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From: MH <MHnospam@ucalgary.ca>
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer
Subject: Re: Fiorentina - West Ham United Europa Conference League Final [R]
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2023 18:13:41 -0600
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On 2023-06-07 14:10, MH wrote:
> On 2023-06-07 10:51, Real Mardin wrote:
>> Fortuna Arena, Prague. Kickoff 8pm GMT, 9PM CET.
>>
>> It's the 1960/61 European Cup Winners' Cup winners against the 1964/65 
>> European Cup Winners' Cup and 1999 Intertoto Cup winners.
>>
>> I know this competition is in its infancy but so far it's not 
>> delivering finals featuring the sort of third tier sides the 
>> tournament was supposed to benefit. Given their collective European 
>> experience and wealth (particularly considering West Ham sleep under 
>> the money tree that is the Premier League), these feel like two Europa 
>> League level teams to me. The odd thing is the two stadiums used for 
>> the finals so far have a distinct third tier feel to them - last 
>> year's venue the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana has a capacity of 22500 
>> and tonight's venue holds 19370 - but something about the structure of 
>> the tournament seems to be preventing the third tier sides from 
>> getting through. Alas, my dreams of a HJK Helsinki v FK Sarajevo final 
>> will have to wait until another year.
>>
>> Early reports are there has been trouble in Prague with Fiorentina 
>> fans allegedly attacking West Ham fans and dozens of arrests.
>>
>> RM
> 
> Bit of an ill tempered match so far.  Fiorentina players flopping all 
> over the place early on, with very little contact. West Ham players let 
> that and the fact they were being outplayed get under their skin and 
> they have been pretty poor so far.  Lots of gesticulation and a few bad 
> tempered challenges.
> 
> Fans have been misbehaving at the West Ham end. Throwing plastic glasses 
> at players taking corners.  Resulted in  cut to Biraghi ?  who was 
> bleeding profusely from the back of his head.  I wonder will that result 
> in the match being replayed if West Ham win (unlikely as that seems at 
> this stage).  There is precedent - Celtic- Austria Wien in the mid 80s 
> for instance. Also Real Madrid Inter the same year.  Funnily enough the 
> decisions were different in the  two cases.

Wrong Wien - it was Rapid, who ended up going all the way to the final. 
However, Everton gave them no chance in the final and won comfortably.
That was a very good Everton side who came close to a treble of sorts 
(lost FA cup final to Man united), winning the league while using an 
astonishingly small number of players (even for those days).  Very 
consistent and well integrated line-up.