European Leagues Thread 2012/2013

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Inter Milan are doing their best to live up to their bottling reputation by dropping their lead down to just 1 point with 1 weekend left. Inter now need to better Roma's result next weekend to guarantee the title. Italian football fans are gearing themselves up for yet more belly laughts at Inter.

Fiorentina win away at 15th place Torino next week and AC Milan go into the UEFA Cup.

Bit of an Inter fan myself, bottling it again!

Should be a great last weekend covered by Ch 5 with the relegation & title battles clashing in 2 matches.

Inter visit 3rd bottom Parma next week, who are managed by their old coach Hector Cuper.

Roma visit 4th bottom Catania, who are managed by Inter legend Walter Zenga.

Roma have to win, a win for Inter guarantees the title. Tough game for Inter, but Roma (without the injured Totti) prob have it tougher at Catania who have a good home record.

[soggy biscuit]

Final weekend in Italy. Juve V Sampdoria today, Juve have nothing to play for but a win for Sampdoria would push AC Milan down to 6th place at least until tomorrow.

Inter & Roma both still playing for top spot with Inter away at annual escape artists Parma and Roma away at Catania who are fighting with Parma over who takes the 3rd relegation place.

AC Milan are at home to UEFA Cup chasing Udinese while Fiorentina play away at 15th placed Torino.

With Totti out until next season Roma will rely on Vucinic up front again. Roberto Mancini has bizzarly this week claimed that Inter always wanted it to go down to the final day, the season has gone just as planned.

Come on Roma, Parma, Fiorentina, Udinese & Sampdoria!

[RoyalChicagoFC]

So that'll be Samp 3-3 Juve, with the latter playing the final half hour with ten men after Sissoko was sent off. Samp sit sixth, and Milan will finish no worse than fifth; Udinese could match Samp on 60 points, but I don't know what the situation is with tiebreakers if it comes to that. According to my match report, Samp were assured of a UEFA Cup placement going in no matter what (edit --this became reality when Roma reached the Coppa Italia final, which made a seventh-place finish in Serie A an automatic UEFA Cup berth; Samp and Udinese are in it next season).

1.Bundesliga hit the wire today; starting at the top: Bayern, long ensconsed as champions, put some punctuation on their restorative campaign as a Luca Toni hat trick spurred them to a 4-1 defeat of Hertha Berlin. In the race for second place and the other automatic berth in the Champions League group stage, third-placed Schalke put the heat on with an early goal away to relegation candidates Nurnberg and came out 0-2 victors, which meant that only a draw or better would have sufficed for Werder Bremen to hold onto second --and a late goal away to Leverkusen made the three points and a second-place finish safely theirs. Schalke will head to the third qualifying round of the Champions League.

Four sides level on 51 points entered the day in pursuit of the two UEFA Cup places automatically handed out to fourth-and fifth-place finishers in the German top flight. Headed into today's play, Hamburg held fifth place and the second strongest goal-difference of the four sides, and they finished emphatically with a 7-0 win over visiting Karlsruhe. Bayer Leverkusen, sitting fourth, suffered the aforementioned 0-1 home defeat at the hands of Werder and needed other results to go their way.

Late-charging Wolfsburg, in sixth before today, were two goals to the good within the first six minutes away to Borussia Dortmund and held on to win 2-4, leapfrogging Leverkusen into a UEFA Cup place and leaving Stuttgart, in seventh going in, in their dust; Stuttgart would stagger their way to a 2-2 home draw with relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld.

Bielefeld had taken the early lead in that one, but Stuttgart scored twice before conceding late; Nurnberg would have beaten the drop on goal-difference and sent Bielefeld down with a home win over Schalke, but it was not to be as the visitors, themselves with plenty to play for, beat them 0-2.

Top
Bayern.......76/+47 CHAMPIONS
Werder......66/+30 def. Leverkusen (A) 0-1 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE
Schalke......64/+23 def. Nurnberg (A) 0-2 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND
Hamburg....54/+21 def. Karlsruhe (H) 7-0 UEFA CUP
Wolfsburg...54/+12 def. Dortmund (A) 2-4 UEFA CUP
----------------------
Stuttgart....52/0 drew with Bielefeld (H) 2-2
L'kusen......51/+17 lost to Werder (H) 0-1


Bottom
Bielefeld....34/-25 drew with Stuttgart (A) 2-2 SAFE
----------------------
Nurnberg....31/-16 lost to Schalke (H) 0-2 DOWN
Rostock.....30/-22 DOWN
Duisburg....29/-19 DOWN

2.Bundesliga finishes up on Sunday, with three sides battling for the last promotion place. French Ligue 1 concludes this evening.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

No shortage of fun whatsoever on the final day in the French top flight, with the goals flying in from everywhere.

At the top, Lyon are champions for the seventh straight time after going two goals up inside the first ten minutes and hanging on for a 1-3 win away to Auxerre. Bordeaux, already ticketed for the Champions League group stage, thus saw their title challenge fall short --and their cause would not have been helped in any event by their own 2-2 draw away to relegation-threatened Lens.

In the battle for third place and a berth in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, Nancy needed only to match results with Marseille (and, if Marseille had drawn, would have skated on goal-difference with a loss by a single goal). As it happened, Nancy took the lead over visiting Rennes on 7' but found themselves a goal behind three minutes into the second half; they were level eight minutes later but conceded a third goal two minutes after that and succumbed 2-3.

Marseille, hosts to relegated Strasbourg, were in the lead after 6 minutes but a goal behind after 19. Two goals very late on in the first half restored their lead, which held until Strasbourg were level on 72' before Djibril Cisse completed his brace as he scored the winner with 12 minutes to go.

So with their 4-3 win, Marseille pipped Nancy to third place and sent the latter into the UEFA Cup; had Marseille not found that winner, Nancy's one-goal defeat still would have been good enough to place Nancy third in front of Marseille on goal-difference (+13 to +12). Lille who needed to win and for Marseille to lose in order to claim fourth place and the UEFA Cup spot, drew 1-all away to Lorient and finished out of the money in fifth.

Top
Lyon...........79/+37 def. Auxerre (A) 1-3 CHAMPIONS
Bordeaux......75/+27 drew with Lens (A) 2-2 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP STAGE
Marseille......62/+13 def. Strasbourg (H) 4-3 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE THIRD QUALIFYING ROUND
Nancy..........60/+13 lost to Rennes (H) 2-3 UEFA CUP
---------------------------
Lille............56/+13 drew with Lorient (A) 1-1

At the other end of the table, PSG spared themselves the drop, scoring first and notching the winner in the final ten minutes on the way to their 1-2 triumph away to Sochaux. Toulouse, a point behind PSG going in and on level points with bottom-three side Lens but with a goal difference two better, were in front of visiting Valenciennes on 5' but conceded before halftime.

They would net the winner with a quarter-hour remaining, and that alone would suffice to keep them up and send Lens down --although, as things happened, Lens drawing 2-2 at home to title-chasing Bordeaux (or even beating them by fewer than three goals) would have done the former no good on this day.

Bottom
PSG...........43/-8 def. Sochaux (A) 1-2 SAFE
Toulouse.....42/-6 def. Valenciennes (H) 2-1 SAFE
---------------------------
Lens...........40/-9 drew with Bordeaux (H) 2-2 DOWN
Strasbourg....DOWN
Metz...........DOWN

From down in Ligue 2, Grenoble will join Le Havre and Nantes in Ligue 1 next season.

[Starfish]

I simply do not want to speak about it. 'Freundschaft' my arse. A Schalke fan asked me to exchange scarfs today ... 'Ill be taking mine into the second division, thank you very much.

I have been 6 years here and I have seen 2 relegations, 1 top-of-the-table-promotion, & 1 Cup victory. I don't think I'm doing that badly. As far as entertainment is concerned anyway.

[soggy biscuit]

Roma currently winning away at Catania

Catania 0-1 Vucinic
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1997426

As it stands at half time in Italy Roma would be Champions, Milan would be in the UEFA Cup and Parma & Catania would go down.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

As it stands at half time in Italy...Parma & Catania would go down.

...because Empoli are beating Livorno, which would haul them from 19th past Parma and into to joint 17th on level points with Catania --and Empoli hold the tiebreaker advantage.

Correct?

[Ginger Ninjas]

As it stands at half time in Italy...Parma & Catania would go down.

...because Empoli are beating Livorno, which would haul them from 19th past Parma and into to joint 17th on level points with Catania --and Empoli hold the tiebreaker advantage.

Correct?

Think that's right.

Cracking goal by Vucinic, Ibrahimovic on to try and save the title for Inter

[Ginger Ninjas]

Ibrahimovic on to try and save the title for Inter

Job done?!

[RoyalChicagoFC]

It does get very confusing --and I'm a head-to-head performance trumps goal-difference kind of person; just wish the powers that be would come up with a hot-sheet with the scenarios mapped out in advance.

Didn't Italy have a relegation playoff within the last few years for sides that finished on level points? I think Reggina were involved, or maybe Brescia, I dunno.

Inter game on here, and they're all over Parma. Of course, there's the small matter of putting the ball across the line. And no sooner do I say that...

[soggy biscuit]

Ibra gets his 2nd and with only 10 minutes left that should sort out the top and Parma's relegation.

Milan in 4th as it stands

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Inter now 2 up with both from supposedly injured sub Ibrahimovic

Fiorentina heading for the CL ahead of Milan

[soggy biscuit]

Ball not even rolling the conditions are so bad at Parma. Would LOLove it if the game was abandoned now!

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Ball not even rolling the conditions are so bad at Parma. Would LOLove it if the game was abandoned now!

LOL that would typical Calcio

[soggy biscuit]

Congratulations Inter (GRAND THEFT SCUDETTO) , Catania & Fiorentina.

AC MiLOLan. I can just picture Ronaldinho on the phone now 'are we too late to cancel the contract?....'

[soggy biscuit]

Livorno deserve their relegation following their antics this season. 6 first team players were banned from todays match after they attacked Simone Padoin of Atalanta a couple of weeks back after a match.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Congratulations Catania

How much d'ya reckon is in that briefcase jetting back to Rome?

Eh, good on 'em. I've got a soft spot for the island clubs.

Spain gets rolling at the top of the hour.

[From Despair To Where?]

Didn't Italy have a relegation playoff within the last few years for sides that finished on level points? I think Reggina were involved, or maybe Brescia, I dunno.

Reggina played Hellas in a relegation play off about 6 years ago in the season catalogued by Tim Parks' "A Season With Verona" (Great book, by the way). There's a playoff when there's more than 2 teams involvedand that season 3 teams were tied on points for the last relagation place. The team with the best head to head record stayed up (Brescia, I think) and the other two played off. Hellas nicked it with a late Martin Laursen goal. Hellas were dead and buried that season but like Fulham this season, won their last 4 games

[papereyes]

Livorno deserve their relegation following their antics this season. 6 first team players were banned from todays match after they attacked Simone Padoin of Atalanta a couple of weeks back after a match.

Bloody communists

[soggy biscuit]

Did you know that in Italy if your club has nothing to play for any more and the team you are playing does then it is seen as unsporting to try as hard as you normally would. Weird tradition but that is why the Livorno players attacked Simone Padoin, his last minute winner was seen as very disrespectful.