Euro Leagues......Post winter break

[WorkingForTheEnemy]

Ive been looking at a few of the italian matches for tomorrow and got thinking.

Do we expect the big teams to be better than before the break having been given the chance to rest? Or will they take a game or two to get back in the swing?

Does anyone know how much effect the winter break has? Maybe some post results supporting less/more upsets. Any leagues it affects more than others.

Im sure Barca will be more than grateful for their break at the mo.

Any help greatly recieved.

[Tulenos]

I suspect you can't call it a real break in Italy or Spain as they haven't played for just two weeks. Maybe injury hit teams might have been grateful, but that's that. I think there is much more effect (fatigue) in England / Scotland or in other leagues which start in a month's time. Off hand, can't remember loads of weird results after the break in Italy, Spain, Portugal.

[qlpol]

just had a quick look at the performance of Italian top teams after the winter break over the last two seasons :


In season 02/03 Juventus, Inter, AC & Lazio(good old times ) were the top 4 teams.
The first set of fixtures after the winter break ended in homewins for Juventus and Inter, an awaywin for AC Milan and an awaydraw for Lazio at Brescia(9th spot at the end of the season).
The second set of fixtures ended in homewins for Milan and Lazio, away win for Juventus and away loss for Inter at Reggina(15th)

In season 03/04 AC Milan, Inter, Juventus and AS Roma were the top 4 teams.
Day 1 after the break gave two homewins for Juventus and Inter, AC Milan played against AS Roma and won.
Day two ended in a homewin for AC Milan, two away wins for both Juve and Roma and Inter lost in Parma(5th spot)

So based on last two seasons, I would say the opposite is true. The best teams in Italy seem to come out of their wintersleep quite strong.

Hopefully this info helped you a bit