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Match Pacos Ferreira v Tottenham Hotspur (Euro Conference) Thursday 19 August @ 19.30

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Paços' manager, today:

"It's a historic moment, for a team like Paços, that has a small number of appearances in European competitions, and that won the right to be able to face Tottenham. It's easy to see differences between the two clubs, in 2019 they were in the Champions League final…

I was looking at the market value of the two teams: 704 million to 22 million euros, that's 32 times the difference. But they're just differences - we're talking about a game, always 11 against 11. Although we've arrived here with merit, we have to approach the tie with courage, I'm just talking about the possibility of fighting, not putting ourselves aside, it's fundamental. I recognize the differences, but give us the chance to fight, to show a good identity and be able to fight for the tie.

The opponent has more to lose than to gain, given the differences. The responsibility is all on Tottenham's side, but we also have things to gain, we can also lose some and I want to strengthen our identity, I don't want to miss the opportunity to show the quality and organization from the club to the world of football. It is very prestigious to be able to face Tottenham in a European competition.

Will it be different from the teams in our League? I'm tempted to think of it as if I were one of those opponents we know [such as Benfica, Porto or Sporting], I believe it can be similar."
 
The Outsider said:
Why? give one reason how the Carabao is better .... it's not money, it's not profile, it's not the rewards ... I'm interested as to why you think that.

This is nine games against moderate opposition to qualify for the Europa League versus 36 EPL games against quality opposition to finish top six ... seems like a decent option to me.
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You'll have to play much better teams in the Carabao to win it. That means more to me than any victory in a made-up competition that shouldn't actually exist. If we can't finish in the top 6 in the PL then we are too shit to be in Europe. I don't want to scrape into the Europa league via some mickey-mouse bullshit like this.

In any case, for me the target should always be top 4. Settling for this rubbish because we think it's a better bet than finishing in the top 6 is a defeatist mentality. That's something a club that was in the CL final 2 years ago should not need to have.
 
TonySoprano said:
You'll have to play much better teams in the Carabao to win it. That means more to me than any victory in a made-up competition that shouldn't actually exist. If we can't finish in the top 6 in the PL then we are too shit to be in Europe. I don't want to scrape into the Europa league via some mickey-mouse bullshit like this.

In any case, for me the target should always be top 4. Settling for this rubbish because we think it's a better bet than finishing in the top 6 is a defeatist mentality. That's something a club that was in the CL final 2 years ago should not need to have.
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Defeatist mentality? "If we can't finish in the top 6 in the PL then we are too shit to be in Europe"

The target should be to win every game and every competition we are in .... To Dare is To Do
 
TonySoprano said:
You'll have to play much better teams in the Carabao to win it. That means more to me than any victory in a made-up competition that shouldn't actually exist. If we can't finish in the top 6 in the PL then we are too shit to be in Europe. I don't want to scrape into the Europa league via some mickey-mouse bullshit like this.

In any case, for me the target should always be top 4. Settling for this rubbish because we think it's a better bet than finishing in the top 6 is a defeatist mentality. That's something a club that was in the CL final 2 years ago should not need to have.
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They are all made up competitions, as to the shouldn't exist I am not sure why the Carabao Cup should exist anymore than this competition.
 
Igula said:
They are all made up competitions, as to the shouldn't exist I am not sure why the Carabao Cup should exist anymore than this competition.
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TBH I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the Carabao when they dropped the extra time. It's those gradual changes over time that spoil a competition. It started back in the 90s when Man United fielded weak teams in the Coca Cola Cup to focus on winning the CL, then other teams followed suit and before you knew it, the two legged 2nd round ties and the replays were gone and everything bar the two-legged semi-final was decided on the night to get it out the way for more important things. Now, both the two-legged semi and the extra time are gone and the loss of those two things in particular have gutted the heart out of the competition. Why not just toss a coin to decide the match? That way, the players won't even have to kick a ball.

So many great moments in football have come as a result of teams having to fight that little bit harder for the win. If the 1981 FA Cup Final had been played today, Ricky Villa wouldn't have had the opportunity to score his goal because there wouldn't have been a replay and the tie would have been decided with a penalty shoot-out at the end of the first match and, if the 2008 Carling Cup Final were played today, we wouldn't have got Jonathan Woodgate's extra-time winner because the match would have gone straight to penalties after 90 minutes.

We might have convenient winners but football is the loser.
 
Looking at the prize money & stadium revenue, winning this should give us around 24mil in prize money which is not huge but still important.

10mil for winning (All in) + 15mil home match revenue (9 home games I think).

Given how Nuno is approaching the first match it could also be a blessing for our development players trying to step up + shop window any fringe players we are looking to move on next year.
 
TonySoprano said:
That was a tournament for the best teams that didn't qualify for the European Cup in an era when only the league winners did. So basically the 2nd-6th best teams in Europe. Almost as strong as the modern CL and stronger than the current Europa League.

This bollocks is for teams who can't qualify for Champions League or Europa League. You can't begin to equate this to the UEFA Cup.

It's a load of rubbish designed to backdoor shit teams into a few extra European games to make a few more quid for UEFA.
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I like that a 3rd tier of crap teams also get to play some european football. Something for them to look forward to. Im sure some of the complete crap we will face would love to play a game in our stadium.
 
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