If you want to spend a quiet hour or
two with your computer, then why not try to work out the various ways
that a club in Europe can qualify for the Europa League? I am not
going to bother, though the idea of a team being exposed to the
continental experience for being FAIR and qualifying as a result of
Fair Play seems perfectly acceptable.
West Ham did that and they had
a comfortable 3-0 win last night, nearly thumping an Andorran side,
FC Lusitans (founded in 1999 by the way) by 20 shots to 2, 11 on
target, whilst they had none and no corners, either.
So assuming that
they were not going to be overwhelmed by the mountainous part-timers, West Ham gave
1st team football to their youngest debutant in history,
Reece Oxford, who at 16 years and 221 days is a Rio Ferdinand type
centre back, standing 6'3” and is England U17 captain. That's Fair.
The other clubs playing last night
included (their result, Win, Lose or Draw comes after their name!)
Scots: Aberdeen D and St Johnstone L,
Welsh: Bala Town L, Airbus UK Broughton
L and Newtown W,
N. Irish: Glentoran L, Linfield W and
Glenavon L and
Southern Irish: St Patrick's Athletic
L, Cork City D and Shamrock Rovers D. Not looking so impressive.
BUT University College,
Dublin's 1-0 win at home against Luxembourg's FC91 Dudelange, who
have been best team in their country for a number of years, was exciting. This
result ranks alongside UCD's amazing performance against a fairly full
strength Everton FC, who in 1984-5 played UCD in a qualifying round of the European Cup
Winners Cup, which Everton went on to win outright.
UCD, founded in 1895, drew at home 0-0
and they only lost 1-0 at Goodison and had they scored rather than
hit the bar towards the end of the game, they would have gone through
on away goals! Southall, Reid, Sheedy, Sharp and Gray were in that Everton team, that was eventually voted best team in Europe!
Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton
join in the Europa fun later.
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