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Europa League 2011/12

Actually, they call it Sunny SPL not because they think other teams don't have quality but because there's no other contender outside the big two.
 
drekkard said:
I think Athletic closed a lot of mouths of a lot of people who talked about A Scottish La Liga a while back. The fact that Barcelona and Madrid have the best teams of their history at the same time and have a lot more money than the rest (which needs adressing and is off topic now) is hiding the fact that a lot of Spanish teams are great. Bilbao, Atletico, Valencia and Sevilla, to name a few, can beat any big club in Europe.

I think that Serie A and La Liga are at the same level than the Premier right now. Personally I enjoy them all the same!
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Life can`t get any better for you :LOL: Yesterday history making then, Bilbao looking very clever on away match to the most successful English side. Well 'only' the New Mutd ...:JAY:
 
Yes Alex, i kind of agree with André and Kanouté.
It still is sunny SPL. Nobody ever said the other teams are bad...As a Genk fan i don't have very fond memories of Valencia. And i know Sevilla, Athletic de Bilbao and (until this season) Villareal are capable of playing stunning football. Neverheless all those club doesn't stand a chance against the big two...that is a shame. As much as i like your beloved Barcelona...
 
Yes, I know that, I entirely agree with all of you, but there's a lot of people that used this to "downgrade" the rest of teams. A lot of English fans, for instance, saying that there was no quality in the Spanish La Liga and that the Premier was much better.

And this proves that it may be a Sunny SPL, but with great teams. I still remember people saying that out of the big two, the rest would struggle into the Premiere. In my oppinion the Premier is overrated, and the big three leagues are in the same level. It's just that Barcelona and Madrid have the best teams of their history (due to a plethora of reasons, of which money is the only one factor for Real Madrid).
 
well EPL its yet a lot better than La Liga , im talking for matchs on league not competition ,

what match u can see in La Liga ? its just one match Madrid vs Barca and sorry for that but its still same

u watch Barcelona vs Valencia and its one JOKE dont have fivality dont have nothing , boring match , but u can watch Manchester Utd (as its champion) playing vs City , Chelsea , Liverpool , Arsenal , Tottenham or even everton and newcastle and match its amazing rivality chance to win for other teams etc which DONT HAPPEN ON SPAIN

whatever for europe english teams was one big FAIL this year and personaly I hope they all goes down , im for Napoli , Bilbao and Sporting hope they get possitive result on 2nd leg

about last night match i really enjoy it and as a Liverpool fan i was so happy ;)
shame Bilbao dont score more and get that goal on last , u can see they dont have experiense and can easy take goal and score hard even if they have a lot of chances
 
I don't know Valon... a lot of people like to generalise a whole league based on the big games like Milan - Inter, Barca - Real etc. But to be fair, they're high-risk games with huge pressure, so a lot of the time they're boring games.

What about Udinese, Napoli, Atletico, Villarreal, Lecce (very entertaining football) etc. They all have incredible matches that only people from those countries know about. People are now thinking Napoli are a huge surprise... but to be honest they have been beating big teams for the last 2-3 years in Italy, only now they're doing it in Europe.

Spain has 2 super teams, but I think the Valencias, Villarreals and Atleticos are pretty solid teams with very good players and good football.
 
Man i was talking about la liga , and for serie a i think this year its pretty good ,

About ppl of that country i dont think so coz la liga its only league free in my country who i can watch wirhout pay for it , so i see a lot of match there , but im talking about match bettwen teams on league , cmon man barca play agains one team who its 3or 4th an the game its one big joke example vs valencia or example real vs athletico which dont happen on premier league , one local derby liverpool vs everton its Always interesting to watch

Yeah i like napoli for this and i said before too i dont think any team on CL can beat them iin theyr home , no matter if its real or barca too , i like a lot more serie a this year with strong juve and milan also lazio napoli udinese and roma same its one big team like inter even if they are going bad this year ,

Lecce its pretty interesting to watch i know this coz i saw every single match of them this season and now with cosmi are even more interesting and play really beauty football

But la liga is far from premier league and serie a i think my opinion always
 
ridiculous penalty for twente as well as the red card for joel matip.
though twente was better due to their current success a 0-0 would have been a fair result, but thanks to those scottish referees - they punished 3-times by that single weird decission. hope that huntelaar will be back on weekend aswell as on next thursday ;)
 
I prefer La Liga over Serie A, even though I mostly watch Real and Barca matches, they play the type of football I enjoy watching.
Its funny how some people compare La Liga with Premier League, I personally think that EPL is better than La Liga and Serie A combined.
As for Europa League, Bilbao was great last night, even though I'm routing for ManCity to win this competition.
 
La liga is good just very bad at promoting their product. EPL are just so good at promoting their stuff .
 
I think most people outside England know that La Liga and Seria A are not worse leagues than the EPL.
Teams like Valencia, Juventus, Napoli, Udinese can win the EPL. They are not weaker than the Chelseas, the Arsenals and the man Utd's of this world.
 
The fact is this season is a transitional one for a lot of EPL teams, perhaps we consistently falter in Europe from this season on wards, perhaps we'll come back next season stronger and better equipped, I don't know.

I won't be making any sensationalist remarks about the leagues downfall just yet, considering last season we had 4 teams in the last 16 and 1 in the final.

The whole, which is the better league business is entirely irrelevant to me, and is just fuel for the medias marketing. The only thing that is relevant to me is who wins the Champions league, that was Barcelona and they are the best team in Europe. Unless you're having the argument about what league you prefer to watch, which is obviously subjective.
 
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I agree with you Wilkmyster. I don't like to rank leagues, but I also don't think it's fair for people to generalise leagues based on limited coverage of games that are almost guaranteed to be goalless or boring.

Every year we'll have a team from any country doing better, so it's a bit pointless to assume the EPL is downfalling.
 
gerd said:
La Liga is much better than you think Valon...
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well i dont have nothing against or so just i dont see it atractive , and u cant watch a good match there what u see its 5-0 , 6-0 real , barca always win and so



gerd said:
I think most people outside England know that La Liga and Seria A are not worse leagues than the EPL.
Teams like Valencia, Juventus, Napoli, Udinese can win the EPL. They are not weaker than the Chelseas, the Arsenals and the man Utd's of this world.
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I dont that this teams can win EPL at the last not Udinese Napoli and Valencia , and i dont think this teams are much stronger than teams like Everton example

im not talking for competitions coz Liverpool won it on 2005 and we finish 5th that season on our league so i dont think this mean much , also 2007 we went in final again we even beat Barca of Ronaldinho , or a year or so later we beat teams like Real Madrid 1-0 away and 4-0 at anfield but we never in this times were first in table , so i think europe its diferent from own league
 
After reading some of your comments, I feel that people are misunderstanding and mixing two very different concepts: personal preferences and overall quality. Seriously, and with all the respect, how can you measure different leagues? EPL, La Liga, Serie A and, as I would like to add, Bundesliga as it also belongs to la crème de la crème of football, they are so different among them. The style of their teams is different, the atmosphere, the emotion and so on. In my point of view this debate is bit pointless owing to the fact you are rating distinct concepts and philosophies. All you could do is to pick one as your favourite league according to your preferences in football. Personally, I prefer the EPL because of intensity, the ambience and the pace but that doesn't necessary mean I rate EPL above Serie A or La Liga.
 
gerd said:
Teams like Valencia, Juventus, Napoli, Udinese can win the EPL. They are not weaker than the Chelseas, the Arsenals and the man Utd's of this world.
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I think they'd easily challenge for the CL places but lack the squad depth of a Man Utd or Man City to challenge for the title.

The lack of a winter break here, as well as a second domestic cup competition to contend with would probably be too much for them.
 
If they would play every year, they would be acustomed to the lack of winter break...but this argument proves that Andre has it right: if....if...if. It's pointless.

And who cares which is the best league?

My point is that big clubs fans tend to underestimate other teams and other players and sometimes i want to counter that by exagerating.
 
Underestimation usually comes as a result of ignorance. It's easy to underestimate a foreign or smaller team that you know little about.

And in the internet age, where information and videos about even the most obscure football sides is available, it probably isn't as much of an issue as it was in the past.

I also care little about which is the best league. As long as it's football, I'll watch it and enjoy it. :)
 
Yeah what Andre said.

And I don't agree with a lot of what Valon is saying. But whatever.
 
Congrats to Bilbao.

They seem to have a great set of fans, I've a lot of respect for them from the 2 games. It was a nice touch from them applauding Giggys off the pitch and Rooneys goal. Good luck to them in the rest of the tournament, I'll be cheering them on.
 
Na, you can still see us, just look up when looking at the league table. :)
 
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Schalke vs. Twente is intense. Eurofighters reborn under Stevens yet again. Raul just had "one of these moments". (Jones, too)

Edit: Huntelaar now scored 37 times in 37 matches for Schalke this season. 12 Assists as well.
 
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Had Hart's last second header gone in, what a crazy end it would have been! Absolute thriller the late minutes of the game were.

Oh and Olympiakos fans must be absolutely shocked and gutted now.
 
Got to love Athletic, my favourite from now on.

Kanouté said:
Oh and Olympiakos fans must be absolutely shocked and gutted now.
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True.. Lost qualification from inside our hands. We should have scored 4 in the first half but only scored once (had 2 posts and a face2face chance lost). Our team had 10 matches to concede a goal (including the ones with Rubin), and we conceded 2 in 5 minutes. 3 of our -most important- players injured by the Metalist ones (Torossidis, Maniatis, Ibagaza). Last and less important, the referee missed the Metalist player who was offside, and this had as a consequence the corner that we conceded the 2nd goal.

(I've been in every home game in Europe this year, except for the ones with Marseille and this (because I was sick). Result: we lost both)
 
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My pick goes for Athletic
 
Mine is Schalke 04, slightly plays better football among them imo. Even though Bilbao played great against ManU in both legs, one shouldn't forget about that ManU has been so unmotivated in CL and EL this year and that they failed to win against Benfica, Basel and once lost to Ajax at Old Trafford as well. Also Bilbao didn't play this great against Lokomotiv. And, Atletico is just too untrustable imo. But, since Falcao is the EL man, they have a big, big chance of course. My second choice after Schalke 04 is Valencia.
 
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