Group of F
Ian Symes - October 7, 2008 @ 4:51 pm
Wahey! God, I’ve missed this. Today was the day of the utterly confusing but ultimately satisfying UEFA Cup Group Stage draw, and it’s only now that the excitement of European competition has kicked in. We’re in Group F, alongside Hamburg, Ajax, Slavia Prague and MSK Zilina. After dredging through the likes of Odense, Litex Lovech and Harfarjardarnarblahblah, it’s about to get much more difficult. And I can’t wait.
First and foremost, we couldn’t have picked a better game to start with. Ajax. At Villa Park. October 23rd. Fan-fucking-tastic! This could be one of those nights - the ones we’ve been dreaming of since Inter Milan and Athletico Madrid. It’s a tough group - there are three former European Cup winners in there - but we should be alright. The order of the fixtures has been kind to us, with us playing the two toughest teams first and last. If we cock up against Ajax, we’ll have time to recover. If we beat Ajax, the Hamburg game could be a formality. In the middle, there’s Slavia Prague and Zilina - two lesser teams, but nonetheless tricky games.
Luckily, the format is so ridiculous that we need only be the third best team in order to go through. We can do this. Getting through to the knock-out round will be a big achievement, and we’ve got to be confident. Not over-confident - John Gregory’s lasting legacy is that I always shit myself before every single European game we play - but we can finish third at the absolute minimum. And if we can get a famous Villa Park victory along the way, then all the better…
PS. A quick word on the Chelsea game. Despite all the pre-match confidence, we shouldn’t have been too surprised at this result. We were completely and totally out-classed, but it wasn’t that we didn’t turn up - it was that they did. They were superb, and nobody could have beaten them. A lot of people have said that this goes to show that we’re nowhere near the Big 4. This isn’t the case - it just shows we’re nowhere near the Big 2. Unless they cock it up, Chelsea are probably going to win the league this season, and losing to them doesn’t mean we’ve no chance of finishing higher than, say, Liverpool or Arsenal. We may not be in the top four right now, but we’re still there or thereabouts, and that’s what’s important.