Is the Europa League quite easy until the knockout rounds?

I am taking Kingstonian from the Blue Square South as far as I can. After straight promotions I reached League 2 and during my League 2 season I had an FA Cup run and reached the final which I lost to Man Utd, the only Premier League team I met, some red cards and penalties helped me beat a couple of Championship sides. Man Utd were in the CL so i got into the Europa League. Obviously i had a bit of money from the FA cup so i got quite a few ageing players on free transfers the likes of Alan Smith, Chris Killen and Boaz Myhill so good players for League 1 but not European standard however after thrashing Neuchatel Xamax of Switzerland 9-1 in the qualifying round I reached the group stages. In my group are Dinamo Bucharest, Eskisehirspor and Panathinaikos. After 3 games I am top of the group with 7 points after conceding a late goal to Dinamo. Surely the Europa League is a bit easy if a League 1 club can reach the 2nd round.

Both the European competitions are ridiculously easy until the knock out stages. I play a mix of youth and reserve players in most of the group games. They are good players (Imagine the likes of Delph, Kadlec and Lukaku right at the start of the game).

I have only won 2 European cups out of 5 however. I have been knocked out by Man City twice and was beaten 3-0 in the first knockout stage in Monaco once and only managed to beat them 2-0 at home. Doh!

But either way, for a L1 side you seem to be doing amazingly well.

I dunno about Europa league but i tend to field 6-10 U19s players for CL group stage and still win the group :-D

Think it depends on who you draw.

Think it depends on who you draw.

+1.

If you get Barca or Inter or Bayern obviously it won't be as smooth sailing.

But most teams do take it easy in the group stages anyway.

Away games in Europe could maybe be represented a bit better in the game. A league 1 side playing an away game in unfamilar surrondings and atmosphere in Europe would be a very challenging game, even if the opposition are of a similar sort of standard.

Great cup run by the way . Throw some figures at us please??

R1 - L2 Dag & Red 0-4 Kingstonian L2,

R2 BSP Lincoln 0-6 Kingstonian,

R3 L2 Yeovil 0-1 K's,

R4 Kingstonian 2-1 Bristol City CH (Rematch of the 2002 game where Graham Poll forgot how to count and gave Bristol an extra 34 secs after stoppage time to equalise and take the game to a replay),

R5 Kingstonian 2-1 Blackpool CH

R6 Kingstonian 1-0 Rotherham L1

Semis Kingstonian 1-1 Nottingham Forest CH, won 4-3 on Pens

Final Man Utd 6-1 Kingstonian

In R4 and R5 the oppositions had players sent off in the first half and I went ahead with a penalty against Forest.

R1 - L2 Dag & Red 0-4 Kingstonian L2,

R2 BSP Lincoln 0-6 Kingstonian,

R3 L2 Yeovil 0-1 K's,

R4 Kingstonian 2-1 Bristol City CH (Rematch of the 2002 game where Graham Poll forgot how to count and gave Bristol an extra 34 secs after stoppage time to equalise and take the game to a replay),

R5 Kingstonian 2-1 Blackpool CH

R6 Kingstonian 1-0 Rotherham L1

Semis Kingstonian 1-1 Nottingham Forest CH, won 4-3 on Pens

Final Man Utd 6-1 Kingstonian

In R4 and R5 the oppositions had players sent off in the first half and I went ahead with a penalty against Forest.

Thanks I meant financial figures though!

How did it affect your bank balance?

Sorry i wasn't sure what you meant, overall i earned about £4m from prize money and ticket sales, i can probs find more detail but don't have time until this afternoon

Its pretty easy in the early rounds. I usually play a team full of reserves and youngsters and still win. Its probably the only time in the season that they are able to get some real match experience. Nice accomplishment though. I managed to win the cup with a league 2 club once in fm08 i think. I had to defeat a few premier league teams along the way. Never managed to do it or even come close again .

This might depend on your database. If play against teams with real players(rather than grey) and managers it might be more difficult.

Turns out the Europa League isn't that hard in the knockout rounds either. After winning my group I beat HSV in the first knockout round 3-1 on aggregate. Then beat Feyenoord 1-1 on away goals. Drew Man U in quarters lost the home leg 1-0 despite being down to 10 men after 24 mins. I've also managed to reach the semis of the cup again. My fixture congestion is insane I've played 30 league games when most teams are on 40 and I've just got into April

I got into the Europa this season with Union Berlin through the Fair Play initiative. The qualifying stages were very easy, I managed to win them all fairly comfortably with my youths and fringe players, but the group stage is proving a tad more difficult even with my first team. We've got Benfica, FC Kobenhavn and Zurich in our group.

And Nani17, fixture congestion is the main problem for me also. I've got a small squad and a fair few injuries atm, so i'm tempted to just drop out of the Europa (We were only predicted to reach the group stages and we hardly need the money) and try and concentrate on the league and cup.

I'm glad I didn't do very well in the league cup or LDV vans (or whatever it's called these days). I think I'd be playing twice a day if I went all the way in those

I know it's not quite League 1 but I'm managing Peterborough in the premiership. I am in the semi's of the Europa league and in the F.A. cup and currently top the Premiership and my fixture list is killing me.

In the last part of April Ive got games on the 13th(Middlesbrough Premiership) 16th(Wolves Premiership), 19th(Liverpool F.A. cup), 22nd(Swansea Premiership), 24th(Shakhtar Uefa cup), 26th(Liverpool Premiership), 29th(Shakhtar uefa cup) and then 1st(Villa Premiership) and 3rd(Wigan Premiership) of May. I'm already 4 premiership games behind.

My 25 man squad already has 4 players out for at least a month, 2 of whom out for 3 or 4 months. Alongside injuries I have 3 players suspended for 2 league and FA cup matches and 2 suspended for 1 Uefa cup match.

Should I try to throw one of the cups or just go for all 3 and see where I get?

It's easier because you're probably still getting seeded in most draws thanks to England's national coefficient, thus ending up against sides from smaller countries...

Still, no matter how lucky the draw can be, or how many experienced players and good youngsters you can have, I feel it's extremely unrealistic a L2 side can reach that far in Europa League...

To be honest that sounds dodgy to me... Either you're in League Two with a Championship-level squad, or the game has a seriously flawed perception of League Two compared to, say, Greek or Romanian top division.

Myself I have reached the EL final with Rosenborg in my first season, without dramatically improving the original squad (that got their ass kicked in real-life's Group Stage...). So I take it as a clear sign that human managers tend to overcome the odds and their squad's shortcomings, either due to tactical superiority or to AI managers' ineptitude.

P.S. that being said, I'm going to get the beating of the year in EL's First Round with Aalesund facing Sporting CP...

Seeing as I didn't answer your question in my earlier post, I've found the group stages and knockout rounds are roughly the same difficulty.

I walked my group that had Sporting Lisbon, Parma and Grasshoppers in it before beating Dortmund 3-1 on aggregate in first knockout round, Olympiakos 8-1 on aggregate in the 2nd knockout round and Inter Milan 6-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

completely depends on the luck of the draw.

I'd suggest if you're getting to the FA Cup final with a League Two side and breezing the Europa League with a League One side then the game is too easy for you, maybe.

Im managing FC Santa Claus in Finland, not a great squad but for the first time in 20 seasons I came 3rd and made the Europa League (qualifying rounds) for the first time, for the next 3 seasons I couldnt even get through the 1st qualifier but when I finally did I beat OAB 6-1 agg, AAB 8-0 agg and beat Ajax on away goals 3-3.

Didnt get a point in the group though

I dont think its too easy.

Although there are people saying it is easy, including me, I think a lot goes down to the draw and the playing squad of your team and the opposing teams.