Europa League Group Stage
By: Paul | September 1st, 2009
So the draw for the Europa League group stage has been announced, and Athletic got drawn into group L with Werder Bremen, FK Austria Wien, and Nacional (from Portugal). Looks like a pretty tough group- Werder knocked out Athletic in the 2004-05 UEFA Cup and are the strongest of the group. Austria Wien isn’t necessarily that strong, but they’re on a similar level to Tromso and BSC Young Boys; actually, they may be slightly better. Nacional aren’t a great team, but has a lot of upset potential. Still, though, I am going to say that Los Leones will keep it together and will move out of the group stage with Werder Bremen. Here’s what the match schedule looks like:
17 September: Athletic Club-FK Austria Wien
1 October: Werder Bremen-Athletic Club
22 October: Athletic Club- CD Nacional
5 November: CD Nacional-Athletic Club
3 December: FK Austria Wien-Athletic Club
16 December: Athletic Club-Werder Bremen
Also, it may be worth noting that Javi Martínez and Óscar de Marcos have each been given a one-match suspension due to yellow card accumulation. This could cause some issues in the Sept. 17 game- de Marcos has put in good performances throughout the preseason and Martínez is always a key player. We’ll see how this affects things come matchday.
Category: Athletic Bilbao Team News
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I’ve got a sneaky feeling that Vienna may be a surprise package, I saw Rapid Vienna beat Aston Villa and if they are a similar standard I think they have the ability to beat both Werder and Athletic. 6 points against the portuguese team is a must as this will be a very hard group
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