RTE outlook on champions league 1/4 finals

Boskowski

Just a question on what you guys think on something that has been said tonight by the fellow RTE pundits.

As someone who supports Bayern in Europe I felt a bit pissed on how Eamon Dunphy wrote them off in this competition together with Villareal and Porto. I am well aware of the fact the Bundesliga is not on the same level with the Premiership since the money simply isn't there. And nobody can deny the fact that 4 English teams are in the quarter finals (for the very same reason). But I think Eamon was always very dismissive of everything 'German' with regards to soccer - at international and club level - and he simply keeps doing it. I mean how can you toss a team with a champions league history like Bayern into the no-hopers bucket like he did. A team that just won a last 16 tie 12:1 on aggregate. Me personally thinks that ManU and Barca are a notch above everyone else in this competition but I'd give Bayern as good a chance as any of the remaining English teams. They're just not any old Bundesliga side, they're bloody Bayern Munich.

Am I just (wrongly) pissed off because he hit me on my soccer patriotism spot (again) or am I right saying that he's way off the mark here.

What do you think?

ziggy

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Tom65

I get the impression people are underrating Bayern Munich. To be honest, I didn't see the matches, but surely you don't stick 12 past a team over two legs in the CL without being fairly good?

RichTea

While I totally agree with the sentiment that RTÉ are ridiculously Sky Sports like in their treatment of the Premier League etc and their criticism of other leagues (Serie A for example). I have to say that Bayern are unlikely to figure too strongly due to the schizophrenic nature of their season and performances this season in the Bundesliga and Europe.

When they click. They're a joy to watch and could possibly threaten, but most of the time they end up flattering to deceive. I'd love to see them go far but I can't see it right now. Not yet anyway.

Royale with Cheese

Check the Bundesliga table and some of their results this season, might be why people are writing them off.

Quint

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

But they slated liverpool after both wins against madrid. They slated man-u after both games against inter. Same with arsenal and chelsea! I think Barca are the only team they didn't say anything bad against. And if the first leg against Lyon had have been live on RTE, they would have slated them too!

Their latest thing is that if one team have one bad game, not only are they rubbish, the whole league is rubbish.

spockety

I would wager that they have not actually seen Bayern Munich play at all this season. It is easy to write them off as a pundit, because the chances of you being right are pretty good. And if you're wrong, and Bayern go on to triumph, nobody will actually take you up on it, and if they do you can wave your hands a bit and give an answer to a completely different question to shut them up.

ziggy

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Boskowski

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Check the Bundesliga table and some of their results this season, might be why people are writing them off.

That's a fair enough comment and they sure are underperforming in the league but the same could be said about Liverpool for instance and no one is writing them off.

Quint

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Check the Bundesliga table and some of their results this season, might be why people are writing them off.

Middlesboro 2 Liverpool 0, just after they beat Madrid in the Camp Nou, draws with Wigan, draws home and away against Stoke, draws at home against Hull and West Ham, loss against Spurs.....

spockety

Quint wrote: »

Middlesboro 2 Liverpool 0, just after they beat Madrid in the Camp Nou, draws with Wigan, draws home and away against Stoke, draws at home against Hull and West Ham, loss against Spurs.....

You post this as if Dunphy and co have made Liverpool CL Winners Elect or something.

If they tip anyone other than United or Barca for the CL I will eat your shorts.

RichTea

realcam wrote: »

That's a fair enough comment and they sure are underperforming in the league but the same could be said about Liverpool for instance and no one is writing them off.

Liverpool have a recent history of challenging in the Champions League that Bayern don't have. This year might change that. Bayern haven't come up against a 'big club' in the knockout rounds yet. When they do it'll be easier and fairer to judge them.

Bubs101

Dunphy and Giles don't watch anything other than the Premiership and assume that everyone outside of the Premiership who doesn't play for Barca is a **** player. Giles at least admits it but Dunphy pretends like he's an expert on everything

Royale with Cheese

Quint wrote: »

Middlesboro 2 Liverpool 0, just after they beat Madrid in the Camp Nou, draws with Wigan, draws home and away against Stoke, draws at home against Hull and West Ham, loss against Spurs.....

Check Liverpool's record in the Champions League in recent seasons and then compare it to Bayern's.

RichTea

Bubs101 wrote: »

Dunphy and Giles don't watch anything other than the Premiership and assume that everyone outside of the Premiership who doesn't play for Barca is a **** player. Giles at least admits it but Dunphy pretends like he's an expert on everything

Agree totally. I sometimes wonder why people who don't watch La Liga and stuff always cling on to Barca as being great without watching them week in week out. They have been fantastic (mostly) this season but they're not all conquering.

Bubs101

It's not just Dunphy though. I read Phil Thompson's predictions for the CL games on Sky Sports and the ignorance was outstanding. You could see he had made his mind up on Ibra based on the two games against Liverpool and then made outlandish statements based on his skill. My friends and a lot of posters here do the same but you expect more from pundits.

dfx-

Quint wrote: »

Middlesboro 2 Liverpool 0, just after they beat Madrid in the Camp Nou, draws with Wigan, draws home and away against Stoke, draws at home against Hull and West Ham, loss against Spurs.....

United 1-1 Newcastle ( )
Arsenal 1-2 Hull/ 0-0 Fulham
Chelsea 0-0 Hull/Fulham
Arsenal 4-4 Tottingham

I also heard the ol' reliable "Barcelona have a rubbish defence" and "Messi didn't do it against United last season" :pac:

Quint

Royale with Cheese wrote: »

Check Liverpool's record in the Champions League in recent seasons and then compare it to Bayern's.

They weren't in it last year cos they finished 4th in the league, 2006 they were knocked out by Milan (who beat liverpool), year before that they were knocked out by milan again at the same stage as liverpool, if you want to go back to 2005 when liverpool had the jammiest run ever and won it, bayern were knocked out in quarters by chelsea by 1 goal, the team that liverpool knocked out cos of that luis garcia "goal".
Bayern actually have a decent record. Might throw some cash one them. If dunphy writes a team off, put your house on them!

~Rebel~

With attackers like Luca Toni, Miro Klose, Podolski, Ribery and Schweinsteiger, only a fool would write them off completely. They definately are weaker at the back, but they have enough ball players to maintain plenty of control of the game, and as good an attack as any team in the world on their day.

Unearthly

RichTea wrote: »

Agree totally. I sometimes wonder why people who don't watch La Liga and stuff always cling on to Barca as being great without watching them week in week out. They have been fantastic (mostly) this season but they're not all conquering.

Baffled

Dunphy DOES watch the spanish league, and has been more critical than most about them in the past(even when Ronaldinho was in his prime and they were winning the CL)

gucci

Quint wrote: »

They weren't in it last year cos they finished 4th in the league, 2006 they were knocked out by Milan (who beat liverpool), year before that they were knocked out by milan again at the same stage as liverpool, if you want to go back to 2005 when liverpool had the jammiest run ever and won it, bayern were knocked out in quarters by chelsea by 1 goal, the team that liverpool knocked out cos of that luis garcia "goal".
Bayern actually have a decent record. Might throw some cash one them. If dunphy writes a team off, put your house on them!

There you go....by that expert analysis you have shown that any of t he 8 teams can win it with this thing called luck, sure lets not bother thinking or analyzing it at all.

LuckyLloyd

Quint wrote: »

They weren't in it last year cos they finished 4th in the league, 2006 they were knocked out by Milan (who beat liverpool), year before that they were knocked out by milan again at the same stage as liverpool, if you want to go back to 2005 when liverpool had the jammiest run ever and won it, bayern were knocked out in quarters by chelsea by 1 goal, the team that liverpool knocked out cos of that luis garcia "goal".
Bayern actually have a decent record. Might throw some cash one them. If dunphy writes a team off, put your house on them!

So, their pedigree in the Champions League since 2004 is much, much less impressive than Liverpool's? That's what you said there, even if you don't realize it.

And here's it in black and white

gimmick

dfx- wrote: »

I also heard the ol' reliable "Barcelona have a rubbish defence"

To be fair, they do have a very poor defense in Champions League terms. All 4 English clubs, even Arsenal, have better defenses than them. Barca will not win the CL this season. There will be 3 English clubs in the semis at least again, and 2 in the final. Probably Liverpool Vs Man U.

To the point of the thread, this season is the same as any other with RTE. Dunphy claims to be the resident Spanish Football expert, and to be fair to him, he cannot tell his Spanish arse from his Spanish elbow. Last night he was telling us that Keita is one of Barcas most important players all season. He has done well, but would not speak of him as highly as any of the front 3, Xavi, Iniesta, Alves or Puyol.

iregk

Quint wrote: »

Middlesboro 2 Liverpool 0, just after they beat Madrid in the Camp Nou, draws with Wigan, draws home and away against Stoke, draws at home against Hull and West Ham, loss against Spurs.....

:eek: Is this the transfer to shock all transfers? Never mind Figo moving from Barca to Madrid but Madrid have moved to the Camp Nou!!! Xavi, eZe you lads up on this?

eZe^

iregk wrote: »

:eek: Is this the transfer to shock all transfers? Never mind Figo moving from Barca to Madrid but Madrid have moved to the Camp Nou!!! Xavi, eZe you lads up on this?

Ya, apparently most of the Madrid fans who saw them last make the quarter finals are dead as it was so long ago. So the fans now are jumping ship and supporting Getafe, the real Madrid club. And seeing as the fans own Real Madrid, they decided to vote and give Getafe the Bernabeu. However us upstanding Cules decided it'd only be fair to leave them use our stadium while they got back on their feet, considering how understanding and caring they've been to us over the years.

mike65

Quint wrote: »

if you want to go back to 2005 when liverpool had the jammiest run ever and won it, bayern were knocked out in quarters by chelsea by 1 goal, the team that liverpool knocked out cos of that luis garcia "goal".

Ah this old BS, :rolleyes:

I laughed when Billo defered to Emmo as "our La Liga expert" on Tuesday.

eZe^

mike65 wrote: »

Ah this old BS, :rolleyes:

I laughed when Billo defered to Emmo as "our La Liga expert" on Tuesday.

The same La Liga expert the couldn't pronounce Keita's name properly, and said he was an essential part of Barca's team, despite him playing 3rd choice CMF, to both Toure and Busquets. :pac::pac:

ROCKMAN

Had a little wager on them (Bayern) before christmas :eek:
Still think I'll get a decent run for my money

daithijjj

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Had a little wager on them (Bayern) before christmas :eek:
Still think I'll get a decent run for my money

Hows things rockman, long time no chat, hope the cards are falling nicely;)...............on the topic itself, i lived in england for over ten years without seeing any of rte's coverage in that time. To be quite honest i find it to be very enjoyable, these lads on the panel at least speak they're minds and say how they actually feel, after seeing all the pundits on english telly sit on the fence and say nothing remotely controversial or interesting for so long its a breath of fresh air, long may it continue..........life would be very boring if they just sat there and said 'its anyones trophy', 'good game from both teams' etc etc.........basically, stating the bloody obvious.

It could be a damn sight worse folks, imagine if setanta got sole rights.....jesus wept.

Third_Echelon

Unearthly wrote: »

Baffled

Dunphy DOES watch the spanish league, and has been more critical than most about them in the past(even when Ronaldinho was in his prime and they were winning the CL)

I reckon Dunphy watches the spanish league in the pub after 10 pints... I watch it pretty much every week (at least 2 or 3 games) and some of the stuff he comes out with is hilarious...

gimmick wrote: »

To be fair, they do have a very poor defense in Champions League terms. All 4 English clubs, even Arsenal, have better defenses than them. Barca will not win the CL this season. There will be 3 English clubs in the semis at least again, and 2 in the final. Probably Liverpool Vs Man U.

To the point of the thread, this season is the same as any other with RTE. Dunphy claims to be the resident Spanish Football expert, and to be fair to him, he cannot tell his Spanish arse from his Spanish elbow. Last night he was telling us that Keita is one of Barcas most important players all season. He has done well, but would not speak of him as highly as any of the front 3, Xavi, Iniesta, Alves or Puyol.

Yeah, defo. He hasn't a clue. Keita hasn't even played that often. Yaya Toure has been getting the nod ahead of him for most games this season in that defensive midfield position. Even Sergio Busquets has played more. Keita is an impressive player, but Eamo is talking out his hole...


With regards to Bayern Munich... I have always rated them a decent side in Europe and I would watch the bundesliga every so often and would watch the highlights regularly. They are a very expansive and attack minded team, who are great to watch. With the talent that they have at their disposal, anyone writing them off is foolish. Obviously the English clubs are technically stronger, but on their day Bayern could put out Arsenal or Chelsea... I reckon United and Liverpool with the way they play in Europe might just have a bit too much for them.

Anyway, moral of the story, Dunphy doesn't know what he is talking about when it comes to teams outside England... even then his viewpoints are out there

LuckyLloyd

daithijjj wrote: »

on the topic itself, i lived in england for over ten years without seeing any of rte's coverage in that time. To be quite honest i find it to be very enjoyable, these lads on the panel at least speak they're minds and say how they actually feel, after seeing all the pundits on english telly sit on the fence and say nothing remotely controversial or interesting for so long its a breath of fresh air, long may it continue..........life would be very boring if they just sat there and said 'its anyones trophy', 'good game from both teams' etc etc.........basically, stating the bloody obvious.

It could be a damn sight worse folks, imagine if setanta got sole rights.....jesus wept.

Here, here (or is it Hear, hear??).

ROCKMAN

daithijjj wrote: »

Hows things rockman, long time no chat, hope the cards are falling nicely;)...............on the topic itself, i lived in england for over ten years without seeing any of rte's coverage in that time. To be quite honest i find it to be very enjoyable, these lads on the panel at least speak they're minds and say how they actually feel, after seeing all the pundits on english telly sit on the fence and say nothing remotely controversial or interesting for so long its a breath of fresh air, long may it continue..........life would be very boring if they just sat there and said 'its anyones trophy', 'good game from both teams' etc etc.........basically, stating the bloody obvious.

It could be a damn sight worse folks, imagine if setanta got sole rights.....jesus wept.

Hi mate , if people would learn to just fold AA against my 5 2 offsuit awhile....

As for setanta getting the rights my god the humanity

The thing about RTE is it has just got to old , same over and over again when they first started out they where a real independent view and it was at the time refreshing to see, As for Sky and Setanta the pundits just seem to be doing PR stunts week in week out to sell their own product "a real sixpointer " ..clash of the season...so far " " greatest league.. " best defender, goalie , striker the boy top top " etc etc etc

Dont be at yourself

Bayern are a shambles domestically. The only thing keeping Klinnsman in a job is the Champions League run.

I wouldn't fancy them against any of the English teams or Barcelona.

Boskowski

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Bayern are a shambles domestically. The only thing keeping Klinnsman in a job is the Champions League run.

I wouldn't fancy them against any of the English teams or Barcelona.

I agree they are not as good as they should be in the league. They dropped points and suddenly Hertha (argh - I hate them so much) is in the driving seat.

But that's the way it goes - sometimes. Bayern is a notch above everyone else in the league with regards to resources, aspirations and everything else.
When you're expected to keep dominating the league year in year out it's sometimes difficult to keep the players focused for that away game in Bochum that should be a foregone conclusion. That's the main reason why I think that Alex Ferguson is so brilliant. No slack there...

But don't fool yourself. Supporters of the other league teams in Germany are actually delighted that Bayern isn't dominating the season as usual. And still, I bet, half the pundits are saying that at the end of it all Bayern will somehow win the title again anyway.

Don't fancy them against ManU or Barca, but I wouldn't say they have no hope. I'd put them on even money vs. Liverpool & Chelsea and I'd make them a slight favorite vs. Arsenal.

Karmafaerie

Quint wrote: »

They weren't in it last year cos they finished 4th in the league, 2006 they were knocked out by Milan (who beat liverpool), year before that they were knocked out by milan again at the same stage as liverpool, if you want to go back to 2005 when liverpool had the jammiest run ever and won it, bayern were knocked out in quarters by chelsea by 1 goal, the team that liverpool knocked out cos of that luis garcia "goal".
Bayern actually have a decent record. Might throw some cash one them. If dunphy writes a team off, put your house on them!

Bitter much?

THE YEAR IS 2007 AND LITTLE BLUENOSE DUNCAN IS TALKING TO HIS BLUENOSE DAD.

SON "Dad, my mates in school told me that Liverpool won the European Cup for the 5th time in 2005 - are they right dad?

DAD "Yes son, it's true, but they were dead lucky son, all the way through the tournament"

SON "Why dad?"

DAD "Well in the group stages ..."

SON "What dad, did they have a team from Azerbaijan, Israel, and Ireland in their group?"

DAD "Well no, they had Monaco, Deportivo la Coruna, and Olympiakos"

SON "Well they still sound like 3 easy teams to me dad"

DAD "Actually Monaco reached the final the year before, Olympiakos had won their league 7 times out of the previous 8 seasons, and Deportivo finished above the galacticos of Real Madrid in their league".

SON "Jeez dad, that sounds like quite a difficult group then".

DAD "yeh I suppose your right son, but they were still lucky - it took a mi**** shot by Gerrard against Olympiakos to get through".

SON "oh is that the goal were your hero Andy Gray goes berserk shouting "you beauty, you beauty, what a hit son, what a hit!!!!"

DAD "yes son it is"

SON "oh ok. Well what happened in the last 16 dad, who did they draw?"

DAD "Bayer Leverkusen"

SON "Bayer who?"

DAD "Exactly son, but they had beaten Real Madrid 3-0 at home, and won their group that included Dinamo Kiev and Roma too."

SON "bloody hell dad, they sound good".

DAD "yes, I suppose you're right son"

SON "so did they win on away goals or something"

DAD "errrrr, no, they won both legs 3-1 each"


SON "oh - well who next then dad"

DAD "Juventus"

SON "How the hell did they get past them Dad?"

DAD "Well they did - they won 2-1 at home, and cruised to a 0-0 away draw without Juve having hardly any chances".

SON "were Juve sh#t at that time - had all their decent players gone or something?"

DAD "well actually they still had players like Del Piero, Nedved, Ibrahimovic, Thuram, and Buffon in the side. And they won Serie A a few weeks later."

SON "wow, they beat the Italian champions elect - which p*ss easy team did they get in the semi then?"

DAD "Chelsea"

SON "Chelsea - for Gods sake - what a p*ss easy draw - they've won nothing, Everton have won more than them".

DAD "well that season they won the Premiership and League Cup but the Red sh*te didn't let them score in 186 minutes of football"

SON "Jesus Christ - so Liverpool beat the English Champions elect too"

DAD "yes son, they bloody well did".

SON "so after all that I suppose all the good teams had been knocked out"

DAD "not quite son, AC Milan awaited them in the final"

SON "no way - aren't they the 2nd most successful team in the competition's history".

DAD "yes son they are"

SON "so were Liverpool lucky because Milan had all their good players out with injuries"

DAD "no - they had Shevchenko, Crespo, Maldini, Nesta, Cafu, Kaka, Stam, Dida, Gattuso, Pirlo, and Seedorf".

SON "your 'avin a laff"

DAD "it gets worse son, Milan were cruising 3-0 up at half-time".

SON "what happened, did they have 3 men sent off in the second half ? how did Liverpool get back into the game?"

DAD "no, Milan had no men sent off, the Red sh*te scored 3 goals in 6 minutes"


SON "against the best defence in Europe"

DAD "yes!!!, against the best defence in Europe"

SON "so what happened next - extra time?"

DAD "yes son, and Dudek made the luckiest save ever to stop a Shevchenko shot from a yard"

SON "why was it lucky dad - did it hit him on the ****, nose, shoulder or something"

DAD "no son, his hand"

SON "well aren't goalies meant to save shots with their hands"

DAD "yeah but that's besides the point"

SON "then what"

DAD "penalties!"

SON "English teams are rubbish at penalties"

DAD "not this time they weren't - they only missed one. And that's how Liverpool became the luckiest team to win the European Cup".

SON "but I bet when they brought the cup home there was hardly anyone to watch as all Liverpool fans live anywhere but Liverpool you say. How many was there, 5,,000 or so?"

DAD "1 million people lined the streets".

SON "so let's get this straight dad - Liverpool had 3 good teams in their group, they then knocked out a team who had beaten Real Madrid 3-0, they then knocked out the future Serie A champions, then knocked out the future Premiership champions, before coming back from 3-0 down to beat the 2nd most successful club in Europe. And then the whole population of Liverpool came out to welcome them home!!!!

DAD "that about sums it up son"

SON "dad?"

DAD "yes son"

SON: "Can I have a Liverpool shirt for my birthday next week, and can you stop calling me Duncan - I'm Stevie from now on".

5starpool

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Here, here (or is it Hear, hear??).

Here, here = someone agitated by something
Hear, hear = full agreement with a statement

I hope your post was a level Lloyd...

LuckyLloyd

5starpool wrote: »

Here, here = someone agitated by something
Hear, hear = full agreement with a statement

I hope your post was a level Lloyd...

We'll probably never find out Dom.

Paul Tergat

I just don't understand why anyone would take anything RTE pundits say seriously!?