Post by viscount on May 8, 2018 17:19:42 GMT 1
LIVERPOOL'S CLUBS IN EUROPEAN COMPETITION, SEASON 2017/2018
INTRODUCTION
With Liverpool F.C.'s 8th European Cup/Champions' League Final to look forward to, there are already several threads covering the aviation element of some of the past ones. This Final, no doubt, will go into Liverpool aviation (and football) folklore. Before we get that far, a look back over the European football played by both of Liverpool's Premiership clubs this last season and examine that aircraft seen at LJLA since last July. European summer friendly competitions and season warm-up games are not included, neither is mid-season overseas warm weather training.
I am using this post to test tabular format of the matches and aircraft used, along with an introductory paragraph summary of the season's progress. It is my intention (eventually) to cover the decades of the '90s, '00s and '10s to complete the thread already posted covering all European competition games in the '60s. '70s and '80s. However with many more games each season presenting the information only in paragraph form becomes unwieldy and massive.
SEASON 2017/2018
Season 2017/2018 is only the second time in the Twenty-Tens that both Liverpool and Everton have been in European Competition in the same season. LFC in the Champions Cup and EFC in the Europa League.
EFC's Europa Cup campaign involved 10 matches between July and December, 2 rounds of qualifiers and the main group round of 4 club leagues. The qualifying rounds against Ruzomberok of Slovakia and Hajduk Split of Croatia were relatively straightforward with three wins and a draw. The group league stage brought Everton, Atalanta of Italy, Apollon of Cyprus and French side Lyon together. EFC struggled, with 4 losses, a draw and just the one win, in the final away leg game - too little too late, finishing bottom of their group. Their matches brought in a more interesting mix of types and airlines than LFC's European campaign upto Christmas, including a Slovak Government Tu-154 and 3 different Fokker 100s.
LFC played 15 Champion's Cup matches from a qualifying round through to the final. LFC eased through their Qualifier with German side TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. In the group stage they met Spanish side Sevilla, Russian Spartak Moscow and Croatian team MK Maribor. In the group round there were not too many supporter's flights, however that was to change in the knock-out rounds, although Porto in the Round of 32 provided neither much away support, nor great opposition. The Quarter-Final legs against Manchester City were both thrilling games with almost unbelievable results. While clearly no need for aircraft to transport teams, staff or local fans, a Boeing 737-800 arrived with Norwegian fans and a number of biz-jets with fans of both sides arrived from around Britain. The Semi-Final brought a flood of supporters following FC Roma. The visiting fans did disgracefully bring violence back to the streets of Anfield and it is quite likely that LFC fans were discouraged travelling to the away leg by the threat of violence and the need for the authorities to restrict movement of fans in Rome and ban the display of team colours. LFC's travelling fans through LJLA were less than half that of Roma.
From early in the season, a new trend became noticeable, and that is the use of wide-bodied aircraft by the teams and staff with LFC using a Nexus Boeing 767, Sevilla also a Boeing 767 in team titles and Porto with a High Fly Airbus A.330. A further wide-body was utilised to bring in Roma fans, an Alitalia Airbus A.330. Wide bodies are expected for the fan's airlift to the finals, but not use by the teams in the earlier rounds.
So how will season 2017/2018 by remembered? Certainly by whatever the game and result in the Kyiv final brings. But for the aviation enthusiast it will be not only the airlift out of LJLA for the Final, but also the season that brought two Italian invasions of the Airport in the same season, with Atalanta in November and a slightly smaller invasion by Roma in April. Also the number of biz-jets associated with LFC and European games has grown considerably this season.
Season 2017/2018
LFC in Champions League
EFC in Europa League
Round Date Leg Opponents Score Team & staff aircraft Supporters aircraft
3rd QR 15.08.17 away TSG Hoffenheim 1-2 Aeronexus B.767/3 ZS-NEX, t&t Frankfurt ---
3rd QR 23.08.17 Anfield TSG Hoffenheim 4-2 Rhein-Neckar Air, Do-228, D-CIRJ f&t Mannheim biz-jets D-IMHA CJ2, OE-FZD Mustang
GR 13.09.17 Anfield Sevilla 2-2 Privilege Style B.767/3, EC-LZO, f&t Seville ---
GR 26.09.17 away Spartak Moscow 1-1 Titan B.737/3, G-POWC t&f Moscow/Sheremetyevo Cello B.737/3 G-MISG (a 2nd team aircraft?)
GR 17.10.17 away MK Maribor 0-7 Gain Jet B.757/2, SX-RFA, t&f Maribor Titan B.737/3 G-POWC
GR 01.11.17 Anfield MK Maribor 3-0 Adria A.320 LZ-BHI in; Adria A.319 S5-AAP out Enter Air B.737/8 SP-ENR
GR 21.11.17 away Sevilla 3-3 Titan B.757-200 G-POWH, t&f Seville Cello BAe.146-100 G-RAJJ in only
GR 06.12.17 Anfield Spartak Moscow 7-0 Ural Airlines A.320 VP-BBQ in & out Challenger 850 9H-BVJ
KR 16 L1 14.02.18 away Porto 0-5 Titan B.757-200 G-ZAPX t&f Oporto ---
KR 16 L2 06.03.18 Anfield Porto 0-0 Hi Fly A.330-200 CS-TQP f&t Oporto Enter Air B.737/8 SP-ENP
QF 04.04.18 Anfield Manchester City 3-0 --- Enter Air B.737/8 SP-ENT f&t Oslo (LFC fans)
& approx 8 biz-jets with support for LFC & MCFC
QF 10.04.18 away Manchester City 1-2 --- ---
SF 24.04.18 Anfield Roma 5-2 Alitalia A.320 EI-EIB in; EI-DTN out Alitalia A.330 I-EJGA; A.319s EI-IME & EI-IMH
Neos B.737/8 I-NEOW, I-NEOU, I-NEOT
Blue Panorama Boeing 737-800 EI-GAX
Sun Air Do.328JET OY-NCN f&t Bullund (LFC fans)
approx 12 biz-jets, incl I-DELO Gulfstream 550,
3A-MGA Falcon 8X, I-FXRK Avanti, G-SHUI Latitude
SF 02.05.18 away Roma 4-2 Titan B.757-200 G-ZAPX, t&f Rome Enter Air Boeing 737/8s SP-ENN, SP-ENR
Jet2 Boeing 737/8 G-GDFX; Jota Boeing 737/3 G-MISG
extra Blue Air schedule Boeing 737/7 YR-BMA
final 26.05.18 Kyiv Real Madrid *-* *** ***
3rd QR 27.07.17 Goodison Ruzomberok 1-0 Slovak Gvt Tu-154M OM-BYO, f&t Tatry/Poprad ---
3rd QR 03.08.17 away Ruzomberok 0-1 Titan B.737/3 G-POWC, t&t Tatry/Poprad ---
Play Off 17.08.17 Goodison Hadjuk Split 2-0 Croatia A.319 9A-CTI in 9A-CTG out, f&t Split ---
Play Off 24.08.17 away Hadjuk Split 1-1 Titan B.737/3 G-ZAPW, t&f Split ---
GR E 14.09.17 away Atalanta 3-0 Titan B.737/3 G-POWC, t&f Parma Mistral Air B.737/4 OM-GTB,Neos B.737/8 I-NEOS
GR E 28.09.17 Goodison Apollon 2-2 Cobalt Air A.320 5B-DDC, f&t Larnaca ---
GR E 19.10.17 Goodison Lyon 1-2 Trade Air Fokker 100, 9A-BTE in&out, f&t Lyon Smart Wings B.737/8 C-GTVG.
GR E 02.11.17 away Lyon 3-0 Maleth Boeing 737/3, 9H-MAC, f&f Lyon Jet 2, B.737/8, G-DRTA
GR E 23.11.17 Goodison Atalanta 1-5 Avanti Air Fokker 100 D-AGPH in, I-AOLG out Blue Panorama B.767/2 EI-CMD
Neos B.737/8s I-NEOT, I-NEOW
Meridiana B.737/8 EI-FFK;Smart Lynx A.320 ES-SAQ
Albastar B.737/8 OM-NAS;Enter Air B.737/8 SP-ENR
Air Explore B.737/8 OM-FEX
Air Horizont B.737/4 9H-ZAZ
GR E 07.12.17 away Apollon 0-3 Titan B.757-200 G-POWH, f&t Larnaca ---
Sorry Two faults are immediately apparent. One, I've taken the scores from two different internet sources. It has become apparent that one always listed the British side first, the other the home side score is always presented first. I have changed the scores here to what I consider the better presentation of the home team score presented first. Thus home 5-2, away 4-2 gives an aggregated score of 7-6. I think I have everything straight now, but there could still be errors! Secondly I have too much information on some lines. On my PC wide screen, set at 100% all is nearly OK - on my Lap Top at 100% there is much distortion, and while 75% put the columns into the right shape, you need a magnifying glass to read the content!
Still despite this, hope the information is of interest and the article makes sense. Taken somewhere in the region of 8 to 12 hours to research, type, check and format just one season - in the '90s decade there are all 10 years of LFC and many with EFC also in Europe. While I will be able to trim down the research and typing time, my desire to have all 6 decades of Liverpool's teams in Europe and the aircraft they have used recorded will not be a short one! The presentation of a whole season's flights in one table I find rather interesting, do you?