UEFA Champions League and Europa League

[aletem]

I will be hoping for Steaua to be excluded, so Vardar can advance easily!! Mk teams had luck once when Baskimi had to play a Bosnian team. The team got sanctioned at home and Baskimi was awarded 0:3 win!
Steaua is pretty tough and two Macedonian players are playing for them at the moment, Daniel Georgievski and Baze Ilievski. Daniel is a really good player and a great add to the National Team. He plays really well under Cedo Janevski! If Steaua doesn't get punished, it's not a big deal. I will be hoping for a win in Skopje, regardless if they lose 3-0 in Bucharest! Last season Vardar was very close to eliminate Bate Borisov. They had 1-2 lead in Borisov, while BATE scored 2 goals in the 92nd and 94th minute and making it 3:2. It was 0-0 in Skopje. Not expecting much and when expectations are set low, you get better than expected result!

Metalurg will be playing Azerbaijani Qarabag. This is the second time Metalurg will face this team and I expect them again to be eliminated by them. Metalurg are a team that has never ever won a UEFA Cup/Europea league game in so many attempts (they eliminated the Maltese Hibernians by drawing twice with them).
Teteks got Pyunik from Armenia. Teteks once surprisingly passed Ventspils from Latvia (3:1 home and 1:1 away), so I can hope for a surprise here! Pyunik is not the same team as it used be before. Should Teteks advance they will also get a beatable opponent, the winner of Zalgiris vs. St. Patrick.
Horizont Turnovo, the second place Mk team, got the easiest draw and they will be playing against Suduva from Lithuania. I think Turnovo will pass this round! In the next round they will be playing Hajduk Split, should they eliminate Suduva. I think this could be a nice experience for Horizont Turnovo, who is participating for the first time in any European Cup.

 

[lucian-crusher]

@aletem: Ilievski never played for Steaua. He played for FC Brasov and now for Rapid Bucharest, but after the team was relegated, he left for FK Rabotnicki Skopje. You are righ about Daniel Georgevski as he is one of the best Right Wing Defenders in Liga 1

Well, it's 99 % sure news that Steaua will be excluded from UEFA Champions League, but the press here say that Vardar won't advance automaticaly as Steaua will be replaced by Pandurii Targu Jiu. They are not as strong as us but I think that for their debut in European competitions, UEFA Champions League will be a better thing as th toughest teams they can meet are Celtic and FC Basel, while in UEFA Europa League they have Valencia CF, Schalke 04, Vfb Stuttgart, Tottenham Hotspur, FC Sevilla....

 

[QwaarJet]

Celtic vs Cliftonville will be interesting.

 

[aletem]

Oh riiight, he played for Rapid not Steaua!! Is he now back in Rabotnicki? I did recall seeing his name in the scoresheet recently. Yeah, Daniel is awesome! He was injured, so he couldn't really play against Belgium or against Denmark in Skopje. But now he is fit I think. He is slowly becomes my fave Mk player!

I heard the possibility of Steaua being punished and Panduri getting instead of them. I think it will be known today or tomorrow. Panduri isn't really a name in the Romanian football, so Vardar won't be scared when they face them (should they face them). There is also a possibility for Vardar to advance directly, due to the fact that these teams were already announced by the Romanian federation to play in CL and EL, with that they got green light from UEFA. Exclusion of Steaua would mean that a new team would have to go in EL and they need to get that green light/credentials from UEFA to play in the competition.
We'll see what happens. I am surprised that Steaua is connected with dirty thingsQ

 

[Verjamem]

Legia Warsaw in second qualifying round, will play with The New Saints from I can't complain, rather we'll win. But on other side, everyone remember match Dudelange - Red Bull Salzburg. Underrating the rival is not good idea, and Legia can't do it.

 

[lucian-crusher]

Oh riiight, he played for Rapid not Steaua!! Is he now back in Rabotnicki? I did recall seeing his name in the scoresheet recently. Yeah, Daniel is awesome! He was injured, so he couldn't really play against Belgium or against Denmark in Skopje. But now he is fit I think. He is slowly becomes my fave Mk player!

I heard the possibility of Steaua being punished and Panduri getting instead of them. I think it will be known today or tomorrow. Panduri isn't really a name in the Romanian football, so Vardar won't be scared when they face them (should they face them). There is also a possibility for Vardar to advance directly, due to the fact that these teams were already announced by the Romanian federation to play in CL and EL, with that they got green light from UEFA. Exclusion of Steaua would mean that a new team would have to go in EL and they need to get that green light/credentials from UEFA to play in the competition.
We'll see what happens. I am surprised that Steaua is connected with dirty thingsQ

Ilievski had to leave Rapid as they don't even know in wich league they would play. If they chose Liga 2 they won't be alowed to promote unles they pay their 30 million Euros debt. If they chose Liga 4 or Liga 5, the debt will be erased.

Steaua didn't do dirty things. You are a FC Liverpool fan so I would explain it to you like that. Imagine this situation: Only one round left in Premier League and Chelsea is on first place with and FC Liverpool is 2nd with one point behind. FC Liverpool plays against QPR, while Chelsea plays against Fulham. Fulham calls FC Liverpool and says that Chelsea offered them 1 million Euros to let them win the match and asks if Liverpool offers more money for them to play fair. Now, what should Liverpool do? Offer Fulham 1.7 milion Euros to play fair against Chelsea or let them lose against Chelsea? I don't understand how paying a team NOT TO SELL a match is considered a dirty thing?

 

[Milos-BC]

Legia Warsaw in second qualifying round, will play with The New Saints from I can't complain, rather we'll win. But on other side, everyone remember match Dudelange - Red Bull Salzburg. Underrating the rival is not good idea, and Legia can't do it.

Is Radovic still playing in Legia? He is a fantastic player and also a fantastic personality. Hard worker. A player that every team wishes to have. I believe that Legia will eliminate New Saints, but indeed, every rival needs to be taken seriously, as Dudelange is the best sign how anything can happen in modern football, and we were also eliminated by Shamrock Rovers two years ago because our players underestimated them and partly because we lost in quite an idiotic way from Genk where we, literally, defeated ourselves, and the players could not move over that elimination.






I have "scouted" our, almost certain rival in the qualifications Shirak a bit(I don't think Tre Penne has any chance against them). I didn't know that they eliminated Rudar Pljevlja last season. As I saw, their best players who carried out the season have been sold and they will enter this cycle weaker. They are quite well physically prepared and have a good transformation in the attack from 4-4-2 (their standard style) to 4-2-4 and they are also attacking their rivals with 4 or 5 players whenever he has the possession. Although they have many flaws, especially in the defense which is quite slow, and since none of their backs don't return to their own half, they leave a lot of space for the opponent's attack. Andranik Barikyan, as far as I saw is the "brain" of this team but players like Ly and Diop can also be tricky.

All in all, if we enter this duel carefully and with respect, we should have no problems to eliminate the Armenian champions.

 

[lucian-crusher]

UEFA announced the verdict! Steaua is allowed to play in UEFA Champions League but we will be on a 5 years probation. I am so happy! I can't wait for the UEFA Champions League matches!

 

[Verjamem]

Is Radovic still playing in Legia? He is a fantastic player and also a fantastic personality. Hard worker.

Yes. On early May, together with Ljuboja he taken part in little scandal, but finally only Danijel left Legia

 

[aletem]

Ok, so Vardar will play Steaua after all! the only major friendly that Vardar had in the past month was against Schalke at home and it ended 2-3 for Schalke.

Ilievski had to leave Rapid as they don't even know in wich league they would play. If they chose Liga 2 they won't be alowed to promote unles they pay their 30 million Euros debt. If they chose Liga 4 or Liga 5, the debt will be erased.

Steaua didn't do dirty things. You are a FC Liverpool fan so I would explain it to you like that. Imagine this situation: Only one round left in Premier League and Chelsea is on first place with and FC Liverpool is 2nd with one point behind. FC Liverpool plays against QPR, while Chelsea plays against Fulham. Fulham calls FC Liverpool and says that Chelsea offered them 1 million Euros to let them win the match and asks if Liverpool offers more money for them to play fair. Now, what should Liverpool do? Offer Fulham 1.7 milion Euros to play fair against Chelsea or let them lose against Chelsea? I don't understand how paying a team NOT TO SELL a match is considered a dirty thing?

Ah, I see! It's a good decision imo, and that way he brings more quality to the Macedonian League (not like he is a great player, but he is pretty good for Mk league standards ).

I didn't really meant dirty things, I said that in general. Otherwise, they wouldn't be sanctioned by UEFA. Pobeda Prilep was sanctioned for 8 years, because they set the match with Pyunik from Armenia at home (lost 1-3 and tied away 1-1). I was happy for that decision, because they did the same thing against Levadia Tallinn (0-1 home, 0-0 away). It is unexplainable how a team such as Pobeda has had great results eliminating teams like Zagreb, Rizespor, Universitatea Craiova, Sartid, Spartak Trnava (1-5 win away) and hosted Peruggi (tie), Parma and Hamburg, to lose from Pyunik and Levadia at home. They got sanctioned for 8 years and the person who owns the club was sanctioned not to be involved in the football for 8-10 years.

Another interesting fact though. The EURO 2000 qualifier between Macedonia and Ireland was set for Ireland to win (people over there paid money to the guy who was back then the president of the football federation), so Ireland can take the first place in the group. Ireland had the 1-0 lead and what happened was a corner in the 93rd minute for Macedonia. One of the defense players was eager to score, he gave nice header and straight into the net for 1-1. Few days after the game there were some scandals revealed how the game was supposed to be set up for Ireland. This didn't reach to UEFA, because the game was a tie (had Ireland won the game, it would have been another story).
There were other allegations such as that one in other NT (Armenia - Greece game, Sweden - Denmark on the EURO 2004 ).

 

[Milos-BC]

UEFA announced the verdict! Steaua is allowed to play in UEFA Champions League but we will be on a 5 years probation. I am so happy! I can't wait for the UEFA Champions League matches!

I knew it, I knew it! I brought you a good karma I am glad that you are not eliminated because of this! And on the field, as they say, may the best one win

Yes. On early May, together with Ljuboja he taken part in little scandal, but finally only Danijel left Legia

What scandal? I didn't know anything about, as our media were only writing about how great both Radovic and Ljuboja are doing in Legia Ljuboja was playing for our national team in the past, although he never played for any club in his senior career. And Radovic is a "child" of Partizan He gave us a lot. Also his goal against Dnipro in the Europa League back in 2004 brought us one of the best results in the recent club history

 

[lucian-crusher]

@aletem: I also remember that in 2005 the matches that had with in the EURO competitions was suspected to be fixed as won and a lot of Macedonian players bet mone that would beat . Also, I remember in 2006 that Farul Constanta was playing against Pobeda Prilep in UEFA Intertoto Cup and there where a lot of tips sugesting people to be a on a 2 - 2 score and that was exactly how that match ended

Now back to our match! A lot of Macedonian fans entered on the Steaua Facebook page and gave comments that Steaua isn't playing against Vardar, but against Miravci and that we will win 5-0 Seriously now, Baze Ilievski said that Vardar is the Steaua of :mk and 80 % of the Macedonians suport Vardar. He also said that Steaua is a hot favourite but iy will be preferable to win in Bucharest and don't let the qualification to be decided in Skopje as the fans make an infernal atmosphere there but they are not dangerous, expecially with the new stadium.

I think it will be a tough match but we will have no excuse if we lose the qualification.

@Milos: Yeah! Yo where right. I was really scared as Besiktas and Fenerbahce got their verdicts one hour before us and UEFA was'n to gentle. Besiktas was excluded for one year from Europe, while Fenerbahce was excluded for 2 years + 1 year if they continue with what they did

 

[aletem]

That game between Andorra and Macedonia was a disgrace. Macedonia started the campaign on a high note and had a 2-2 draw against Netherlands just few days before the trip to Andorra. The game was probably fixed (I don't know). Also Andorra tied 0-0 in Skopje in 2006. The good thing is that the guy who was in charge of the federation for those games was sacked last year!!!

Gee, those are anti-Vardar fans. Vardar was supposed to be relegated 2 years ago (and I think they should have been relegated), but they fused with Miravci the team that was supposed to enter the First League, only so that Vardar will stay in the First League.

 

[Milos-BC]

Vardar has a quite a good team, and there are actually many people who are underestimating them and I don't really get why.

Also, I like that club with such tradition like Vardar in is a champion and not club like Skendija. Skendija in Macedonia and Novi Pazar in Serbia don't deserve to play the first league as they don't respect the country in whose league they are playing.

 

[Luki]

Vardar has a quite a good team, and there are actually many people who are underestimating them and I don't really get why.

Also, I like that club with such tradition like Vardar in is a champion and not club like Skendija. Skendija in Macedonia and Novi Pazar in Serbia don't deserve to play the first league as they don't respect the country in whose league they are playing.

I'm sorry but that's a dumb excuse... it would be as controversial as if I said that I don't like Croatian club that has Serbian majority (even though Serbs over here aren't problematic like Albanians in Macedonia, but it was an example)... It doesn't matter if they respect the country or not, they're still a part of it and with that being said they have all rights to compete wherever they want if they are good enough or qualified for it.

 

[Milos-BC]

I am not sure that we understood each other well.



I personally don't have anything against Novi Pazar playing here, nor do I have anything against them generally at all, but they are creating scandal after scandal on each and every match, and we see a repertoire from burning the Serbian flags (in this case) to throwing bombs! When Partizan played in Novi Pazar they were throwing rocks on our players and the referees, and some people even threw real bombs. Not to mention their transparents where they literally "urinate" on everyone in this country (one of them recently was especially scandalous as they supported selling the organs of Serbian people on Kosovo). Every time any club (not just Partizan) plays there, we only worry about getting out in one piece and not about football.


That is one thing, and the other is that they didn't qualify to the Superliga on the field, but were promoted because of politics. Believe me, I know what I am talking about. It is not about their nationality, that I especially don't have a problem with, but these factors that are everything but normal and in the spirit of fair-play.



Many people actually supported Novi Pazar's promotion to Super Liga, but now that duel is not of a high risk, but life-threathening for everyone on the stadium.




So, in the end, I didn't say that I don't like Novi Pazar or that I have something against that club, nor do I have any problem with nationalities, but I do have against things that are dangerous and bad for the environment.

 

[lucian-crusher]

We have the same problm here with CFR Cluj. I don't care about them being a Hungarian team but when they make to much noise they are disturbing to me. Last season we won against them in Bucharest and after the match that we won, our president went behind their net and stuck the Romanian flag there. Right after that the owner of CFR Cluj asked for Steaua to be innvestigated for xenophobia So if you place the Romanian flag when two teams from are playing on a stadium in but one of the owners is Hungarian then that is considered xenophobia

 

[doctormalisimo]

Celtic vs Cliftonville will be interesting.

it will be. Celtic will have more support than the home team when they meet in Belfast.

 

[Luki]

So, in the end, I didn't say that I don't like Novi Pazar or that I have something against that club, nor do I have any problem with nationalities, but I do have against things that are dangerous and bad for the environment.

I didn't say that either, besides I believe the things you mentioned in your post are done by the supporters of the club, not the players themselves, or am I wrong? If it is that way then that's nothing "new" in the football world, it's just a bunch of losers that don't have anything else to do. It's not the club to blame but the stupidity of fans.

 

[Milos-BC]

I didn't say that either, besides I believe the things you mentioned in your post are done by the supporters of the club, not the players themselves, or am I wrong? If it is that way then that's nothing "new" in the football world, it's just a bunch of losers that don't have anything else to do. It's not the club to blame but the stupidity of fans.

Actually, the supporters on the green light of the management. The players are clean. The last time I went to the stadium I couldn't even carry a metal coin, and these people brought in stones and bombs. It is not spontaneous. What are the reasons, well, it is deeply into politics, and it is better not to talk about it here.



This is also quite a big problem as it is not a small group but all supporters of Novi Pazar who happen to find themselves on the stadium participate in this. There are many normal people in Novi Pazar who are ashamed of this (I personally know a few) but they don't go to the stadiums, as it is dangerous for them as well. I understand the rivalry in football, songs with all kinds of lyrics, but this is far above that.


And it is even more speficic, as they really didn't win the right to enter Superliga on the field. Two teams from the second league join the elite, and two bottom clubs from Super Liga are relegated to the second league. When Pazar joined they were not even 3rd but 5th! BASK was #1 and Radnicki 1923 was the runner-up. BASK was sent to the third league (?!) and Novi Pazar was promoted to Super Liga.