European Football 2023-24 - Italy, Spain, Germany, Champions League, Europa League, etc.

[IthacaMatt]

And let's get another thread set up for this season for those of you like Forza who follows Serie A. I think interest in the Italian domestic league will be higher this year, with Pulisic and other Americans going to play there. Seems like Serie A should be hotly contested among Juve, Napoli, Inter and Milan this year, with maybe Roma as an outsider. Are Lazio and Atalanta real contenders again, or do they remain selling clubs for whom European football will stretch their squads too thin?

In Spain, of course, we always have Barca vs. Real Madrid, with some rotating third team in contention. Hard to say who that could be this year, with Atletico Madrid on the decline as we approach the end of Cholo's reign.

It's hard to get too worked up about Ligue Un or the Portuguese League, except for watching the teams they send to the European cup competitions.

Germany might be gaining viewers, but as long as Bayern win every single year, and continue to buy every other teams' best players, it's not going to have the drama of England, Italy or Spain.

Who are your favorite teams?

Which leagues do you enjoy the most, and why?

Any historical or family basis for your rooting interest?

Any smack talk between national teams?

Let's have fun this season and get more regular conversations flowing.

Way-too-early Premier League 2023-24 predictions: Liverpool to push for title, Arsenal face top-four battle

With the dust barely settled on 2022-23, what will happen next season? Can Liverpool push Man City all the way? Will Arsenal even make top four?

www.espn.com

Who Will Win La Liga in the 2024/24 Season? - Chart Attack

A closer look at which team will most likely win Spain's La Liga title in the upcoming 2024/24 season.

www.chartattack.com

5 reasons to look forward to the 2023/24 Bundesliga season

The countdown is on, the 2023/24 Bundesliga season is just around the corner. bundesliga.com has five reasons you should be very excited...

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2023/24 UEFA Champions League: Matches, final, key dates | UEFA Champions League

What are the match dates? When are the draws? Where is the 2024 final? See the key dates, schedule, fixtures for qualifying, group stage and knockout rounds – plus discover the 2024 Champions League final hosts.

www.uefa.com

2023/24 UEFA Europa League: Matches, final, key dates | UEFA Europa League

What are the match dates? Where is the 2024 final?

www.uefa.com

UEFA EURO 2024

The official site of UEFA EURO. Visit now for information such as news, stats, videos, player and club information and much more.

www.uefa.com

 

[IthacaMatt]

Here is a useful link. It tracks US players who are playing abroad, identifying the team and league.

List of USMNT Players Abroad

Members of the USMNT playing in Europe and Mexico.

ussoccerplayers.com

 

[IthacaMatt]

Yunus Musah completes his move to AC Milan from Valencia, where he will team with Christian Pulisic. Weston McKennie and Tim Weah at Juventus make Serie A "must see TV" this coming season.

 

[Orangezoo]

Here is a useful link. It tracks US players who are playing abroad, identifying the team and league.

List of USMNT Players Abroad

Members of the USMNT playing in Europe and Mexico.

ussoccerplayers.com

They need to get that updated a bit it looks like...

 

[IthacaMatt]

I'm sure that every league has its fans, and La Liga offers us the beauty of Real Madrid v. Barcelona every year. And there are the occasional upsets by Atletico Madrid, or Sevilla, or whomever.

But if you look at this season preview, oh my gosh, there are so many boring teams, about half of whom would face relegation in the Premier League.

LaLiga 2023-24 preview: Barca and Madrid gear up for title race, predictions and more

The new LaLiga season is finally here! Will it be Madrid and Barca dominating? Will Atletico spoil the party? Get ready for the action.

www.espn.co.uk

 

[Orangezoo]

I'm sure that every league has its fans, and La Liga offers us the beauty of Real Madrid v. Barcelona every year. And there are the occasional upsets by Atletico Madrid, or Sevilla, or whomever.

But if you look at this season preview, oh my gosh, there are so many boring teams, about half of whom would face relegation in the Premier League.

LaLiga 2023-24 preview: Barca and Madrid gear up for title race, predictions and more

The new LaLiga season is finally here! Will it be Madrid and Barca dominating? Will Atletico spoil the party? Get ready for the action.

www.espn.co.uk

Yeah the timing of bringing La Liga to more U.S. viewers was pretty poor. It's not been an entertaining league now for the past 5 or 6 years.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Here's an interesting season prediction. This is a supercomputer prediction of Serie A for the upcoming season, visualized week-by-week with each game's result.

They predict Napoli winning the Scudetto by about 11 points over Fiorentina. Inter and Roma will have turns threatening.

Surprisingly to me, the computer predicted that AC Milan (Pulisic's new team, who made the Champions League semifinals last year) will start off the season terribly, among the relegation places through the October International break. They spend most of the season mid-table, before making a run late in the schedule to earn a place in one of Europe's lesser competitions.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Yeah the timing of bringing La Liga to more U.S. viewers was pretty poor. It's not been an entertaining league now for the past 5 or 6 years.

Uneven revenue distribution, worse than any other European league except maybe the Bundesliga. We saw what that does to college sports conferences. Soccer in Europe is no different.

That leads to stratification of teams, less chance of upsets, fewer and fewer competitive matches.

Sure, they're well-rested for European games, because they only have challenging games in the league once or twice a month.

 

[IthacaMatt]

They need to get that updated a bit it looks like...

I imagine they will once the summer transfer window closes, and we know players' final destinations.

 

[Orangezoo]

I imagine they will once the summer transfer window closes, and we know players' final destinations.

Yeah. Absence if Balogun is a bit egregious lol.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Forza, I've been taping the Serie A game of the week, along with a couple other European league weekly wrap up shows. Geez, the Italians have to pick better games for their featured game of the week.

There are half a dozen very interesting teams in Serie A; I shouldn't have to watch so much of the crap teams, if BeIn Sports is only showing a single "Game of the Week". Genoa? Sassuolo? Bologna? I mean, come on!

 

[Forza Azzurri]

Forza, I've been taping the Serie A game of the week, along with a couple other European league weekly wrap up shows. Geez, the Italians have to pick better games for their featured game of the week.

There are half a dozen very interesting teams in Serie A; I shouldn't have to watch so much of the crap teams, if BeIn Sports is only showing a single "Game of the Week". Genoa? Sassuolo? Bologna? I mean, come on!

Paramount+…Serie A plus Coppa Italia plus all three European tournies…

 

[IthacaMatt]

Olivier Giroud, Christian Pulisic (with his 5th goal on the weekend) and Rafael Leao continue to put up goals and assists for AC Milan in Serie A - 15 goals and 8 assists among them in 14 games. Milan have won their last 2 to close the gap on 1st place Inter and 2nd place Juve.

Inter just beat last season's champs, Napoli, to go top of the table, after a draw with Juventus the week before. Lautaro Martinez of Inter leads Serie A in goals by a wide margin.

Forza's Fiorentina side sit 6th, with two wins in the last three games, after a rough patch. Napoli, last season's champs are 5th, one point ahead of Fiorentina.

Roma is doing well with Lukaku under Jose Mourinho, and have been moving up the table, but are still not in the Champions League race.

In La LIga, Jude Bellingham is the player of the year, scoring goals for fun Real Madrid to make up for injuries to Vinicious, Jr. and others, but they have a lot of young talent in their team, and a really good players coach in Carlo Ancelotti.

Girona had set the early pace, but are beginning to come back down to earth. Borja Mayoral has bagged a bucket of goals for them to lead their attack.

Barcelona are 4 points back in 3rd. Robert Lewandowski is only having an "ok" season for them, maybe beginning to show his age, and nobody else is stepping up to provide the goals. Their goal differential says that they are lucky to be this high in the table.

Athletico Madrid are in 4th, 3 points further back. Their attack has been humming lately though. Both Griezmann and Alvaro Morata are banging in goals right now, and their defense has been pretty good. I think maybe they need another midfielder in January to mount a proper challenge for the title.

 

[IthacaMatt]

And as we approach the final Group Stage matches, which happen next Tuesday / Wednesday, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, Manchester City and Real Madrid are through as Group Winners, regardless of next week's results.

Barcelona and Dortmund are 3 points ahead of Porto and PSG, respectively. Both are likely to go through, but need results against Antwerp (for Barca, so book it) and Dortmund needs a draw or better home vs. PSG to win their group and get the top seed for the knock-out round.

In the other 2 groups, Inter and Real Sociedad are going through. Inter has them at home for the final match, but they're both 7 points ahead of 3rd place. So Inter is likely to get the top seed.

The final group has Athletico Madrid one point ahead of Lazio. Both have enough margin to know they are going through to the knock out rounds after the New Year. Athletico is home to Lazio in the group decider, and should be the favorite to grab the top seed.

That would leave the knock out rounds with the following top seeds:
Inter, Athletico, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern, Barca, Man City, and it's a toss up between PSG and Dortmund, but PSG needs a win on the road.

That leaves the following in Pot 2: Lazio, PSG (?), Real Sociedad, Leipzig, Porto (at home to Shaktar, who they are tied with on points), Copenhagen is home to Galatasaray, so pencil them in (currently tied on points), along with PSV Eindhoven (with their 2 Americans!) to the Knock Out Stage.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Champions League Group Stage Concludes. First two teams per group advance to the 16 team knock-out stages, which start up in February. Third place in each group drops down to the Europa League - So, who's in / who's out?

Who's in and who's out?​

Now that we've wrapped up the group stage, here's how each team finished.

• Group winners: Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad.
• 
  
• Runners-up: Copenhagen, Inter Milan, Lazio, RB Leipzig, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto, PSV.
• 
  
• Third place, transfer to Europa League: Galatasaray, Lens, Braga, Benfica, Feyenoord, AC Milan, Young Boys, Shakhtar Donetsk.
• Last place: Manchester United, Sevilla, Union Berlin, Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic, Newcastle United, Red Star Belgrade, Antwerp.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Round of 16 matches underway. The only big upset so far was Lazio over Bayern, 1-0.

With Bayern trailing in the Bundeliga to undefeated Bayer Leverkusen (and Xabi Alonso their coach), is it possible that the Harry Kane trophy less curse will continue in Bavaria?

 

[IthacaMatt]

Champions League quarterfinals start on Tuesday.

Many would probably say that Real Madrid v. Man City could be the Final. Very tough tie. Real at home for the first leg. Haaland has been off a bit for City, but DeBruyne seems to be coming back into form. Brahim Diaz, Vinicious Jr., Jude Bellingham - lots of creativity for Real. I love Carlo Ancelotti as a coach. Low key.

Arsenal host Bayern Munich on Tuesday in their first leg. Will Harry Kane's trophy jinx ruin it for Bayeren? Arsenal is playing very well, and Kai Havertz is playing really well lately for Arsenal. They could definitely knock off Bayern.

On Wednesday, PSG hosts Barcelona. Paris, having lost Messi & Neymar, maybe have more of a team, but they don't scare anyone right now. Similarly, Barca's coach, player legend Xavi, is simply sick of the politics and has already resigned effective the end of the season, as Barca's management now realizes how hard it will be to replace them with all their current financial troubles, and are practically begging him to reconsider. Weird vibes around both teams. Whoever may win won't likely get past the semifinals.

The last quarterfinal matches Dortmund and Athletico Madrid. Dortmund has not had a great year, and currently sit 5th in the Bundesliga, out of Champions League qualification for next year on goal difference to Red Bull Leipzig. Dortmund have won 4 in a row, however, and are on a good run of form.

Athletico Madrid are on a bad run of form, and have likewise fallen off the pace in La Liga. They have 2 losses and a draw in their last 4, and going back further have 3 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw in the last 7 in Spain. They were very fortunate to overturn a first leg deficit against Inter Milan (last year's finalists) on penalties. I expect Dortmund to advance.

You thoughts?

 

[donniesyracuse]

Spoiler: Wrexham Update

 

[NailstheCusefan12]

It’s been an awful year (I’m spoiled and honestly slightly happy for Leverkusen) but it’s always great to be reminded that Bayern own Arsenal. Terrified of City or Real though but it was fun while it lasted.

 

[CanadianSU]

City dominated but Ukrainian keeper Lunin and the Madrid back line was excellent.