An incredible story from the newly formed Europa League. Dinamo Bucharest of Romania had to abandon their 1st leg home tie with Slovan Liberec of the Czech Republic due to fan violence (they were down 0-2 at the time). In soccer to forfeit means a 3-0 defeat. Apparently that was not enough because there was a 2nd leg and incredibly Dinamo Bucharest scored 3 goals on the road to send the match into extra time.
Video of the 3 goals and the end of shootout.
I will now follow them closely as I have a cinderella team to cheer for now in a competition I didn't really care about.
The Draw for the Group Stage of the Europa League goes Friday in Monaco before the Super Cup match.
There will now be 12 groups of 4. Top 2 teams in each group advance and those 24 teams will be joined by the 8 3rd place finishers from the Champions League for a 32-team knockout tournament.
Pot 1
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) (holders)
Werder Bremen (GER)
Villarreal (ESP)
Roma (ITA)
PSV Eindhoven (NED)
Sporting CP (POR)
Hamburg (GER)
Benfica (POR)
Valencia (ESP)
Panathinaikos (GRE)
Ajax (NED)
Steaua Bucharest (ROM)
Pot 2
Fenerbahçe (TUR)
Basel (SWI)
Lille (FRA)
Celtic (SCO)
Everton (ENG)
Club Brugge (BEL)
Heerenveen (NED)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Austria Wien (AUT)
Copenhagen (DEN)
Lazio (ITA)
Pot 3
Hertha BSC (GER)
Sparta Prague (CZE)
Dinamo Bucharest (ROM)
AEK Athens (GRE)
Slavia Prague (CZE)
Levski Sofia (BUL)
Athletic Bilbao (ESP)
Partizan (SRB)
Hapoel Tel Aviv (ISR)
Twente (NED)
Dinamo Zagreb (HRV)
Fulham (ENG)
Pot 4
CSKA Sofia (BUL)
Toulouse (FRA)
CFR Cluj (ROM)
Genoa (ITA)
Rapid Wien (AUT)
Timişoara (ROM)
BATE (BLR)
Nacional (POR)
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Sturm Graz (AUT)
Ventspils (LAT)
Sheriff Tiraspol (MOL)
Any of these teams your favourites?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Well, Ajax would never have to forfeit because of its fans.* (Imagine this accompanied by one of those tongue-sticking-out emoticons or something.) Nice comeback by Dinamo Bucharest, tho.
ReplyDelete*I'm fully expecting somebody to provide a link detailing a forfeited match from 1974 or thereabouts.
IIRC, CSKA are army teams and Dinamo the secret service/local KGB teams. Why was their game abandoned, specifically? It looks like rioting and breaking through a security fence and going onto the pitch. 50K euro fine and at least two Europe matches without a crowd. At least they didn't dive
ReplyDeleteIt will be a long, long time before my favorite team is participating in European cup competitions.
ReplyDeleteGo Seasiders!
Hooray! More teams with nutters for fans!
ReplyDeleteWho needs Europe when you can whup Wigan 4-1!
ReplyDeleteMy "nutters for fans" comment was in response to fan violence, not you Straight Red. No offense intended.
ReplyDeleteI knew what you meant. Violence is a problem everywhere. Maybe defaulting the 1st leg alone isn't enough, they should have had to default the entire tie?
ReplyDelete