UEFA Europa League thoughts

The UEFA Europa league group stage opening round has started with a bang, and with a bang, here are my opening thoughts!

What happened in Basel? Wern't the Giallorossi supposed to be a far superior team? They fielded a full side, and were properly stuffed by their Swiss counterparts. Roma played an uninspired game from the start, looking somewhat like the Italian national team, a team that looks that it cant be bothered to play sometimes. Fair play to Basel for being the only team to show up!

Another contender for the first Europa League cup, Celtic, also showed up to a far inferior team with a full lineup and got stuffed. What is happening up in Glasgow? Why are the administrators allowing Celtic to become West Brom far-north? A uninspiring second half saw their counterparts from Tel-Aviv take full advantage of a team that did not look like a Celtic team of the past.

The tale of two sides from England, Fulham and Everton saw two savvy managers play the right cards. First, David Moyes, with his team coming out of the gates stuck in a quagmire, plays pretty much a full strength side against AEK Athens of Greece, and just throttles them 4-0. I have not seen an Everton team play to that calibre in a very long time. Not only did he get the full three points for the Toffees in group play, I think he got the gears in motion for the rest of the season. Fulham's main man, Roy Hodgson, did the exact opposite of his last weekend's counterpart, and came out smelling like roses as well. Hodgson fielded a side filled with reserve players in their match at CKSA Sofia and came out with a hard fought 1-1 draw at the Bulgarian National Stadium. Hodgson caught a lot of flak before the match for his selection, but yet again, as the Fulham faithful say, "In Woy we trust!"

German national pride suffered a small hit as Hertha Berlin drew at home against lowly touted side FK Ventspils and Hamburger SV was hammered 3-0 away to Austria Vienna, both quite shocking results for the German sides. The only bright spot for the Germans was Werder Bremen's 2-3 comeback win over Portugese side CD National, as Claudio Pizarro scored a late minute winner for the team from northwest Germany.

Overall, I was very impressed with the level of play compared to last years competition. I think the group stages this term are going to be far more competitive, and we will see this in the tactics of the clubs involved on the pitch. Home and away really changes the whole face of the competition, for the good. I am eagerly awaiting the next round of games!