Post by staggerstag on Sept 20, 2018 16:43:22 GMT
It was either this or finish watching 'Get Out' (2017) The girl's brother seems a bit of a fruitcake, that's all I've worked out so far. But the film can wait, this can't. There's loads to be done at this time on a late Thursday afternoon. Getting the rubbish ready for the bin men in the morning. Putting out the recycling. Setting the timer for Emmerdale. But, no, here I am, in the first throes of the never-ending Europa League, a bastard of a tournament to qualify for let alone properly compete in and one whose loopy fixture schedules have f***ed up many a side's domestic season. A back door (a very heavy back door) into the Champions League. Sloppy seconds for the CL dropouts when they get booted out of their own tournament. Cash on the hip for many a UEFA suit. A great way for players to rack up the Air Miles via return flights to Outer Mongolia or Siberia. Call it what you want. At 8pm I call it meh. At 5.55pm I call it ever so slightly ridiculous.
He's left Hazard at home to rest and makes Willian captain for the day.
PAOK : Paschalakis, Varela, Tosca, Vieirinha, Khacheridi, El Kaddouri, Mauricio, Wernbloom, Shakhov, Lima, Pelkas
Subs: Rey, Crespo, Biseswar, Warda, Canas, Prijovic, Limnios
CFC : Kepa, Rudiger, Alonso, Zappacosta, Christensen, Jorginho, Kante, Barkley, Pedro, Willian, Morata
Subs: Caballero, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Moses, Giroud
PAOK 5
CFC 8/13
Draw 3
Preamble by Simon Burnton :
Uefa in their press kit point out that “Chuba Akpom, José Ángel Crespo and José Alberto Cañas have all played in the English Premier League”. This is true. Akpom made four substitute appearances for Arsenal (total game time: 28 minutes), Cañas made 19 league starts for Swansea, but I defy anyone (bar supporters of the team involved, and even they might struggle) to know off the top of their heads which Premier League side Crespo played for.
I note that PAOK’s website assures us that the club “has taken all the necessary measures in order to guarantee a football evening of the highest level”. This is highly encouraging. “We ask every spectator to avoid actions that might result to heavy bans,” they add. This is slightly less encouraging, though perhaps a wise precaution for a club that started the season with a two-point domestic deduction because of the chaotic conclusion to their home game against AEK Athens last season, when after a goal was disallowed their owner invaded the pitch with a gun holstered on his hip to bark threats at the referee. “It is,” AEK’s coach, Manolo Jimenez, concluded, “the kind of thing you expect to see in a Clint Eastwood movie.” PAOK’s nickname is Dikefalos tou Vora, or the Two-Headed Eagle of the North, which is far too interesting to be the kind of thing you expect to see in a Clint Eastwood movie.
Match pointer dept: Chelsea have never won, or for that matter lost, a competitive game in Greece. They drew a Champions League round of 16 match at Olympiacos 0-0 in 2008, and a Cup Winners’ Cup game at Aris Thessaloniki ended 1-1 in 1970 (PAOK’s slogan, “One City, One Team”, seems a bit rum given that there are very clearly two major teams in Thessaloniki). And PAOK have never lost to an English side at home, having drawn against Tottenham in this competition in 2011 and beaten Arsenal 1-0 on their way to knocking Arsène Wenger’s side out of the 1997 Uefa Cup.
Anyway, here we are.
He's left Hazard at home to rest and makes Willian captain for the day.
PAOK : Paschalakis, Varela, Tosca, Vieirinha, Khacheridi, El Kaddouri, Mauricio, Wernbloom, Shakhov, Lima, Pelkas
Subs: Rey, Crespo, Biseswar, Warda, Canas, Prijovic, Limnios
CFC : Kepa, Rudiger, Alonso, Zappacosta, Christensen, Jorginho, Kante, Barkley, Pedro, Willian, Morata
Subs: Caballero, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Moses, Giroud
PAOK 5
CFC 8/13
Draw 3
Preamble by Simon Burnton :
Uefa in their press kit point out that “Chuba Akpom, José Ángel Crespo and José Alberto Cañas have all played in the English Premier League”. This is true. Akpom made four substitute appearances for Arsenal (total game time: 28 minutes), Cañas made 19 league starts for Swansea, but I defy anyone (bar supporters of the team involved, and even they might struggle) to know off the top of their heads which Premier League side Crespo played for.
I note that PAOK’s website assures us that the club “has taken all the necessary measures in order to guarantee a football evening of the highest level”. This is highly encouraging. “We ask every spectator to avoid actions that might result to heavy bans,” they add. This is slightly less encouraging, though perhaps a wise precaution for a club that started the season with a two-point domestic deduction because of the chaotic conclusion to their home game against AEK Athens last season, when after a goal was disallowed their owner invaded the pitch with a gun holstered on his hip to bark threats at the referee. “It is,” AEK’s coach, Manolo Jimenez, concluded, “the kind of thing you expect to see in a Clint Eastwood movie.” PAOK’s nickname is Dikefalos tou Vora, or the Two-Headed Eagle of the North, which is far too interesting to be the kind of thing you expect to see in a Clint Eastwood movie.
Match pointer dept: Chelsea have never won, or for that matter lost, a competitive game in Greece. They drew a Champions League round of 16 match at Olympiacos 0-0 in 2008, and a Cup Winners’ Cup game at Aris Thessaloniki ended 1-1 in 1970 (PAOK’s slogan, “One City, One Team”, seems a bit rum given that there are very clearly two major teams in Thessaloniki). And PAOK have never lost to an English side at home, having drawn against Tottenham in this competition in 2011 and beaten Arsenal 1-0 on their way to knocking Arsène Wenger’s side out of the 1997 Uefa Cup.
Anyway, here we are.
