Ceemo

46 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Is the Ajax keeper any good at them?

Faced 3 penalties this season and all 3 have gone in.

According to transfermarkt including youth games, he has faced 20 penalties, with 2 saves.

Quote

Netherlands shot-stopper Van Domselaar has a release clause in her contract which is in the region of £200,000 and sources say Arsenal have identified the 24-year-old as a strong target for their summer window.

That's her gone in the summer.

4 hours ago, The Fun Factory said:

If we managed to get past Ajax Fenerbache would be a tough draw, esp the away leg. Zagreb probably the same with their charming fans. And on paper Lille and Fiorentina should be fairly strong given the leagues they play in.  The winners of Servette-Plzen would be nice.

Forgot as well that Fenerbahce signed Bonucci in the January transfer window, so it's a mad squad really of 30 year-old+ players. Would be horrible to play them with it being a long journey to Turkey and also the hostile atmosphere.

Lille are real dark horses for this competition. Very good defensively with 18 year-old Leny Yoro a potential superstar and a bit of class up top. Paulo Fonseca is also a very good coach.

Lots of decent teams in general in this competition but no world beaters for sure.
 

Results from last night:
Ajax 0-0 Aston Villa
Molde 2-1 Club Brugge
Olympiacos 1-4 Maccabi Tel Aviv
Sturm Graz 0-3 Lille
Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 PAOK
Maccabi Haifa 3-4 Fiorentina
Servette 0-0 Viktoria Plzen
Union Saint-Gilloise 0-3 Fenerbahce

Impressive result of the night was surely Fenerbahce. Got the early goal and as USG pushed to get an equaliser, they countered and have pretty much sealed the tie. Dangerous side in this competition as they have a very experienced side. Lots of ex-Premier League players with the likes of Soyuncu, Fred, Cengiz Under, Tadic, Batshuayi and Dzeko.
Lille were also very impressive. Could have won by more as well and they have some very talented attackers.
Maccabi Tel Aviv pulled off a shock win in Greece. Led by Robbie Keane, they were 2 up in 10 minutes as Olympiacos' frailties in defence showed up again in Europe.
Molde got a late, late winner to beat Club Brugge, but the Belgians will be confident of turning it around next week.
Fiorentina won a shoot-out in Hungary against Haifa. A late deflected shot by Barak found its way in and they will be there or thereabouts come the end of this competition.
Zagreb looked good against PAOK while Servette and Plzen played out a low-key draw.

McGinn had some small pain in the last training session and was left out because of that.
 

McGinn, Diaby and Zaniolo are all 1 yellow card away from suspension.

Rensch, Hato and Brobbey for Ajax are also 1 yellow card away from missing the second leg.

Albanian ref tonight. He did the Molde-Legia game from the last round but this is definitely the biggest game he will have done.

No Bergwijn or Berghuis available for Ajax today from the press conference. Sutalo is suspended but is injured anyway, so they are likely to start the 11 from the weekend. Van de Boomen may come into the side but Mannsverk did well beside Henderson and would be unlucky to be left out.
..........................Ramaj...........................

Gooijer...Rensch...Kaplan...Hato...Sosa

Hlynsson.Mannsverk.Henderson.Taylor

........................Brobbey.........................

Their coach van't Schip reverted to a back 5 against AZ last week which obviously goes against the ideals of Ajax's famous 4-3-3, as a way to try and just get results which didn't work on that occasion.
What was surprising is that he used the same system at home on Sunday, but their performance and result was much improved. They have moved away from wingers in this side at the moment and so expect Taylor and Hlynsson to closely support Brobbey with the width coming from the full-backs in Sosa and Gooijer. The middle of the field is going to be pretty congested.

They have a very decent keeper in Ramaj who is in great form. Very young back-line which has been very fragile this season. Turkish youngster Kaplan started for the first time on Sunday and did well but may be someone that Villa can target. Hato will turn 18 tomorrow and will be their next big sale. Midfield is young and has had ups and downs, Henderson has clearly been signed to bring in leadership and experience. Brobbey is the star man up front. Only 5ft 11', but he can lead the line on his own and will be a big challenge for our defenders.
At the moment they are playing a bit like Man United. Confidence is a little low, which is why they have been playing a bit more reactively but with a huge crowd behind them, if they get going, they will start to play and that's what we have to stop.

Hamstring issue is what he has. Probably best to have him on the bench and rest him for Ajax if possible.

Luton are very open to through balls with no protection in midfield.

Lokonga is massive for them. Went off injured at half-time at Anfield, and they just weren't the same after. With no Nakamba either, they don't have a defensive midfielder in the team.

Can be hard to predict as 6 subs can now be made with extra-time added so it's more likely that players on the bench would take one, so if the likes of Bailey/Alex Moreno/Tielemans, start they are all very unlikely to play 120 minutes.

Wes Edens is a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks with Jimmy Haslam who owns Columbus Crew (and the Cleveland Browns who have previous links with us with Randy Lerner), so I imagine that's how this friendly got arranged.

Makes you wonder whether V Sports will do a potential partnership with Columbus Crew after the failure of the Las Vegas Villans project.

First Leg in Amsterdam confirmed for 5:45pm on Thursday, March 7.

Second Leg is at Villa Park at 8pm Thursday, March 14.

17 minutes ago, StewieGriffin said:

Apart from their form since changing manager after they lost at Brighton (I think)...

They've gone from 2nd bottom to 5th after winning 90% of their games. They're in a form (albeit in an average league), and you want to avoid in form teams

Haven't won any of their last 3 league games and also were beaten by an amateur side in the Dutch Cup.

3rd season in a row that Feyenoord have been knocked out by Roma. They really must hate them at this stage.

6 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Was going to say long trip but I assume Tel Aviv are playing at a neutral venue somewhere closer to U.K?

I think we'll mix and match a bit for the first leg (hopefully no Chambers though) to rest 2-3 of our key players for Spurs and then go full strength for the VP return leg.

We haven't drawn Tel Aviv or Haifa by the way. The draw is on Friday.

So far, Tel-Aviv have played their home group games in Serbia, while Haifa played the first leg against Gent last week in Hungary.

It would be an absolute travesty if Villa drew one of those sides and had to play the home leg behind closed doors at Villa Park for security reasons if that came to be.

There was one game in the Conference League this evening with Maccabi Haifa knocking out Gent, 2-1 on aggregate. Interestingly, Gent were at home and due to police advice played behind closed doors due to the risk of protestors/drones etc. Haifa along with Maccabi Tel-Aviv (managed by Robbie Keane) are the 2 remaining Israel sides in the competition and if Villa draw either of them, it may cause big issues.

Also I noticed something today in that yellow cards are only wiped once the quarter-finals are completed, so any players from the group stage until then will face a suspension if they get 3 yellow cards accumulated. From the group stage, various players have 1 yellow card, but McGinn, Diaby and Zaniolo all picked up 2 yellow cards which would leave them close to a suspension. Just something to keep an eye on when European action returns.
 

Stats according to the BBC Page:
Fouls: Brentford 1-12 Liverpool
Yellow Cards: Brentford 1-0 Liverpool

Just like City, Liverpool have perfected the foul.

Full times in the late kick-offs:
Servette 0-0 Ludogorets
Real Betis 0-1 Dinamo Zagreb
Ajax 2-2 Bodo/Glimt
Maccabi Haifa 1-0 Gent

Surprise result with Dinamo Zagreb going to Seville and winning. Betis though tend to have these type of results in Europe as they often have lots of possession without a cutting edge. They could still easily turn it around in Zagreb however as they do have the players.
Ajax managed to level the tie against Bodo/Glimt with two late goals. Bodo/Glimt for so long had been comfortable but even despite those last few minutes, they will be confident of winning at home.

Fulll-times in the early kick-offs:
Sturm Graz 4-1 Slovan Bratislava
Union St Gilloise 2-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Molde 3-2 Legia Warsaw
Olympiacos 1-0 Ferencvaros

A triple sub at half-time for Legia spurred them on to a comeback as Molde got deeper and deeper and now Legia are possibly favourites to come through. Saint-Gilloise improved after the break and got a deserved equaliser. A late red card halted that however and in the end Frankfurt will be happy enough with the result. Strum Graz are pretty much through and Olympiacos picked up a narrow win against Ferencvaros with it still all to be played for next week.

Just to confirm, we will face one of the winners of these 8 ties.

Half-times in the early kick-offs:
Sturm Graz 2-1 Slovan Bratislava
Union St Gilloise 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
Molde 3-0 Legia Warsaw
Olympiacos 0-0 Ferencvaros

Legia are getting absolutely walloped by Molde and they have been unable to deal with their counter attack. Some poor keeping by Tobiaz hasn't helped.

Frankfurt have looked impressive in Belgium. St Gilloise lead the Belgian League by 8pts but Frankfurt have been on top throughout and only for a silly backpass, they would have been more comfortable.
 

Fixtures today:
Molde vs Legia - 17:45
Olympiacos vs Ferencvaros - 17:45
Sturm Graz vs Slovan Bratislava - 17:45
Union St-Gilloise vs Eintracht Frankfurt - 17:45

Ajax vs Bodo Glimt - 20:00
Maccabi Haifa vs Gent - 20:00
Real Betis vs Dinamo Zagreb - 20:00
Servette vs Ludogorets - 20:00

I see that TNT are running their goals show tonight that they normally for the Champions League group stage which will combine the Europa League ties as well.

Great to see him back around the boys again and he has been presumably given the all clear to begin getting the boots back on and train again.

Such a tough injury to come back from as much mentally as physically as the isolation away from the team group can't have been easy, especially since he is the captain.