In this week’s football review section we look back at some of the European matches from the Europa League and Champions League that took place this week. Good for Italian clubs not so good for English ones, while there was more crowd trouble in the Europa League. To help with understanding you can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below.This week’s football review: European Football Review – Italy, England and Crowd Trouble
Good
It was a great Thursday night for Italian club football as all five of Serie A’s representatives won through to the last 16 of the Europa League. Napoli beat Turkish side Trabzonspor 5-0 on aggregate, Torino won away in Bilbao to go through 5-4, Fiorentina saw off Tottenham 3-1 over the two legs, Inter defeated Celtic 1-0 to progress 4-3 and Roma won 2-1 away in Holland at Feyenoord to complete a remarkable night’s work for Italian football. With Juventus also winning their first leg match in the Champions League last 16 against Dortmund it proved to be a very successful week for Italian football.
Bad
Unlike their Italian counterparts, English sides had a miserable time of it this week in European competitions with only Everton making it through to the next round – they defeated Swiss side Young Boys to make the last 16 of the Europa League. Tottenham and Liverpool were defeated in the same competition with the Reds losing out on penalties and the London side eliminated 3-1 on aggregate to Besiktas and Fiorentina respectively. In the Champions League, the Premier League representatives fared no better with Arsenal and Manchester City both losing at home – Arsenal were thumped 1-3 by French side Monaco, while City lost to favourites Barcelona. Both sides have it all to do in the second leg in a couple of weeks’ time.
Ugly
After Feyenoord fans were involved in crowd trouble in Rome last week for the first leg of their Europa League tie, it was no surprise that the ill-feeling between the two sets of fans continued with last night’s game being stopped for 15 minutes as objects were thrown onto the pitch. However, this was nothing compared to the fighting that took place between fans of Dynamo Kyiv and French side Guingcamp which also forced the referee to halt the game. Very ugly scenes indeed.
Vocabulary
representatives: Teams
on aggregate: Total score after 2 games (legs)
saw off: Defeated
the Reds: Liverpool’s nickname
eliminated: Defeated; beaten
fared no better: Did no better
were thumped: Heavily beaten
have it all to do: A mountain to climb. They will find it difficult to progress
ill-feeling: Bad feeling; animosity
to halt: Stop
