European Opponents 2012-2013

[Van basten]

Hura!!!!

[Blind3]

Only Dortmund. THE GROUP OF DEATH !!!!!!

[SPL]

well I am not really confused as I would have put money on us getting Dortmund. I have no idea how they did that draw but the whole thing is a farce. We just missed out on being a pot 2 team but certainly the weakest team in our group.

At least we wont be in the Europa Cup after christmas and given their easy draw Man U wont be either.We can then spend the 2nd half of the season concentrating on the league.

[Amol]

Wow! I guess Platini didn't like us complaining last year when we were cheated out of the 2nd round spot. This year he has made sure that we will be lucky to get any points.

[Ayman]

Real Madrid beat Ajax on both legs in two seasons in a row. Do you honestly think that will happen a third time?

[Rooie]

Frank, our hero:

Frank&Ronald de Boer ‏@FrankRonald1970
F. Wanneer is de finale??

(translation: When is the final??)

[Orange14]

I'm not surprised by the draw at all. Our kids under the direction of our great management team are going to step up and surprise everyone. I say that a little tongue in cheek but this is a good draw as it will be top notch competition for us. I would prefer us to fight in every single match and if we finish fourth in the group, we are at least out of Euro competition and can concentrate on the league title again. CL football is destined to go this way because of the amount of money the big clubs have to spend.

[Ayman]

What are the fixtures? Im hoping Ajax play Dortmund at home then Real Madrid Away. I dont want Ajax playing the 3rd and 4th game with Real Madrid. If we play Real Madrid in the second game then we will play them in the last game, where they will have nothing to play for. This time we wont get robbed!

[Orange14]

I think we play on September 19 but UEFA have not announced the fixtures yet. Last season it went: Lyon (h), Madrid (a), Zagreb (a), Zagreb (h), Lyon (a), Madrid (h) but I don't know whether they will follow the same arrangement this season.

[Thijs]

18 sept Dortmund away
3 oct Real home
24 oct City home
6 nov City away
21 nov Dortmund home
4 dec Real away

:)

[SPL]

I have found out a coefficient table showing why everyone is in which pot. I am still not sure when there were 3 vacant pot 3 places to go we had only one choice but then again FDB said we would play Barca Man City and Dortmund.

we have nothing to lose but lets do what the world expects of this club ie send out a bunch of kids and play beautiful football ,even if we do lose it will be fun.

[Tom_]

Wow! What were the champions of Germany doing in pot 4?

[Manneken Pis]

I think we should treat this competition with the same disdain the bigger clubs treat the European League. We should play the reserves and save our first team for the much more important Eredivisie games.

;0)

[cdnajaxfan]

[quote="cdnajaxfan"]I don't know if Pot 2 or 3 matters. All I want to avoid are the top 5 seeds in pot 1, Man City in Pot 2, and in pot 4, Dortmund and Dynamo Zagreb (unless they throw games for us this time around if we pay them!). quote]

Oops. Maybe I should shut my mouth. Wow, it's like I had a crystal ball or something. We could not have done any worse other than maybe Barca instead of Real. I think UEFA and/or Platini hates us. They must have a way of fixing those balls in the draw, I am convinced!

On the other hand, lots of TV coverage though! Great for us Ajax starved Canucks!

[King Litti]

Is there a mathematician here? What are the odds for this scenario that we got? And yes, what's with Man city in pot 2 and Dortmund in pot 4 when you have Arsenal in pot 1 and Schalke in pot 2?

Like I said earlier the EL final is in Amsterdam. And the thing is we would actually have a shot at winning the EL. Can't say the same about the CL. It would be nice to lift the EL trophy at home. Lot's more money of course in the CL and I sure would like to see Mourinhos face when we take Real down! However defending the title is a priority.

[Philippe]

I think UEFA and/or Platini hates us. They must have a way of fixing those balls in the draw, I am convinced!

The way it ensures PSG -surprisingly in pot 3 - not to have spent hundreds of millions in vain makes me think the whole thing is fair.

It's nice to see juventus get an easy draw too. They deserve it.

I'm glad and relieved : UEFA is about true sport.

From The Guardian :

Every Champions League has a Group of Death but this season's — Group D, aptly enough — carries the serious potential for rigor mortis to set in given that City will have to play the champions of Spain, the Netherlands and Germany. There is only one way this uphill climb could have been any steeper and that was for Juventus to come out of the third pot instead of Ajax. Even then, the memories are still vivid of Ajax going to Old Trafford in the Europa League in late February and outplaying Manchester United on their own ground.

[SPL]

There are only 6 teams who are rich enough to win this Man c Man u Chelski, Barca Real (all millions in debt ) plus Bayern who like us may be the only club actually in the black.
Add PSG who will soon join them and they should just play in a league of their own and let the rest of Europe play a seperate comp ,there will still be Tv money.

Arsenal who have never won anything in 7 years are top seeds but Man City the actual champs in pot 2 then theres Germany can Platini explain what sort of competition places Schalke in pot 2 and the actual champs Dortmund in pot 4 . OK we were a bit unlucky to get both Real and City when Man U got a tin pot 2nd rate Portuguese team in pot 2 called Braga but getting Dortmund was the killer for me and makes this comp a joke.

This is called the champions league and pots 1 and 2 should be for champions even if its Belarus.The Schalkes Arsenals Bragas of this world should be in pots 3 and 4 where those who do not win their leagues should be.

Yes I would play our reserves and save our best players for winning the league.

Rant over

[FearNoArt]

Well.. I see a lot of you guys complaining about the seedings, but according to this site it all make sense.. you don´t have to win anything to be in pot 1, you "just have to make to 1/4 finals every year too ensure you have uefa coefficients points enough.. http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uef ... k2013.html

[Philippe]

And how did juventus and PSG reach pot 3, based on recent years ? Just curious.

[Manneken Pis]

And how did juventus and PSG reach pot 3, based on recent years ? Just curious.

Yes, that's exactly it.
Your score is based on recent performances in the CL not your domestic league, hence Arsenal are in pot 1.
Its simply an embryonic European Super League.

[Orange14]

There are only 6 teams who are rich enough to win this Man c Man u Chelski, Barca Real (all millions in debt ) plus Bayern who like us may be the only club actually in the black.
Add PSG who will soon join them and they should just play in a league of their own and let the rest of Europe play a seperate comp ,there will still be Tv money.

I think it goes a little beyond this. The television money is now driving everything. The Qatar TV network, Al Jazeera now has US rights to Spanish, Italian, and lower level English league matches here in the US and there was an article in the paper this morning that they may be going after the US rights to EPL games when that contract expires. This means that teams from lower leagues where such money is not there will continue to have trouble. If you look at modest EPL teams such as Swansea and West Ham, they have funds that Ajax will never have. I have no idea whether Platini's fair play rules are going to hold up. Some teams like Milan are taking them seriously and have revamped their roster over the past 18 months in anticipation. However, they are domestically funded whereas the oil money teams are not.

The key issue for teams is whether they should mortgage the future based on anticipated television money. Certainly there are good examples from English football where such plans can result in disaster (Leeds, Portsmouth being the best two). We will see if PSV's strategy works this season. I cannot see the Dutch league progressing much in terms of getting more CL spots as we just don't have enough teams that do well in Europe to bring in the necessary coefficient points. It's interesting to me that the Portuguese teams do so well here though there really are only four teams of consequence in that league and they do get a lot of young Brazilian players to come over who see this as a stepping stone to a big payday in Europe.

[Tom_]

My understanding is that we go through to the UEFA Cup if City get a point in Dortmund and we lose in Madrid.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):

a) higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;

b) superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;

c) higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;

d) higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches played among the teams in question;

e) if, after having applied criteria a) to d), two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to d) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria f) to h) apply;

f) superior goal difference from all group matches played;

g) higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;

h) higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons (see paragraph 9.02).

[King Litti]

Yes, our hope lies in City not winning, cause with our current form, we will not win in Madrid.

A bit worrying is that Dortmund haven't got anything to really play for. They are already through as the winners of the group. Still it's not going to be easy for City as Dortmund have way too much integrity and character to throw in the towel in a home game. Unlike those clowns from Zagreb who let themselves get butt fucked for money in front of there own fans. Exuce me for my language and of course we don't know was there money involved, but the whole thing sure seemed fishy.

[Orange14]

We are now the only Dutch team still 'alive' in Europe after Twente and PSV have now crashed out of the Europa League. Maybe they learned from their experience last season that it's not worth competing in since the money is not much and it distracts from the league competition. I don't give a hoot about coefficient points and part of me hopes that we don't qualify for the knockout stage in the EL as it will continue to be a distraction.

[SPL]

I tend to agree Orange although last year I did say I hoped we draw Man U in the first Ko round as we would make a million or 2. So if we do get into it this year I hope we get Chelski or even Man City as we will again make acouple of million on the home gate . We will be ko'd like last season but can then concentrate on the league.