European Leagues Thread 2012/2013

[soggy biscuit]

A joke really, was it a 15 point deduction they started with

no, Juve ended up with a 9 point deduction

Soooo...everybody's right, then?

They actually started with a 30 point deduction (I think that means I still win)

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Eredivisie final day cLOLockwatch --all level on points, separated by goal difference

0' AZ provisional division leaders, Ajax second, PSV third
8' PSV lead 1-0 (Alex) --PSV provisional division leaders by 2 points
10' PSV lead 2-0 (Farfan)
13' PSV lead 2-1
19' Ajax lead 0-1 (Emanuelson) --Ajax provisional division leaders on GDD (+1 over PSV)
19' AZ own 'keeper sent off; penalty conceded
21' AZ trail 1-0
25' AZ level 1-1 (Cziommer)
45' HT
59' PSV lead 3-1 (Afellay) --Ajax remain leaders on goals scored
60' AZ trail 2-1
65' PSV lead 4-1 (Farfan) --PSV provisional leaders on GDD (+1 over Ajax)
69' Ajax lead 0-2 (Huntelaar) --Ajax reclaim lead on goals scored
71' AZ level 2-2 (Koevermans)
75' AZ both sides down to ten men
77' PSV lead 5-1 (Cocu) --PSV provisional leaders on GDD (+1 over Ajax)
90' AZ trail 3-2
90' FT PSV win 5-1; Ajax win 0-2; AZ lose 3-2

Final table
PSV 75 (+50, 75 goals for)
Ajax 75 (+49, 84 goals for)
AZ 72 (+52, 83 goals for)

Has to be said --AZ bottled it against inferior opposition playing for not much at all, and Ajax should have done better against opposition playing for nothing whatsoever. PSV are champions; same old same old.

[Compo's Hat]

Ajax now play Heerenveen (who stuffed Feyenord 5-1 to take their place!) and AZ play FC Twente in Champions League play-offs.

[Uke]

Its looking grim for Stal Alchevsk and the parachute payments only six potatos and a tractor this year...

http://www.soccerway.com/international/ukraine/premier-league/

[bassavage]

Its looking grim for Stal Alchevsk and the parachute payments only six potatos and a tractor this year...

http://www.soccerway.com/international/ukraine/premier-league/

Looking even better for Borisfen in the 1st division

http://www.soccerway.com/national/ukraine/1st-division/

[soggy biscuit]

Borrusia Monchengladbach look doomed at the foot of the German league

Top of the table has a touch of the Dutch league about it. Bayern Munich look certs for 4th place now

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Borrusia Monchengladbach look doomed at the foot of the German league

And a real relegation rockpile above them, not unlike in Serie A, with grandstand finishes on the cards.

Bad, bad year for my fellow countrymen abroad. Strictly awful, with the notable exceptions of Marcus and Timmy Howard, plus Frankie Simek at Wednesday; Bobby done for the season, Watford down, Leeds twisting in the breeze, Fulham in freefall, West Ham on the rack and the aforementioned 'Gladbach without a prayer.

Real Sociedad may yet just beat the drop in the Primera.

[T.R.O.L.I.]

Borrusia Monchengladbach look doomed at the foot of the German league

Actually, they are already relegated as Eintracht Frankfurt and Alemania Aachen play each other on Saturday.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Ascoli drew 3-all with Catania away today after leading 1-3, and they're now 12 points behind 17th-placed Torino with 4 games to play for all.

It's likely they're already relegated due to relevant matchups yet to be played, but I can't be arsed to do the lookup; may it be enough to say that they'll be first from Serie A for the drop.

[Compo's Hat]

Borrusia Monchengladbach look doomed at the foot of the German league

Top of the table has a touch of the Dutch league about it. Bayern Munich look certs for 4th place now

Is it 3 or 4 Champions League places in Germany?

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Is it 3 or 4 Champions League places in Germany?

Two automatic, one to the third qualification round ("equals" three), two UEFA Cup berths for fourth and fifth, plus another for the German Cup winners.

Table; Bayern all but eliminated from contention for next season's Champions League.

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Speaking of Germany, we've had something of a shakeout on the penultimate matchday...

The title comes down to Stuttgart --who came from behind twice and won 2-3 away to Bochum-- and Schalke, who lost 2-0 away to Dortmund.

Stuttgart's win combines with Werder Bremen's 1-2 home defeat at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt to eliminate Werder's title bid; they are assured of finishing no worse than third (Champions League third qualifying round) and still could pip Schalke to second and an automatic berth, but they are two points behind while enjoying nonetheless a hefty goal-difference edge that would spell the difference if the two end up deadlocked on points.

Bayer Leverkusen emerged victorious 2-3 away to Hertha Berlin and edged into fifth position, three points in front of Nurnberg, who lost 0-2 at home to Hamburg. With Leverkusen's win, Borussia Dortmund's big win over Schalke is rendered void in terms of the former's hopes of a top-five finish and automatic UEFA Cup qualification. Also, Arminia Bielefeld's 3-1 win at home to Hannover ended the latter's bid for a top-five finish once and for all.

At the bottom, Mainz beat already relegated 'Gladbach 3-0, but their own relegation was virtually assured as Wolfsburg scored twice after 80 minutes to draw 2-all away to Alemania Aachen.

Wolfsburg now stand on 37 points with a goal difference of (-6), which would be more than enough to hold off both Mainz (34/-20) and Alemania (also 34/-20) at the wire and send the latter pair down if it were to come to that.

Frankfurt climbed to 40 points and assured their own safety with the huge defeat of Werder --but, all things being the same, they likely would have been safe on goal difference in the end anyway.

So here it is in tabular form:
1) Stuttgart (67/+23) --top-two finish and Champions League berth secured
2) Schalke (65/+20) --could win the title; also could fall back into third
3) Werder (63/+34) --cannot win the title but could finish second
4) Bayern (57/+12) --assured of fourth-place finish and UEFA Cup berth
5) Leverkusen (48/+4) --provisionally in the last UEFA Cup
6) Nurnberg (45/+8) --now out of the UEFA spots, but still alive**)
7) Dortmund (44/-1) --out of contention for Europe via the Bundesliga
8) Hannover (44/-6) --ditto

**Nurnberg also German cup finalists along with CL-qualified Stuttgart; don't know what the DFB does in regard to redundant placement in UEFA competitions; for all I know, Nurnberg already may be qualified for the UEFA Cup as potential Cup runners-up to Stuttgart :\

15) Wolfsburg (37/-6) --all but safe
16) Alemania (34/-20) --all but down
17) Mainz (34/-20) --all but down
18) 'Gladbach (26/-19) --GONE

Next Saturday's consequential fixtures
Stuttgart v. Cottbus, Schalke v. Bielefeld, Wolfsburg v. Werder Bremen, Leverkusen v. Dortmund, Hannover v. Nurnberg, Bayern v. Mainz, Hamburg v. Alemania Aachen

[Tony Le Mesmer]

ITALY

Ascoli & Messina are relegated from Serie A. In Messina's case, for the 2nd year running!!!

Juve can be promoted back to Serie A next weekend. Napoli and Genoa are battling for the 2nd automatic promotion spot, although both might go up. If the 3rd place team in Serie B are at least 10 points clear of 4th, they go up automatically, otherwise play offs. Genoa v Napoli is the last game of the season on June 10!

85 Scudetto winners Verona are 4th bottom and face possible relegation to Serie C. Pescara were releagted today.

[Daniella]

Madrid from 3-1 down to win 4-3, great stuff. Was this the night the title went back to madrid?

[LUX]

Metz promoted back to French premier league.

[soggy biscuit]

French football map
http://www.footiemap.com/?co=france

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Pretty much as you were after the final day in the Bundesliga.1

--Stuttgart (70/+24) are champions, having defeated Cottbus 2-1 rather comfortably after falling behind

--Schalke (68/+21) are are guaranteed a Champions League group-stage berth as runners up after scoring twice in the first 16 minutes and coasting home 2-1 winners over visiting Bielefeld

--Werder Bremen (66/+36) remain in third and go to the Champions League third qualifying round despite winning 0-2 away to Wolfsburg

--Bayern (60/+15) remain fourth as we knew that they would, capping their season with a 5-2 hiding of visiting Mainz, and they will be entered in next season's UEFA Cup

--Bayer Leverkusen (51/+5), needing no better than a draw to retain their hold on fifth and the last league UEFA Cup spot, beat visiting Borussia Dortmund 2-1

--Nurnberg (58/+11) could not improve their position despite impressing in a 0-3 win away to Hannover, although they will feature in the German Cup final against Stuttgart

At the bottom, nothing unexpected as neither Mainz nor Alemania Aachen came up with a win, to say nothing of overhauling a double-digit goal difference differential relative to Wolfsburg --who lost at home to Bremen-- and the two join 'Gladbach in the second division for next season

Promoted from there for next season will be champions Karlsruhe, who will be joined after Sunday's play by two of:

2) Hansa Rostock (59/+17) v. Unterhaching (H)
3) MSV Duisburg (57/+23) v. Rot-Weiss Essen (H)
4) SC Freiburg (57/+14) v. Koblenz (H)

Unterhaching and Essen are in a four-way tie with the top two relegation placeholders and are currently safe on goal difference, so they will have plenty to play for; Koblenz are safe

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Metz promoted back to French premier league.

Yep. Let's do this one for Spacey, beginning with Ligue 2 as it stands after the penultimate matchday...

1) Metz (76/+33) CHAMPIONS
2) Strasbourg (70/+16) UP

So that's Alsace and Lorraine spoken for, and they'll be joined in Ligue 1 on Friday by either of

3) Caen (68/+24) v. Libourne (A)
4) Amiens (66/+13) v. Le Havre (H)

Up in Ligue 1, the real impact today was down the bottom, where PSG's win over Troyes sent the latter down and made themselves, Valenciennes and Nice irrevocably safe; the bottom three are gone.

Saturday's results that matter: Nancy 5-2 Sochaux, Le Mans 1-1 Bordeaux, Lens 0-0 Nice, Nantes 0-0 ten-man Toulouse, PSG 2-1 Troyes, Rennes 4-1 Lorient, Sedan 1-1 Valenciennes, St-Etienne 1-2 Marseille

15) PSG (45/-1) SAFE
16) Valenciennes (43/-10) SAFE
17) Nice (42/-6) SAFE

18) Troyes (36/-18) --DOWN
19) Sedan (35/-11) --DOWN headed into today's play
20) Nantes (35/-18) --DOWN headed into today's play

Up top of Ligue 1, the champions and runners up get automatic Champions League berths; third place gets a berth in the third qualifying round, and fourth earns a UEFA Cup berth; here's the situation after today, with the final day set for next Saturday...

1) Lyon (78/+35) --CHAMPIONS
2) Marseille (61/+14) --RUNNERS UP; QUALIFIED FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
3) Lens (57/+9) v. Troyes (A)
4) Bordeaux (57/+6) v. Toulouse (A) --QUALIFIED FOR UEFA CUP as French League Cup Winners
5) Rennes (56/+8 v. Lille (A)
6) Sochaux (54/-3) v. St.-Etienne (H) --QUALIFIED FOR UEFA CUP as French Cup Winners
7) Toulouse (53/-1) v. Bordeaux (H)

UEFA Cup places already have been claimed by Sochaux, defeated Marseille to win the French Cup, and by Bordeaux, who beat Lyon to win the League Cup; don't know how the French hand things out in cases of redundancy, but in this instance the runners up in both competitions are already UEFA-qualified

[Starfish]

That Hans Meyer has yet to be sainted is something I find extremely difficult to comprehend. He took over at 1.FCN before Christmas 2005 with Nürnberg in serious relegation trouble. They finished last season in 8th. Despite losing Kießling and spending very little in the summer, he has FCN in 6th at the end of this season, a place in the Cup Final next weekend and, as Stuttgart are the opposition and in the CL next season, a UEFA Cup spot is guaranteed.

And next weekend is still to come.

[Katie Marsden]

La Liga is going to go right down to the wire.

Real Madrid won 3-2 at Recreativo Huelva thanks to a last minute goal by Carlos. Barcelona have put on a sensational display and have just beaten Athletico Madrid 6-0 away.

Sevilla also win and remain 2 points behind Barca and Real.

Barca remaining games

Getafe H
Espanyol H
Gimnastic A

Real remaining games

Deportivo La Coruna H
Real Zaragoza A
Mallorca H