Tightest end to a season all over Europe?

CantGetNoSleep

Looking like this is going to be very close everywhere in Europe, perhaps Scotland being the only place you would safely predict the title

Assuming teams win their games in hand, it is:

England - 4 points between the top 3 with 6 games left
Spain - top 2 level on points with 9 to play
Italy - 1 point between the top 3 with 7 to play
France - 5 points between the top 6 with 7 remaining
Germany - 6 games left, 5 points separate top 3
Holland - 5 games left, 5 points between the top 3
Portugal - 6 games left - 6 points between 1st and 2nd
Scotland - its over

Other than the last 2, hard to predict the others. anyone want to try predict all 8? Might try do it as an accumulator

My choices : Man Utd, Barca, Inter, Bordeaux, Schalke, Twente, Benfica, Rangers

adamski8

France is crazy! was just looking at the table there myself today.

JPA

Anybody care to give me a synopsis on how Montpellier are doing what they're doing?

SantryRed

There's only 6 games left in England? Jaysus :eek:

Ush1

adamski8 wrote: »

France is crazy! was just looking at the table there myself today.

Montpellier only got promoted this season.

Tis tight as a nuns knickers all over Europe.

CantGetNoSleep

JPA wrote: »

Anybody care to give me a synopsis on how Montpellier are doing what they're doing?

They only got promoted but are joint top, Bordeaux played in the Coupe de la Ligue final this weekend though so have a game in hand

JPA

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

They only got promoted but are joint top, Bordeaux played in the Coupe de la Ligue final this weekend though so have a game in hand

I know, I can tell that from pure stats! But do they have a rich owner or have they uncovered some stars from somewhere?

dsmythy

JPA wrote: »

I know, I can tell that from pure stats! But do they have a rich owner or have they uncovered some stars from somewhere?

I don't get it myself. A number of their players seem to have been with the club for a couple of years and are in their early 20's. Some came from the youth set-up at Montpellier and are in that age range as well. Maybe it's a combination of the maturing of their young players fulfilling their potential and their manager? Alternatively it could be just a one season wonder.

EDIT: Can anyone speak French? http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpellier_H%C3%A9rault_Sport_Club

pickarooney

No big money, no big names, just a good coach, a solid central defense and overall consistency have Montpellier up near the top. People keep expecting them to crumble but they're defying all the odds. It's fantastic, after 7 years of the monotony of Lyon's reign, that there are six teams still in with a fighting chance of winning the league, many of them without a pot to piss in, but few of them overstretching themselves financially.

edit: they're on the ropes against Lille at the moment

A Dub in Glasgo

Not that I know much about some of the leagues but here goes

England - Machester United
Spain - Barcelona
Italy - Inter Milan
France - Bordeaux
Germany - Schalke
Holland - Twente
Portugal - Benfica
Scotland - Glasgow Rangers

adamski8

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Not that I know much about some of the leagues but here goes

England - Machester United
Spain - Barcelona
Italy - Inter Milan
France - Bordeaux
Germany - Schalke
Holland - Twente
Portugal - Benfica
Scotland - Glasgow Rangers

Ah i see what you did there:
1) looked at the tables
2) noted who was in first position
3) picked that team

Why bother try predict them if you admit you don't know much about it

patmac

I know McLaren got some stick for 'that interview' and the England job, but he has done a great job with Twente, rumour has it he in line for the West Ham job, after Zola fled to Sardinia.

greendom

dsmythy wrote: »

I don't get it myself. A number of their players seem to have been with the club for a couple of years and are in their early 20's. Some came from the youth set-up at Montpellier and are in that age range as well. Maybe it's a combination of the maturing of their young players fulfilling their potential and their manager? Alternatively it could be just a one season wonder.

EDIT: Can anyone speak French? http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montpellier_H%C3%A9rault_Sport_Club

Skipping the whole history section it seems that their main aim after spending 5 years in Ligue 2 was not to go back down.

Fair to say they've managed to exceed that expectation.

JPA

patmac wrote: »

I know McLaren got some stick for 'that interview' and the England job, but he has done a great job with Twente, rumour has it he in line for the West Ham job, after Zola fled to Sardinia.

Is that his reward for being successful? He gets to work for 2 of the most interfering owners in the league.

A Dub in Glasgo

adamski8 wrote: »

Ah i see what you did there:
1) looked at the tables
2) noted who was in first position
3) picked that team

Why bother try predict them if you admit you don't know much about it

RM are first in La Liga, why bother contribute if you are not going to predict? or do you prefer to be Mr Knowitall?

Edit: In fact, my predictions are the same as the OP

mayordenis

Moving to Marseille soon enought can't wait good football always

anyway my guess'

England - Chelsea, think they won't falter
Spain - Madrid, so hard to call, clasico will decide
Italy - Inter - think they'll edge it, fall over the finishing line.
France - Marseille, the games in hand are a big deal.
Germany - Bayern, sorry they'll turn up the heat.
Holland - Ajax, in such good form, delighted to see back at the top.

8-10

Since the original post, AC Milan drew and Montpellier lost. I'm not saying it's not tight, but I'd just point out that the OP's decision to award 3 points to teams with games in hand slightly skews the numbers.

mayordenis wrote: »

Holland - Ajax, in such good form, delighted to see back at the top.

As one of very few Ajax fans on this forum there's little opportunity to post about them. We've had a very very strong few weeks to turn it around including a HUGE 4-1 away to PSV. Second-place is not guaranteed but I'd take it now. I think Twente have just too much of an advantage now. If the difference was 3 points, maybe, but 4 with few left to play I'm not sure.

Twent still have Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar as our best chance of dropping points, but I can see us drawing a stupid away game. Our home form has been insane. 4 goals conceded at the ArenA all year??? Undefeated there with only 1 draw?? Definitely championship form.

Unfortunately that draw, a 0-0 with Sparta Rotterdam that I was unfortunate enough to watch every minute of, looks like being costly, even if it was back in September. It's possibly the most one-sided 0-0 draw of all-time. Reminiscent of when McCarthy's Sunderland had 0 shots on goal to Liverpool's 22 back in the day (I can't remember but it was something like that.)

In that game, Ajax had 42 shots on goal and failed to score, look it up I'm not kidding I sat through 90mins of the fecking thing!!! It was heartbreaking. If we lose out on a 30th title by 1 or 2 points it's definitely because of that game.

In any case I don't think anyone who watches the league can begrudge either team. Though our goal difference is +69. Twente's is +33. We're one of the best teams to watch in Europe right now, and Luis Suarez (41 goals in 39 this season!!!) is one of the form players, easily included in a Rooney/Messi thread if he played in a bigger league.

Anyway I could ramble about Ajax all evening. I will implore any gamblers though to take a look at Suarez in the World Cup for top scorer. Tough group, but he's a scoring sensation this year and Paddy Power have him at 50/1!

pickarooney

mayordenis wrote: »

Moving to Marseille soon enought can't wait good football always

Boards Marseille football beers!

pickarooney

Bayern beat Schalke to go top by a point tonight.

Meanwhile, in France Lyon find themselves suddenly top after an away win at Rennes while Bordeaux's slump continued with a 2-1 reverse at home to Nancy and Montpellier dropped two points at home to Monaco. Lille losing at neighbours Valenciennes means Auxerre can go top if they beat PSG at home tomorrow while Marseille will be hoping to ease past lowly Lens and make the first of their three games in hand count in joining Bordeaux in third.

Ush1

pickarooney wrote: »

Bayern beat Schalke to go top by a point tonight.

Meanwhile, in France Lyon find themselves suddenly top after an away win at Rennes while Bordeaux's slump continued with a 2-1 reverse at home to Nancy and Montpellier dropped two points at home to Monaco. Lille losing at neighbours Valenciennes means Auxerre can go top if they beat PSG at home tomorrow while Marseille will be hoping to ease past lowly Lens and make the first of their three games in hand count in joining Bordeaux in third.

Yep, get in, allez Les Gones!
Lille also lost so a decent day all round.:)

pickarooney

Sochaux have to play 5 matches against the top 6 in the next few weeks. There must be some brown envelopes being dropped off around the offices there

pickarooney

The smaller clubs are beginning to drop points in France. Montpellier fluffed a chance to go top (and be the third team to do so in a week) last night with a 2-2 draw at Le Mans.
Bordeaux screwsed up again, going down 3-1 in the capital to give Marseille a clear advantage for the first time.

OL, Lille, Auxerre and leaders OM are in action tonight...

Ush1

pickarooney wrote: »

The smaller clubs are beginning to drop points in France. Montpellier fluffed a chance to go top (and be the third team to do so in a week) last night with a 2-2 draw at Le Mans.
Bordeaux screwsed up again, going down 3-1 in the capital to give Marseille a clear advantage for the first time.

OL, Lille, Auxerre and leaders OM are in action tonight...

Les Gones vs Les Dogues!

Huge game, I'm going for a Lyon win(obviously). Tails are up and Licha is in fine form.

pickarooney

I think the pressure is all on Marseille at the moment, after so long waiting in the shadows. Nice should be an easy match but a nervous performance could see OM piss away their big chance.

Still very tight in the Bundesliga after Bayern drew last night, leaving them 2 points up on Schalke.

Roma are half an hour away from the top of Serie A.

Ajax are battering in the goals but can't get close to Twente. Seven point gap there with a game in hand for the Ajacied.

pickarooney

Lyon slipped up again, allowing Auxerre to go top, at least for four hours. OM-Nice about to kick off...

Roma, meanwhile, are leaders in Italy after the Milan clubs dropped easy points.

pickarooney

What a difference a week makes. Everything has gone Marseille's way and they now have a big lead with some very winnable games remaining. Realistically the only team that can beat l'OM is their worst enemy - l'OM.

Inter can go top tomorrow if they overcome a Juventus side in atrocious form at San Siro while Roma have an 'away' game against Lazio to contend with on Sunday.

Schalke and Bayern should both win their home games this weekend to keep the race going down to the wire.

Ajax have chased down Twente and McLaren's boys are a mere point ahead with a tricky tie against Feyenoord this weekend. Ajax may well reach the 100 league goal mark against Heracles. 1/3 of those from Luis Suarez who is most likely playing out his last few weeks in Holland.

edit: Does anyone understand how the Belgian league works? They all seem to have played one another twice and now there are three sets of play-offs. A bit mental, with Anderlecht having raced home 12 points clear.

dan1895

Was just looking at the format for the Belgian league on wikipedia and it seems to be an absolute mess of a way of ending the season. All these playoffs defeat the purpose of a league format if you ask me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_League#Competition_format_and_naming

pickarooney

At the end of the regular season, the numbers 1 to 6 will play the playoffs for the championship, in which they start with half of the points they reached during the regular season. Numbers 7 to 14 will play playoffs to decide which team can play against the number three of the championship playoffs for the last European ticket. Number 15 and 16 will relegate to second division.

That's Numberwang!

The Dutch Eerstedivise has a bizarre format also. I still can't quite grasp it, but Go Ahead Eagles got through to the play-offs as far back as November because they were leading at a certain stage of the season (Autumn champions?). According to ESPN, the winner goes up and the next eight (EIGHT!) teams go into the playoffs. RMB - Deventer explains it here (post 12 onwards).

pickarooney

Predictably enough Lyon and Bordeaux took points off each other tonight while Marseille continued their run of wins with yet another late, late winner, at Boulogne. Auxerre, not to be outdone, put 4 past 9-man Lorient to stay within catching distance.

Bayern mullered Hannover 7-0 to keep 2 points ahead of Schalke and opening up a mighty gap in goal difference should that come into play.

Meanwhile in England a point separates the top two and in Italy Inter went top again, for 24 hours at least, after their victory over Juve in the derby d'Italia.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

Can't wait for the Rome derby tomorrow, g'wan Roma!:D

Pinturicchio

baz2009 wrote: »

Can't wait for the Rome derby tomorrow, g'wan Roma!:D

Agreed. Anyone but one of the Milan clubs winning the league is good in my books.

Pinturicchio

Hang on, are ESPN really showing Motherwell v Dundee United instead of the first half of the Rome derby? :eek:

3hn2givr7mx1sc

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Hang on, are ESPN really showing Motherwell v Dundee United instead of the first half of the Rome derby? :eek:

Awh that's a pile of wánk.:(