Thursday night football:
There’s something oddly comforting about settling down on a Thursday to watch a Tottenham Hotspur youth team play in a sub-zero Eastern European ghost town. Thurs
Anyone can sit through Real Madrid v Manchester City and forge an opinion or two, it takes a football fan of far greater depth to enjoy and debate Académica v Plzen.
The Champions league snobs will turn their noses up at this finger-food at the footballing feast, but we should embrace, rather than turn our back, on Thursday night Europa League action.
Anyone can win it:
The Champions League, realistically, can only be won by a handful of super-rich footballing clichés.
In contrast, a brief history of the Europa League (previously the UEFA Cup) shows a fantastic and varied selection of recent winners.
Fulham in 2010 and a Steve McLaren-inspired Middlesbrough team in 2006 have produced improbable runs to the final.
In 2008, before that pesky financial collapse into a dark, morbid abyss, Glasgow Rangers were beaten at the last hurdle by Russian outfit Zenit St. Petersburg.
There is a beautiful unpredictability surrounding the Europa League, which is often sorely lacking in the modern game.
Great away trips:
Any European football fan worth his salt has had a wander round the Camp Nou, but potential dates in the diary to Romania, Israel and Bulgaria separate the men from the boys.
Seeing a small, cold pocket of scousers on a weeknight in Moscow never fails to pour guilt on your average armchair supporter.
Quite how wives, girlfriends and bosses allow such outrageous footballing self-indulgence remains unclear. But God bless them and their truckload of tolerance.
Big clubs:
Liverpool (in case their fans ever let you forget) have won the European Cup a whopping five times.
Napoli, Fenerbache and Marseille are involved in this year’s Europa League, as are 2009 Champions League winners Inter Milan.
There is no shortage of footballing giants, often of the sleeping variety, taking part in Europe’s second most important club tournament.
Like a large, drunk man stumbling out of the pub on a winter’s night, these clubs often appear rather confused as to why on earth they are there and how the hell are they are going to get home.
High scoring games:
A devil-may-care naivety often lingers around the way many sides approach the Europa League.
Clubs often field wildly experimental and attacking teams with little or no expectation or pressure.
Earlier in the season Brendan Rodgers sent out a jumbled mixture of hopefuls, has-beens and Stewart Downing to Switzerland, producing a 5-3 victory against Young Boys.
Without the gigantic financial rewards for progressing beyond the group stages, managers will often treat Europa League games like a jazzed-up pre-season friendly. Just without the sunshine.
FC Anzhi Makhachkala:
Possibly the most obscure club in world football, the stories echoing out from continue to amaze and amuse.
Managed by Guus Hiddink the Dagestan-based club live and train Moscow, travelling over a thousand miles for their home games.
The really scary thing is that Anzhi are actually half-decent. Billionaire frontman Suleyman Kerimov has assembled a good squad of players that currently top the Russian league.
Mr Kerimov is certainly not shy of spending a quid or two with Samuel Eto’o reportedly earning a head-spinning £350,000 a week.
A rather frightening feeling exists that we may be watching the birth of football’s newest and most bizarre superpower.
Radamel Falcao García:
The goal-greedy Columbian loves this competition, having lifted the trophy with Porto in 2011 and Atlético Madrid in 2012. .
Whether we get to see the 26 year old in the Europa League again remains to be seen, after Atlético rested the striker in their opening three group games.
Chelsea, Manchester City and others continue to circle and rumours are gathering pace that January will see a rather large cheque drifting from a London mansion, towards central Spain.
The Champions League dropouts:
Disgraced by their failure in the Champions League and without even the common sense to finish bottom of the group, third-placed sides in the Champions League opening stages drop into the Europa League knockout phase.
This often results in rather grumpy, off-colour performances from clubs who rather arrogantly feel the Europa League is beneath them, which is naturally hugely entertaining for the neutral football fan.
Watching both Manchester clubs limp, almost apologetically, out of the Europa League last season should be a lesson for those in a similar position this time around.
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