Europa Conference League Thread | Page 3 | Vital Football

Europa Conference League Thread

Pacos de Ferreira seem like the safe bet for me. Paulo Fonseca's old workplace from a few years ago, funnily enough. A bit of a yoyo club in recent years. They won't be a straight forward game but we should come out on top. These games are always a potential banana skin for our club though.

I think my biggest concern will be if off-field events knock the focus and morale of the team in these 2 legs, which are to be played on the 19th and 26th Aug. Both very close to the end of the transfer window and likely to be during an ever-continuing Harry Kane saga.
 
Matic said:
It's draw day!

We’re in group 1 and will be represented by ball number four. We can be drawn against any of the following opponents…

5 PFC CSKA-Sofia (BUL) / NK Osijek (CRO)
6 FC Paços de Ferreira (POR) / Larne FC (NIR)
7 Breidablik (ISL) / Aberdeen FC (SCO)
8 FK Čukarički (SRB) / Hammarby Fotboll (SWE)
Click to expand...
I haven't even heard of three of those teams.
 
I would expect Pacos to beat Larne. They are the 5th placed team in the Portuguese league. I would have to research more but I certainly would not take them lightly before either I do or Matic gives us his report.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
I would expect Pacos to beat Larne. They are the 5th placed team in the Portuguese league. I would have to research more but I certainly would not take them lightly before either I do or Matic gives us his report.
Click to expand...

Don't worry Nick. I addressed this in the opening post on the thread. Scouting reports will only happen closer to the game and when we know 100% who we will be facing.
 
meee93 said:
If you wish, feel free to give me a shout for info if Larne do somehow manage another European surprise
Click to expand...

Absolutely. That would be really helpful. Feel free to chuck any info in a DM to me or post it here and I will use it in the Scouting threading when/if we facing them. I hope they do get through tbh. I can't remember the last time we played a NI team. Was it Linfield?
 
So Pacos de Ferreira up next for Spurs in Europe.

An impressive 1-0 win tonight for Larne over Pacos de Ferreira but sadly wasn't enough after losing 4-0 in the first leg. It's a shame the home leg wasn't played first as last Thursday we had some of the worst weather I've seen in a long time and it would have been interesting to see the Portuguese try to cope with it!

The good news at least is that I don't have to do any work on writing up a background ahead of the game...
 
meee93 said:
So Pacos de Ferreira up next for Spurs in Europe.

An impressive 1-0 win tonight for Larne over Pacos de Ferreira but sadly wasn't enough after losing 4-0 in the first leg. It's a shame the home leg wasn't played first as last Thursday we had some of the worst weather I've seen in a long time and it would have been interesting to see the Portuguese try to cope with it!

The good news at least is that I don't have to do any work on writing up a background ahead of the game...
Click to expand...
Good win but the damage was already inflicted in the 1st leg i suppose. Would've been nice to see another big game over here after the Super Cup last night.
 
meee93 said:
So Pacos de Ferreira up next for Spurs in Europe.

An impressive 1-0 win tonight for Larne over Pacos de Ferreira but sadly wasn't enough after losing 4-0 in the first leg. It's a shame the home leg wasn't played first as last Thursday we had some of the worst weather I've seen in a long time and it would have been interesting to see the Portuguese try to cope with it!

The good news at least is that I don't have to do any work on writing up a background ahead of the game...
Click to expand...

Haha it's all down to me now. FC Pacos de Ferreira - hurdle #1.
 
I've updated the first post on this thread.

Our first ELC match is an away leg, sandwiched between our PL opener at home against Citeh and our PL away game against Wolves.

Quite the juggling act for Nuno from the off.
 
Matic said:
Welcome...

...my fellow yiddos, to the Europa Conference League thread for the 2021/22 season.
This thread will remain stuck for our entire ECL journey so please keep all relevant discussions in here. I will also be producing 'Scouting Threads' at the start of a game week. In these threads there will be information about our opponents so you can get yourselves acquainted with some of the more unknown teams around our continent. I will also continue to update this opening post, on this thread, with our progress.

The Competition Format

To start with there are 3 qualifying rounds, each played over 2 legs. We can mostly ignore these.

We enter into the competition at the Play-off round and we find out who our first opponents are on the 2nd Aug. This round will consist of 2 legs and the winner will proceed to the group stages.

There will be eight groups of four teams, followed by knockout round play-offs, the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

The eight group winners automatically go through to the last 16. Additional knockout round play-offs will then be played before the round of 16, between the eight group runners-up and the third-ranked teams of the UEFA Europa League groups. As if UEFA comps weren't convoluted enough.

The Final

To be held at the Arena Kombëtare, officially known as the Air Albania Stadium, in Albania's capitol city, Tirana. It's a 22,500 capacity ground owned by the Albania FA. It opened in 2019 so its brand-spankers.

EoUzWZfWMAIXpEO



Key Teams

There are plenty of names you will recognise but the obvious big names are us, Roma, Rennes, Trabzonspor, LASK, Anderlecht, PAOK, Rubin and Basel. You may recognise a lot of them if you played Football Manager games in the mid-90's.


The Dosh

Each of the 32 qualifying teams will be guaranteed €3million.

Each group stage victory will be worth €500,000, with a draw seeing a club earn €166,000. Finishing top of the group sees a club pocket €650,000, and second place €325,000.

Reaching the last-16 offers a further €9.6million, the quarter-finals €10.6 million, the semi-finals €12.5 million and the final will result in teams pocketing €15.5 million.

This is not cumulative, it is incremental i.e - Spurs will have earned a total of €15.5m IF they reach the final. If they only reach the last 16 they will have earned €9.6million.


The Fixtures

Aug 19 - 19:30 KO - Playoff Round 1st Leg
FC Pacos de Ferreira (POR) Vs Spurs

Aug 26 - KO TBC - Playoff Round 2nd Leg
Spurs Vs FC Pacos de Ferreira (POR)

-----------------------------------
That's all for now. I will update as soon as we know our first opponents! COYS!
Click to expand...
\

Excellent stuff!:clap::clap::clap:
 
Scouting report

Team: FC Paços de Ferreira
Nation: Portugal
League: Primeira Liga
Stadium: Estadio de Mata Real (9,077cap)
Manager: Jorge Simão
Form (last 5): 🟥 🟩 🟩 🟩 🟥
Cur. League Pos: 5th

Potential Formation:
I'm expecting them to stick to their preferred 4-3-3 formation.

Playing Style:
They are a high-pressing side who use their width well and will look to get the ball into the box whenever they can. When in possession they hold on to the ball and probe, favouring to craft chances through the middle. Typically, like a lot of high-pressing teams, they can leave themselves horribly exposed.

In-form players:
Nuno Santos (CM) - decent box to box mid who reads the game really well, regains possession and will always look to release one of their forward players who like to sit on the shoulder of defenders.

Denilson (FW) - Has recently been used as the centre of a front 3 but isn't your typical number 9 type. He's a poacher, he's strong and he gets into good positions.

Stephen Eustáquio (MC) - Very good passer of the ball and is the more defensive of the midfield 3. He's your tempo-setting, engine-room type of player.
 
I've made a locked thread for the above information so people can refer to it when needed this week, but I've copied the same information here so you can all comment on it and keep the main conversation here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.