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Bilbo Baggins gets my support for having an awesome name now that B2BB is out.

[Here goes the last one]

CL Group H: Matchday 6 Preview

Group H was mimed as the group of the titans – with defending champions Barca and strong favorites Milan expected to storm through to the knock-outs. But it wasn’t to be. Barca struggled to keep up with the title of Invincibles and only managed one victory in their 5 games and are now fighting it out for a Europa spot. However, luck wasn’t in their favor – they have accumulated the highest FOR points in their group and in the top 5 of the tourney. Just goes to show how much of a role luck plays in h2h’s – with a different set of fixtures, Barca could be sitting pretty at the moment. The biggest success story of this group has been BATE who have managed to qualify for the knockout phase already. A lot of credit to its manager who has invested a lot of time and energy in this tourney, building relations and developing professional players. Milan have done a professional job so far and Plzen are still in the race.

For the record, here’s how the group will be decided:
1) Higher the points, higher the position.
2) If 2 teams are tied on the same points, then it goes down to h2h record (win/loss)
3) If the h2h record is the same, then it goes to Overall GD. If its still tied, then we go to away points scored in the matches between the tied teams.
4) When 3 or more teams are tied on the same points, the Overall GD is taken into consideration.
5) The group winner & runners-up qualify for the knock-outs and the 3rd spot qualifies for Round 2 of the Europa League.

Let’s explore the qualification permutations then!

BATE – Having already qualified for the knock-outs, a win against Barca will maintain their status as group leaders. A loss, a Milan win against Plzen by a huge margin could possibly see BATE qualify as runners-up only if Milan betters BATE’s Overall GD at the end of the group stages. But at this stage, you have got to back BATE to emerge group winners.

Milan – Milan face a must-win scenario going into the last game. A win/draw against Plzen will ensure qualification, a loss would mean Plzen qualifies over Milan due to a superior h2h record. This would mean that they would have to contend with a Europa spot.

Plzen – The equation for Plzen is straightforward. A home win against Milan will see them qualify as runners-up. A loss for Plzen and a win for Barca would see Plzen crash out of Europe. However, following their own loss, if Barca doesn’t get a result in its favor, Plzen secure a Europa spot.

Barca – A must-win clash awaits Barca at the Camp Nou. If they have to secure the Europa spot, they will need to win against BATE and hope that Plzen lose to Milan. Any other scenario would see them out of Europe.

Predictions:
Plzen vs Milan – With both teams having used their crucial 1 FT, this clash is evenly poised as we head into the last matchday. The clashes to watch out for would be Dempsey/Verm/Huth vs Walcott/Richards/Riise. Verdict – A narrow away win with Fulham providing defensive returns but not offensively.

Barca vs BATE – Barca has a very strong set-up this weekend, with Suarez/Baines/Vermaelen/Dempsey expecting to make the difference. BATE has Pog/BAE/Skrtel/Walcott as their set of differentials. Verdict – An easy home win.

For Snowy: Sang-Moon Bae??? No one has won the Masters on their debut since Fuzzy THIRTY-THREE years ago...

Been away for two days under a rock and have just seen the fixture rescheduling. On the one hand there's fun planning to be had, on the other, my head has threatened to implode over deciding a fudging 3rd forward - these DGWs may make my brain melt. The grey stuff will turn into charcoal matter, I'm sure.

Need a Scoutcast, desperately.

Lost on last post, so here's a Steady:

Excluding this GW I can take a 4pt hit and have 11 players for GW34 and 7 DGW players over GWs 35/36.

My transfer plan if anyone’s interested, already done Nani/Senderos -> Walcott/Wilkinson this week.

GW32
Save transfer
GW33
Riise -> Kompany
GW34
Suarez -> Bendtner
GW35
Walcott -> Bale
Bendtner -> Adebayor
GW36
Miyaichi -> Ramires
Kompany -> Kaboul

I’ve yet to ride the Bendy Bus this season, and a 1 week punt against Wolves may be the opportune moment!

Dempsey or Silva or None > Valencia This GW??

GW36 looks delicious.

Dempsey, Kelly, Pog (Ful)
Mata, Cahill (Che)
Ben Arfa, Cisse, Krul, Ba, Simpson (New)
Bale, BAE, Ade, VdV, Friedel (Tot)
Enrique, Suarez, Skrtel, Gerrard (Liv)
Bogdan, Myiaichi (Bol)

Lots to choose from there, I imagine most of us will have 7/8/9 DGW’ers from that lot come GW36, with RVP and Rooney being the major single GW players we’ll be keeping in our teams?

has the Stoke Everton match yet to be rescheduled still? is it likely it will also be put in GW36 along with the others?

I have 5 players for gw34, yes five!
Sums up my season and ends hope for top 10k finish 🙁

Are people keeping Skrtel with DGW in mind or selling?

What Stoke and Everton match? Any updates

Sporting-
Rui Patrício, Daniel Carriço, Polga(C), João Pereira, Insúa, Xandão, Schaars, Izmailov, Capel, Fernández, Van Wolfswinkel

Metalist-
Goryainov, Villagra, Torsiglieri, Obradović, Gueye, Cleiton Xavier(C), Sosa, Torres, Blanco, Cristaldo, Taison

Managed to get a full XI for GW34 AND 7 DGWers' with only one hit.

Problem solved 🙂

Schalke-
Hildebrand(GK), Papadopoulos, Uchida, Höger, Jones, Fuchs, Draxler, Matip, Raúl González(C, Farfán, Huntelaar

Athletic-
Gorka Iraizoz, Aurtenetxe, Amorebieta, Iraola(C), Iturraspe, De Marcos, Ander Herrera, Javi Martínez, Llorente, Susaeta, Muniain

Valencia-
Diego Alves, Barragán, Dealbert, Jordi Alba, Ricardo Costa, Mathieu, Mehmet Topal, Feghouli, Pablo Hernández, Costa, Soldado(C)

How annoying is it that all europa league games all on at 8:05.
Could of had 2 on at 6pm

AZ-
Esteban, Marcellis, Klavan, Poulsen, Moisander(C), Maher, Martens, Elm, Holman, Gudmundsson, Altidore

Evening, peeps!

The Bus driver’s Prayer

Our Driver, who art in Hendon -
Harrow Road be thy aim.
Thy Kingston come; thy Wimbledon,
In Erith as it is in Hendon.
Give us this day our Berkhampstead,
And forgive us our Westminster -
As we forgive those who Westminster against us,
And lead us not into Temple Station
And deliver us from Ealing.
For Thine is the Kingston, the Purley, and the Crawley!
For Iver and Iver,
Crouch End.

With thanks to Ian Drury and others ...

Athletico-
Courtois, Godín, Filipe Luis, Miranda, Mario Suárez, Arda Turan, Gabi(C), Koke, Adrián López, Falcao, Juanfran

Hannover 96-
Zieler, Pogatetz, Eggimann, Cherundolo(C). Pander, Pinto, Stindl, Schmiedebach, Rausch, Schlaudraff, Diouf

Nice tribute to Jocky Wilson

I appear to have a full house! First time that's happened in Europa!!!

Hmmmm, worth shipping Rooney & to be able to afford Ade & Suarez???

As far as i'm concerned I don't think any DGW forwards are worth getting apart from Jellyfish(Maybe,just maybe).

Snowy: After much research (well, five minutes), stick a quid on Martin Laird.

I see we have more double game weeks. I can't say I'm thrilled. Gotta lose Dempsey. 🙁

Europa League Previews - Final Group Matches

Group A

Not much left to be decided here. We have 1 team already through and one team out, whilst the other 2 will do battle to make it through to the knockout stages

PAOK (BonZ) v Rubin Kazan (Ryan) - Already qualified PAOK host a Rubin side still hoping that the other qualification spot can be there's. PAOK have a great record so far and with home advantage and a nice set of fixtures will be hoping to continue in that vein. Rubin's GD is slightly below that of rivals Tottenham so it will need an exceptional performance to pull it off. 1 transfer has already been made and my guess is that Demba Ba has departed to Jelavic, so he will be hoping for a performance from the Everton star.

Predicted Line-ups

POAK - Vorm, Richards, Enrique, Evans, Bale, Miyachi, Silva, Siggy, Suarez, Rooney, Van Persie

Rubin - Begovic, Richards, Evans, Enrique, Dempsey, Valencia, Bale, Siggy, RvP, Rooney, Jelavic

Key Battle - This game could be defined by one battle, Dempsey vs Silva.

Prediction - Narrow away win

Shamrock Rovers (chazza) vs Tottenham (Megatron X) - The current holder of 2nd spot in Group A bids to seal a place in the knockout stages at already eliminated Shamrock Rovers. His task has been made easier by the non-wildcard 5 transfers made by Shamrock, meaning that Spurs now have a 12 point advantage after their own 4 point hit and not a 4 point deficit against a side that appears to have abandoned this season and so will fancy their chances. Once again it is likely that Demba Ba has departed alongside Taye Taiwo with Cisse and Simpson the most likely replacements

Predicted line-ups

Shamrock - Answers on a postcard, but it would seem the likes of Enrique, Skrtel, Young, Morrisson and Yakubu have been cut.

Tottenham - Krul, Simpson, Evans, BAE, Bale, Dempsey, Siggy, Valencia, RvP, Rooney, Cisse

Key Battle - There isn't one, this has no contest written all over it

Prediction - easy away win

I have 2 free transfers and 1.7 in the bank this week. Thinking Skrtel out for Kompany and Santon out for Kaboul, what do people think?

Mignolet Schwarzer
Skrtel Enrique Caulker Evans Santon
Bale McLean Sigurdsson Dempsey Valencia
Van Persie Rooney Ba