Conference League: Last Place Beat First Place (original) (raw)
Manchester United
United States
Mar 30, 2004
Club:
Manchester United FC
Nat'l Team:
United States
Today is Matchday 2 of the Conference League's League Phase, and Vikingur Reykjavik of Iceland hosted Cercle Brugge KSV of Belgium in Kópavogsvöllur, Iceland. Vikingur won 3-1. Cercle Brugge took the lead in the 16th, but Vikingur scored in the 17th. Vikingur had better statistics including twice as many shots on goal and over twice as many expected goals (xG), so the win was not surprising given the statistics. Cercle Brugge has a 9.760 club coefficient, and Vikingur's 4.000 is the second lowest of the 36 clubs. Those are the coefficients before this season, and Vikingur entered today guaranteed to finish the season with a five season coefficient of at least 6.500. I do not know why Vikingur could not play at home. I also do not know why the game was so early. Normally when there is an extremely early game it is in the far eastern part of UEFA like Kazakhstan, but Iceland is in far western Europe. On Matchday 1, Cercle Brugge won 6-2, and Vikingur lost 4-0. Since the tiebreakers are goal differential followed by goals scored, the 6-2 winner produced the first place club but not the last place club, and the 4-0 game produced the last place club but not the first place club. If every game had a different margin (which is possible in groups of four or six but not when there are 18 games per matchday), the winners and losers would be in opposite order, but that did not happen. Club Brugge fell four spots to fifth on goal differential before the other 17 games, and that gives Cyprus the top two clubs with Omonia Nicosia in first, and Paphos in second.