Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Ranking of Europa League teams

Teams 17-48, the 32 teams reamining in the Europa League.

17. Valencia (Spain) - Stars David Silva and David Villa have gone nowhere - yet
18. Juventus (Italy) - 0-3 home loss to Milan was a rough start to Juve's 2010
19. Roma (Italy) - Mirko Vucinic one of the more underrated players in Serie A
20. Marseille (France) - Captain Mamadou Niang leads club with eight goals in all competitions
21. Liverpool (England) - Bounced out of Champions League, but would still love a trophy
22. Werder Bremen (Germany) - Despite losing Diego to Juve, last year's runners-up still strong
23. Wolfsburg (Germany) - Last year's Bundes Liga champs finished third in Champions League group
24. Benfica (Portugal) - Perennial Portuguese Liga power has gotten 13 goals from Oscar Cardozo
25. Sporting Lisbon (Portugal) - Like Benfica, Sporting won its Europa League group
26. Fenerbahce (Turkey) - Brazilian Alex and Spaniard Dani Guiza scoring loads of goals
27. Galatasaray (Turkey) - Like rivals above, won its Europa League group; have added Lucas Neill
28. Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine) - The holders had +11 goal differential in EL Group Stage
29. Anderlecht (Belgium) - Won EL Group, top of league, in quarters of domestic cup
30. PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) - Young Swede Ola Toivonen scored four goals in a game earlier this year for PSV
31. Unirea Urziceni (Romania) - One of many Romanian teams showing promise in Europeancompetitions in recent years
32. Rubin Kazan (Russia) - 2009 Russian champs have already booked a spot in next year's Champions League
33. Atletico Madrid (Spain) - Despite 11th place standing in La Liga and poor Champions League showing (-9 goal differential), Sergio Aguero and Simao make Atletico a team to fear
34. Standard Liege (Belgium) - Serbian Milan Jovanovic continuing strong scoring record for Liege with 12 goals in all competitions this year
35. Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) - Salzburg meets Liege in what should be an evenly matched cup tie in the first Europa League knockout stage
36. Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Israel) - Overcame Hamburg and Celtic to win Europa League group; Israeli Maaran Lala scored winning goal in 2-1 home win over Celtic
37. Hamburg (Germany) - Fighting for Champions League place in Bundes Liga despite departure of coach Martin Jol to Ajax before the season began
38. Lille (France) - Ivory Coast striker Gervinho (age 22) has 11 goals in his first seasons for Lille after a move from French club Le Mans, helping Lille climb to second in Ligue 1
39. Panathinaikos (Greece) - Former Liverpool frontman Djibril Cisse has given goal scoring punch to the Greek giants, who are top of the league ahead of rivals Olympiakos
40. Twente (Netherlands) - Former England manager Steve McClaren has Twente on top of the Dutch Eredivisie, ahead of the likes of PSV and Ajax
41. Fulham (England) - Bobby Zamora and Zolton Gera will be counted on to pick up the scoring slack left by the injuries to Andrew Johnson and Clint Dempsey
42. Everton (England) - The loan move of Landon Donovan to Everton could provide some creativity to David Moyes' club
43. Athletic Bilbao (Spain) - Javi Martinez (21) and Fernando Llorente Torres (24) among top young players for the Basque club
44. Villareal (Spain) - The Yellow Submarine has slipped down the La Liga table (10th), but goal-scorer Giuseppe Rossi and midfielder Robert Pires should keep them afloat
45. Ajax (Netherlands) - Martin Jol's team sits third in Eredivisie table, but lead league in goal differential; Uruguayan Luis Suarez has been a big reason with 18 league goals
46. Club Brugge (Belgium) - Croatian Ivan Perisic (aged 20) is off to a strong start with his new club after a transfer from French side FC Sochaux
47. FC Copenhagen (Denmark) - Copenhagen is back in the Round of 32 after falling 4-3 on aggregate to Manchester City in the same round last year. Senegal international Dame N'Doye, among the team's bigger goal-scoring threats, had a strong group stage to lead Copenhagen to second place
48. Hertha Berlin (Germany) - Not only is Hertha in last place in the Bundes Liga, but it has a league worst goal differential. Young Serbian Gojko Kacar's second half goal against Sporting, the group winners, clinched Hertha's birth in the Round of 32.

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