Considering how well they are doing this year, it is amazing how little
ink I have seen spilled about Bologna. Sure, this is a team with some tradition (7 titles ?) but the last was in the 60s. And they have been relegated a few times not all that long ago.

Now after an away win against a Roma team that have been fairly hot
since putting De Rossi in charge, they are very likely to qualify for
the Champions' leage (especially given that Italy is almost certain to
get 5 places - might even be in the bag by now).

Any serie A fans care to comment on their qualities and season? Was
there a sudden influx of cash? They seem to have lots of loanees on
their roster.

Their captain is Scottish, and their owner (or is it chairman ?) is
Canadian (cheesemeister Saputo, also owner of Montreal FC).

Coach is Thiago Motta - have not heard any speculation linking him eg.
to the vacant jobs in Munich, Barcelona or Liverpool.


Surprise teams of the year around Europe:

Serie A. Bologna
La Liga Girona
Ligue 1 Brest
Eredivisie Ajax (being as bad as they have been)
EPL Aston Villa
Bundesliga Have to say Bayer Leverkusen, but Stuttgart may be more of
a genuine suprise, really.

Belgium Cercle Bruge in top six is a surprise. A come from behind
title for FC Bruges is still on the cards, and would be a big surprise
given how far behind they were after 30 games. (19 points back). Genk
winning the championship, also not impossible, would be an even bigger
one (23 point deficit to make up)

Scotland Kilmarnock. 4th place ahead of Aberdeen and Hibs is unexpected. Switzerland Lugano in second place. Also Grasshoppers and Basel
surprisingly bad.
Portugal Sporting I guess. Not that they are in first, but how big a
gap they have.

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MH wrote:

Considering how well they are doing this year, it is amazing how little
ink I have seen spilled about Bologna. Sure, this is a team with some tradition (7 titles ?)

Most of them in the 20s(?) and 30s, and then famously the last one in 1964, when they beat Inter in the only ever title-deciding spareggio in the history of Serie A

but the last was in the 60s. And they have been
relegated a few times not all that long ago.

Last promotion to Serie A in 2015. After a couple of seasons fighting to avoid relegation, they have been solidly midtable.

Now after an away win against a Roma team that have been fairly hot
since putting De Rossi in charge, they are very likely to qualify for
the Champions' leage (especially given that Italy is almost certain to
get 5 places - might even be in the bag by now).

Yep.

Any serie A fans care to comment on their qualities and season? Was
there a sudden influx of cash? They seem to have lots of loanees on
their roster.

No, this doesn't look like a cash-infused change of fortunes. Rather, good scouting and good coaching: Zirkzee, Ferguson and Calafiori are going to be hot properties in the transfer market this summer.

Their captain is Scottish,

Unfortunately, though, Ferguson just tore his ACL and will be out several months. Maybe that means he stays at Bologna for their inaugural CL campaign?

Coach is Thiago Motta - have not heard any speculation linking him eg.
to the vacant jobs in Munich, Barcelona or Liverpool.

Lots of speculation linking him to Juve and Milan. Even though Allegri just barely managed to make the Coppa Italia final and may survive another year.

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On 2024-04-25 10:35, Werner Pichler wrote:

On 23.04.2024 21:59, MH wrote:

Considering how well they are doing this year, it is amazing how
little ink I have seen spilled about Bologna.  Sure, this is a team
with some tradition (7 titles ?) but the last was in the 60s.  And
they have been relegated a few times not all that long ago.

Now after an away win against a Roma team that have been fairly hot
since putting De Rossi in charge, they are very likely to qualify for
 the Champions' leage (especially given that Italy is almost certain
to get 5 places - might even be in the bag by now).

Any serie A fans care to comment on their qualities and season? Was
there a sudden influx of cash?  They seem to have lots of loanees on
 their roster.

Their captain is Scottish, and their owner (or is it chairman ?) is
Canadian (cheesemeister Saputo, also owner of Montreal FC).

Coach is Thiago Motta - have not heard any speculation linking him
eg. to the vacant jobs in Munich, Barcelona or Liverpool.


Surprise teams of the year around Europe:

Serie A.  Bologna La Liga    Girona Ligue 1   Brest Eredivisie  Ajax >> (being as bad as they have been) EPL      Aston Villa Bundesliga
Have to say Bayer Leverkusen, but Stuttgart may be more of a genuine
suprise, really.

Belgium    Cercle Bruge in top six is a surprise. A come from behind
 title for FC Bruges is still on the cards, and would be a big
surprise given how far behind they were after 30 games. (19 points
back).

Will Union SG get shafted by the Belgian playoff system *again*?

Looks like it. Though they did win today against last year's champs, so
are still in the hunt after a bad patch at the beginning of the playoff
round.

Genk winning the championship, also not impossible, would be an even
bigger one (23 point deficit to make up

Scotland   Kilmarnock. 4th place ahead of Aberdeen and Hibs is
unexpected.

Switzerland   Lugano in second place.  Also Grasshoppers and Basel
surprisingly bad.

Basel's worst season in forever, but at least no longer in danger of
being relegated.

Portugal   Sporting I guess. Not that they are in first, but how big
a gap they have.

Croatia - Rijeka two points clear of Dinamo Zagreb five rounds from the
end. Dinamo have won every Croatian title since 2005-06 except the
2016-17 one which also went to Rijeka.

Poland - the Ekstraklasa continues with their tradition of rather random champion teams - currently it's Jagiellonia Białystok who are four
points clear at the top with five matches to go, and could win their
first ever title. In the past, Jagiellonia have finished as runners-up
twice.

Austria - now that Bayern's 11-year run as champions has ended, it's at
least possible that Red Bull Salzburg's 10-year tenure might end, too.
Sturm Graz currently three points ahead of Salzburg four matchdays from
the end - but first tie-breaker in Austria is head-to-head, which Sturm
lose against Salzburg, and the last match between the two will take
place this Sunday, so both teams still have it well within their own
hands to win the title.

Just noticed this when I saw that Salzburg had lost to Klagenfurt
yesterday, then looked up the table.
How do people in Austria feel about the new system, which is quite
similar to the Belgian one ?

Ciao,
Werner

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MH wrote:

Considering how well they are doing this year, it is amazing how little
ink I have seen spilled about Bologna.

It's now official: Bologna (together with Inter, Milan and Juve) have secured a CL spot for next year. Atalanta not official yet, but very likely,

Serie A table with 2 matches to go:


Inter 92
Milan 74
Bologna 67
Juventus 67
Atalanta 63 (with a game in hand)
-----------------
Roma 60 EL places
Lazio 59
--------------
Napoli 51 Conference league
---------------------
Fiorentina 50
Torino

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On 2024-05-12 14:52, Futbolmetrix wrote:

MH wrote:

Considering how well they are doing this year, it is amazing how
little ink I have seen spilled about Bologna.

It's now official: Bologna (together with Inter, Milan and Juve) have
secured a CL spot for next year. Atalanta not official yet, but very
likely,

IF Atalanta win the Europa league, does the extra fifth CL spot drop
down to ROma or Lazio ?

Serie A  table with 2 matches to go:

Inter  92
Milan  74
Bologna 67
Juventus 67
Atalanta 63 (with a game in hand)
-----------------
Roma 60   EL places
Lazio 59
--------------
Napoli 51  Conference league
---------------------
Fiorentina 50
Torino

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MH wrote:

IF Atalanta win the Europa league, does
the extra fifth CL spot drop down to ROma > or Lazio ?

It's complicated. If I understand correctly, if Atalanta win the EL and finish 3rd or 4th in the league, no extra CL spot. *But*, if they finish 5th (and win the EL), then Italy would get a 6th spot. Don't ask.

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Werner Pichler <wpichler@gmail.com> wrote:

On 14.05.2024 06:56, Futbolmetrix wrote:

MH wrote:

IF Atalanta win the Europa league, does the extra fifth CL spot drop
down to ROma > or Lazio ?

It's complicated. If I understand correctly, if Atalanta win the EL and
finish 3rd or 4th in the league, no extra CL spot. *But*, if they finish
5th (and win the EL), then Italy would get a 6th spot. Don't ask.

Yep, and you could even get nine European spots in total

https://x.com/FootRankings/status/1793394891872932059

Genoa won over Bologna today though, so Atalanta only need one win from
their last two matches to finish in the Top 4.

(which would be excellent news for Salzburg, who would be promoted from
CLQ2 and not even Conference League guaranteed to CLQ3 and a certain
Europa League spot, due to the knock-on effect of the EL winner spot
not being needed)

Thanks, Atalanta!

(also, Benfica directly into the CL group stage instead of Roma, and Slavia Prague also moving
up from CLQ2 to CLQ3)

Three winners, one loser…


Ciao,
Werner

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jlauridsen <lauridsen.jesper@gmail.com> wrote:

Werner Pichler wrote:

One league I forgot to mention is Denmark - no surprise teams, but a
close run-in.

Brøndby on 56 points, FC Copenhagen and FC Midtjylland on 55, and FC
Nordsjælland on 53. Four rounds to go.

Perhaps Jesper can elaborate more.

Quickie comment: BWAHAHAHAHA

I was waiting for that!


So the last four European champions of 23/24 were
determined yesterday: Galatasaray with an easy win,
Brugge with a scoreless draw, Midtjylland in a
dramatic finish thanks to Brøndby choking, and
Egnatia in Albania in a hockey-style playoff final.

Notable championship streaks broken this year:
Bayern München (11 years, by Bayern Leverkusen)
RB Salzburg (10 years, by Sturm Graz)
Sheriff Tiraspol (8 years, and 21 in the last 24
seasons, broken by Petrocub Hîncești)

The longest active streak in Europe is still going
strong though, Ludogorets have won the title in
Bulgaria for the 13th year in a row.


Also, since league systems have been a topic in this
thread, we need to mention Moldova - Sheriff mostly
lost the title because after the first league phase
(that only saw the bottom two teams drop out) points weren’t just halved, they were cancelled altogether.
For Phase II (i.e. the matches after the winter break), everyone was back
to zero!

On a completely unrelated note, I kind of would like
to see the same system used for our Bundesliga
prediction game…


Ciao,
Werner

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Werner Pichler wrote:

RB Salzburg (10 years, by Sturm Graz)

Whoa, I missed that! No "facts" thread? (Congrats!)

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Futbolmetrix <futbolmetrix@yahoo.com> wrote:

Werner Pichler wrote:

RB Salzburg (10 years, by Sturm Graz)

Whoa, I missed that! No "facts" thread? (Congrats!)

Thanks!


Fact: Sturm have now won more national titles
(2x League, 4x Cup) during the ‘Red Bull era’
(since 2005) in Salzburg than in the 55 years
(nationwide league started in 1950) before that
(2x League, 3x Cup).

Takes the air out of the usual Viennese complaining
about how impossible RB’s financial muscle has
made it to win anything, which makes the domestic
double this year even sweeter.


But truth be told, I guess this year was also the kind
of season that simply proves that if a team goes into
a competition as 90% favourites every year it means
that once in a decade somebody else will win it.


The stars really had to align for Sturm to make it -
in autumn Salzburg’s sporting director Christoph
Freund left for Bayern Munich; manager Jaissle also
left them in the lurch and followed the money to
Saudi-Arabia literally the day before the season
started; his emergency replacement Struber (coming
off a lacklustre stint with the New York Red Bulls)
was criticised from the start and, I got the
impression, never really taken seriously (he got fired
in April); they were plagued by injuries throughout
the season; and last but not least their current crop
of talents simply isn’t as good as in recent years.

- and with all this, Sturm arguably still needed the
much-maligned halving of the points to overcome
them.


Salzburg are also not taking this lying down - they
already brought in Kloppo’s assistant coach Pep
Lijnders as manager for next season, and it’s not
entirely unreasonable to think that they will now
start another 10-year title streak.


But for now, Sturm are back in the Champions
League! <3



Ciao,
Werner

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I w
On 27/05/2024 19.01, Werner Pichler wrote:
as reminded of this thread this weekend for some obscure reason.
Also at another game I overhead a story about a coworker having preordered
a celebratory cake [1] for the office, with Brøndby Champions 2024
written on
it. Clearly the Gods can't ignore such a challenge.

[1] Known as "Kagemand" (google has plenty of images), as Danish
institution.

On Mon, 27 May 2024 17:01:02 +0000, Werner Pichler wrote:

On 27.05.2024 17:56, jlauridsen wrote:

63 +19 Midtjylland
62 +25 Brøndby
59 +26 København
58 +26 Nordsjælland

Is there any shame in only needing a single point at home, and then
losing 2-3 to a team that has only won one of the last 7 matches,
becoming the first team to lose first place on the final matchday in 30
years?

In summary: BWAHAHAHAHA

So which one was the worse collapse - this one, or the one against
Horsens a couple of years ago?

2018. Back when HSV finally qualified for 2. Bundesliga.

For me it's not a question of worse, but of better.

Some differences (2018 mentioned first):
Penultimate round vs final round
Away vs home
Draw vs loss
4 points vs 1 point down in the final stadings
Rival with a great win on the same matchday vs rival almost
blowing it with a home draw
Losing the points on goals at 89 & 96 vs only being ahead for
25 minutes in the first half

On balance I prefer 2024.

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