Europa League and Champions League qualifying!

August 5th, 2011 | by: aron | Comments(1)

The last time a team from Allsvenskan played in Europe was the 2007 season where Helsingborg managed to make it into the group stage. Once there, they took second place and were knocked out by PSV Eindhoven in the first knockout stage. I watched the last game in Helsingborg live, and though PSV were certainly the better team, Helsingborg had proved that teams from Allsvenskan could play and even do well at this level. What was needed was a good run of form, a good team atmosphere, and a coach who knew how to handle the rising level of play.

Fast forward then to today. Malmö FF won the title last year and gets to qualify for the Champions League. Most people write them off: no team has made it into that tournament since Helsingborg back in 2000. Malmö then struggles against a team from the Faroe Islands. Everyone writes them off again especially so when the next rounds draw is announced and Malmö gets the Glasgow Rangers and the first game is away as well!

Malmö goes to Glasgow, works their asses off, and with a late goal by the speedy Daniel Larsson manage a result that sets them up for a solid home game. Rangers meanwhile realize that they are looking at an exit from the Champions League before they even make it and start to get anxious. The game in Malmö ends up being a brutal affair: three red cards are handed out and Malmö makes it 1-1 late to guarantee their presence in the play-off round.

So what does this mean? For the first thing it means that no matter what happens in the next round, Malmö is guaranteed a place in the Europa League. Secondly it means that they are in a position where reaching the Champions League group stages is only 180 minutes away. If I were Rikard Norling and the gang, I would be rubbing my palms together in a Mr. Burns way and thinking to myself “Excellent!” This is a position that is win-win for Malmö and for Swedish football. We needed a team in Europe and we got it. Thank you Malmö!

_________

It didn’t end there though. There were also three other Swedish teams busy qualifying for the Europa League last night. Of those three, Helsingborg made it to the last round of qualifying as well. While this is also positive, I imagine they are going to get a tough team for the last round and that they will go out in a lopsided series. The big nightmare would be a team from Germany or England. Anything else gives me hope, but its still a long way to go for Helsingborg. Still, hope is the thing that dies last and I am hoping for a team in the Europa League and one in the Champions League.