An idiot’s guide to Toon European qualification #2
Posted on May 9th, 2012 | 121 Comments |
Perhaps the most important news of the day is that Liverpool’s win over Chelsea last night means the Newcastle are assured of at least a 5th place finish this season. So that means that Arsenal, Spurs and Newcastle will fight it out next Sunday for 3rd, 4th and 5th and any of those three teams could end up in any of those spots.
We currently have 65 points, Spurs have 66 and Arsenal have 67, and on Sunday Arsenal are away to West Brom, Spurs are at home to Fulham and we’re away to Everton. I’d say that we have the toughest fixture of those three and I suspect 5th is where we’ll finish this season as I reckon Arsenal and Spurs are probably good for 3 points from their fixtures, but I’ll be keeping my hopes alive until the final whistle.
Back in March I wrote an Idiots Guide To Toon Europa Qualification, which thoroughly confused me and everyone who read it. I’m please to say the scenario is now much simpler and looks like this:
If we finish 5th, we’re in the Europa League and start at the Play-Off round, regardless of what happens with Chelsea in the Champions League final. The draw for that takes place on Friday 10th August 2012 and the two legs of that round take place on Thursday 23rd August and Thursday 30th August. If we win that, we go into the Group Stage, the draw for which takes place on Friday 31st August and the matches – 6 for each team in all – are played throughout September, October and November. If we get through the Group Stage, the Knockout Stage matches are all played in February, March and April of 2013.
If we finish 3rd, we’re in the Champions League and enter at the Group Stage. The draw for that takes place on Thursday 30th August and the matches – 6 in all, like the Europa League – are played from September to December.
The only question mark is what happens if we finish 4th because that depends on whether or not Chelsea win the Champions League. If Chelsea lose the Champions League final (and we finish 4th), we’d go into the Champions League Play-Off Stage. The draw for that is on the 10th August and the matches are played on 21st/22nd August and 28th/29th August. If Chelsea win the Champions League final though (and we finish 4th), we’d be kicked down into the Europa League but would enter it at the Group Stage, one round later than we would for finishing 5th.
Where we finish is somewhat out of our hands now and all we can do is go to Goodison on Sunday and try to get 3 points. But, either way, we’ve got European football to look forward to next season, which is quite a remarkable turnaround given that it’s only three seasons ago at this time of year that we lost 1-0 at Villa Park and ended up being relegated. This season is quite a contrast to that horrible sinking feeling we had that day.
For all I know we could lose our first European tie and be on an early bus home but my biggest worry is how an extended European run will deplete the energy of our squad and the knock-on effect that might have for domestic games. It’s no different to the worries that other clubs of our size or smaller have of course but it’s a worry nonetheless. Some squad strengthening will help but I would imagine Pardew will still have to prioritise to some extent.
Still, exciting times ahead eh?
im guessing you have alot of spare time on your hands or you think geordies are stupid or something? gtfo with your shitty articles