General Discussion: Sport

[TRS-T]

Use this thread to discuss all things UEFA Europa League 2009/2010

"Motherwell will meet Llanelli in the first qualifying round of the Europa League, with the ties on 2 and 9 July.

Welsh side TNS face Fram from Iceland, while Northern Irish pair Linfield and Lisburn meet Randers of Denmark and Zestafoni of Georgia, respectively.

Scottish Cup runners-up Falkirk will play Vaduz of Liechtenstein at the second qualifying stage.

Welsh side Bangor meet Finnish outfit Honka and Northern Ireland's Crusaders face Macedonia's Rabotnicki.

The winner of Motherwell and Llanelli will take on Flamurtari Vlore (ties on 16 and 23 July).

The Albanian Cup winners famously defeated Barcelona 1-0 in a Uefa Cup tie on their home ground 12 years ago, only to lose the away leg 4-1.

The Steelmen will play their home legs at Airdrie's Excelsior Stadium since work is done on the Fir Park pitch, while Llanelli may move their home tie to the nearby Parc y Scarlets rugby ground.

"I'm delighted with the draw," said Motherwell chairman John Boyle.

"It takes a large part of the uncertainty out of the equation and it also suits the players.

"They are back to training early and so from a logistical view it's ideal although it's still going to be a tough game.

"But we will concentrate on the first round only. It's a bit previous to be deciding that you are going to go through. It's an old cliche I know, but we will take one round at a time."

Falkirk embark on their first ever European campaign against opponents who were relegated from the Swiss Super League last season.

In their only previous match against Scottish opposition Vaduz lost out to Livingston on the away goals rule in a Uefa Cup qualifier seven years ago.

The tournament replaces both the Intertoto Cup and the Uefa Cup, with three qualifying rounds and a play-off round being held before the group stages.

Aberdeen will be seeded for the third qualifying round draw on 17 July, along with English Premier League outfit Fulham.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa, Everton and Hearts enter at the next stage, the draw for which is on 7 August.

At that level 35 winners are joined in the final play-off round by another 41 clubs, including the 15 losing teams for the Champions League third qualifying round, on 20 and 27 August, for a place in the group stages.

From those ties, 38 winners will be joined by 10 losing sides from the Champions League play-off round in 12 groups of four teams.

After playing each other on a home and away basis, the top two teams in each of the 12 groups progress to the Round of 32, being joined by eight teams who finish third in their Champions League group.

The tournament then progresses to the Round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals.

Hamburg will host the final on 12 May. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8111925.stm

[GarryRfc1]

xD i hope falkirk get hammered i live and falkirk and this is all they go on about the quicker they go out the better lol

[TRS-T]

Motherwell 0-1 Llanelli

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8129623.stm

[TRS-T]

FK Vetra 0 - 3 Fulham

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/8175041.stm

[mickd1993]

motherwell 8-1 flamurtari LOOOL

[gta1]

Fulham, Aberdeen and Motherwell playing tonight and it looks like Fulham are the only side that will go through from that lot!

[skells22]

when is the draw for this next stage (i need to know as Liverpool will drop in from Champion League and any news on any channel that might show Liverpool during this stage)

[lynchy59]

TV Wise i'd guess Channel 5 or ITV 4 perhaps??

[skells22]

It looks like Wednesday and Thursday sees the Europa League have its last games before Xmas and therefore can you tell me how the draw will work due to the fact this is a new thing.

[Gibbs_1991]

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skells22 wrote:

It looks like Wednesday and Thursday sees the Europa League have its last games before Xmas and therefore can you tell me how the draw will work due to the fact this is a new thing.

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The draw will be made on Friday 18th December at 14:00 GMT after the Champions League Draw and should be live on ITV4. Alternatively, you can definitly watch it on Sky Sports News!

In the draw, they will be picking out the fixtures for both the Round of 32 and Round of 16. They start with the round of 32, where all 32 teams are split into two pots. One pot contains the seeded teams, that won there groups, and the other pot contains the non-seeded groups. I'm guessing you're a Liverpool fan, and for some reason they are in the non-seeded pot.

Anyway, 1 ball will be picked out of each pot to make up one of the Round of 32 ties, with the seeded teams being picked second, and getting the advantage of playing at Home in the Second Leg. Once all 16 ties have been finalised, they will do the draw for the Round of 16. Now i'm not sure how this works, but i'm guessing it will simply be picking a ball out of each pot, that says "Tie 1 vs Tie 2" on them etc.

Hope that helps!