Another European Final awaits, with both finalists desperate for their first European trophy in over 60 years!
More leagues are coming to an end which, on the one hand, will see us with less footballing action, but on the other hand it brings even more focus on those matches that do remain! What special games we have, too, with the rest of the UEFA European Finals coming this week with midweek action in the battle for the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy, both teams desperate to end their 60+ year drought for a European title! We also take a look back at the pulsating Bundesliga and LaLiga campaigns where so much was still up for grabs going into the final matchday, with the ending in both leagues certainly not disappointing us.
Not sure who to take a punt on? Then read our preview and place your bets wisely!
Contents:
- UEFA Europa Conference League – Final – Fiorentina vs West Ham
- 2022-23 LaLiga Review
- 2022-23 Bundesliga Review
UEFA Europa Conference League – Final – Fiorentina vs West Ham
One of these teams is going to end their six-decade drought of a European trophy this midweek. Both sides found glory on the continent in the 1960s with Fiorentina lifting the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1960-61, West Ham just 4 years later (1964-65), and here they are with an opportunity to add another European title to their name, in the UEFA Europa Conference League Final!
By reaching this stage, Fiorentina have made history: they are the first team to reach the final of all 4 major recognised UEFA competitions (Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, and the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup) but their performances in Finals haven’t been too great, just the 1 win from these 4 which came 62 years ago. It was a different kind of Final heartbreak just a few weeks ago for the Viola, too, as they appeared in the Coppa Italia Final against Inter and ended as runners-up. It was part of a chance for a wonderful double for Vincenzo Italiano’s men and, whilst that’s no longer the case, winning here in the UECL will surely exceed the expectations put in place at the start of the season. They arrive at the Final thanks to a last-gasp winner in the Semi, away from home against Basel, and it seems that fixtures on the road have seen better fortune for Fiorentina rather than those in Florence: they lost their last 2 home games in the competition, but have won all of their last 6 UECL matches on foreign soil. With this Final coming in Prague, can Fiorentina keep this travelling form going when it matters most?
It was heartbreak last season for West Ham when they narrowly missed out on the Europa League Final (losing to Frankfurt in the Semi-Finals) and, whilst the Europa Conference League may be a tier down, it’s still a European Final they have dreamed about for years. This competition has certainly been the highlight for the Hammers this campaign given that West Ham finished 14th in the Premier League, but the suggestion is that the UECL has taken priority throughout the season. You can see why, too: West Ham have been unbeaten throughout the entire tournament, failing to win only 1 match (won 13, drawn 1). They have the most clean sheets too (6, joint with Lech Poznań) and the defence will be put to the test against a Fiorentina side who can boast the most goals scored in the competition (36, with West Ham 2nd on 27 goals). Can they contain the top scorer in the competition, Fiorentina’s Arthur Cabral (7 goals)? David Moyes’ men have their own striker desperate to end up with the Golden Boot, Michail Antonio lurks behind Cabral on 6 goals, but so often in Finals we see a nervy game that sees little goalscoring action. Could this Final be different, with both teams desperate to lift a European trophy for the first time in 60+ years?
2022-23 LaLiga Review
To say the final matchday of the LaLiga season was dramatic would be an understatement. Ahead of the weekend, there was no ‘midtable’, 7th-12th still had a chance to qualify for Europe, and 13th-18th were still battling against relegation! Here’s how it all ended.
For the first time in 4 years, Barcelona got their hands back on the LaLiga trophy. It seemed certain for the majority of the campaign, Xavi Hernández’s men jumped into 1st position in early November and stayed there throughout the rest of the season. Finishing 10 points ahead of the rest was largely thanks to a rock-solid, and so nearly record-breaking, defence: the blaugrana achieved 26 clean sheets in the season, a joint-best alongside Deportivo La Coruña (1993-94), but 3 defeats in their final 4 games prevented them from taking the record for themselves. Nevertheless, Xavi now has the title as both player and manager, and this summer rumours will continue about the potential return of his former teammate, Lionel Messi. Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Real Sociedad complete the Top 4 and thus Champions League qualification, the first time that the txuri-urdin will appear in the UCL for 9 years. There will be a 5th team joining the other 4 in the Champions League next year as Sevilla did what they so often do, winning the Europa League Final (their 7th UEL title) which grants them access to the UCL next year.
Villarreal and Real Betis take the Europa League positions (5th and 6th) but the biggest celebration will be felt in Pamplona as Osasuna return to European football for the first time since 2006-07 as they qualified for the Europa Conference League (7th in LaLiga). The 2006-07 season was also, coincidentally, the last time the Gorritxoak reached the Copa del Rey Final, until Jagoba Arrasate’s men took on Real Madrid in this year’s Final but, just like their fortune 16 years ago, they ended as runners-up. Still, a memorable season for Osasuna. For Betis, they bid farewell to legendary winger Joaquín who, in his last match, aptly matched the record for the most appearances in Spanish football (622 appearances, joint with former goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta).
Now time for the most dramatic aspect of the LaLiga season, the relegation battle. Whilst Elche and Espanyol already had their fate sealed going into the final matchday, there was still 1 relegation spot open for as many as 6 teams, and throughout the weekend 18th position kept welcoming different teams. Celta beat league champions Barcelona so earned safety, Cádiz drew with Elche which was enough to survive, so we were left with 4. Valencia scored an equaliser after 71 minutes against Real Betis (finished 1-1) which helped them stay in LaLiga and end a miserable season with some relief, so it was all up to Getafe, Almería and Valladolid in the battle to avoid the drop with only minutes remaining in their matches.
Almería scored a late penalty to draw 3-3 against Espanyol to jump out of the drop zone so all eyes were on Valladolid vs Getafe, currently at 0-0 but Valladolid needed to win in order to survive. It remained goalless, Valladolid relegated alongside Espanyol and Elche to the Segunda División. Granada and Las Palmas will be coming up, with the 3rd promotion place up for grabs in the ongoing play-offs.
2022-23 Bundesliga Review
The Bundesliga was one match away from welcoming a new champion other than Bayern Munich for 11 years, however it just wasn’t meant to be. Both Bayern and Borussia Dortmund were battling it out throughout the season for the top spot and, with Dortmund jumping into 1st ahead of the final matchday, the dream for die Schwarzgelben was nearly fulfilled. All they needed to do was win at home against Mainz, but a 2-2 draw (at one point losing 0-2) saw the trophy slip from their grasp. Heartbreak for Edin Terzić’s men who won more games than anyone else in the season (22), but when it mattered most, in their final game, they couldn’t do it. Bayern took the glory with a win against Kӧln to make it 11 consecutive seasons where the Bavarians have been crowned Bundesliga champions. It was a bizarre season for FCB which saw the surprise sacking of Julian Nagelsmann, replaced by Thomas Tuchel, and how cruel to Dortmund that it was one of their former managers to grab the title from their hands. When will this remarkable Bayern streak come to an end?
Leipzig finished 3rd, an impressive finish to go alongside their successful defence of the DFB-Pokal, lifting the cup in back-to-back seasons, but the major story from the Top 4 race is that Union Berlin, who only reached the Bundesliga for the first time in their history in 2019, finished 4th and will now appear in the Champions League, a remarkable achievement for Urs Fischer’s side who only seem to go from strength to strength. It could so easily have been Freiburg in the Top 4, another side to never previously qualify for the Champions League, but a 5th-placed finish in the end for Christian Streich’s men shows how underdogs can shine in Germany’s top-flight. Leverkusen will join Freiburg in the Europa League next year, with Frankfurt qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
Flip the success of those at the top with the despair for those at the bottom. Both Schalke and Hertha saw improved form in the final few months but, in the end, they left it too late. Hertha finished bottom to end their 10-year spell in the Bundesliga (24 of their last 26 seasons have been in the top-flight) whereas Schalke, ever-presents in the Bundesliga between 1990 and 2020, go back to the Zweite Bundesliga just one year after their promotion back to the German first tier. It was good news for Stuttgart, finishing 16th gave them the chance of a Relegation/Promotion Play-Off and they made that chance of redemption count: over two legs, they beat Hamburger SV (3rd in the Zweite Bundesliga) to keep their place in the top-flight, a near miraculous recovery given that they were in last position in the Bundesliga as late as April. Bochum, who relegated Hertha in the penultimate game of the season when they drew 1-1 in the final minute, survived themselves on the final matchday with a resounding 3-0 victory over Leverkusen to allow a third-consecutive season in the Bundesliga.
Next year, will somebody finally be able to take the behemoth Bayern off their throne?