Napoli or Juventus to Win Europa?

[Giz]

Opinions..? Which side will take this competition seriously, maybe Juventus challenging for the league means Napoli could win, what about Spurs? Challenging for top 4...Ajax????????? The two Portuguese sides??? What about the Ukrainians?

For me Napoli & Juventus are the two favs, Higuain & Tevez.

[Vaughany]

All depends on the lineups they put out and what focus they put on the league. With the Final being at Juve Arena though I think we have to be favourites

[Giz]

Ajax/Napoli final, if they avoid each other.

[SharkAA]

I'd still go with Juve. One big reason is the one Vaughany mentioned.

[Vaughany]

Out of the ones tht have just qualified from group stage i can only see Spurs and Fiorentina having realistic chance of going far. Maybe AZ, Rubin and Sevilla as outsiders to reach semis. Due to their great support home and away id also consider Frankfurt, but again depends on if they play key players. At the moment they are near relegation zone so Bundesliga is taking priority

[Giz]

Fiorentina no way, Napoli have this in the bag.

Benitez is a genius in europe.

[andy888888]

A lot will depend on how they will treat this competition, usually it is one that is taken more seriously by the likes of benfica, porto etc... I hope Juve use this competition to gain experience in european knock outs for the CL next season and not just dismiss the competition

[andy888888]

Montella (Fiorentina coach) on Juve - "We now know one of the finalists"

[Giz]

It's not a given.

[BHS]

Montella (Fiorentina coach) on Juve - "We now know one of the finalists"

Juve fans were so confident about going to Semi - Final in CL this year as well.

We saw how that ended up.

[EasyPicks]

imo none to zero chance of Juve going to the finals (It would cripple seriously the internal Serie's A campaign).

Napoli maybe...maybe....mother f**king Benitez he's a lucky moron!

Other teams mentioned above:

Ajax - lol, are you serious?;
Shakhtar - how far they go will depend on the draw today;
Porto - unless they put their sh*t together I'm not seeing it;
Tottenham - REAL CONTENDER;
Benfica - REAL CONTENDER;
Fiorentina - do they have a real shot at the podium in the calcio? If yes = forget about Europe League

Not mentioned yet:

Lazio, Sevilla, Valencia, Lyon, Basel, Red Bull Salzburg???

what are your opinions on those?

[TheSportsAnalyst]

Do not overestimate what Rafa can do in Europe guys, it's De Laurentiis who's in charge and he's obsessed by his idea to create a European Super League with all the richest clubs. That's the only Europe he cares.
He doesn't care about EL and he already stated this in the past.

Main target for Napoli is to reach at least the second spot in Serie A this year and they don't have enough depth to play in EL too.
Mark my words.

[moki]

they will not win my friend

[BigBurk]

imo none to zero chance of Juve going to the finals (It would cripple seriously the internal Serie's A campaign).

Napoli maybe...maybe....mother f**king Benitez he's a lucky moron!

Other teams mentioned above:

Ajax - lol, are you serious?;
Shakhtar - how far they go will depend on the draw today;
Porto - unless they put their sh*t together I'm not seeing it;
Tottenham - REAL CONTENDER;
Benfica - REAL CONTENDER;
Fiorentina - do they have a real shot at the podium in the calcio? If yes = forget about Europe League

Not mentioned yet:

Lazio, Sevilla, Valencia, Lyon, Basel, Red Bull Salzburg???

what are your opinions on those?

Hold up, hold up my friend! What's with the degrading Ajax comment?

Why can't we beat any of the mentioned teams above? I agree Napoli and Juve may be a size to big, but we can take the rest on a good day. Especially at home, which we have proven this year already.

Depending on the draw (Monday btw, not today) we can certainly achieve something this year in the EL. I hope we draw Benfica so I can show you.

[andy888888]

Top seeds:
Fiorentina, Napoli, Valencia, Ludogorets, Salzburg, Rubin Kazan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Genk, Sevilla, Lyon, Trabzonspor, Tottenham, AZ Alkmaar, Benfica, Basel, Shakhtar Donetsk

Second seeds:
Juventus, Lazio, Ajax, Porto, Viktoria Plzen, Swansea, Chornomorets, Esbjerg, Maribor, Dnipro, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Dinamo Kiev, Slovan Liberec, Betis, Anzhi, PAOK

[Vaughany]

Montella (Fiorentina coach) on Juve - "We now know one of the finalists"

Think he was refering to Anzhi!

[andy888888]

Think he was refering to Anzhi!

probably, but only quoting what i saw on another forum

[Vaughany]

I was joking!

[JBFROMKENTUCKY]

Tottenham has to be a top 3 choice, theyve been killing teams!!! their all class!!!

[BigBurk]

Tottenham has to be a top 3 choice, theyve been killing teams!!! their all class!!!

Are they really? Im not convinced yet this season.

[Vaughany]

Tottenham has to be a top 3 choice, theyve been killing teams!!! their all class!!!

Cant tell if being serious or not? Theyve had the easiest group by far and been losing at home to teams like west ham in the league, they are from being "all class" unless u still think Bale is there

[Giz]

What about Kiev or Swansea?? Ajax have a chance you see them play vs Milan? Great team.

[SharkAA]

Rubin and Basel can do a lot of damage too.

[andy888888]

nah not rubin, awful away side

[Vaughany]

nah not rubin, awful away side

They might beg to differ! Only lost twice away in Russia league this season, and won 2, drew 1 on their travels in their group. Last season in Europa they beat Atletico 2-0 at the Vicente Calderon and Atletico had their best team playing and Rubin had 10 men for half the game!! They've only lost 1 out of last 12 away games in Europa and that was to the eventual winners in Chelsea!

[Giz]

They might beg to differ! Only lost twice away in Russia league this season, and won 2, drew 1 on their travels in their group. Last season in Europa they beat Atletico 2-0 at the Vicente Calderon and Atletico had their best team playing and Rubin had 10 men for half the game!! They've only lost 1 out of last 12 away games in Europa and that was to the eventual winners in Chelsea!

Rubin won't be that strong.

[Vaughany]

Rubin won't be that strong.

Not saying they will, but saying they are poor away just isnt true! And their squad hasnt necessarily got weaker compared to last season as they now have Torbinsky, M'Vila, Mavinga, Kulik, and Mubarak. Their lack of quality up front and reliance on Rondon and fact that their league wont start again until March will likely be their undoing tho

[andy888888]

They might beg to differ! Only lost twice away in Russia league this season, and won 2, drew 1 on their travels in their group. Last season in Europa they beat Atletico 2-0 at the Vicente Calderon and Atletico had their best team playing and Rubin had 10 men for half the game!! They've only lost 1 out of last 12 away games in Europa and that was to the eventual winners in Chelsea!

Rubin couldn't even beat wigan away from home...

[onemoregoal]

Sevilla @ 26.00

[Vaughany]

Rubin couldn't even beat wigan away from home...

That's 1 game, hardly a sufficient sample size! There are plenty of sides that have only got draws away from home - look at Juve against Copenhagen!

[andy888888]

I just don't see what the hype about them is, they won't make it beyond the quarter finals

[Giz]

Why we talking about Basel, Rubin or Sevilla?? We all know its going to be Napoli, Hamsik and Higuain thats too deadly, the whole squad is so much better now.

[Vaughany]

who is hyping them?! people are just mentioning possible outsiders who might get farther then you'd think...I dont think anybody is expecting them to reach the semis, just that they dont have a league to worry about so it can either be a massive benefit as players are fresh and can concentrate 100% on Europa, or on flipside they aren't going to be match-fit (with the latter more likely)

[Vaughany]

Why we talking about Basel, Rubin or Sevilla?? We all know its going to be Napoli, Hamsik and Higuain thats too deadly, the whole squad is so much better now.

Because there is no guarantee that these kind of players will even start games in Europa. If Napoli are still within a few points of Juve then I doubt they are going to play somebody like Higuain (who already has some fitness issues) for 90 minutes on a Thursday then another 90 minutes a couple days later. A team like Basel on the other hand my have a 9 point lead in their league by Feb time and be able to give more focus to Europe. And teams like Sevilla are probably going to just be in 6-10 position in La Liga so can also focus on Europe as they will just be conserving mid-upper table status rather than battling for a title or CL spot. Plus Sevilla have a lot of history in this tournament winning it twice back-to-back in 06/07 when they had the amazing Del Nido side that had likes of Dani Alves, Maresca, Kanoute, Renato, Luis Fabiano, Adriano, Marti, Jesus Navas, Saviola, and Puerta.

[andy888888]

Why we talking about Basel, Rubin or Sevilla?? We all know its going to be Napoli, Hamsik and Higuain thats too deadly, the whole squad is so much better now.

really? the defence still looks shit