Italian teams qualifying for Europe
Four Italian teams spent the last two days qualifying for either the Champions League or the Europa League.
Fiorentina made it to the Champions League draw (and into the group w/ Liverpool, Lyon & Debreceni). A handful of pics & video highlights under the cut.
ZOMG I SCORED!
AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Holy crap, you scored!
RAWRRRRR!
Yeah. That's how I roll.
Monty legs!
Hustling!Mutu
Yes, thank you. Thank you very much.
The rest were trying to make sure they qualified for the Europa League. All 3 made it, some found it easier than others. Roma, Genoa & Lazio highlights w/ a few pics under the cut.
Just in case some of you are unfamiliar w/ the Roma squad, here's an intro to some of them:
L to R: Angry Artur (not the one that hates corn), Hobo Cassetti, Awkward Turtle Motta, Way-too-blonde Riise, Chillaxin' Menez, The Phooster-- I mean Mexes.
L to R: Mini-man Pizarro, Pleasant-faced De Rossi, Cop-a-feel Totti, Bemused Cerci, Stoned Guberti.
The scoring started fast. Like minute 1 fast.
Il Capitano bagged the first goal of what would be a hat trick.
Then another 5 minutes later.
Wahey, then Goober scored.
Then Cerci.
Then Menez.
Then poor Kosice got a consolation goal.
Then Riise scored.
Oh... and then Fra bagged another to complete the hat trick.
If only that could happen during league play. *sigh*
Genoa played Odense last to earn their spot in one of the EL pots.
It was from a Mimmo (Domenico Criscito) goal, which is awesome-- b/c it wasn't against my team this time. *grumbles*
And finally, Lazio made it through on aggregate, after losing today to Elfsborg.
The Europa League draw is today (as I'm writing this at 3 am) and in fact in a few hours 12:45 CET (6:45 EDT... ew). Find info about the draw and the different pots here.
On a league note, if you don't already watch Serie A, might I suggest starting this weekend? The infamous Derby della Madonnina (Milan derby) is Saturday. For those of you in the US it's being broadcast live on FSC @ 2:30 pm EDT. Roma plays Juve at home, also live on FSC @ noon EDT on Sunday. It'll be interesting to see if I come out of that one alive or w/ my sanity intact. Also just after that, again live on FSC (I sound like a commercial for Fox) @ 2:30 EDT is the Viola/Palermo match, which should also be a doozy.
I can has a Europa League tag? Thank you! ♥