FOOTBALL – Johan Cruyff, one of the greatest footballers and visionaries of the beautiful game has passed away at the age of 68. From Ajax to Barcelona he revolutionised the game, always focussing on attacking football.
You can find his career overview here
Due to basing the seedings for the Europa League draws on six matches within uneven groupings which were created by the UEFA coefficient systems, the seedings for today’s Europa League draw do not actually separate the best and worst remaining teams into two separate groups. Using a longer term rating system, the Euro Club Index, reveals that the seeded and unseeded groups both contain some of the best teams left in the competition and the absolute best trio left in the competition are all unseeded.
FOOTBALL – It has been lonely at the top for Raul for 13 years, but now he has find a companion in Lionel Messi as top scorer in the CL. here’s more info on Messi’s 71 goals.
FOOTBALL – As we discussed earlier this week, many of the Champions League teams are almost guaranteed a place in the last 16 of the competition with five having at least 90% chance of progress and eight at least 80%. The Europa League however looks a lot more open given that only Spurs, Sevilla, Fiorentina and Napoli have more than a four in five chance of progress to the last 32.
FOOTBALL – The Champions League kicks off this week and the big three Spanish clubs in Euro Club Index terms are all but certain of making the second round of the competition. The fourth Spanish team, Athletic Bilbao, have profited more than most from the draw which has increased their chances of joining the other La Liga clubs in the last 16.
FOOTBALL – The Champions League draw pots for this evening are based on the UEFA coefficients for clubs at the end of last season. Those coefficients are based on a five year performance in European competition. In general, this system works reasonably well for teams which always participate in the Champions League or Europa League. The top three are Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich for example. The problem comes with clubs who have not always been present in the previous five years. Using the Euro Club Index as an alternative, we can identify teams who have been misclassified in this year’s draw.
FOOTBALL – Ajax have equalled a Dutch record by winning their fourth successive league championship. This had previously been achieved by HVV (1900-1903) and PSV (1986-1989 and 2005-2008). Frank de Boer has now won the Dutch league in each of his first four seasons as a head coach, something that had never previously been accomplished.
FOOTBALL – Jairo Riedewald scored on his Eredivisie debut for Ajax at 17 years and 104 days of age, making him the youngest player to score a goal on his Dutch top flight debut. He breaks the record set only last season by Willem II’s Jeroen Lumu (17-111).
FOOTBALL – Ajax striker Danny Hoesen netted for his team in their 2-1 triumph over FC Barcelona. It was his first Champions League goal this season. He had already scored in the Dutch top flight and in the Dutch second tier as he had also represented Ajax’ youth team. He is the first player to score at these three particular levels in the same season.
FOOTBALL – The Classic of Dutch league football is only hours away, as Ajax and Feyenoord are preparing for battle. We have researched the strength in attack for both teams and turned them into an Infographic. It reveals the team’s accuracy level and their danger men.
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