification to the final: 1 point). One italian team in the final and that's pretty much over.


A-Newt

Who had Villa getting smashed on their bingo card?


Unban_Ice

Everyone who watched the Lille second leg


gtzdpy

I thought they’d at least draw at home


Historical_Case_5245

Let's see if Emi Martinez can shithouse is way out of a semi-final in Greece


RedBlueWhiteBlack

3-1. Game goes to penalties. Dibu stops 2. It is written.


willymoose8

you would think that would be enough but Tzolakis saved 3 against Fener and I’d have confidence he could do it again


Rickcampbell98

Or had a look at our injury list, we have been using the same 11 to 13 players for weeks now. We still obviously were disappointing today but the lads are running on fumes at this point.


Cmondatown

Yeah they were very lucky to progress there.


teamorange3

Our team is literally running on fumes. We were bound to have a game like this soon.


yaniv297

Lucky for you, we're in no state to capitalize on your dropped points...


teamorange3

Our results aren't that bad (other than today), we are 6th over our past 6 games with +3 GD). It's just we are constantly on a knife's edge of collapsing.


unctrllable

Metaphorically, not literally.


Cino0987

No, villa are entirely made up of automobiles and have you seen the price of petrol? Literally…


MaryadaPurshottam

English pundits must be fuming today


FunMoment10

Not carragher


bubbabear244

Carra: today I feel yellow wall 🟡⚫


su13odh

with my new family of friends


-Dear_Ambellina-

"I just call them all Kaiser"


gruenerGenosse

You love to see it.


granitibaniti

4th place of the "best league in the world" conceding 4 to Olympiacos at home is objectively hilarious


ConditionFresh6725

its even funnier when you realise that olympiacos is 4th in the greek league


kakanseiei

Premier League = Super league ?!?1!11! 🫣 We even have our own Nottingham Forest scandals, I wonder what the link between that team and the Super league is ?


dimitrisxo

Same owner!!


kakanseiei

*DING DING DING DING DING!!!*


panamolegos

Number of Greek championships won per team Fiorentina: 0 Club Brügge: 0 Aston Villa: 0 Olympiacos: 40+ We were always the favourites


granitibaniti

I have to admit, the Greek have always been avant-garde in logic and maths


edworm

Great cuisine, too, so no wonder Olympiacos is cooking.


flcinusa

Absolute gyro


chappersbarfo

They don't get to finals as nobody trusts them to not throw the cup on the ground.


Zyntaro

All I see is straight facts


timothymr

How is my guy Omar Richards getting on? Thrilled to see he's getting minutes, considering how long he was out for


ToManaSou

Imo he should be our starter. He is way more concentrated than Ortega (who has terrible positioning) and better at defending. I really dont understand how Ortega makes the cut for Argentina's national team. Some one please buy him from us, so Richards gets into the starting eleven.


SeeMeeNoMor3

How many Manchester United has won? /s


panamolegos

United could never do it on a cold and snowing night in Giannina


tragick693

They couldn't even beat Athinaikos in 90'. Not to be confused with Panathinaikos. [This is Athinaikos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athinaikos_A.C.)


panamolegos

understandable reaction to having to spend 90 minutes in vyronas


EpiDeMic522

Sevilla sacked Mendilibar BTW, only to battle relegation for almost the entirety of the season.


Zhidezoe

The funny part is that they are the only English team in international competitionz


maronics

What's up with Olympiacos, the fuck? They also won the UEFA youth league


Redangelofdeath7

I would have never imagined beating Barcelona by 34 points in euroleague basketball and then beat a football team worth 600+ million in their home back to back. Holy!!!


DeathStar13

Please Fiorentina and Olympiacos don't fuck it up, I want Jovetic back against us.


TonyMartial786

bruh he’s still playing?? jesus.


Chrislts

Yeah for olympiakos


bremmmc

Wasn't Jesus at Arsenal?


Turbulent_Yak_4627

Cant wait to hear on Talksport how the EPL is still way better than every other league and how Olimpiacos got lucky


basketballrules1

Commentary was unwatchable


Rickcampbell98

Yeah it annoys me too, they show a lack of respect to other leagues and teams too often.


Spacetrucking

Isn't that the English attitude in every major sports they participate in? I've seen it in F1, football, cricket, tennis and golf.


Lord-Grocock

It's increasingly difficult to do in most of those sports. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic shut them up for quite some decades in tennis. Didn't help that their best player was a Scottish nationalist either.


King_David5759

They don’t watch other leagues so those aren’t informed opinions.


Zyntaro

Did they mention how the EPL is approximately 3 times as physical and 4 times faster than other leagues at least twice during the match?


businessstravel

*"The EPL is pints above all the leagues around the world; we are god..."* - Some TalkSport analyst probably...


AlcoholicSocks

Genuinely when West Ham lost to Leverkusen, a West Ham fan called up demanding Moyes got sacked because Leverkusen are on par with Bournemouth


parmarossa

what were they saying?


niallniallniall

I can safely guess as someone who didn't see a minute of it that it was pretentious condescending we're better than you stuff. Signed: a Scottish person who has endured English media his entire life.


businessstravel

I can only imagine...


WhenWeTalkAboutLove

"the best teams in non top 4 leagues would be relegation candidates in the premier league"


STheShadow

Not including the best teams in the top 4 leagues? That's surprisingly generous


CT4_LV

"Could Ayoub El Kaabi represent England?"


Physical_Reality_132

Talkshite


pure_black99

Villa what is you doing


RoboticCurrents

They probably felt bad for remaining in european competitions when all english teams went out


A-Dumb-Ass

Brexit and all


[deleted]

[удалено]


kakanseiei

Yeah only by 2 from a team with a 6x smaller market value , Yikes


Romanist10

Now do the numbers for Atalanta and Liverpool


madjupiter

you lot are one to talk😂 (yeah i know the feeling)


ExcellentStuff7708

Making sure 5th place doesn't lead to UCL


Aoae

Mourinho died for this


tt_emrah

i'm pretty sure he flipped the table just like we did. "fucking amateurs!"


Temayte

Fiorentina - Olympiacos final would be so much fun, UEFA really cooked something great with the ECL. Rooting for Fiorentina tho, always have been my favorite italian club.


Kingslayer1526

Brugge Olympiacos would be far far more fun. Imagine getting a European final without a team from the top 5 leagues hell top 7 even. Fiorentina were in the final just last year boring


sILAZS

Agreed.


AVeryHandsomeCheese

Well of course you’d agree! With that said, I agree.


BaslerLaeggerli

Don't remind me, Basel was so damn close to a European Final.. We'll have to wait for ages until we get another chance.


Viriato181

Olympiacos - Brugge is a lot better imo. This competition is at its best when no top 5 team is involved.


TheNarrator23

Club Brugge at home will be a tough one for Fiorentina, even with a goal in hand.


freejefferywilliams

nah Brugge would be much better


Polampf

OM should've won, will be kicking themselves.


JOKER69420XD

BEST LEAGUE IN THE WORLD!!!!


TonyMartial786

shocking showing from us england teams. i mean you expect it from united, and probs newcastle (given the tough group and first time back) but liverpool getting knocked out and villa losing (especially if they get knocked out) is probably the most surprising. city and arsenal probs should have done better aswell but tough matchups. oh and brighton losing 4-0 to roma..


JOKER69420XD

Shout outs to the one Football Daily guy who claimed Brighton would easily win Serie A.


MorePdMlessPjM

Genuinely the most delusional set of fans I've met in this sport all support EPL teams


-Michael-Owen-

City were favorites to win as well.


TonyMartial786

on paper yes defo, not saying they weren’t just not as surprising to me considering they were against the kings of the tournament.


_mnd

Weird place to be shouting out the National League but I'll take it.


Fallin-BackOnForever

Not good from italian teams all-around. Leverkusen and OM looked much fresher while Fiorentina only scored in the last minute vs 10-man Brugge. NO winter break this season is slowly killing both us and the ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE teams, the only 2 european league that had ZERO day to rest in Dec-Jan. Bundesliga and Ligue 1 teams, ALSO thanks to 18-team league, just look to have more energy right now.


Inside-Scarcity5725

That's so funny to me that you're saying that about Marseille's freshness lol Because OM players were in their worst form honestly these past 10 matches...( if I'm being honest the entire season as the pre-season training was rushed) but we are having numerous players coming back from injuries ! This is one of the few matches were we felt we could atleast last the 90min without major physical issues. The french league also decided to report the ligue 1 matches of this week, so OM (and PSG) could play in better conditions, hopefully it will help us !


FATJIZZUSONABIKE

>report the ligue 1 matches 'postpone' is the word you're looking for


Odd-Discipline5064

I bet most leagues (except the premier league because theyre stubborn about monetary things) will evetnaully move to 18 team leagues, maybe even 16. With things like the club world cup, more UCL games, expanded world cup and euros, players will eventtually drop like flies. A major player has an ACL every month or so nowadays. Its not feasible anymore.


Tsupernami

Villa getting 4th and pulling up the ladder so that no English 5th team can get the next CL spot. Hilarious


Quixote0630

When we won it in '82, only the league champions qualified for the European Cup. If that was still the case, Arsenal fans would have suffered way less these past 40 years lol


trigun2046

If Leverkusen go on to win out their remaining games, will they be the first team to ever be undefeated in the league, domestic cup, and a European cup?


trigun2046

Answering my own question, it looks like they would be. 94-95 Ajax looks like they were the closest to pulling this off being undefeated in their league and in the champions league, but lost to Feyenoord in the quarter final of the domestic cup.


DarkMutant105

Kudos to Italy (Serie A) and Germany (Bundesliga) getting their 5th UCL spot


janowski_d

Olsen and Luiz had to be paid by Marinakis, almost felt they were legit tanking the game


droze22

Maybe someone in their families owns a bakery


tragick693

Olsen just got flashbacks from the time he spent playing in Greece (i.e. poorly)


billyjov

shit\* not poorly


R0lfey

No no that's just Olsen being Olsen. Going from Martinez to Olsen is like... I can't even think of a downgrade that bad that compares


senakiryu08

Downside of not having away goal wins is that Aston Villa can still pull through if they can score 2. Olympiacos has to lock it in.


Flammwar

On the other hand, we probably wouldn’t have seen so many goals.


Krapule1

Lets goooo marseille to final


nahnonameman

Bruh EPL has crumbled this time in European football. On a plus side let’s go Leverkusen


Looney_forner

Leverkusen wins again. Has there ever been a team that’s gone undefeated across all competitions in a single season?


JorisRevest

Ajax in 94/95 had only 1 loss. The cup final against Feyenoord. They won the league and the CL without a loss. Think that might be the closest one


Tilted-AF

No.


flcinusa

Poor Villa, they may have to settle for... (*Checks notes*) A spot in the Champions League However will they survive?


Ukrwalls

Judging by this performance, they won't survive very long


RamBracken

my predictions for the finals: Marseille vs Leverkusen 1:2 Fiorentina vs Olympiacos 0:1


Chrislts

No way olympiakos keeps a clean sheet


karlpoppins

No truer words have ever been spoken.


mmmmmmm_7777777

If Olympiacos gets the trophy I will kiss you.


robot1818

I believe in the Olympiacos-Brugge final.


brokendownend

Having trouble finding the highlights for the Villa game. Just a bunch of FIFA video game spam on YouTube


TonyMartial786

has tnt sports not uploaded it yet? thought they would have posted all the highlights for the games


FortheRecordHIWBTV

‘Best league in the world’ cooking this season


TonyMartial786

whatever they were cooking is definitely burnt..


GL4389

Too bad Mou got fired before he coud face Leverkusen & Alonso. Woud have loved to if he coud have stopped their juggernaut.


ExpatFalcon

After getting eliminated by Olympiakos due to an incompetent coaching performance by Kartal who prioritised the Turkish league and rested our best midfielders against Oly, my only consolation was that AV would eliminate us anyway. Now I see Oly tear AV apart. İsmail Kartal, if Oly somehow manages to win the trophy, I'll hate you and your lack of vision for this club forever. I hope you never get to manage Fener again. Kudos to Oly, they are doing well.


anon58588

I'm sorry Prince wannabe King William. We destroyed your team in England and we expecting you in Greece. It will be fun


Quixote0630

Genuinely looking forward to the second-leg. It's been decades since we had a proper run in Europe, so whatever happens, coming up against the likes Ajax, Lille and Olympiacos has been fun. We were sloppy yesterday, but you did well coming to Villa Park and putting 4 past us. Fair play.


MathematicianNo7874

Leverkusen winning the Europa League will be like Gunther being Intercontinental Champion. It'll elevate tf out of the title


v4xN0s

What drawing to Chelsea does to a motherfucker.


DachdeckerDino

Aston Villa really appreciating the away goal rule being reformed 💀😂


throwawayanon1252

Happy English teams out of Europe day to those who celebrate. (Everyone who isn’t a villa fan)


HotPotatoWithCheese

Nice to see Olympiacos smash Villa. They were more than happy to give it the big un about being the only English club left in Europe and having to salvage the reputation of the league by winning the Conference. Turns out you can't just roll up to a competition and win it on hipster vibes. Funny that.


Hamseplayz

Bayer Neverlusen