additional to Bert's Uefa page
24-07-06: Time to start a new page for the new season. Later this week I will do so, I hope. For now I have put the latest predictions (based on coefficients) online. Taken into account the CL-Q1 and Intertoto results.
Country-prediction
Team-prediction
22-06-06: The Uefa has published their regional groupings, first IT-matches have been played(with a lot of goals!!), reason for a few little updates! Second round qualifications UC regional groupings are not published, so that's still a debate - it might be depending on outcome of UC-Q1 and the Intertoto. 08-06-06: And that is supposed to be it! Steaua won the Romanina championship and all but 1 Intertoto team is known(The greek Larissa, unless PAOK have managed to convince Uefa that they can play(read: have a valid license). All is left is the Italian trouble now - what is going to happen - we will have to wait a month for that (July 10th at latest). And ofcourse I would like to know if France/Auxerre managed to get in the 3rd Intertoto cup despite rulse saying that a second team of a country should start in round 1. Again it's France with 2 intertoto teams. Incredible, France who have won the most intertotocups, will they do it again?
06-06-06: So where are we waiting for? Roselaere and Brann are the newly added teams. All we have not yet completed is 1 CL place Steaua or Rapid and 2 UC spots:Steaua and Naional or Rapid and (Dinamo or Sportul).
And there is ofcourse the Italian teams that are not certain yet and PAOK - do they have a license or not? I hope we'll know more soon....
03-06-06: And a couple of hours later only Romania is left. Debrecen and Gorica are the new champions and Garabagh the last cupwinner. Almost everything is blue in my sheet. Let the competitions begin!(Intertoto starts in 2 weeks)
03-06-06: Changes are small so at the end - a cupwinner, a second league entrant, a FairPlay winner. This weekend will be another set of teams added to the final list. In Hungary, Slovenia and Azerbaijan the last participants will be known. For Romania we will have to wait till Wednesday. Also the 2 fairplay winners will be known this weekend.
Most of attention is going to the WorldCup in Germany now, but the final list is not yet complete. Let'shope it brings a lots of spectacle. I certainly am not going to see all the matches. Probably the Dutch and maybe a few more - with Brasil or England.
30-05-06: And we have another champion. Congratulations FC Baku! Only 3 champions left. Tonight we'll also know 1 UC-participant of Azerbaijan. For more teams we will have to wait until this weekend, when Hungary and Slovenia will finish their league. Also Romania continues again. It can all be decided on Sunday, but probably we will have to wait until Wednesday for the final participants ( by league entry) will be known. And then we still have to wait for all the 'trouble'-teams without licenses, ofcourse the whole 'Italy affair'. Also the Fair play teams will be decided on Sunday and then all is left are the Intertoto participants. The official site has finally put some teams there, but when I think of last years, I can not say that these teams are confirmed. But it is worth to have a look at now and then. Currently 16 teams are mentioned there(intertotocup.com)
28-05-06: A quick update, just after some holidays. We need only 4 more champions and 1 more cupwinner. Total 4 CL-participants and 6 UC participants. Plus ofcourse the 3 FairPlay teams and the 11 Intertoto teams. Wednesday we know more, but we will have to wit for 7th of June for Romania to finish their competition.
21-05-06: With the win of Steaua in Romania, it seems like we have our champion. We still have to wait a few weeks for the final 2 matches to be certain, but Sportul is not going to be champion this year. Rapid is the only opponent left. On the other hand is on Hungary and Slovenia it's back to squar one. 2 matches left and Debrecen and Ujpest and Domzale and Gorica are equal on points. We'll have to have paioence for the last 5 champions
20-05-06: And we have another champion: Levski. Congratulations. We are getting closer and closer to the end! 4 more champions to go.
18-05-06: So we know a lot more about the CL. Osasuna is in Q3, Celtic is definitely in the groupstage, Ruzomberok won a direct confrontation with Artmedia, and is now 5 points ahead - little chance that they will give away their advantage. In Romania Steaua won their 2 backlog matches and is now leading. If they win their next match, away against Sportul, they must win the championship. But this match(Sportul-Steaua) can also mean a comeback for Sportul (AND Rapid) in the contest for the title!
15-05-06: I have upodated the UefaCup sheet to remove the titleholder spot and move AutUC1(Pasching) to R1 and SuiUC1(Sion) and NorUC1(molde) to Q2. and a Fairplay spot from North (from 2 to 1) to central(from 1 to 2). This makes it all pretty equal: 11 teams qualify from north and central and 10 teams from south into R1.
15-05-06: And more decisions in extra time happened: Shaktar won in the extra tiem of the extra match the title, Fenerbahce could not score another goal in 16 mountes of extra time and so lost the title to Galatasaray. It looks like we now got almost all CL-participants. 7 are not sure yet (Azerbajan, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungaria, 4th Spanish team). Though I also start wondering about the Italian teams. Juve and Fiorentina are mentioned in a big scandal that can easily lead to setting back of the teams opening the door to AS Roma and Chievo to participate?..
13-05-06: Incredible how much can change in the last minutes of games. Boleslav qualified in the last minute for CL, Zurich became the Swiss champion (-congratulations!), Liverpool equalised in the 90th minute to later win the FA Cup. This has been a day of last minute changes all over Europe. A lot of decisions on for some leagues the final day. Werder beat Hamburg and took their direct spot in CL, Hamburg now has to play Q3. Lille took teh last spot in France, where all was too tight to mention. at one time Rennes was in CL-(Q3), now they are even below the Intertoto spot.
Fenerbahce even looks currently to be seeded. 3 spots are open below them, currently taken by Fiorentina, Osasuna and Sportul SB. Tomorrow we will know if Fiorentina managed to keep their spot, Sevilla won Barcelona and so is still in the race-Tuesday it will be decided and in Romania Steaua will play tomorrow and Wednesday to try to take over the first spot and then play next weekend..... Sportul
11-05-06: Bravo Sevilla, well deserved. M'boro had his chances, but did not use them, and to be honest I found Sevilla the better team.
Not as much decided as could have been, but Legia and Sioni are new champions. But Kiew and Donetsk have to do a play-off match, Basel must get a point against their opponent Zurich and Boleslav must win away against the champion to hold of Slavia, that surely will win (Boleslav won against the smae opponent 4-0 with only 10 man). And we got other top matches planned in Azerbajan and Macedonia. And what about the match between 2 Uefa-finalist Sevilla-Barcelona. After winning the UC Sevilla is in for more, they want the CL-spot, while Barca has something completely different on their mind: the CL final. This is a unfair match (Osasuna should protest!). All Sevilla has to do is win from Barca and Real Madrid!! ;)
08-05-06: What a week we are awaiting. more than 10 cupfinals and also some midweek leaguematches that will be decisive for some CL-particiapnts: Basel and Legia could become champion and in Czechia another round is played while 3 teams are equal on the 2nd spot... And then next weekend in a lot of countries the last league round is being played: Will Juventus be champion or Milan, and Fenerbahce or Galatasaray, and Shaktar Donetsk or Dynamo Kiew. it will all be decided on the last matchday. and all next weekend!
07-05-06: Congratulations to FCKopenhavn, another champion!
So Arsenal managed to get the 4th CL ticket in England. Or better the Spurs managed to lose it. Well better this way then in 3 weeks if Arsenal would manage to win the CL. And ofcourse a CL-finalist should be in the CL next year! But I like some unseeded top 5-teams, so I hope Fiorentian and Osasuna do not lose their spot on the last matchday.
If you assume seeded teams pass, then only 5 teams are not sure yet of the CL groupstage, 27 are. only the Suiss champ, Basel, French nr. 3(Lille), Greek nr2 (AEK), Bulgarian champ(Levski) and a Czech team(Slavia, but could also become Liberec, read the forum about it!).
The UefaCup is still very open
06-05-06: In the middle of the weekend we already got a few more champions: Anderlecht, Bayern, Austria, Apollon, Birkirkira. It's beautiful weather outside, so I got to look at the tables at night. Djurgarden is still seeded, Slovan Liberec not anymore. Due to the Slavia. It looks like only one Czech teasm can be seeded...
In the Ukraine Dynamo Kiew lost the sligth advantage they had and now Shaktar only needs 1 point in the last match Dynamo-Shaktar. How did they plan it.....
05-05-06: And we have a next champion: Dudelange. Congratulations! still more then 20 champions to go. I wonder how many will be decided this weekend. For sure some!
Much of the top-teams in the team-ranking are qualifying again for the next CL. Of the top 15 only 2 are currently not in: Villareal(position 15) and... Arsenal, this year finalist. For the CL itself this is great ofcourse (but I would have liked some more surprises!). If you look at pot A and B for the CL-groupstage, then they are mostly filled with direct entries (11 or 12 from 16 (other 4-5 are 3rd teams from Spain, Italy, England, 2nd team from Holland, 3rd from France) That shows that these teams also perform in their domestic league and deserve to be there.
04-05-06: And Barca has won the Spanish championship. Nobody expected them to lose it still, but they got it now! Valencia is despite their loss now certian of at least Qualification CL. Ajax and Hearts also qualified for the qualification rounds.
02-05-06: I appear to have ruined my site with the last update. Sorry for this. All has been repaired again and sheets are back.
02-05-06: Lyon had dropped out due to a namechnge by Soccerway I did not see. Thanks Lars. It's updated now.
01-05-06: And another champion: Elbasani, congratulations. And unbelievable how close other leagues are getting. In England the Spurs are keep being ahead of Arsenal, but Arsenal still has the extra possibilty for the CL. In Italy Juve just in time won again, while Roma and Fiorentina both struggled for a point. In France Lille, Lens, Rennes and Marseille all still can play CL, but also 2 of them will be out completely(well, one may have a retry in the Intertoto). In Scotland Hearts pretty much assured their CLQ2 spot. Celtic has not won yet a single game in the 'play-offs'. In Turkey 3 teams are within 1 point for the last UC spot, in Czechia 3 teams are fighting for 1 CL-Q2, 1 UC-Q2 and 1 IC spot. All with equal points. And Cyprus, 1 match to go and 3 teams still can become champion. I can continue, but you just have to follow the coming 2 weeks all the leagues to get all the answers of how everything went.
To get back to the Djurgarden seeding: Salzburg lost, so very probably will stay second. That's good, but Boleslav lost too while Teplice drew. They are now equal on points. With Slavia possible too on equal points. I'm afraid Boleslav won't manage.
29-04-06: Some Saturday results are in. We are getting closer to the end and I will try to update as much as possible(but no promises). We got some more champions: Chelsea, Siroki Bjerg, congrats! In other countries it stays close till the final day: Turkey, Cyprus, Azerbajan, to just call 3.
28-04-06: What a week it has been! First 2 0-0 in the CL, of which one was not very exciting and the other one made that up double. Incredible that in such a match no goals were scored. For me Milan may have scored so it would continue for another half an hour, though I liked that Barca was the winner. The King of last minute goals did not score a goal in the semi-finals.
The other one was less attractive. Arsenal has a great defense and is leaning too much on it, for the objective spectator. Ofcourse it is a record this long without a goal in the CL, but I hope it will change in their next match....
And yesterday the UC semi's. One was expected to be without many goals, and so it happened. In the extra 30 minutes Sevilla got the goal they deserved more than Schalke, but it could also have gone the other way around (1-1). And the other match was again a miraculous escape from M'boro. These players must have a confidence, unbelievable. Against Basel they turned a 0-1 to 4-1 and now they turned the 0-2 into a necessary 4-2 win. I couldn't believe it happened, though after the 2-2 I found it very well possible. Sevilla must be warned, I don't see how they can cope with this kind of fighting.
One more thing I want to say, this time about the next round of domestic league matches. It is all getting close to the end and there are som teasm balancing on the seeded/non seeded barriere. I guess Djurgarden fans are following closely the Czech and Austrian leagues: If Boleslav stays second, it's OK, but they have a bit more difficult program than Teplice. And in Austria the fight for the title is also very close. Will Salzburg stay second, or can they pass Austria and take the title. Both teams have similar programs....
For CL-Q3 the only chance for Fenerbahce to be seeded looks like Levski to fail in the Bulgarian championship, while Slovan Liberec will hope for a Barca win in the CL final and that Firorentina will keep up against Roma.
24-04-06: And some evening matches are included and I checked some more cupresults. Things are getting clearer and clearer. Like the Dutch Play-offs. It is clear now that having a good season doesn't say anything. AZ had 14 more points as Ajax, Ajax is in the cupfinal and is now the big favorite of playing CL-Q3 after a very lousy season. I don't want to think about Groningen playing in the CL-Q3. Luckily they will at least falll back to UC-R1 so the team is not lost. Are the play-offs good? They do bring a lot of spectaculair matches with lots of emotion. Teams win and lose. But the league was supposed to say something about who is the best over the whole season, not who was good and is currently the best. The format is looking like the CL now: First a league and then k-o matches. Does the best always win there? No! Probably the teams think 'one year you win, another you lose' That probably is true. Maybe some teams have more advantage, I guess in every league there are some 'cupfighters' (cause that's what this has become ofcourse, a kind of cup). Luckily the top-5 can not fall down to a Intertoto spot this year(because Ajax is playing the cupfinal) Otherwise AZ-Feyenoord(nr2 & 3 in the league) had to play eachother and the loser would have to fight again some team to even get a UefaCupspot. After losing 2 k-o rounds I guess motivation is very low and so it's easy to lose.
23-04-06: I guess you all must be as curious as I am in the new statistics of who is where on the lists, so I decided to postpone my sleep a bit and post all I have sofar on the net. We got a couple of more champions this weekend, Porto, Serif, Maccabi Haifa, Red Star and also a lot of teams that are now certain of playing in the CL (Qualifiers). Juventus is slipping - can they hold on? Bayern is slipping, but HSV is missing the opportunities to go for the title again. Fenerbahce took themselves back in the titlerace and Steaua is taking over completely. Arsenal missed their first chance of reaching the CL by just drawing with Tottenham. They still have another left. First is to beat Villlareal for that one.
It also looks like we will have a high coefficiented UefaCup: Arsenal, Depor, Roma, Panathinaikos, Schalke, Leverkusen, Lazio, Sevilla, Feyenoord, all above 50!
21-04-06: And only 1 goal in the first legs of the UC-semi's. It's all in the open still. I would rather have seen it like the Dutch play-offs, until know very spectaculair: 3-0, 3-1(2 goals in last minute), 4-4(half time it was 0-4!) and a 2-0. Steaua assured Romania of having the highest coefficient this year and brought Romania closer to the 8th spot in ranking. 2 more points needed
Another issue where they can focus on is their own team coefficent. If they win the next 2 matches plus the bonus for reaching the final, they will have almost 52 points. And pass Benfica on the ranking. They will be 17th in the CL-groupstage ranking and will still need a top-16 team to fail qualification, but then will be in pot B. The same group as Chelsea and Lyon!
20-04-06: And the first leg has been played. Very little goals, but I had expected that, as nobody want to lose the semi already in the first leg. Barca's win was unexpected, though. For me they were favorite for the tie, but I did not expect this.
It is at the moment very interesting to have a look at the seeding/non seeding border of CLQ3. currently Fenerbahce is just not seeded, while Slovan Liberec is seeded. What can happen: For Belgium the seeded Anderlecht can be replaced by Standard for Framce Lille by Rennes, for Itlay non seeded Fiorentina can be replaced by Roma, For Romania, non seeded Dinamo can(will?) be replaced by Steaua Boekarest, Englands Tottenham can be replaced by Arsenal. Ofcourse there are more possibile changes, but less likely. But one of the surprises of this year, Levski, can count on a seeded spot if they keep the lead in the Bulgarian league.
18-04-06: So we got some more champions, not unexpected ones, but still great work done again in this season: Lyon, Olympiakos, TNS. Vaduz won in Liechtenstein the Cup (again). In Holland the league has ended. It's strange to see that some competitions still have a lot of matches to go. E.g. Slovenia still 10! By Qualifying 5th in the Dutch League Groningen has at least qualified for the UefaCup. with a chance of even CL. Whatever they do, they will be unseeded. Not good for them, the Dutch coefficient or for their opponent! in Round 1.
It's also interesting to see that and Belgiums and Greece highest coefficient team probably will not play in the CL(Brugge and Panathinaikos). Will Arsenal join them? That will be impossible ofcourse, as they can't become the highest coefficient team, not even by winning the CL, but they certainly are a high coefficent team, that might not play CL. If they don't they will surely be the highest team that does not play CL.
13-04-05: On remarks of dawgs on the forum some changes have been made the last day to the regional groupings of the UefaCup. I moved Bulgaria, Romania and Liechtenstein from the Central to the Southern region.
Next a lot of cupmatches have been played. A lot of them get in the final-stage now. Espanyol already won the Cup yesterday - Barcelona is ruling the Spanish football!.
10-04-05: I added the Intertoto draw instead of the other Intertoto site. As this was a regional draw, also the winners can be assigned to the correct Uefacup region. Unfortunately I now have uneven numbers for North and South.
10-04-05: Yes, PSV is the champion of Holland! Also Chelsea and Lyon are getting closer to the title. We are getting closer and closer to the final participants of the CL & UC.
Today the draw for the Intertoto Cup. Also that will make something clearer.
07-04-06: So it was a UefaCup night of 'just not'. Rapid tried hard, but just could not score. But actually I meant Zenit tried, but just could not reach the 2 points Russia needed for the 8th spot. Basel held on a long time, but somehow M'bro did not gave up. Switzerland did not get the 2 points they needed for 15th spot. The only things that is still open is how far will Romania rise. Will Steaua will manage what Basel could not: eliminate M'bro. Can Steau bring Romania to the 8th spot. 4 points are still needed, that means at least a final. It will be hard.
I updaterd the prediction sheets too, but well there are too less matches to be played to really call it that way.
In the end from the 8 semifinalists 6 are top-3, 7 are top-5. Only Steaua is the exception. Last year was better with PSV, AZ, Sporting and CSKA.
06-04-06: I hadn't thought the semi finals would look like this 2 weeks ago. Where I thought Spain was being overtaken by Italy as being the best country for the second time in a row, Spain is fighting back. They have 3 teams(incl Sevilla) in the semi finals. Italy only 1. And Milan-Barcelona is a fantastic semi. The numbers 1 and 2 in the teamranking!!
Let's see if tonight brings more surprises. I guess not. I hope Zenit will win and remove Greece from the 8th spot. It's so sad for them to have 6 teams and not performing well already for a few years. Let's release them from their suffering (It's also OK with me if Romania takes that 8th spot. Even better for the Dutch.
In the mean time did Celtic take the title and made a fight for second spot still to be open in Scotland.
TNS also lost its first match in the Welsh competition. Now only Dynamo Kiew(Ukr), Serif(Mol) and Linfield(N-Irl) ahven't lost a match in their league.
04-04-05: more weekend results are in. Quite some teams from the topcountries have qualified for the CL now: Juventus, Chelsea, ManUtd, Lyon, PSV.
Ofcourse most attention this week will go to the quarterfinals who will make it, Barca or Benfica, Lyon or Milan. Arsenal and Inter have a advantage, but....
31-03-06: And the UefaCup results are added too. They were much more decisive as the CL ones. Schalke and Sevilla can't hadrly fail to qualify now. Basel is on the right track and only Steaua failed to take a real advantage, though a 1-1 away draw is good in the k-o stages.
I also updated the predictions, but for the UC I did not change anything, teams with the higher coefficients were winning (or drawing away).
We're up for another weekend of decisive league matches, bringing teams closer to the title. And then next week the returns of this weeks CL&UC matches.
30-03-06: I have added all the league matches that were played mid-week. And the results of the Champions League matches of this week. All is still open on all 4 matches. I also have updated my predictions due to this: I no longer see Lyon as favorite to pass to the next round. On the othe hand I kept Juventus. Both are questionable, I know, but I got to do something.
For the 8th spot, tonight is important, no decisions yet, but some hint if Russia(Zenit)can get to this 8th spot. (and if Switzerland(Basel) can have a try at the 15th)
27-03-06: And just before the quarterfinals start a new league round brings us closer to the final. In Northern Ireland Linfield has won the championship. Congratulations! Who will be the next champion?(PSV?) Also Chelsea, Dynamo Kiew and Shaktar Donetsk have secured their place in the Champions League, at least they'll play in the qualification round(s)!
So what are the teams in the quarterfinals playing for(except for honour and getting to the (semi-)final): Lyon (and Arsenal) will try to get in the first pot, they'll need to pass Valencia for that. Lyon needs 6 points for that, Arsenal only 1. Benfica, Sevilla and Basel might get to pot B if they get some more points. But it's unclear if it really reachable. Currently it looks like it, but teams like Arsenal, AS Roma, Ajax(/Feyenoord), Schalke could make them need a lot of points to reach pot B.
For Zenit and MiddlesBorough winning the UefaCup looks like their only way to play in Europe next year. Rapid Bucharest has just climbed up to reach the Intertoto.
23-03-06: I included all latest cup results and some more leagues have been playing a midweek round too.
21-03-06: Yes, Finally, some updates again. I have updated all leagues, and so new CL and UC particiapnts predictions are available. I also updated the predictions, though they hardly do a lot of change anymore. There are only 16 teams left that still play. Still a lot of points to be earned by them. I guess the most interesting fight is the one for the 8th spot. Will Zenit lead Russia to it or can Steaua or Rapid catch it for Romania. What a great end that would be to there surprising season.
I have started with including some cupresults, but are not up to date yet. Also these days there are again a lot of cupmatches, so they will change anyway. It has my attention and it is on top of my list to get it right.
Intertoto is still a big mess. April 9th the draw will be held, but which teams will be play will only be known in May. I'll have to see what I can do with that.
14-03-06: Sorry, I'm ill and am not able to update the sheets currently. I hope to get back on track within a week.
07-03-06: Due to the new insight in how UefaCup places are awarded in the new season that was published on the forum, I updated my UefaCup prediction sheet. The last 80 are almost the same, but the clue lies in that a lot of teams moved from Q2 to Q1, so have to do 1 more round.
06-03-06: Finally, I think, all leagues are up and running again. As far as the matches are not postponed due to the weather. I'm getting ready for the final matches. Things are getting decided in the coming weeks! Time to keep track of my sheets. I will try to improve them to 'white out' the teams that are out of the picture.
For the Cupwinners I took sofar just the next in league. If you have any comments let me know(see my email-address at the right)
