European Leagues Thread 2012/2013

[soggy biscuit]

Didn't see it myself but Gianluigi Buffon's performance against Livorno is being hailed as one of the best goalkeeping displays you are ever likely to see. After the match the Livorno president said 'He's quite simply the best goalkeeper ever. Players like him and like Maradona are one-offs, I've never seen anyone similar'

Bordeaux Coach Laurent Blanc said last week after the 1-1 Champions League draw 'Buffon stopped us with some stunning saves, he is back to his best, he is the best in the world'

The Italian press have been claiming that Buffon is by far the most in form player in the world.

Respected Italian football analyst Massimo Mauro said 'there is no debate, Gigi Buffon is the best goalkeeper of all time'

[cmonurz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI8-xZbNdRk

Highlights here. Four saves of note.

Marchisio's finish for the second goal is delightful.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Didn't see it myself but Gianluigi Buffon's performance against Livorno is being hailed as one of the best goalkeeping displays you are ever likely to see. After the match the Livorno president said 'He's quite simply the best goalkeeper ever. Players like him and like Maradona are one-offs, I've never seen anyone similar'

Bordeaux Coach Laurent Blanc said last week after the 1-1 Champions League draw 'Buffon stopped us with some stunning saves, he is back to his best, he is the best in the world'

The Italian press have been claiming that Buffon is by far the most in form player in the world.

Respected Italian football analyst Massimo Mauro said 'there is no debate, Gigi Buffon is the best goalkeeper of all time'

I watched this Sunday morning. I was having my beeriod and fell asleep at HT but he made some great stops in the 1st half. One of the best ever displays seems a bit OTT though. Typical Italian president trying to cover his own arse if you ask me. Straight out the Galliani text book.

[handbags_harris]

Feyenoord lost to PSV at the weekend, their first defeat of the season, and drop down to 4th in the Eredivisie. PSV stay top on goal difference as a result of their victory, all the goals coming in the first half. FC Twente move up to 2nd after a 2-0 win at Heerenveen, with Ajax also moving above the Rotterdammers to 3rd, a point behind the leaders, as a result of their 4-0 away win at VVV Venlo. Utrecht move up to 5th above AZ Alkmaar and ADO den Haag courtesy of their 1-0 win in the Hague, AZ Alkmaar losing 1-0 at home to NEC Nijmegen.

At the bottom RKC Waalwijk lose their 7th game in a row, a 3-1 reverse at Vitesse, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the table and still to get off the mark. Heerenveen drop to 17th as a result of their defeat at home to FC Twente, also Groningen also drop to 16th with 5 points, a point above Heerenveen, as a result of a 2-1 defeat at Willem II, who coincidentally move above Groningen to 15th as a result of the win.

Results for matchday 7:

Willem II 2-1 NEC Nijmegen
Heracles 1-1 Sparta
Roda JC 2-0 NAC Breda
Vitesse 3-1 RKC Waalwijk
AZ Alkmaar 0-1 NEC Nijmegen
ADO den Haag 0-1 Utrecht
Heerenveen 0-2 FC Twente
Feyenoord 1-3 PSV
VVV Venlo 0-4 Ajax

[prostak]

Nice roundup, handbags. How are Ajax looking tactically? I heard Jol's committed near-sacrilege by switching away from the Cruijff and Michels 4-3-3; presumably those players have grown up with that formation so has there been a rough bedding-in period? Interesting to see AZ doing so poorly, too.

[prostak]

May as well round up the Bundesliga, as nobody else wants to...
Biggest result of the weekend is HSV strengthening their early title credentials by fairly comfortably seeing off Bayern 1-0 at home, leaving van Gaal's team in 6th and already 6 points off pace. Second-place Leverkusen earned the same result against a very poor Koln - Podolski has not yet manage to turn his feted homecoming into success on the field.
Elsewhere, Schalke are doing a decent job of setting up their inevitable collapse, winning the Ruhr derby yesterday to stay 3rd.
Today, Hertha are in all sorts of a mess as the dull-but-effective defensive style they employed last year continues to fall to pieces at Hoffenheim. The villagers are just now lazily finishing off a 5-1 massacre (largely thanks to Vedad Ibisevic's resumption of the excellent form he showed last year before the unfortunate injury that so badly affected TSG's springtime form) which, if anything, flatters Berlin. Bearing in mind they had a genuine chance of winning the league up until the final day of last season, Hertha now lie bottom of the league with one win (at home to Hannover on the opening day) and have lost 6 in a row. The coach looks devastated.

Down in the 2., Pauli dropped out of the promotion spots by losing 1-0 at Arminia, though the signs remain promising for the rest of the season!

Hoffenheim 5 - 1 Hertha Berlin
Freiburg 3 – 0 Borussia Moenchengladbach
Hamburg 1 – 0 Bayern Munich
VfL Wolfsburg 4 – 2 Hannover
Borussia Dortmund 0 – 1 Schalke
Werder Bremen 3 – 0 Mainz 05
1.FC Koln 0 – 1 Bayer Leverkusen
Eintracht Frankfurt 0 – 3 Stuttgart
Nurnberg 0 – 1 Bochum

[bobbybottler]

Nice roundup, handbags. How are Ajax looking tactically? I heard Jol's committed near-sacrilege by switching away from the Cruijff and Michels 4-3-3; presumably those players have grown up with that formation so has there been a rough bedding-in period? Interesting to see AZ doing so poorly, too.

Ajax looked OK on TV today but they weren't up against much.

Another away win for Feijenoord today, I believe that they now have more away wins than they managed in the whole of last season. Another defeat for Alkmaar, serves them right for appointing the Dutch managerial equivalent of Brian Robson. At least I've learnt not to back them now.

[Starfish]

1.FCN slip into the relegation zone in Germany. Lost a dire game 0-1 at home to Bochum on Friday. I still think they'll (we'll) stay up but that was a very disappointing week after losing in the Cup on Tuesday. Bayern losing to Hamburg means they're now 6 behind the top 2, which is nice. Dortmund looking bad, Berlin looking abject, an interesting season so far.

[soggy biscuit]

Roma announce plans to build a 60,000 seater stadium of their own at a cost of €300M.

Work will start in early 2010 and is expected to be completed in time for the 2014/15 season

[Starfish]

May as well round up the Bundesliga, as nobody else wants to...

Nurnberg 0 – 1 Bochum

That explains my reluctance. I am going to see Greuther Fürth against Düsseldorf on Saturday - maybe I will start doing a BL2 round-up, just to get back into the good books.

[prostak]

May as well round up the Bundesliga, as nobody else wants to...

Nurnberg 0 – 1 Bochum

That explains my reluctance. I am going to see Greuther Fürth against Düsseldorf on Saturday - maybe I will start doing a BL2 round-up, just to get back into the good books.

Nice one. Please do - even if nobody else reads it, I will.

[handbags_harris]

Nice roundup, handbags. How are Ajax looking tactically? I heard Jol's committed near-sacrilege by switching away from the Cruijff and Michels 4-3-3; presumably those players have grown up with that formation so has there been a rough bedding-in period? Interesting to see AZ doing so poorly, too.

Ajax looked OK on TV today but they weren't up against much.

Another away win for Feijenoord today, I believe that they now have more away wins than they managed in the whole of last season. Another defeat for Alkmaar, serves them right for appointing the Dutch managerial equivalent of Brian Robson. At least I've learnt not to back them now.

Cheers prostak. I can't really speak for Ajax to be honest, I haven't followed them other than to see how they stack up against Feyenoord. Feyenoord is my adopted Dutch club. Pretty good summing up of AZ there bobby, and a nice use of the old spelling for Feyenoord . AZ had Louis van Gaal as manager last season, and now have Ronald Koeman this year. Despite winning the Eredivisie three times previously, his career appears to be going downhill as a manager as he has had unsuccessful stints as manager of Valencia and Benfica. His last two Eredivisie's have been laboured attempts at Ajax and PSV, the latter being only won on the final day after being something like 20 points clear at the turn of the year.

Anyway, this week's results:

PSV 3-1 Willem II
FC Twente 2-1 VVV-Venlo
FC Utrecht 1-0 AZ
RKC Waalwijk 4-1 Roda JC
Ajax 3-0 ADO Den Haag
FC Groningen 1-0 Vitesse
Sparta 0-2 Heerenveen
NEC 0-2 Heracles
NAC Breda 0-2 Feyenoord

It's as you were at the top of the table, PSV top on 20 points with FC Twente 2nd on goal difference. Ajax sit 3rd a point behind on 19, and Feyenoord 4th a further 2 behind on 17. FC Utrecht sit 5th on 16 points and are now 5 points clear of AZ in 6th.

At the bottom, RKC Waalwijk gained their first points of the season with their emphatic victory against Roda JC. Up next for RKC is a trip to de Kuip however, so their joy will probably be somewhat short lived! Willem II drop to 17th as a result of their defeat at PSV, Heerenveen moving to 16th after their win at Sparta. Roda JC drop to 15th after their embarrassing hammering at RKC Waalwijk, and Sparta also drop to 16th following their defeat at home to Heerenveen. FC Groningen are the biggest movers, climbing four places to 13th after their win over Vitesse. VVV-Venlo and Vitesse sit just above Groningen in 12th and 11th respectively on goal difference. In all, 11th thru' 15th all sit on 8 points, 16th on 7, 17th on 6, and 3 points bottom.

[bobbybottler]

a nice use of the old spelling for Feyenoord

I think that the sign on the club shop outside De Kuip still has the old spelling.

If you ask any Dutch Feyenoord fan why the club changed it's name they'll tell you that English people were too stupid to prononce IJ correctly, so it was changed to something which makes more phonetic sense....

[handbags_harris]

Correct. Officially changed it in 1973, although interestingly some of their old badges pre-'73 had "Feyenoord" as the spelling. The words outside the old main entrance also have the new spelling.

[soggy biscuit]

Keep an eye out over this season for Bilbao's young forward Iker Muniain. Haven't seen anything of him myself but I am told he is (and has been for some time) seen as a very very big talent.

Signed some funny pre contract so those nasty English clubs cannot steal him while he is 16 years old.

[bobbybottler]

[At the bottom, RKC Waalwijk gained their first points of the season with their emphatic victory against Roda JC. Up next for RKC is a trip to de Kuip however, so their joy will probably be somewhat short lived!

Just finished watching it, 10-0 would not have been flattering. RKC look worse than De Graafschap were last season. Feyenoord now level on top with PSV and Twente. Ajax, PSV and FX Twente all away tomorrow.

BTW I usually get sent a link to the Feyenoord matches, I can send it on if you're interested.

[handbags_harris]

Mate, I searched high and low for a stream for that match and I'm buggered if I could find one. Please do my friend! I'll send you a pm with my email addy.

3-0 - Slory, Tomasson/OG (unclear according to my Dutch friend), Wijnaldum.

[soggy biscuit]

Inter score a last minute winner to go top as AC MiLOLan lose to 2nd bottom Atalanta and drop to 14th.

Not great times for Mialn as owner Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to pay €750M in damages to a rival media company by an Italian court.

[handbags_harris]

Latest results from the Eredivisie:

Vitesse 2-0 Sparta
AZ 1-0 NAC Breda
Feyenoord 3-0 RKC Waalwijk
Willem II 1-1 NEC
ADO Den Haag 1-1 FC Groningen
Heracles 1-3 FC Twente
Roda JC 2-2 Ajax
Heerenveen 1-1 VVV-Venlo
FC Utrecht 0-0 PSV

FC Twente move top above PSV after PSV dropped points at Utrecht. Ajax surprisingly drew at Roda JC but stay 3rd on goal difference after Feyenoord's convincing win against bottom club RKC Waalwijk. Utrecht stay 5th, however the gap to 6th has been closed to 3 points after AZ's win against NAC Breda.

RKC Waalwijk remain rooted to the bottom after their thumping at de Kuip, Willem II move 4 points clear after their draw against NEC. Sparta stay 16th after their defeat in Arnhem, and Heerenveen stay 15th after their draw against VVV-Venlo (spot the deliberate mistake from my last roundup). Roda JC move up a place after their excellent draw against the Amsterdammers, Groningen stay 13th after their draw in The Hague, one place below VVV-Venlo who remain in 12th. Vitesse are this week's big movers, jumping from 11th to 7th after their 2-0 victory over Sparta.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

They've played 8 in the Bundesliga, and after this weekend's action, Bayern find themselves 8th in the table and 8 points back of joint leaders Leverkusen and Hamburg.

Schalke, Werder, Hoffenheim, Mainz and Wolfsburg are also in front of 'em, and while it's "still early" with a shade under a quarter of the season played, they'd better start winning soon and keep it going if they intend to get clear of the traffic and end up in the top two.