Swansea look for spring season in Europa League
Long journey to May 14 final in Turin continues
PARIS, Nov 27, (AFP): Valencia travel to Wales on Thursday with their place in the Europa League knockout phase assured and a matter of pride to play for against a Swansea side looking to lay down new landmarks in their European history.
With two matches remaining in the 12 group, round-robin format, Tottenham, Salzburg, Esbjerg, Ludogorets Razgrad, Fiorentina and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk are also certain to be in the hat for the round of 32, as the long journey to the May 14 final in Turin continues.
Swansea are on the brink of playing in the spring phase of a European competition for the first time in club history, a far cry from their last continental appearance when they were hammered 10-1 on aggregate in the 1991-92 Cup Winners’ Cup, by Monaco.
A Swansea win at the Liberty stadium will seal their status in the next round although should FC Kuban Krasnodar and Swiss club Saint Gallen draw, the Welsh club advance regardless of their result against Valencia.
Michael Laudrup brought the club their first English major trophy last season when they defeated Bradford City 5-0 to win the League Cup and the former Danish captain is working his magic again this season with the club solid in tenth place in the Premier League.
The 49-year-old, who scored 37 goals in 104 international matches, also has fond memories of his counterpart Miroslav Djukic when the Serbian memorably missed a penalty for Deportivo La Coruna in the last minute of the 1994 season against Valencia, handing Laudrup’s Barcelona side one of his four Liga crowns.
Seven-time French champions Lyon can also advance after a stuttering start to their season under Remi Garde, and the embarassment of failing to reach the knockout phase will only compound their misery of falling in the final Champions League qualifying round at the hands of Real Sociedad.
They host Group I leaders Real Betis at the Gerland stadium, trailing by two points with Vitoria de Guimaraes a fur- ther two back and on the road at Croatia’s winless outsiders Rijeka
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Alexandre Lacazette has been Lyon’s main source of goals in domestic action with six, but their inability to kill off matches came back to haunt them again at the weekend when they were pegged back to 1-1 at home to third from bottom Valenciennes.
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English FA Cup winners Wigan will keep their adventure going if they can defeat Zulte Waregem and already qualified Rubin Kazan avoid defeat at home to Slovenia’s NK Maribor in Russia.
KUALA
Meanwhile, Asia’s football body unveiled a new-look Champions League Wednesday, with Middle East and East Asian teams kept apart until the semifinals and India among a group of countries to gain a play-off spot.
Australia were handed a second automatic spot for the regional club competition while India, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam all get a chance to enter via a broadened play-off system.
The updated format, which retains the two-legged final for the next three years, was announced after Asian Football Confederation (AFC) meetings in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
The competition’s list of winners is dominated by teams from East Asia, mainly South Korea and Japan, with China’s Guangzhou Evergrande the current holders.
However, Middle Eastern teams were handed an easier route with the decision to keep East and West Asian sides segregated until the semi-finals.
Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia all get four automatic qualifying spots, while China will have three with one team entered into the play-offs.
In related story, President of Kuwait Football Association (KFA) Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Sabah commended the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), its Executive Committee and Chairman Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa for amending some conditions and regulations of championships.
Also: LUMPUR: Guangzhou Evergrande marksman Muriqui has backed his club manager Marcello Lippi for the vacant managerial position with the Chinese national team.
The duo teamed up to help Guangzhou become the first Chinese winners of the AFC Champions League earlier this month and the Brazilian striker said the World Cup-winning Italian could help the national team, ranked 97th by FIFA, fulfill its potential.
“I think he is a wonderful coach and he has helped our team a lot and Chinese football also,” Muriqui said of the cigar smoking Italian through a translator.
“Of course if one day he wants to be the coach of the Chinese team then it would be a very great thing and he will help more of Chinese football. I wish one day he will be the Chinese coach.”