So we’re out of the Europa Cup and looking highly unlikely to re-qualify next season. Reaction? I’m disappointed but also slightly relieved.
The Europa League has not been a fun competition to participate in. It’s always been a case of just getting through the group stages and knock out ties against teams best described as dross, in the hope that we would experience some ties of the calibre we were used to from our years in the Champions League (e.g. Benfica and Atletico last season). At that stage, we could have experienced a bit of excitement about a European Cup tie and also expected to see our strongest teams take to the pitch in both legs.
As it is, we’ve played no teams of note and our fringe players have been used throughout the competition. There has been few goals and little excitement. In that respect, it’s probably for the best that we are out and won’t be back in the competition next season.
On the negative side, it’s embarrassing to go out at home to a team like Braga, our co-efficient rating will be impacted by our failure to qualify for European competition and our season has been confirmed as trophyless as early as mid-March for the first time since Houllier was in charge.
Realistically, 6th place is the best we can hope for in the League and that is where we currently sit so we now face two months of just trying to maintain a pretty mediocre League position. It’s sad.
On the plus side, Luis Suarez is eligible to play in all of our remaining fixtures and with fewer fixtures remaining, we don’t need to chop and change the team too much.
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