Who had the hardest run in to the UEFA Final?

[papaguy51 912]

Blackburn, Liverpool and Boavista.

or

Werder, Sporting and Fiorentina.

It's yet another much better achievement from the Queens XI

[Danny 9]

Been thinking about this.

They had a mediocre Houllier Liverpool who beat them 1-0 at Parkhead iirc? They turned it round impressively at Anfield.

Also beat the then up and coming VfB Stuttgart - a promising team who became CL fixtures after that.

There was Blackburn who played them off the park at the Meccanodome and still lost - God knows how and the tims finished the job at Ewood.

There was also Vigo who were about 5th in La Liga - that was their biggest scalp tbh - they did well to get past them.

Their semi was against Boavista who by this point were fighting for their league status - and who weren't completely focused on their semi final.

Us:

Excluding our CL matches...

Panathinaikos - a fixture in Europe these days - decent team and Greek sides will always be dangerous.

Bremen - incredible scalp to take - one of the favourites for the whole thing - full of world class players.

Sporting - good team but not great - and over the piece we were the better side.

Fiorentina - couldn't handle our defence - simply weren't good enough to break us down.

All of our opponents were in the top 4 (minimum) of their leagues. And given that includes Germany, Portugal and Italy - that's frankly fucking impressive.

I say we had the harder run - albeit less Uefa Cup matches as we had to parachute.

[papaguy51 912]

Been thinking about this.

They had a mediocre Houllier Liverpool who beat them 1-0 at Parkhead iirc? They turned it round impressively at Anfield.

Also beat the then up and coming VfB Stuttgart - a promising team who became CL fixtures after that.

There was Blackburn who played them off the park at the Meccanodome and still lost - God knows how and the tims finished the job at Ewood.

There was also Vigo who were about 5th in La Liga - that was their biggest scalp tbh - they did well to get past them.

Their semi was against Boavista who by this point were fighting for their league status - and who weren't completely focused on their semi final.

Us:

Excluding our CL matches...

Panathinaikos - a fixture in Europe these days - decent team and Greek sides will always be dangerous.

Bremen - incredible scalp to take - one of the favourites for the whole thing - full of world class players.

Sporting - good team but not great - and over the piece we were the better side.

Fiorentina - couldn't handle our defence - simply weren't good enough to break us down.

All of our opponents were in the top 4 (minimum) of their leagues. And given that includes Germany, Portugal and Italy - that's frankly fucking impressive.

I say we had the harder run - albeit less Uefa Cup matches as we had to parachute.

Finishing 3rd in the 'Group of Death' was a great achievement on the way to Manchester as well though, that could make up for the parachuting maybe?

[WaltersGotStyle 160]

Did the smeltic not parachute too that year? but the format was different?

[McBoyd 355]

I'd say us.

They had a much stronger team, (larsson an all) we have been punching above our weight, heroically

[Danny 9]

I'd say us.

They had a much stronger team, (larsson an all) we have been punching above our weight, heroically

tbh all the press at the time, and they themselves fessed up to punching above their weight.

We've just done the same even more so and against arguably better opponents.

[Del 667]

They did play some good teams but so have we!

The fact we managed to finish 3rd in our CL group and get into the Uefa Cup gives us the advantage hands down!

Take into thought as well that we have played soo many games this season we really have done incredibly well to get here!!!

WATP

[davidrennie75 0]

taking everything into account i would say rangers

the liverpool they beat was falling apart, stuttgart weren't hot in germany then, boavista were a diddy mob and they only reason they pushed porto in final was because larsson had 2 brilliant headers.

Having Rab Douglas as keeper is probably not an advantage though

But lets look at the players up front they had sutton and hartson which cost 12M and Larsson. They battered teams and were lucky with a few decisions.

The fact we are through and with so many injuries/suspensions is a miracle

Panathinaikos, Bremen and Fiorentina will all be in champs league next year, sporting aren't great but still a good win

But really WE'RE OFF TO MANCHESTER and still gonna win a treble they WON F**K ALL that year

[Briton 394]

They had a mediocre Houllier Liverpool who beat them 1-0 at Parkhead iirc? They turned it round impressively at Anfield.

There was also Vigo who were about 5th in La Liga - that was their biggest scalp tbh - they did well to get past them.

Liverpool drew at Celtic 1-1 and were surely the biggest scalp given their European pedigree (and they had a very similar league status to Vigo).

I agree that Rangers had the slightly harder run.

[Danny 9]

They had a mediocre Houllier Liverpool who beat them 1-0 at Parkhead iirc? They turned it round impressively at Anfield.

There was also Vigo who were about 5th in La Liga - that was their biggest scalp tbh - they did well to get past them.

Liverpool drew at Celtic 1-1 and were surely the biggest scalp given their European pedigree (and they had a very similar league status to Vigo).

I agree that Rangers had the slightly harder run.

Don't quote me on this but I believe Liverpool were 8th and Blackburn were 10th when both sides played Celtic.

Liverpool had, won the Uefa Cup 2 years before, but were rotting quite dismally since then under Houllier.

A 5th placed Spanish side imo would be a bigger scalp.

I'm also not sure about the relevance of European pedigree - two of the sides in Europe's main 2 European Cups haven't got any European pedigree at all really at the level they're currently in.

Meh, tomaytoes tomahtoes. We're in the final

[Danny 9]

Both achievements were great! I was jealous as fuck of the 2003 Celtic team!

Obviously I will say our run in was harder as I've got blue tinted specs. However if I take them off I'll say both were pretty difficult, and it's too hard to compare the teams.

Leave them on then ffs.

[disgruntled_bear 157]

I'd say the quality of teams are about the same....But the quality of players we have compared to there team is alot different thats why i'd say our achievement is a lot better!

[Ibroxin83 0]

they will argue they had the harder run in, we will argue it was us.

both are incredible achievements I was so jealous when they did it and was chuffed to bits they got beat in the final although to be fair they were cheated by an excellent Porto side who went on to win the CL the year after.

us on the other hand have now won the bragging rights in Europe and i'm sure they are now cringing at the thought of us doing what they did that year and possibly win it.

Zenit are no pushovers as they displayed last night as the demolished a very good Bayern side who had an off night.

[Briton 394]

I'd say the quality of teams are about the same....But the quality of players we have compared to there team is alot different thats why i'd say our achievement is a lot better!

That's a good point. Actually it's pretty amazing that as the quality of our squad has fallen, so our European performances have generally improved (or at least results have). This is the third succesive season we've punched above our weight in Europe and have done better than the more ilustrious squads that Smith, (in his first stint), and Advocatt had. It's a funny old game.

[Danny 9]

they will argue they had the harder run in, we will argue it was us.

both are incredible achievements I was so jealous when they did it and was chuffed to bits they got beat in the final although to be fair they were cheated by an excellent Porto side who went on to win the CL the year after.

us on the other hand have now won the bragging rights in Europe and i'm sure they are now cringing at the thought of us doing what they did that year and possibly win it.

Zenit are no pushovers as they displayed last night as the demolished a very good Bayern side who had an off night.

Then Bayern have had 'off nights' for their last 6 European matches m8.

[BoltonLoyal 2]

they will argue they had the harder run in, we will argue it was us.

both are incredible achievements I was so jealous when they did it and was chuffed to bits they got beat in the final although to be fair they were cheated by an excellent Porto side who went on to win the CL the year after.

us on the other hand have now won the bragging rights in Europe and i'm sure they are now cringing at the thought of us doing what they did that year and possibly win it.

Zenit are no pushovers as they displayed last night as the demolished a very good Bayern side who had an off night.

Then Bayern have had 'off nights' for their last 6 European matches m8.

Went to Bayern watching Bolton, flew straight from Barcelona -Rangers game to Munich, they destroyed Bolton until they took Ribery and Schweinsteiger off, then Bolton were the better side.

Bayern are definitely a shadow of the team they used to be, but i still think last night they were very poor. Zenit hopefully will shit themselves when they see how vociferous the Rangers support is.

[Danny 9]

they will argue they had the harder run in, we will argue it was us.

both are incredible achievements I was so jealous when they did it and was chuffed to bits they got beat in the final although to be fair they were cheated by an excellent Porto side who went on to win the CL the year after.

us on the other hand have now won the bragging rights in Europe and i'm sure they are now cringing at the thought of us doing what they did that year and possibly win it.

Zenit are no pushovers as they displayed last night as the demolished a very good Bayern side who had an off night.

Then Bayern have had 'off nights' for their last 6 European matches m8.

Went to Bayern watching Bolton, flew straight from Barcelona -Rangers game to Munich, they destroyed Bolton until they took Ribery and Schweinsteiger off, then Bolton were the better side.

Bayern are definitely a shadow of the team they used to be, but i still think last night they were very poor. Zenit hopefully will shit themselves when they see how vociferous the Rangers support is.

Last 6 were Everton, Getafe and Zenit bud

[Briton 394]

they will argue they had the harder run in, we will argue it was us.

both are incredible achievements I was so jealous when they did it and was chuffed to bits they got beat in the final although to be fair they were cheated by an excellent Porto side who went on to win the CL the year after.

us on the other hand have now won the bragging rights in Europe and i'm sure they are now cringing at the thought of us doing what they did that year and possibly win it.

Zenit are no pushovers as they displayed last night as the demolished a very good Bayern side who had an off night.

Then Bayern have had 'off nights' for their last 6 European matches m8.

Well they absolutely hammered Anderlecht 5-0 (which left the home leg as a dead tie) and I don't see how you can really consider what happened against Getafe as off nights. In the end they did the business...we have lauded Rangers for doing the same.