Features

Shocks already in Europe

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 12/08/2010
Football betting

It may only be the second week of August but several big names have already bitten the dust in European football's premier competition.

Perhaps the most high-profile exits at the third qualifying round stage of the Champions League were Celtic and Fenerbahce, who were beaten by Braga and Young Boys respectively.

It is 43 years since the Bhoys became the first British team and only Scottish outfit, to win the European Cup but, so far has Scottish football fallen, that defeat to a Braga team that finished second in Portugal last term was not too surprising.

Neil Lennon is moulding a new team together and he will certainly point to the fact that the two games against Braga came before the start of the new SPL campaign, but it is still amazing that a club that reached the UEFA Cup final seven years ago has crashed out of this season's Champions League so meekly.

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Braga are certainly no Artmedia Bratislava, who memorably dumped Celtic out of Europe five years ago, but there are real fears that Scottish football has entered a trough that it will be very difficult to escape from.

Fenerbahce's demise to Young Boys was, if anything, more of a shock as the Turkish team were quarter-finalists in the Champions League just three years ago.

They were runners-up in the Turkish League last term but were unable to see off a side that has only been in the Champions League once since 1987.

Young Boys were second in last season's Swiss Super League, their best performance since they won their domestic title 24 years ago.

More recent Champions League representatives, Debrecen and BATE Borisov, also crashed out at the third qualifying round stage.

Hungarian side Debrecen, who reached the group stage last season, were thrashed 5-1 on aggregate by Basel, while Belarus outfit BATE, who made it through to the group stage two years ago, were beaten 3-2 by Copenhagen.

The 1967 Fairs Cup winners, Dinamo Zagreb, were surprisingly beaten by Moldovan side Sheriff Tiraspol after a penalty shoot-out but there was almost a much bigger shock as Ajax just managed to see off PAOK Salonika on away goals.

Martin Jol, soon after pledging his future to the Dutch side despite being linked with the managerial position at Fulham, much have been wondering whether he had made the right decision when his side were held to a 1-1 draw by PAOK in the first leg in Amsterdam.

It looked particularly bleak for Ajax when they fell behind in the second leg in Greece, but three goals in seven second-half minutes ultimately proved decisive despite PAOK hitting back to draw 3-3.

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