Group Stage: Match Day 6 Groups A, B, C, G, H, I

By: Dan | December 17th, 2009

It’s the end of the road for the Europa League group stage. Like yesterday, the matches were either last gasp qualification battles, or teams just playing out the string.

Group B was still wide open going into the final day. The big match here was Genoa at home to Valencia. Valencia definitely had the better start, as they controlled play for the first fifteen minutes or so, and Genoa goalkeeper Alessio Scarpi kept out a couple of dangerous David Villa attempts on goal. Valencia’s distribution slackened after that, and Genoa, who were mostly hitting long balls forward to start the game off, began to look more comfortable in possession, although they did not look as dangerous as Valencia had. They threatened the Valencia goal when some poor marking on a free kick allowed Rodrigo Palacio to slip in, and several nervy attempts to clear the ball were required. Valencia came close to scoring again in the 34th minute when a David Villa backheel freed Joaquin, but his disappointing effort went wide. Genoa’s best opportunity of the half came in the 44th minute, when Hernan Crespo was forced to hurry a lob over Valenica keeper Miguel Angel Moya, and the ball ended up over the crossbar. Valencia broke the deadlock in first half stoppage time when Bruno Saltor’s looping header from a free kick found the top corner. Valencia nearly added a second, moments later when Scarpi saved Villa’s free kick effort.

Genoa made a determined start to the second half that paid off rather quickly, when Crespo slid the ball past an advancing Moya in the 50th minute. After equalizing, Genoa had an increasingly nervous Valencia on the back foot for the rest of the second half, although they did not really turn their control of the game into many clear cut goal scoring opportunities. Genoa looked to be done for about five minutes from time, when Salvatore Bocchetti gave away a penalty by shoving Joaquin in the back. Unfortunately for Valencia, David Villa put his penalty shot wide of the goal, meaning the tension would continue for the final five minutes, plus an additional four for stoppage time. David Villa eventually did grab a second goal for Valencia deep into stoppage time when Scarpi hit a comically misplaced clearance straight into Villa, who merely had to round the keeper and tap into an empty net. The goal gave Valencia the win, and top spot in Group B. They will advance with Lille, who brushed aside Slavia Prague, 3-1, to assure their advancement. I think it would have been very harsh on Lille if their 90th minute slip up against Genoa was responsible for knocking them out of the competition anyway.

Group A, which had looked comfortably in the hands of Ajax and Anderlecht was thrown into confusion, first by Dinamo Zagreb’s disappearing and reappearing points, then by Zagreb’s victory over Anderlecht on match day five. This left Anderlecht needing at least a point from their trip to Amsterdam to qualify while Zagreb had to beat Timisoara and hope for an Ajax win. In the end, Anderlecht had nothing to worry about. They beat an Ajax side resting a few starters (though they were introduced later, though too late to have much of an effect) 3-1 on the night, and Dinamo Zagreb fell to Timisoara, in Zagreb, 2-1. Anderlecht’s win does mean, though, that they win the group ahead of Ajax, despite not being anywhere near as convincing as the Dutch side have been.

Hamburg and Hapoel Tel Aviv already qualified from Group C. Hamburg was another team resting some usual starters, and they slumped to a 1-0 defeat in Israel, which means Hapoel finishes the group in first place. In Vienna, Rapid raced out to a 3-0 lead over Celtic that they slowly squandered over the course of the evening. Celtic will surely be happier with the result, or at least as happy as a match between also rans can leave them. In any case, they will certainly be happier than Rapid Vienna, who appeared to simply collapse when faced with Celtic’s fightback.

The late games were mostly affairs between teams that already progressed or were already eliminated, so a lot of reserves were on display. It was only Twente and Sheriff in Group H that still had to settle matters. Twente and Sheriff came into their games needing all three points. Sheriff had the additional burden of relying on Steaua Bucharest to get a result against Twente. Twente were very unlucky not to at least draw with Fenerbahce on the last match day, so it’s somewhat fitting that the Turkish side’s result helped them out today. Twente only managed a draw with Steaua, but Sheriff failed to take advantage of Twente’s stumble; they lost in Turkey 1-0. Steve McClaren’s Eredivisie leaders will advance with Fenerbahce.

In Group G, Red Bull Salzburg completed a perfect group stage campaign by downing Villarreal in Spain, 1-0. Levski Sofia scored their first goal in the Europa League, it was enough to defeat Lazio and collect their first points as well.

In Group I, Benfica and AEK Athens were somewhat competitive in a game that had no meaning. Benfica, who have dominated the group, went out on a winning note, 2-1. At Goodison Park, BATE defeated Everton reserves 1-0.

After some of these games, I really can’t wait for the draw tomorrow.

Group A
Ajax 1 – Anderlecht 3
Dinamo Zagreb 1 – Timisoara 2

Group B
Genoa 1 – Valencia 2
Lille OSC 3 – Slavia Prague 1

Group C
Hapoel Tel Aviv 1 – Hamburg 0
Rapid Vienna 3 – Celtic 3

Group G
Villarreal 0 – Red Bull Salzburg 1
Lazio 0 – Levski Sofia 1

Group H
Steaua Bucharest 1 – FC Twente 1
Fenerbahce 1 – Sheriff 0

Group I
Benfica 2 – AEK Athens 1
Everton 0 – BATE 1

Final Standings