Topic: ⚽UEFA Conference League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Round of 16 - page 23. (Read 4955 times)

Poznan and Fiorentina won big wins last night against their opponents, I think this quarter final match was quite even for the two teams. Gent and West Ham also put in good performances in their previous fixtures and both teams are likely to fight hard to secure any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals later. Anderlect vs Az Alkmaar I think here Az Alkmaar is very strong and it seems that the chance for Anderlect to escape is very small. The last one is Basel vs Nice, chances are that Nice will win easily after winning the previous two legs and for Basel they are in a lot of trouble to reach this round after last night having to finish until the penalty shootout against Bratislava.

after the cl and el draw, now the quarterfinals in the conference league have been drawn and also the following semifinals. all four pairings you can see in the following graphic

I guessed first Başakşehir match against Gent but didn't wanna comment on second round. Well as I expected they were demotivated quickly. Their manager Emre Belözoğlu had personal issues before match. Probably messed players as well. Smaller teams of Türkiye always focus on local league and can't do well at European matches. Sivas is no different. Its lucky that both teams passed even group stage. I actually didn't expect Sivas to go next round(s).
Conference league I believe became nice addition to European football for tiny nations and weak clubs. Atmosphere is cool yet it's definitely not as important as Europa League or Champions League.

Arsenal - Sporting, I think it's not big surprise that this game went to extra time and penalties. 2 same level teams and it's sad that one of them already got eliminated in 1/8 final. What a goal of Goncalves from the middle. He caught Ramsdale not ready and made just perfect shot. Penalties usually is more or less lottery and this time luck was in Sporting side.
I'm not sure what happened to Union Berlin. They got simply destroyed by Union Roayle. Didn't saw match in full, but it seems that Berlin basically didn't had chances in whole game.
Feyenoord 7:1 Shakhtar. Before game I expected confident Feyenoord win, but 7:1 is just brutal. Interesting thing that despite scoring 7 goals, their xG is just 1.71, I don't know how to comment it.

Half of the matches are about to start. If there are no surprises among the upcoming matches, I think the winners will be Djurgarden, Basel and Fiorentina.
Even though Sivasspor are playing at home, they are out of form and it is very difficult for them to win. The closest match here seems to be Basel. Basel, who drew 2-2 at home, has to win for sure if they want to pass the round. It will be a difficult and stressful match for both teams.

I'm rolling with the same bet today! I only watched a handful of minutes of the match last week but it was exactly what i expected to see, a very open match with plenty of chances for both teams,  3.9 combined xG.  I can't see any scenario where this match finishes 0-0 or 1-0, i just don't...there will be goals.

Very tempted by Djurgardens' 7/1 odds to qualify for the next round, i'm not usually chasing upsets but it they get one early, the Swedes are more than capable of erasing that two goals deficit.

Geez, I totally missed Gent's thrashing! Still feeling a bit numb from suffering two straight 1-0 losses so not really checking out games, but might chuck a few coins at Laernaca (16/1). Sivasspor would have if higher odds -- Fiorentina is frightening...

One of our 2 representatives was eliminated yesterday and today we will watch the Sivasspor-Fiorentina match.Fiorentina won the first match 1-0 at home and they will want to win this match as well.They are the favorites again and it should be noted that the 1-0 score is a risky score.
Sivasspor will put all their energies into this match for now, they should not think about the league and the national points. It will be a difficult match and I hope Sivasspor will advance.
It's very easy for West ham now. Because they won the first match 2-0 away and now they will play at home.AEK larnaca is their rival but this rival is an easy rival for west ham.I expect them to win the home match for morale in the league.

interesting round in Conference league, Lazio is playing with AZ after losing first home match 1:2, with two fast goals by AZ in second half
seems as interesting pick for a Lazio away win, odds @2.45 does look as good value

Villareal is @1.45 at home, but not sure about Anderlecht form, so will skip it probably

in the conference league round of 16 second leg between basaksehir istanbul and kaa gent (final score 1-4), Gift Emmanuel Orban scored the fastest hat trick in european cup history.
the niegrian striker of belgian top club kaa gent managed to score three goals in 3:24 minutes, faster than fc liverpool Mohamed Salah, who held the old record.

Basaksehir's game against Besiktas at the weekend seems to have affected them.Basaksehir was the favorite before the game, but it must be said that they played very badly.The Gent team gave an incredible reaction in 7 minutes.Congratulations should be given to Urban, who scored 3 goals in 3 minutes.The breaking moment of the match actually happened after 3 goals in a row. Basaksehir slowly started to fall out of form. It should be noted that they haven't won a match for a long time.If coach Emre doesn't make a move to turn things around, his job is difficult.

The Basaksehir match was really a big joke. Basaksehir were even the favourite side to win this match. The first leg ended by 1-1 so there was an advantage for their side also.

But somehow Gent did an incredible job in this away match. Scoring 4 goals in only 7 minutes was really an unbelievable thing. I don't have any idea what was wrong with the Turkish team today. They were actually doing a really good job until reaching this stage. They lost their concentration so easily and gave up on the match easily. They played much better against more serious opponents actually. I would have expected them to eliminate Gent by getting a win in Istanbul.

Başakşehir hosted gent in the match of the day. Gent won the round with goals in the first half. Gent's Orban scored 3 goals in 3 minutes and the match actually broke down from there. Orban, who scored 3 goals between 31 and 34 minutes, deserved to be the man of the match. 4 minutes after these goals, Gent scored the 4th goal and the match was actually over. Gent was the side that passed the round and our representative Başakşehir was eliminated with a bad defeat.Başakşehir's only goal was scored by Januzaj, but when the goal came too late, there was no opportunity to turn the match around.

No surprises? I think Villareal was at least a slight upset, and even Hammers scoring two (Antonio, no less, who's had a barren spell in the league) is some sort of surprise.

But yeah I get it. Nothing shocking. In fact, there isn't any shock in store in Conference anymore, unless Djurgarden goes to the final...

I should mention that there were no surprises among the matches played yesterday. West Ham won 2-0 away from home to secure their place in the competition, and any away win is a big advantage for any team. It was also important for Villareal to get a draw against a strong opponent like Anderlecht.
The only team that will struggle with these results seems to be Basel. A 2-2 draw at home is not good news for Basel.

betting on lazio is a big risk, they beat napoli because they were lucky, their style of play in which they are very concentrated on defense, it didn't work against az, i watched their serie A game against napoli, they stayed in defense and go on the counter - attack, as they know napoli well so they already predicted that napoli would stay in the attack in the game against them, while az is a team that they don't know, I imagine (I didn't watch the game) that lazio's strategy did not work against the az, in the eredivisie the az has an average of 2 goals scored per game and 1 goal conceded per game, the az had more chances of winning in this game

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yesterday there were a lot of games, and there are teams with strange names that I confess I haven't been following their games, so I'll just talk about teams I know.

Villarreal 1 - 1 Anderiecht

I don't really know what happened to Villareal lately, they started to drop a lot of performance in La Liga, but in the last two games before this one against Anderiecht they won, so even I thought they were going to win in this game, but to my surprise they tied. anyway, villareal is in decay

Fiorentina 1 - 0 sivasspor

well, this is a result that doesn't surprise me, fiorentina dominated this game, and before this game, fiorentina beat milan and other teams, so for this game i was convinced that they would come out with victory since they are in a good phase

Nice 1 - 0 sheriff

well, for this game i was betting on nice to win, they are having a good performance in Ligue 1, so they would not lose in this game, and as expected they managed to win, the problem will be in the second leg because nice there's a game against nantes, it won't be an easy game for nice in Ligue 1, this will wear out the game against sheriff, that's why i think that in the second leg game i won't be surprised with a draw

AEK Larnaca 0 - 2 west ham

this is a predictable result, to be honest I believe that wester ham will go far in this competition, even if they are not very consistent in the premier league

Our representatives sivasspor and başakşehir failed to win away. Sivasspor lost 1-0 in a tough match against Fiorentina. It must be said that Fiorentina played a pressured and beautiful football. They were already the favorites. This win gave them an advantage.
Basaksehir, on the other hand, drew in a game in which they were ahead. A draw is better for Basaksehir. If they win at home, they will be the favorites to advance.

So true. Great for Fiorentina who managed to pull out a victory and they look strong in Conference because in Serie A they are a disaster at this point but I must say , they do have a chance to win Conference this year as the other contender team should be West Ham or Villareal.

Meanwhile , Nice are playing a very offensive football no matter if they have home or away games.

Villareal and Fiorentina look pretty all right for the odds, but not touching any of the others (save maybe a Hammers HT win). Nice and Basel would be my darkhorse picks, but at this stage, I'd go for a Nice rebuild progress, to fall to one of Spain/Italy/England teams later if they make it past Sheriff.

Normally here's also where I back some of the geographically Asian teams (what? EUFA?) but not when odds aren't 5/1!

I'm especially curious to see what Sivasspor can do, they have a strong opponent and they eliminated Braga by beating them differently, Sivasspor's job is not easy.
Our other representative goes to Gent.Başakşehir is doing well in the league and will have a tough match at the weekend.They may not care much about this match.I think they will play for a draw.A draw will be a very, very big advantage for them.