2017/18 UEFA Champions League

KERSPLAT!

irishman86 wrote: »

But Buffon

Dammit. Read his Twitter post to Astori, heart breaking.

Decent start for spurs

irishman86

And that ladies and gentlemen is why you should always go down

johnpatrick81

Further proof the extra officials beside the goals are as useful as a paper umbrella

citytillidie

Results
Liverpool (ENG) 0 V 0 Porto (POR) (Agg 5-0)
Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) 1 V 2 Real Madrid (ESP) (Agg 2-5)
Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 1 V 2 Juventus (ITA) (Agg 3-4)
Manchester City (ENG) 1 V 2 Basel (SUI) (Agg 5-2)

Next Up
2nd Legs
Tuesday March 13th
Manchester United (ENG) V Sevilla (ESP) (Agg 0-0) - Live on BT Sport 2 / TV3
Roma (ITA) V Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) (Agg 1-2) - Live on BT Sport BT Sport 3 / Eir Sport 2

Wednesday March 14th
Barcelona (ESP) V Chelsea (ENG) (Agg 1-1) - Live on BT Sport 2 / RTE 2
Beşiktaş (TUR) V Bayern München (GER) (Agg 0-5) - Live on BT Sport 3 / Eir Sport 2

Berserker

Can the PL teams get drawn against each other in the next round?

citytillidie

Berserker wrote: »

Can the PL teams get drawn against each other in the next round?

Yes open draw from now on anyone can draw anyone

shamrock55

I'd actually have Madrid as favourite's, they're a different animal in this competition

Kiith

City to beat Barca in a the final.

The Golden Miller

The Golden Miller wrote: »

After seeing that first leg, can't see Spurs getting through

TBH, I wanted Spurs to win ahead of those match fixers, but couldn't see it happening. Spurs just reminded me a bit of Napoli here, playing Juve off the field again and again but always coming out the wrong side of the result, a soft underbelly. Juve have regressed this year so they probably won't win it outright, but then again all the top teams are struggling to hit form. Juve a value each way bet at least, considering no one has really given them a chance this year. They'll always get goals on the counter, so if their defense improves a bit you never know

beya2009

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Of course, he's paid to score goals. If he couldn't even do that in the era, league and team he finds himself in, well he wouldn't even be worth mentioning. Messi's off being the fulcrum of a team, the playmaker, with goal scoring being a happy bonus on top of his performance. You didn't lay out the criteria but you certainly defend it.

It's funny watching Messi let other players take penos and setting up tap ins with pull backs when he could of scored the goals himself, how many more would he have had otherwise over the years? Even Messi grew out of the goal stat nonsense a few years back. And that's before we get into how many more he would have if he played higher up the field and had double the chances per game. So it's hard to argue Ronaldo is better at the one criteria he can be compared to Messi on... scoring goals. Everything else, forget about it.

So I guess if comparing goal stats makes Ronaldo fanboys happy in believing he's anywhere close to Messi's level, or ever was, keep at it.

Sounds like your being harsh on Ronaldo imo. The hardest thing to do in the game is to score goals. Sure it's a team sport but the dominance Real Madrid have enjoyed in Champions League is largely down to Ronaldo's goals. There is no other player period in the last few years that score more goals against the biggest teams in Europe. He scored against against PSG in both legs and lets not forget PSG were favorites to win the Champions League until they were drawn against Real Madrid.

beya2009

ERG89 wrote: »

Think people have been judging Real more than Ronaldo as they came second to Spurs in the group & the head to heads and are off the normal pace in la liga.
I doubt Real would have got through as easy against most other sides as PSG for an expensive team at home were beyond disappointing. I'll give an honourable shoutout to Dani Alves who was utterly pathetic & disinterested in anything resembling effort.

Fair point but I think Real Madrid are a bad match up for anyone. This is by far their fav competition. I know PSG have been criticised heavily but they didn't turn into a bad team over night. Let's not forget they were favorite to knockout the holders by the bookies. You would still expect PSG to cause any of the top sides problems over 2 legs.

bucketybuck

beya2009 wrote: »

Sounds like your being harsh on Ronaldo imo.

He has had a chip on his shoulder about Ronaldo for years, I wouldn't waste much time looking for logic there. Believe me, it's all been said before.

dfx-

bucketybuck wrote: »

How can you say that with a straight face?

I don't know why that is so controversial. He was very very poor from September to January, so how can he have a good season...

He's having a good January to March alright, but not a good season.

eagle eye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

eagle eye wrote: »

He has the same amount of league goals as Iago Aspas, 16, which for him is a bad season.

When people are saying he is having an awful season they are comparing him to himself and Messi and Suarez only.

La Liga goals the last three seasons:

35 in 36
25 in 29
16 in 21 (current season)

Champions League goals in the last three seasons:

16 in 12
12 in 13
12 in 8

He's on track for an overall drop off this season compared to last, but nothing dramatic and the decline in output is nothing over and above a curve you'd expect for a man turning from 30 to 33 during the period in question.

There is nothing "awful" in any of the above. Nothing "bad" in any of the above. Messi has 32 goals in his 41 games this year compared to Ronaldo's 31 in 33; Suarez has 23 in 38.

So really, what the **** are you or anyone else talking about? The Goat is still the Goat, 33 or no.

Maybe you should read a post before you quote it.

bucketybuck

dfx- wrote: »

I don't know why that is so controversial. He was very very poor from September to January, so how can he have a good season...

He's having a good January to March alright, but not a good season.

Because you are saying he had a **** season when it is only true if you compare it against his own records from earlier years. Compare it to mere mortals and its nowhere near ****, from lots of top players it would in fact be a season for the ages.

From September to the start of January for example, he hit 4 goals and 2 assists in 12 league games. 9 goals and 1 assists in 6 CL games. Then 2 goals in 3 games for the various cups. So, 15 goals and 3 assists in 21 games.

If that is ****, if that is very very bad, then there are a lot of very very **** players out there because there are a lot of strikers that would be content with those numbers.

Call his season and his numbers disappointing if you want, but labeling it as **** isn't really judging things fairly.

johnpatrick81

dfx- wrote: »

I don't know why that is so controversial. He was very very poor from September to January, so how can he have a good season...

He's having a good January to March alright, but not a good season.

Ridiculous. Like saying a player who does nothing for the first half but scores 2 in second didn’t have a good game.

dfx-

Who are the mere mortals who considers 4 goals in 12 league games at the top level as a season for the ages?

I don't think there's a goalscorer across any top league who would consider that a good return and be happy with that.

johnpatrick81

dfx- wrote: »

Who are the mere mortals who considers 4 goals in 12 league games at the top level as a season for the ages?

I don't think there's a goalscorer across any top league who would consider that a good return and be happy with that.

So if Salah doesn’t score for the next 9 games he’s not had a great season? Stop digging.

beya2009

I think Ronaldo also started last season a bit slow when compared to his ridiculously high standards but his numbers at the end of the season was solid. The logic dfx is using is completely flawed if we're judging players in quarters lol Surely better to judge their numbers at the end of the season. Luis Suárez started the season very slow and by dfx logic Luis Suárez is having a solid last 3 months but not a good season lol

bucketybuck

dfx- wrote: »

Who are the mere mortals who considers 4 goals in 12 league games at the top level as a season for the ages?

I don't think there's a goalscorer across any top league who would consider that a good return and be happy with that.

Come on, history is choc full of brilliant players who had periods where they only picked up a few goals in a run of 9/10 games, it happens to every striker and is only evidence that you are not judging Ronaldo by the same criteria as every other player.

Lukaku for example, as a United fan I am delighted with his season but in fact he had a run of only 3 goals in 14 league games. £166m Mbappe had 5 goals in the first 12 league games he featured in this season. Guess who once got only 5 goals in the first 19 games he was available for Liverpool, back in 2011? Thats right, Luis Suarez. Look at the great Alan Shearers stats, year 2000 for example, 5 goals in 19 games.

A dry run happens to every striker and it is not a given that having a dry run automatically means the player is **** or "very very bad". My point remains very simple, if you look at Ronaldos season to this point you can absolutely label it less impressive than his own previous amazing seasons, but you cannot call it ****, not unless you are judging him by completely different criteria to every other player in football. (yeah, Messi, I know)

The Golden Miller

bucketybuck wrote: »

Come on, history is choc full of brilliant players who had periods where they only picked up a few goals in a run of 9/10 games, it happens to every striker and is only evidence that you are not judging Ronaldo by the same criteria as every other player.

Lukaku for example, as a United fan I am delighted with his season but in fact he had a run of only 3 goals in 14 league games. £166m Mbappe had 5 goals in the first 12 league games he featured in this season. Guess who once got only 5 goals in the first 19 games he was available for Liverpool, back in 2011? Thats right, Luis Suarez. Look at the great Alan Shearers stats, year 2000 for example, 5 goals in 19 games.

A dry run happens to every striker and it is not a given that having a dry run automatically means the player is **** or "very very bad". My point remains very simple, if you look at Ronaldos season to this point you can absolutely label it less impressive than his own previous amazing seasons, but you cannot call it ****, not unless you are judging him by completely different criteria to every other player in football. (yeah, Messi, I know)

Ronaldo didn't come in for such harsh criticism during his dry patch because he is compared to a higher standard, it was quite simply because he was sh!te. Saying Suarez scored x amount of goals in x amount of games as a comparison, only serves to highlight the fallacy in your logic. You can be sure if Messi or Suarez are scoring 5 goals in 19 games, they are more industrious outfield, indirectly creating nearly every goal the team scores. Therefore, people come away from the game aware that they played well regardless. When Ronaldo goes through a dry patch, he is generally the quietest player on the pitch.

Imagine someone, who knew nothing about football, sat down and watched Messi, Suarez and Ronaldo play 12 games of football each, and in those 12 games they all only got 4 goals. You'd have quite the job trying to explain to this person afterwards, how Ronaldo is one of the best players in the world, considering this guy had just seen Ronaldo stand around like a statue for 12 games. In comparison, Messi and Suarez spent the 12 games dropping deep and playmaking. This is why Ronaldo comes in for such harsh criticism if he doesn't get a goal to paper over a poor performance, people are surprised at how poor his other onfield contributions generally are over 90 minutes. It's that simple really

bucketybuck

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Imagine someone, who knew nothing about football

Oh I don't need to imagine one.

The Golden Miller

bucketybuck wrote: »

Oh I don't need to imagine one.

Ye, I guess. Anyone who's opinion deviates from Ronaldo being one of the two best players ever knows nothing. And on top of that, how little all those people knew when they questioned Ronado's poor form during his dry patch, little did they know they were watching 90 minute masterclasses, their eye's were just tricked into rating Ronaldo to some other mythical standard so his contributions only "seemed" poor. If only I knew more about football

irishman86

bucketybuck wrote: »

Oh I don't need to imagine one.

:pac::pac::pac:

eagle eye

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Ye, I guess. Anyone who's opinion deviates from Ronaldo being one of the two best players ever knows nothing. And on top of that, how little all those people knew when they questioned Ronado's poor form during his dry patch, little did they know they were watching 90 minute masterclasses, their eye's were just tricked into rating Ronaldo to some other mythical standard so his contributions only "seemed" poor. If only I knew more about football

Go watch the full 90 minutes of the two Real Madrid vs Man City games from the Champion's league in 2016 and then come back to me and tell me what improved the whole performance of Real Madrid in the second game. The answer is Cristiano Ronaldo who was clearly very badly missed in the first leg. He does a hell of a lot more than you think.

irishguitarlad

Apparently Neymar wants to come back to Barca, not the brightest spark is he?

beya2009

irishguitarlad wrote: »

Apparently Neymar wants to come back to Barca, not the brightest spark is he?

Yeah apparently he's not too happy about how little the rest of Europe care about their domestic league. Hammering teams like Dijon is just expected and ever if they win the domestic treble...who cares? lol He left Barca for money unfortunately and all that talk he left Barca to get out of Messi's shadow and win ballon d'Or just utter nonsense lol

eagle eye

irishguitarlad wrote: »

Apparently Neymar wants to come back to Barca, not the brightest spark is he?

How does making a decision you regret make someone 'not the brightest spark'?

NIMAN

He'll need a bit of luck to escape PSG, I'd say they will demand he stays for his contract at least.

Mr.Nice Guy

The reports that Neymar wants to leave come from the Spanish media who have been claiming the same thing for months. I'd take them with a pinch of salt. The next PSG coach is likely going to be someone that Neymar wants.

beya2009 wrote: »

Yeah apparently he's not too happy about how little the rest of Europe care about their domestic league. Hammering teams like Dijon is just expected and ever if they win the domestic treble...who cares? lol He left Barca for money unfortunately and all that talk he left Barca to get out of Messi's shadow and win ballon d'Or just utter nonsense lol

Well he himself was part of the Barca team that hammered Deportivo 8-0 away. If he wants to join a league where the top sides aren't expected to hammer the bottom sides then he'll struggle to find any club in the current climate. A few years ago you could have said the Premier League is the place for a competitive league but this season City have ran away with it.

beya2009

NIMAN wrote: »

He'll need a bit of luck to escape PSG, I'd say they will demand he stays for his contract at least.

Apparently PSG will demand 400 million euro and the PSG owner not known to be bullied by anyone to sell his players. I suppose anything is still possible especially if Real Madrid sell some of their players.

beya2009

Also if Neymar is fit for the WC and has a good one, his value will surely only go up.

The Golden Miller

eagle eye wrote: »

Go watch the full 90 minutes of the two Real Madrid vs Man City games from the Champion's league in 2016 and then come back to me and tell me what improved the whole performance of Real Madrid in the second game. The answer is Cristiano Ronaldo who was clearly very badly missed in the first leg. He does a hell of a lot more than you think.

Aye, he sure does. I mistook him for Maradona at one point

LuckyLloyd

eagle eye wrote: »

Maybe you should read a post before you quote it.

I did:

eagle eye wrote: »

He has the same amount of league goals as Iago Aspas, 16, which for him is a bad season.

When people are saying he is having an awful season they are comparing him to himself and Messi and Suarez only.

I then compared his output to Messi and Suarez for this season and it compares favourably. So again, what are you talking about?

Mr.Nice Guy

Roma vs Shakhtar goalless at half-time. Anyone watching this one? Roma 2-1 down from the first leg.

Watching the highlights and Shakhtar look to have had the best chances.

Mr.Nice Guy

Dzeko has scored. Advantage Roma.

Turtwig

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Dzeko has scored. Advantage Roma.

considering how stingy they are at the back. That could be shaktar done for. Is it a good game? United sevilla is very poor.

Mr.Nice Guy

Turtwig wrote: »

considering how stingy they are at the back. That could be shaktar done for. Is it a good game? United sevilla is very poor.

I have it on in the background so I'm not watching it too closely but I saw Roma go close to a second on the counter. Looks like that's Roma's strategy at the minute. Sit back and hit them on the break.

beya2009

Credit to Sevilla...have had a go and got rewarded by a goal and their not playing like a team 27 points behind Barca.

Mr.Nice Guy

Shakhtar down to ten now. Ordets off for fouling Dzeko as last man.

sligeach

You know what's funny? The RTE panel a couple of weeks were talking about how English football was in a great place and that all 5 teams could realistically make the quarter finals. Fast-forward to tomorrow night and the likelihood is that only Liverpool and Man City will be there. I hope I haven't jinxed Barca.

justshane

sligeach wrote: »

You know what's funny? The RTE panel a couple of weeks were talking about how English football was in a great place and that all 5 teams could realistically make the quarter finals. Fast-forward to tomorrow night and the likelihood is that only Liverpool and Man City will be there. I hope I haven't jinxed Barca.

Ha was thinking that. In fairness I thought Man U would go through but never thought Spurs would beat Juve.

Jim Bob Scratcher

sligeach wrote: »

You know what's funny? The RTE panel a couple of weeks were talking about how English football was in a great place and that all 5 teams could realistically make the quarter finals. Fast-forward to tomorrow night and the likelihood is that only Liverpool and Man City will be there. I hope I haven't jinxed Barca.

Brexit in full swing :pac:

mickmackey1

sligeach wrote: »

You know what's funny? The RTE panel a couple of weeks were talking about how English football was in a great place and that all 5 teams could realistically make the quarter finals. Fast-forward to tomorrow night and the likelihood is that only Liverpool and Man City will be there.

Especially so when they were all unbeaten after the first leg with Spurs and Utd having the 2nd leg at home.

citytillidie

So far there has been 3 seeded and 4 unseeded teams going through to the quarter finals, unless Bayern implode tomorrow. The shake up in Pot 1 of group stage has really had a knock on effect for winning and finishing 2nd in the groups taking away that bigger advantage teams had of winning their groups

eagle eye

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

eagle eye wrote: »

Maybe you should read a post before you quote it.

I did:

eagle eye wrote: »

He has the same amount of league goals as Iago Aspas, 16, which for him is a bad season.

When people are saying he is having an awful season they are comparing him to himself and Messi and Suarez only.

I then compared his output to Messi and Suarez for this season and it compares favourably. So again, what are you talking about?

I'm talking about the standard to which he is held.
Him having a bad season is being behind Messi and Suarez. If he drops off them a bit then people will say he is finished or having an awful season.

inforfun

Maybe the UEFA should do away with the rule that teams from the same country cant draw against each other in this round.
Gives the English a beter chance to get through when they can draw each other.

beya2009

sligeach wrote: »

You know what's funny? The RTE panel a couple of weeks were talking about how English football was in a great place and that all 5 teams could realistically make the quarter finals. Fast-forward to tomorrow night and the likelihood is that only Liverpool and Man City will be there. I hope I haven't jinxed Barca.

If Chelsea do come up short (they still have a chance but will need to be brave and not play like how they did against Man City away lol) then just 2 of 5 teams going through is a pretty poor return. It's the general consensus at least by the British media that the EPL is by far the best league in the world.

If it is just the 2 that go through...well they were given favorable draws in Porto and Basel that's for sure. You just need a bit of luck I guess. To be fair PSG topped a tricky group and got Real Madrid.

ERG89

Eamon Dunphy referred to Fernandinho(33 in May) as a young player. My night has peaked

Agent Coulson

Courtois & de Gea making howlers in the last two nights.