ToffeeWeb - Season 2009-10

The Mail Bag

Europa Draw

Benfica, AEK AThens and BATE Borisov.

Not the easiest and not the hardest. The games against Benfica will be a good judge of our European pedigree. If we hope to get to the Champions League in coming seasons then it's teams like Benfica (in and out of that competition) who we need to at least measure up to.

In reality I think we have a fair chance of progression. If we win our home games and draw/scrape wins in our early away games then some players can be rested towards the end of the group stages.
Gareth Cooper, Sheffield Posted 28/08/2009 at 09:56:44

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Steve Sweeney
1 Posted 28/08/2009 at 10:24:00

Well its Lisbon, Athens, and Belarus Borisov is North east of Minsk. Will be a bit cold come December, I would imagine we will want to play our away leg early at this venue. Have the dates been agreed yet??

Vishal Poorundersingh
2 Posted 28/08/2009 at 13:55:13

Good draw, looks very entertaining.

Craig Taylor
3 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:02:43

I think it is a good draw for us. Never heard of the Belarus team, but the others are will known European teams. Not the toughest draw we could have had, but tough enough for us to be on our toes.

Mike Gray
4 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:05:00

I think we can definitely progress from this group.

Dan McKie
5 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:06:09

I think we should beat all of those teams at home, and should also get a couple of positive results away. I tip Everton and Benfica to get through comfortably.

David Kershaw
6 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:09:49

Anybody know when they finalise the actual opponents and dates, so I can start planning?

ps: some well dodgy seeding, but I am not paranoid or i would have noticed it!!!

Ste Bowness
7 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:19:08

Anyone onto Edgar Davids Wikipedia page?

Allan Williamson
8 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:29:20

BATE drew twice with Juventus, and once with Zenit St. Petersburg last year in their Champions League Group; could be a tricky encounter....

Andrew Ellams
9 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:32:16

We finished 5th behind 4 teams who have realistic chances of winning the Champions League; these 3 teams in our group weren’t good enough to qualify for the Champions League from much weaker competitions. This should be reasonably easy. Won’t it...???

Trevor Williams
10 Posted 28/08/2009 at 14:50:52

Lisbon and Athens
Two amazing stadiums holding 60 and 70, 000. Tickets should be no problem

Compared to the places we could have gone I have to say I am over the moon and planning the trips already

Bate holds 5,000 so I dont think I will bother with that one

Conor Waters
11 Posted 28/08/2009 at 15:14:16

Having seen some of the groups in the champions league draw yesterday, i’m quite surprised by the strength and quality of some of the europa league groups. All of our group opponents have been in the champions league before, unlike ourselves. So I wouldn’t say it’ll be easy by any means. I just hope our squad survives the 396 games it takes to win this competition!!!

Mark Stone
12 Posted 28/08/2009 at 15:29:49

Already booked my flights for Benfica.

Phil Guyers
13 Posted 28/08/2009 at 15:26:41

Dates are on uefa.com as follows:-

17.09.2009 AEK Athens (H)
01.10.2009 BATE Borisov (A)
22.10.2009 Benfica (A)
05.11.2009 Benfica (H)
02.12.2009 AEK Athens (A)
17.12.2009 BATE Borisov (H)

BATE played their Champions League matches in Minsk where the stadium holds 41,000 so they may do the same again.

Giles Larkman
14 Posted 28/08/2009 at 15:49:14

I got the same sentiments as some others on here. It’s not a rock hard group but should still provide a good test for us. The likes of Gosling, Rodwell et all, should benefit from games like this.

I would lose the first two premiership games and be at this stage in this competition. I was gutted last year when we got liege did us. I’m sure there are a lot of Villa fans that feel the same way we did 12 months ago.

Fuck the misery for today.

Aodhan O'Faolain
15 Posted 28/08/2009 at 17:18:54

Nice draw in the sense it will test Everton’s ability to take the next step up. Although at the end of the day its not the end of the world if EFC don’t qualify.

Other sides will all take points off each other, plus it gives a chance to go somewhere with sun and properly priced beer.

Benfica and AEK are nothing special but are tricky away ties none the less.

As for BATE in Belarus. Have friends who worked out there re Chernobyl disaster, and its’ a place with a lot of hardship and poverty.

Its an oppressive police state run by a power mad dictator by all accounts, so anyone who has ever had dealings with the London Met or Mayor will know what to expect.

Harvey Miller
16 Posted 28/08/2009 at 18:49:36

There are no easy opponents at this stage. Still I think it was a good draw: we avoided Italy, Spain and Germany. Benfica is still a fairly good team even if Porto is now ahead of them. I think we have a realistic chance going through.

About Aston Villa: They are about the same size as us but Lerner has more money even if he is not spending wildly. I saw their game at Liverpool and Villa played like Everton at its best, defending well and counterattacking effectively. Milner, Reo-Coker and Petrov (plus Young even if he’s a twat) all played very well.

We really need those kind of players. I hope Dinyar could be that, but we still need more creativity.

Luckily Villa still lack stability and that is why we surpassed them again last season. That has to be because of David Moyes, I think he is better manager than O’Neill when it comes to organizing and keeping things steady. We probably will never see Everton play true School of Science stuff under Moyes but being in Europe 4 times in five years with limited budget is no mean feat.

So, another center half, a right back and a creative midfielder and we’ll be good again. Do we have the money, is there enough time and is there any players available who Moyes rates, we will see in the next couple of days. I think there could be one new face and that’s it.

Keith Glazzard
17 Posted 28/08/2009 at 22:49:15

Giles, Aodhan, Harvey - we’re much of one mind here. Hardly a group of death, but every game a challenge. And what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, as Nietzsche used to say. Mind you, that was before he went totally bonkers and they locked him up.

O’Neill knew he’d bottled it last year, and he knows he’s crapped out this year. Moyes is back where he wants to be - like the rest of us. Let’s see what it brings.

Nick Xenos
18 Posted 29/08/2009 at 00:03:21

I’ve seen AEK play a few times, they are nothing special.They are vulnerable in defence but do have some dangerous players in Argentinians Ismael Blanco (striker) and Nacho Scocco (creative midfielder). Ofcoarse it will be a tough game in Athens in front of their huge support but I think we’ll be ok.

Paul O'Hanlon
19 Posted 29/08/2009 at 11:10:59

I’m wondering where everyone on thread is getting their optimism from that qualifying from this group won’t be a problem. Did you not see first two league games this season? I did and we’ve been inept going forward and wide open at the back. Or are you basing this on the home performance against a poor Sigma team?

With our strongest team and on current form, I worry about us playing proper footballing teams such as Benfica and AEK in our current form. Especially away from home when we struggle to string 3 passes together.

Lionel Luthor
20 Posted 29/08/2009 at 16:28:16

I think our group is winnable, but more likely would be for us to finish 2nd.

I don’t think we need to be overly worried though, and hopefully with one or two new signings added to the capture of Distin and Billy, we should have the quality to progress.

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