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THE MATCHUPS IN THIS POST HAVE ENDED ALREADY. PLEASE REFER TO THIS POST FOR THE QUALIFIERS THAT ARE GOING ON RIGHT NOW A long long time ago, back before Sky invented football with the Premier League, and back when the Champions League was literally only for champions of the leagues, there were several competitions for those clubs that weren't so lucky to win titles: the Cup Winners' Cup, Europacup II (later the UEFA Cup) for runners-up and third places, and yes, even the Interoto Cup for the least lovely dross in your league. It turns out in the period of football where TV dictates the sport, having a competition where Lens-Cluj can be one of three finals (don't ask) is a bad idea. These lesser cups have been hence combined into one greater lesser cup  Welcome to the 10 year anniversary of the UEFA Europa League, where you can see the-not-quite-the-best of Europe. The prize? A chance to play in the 2019-2020 Champions League. Yes, in an attempt to make sure clubs take the Europa League seriously, they have engraved in the procedure that the winner of totally not the second division of European football gets a shot at the actually important European competition. But hey, if you're a club that happened to miss the money boat in top-tier football but still want to pretend your club is a force to be reckoned with coughajaxcough, this competition is the one for you. It's actually also really fun to watch if you're a neutral. Instead of sperging out about the marginal successes in yet another loving Ronaldo/Messi duel, you get to see the players who will inevitably get bought by the same monopolic clubs that are killing football today. How could we ever forget seeing Carlos Bacca, Lucas Hernandez, and Nikola Kalinic for example, all former Europa League finalists. If your team is in the Champions League and they accidentally gently caress up, don't worry! They're put straight into the group stages of the competition from the 3rd qualifying round of the CL forward unless they're in the Champions path, showing once again that the Europa League is definitely something Ceferin cares about. This has the surrealist consequence of it being actually worse to not finish as a champion in a small league than second if you want a bigger chance to stay in Europe until January. We join the League, as is tradition, at the time the first Premiership team enters the competition, which this year is the second qualifier round. The preliminary round and the first qualifier actually got played during that one tournament in Russia last summer. Let's take a look at what matches we can see this Thursday and next. Following qualifier rounds will get their own posts when we get there. There's something new here from this year on, as the Europa League takes over the Champions path/League path model of the CL. Champions Path These pairings are mostly just reshuffles of pairings we had in the first Champions League qualifying round, but who gives a gently caress about that.  There once was a team from Cork Who went to Europe for work They got a bye Don't ask me why This competition's a joke  -  The Welsh team formerly known as Total Network Solutions, The New Saints, take on the champion from the recent UEFA acquisition of Gibraltar, the Lincoln Red Imps. If Lincoln win this, they will have never progressed further in Eurofoot. Exciting prospects for the Red Imps.  -  Torpedo Kutaisi, the second most succesful club in Georgia (no, not that Georgia, you stupid American), were pitted against 10 year old club Vikingur Gota from the Faroe Islands. They've won 7 trophies in those 10 years, and have won at least one trophy since 2012. I bet a lot of European clubs would go mental for a track record like that.  -  You might think Zrinjski Mostar are Croatian, and while they do have a lot of Croatian symbols in their logo and Luka Modric used to play there, you would be wrong. It is in fact the oldest club in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and would not exist if socialism was still alive in Yugoslavia, as they used to play in the Ustashe Croatia league. Their opponents, Valletta, are a familiar name to whoever's dumb enough to follow Eurofoot qualifiers. They hail from the theocracy of Malta.  -  Andorra champions FC Santa Coloma are another name known to autists who would watch a stream of Gibraltar public television to look at early Eurofoot. They're up against Valur from Iceland, who are actually better at handball than football.  -  Sutjeska Nikisic are the champions of Monten*gro, known for their world-famous rivalry with *looks at wiki* Buducnost Podgorica, who I've actually heard of before. They play Armenian champion Alaskhert, who are not notable in the slightest.  -  Not-Belgium's champion Dudelange have literally only won four Eurofoot games in their entire history (one of them was against a Redbull team though so that's pretty funny). This is Yes-Serbia's champion Drita's first Eurofoot season, they've already won two games.  -  Spartaks Jurmala are here because they were Latvia's champion in 2017. Don't ask me why the 2018 champion isn't here instead. La Fiorita are from San Marino. There's 8 teams in San Marino.  -  APOEL actually lost to a Baltic champion. Let's hope for their fans they don't get kicked out of Europe by another. Flora have only won one Eurofoot game in their entire history though, so this should really be an APOEL blowout.  -  Olimpia Ljubljana (2005) is not to be confused with Olimpia Ljubljana (1945). They're owned by the bloke who used to own Sheffield Wednesday. Crusaders are from Norn Ireland and have won a lot of stuff. League Path Right, so this is where all the actually  -  Molde lost out on the Norwegian title to Rosenborg for another year to find themselves in the EL. They got here by beating Northern Ireland's Glenavon (althought Glenavon did win their home game). Laçi got here after finishing 4th in the Albanian Superliga (where the champion has been banned from Eurofoot for 10 years for match fixing, so make of that what you want) and have beaten Cyprus' Famagusta. RIP Cypriot football.  -  Just to hammer in how loving worthless the Europa League is, if you finish near midtable in Italy you get a ticket to this round in the qualifiers. Sarajevo on the other hand, had to become third in Bosnia and beat some Armenian cloggers (Banants) on the way.  -  Lithuanian runner-up Zalgiris once got to the last qualifying round of the EL! They celebrated that in the streets of Vilnius I bet. This year they beat up on Klaksvik from the Faroe Islands. Vaduz qualified because they are the only club in Liechtenstein, and because Levski Sofia are somehow worse.  -  Kairat are the second best team from Kazakhstan, very nice. One time they beat Aberdeen, but this time they've only beat Engordany so far. They're up against AZ who were 3rd in the Eredivisie. How far has Dutch football fallen. I mean, they're ranked worse in UEFA than Belgian clubs!  -  The Europa League has given us a good old fashioned Scotland-England pairing. Take a gander at this game if you want to relive the days without foreign fancy dans. Aberdeen were the best of the rest in Scotland, and Burnley weren't. This is actually only Burnley's 7th Eurofoot pairing and their first since they competed in the Inter-Cities Fairs' Cup. It has literally been over 50 years since Burnley were in Eurofoot.  -  Srbija's runner-up Partizan have returned to Eurofoot once more, and have already made short work of former-Serbia's Rudar. Lithuania's third place team Trakai beat Irtysh Pavlodar from Kazakhstan to get here. Will the fact that Partizan only had to walk next door play in their favour? Probably not because these are two bad teams.  -  The Maltese runner-ups Balzan... won a game? They beat an Azeri team that got in as a losing finalist but still. Slovenian runners-up Bratislava will probably ruin the Maltese dream though, as they already have with Moldovia team Orhei  -  The 3rd placed team in Denmark Nordsjaelland beat another Northern Irish team to get a chance to go face to face with friendly neighbours AIK, who were second in Sweden and beat a Southern Irish team.  -  So it turns out if you're 4th in Slovenia you can still compete in Eurofoot, like Rudar who got the easiest opponent possible with Tre Fiori. Romanian runners-up Steaua are actually good though.  -  New av alert for Tom as Israeli cup winner Hapoel Haifa enter the competition. FH placed third in Iceland and have already beaten their brothers in cold Lahti  -  Irish runner-ups Dundalk are probably 'fecken pessed' that Cork got a bye, but they got to beat some Estonians the process so whatever. Larnaca are right now probably the only hope Cyprus have for a team that isn't poo poo.  -  I hope Mackintosh knows something about Gornik Zabrze cause I don't apart from their 4th spot in Poland and their win over Zaria Balti. 5th! place in Slovakia Trencin beat Podgorica, and now they're here.  -  Maccabi Tel-Aviv, runner-up in Israel, beat former Hungarian powerhouse Ferencvaros to get to the 2nd round and face Serbian bronze medallist Radnicki Nis, who beat some Maltese team.  -  Please take a moment to admire CSKA Sofia's amazing crest. Because it won't be here for long, if you have to win a penalty shootout to beat some Latvians. Admira Wacker Mödling are a 5th place team in Austria, and this is only their first matchup this year in Eurofoot.  -  Spartak Subotica were 4th in Srbija and also beat a Northern Irish team to get here (how many loving Irish teams are there in this part of the competition?). Sparta Prague finished 5th in Czechia. This is their first match this year in Eurofoot.  -  Germany's most hated group since the Nazis RB Leipzig get to join in as 6th placed team in Germany, starting their Eurofoot year against 4th place Swedes Häcken who also beat some Latvians.  -  Stjarnan once got to face Inter Milan and lost. Now they're facing a club some posters might actually root for in Kobenhavn, who must've done poo poo as they were only 4th in Denmark. They beat the Finnish KuPS and go to travel north again, if the volcanoes don't explode by then.  -  Ufa are in because the UEFA coefficient is very generous and allows Russian's sixth place team to enter. This will be Ufa's very first Eurofoot game! Opponent Domzale from Slovenia already beat some Bosnians to get here.  -  Tobol are another midtable club from a Eurasian country who somehow all get to play in this loving competition. What the gently caress? They beat some Georgian cloggers. Pyunik are from Armenia who beat some Macedonian cloggers.  -  Jagiellonia are runners-up in Poland? Who the gently caress are these guys? Why are Rio Ave in without having to play a first qualifier round? What the gently caress  -  I don't remember there being this much dross in previous iterations of this thread. Why are we talking about LASK Linz? What are all these bad leagues doing here? Lillestrom won the Norwegian cup and almost relegated. Neither of these teams have had to play Eurofoot yet???  -  I think I remember hearing about Honved. They beat a Macedonian team I've heard of before too. Progrès Niederkorn kicked out Rangers last year and kicked out some Azeris this year.  -  Osijek have never been relegated from the Croatian league which makes me think it's poo poo. They beat a worse club in Moldova and now NewCo Rangers are here too. They beat Macedonians. How many loving berths did Macedonia get?  -  Torshavn, a Faroese club I've never heard of before, has literally already won two Eurofoot pairings. It would be extremely Turkish for Besiktas to gently caress up here. (Not to mention it's pretty insane Besiktas ended up in this part of the tournament).  -  Dac Dunajska Streda is a club for the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. They beat Georgian classic Dinamo Tblisi to go face a Dinamo of the Minsk variant, who keep getting send in this phase of the competition even though they actually win quite frequently, having already beaten Derry.  -  I can't believe Ventspils is already our third Lithuanian team. I also can't believe loving Bordeaux are only in this phase of the competition.  -  Zeljeznicar are our third Bosnian team, and they beat some Trans folk from Estonia. Limassol were actually the runners-up in Cyprus, proving how much that competition sucks and have beaten a fourth Lithuanian team!  -  Viitorul are known for Georghe Haghi and nothing else. They beat a Luxembourgish side and are staying in the area with Dutch club Vitesse, who won the Europa League play-offs in the Eredivisie.  -  Saint-Gallen are here. Who? I don't know. They're Swiss. This is Sarpsborg's first Eurofoot campaign and their second pairing  -  Fun fact: Dinamo Brest are actually not from France, but Belarus. They won a cup to get here. Atromitos are just bad, but they seem to be the only Greek team here? Where are the others?  -  loving hate that midtable clubs can be in this dumb competition for idiots. Sevilla will probably win this and then do nothing in the CL. It doesn't matter who they're up against.  -  Three Belarussian Lions on the shirt Shakhtyor Soligorsk let"s just all do the Poznan.  -  poo poo Edinburgh team Hibs up against a poo poo Greek team Asteras. Here's the Greeks  -  No fighting. No fighting. Chikhura Sachkhere. Maribor still trigger me too much to call them poo poo  -  Genk play in Belgium and won the EL playoff final. Please post in the Belgium thread. Fola Esch are the oldest club in Luxembourg. They beat Pristina.  -  Djugardens are fro Sweden and not very good. Mariupol are the same but in Ukraine  -  How are a team like Hajduk at the same loving round as mid-table Kazakhs. How? Slavia Sofia won the cup in Bulgaria. If they won the cup in England they would have been in the group stage. This whole tournament's a mess. Never make this thread again belgend fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Aug 3, 2018 |
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Jul 23, 2018 22:07
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I liked the Europa League before making a thread about this part of the competition. No more
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Jul 23, 2018 22:08
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I'm impressed, Belge. Well done. Atalanta are good and they are only in this part of the competition because Milan conned UEFA into letting them back in to it, otherwise they'd start at the group stage. Anyway dinamo brest lol
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Jul 23, 2018 23:09
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I hope Rangers win.
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Jul 23, 2018 23:17
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Ninety Three Bad Teams
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Jul 23, 2018 23:23
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good op for so much waste op
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Jul 24, 2018 01:32
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UFA is only in because because the russia domestic cup winner Tosno finances were so poo poo they couldn't register for the team for russian league or uefa license for this year
vivisectvnv fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Jul 24, 2018 |
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Jul 24, 2018 07:13
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Holy moly that op  Nice work.
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Jul 24, 2018 11:46
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Nice op, op. That's a lot of teams to write about, v impressive.
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Jul 24, 2018 12:26
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Imagine having to pick one of these teams to get a walk-over and they went with Cork lol (I assume it was random but still come on)
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Jul 24, 2018 16:53
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drat good thread, belge. drat good. Aberdeen-Burnley should be a fun tie, Dons have been quite good the past few years and I like their manager. e: also something else interesting, this year the EL is using a new ball from Molten, who are best known for making basketballs and volleyballs. previously they used the same Adidas as most leagues just with a different paint-job, so it could be funny if Molten provided a Jabulani-esque ball. Troy Queef fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Jul 24, 2018 |
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Jul 24, 2018 21:08
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nords-aik should be interesting considering their play styles
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Jul 26, 2018 01:14
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and hell, here's hoping rangers get knocked out by osijek. garbage waste men -fat greasy puto
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Jul 26, 2018 01:15
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Here are your first leg results: UFA 0-0 Domzale Ventspils 0-1 Bordeaux Viitorul 2-2 Vitesse Tobol 2-1 Pyunik Kairat 2-0 AZ (LOL) Jurmala 6-0 La Fiorita Ruda 0-2 Steaua Hapoel Haifa 1-1 FH Kutaisi 3-0 Vikingur Balzan 2-1 Slovan Bratislava Shakira Shakira 0-0 Maribor Leipzig 4-0 Häcken Dudelange 2-1 Drita CSKA Sofia 3-0 Admira Zalgiris 1-0 Vaduz APOEL 5-0 Flora Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 Radnicki Nis Molde 3-0 Laçi Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 Valletta Honved 1-0 Niederkorn Djugardens 1-1 Mariupol Jagiellonia 1-0 Rio Ave Soligorsk 1-1 Poznan Linz 4-0 Lillestrom Dinamo Brest 4-3 Atromitos (this was 4-0 five minutes before FT lol) Nordsjaelland 1-0 AIK TNS 2-1 Lincoln Santa Coloma 1-0 Valur Sutjeska 0-1 Alashkert Olimpia Ljulbjana 5-1 Crusaders Genk 5-0 Fola B36 0-2 Besiktas Hajduk 1-0 Slavia Zabrze 0-1 Trencin St-Gallen 2-1 Sarpsborg Zeljesnicar 1-2 Limassol Atalanta 2-2 Sarajevo Partizan 1-0 Trakai Dundalk 0-0 Larnaca Aberdeen 1-1 Burnley Osijek 0-1 Rangers Subotica 2-0 Sparta Praha Hibs 3-2 Asteris (was 0-2 lmao) Stjarnan 0-2 Kobnhavn DAC 1-3 Dinamo Minsk Sevilla 4-0 Ujpest belgend fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jul 27, 2018 |
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Jul 26, 2018 18:52
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The BBC are showing a game, The Club Formerly Known As Total Network Solutions have just scored against the Lincoln Red Imps, which is nice, for them
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Jul 26, 2018 19:06
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I can't get enough of are Dan
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Can't believe Atalanta pissed that one away
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Jul 27, 2018 00:28
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Dudelange
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Jul 27, 2018 04:04
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Some real cool obscure club crests in that very good op, thank
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Jul 27, 2018 04:05
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There are two EL games today, don't ask me why. Pyunik beat Tobol 1-0 today to go through on away goals, Genk are 15 minutes in and already beating Esch 0-2 again after winning 5-0 last week. So congrats Pyunik and Genk for being our two first winners of the qualifiers
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Aug 1, 2018 17:36
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Match of the century about to start lads COYR!
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Aug 2, 2018 19:36
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Lincoln Red Imps (of Gibraltar and beating Celtic in that one game that time fame) are currently up 1-0 against The New Saints. 2-2 aggregate so Lincoln would go through on away goals if it holds. Will they or wont they be dancing in the streets of Total Network Solutions tonight?? edit: lol jinxed it in 5 seconds 1-1
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Aug 2, 2018 19:39
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Atalanta went in to the game against FK Sarajevo at 2-2 after giving up 2 goals at home. It's now 29 minutes in and Atalanta are 4-0 up away lol.
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Aug 2, 2018 19:44
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i dont envy the uefa sperg who has to maintain europa_league_setup.xls
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Aug 2, 2018 19:47
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Woops I forgot it was Thursday here is your results post to be updated up until midnight wooo Laci 0-2 Molde (Molde go through 0-5) Alashkert 0-0 Sutjeska (Alashkert go through 1-0) Trencin 4-1 Zabrze (Trencin go through 5-1) Larnaca 4-0 Dundalk (Larnaca go through 4-0) Valletta 1-2 Zrinjski (Zrinjski go through 2-3) Slavia Sofia 2-3 Hajduk (Hajduk go through 2-4) Minsk 4-1 DAC (Minsk go through 7-2) Flora 2-0 APOEL (APOEL go through 2-5) Trakai 1-1 Partizan (Partizan go through 1-2) Hacken 1-1 Leipzig (Leipzig go through 1-5) Lillestrom 1-2 Linz (Linz go through 1-6) AIK 0-1 Nordsjaelland (Nordsjaelland go through 0-2) Vaduz 1-1 Zalgiris (Zalgiris go through 1-2) Red Imps 1-1 TNS (TNS go through 2-3) Apollon 3-1 Zeljesnicar (Apollon goes through 5-2) Wacker Modling 1-3 CSKA Sofia (CSKA go through 1-6) Niederkorn 2-0 Honved (Niederkorn go through 2-1) Sparta Praha 2-1 Spartak Subotica (Subotica go through 2-3) Atromitos 1-1 Dinamo Brest (Brest go through 4-5) Bratislava 3-1 Balzan (Bratislava go through 4-3) Mariupol 2-1AET Djugardens (Mariupol go through 3-2) Vikingur 0-4 Torpedo (Torpedo go through 0-7) Besiktas 6-0 B36 (Besiktas go through 8-0) Vitesse 3-1 Viitorul (Vitesse go through 5-3) Kobnhavn 5-0 Stjarnan (Kobnhavn go through 7-0) Asteras 1-1 Hibs (Hibs go through 3-4) Maribor 2-0 Shakira Shakira (Maribor go through 2-0) Sarajevo 0-8 Atalanta (Atalanta go through 2-10) Steaua 4-0 Rudar (Steaua go through 6-0) Domzale 1-1 Ufa (Ufa go through on away goals) AZ 2-1 Kairat (Kairat go through 2-3) Bordeaux 2-1 Ventspilts (Bordeaux go through 3-1) La Fiorita 0-3 Jurmala (Jurmala go through 0-9) Drita 1-1 Dudelange (Dudelange go through 2-3) Sarpsborg 1-0 St-Gallen (Sarpsborg go through on away goals) Rangers 1-1 Osijek (Rangers go through 2-1) Crusaders 1-1 Ljulbjana (Ljubljana go through 1-6) Radnicki Nis 2-2 Maccabi Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv go through 2-4) Ujpest 1-3 Sevilla (Sevilla go through 1-7) Rio Ave 4-4 Jagiellonia (Jagiellonia go through 4-5) FH 0-1 Hapoel Haifa (Haifa go through 1-2) Burnley 3-1AET Aberdeen (Burnley go through 4-2) Poznan 3-1AET Soligorsk (Poznan go through 4-2) Valur 3-0 Santa Coloma (Valur go through 3-1) belgend fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 20:02
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Hibs may be poo poo, but they just won a European tie
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Aug 2, 2018 20:53
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Troy Queef posted:Hibs may be poo poo, but they just won a European tie His are shi- good ? wtf Aberdeen doing ok, but will probably get killed late on
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Aug 2, 2018 21:01
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Gigi Galli posted:Atalanta went in to the game against FK Sarajevo at 2-2 after giving up 2 goals at home. It's now 29 minutes in and Atalanta are 4-0 up away lol. the match ended 8-0, Papu got 2 and Musa Barrow scored a natural hat trick in the 2nd half e: if you aren't watching Burnley-Aberdeen you're missing a good one Troy Queef fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Aug 2, 2018 |
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Aug 2, 2018 21:03
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It's a much, much closer tie than I was expecting as a Dons fan.
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Aug 2, 2018 21:16
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https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1025098317615824896 gently caress me
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Aug 2, 2018 21:18
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Can't allow myself to hope...
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Aug 2, 2018 21:21
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Chas McGill posted:Can't allow myself to hope... That proved a good decision
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Aug 2, 2018 22:05
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Definitely had enough chances to score ffs
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Aug 2, 2018 22:12
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gently caress 
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Aug 2, 2018 22:12
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Aug 2, 2018 22:15
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Please join me, fellow Eurofoot fans, in hoping that Valur - Santa Coloma gets another goal and we don't get extra time on a 10PM kickoff
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Aug 2, 2018 22:21
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belgend posted:Please join me, fellow Eurofoot fans, in hoping that Valur - Santa Coloma gets another goal and we don't get extra time on a 10PM kickoff It's not a 10PM kickoff if it's not 10PM where the kickoff happened
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Aug 2, 2018 22:25
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sounds like someone isn't on CET tech, UEFA's official timezone
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Aug 2, 2018 22:28
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belgend posted:Please join me, fellow Eurofoot fans, in hoping that Valur - Santa Coloma gets another goal and we don't get extra time on a 10PM kickoff ok wish granted 
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Aug 2, 2018 22:29
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That was an honorable showing, and if we play that way against sevco on Sunday they're loving hosed.
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Aug 2, 2018 23:09
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| # ? May 6, 2024 15:26 |
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Noted Canadian and drunk driving enthusiast Cyle Larin had a hat trick for Besiktas against a club from the Faroe Islands
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Aug 3, 2018 00:19
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