Topic: ⚽UEFA Conference League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Round of 16 - page 39. (Read 8549 times)

I'm going for broke in this tail end of the season. Alkmaar is wonderful away, and has an excellent record against the top 3 in Eredivisie, but for some reason I don't trust them, Hammers have more or less secured Premiership so everything is in their favour.

Fiorentina similarly has nothing to play for I think, bar some mathematical miracle in Serie A, but Basel is even worse off in the Super League. Nothing left on the line for either but I'll pick Basel instead of Alkmaar as the underdog tonight!

This is still the leg first match so we cannot predict what will happen in the future in this UEFA Conference League.
If the first leg match is over then we can only see and analyze who will survive and advance to the next round.
If in tonight's game Fiorentina wins then I'm sure they will be able to secure qualification to the final game of this match, as well as later in the 2nd leg match.

I have predictions for these two matches.

UEFA Conference League resume today with the two first leg games of semifinals.
West Ham - Alkmaar in London. I think West Ham are better here in this league even though their results aren't that good in EPL.
Fiorentina - Basel in Italy with a clear advantage for Fiorentina for me. I wonder know if Fiorentina will be able to secure the qualification to the final game in this match.

^ Still haven't made up my mind either way, so I'm just going to wait for outrights, on Alkmaar if they get to the final, but Basel is still my choice. Hammers, Fiorentina, have decent teams but even though I'm more familiar with them, I know also they've been struggling for league form. And if it all boils down to it, it's just a matter of odds and value for me.

Basel is 7.6 now. That's impossible to ignore!

in my opinion west ham will beat AZ in the first leg and in the second leg, although this season west ham is not doing very well in the premier league (they lost again in the game yesterday against crystal palace in a very disputed game with many goals , but west ham lost due to bad luck ) and they are at serious risk of relegation because they have a very small difference with the teams in the relegation zone, west ham still has good quality in relation to AZ, I say that because the AZ in the UEFA Conference League has conceded goals in every game even though they were games against weak teams, I don't know if this was due to the low importance that this competition has and they needed to focus on the league

but in case AZ is playing seriously in the past games then when playing against west ham they will lose because west ham did very well in the uefa conference league games, managed to score a lot of goals and conceded few goals or none. About Basel against Fiorentina, I think Fiorentina will be victorious in the first leg and in the second leg, although Fiorentina in these last few Serie A games has not been well, it came from losing against Monza, it conceded 3 goals, that's bad sign, but I think he still has the quality to be in the UEFA Conference League final

I have a feeling this is precisely what will happen in the end. I did think Basel was the frontrunner, and if they do make it to the final with Alkmaar, it's probably theirs, worth a punt for me if that happens. Or on Alkmaar on a "lift the title market" if the odds are delicious enough. They're going to be one of those teams that will disintegrate next season I feel, and they know it, so they might try and make it a last hurrah.

What surprised me the most is seeing Nice being kicked from UEFA Conference League by Basel. The competition between these two teams was intense whether in the first or second leg.
Fiorentina lost its match indeed but after all they almost guaranteed the qualification since the first leg with 3 goals difference. Poznan did good to nullify these 3 goals gap but Fiorentina returned to the game and scored 2 goals to guarantee qualifications.
Until now, I think the final game will be between West Ham and Fiorentina.

the results of yesterday's games were very surprising and with many goals, I did not expect that Fiorentina would have many difficulties to beat Lech Poznan, Fiorentina's defense was very fragile and for that reason they conceded 3 goals but thanks to the fact that in the first leg Fiorentina managed to score many goals that were able to pass to another phase, I dare to say that maybe if they had to play in a third leg Lech Poznan would win and pass to another phase, Fiorentina still has a chance to get a place in European competitions next season but the path will be very difficult because in Serie A each place is being disputed

another game that had a lot of goals was the west ham game, good team but this season is not doing well in the premier league but in the last few games west ham has changed a lot, I think if they keep playing like they played against arsenal then west ham can win the UEFA Conference League this season and they can also improve their position in the premier league a lot, west ham's next opponent will be Az who in my opinion on paper are not better than west ham, the key to beating AZ will be have a good defense and score at least 1 goal, although AZ eliminated Lazio who have a good defense, but in my opinion Lazio was not playing so seriously because their priority is in Serie A and going to the Champions League

looked really close at one point, but Viola passed through
Basel still in competition, and Fiorentina is a rival in SF, will be a tough one for both teams

West Ham is fighting to aviod relegation (they will succeed I think), and now reach Conference league SF, AZ lost their chances to fight for CL position next year in Ere divisie, but remain only Dutch representative in European cups SF, maybe they can repeat last year Feyenoord final, and make it is easier for Basel to get title

AZ Alkmaar won 2-0 at home in a match in which they lost the first match 2-0 and took the match to extra time.When there was no goal in extra time, Alkmaar won 4-1 on penalties.The hosts started the match fast and won a penalty in 5 minutes. The hosts increased the difference to 2 8 minutes after the penalty and closed the first half like this.There was no goal in the second half and the match went to extra time.Alkmaar won on penalties after the deadlock was not broken in extra time.Alkmaar, who took 28 shots in the match, could not score enough goals despite entering more goal positions.
Although Fiorentina lost 3-2 at home, they became the team that passed the round.It should be noted that they were defeated after a long time.Maybe the team may have started to get tired.We cannot say that Lech poznan played well, but he made good use of all the goal positions he found and managed to score 3 goals.They could have taken the match to extra time when they were 3-0 ahead, but fiorentina, who scored 2 goals in the last 10 minutes, did not want to extend the match.

^Lech Poznan is the bloody story of the entire European QFs, honestly.

You lose big at home to a semi-reasonable Italian team middling in their league, with very little hope of making the 9-point gap to Conference spots... Liverpool couldn't overcome 3 goals. Bayern couldn't do it. Benfica couldn't overcome 2 goals...

But Lech Poznan? Away? 3 shots on goal. 3 goals. Killer instinct.

Never mind they eventually conceded late, 6/1 odds on ML, their supporters would be going home happy anyway.

Damn, Lech were so close from making miracle comeback against Fiorentina. They were already leading 0:3 until 78th minute, and such score would led game to extra time. But Fiorentina managed to score 2 goals in the end and relief a bit.
West Ham 4:1 Gent. After 1st leg it was very difficult to expect such easy Hammers win today.
AZ also had very solid game and were close from winning game in regular time and avoiding penalty drama. But penalties weren't drama that much as Anderlecht 2 of their 3 penalties.

I must say that Fiorentina got a good and important win against their in-form opponent.It will be a great source of morale for them to have such a match.Lech poznan is a team in form in the league and they have no problem scoring goals.The same can be said for Fiorentina, who have been on the rise in recent weeks.In the struggle of two in-form teams, it was Fiorentina who won.Fiorentina started the match fast, finding the goal in the 4th minute of the match and taking the lead.15 minutes later After 15 minutes lech poznan scored, but towards the end of the first half fiorentina scored again and closed the first half ahead.In the second half, fiorentina increased the pressure and scored goals and won 4-1 as a result.It was a very good win to pass the round.

Well these are the teams that barely qualify for europe so it is expected that we see teams that arent even at the top. For me main favorites are West ham and Fiorentina. Fiorentina will from my view take the title as far as i see this tournament. They are really good in it

Anderlecth 9th in belgium league, and AZ being 4th in eredevise, and yet Anderlecth managed to get a win. Things are weird in conference league, these are not the top level teams in most leagues but these are not even top level teams in the lower level teams. We are not seeing too many teams like West Ham which is a top level league at least, most clubs are outside of the top 5 leagues, and not even good ones at that. And even there we get a surprising results here, they end up losing to teams they shouldn't.

I swear it should have been easy for AZ to have a win, it should have been an easy win, and look at the result, it is not and Anderlecth got a win, how they managed to do that is beyond my understanding for sure.

The Basel-Nice match ended in a draw .Basel scored from a penalty in the first half, but could not prevent Moffi's 2 goals in the last minutes of the first half and closed the first half defeated.In the second half, Basel tied the match again with the goal of Zeki Amdouni and left the match with this result.We can say that it is a pleasing score for Nice.They will be the side that will skip the round with the match they will play at home.Two goals came from Moffi and 2 goals from Amdouni.

Forentina as expected won against Lech. Win away with score 4:1 is very serious statement for semifinals. Didn't watched Basel - Nice game, but probably it was fun, it ended 2:2. Now I can't find video, but Moffi goal is must see - goal of the season probably. Anderlecht win against AZ 2:0 is serious thing too.

In the first match of the day we watched two in-form teams battling it out.I actually expected Gent to win this match but they failed.The hosts were the team that had more possession and got into goal positions but they couldn't make the most of it.Gent had 20 shots during the match but could only score 1 goal.It's actually one of the best results for West ham away from home.They have the advantage of playing at home in the next match but let's say that they don't inspire much confidence.I see Gent as a team that can score goals again despite being away from home.

Fiorentina are playing very well in this competition, of all the teams still in the competition I think the only one that could give Fiorentina a hard time is Nice. he is winning 1-4 away and will most likely be present in the semis, unless he does harakiri in the second leg

Regardless of the results in national leagues, I have the feeling that Fiorentina is the best team between them. They are doing pretty good in Conference League and maybe the most stable one in the list.
West Ham got a 1 - 1 draw vs Gent. Maybe playing home in the second leg could help them pass this round but I doubt they could go further with the actual performance.
Poznan 1 - 4 Fiorentina currently, not the best team to judge Fiorentina perfectly but we can say they passed to semifinals.