Rafał Siemaszko: from rags to riches

Photo: Tylko Ekstraklasa It’s approaching the last minute of injury time as Arka Gdynia face Danish side FC Midtjylland in the third round of the Europa League qualifiers.  It’s 2-2 after a fiercely fought encounter and Arka have won a free-kick on the right hand side of the Midtjylland box and it’s going to be […]

The State of European Football, Part four, Albania

Photo: AFP For the last in our series (you can find parts one and two and three here here and here) about under and over-achievements in the 2017-8 European qualifying rounds, we now turn to the situation in Albania.  There it’s KF Skënderbeu Korçë that are leading the way, Skënderbeu became the first Albanian side […]

The State of European Football, Part three, Macedonia

Photo: UEFA.com For the third in a series (you can find parts one and two here and here) about under and over-achievements in the 2017-8 European qualifying rounds, we now turn to those countries which have exceeded expectations.  Our first case study in this regard is Macedonia, where Skopje’s FK Vardar became the first ever […]

The State of European Football, Part two, Holland

Photo: Ajaxdaily.com For the second in a series (you can find the first one here) about countries who either under or overachieved in 2017-8 European competition qualifying rounds, our attention turns to the once mighty Dutch league which has recently fallen on increasingly hard times.  This season both Ajax and PSV failed to make European […]