Cup o' coffee and the Swans (Sunday Catch-up - 12th April 2015)

Another Sunday, another cup of coffee, another Swans catch-up.

Here we go!


Swansea City 1-1 Everton

Swansea were certainly the better team in the first half of their second home match in a row; probing Everton and almost coming away with a couple of things.

We saw a stunning shot from Bafetimbi Gomis which was tipped away by Tim Howard, although it caused an unfortunate hamstring pull, with the striker leaving the field soon after. Shelvey had his own excellent half-volley goal, which was disallowed due to an apparent foul in the build up by Wayne Routledge.

Shelvey's adept penalty (image: South Wales Evening Post)

Unfortunately it took just one smart move from Everton to conjure up their first real chance and - with it - their first goal, coming from Aaron Lennon in the 41st minute. Their confidence grew tenfold after that.

In the second half Swansea managed to equalise from the spot through Jonjo Shelvey with 20 minutes to go, after Seamus Coleman handled the ball while on the floor in the area. Gylfi Sigurdsson saw his well struck free kick punched away by Howard in the latter stages, but the game finished 1-1. Still no league win against Everton, but an entertaining match which probably ended fairly. (Find a full minute-by-minute round-up here).


Taylor misses two

After his 10th yellow card of the season in yesterday's match, Neil Taylor will miss the next two matches.

With Tiendalli out on loan (see below...), who will fill his boots for the away games against Leicester and Newcastle?


Europe bound?

I read an interesting article that essentially says if Arsenal are in with a shot at the title, surely Swansea are in with a shot at a Europa League place. And it's true - the Swans are currently in 8th place, seven points behind Spurs.

With six games left in the season and Spurs well off form, there's no reason Swansea couldn't catch up. Of course it'll take a great run from the Swans and, while a top six finish is almost certainly out of the question, this season - providing Liverpool finish 5th place and win the FA Cup - 7th place in the league would be enough to grab a Europa League spot.

Although this brings up the question: do we really want to be in Europe next season?


Tiendalli's unfortunate debut

It seems Middlesbrough fans now understand what Swansea fans feel when watching Dwight Tiendalli. He made his debut for Boro on Monday, when they lost 2-0 to Watford. Boro fans weren't pleased with their new acquisition, taking to Twitter to vent their frustration over his positioning mainly.

The defender was subbed after 63 minutes in that first game, and didn't feature in yesterday's 2-0 win against Rotherham (not even on the bench).

I'll leave you with some comments from a Tiendalli Twitter search...

Mamma Mia! The Swansea City vs Napoli preview

After a much-needed break from European competition, Swansea will face Napoli in the first leg of the Europa League Round of 32 this Thursday. A place in the last 16 against either Eintracht Frankfurt or Porto awaits. Our blogger GAVIN TUCKER runs us through how the Swans may get there...

By Gavin Tucker 

Swansea City, having rested the vast majority of the first team in Sunday's FA Cup defeat, should be at pretty much full strength going into this landmark game.

The squad has looked revitalised under Garry Monk's stewardship, pressing higher up the field while looking to regain possession and playing with the width we have missed going forward lately.

Shelvey played against Napoli while at Liverpool

Jonjo Shelvey may be available after suffering a hamstring strain in the West Ham game. Interestingly, it was now Napoli boss Benitez who signed Shelvey for Liverpool towards the end of his time there, stating he was looking for "British players with passion".

Stranger still is that Jonjo's first start for Liverpool was actually against Napoli in the Europa League aged 18 in 2010. Also, perhaps most strange was his teammate for that fixture was Swans new boy David N'Gog... football has a funny way of throwing coincidences like this up!

Being at home first leg is not ideal and it will be important to get a positive result at the Liberty, a clean sheet would be a massive plus and a goal (or three) should give us a solid base in the difficult second leg on 27th February at the Stadio San Paolo.

There's also a chance we could see the long-awaited return of marvellous Michu, although it may only be a cameo appearance as it's unlikely he will be able to dive straight into a full 90 minutes.

Rafa Benitez's Napoli will make their first appearance in the Europa League this season after being harshly dumped out of their Champions League group despite impressive performances and results.

The Azzurri have been in good form of late - three straight wins including a 3-1 league victory over AC Milan and eliminating Roma 5-3 on aggregate in the two-legged Copa Italia semi-final. They currently occupy third place in Serie A, the final Champions League qualifying position.

Napoli have no major injury concerns or suspensions in their ranks going into the clash. Although top scorer Gonzalo Higuain may not make Thursday's clash after taking a knock to the back in his previous game.

You tend to know to a certain degree what to expect when facing a Benitez side. When taking over at Napoli he moved them away from the more traditional Italian formation of 3-4-3 to his favoured 4-2-3-1 set up that he has used consistently throughout his managerial career. Implementing his zonal marking system and a pretty solid defensive set up that concede few goals to good effect.

Pepe Reina is likely to feature in goal on loan from Liverpool and expect Marek Hamsik to be pulling the strings in midfield. Should Higuain miss the game, Rafa will probably opt to play Jose Callejon up top who has made a strong start since his move to Napoli from Real Madrid.

With approximately 1,700 Napoli supporters making the journey from Italy it should be a lively atmosphere. European competition under the floodlights is a special occasion and should be cherished.

After over 20 years since Swansea's last continental adventures, who knows when we could be tackling an Italian giant again. Savour it!

Napoli should hold no fear for Swansea and there is no doubt the Italians are a well drilled, tough opponent with some quality players. However we have outplayed and beaten better sides in our recent history. It was not so long ago we overcame Rafa Benitez's Chelsea side over a two-leg knockout format on route to Capital One Cup glory. Is this Napoli side any tougher than Chelsea last year?

Concentration, determination and a bit of luck and we can progress from one of the toughest draws we could have got. We are capable enough and, as cliched as it sounds, we can beat anyone on our day!

Prediction: Swansea 1-0 Napoli

Reliving the Swansea City European tour... so far!

Although Swansea didn't take the expected route to qualification from the group, the main thing is we made it! Swansea City are through to the later stages of a European competition for the first time in our history!

The knockout stages await and the Swans have earned a mouthwatering tie against Italian giants Napoli. But how did we get to this stage? ForzaSwansea's newest contributor GAVIN TUCKER is giving us the chance to relive the high (and not-so-high) points of Swansea's Europa League campaign so far.

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Drawing Napoli in the last 32 is a fixture that really marks the culmination of Swansea City’s progress over the last decade. The home leg will see Rafa Benitez’s side visit the Liberty on 20th February with the intimidating journey away to Stadio San Paolo on the 27th February.

Napoli is one of the toughest draws we could have had, with some top class players in Jose Callejon, Marek Hamsik and Valon Behrami; it will take a solid performance over two legs and maybe a little luck to see us through. Let's not forget it was not so long ago we beat Chelsea, then champions of Europe, over a two-legged knockout round and we all know how that ended. Just try to push the thought of Dwight Tiendalli facing Gonzalo Higuain to the back of your mind for now at least.

Here's a quick(ish) summary of our adventure so far in Europe and how we got to where we are:

Qualification

After comfortable wins against Malmo and Petrolul Ploiesti, 4-0 and 6-3 on aggregate respectively, Swansea progressed to the group stage draw. Thanks to a couple of upsets elsewhere the Swans moved up the seeded rankings meaning, in theory at least, a slightly easier group than first expected.
Swansea were drawn straight out of Pot 2 and into Group A with Valencia of Spain (ranked the number one seeded team in the tournament at that stage), followed soon after by St Gallen of Switzerland and Kuban Krasnodar of Russia. The general consensus was that Valencia would be a tough one, but we could, maybe should, qualify from our group. First up a trip to the Mestalla...

Valencia 0-3 Swansea

As starts go, it really couldn't have come much better this. Over 2000 Swans supporters, including myself, made the journey for what was to become and will be remembered as one of THE results in our recent history. Valencia had been struggling with league form going into the game, and there was a feeling that with the right performance we could get a positive result from this fixture.

Valencia's Adil Rami was sent off for a ninth-minute professional foul when he hauled down Wilfried Bony - an incident that Swansea took full advantage of. Bony struck first when his right-footed opener went in via a deflection five minutes later. Half time came and the Swans were 1-0 up in the Mestalla.

As the second half resumed, attention was drawn to the home fans (or lack thereof) behind the goal - the Valencia ultras had refused to return to the stands for the second half in protest to the current and recent results from their team. They did eventually return however, just in time to see Michu fire in from eight yards to make it 2-0. Cue away-section mayhem. Jonathan de Guzman curled in a 30-yard free-kick for the third and, to the applause of Valencia fans at full time, Swansea left the field sitting at the top of Group A!

Swansea 1-0 St Gallen

Our first group game at home saw visiting St Gallen bring with them a very respectably sized and noisy away support of around 1500 - oh, and a couple of flares. You can't even smuggle in a bottle of pop into the East stand but St Gallen brought with them a different flavour of European support that we never experience as supporters domestically.

The game will most probably be remembered for the completely inept refereeing of one Duarte Gomes. Having recently been banned from taking control of international matches, he gave bizarre decision after bizarre decision to the point that you stopped being surprised by them towards the end.
Not stopping play in the first half for Michu to receive treatment for a head injury that gushed blood and required stitches at the break was not even the half of it.

St Gallen closed us down well and were very physical in their approach; they were probably unlucky overall not to get something from the game.

Tiendalli was ruled to have handled the ball in the box after 14 minutes, but a weak penalty from Goran Karanovic resulted in a comfortable save by Tremmel. With a few chances early seeing Michu and Jordi Amat both hitting the post, it was not until the second half that Swansea got the breakthrough. In the 52nd minute Wayne Routledge grabbed what proved to be the winner.
Top of Group A, with two games, two wins. We're through already.... right?

Swansea 1-1 Kuban Krasnodar

 

Our third group game and second home tie brought visitors Kuban Krasnodar to the Liberty and around 50 away fans made the long journey from Russia.

Swansea seemed to lack their usual fluency but finally found a bit of rhythm in the second half with Michu bravely sliding home after latching on to a lovely chip from Alejandro Pozuelo on the 68th minute.

Deep into injury time and 1-0 up we only had to keep possession and see the game out. However, Jonjo Shelvey attempting to take on a Kuban player in injury time saw possession lost. Tremmel brought Balde down in the area and Cisse stepped up to score his sides first goal in the group.
A 93rd minute equaliser - tough to take.

Kuban Krasnodar 1-1 Swansea 

A massive shout has to go to the 50 Swans followers who spent hours deciphering the visa requirements and made the long and expensive journey to support our team in this fixture.

Picture courtesy of Tom (Twitter: @Glos_Jack)

Wilfried Bony's early, low strike looked set to give Swansea victory. Another Kuban escape seemed unlikely when Xandao was shown a second yellow card for clattering Alvaro Vazquez, but Ivelin Popov fed Balde to score and saw Kuban equalise in injury time, AGAIN.

To miss out on a win and a valuable three points to a last gasp goal once is bad enough, but for it to happen twice, within two weeks, against the same team was frustrating to say the least.

Swansea 0-1 Valencia

A strange night at the Liberty saw Valencia take the victory and secure top place in Group A. Valencia dominated possession and the match had very sedate pace all evening. You could easily be forgiven for thinking you were watching a pre-season friendly.

Fewer than 100 of the Valencia faithful made the trip from Spain to Swansea, and saw their side take the lead as Tremmel's tame punch fell to Juan Barnat outside the box. His shot was deflected into the path of Daniel Parejo.

Swans were left frustrated as Wilfried Bony limped off with an injury only for his replacement Alvaro Vasquez to have a perfectly legitimate equaliser ruled out for offside. 

Meanwhile St Gallen were officially out of the competition after losing 4-0 to Kuban Krasnodar. The Russians, however, were mathematically in with a chance of qualification should they beat Valencia at the Mestalla in the final game and Swansea lose to St Gallen while overcoming a goal difference of three.

St Gallen 1-0 Swansea

(The Fog Derby)

Flight disruption due to fog left the team delayed at Cardiff. When it finally cleared, a further delay due to a technical fault on the place resulted in the team waking up a sleepy Chico from his airport terminal slumber and scheduling a flight from Southend. The team finally arrived in Switzerland, although the training session scheduled for Wednesday evening was cancelled. Not ideal preparation.

The journeys of some supporters were also badly affected and, after numerous flight delays and cancellations, some were forced to abandon their travel plans. A massively frustrating and stressful experience for all involved.

It appeared the fog had followed the team and supporters out to St Gallen. Swans supporters tucked in the corner of the AFG Arena, unable to see the far end of the pitch as play commenced. St Gallen fans were in fine voice again seemingly fuelled by giant pretzels.

One massive pretzel too many...

The game itself was probably one to forget. The very attack-orientated line up from Laudrup and lack of a holding midfielder saw us ultimately struggle in the centre of the park. Tremmel gave a good performance and were it not for a few superb saves we could have easily seen a bigger loss.

Whether it was complacency after getting six points from the initial two games, the sheer number of team changes game to game, a touch of arrogance or a general lack of effort, we undoubtedly limped over the line into the knockout stages. Still, if you had offered us second in this group before a ball was kicked then I'm sure most would have happily taken it.

The next step...

Onwards into the knockout rounds once again and a big-time draw against Napoli. No chance for mistakes at this stage and should we progress from this behemoth of a fixture, Swansea will face the winner of Eintacht Frankfurt vs Porto.

The break from Europe between now and February will give the team a chance to narrow their focus back to the Premier League and hopefully improve their form. It's a popular opinion that the Europa League in general disrupts a team’s league performances, with the players being exhausted from the travel, extra games, etc. It's hard to say really with the Swans as we are still in a reasonable league position and have a decent points total.

One thing I believe has impacted us though is the (necessary) heavy rotation of the squad game to game. Two seasons ago it was pretty much the same eleven week in, week out. You knew the line up before it came out. That consistency helped understanding between players. Having to rotate so heavily being in Europe is completely foreign to Swansea (pun intended) but so far I think it's been managed fairly well.

In summary it's a fantastic achievement for Swansea to have qualified for the Europa League and we can be proud of how far we have progressed. It's been an exciting journey and who knows when we may be in European competition again. Whatever happens from here on in we can all be even prouder than usual to be a Jack.

Thanks for reading, feel free to follow me on Twitter: @gavint_

Swansea City in Europe!

Swansea? In Europe? Yes, I recall being laughed out of various forums/blogs at the beginning of the season for suggesting that Swansea City may end up in Europe. I was talking optimistically of course, and actually meant “it may happen in a few years”.

But it could well be a reality next season. While it's highly doubtful (yet not impossible) that Swansea will qualify for the Europa League next season by table position, they have another route.

As we speak (well, as I type and you read a few hours later) Swansea sit second in the Premier League Fair Play Table, just below Spurs. As you might be aware, Swansea were leading the race for first up until a few weeks ago.

But there is ample opportunity to claim top spot again, and you can help with this.

The Fair Play competition is not just about red and yellow cards gained, it covers many aspects of promoting the "beautiful game", including positive play, respect towards opponents, respect towards the referee and – where you come in – behaviour of the public.

The full details of how the Fair Play scores are calculated can be found here.

The rules are basically encouraging the public to "verbally support their team in acceptable form" (I think Hymns and Arias has helped Swansea to no end this season!) and to also “covert recognition of outstanding play by the opponents”, which means applauding when, say, Heskey scores an overhead kick.

Teams can be deducted points for “persistent foul and abusive language”, “persistent abuse of the officials’ decisions” and “aggressive and threatening conduct towards opposing fans.”

So think carefully next time you decide to remind the referee he is a wanker (even though he may well seem it).

At the end of May, even if Swansea don't top the Fair Play table, they may be able to gain access to Europe depending on who is above them (if it's Man United, Spurs, etc, chances are they will already have a spot, so Swansea will automatically qualify).

There is another league controlling entry to the Europa League however, so this will all be obsolete if the English Premier League does not finish in the top three of the overall country league (it's getting confusing now). As it stands the EPL would not be given a fair play place as it sits eighth in the league.

Here is a little more reading on the subject, along with the current table – definitely something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.

So how will Swansea fare in Europe? There are negatives such as squad size and a dent in finances to balance the prestige of playing with the likes of Napoli, Udinese, Bayer Leverkusen, Levante, and so on, but we'll cover that if Swansea do get there!

Remember to check me out on Twitter @ForzaSwansea for blog updates and general Swans discussion!