Champions League Week 3 Thread.

mike65

Tuesday, 18 October 2005
Ajax v FC Thun, 19:45
Bayern Munich v Juventus, 19:45
Man Utd v Lille, 19:4b
Panathinaikos v Barcelona, 19:45
Rapid Vienna v Club Brugge, 19:45
Sparta Prague v Arsenal, 19:45
Udinese v Werder Bremen, 19:45
Villarreal v Benfica, 19:45

Wednesday, 19 October 2005
AC Milan v PSV, 19:45
Anderlecht v Liverpool, 19:45
Chelsea v Real Betis, 19:45
FC Porto v Inter Milan, 19:45
Fenerbahce v Schalke 04, 19:45
Lyon v Olympiacos, 19:45
Rangers v Artmedia Bratislava, 19:45
Real Madrid v Rosenborg, 19:45

Ah back to proper football *cough*

Tonight I'll be cheering Lille (!) but expect Man Utd to be comfy, Arsenal against Sparta Prague will be interesting, will Wenger risk Henry?

Mike.

SpAcEd OuT

best match tonight is without a doubt Juventus vs Bayern its hopefully going to be a cracker,sky sports 2 are showing it I believe.

MrJoeSoap

mike65 wrote:

will Wenger risk Henry?

Not from the start anyway.

Team:

Lehmann,

Lauren-Cyan-Toure-Clichy

Pires-Fabregas-Flamini-Gilberto

Reyes-V.Persie

---

I'll be watching Juve-Bayern too. Tempted to watch Ronaldinho and co. though.

eirebhoy

I'll be watching the most exciting team in the world in Barca. Nial Quinn commentating though.

Mossy Monk

Arsenal with the majority of posession from the get go. havent created much though. just a few long range efforts really

Mossy Monk

Henry brought on for Reyes

still doing his warmup exercises on the pitch

MrJoeSoap

1-0 Arsenal, Henry.

Mossy Monk

Arsenal 1-0

Henry with a sweet shot off the outside of the right boot into the bottom left hand corner. from the edge of the penalty box

MrJoeSoap

Referee with a howler, 1-0 Bayern!

Royale with Cheese

The referee robs Juve of possesion and then a dreadful goalkeeping error sees Bayern score. 1-0.

Mossy Monk

what happened that the referee ****ed up?

MrJoeSoap

The clearance hit the ref and went back to Bayern.

2-0 now, DeMichelis

Royale with Cheese

Juventus were passing the ball out just outside their own box after a Bayern attack had broken down, ref got in the way and the ball hit him, Bayern got possesion back... made one pass and then scored. It's 2-0 now anyway.

MrJoeSoap

Anyone watching Barcelona? Hows that game going? Thinking of switching at half-time.

A Dub in Glasgo

The Man Utd - Lille game is poor so far

Necronomicon

United have been poor against a very average Lille side...I hope Fergie kicks the boot at a few of them at half time.
ITV showed Henry's goal, superb. All the more impressive because he was on the pitch about five minutes after a 3-4 week injury lay-off.

[Jackass]

63 mins United 0 - 0 Lille

Paul Scholes red card (2 bookings)

Royale with Cheese

Ah, Scholes. Can't tackle, but he tries anyway.

Necronomicon

This is painful to watch, United are awful. What the **** was Scholes thinking of. The first foul was so needless, the second was just stupid seeing as he was already on a yellow. It's getting harder to defend O' Shea, he has had a shocker tonight. We are just lucky that Lille have not been great going forward, nobody has closed the players down around the edge of the box, and Rio has been caught out on one or two occasions and hasn't looked at all confident.

Mossy Monk

2-0 Thierry Henry

Royale with Cheese

Is that the record for Thierry?

Mossy Monk

yeah, the record is his

Necronomicon

United 0-0 Lille. Full time. ****ing woeful performance.

MrJoeSoap

Champions League - Group A
 22:33	October 18 
  90'	Bayern Munich (Ger)	2 - 1	Juventus (Ita)
  90'	Rapid Vienna (Aus)	0 - 1	Club Brugge (Bel)
 Champions League - Group B
 22:33	October 18 
  90'	Ajax Amsterd. (Hol)	2 - 0	Thun
  90'	Sparta Prague (Cze)	0 - 2	Arsenal (Eng)
 Champions League - Group C
 22:33	October 18 
  90'	Panathinaikos (Gre)	0 - 0	Barcelona (Spa)
  90'	Udinese	1 - 1	Werder Bremen (Ger)
 Champions League - Group D
 22:33	October 18 
  90'	Manchester U. (Eng)	0 - 0	Lille (Fra)
  90'	Villarreal (Spa)	1 - 1	Benfica

Thanx 4 The Fish

Dreadful performance by ubited, what was Scholes thinking making that second challenge when he was already on a yellow. Did well to hold on with 10 but in fairness Lille did not really go for it, as Sir A said, they came for a point and they got it. Sung looked better when he came on than anybody else on the pitch when he came on, just wonder why he was not started.

Necronomicon

Thanx 4 The Fish wrote:

Did well to hold on with 10 but in fairness Lille did not really go for it

Lucky not to be playing a team like Lyon who would have punished us, Lille never looked threatening. The only saving grace was that Villareal and Benfica drew as well and we can chalk it up to just 'one of those nights'. I think Keane, Neville and Heinze will make a big difference when they come back.

Thanx 4 The Fish

Think Rooney will make the bigger diff TBH, looked a little impotent up front.

Chong

Tbh as United go I am getting bored of their bit part performances, last night I struggled to stay awake .

Necronomicon

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the little issue of Rooney returning:o

But Park should have been playing as well. I think had Scholes not been sent off he would have been on sooner. But even coming on in the 82nd minute he still produced more moments of excitement than the rest of the players did in the whole match. I thought the cheers when he put on the captain's armband was great.

Chong

Ok I know this is sacrilage but why cant Park play ahead of scholesy all the time. This is what irritates me about Ferguson how he can even consider Paul Scholes every frickin week, he has done absolutely nothing for Man United in the past two years.

dirkey_wynne

Necromomicon wrote:

Lucky not to be playing a team like Lyon who would have punished us, Lille never looked threatening. The only saving grace was that Villareal and Benfica drew as well and we can chalk it up to just 'one of those nights'. I think Keane, Neville and Heinze will make a big difference when they come back.

I'm really not sure we can be chalking these things down as "one of those nights" anymore. We were dismal. But no more dismal than we were against Villareal away, or Benfica at home (let us not forget it took a very late Ruud winner that night to save our blushes). All in all we're just not playing well.

He went back to that miserable formation last night - fair enough Roo was out, but we have a host of players who could play there. That formation simply isn't good enough. Worrying for me is, with Giggs out, Ronaldo can't be given the kick up the ar$e of a spell on the bench, which he so blatantly needs right now. He has been abysmal. Abject. Disinterested if you ask me. Witness him strolling over to take the corner in injury time? Where's the urgency? that Lille side are appalling, we should be killing them.

Scholes needs a break too, but what can you do when your other option in there is Fletch, who the world bar Fergie and Quieroz can see just isn't up to it.

We're becoming so reliant on Roo to run things, and create things for us, that it's just not funny.

PHB

Scholes is a man who can change a game when on form, thats why he still gets his game. He alone can win a game, its just he is not doing it as much lately.

John OShea was absolutely ****ing terrible, unreal, passed worse than anyone on this board, it was unreal.

Smith was utterly irrelevent, and didn't do what he was meant to. In reality had no value.

Van Nist had nothing to feed off.

Fletcher and Park were good, and tried to drive forward, but alas.

Giggs was not great, Ronaldo was not great either. Why Park didn't start ahead of them is beyond me, and I assume that he is tired from the international long trips.

What the **** is up with Ferdinand?
He has gone from world class to a total liability

Lille played well, passes well, and they contained us. Deserved point.

mike65

Looks like Kewell will be starting on the bench and that Cisse will be up front though I could easily be wrong bearing in mind the starting 11 against Betis.

I'll make this early selection and formation only to be proven hopelesly wrong by 7.30 pm.

---

Reina

Finnan--Cara--Hyypia---Traore

Garcia---Alonso--Sissoko--Riise

---

Cisse---Morientes

Subs Carson, Flo-po, Kewell, Josemi, Hamann + Zenden and Warnock (doh!)

Mike.

Shred

I'd go with that starting line up too Mike but you should have 7 subs, so I'd say Zenden and Warnock will be on the bench also. I'd really like to see Warnock getting 5-10 games back to back though. I know Benitez uses Traore for his experience but I think he's an absolute liablity, everytime he gets the ball I'm screaming for him to give it to someone else. Plus he's suspect defensively too, I know he makes some great last ditch tackles but if his positioning was better he wouldn't have to make them in the first place. I still can't believe he was given a 4 year contract.

I don't expect anything less than 3 points for the pool regardless of the line up and I'll go for a 2-0 win.

eirebhoy

Last night pretty much summed up Barca, when Ronaldinho is not on form, Barcelona aren't on form. Most players were poor. Being a Celtic fan I sound biased but Larsson was probably the best player in the first half putting through 3 or 4 through balls. He played out on the right. In the second half he played in the centre and wasn't getting any service. Puyol was poor. Marquez passed straight to the opposition on a number of occasions. Van Bommell was poor. Belletti played well I thought.

The first time in 15 games that Panathinaikos kept a clean sheet in Europe. Lots of credit goes to Igor Biscan in the heart of the defence.

mike65

Heres the line up (my formation guess)

---

Reina
Josemi-Cara-Hyypia-Traore

---

Hamann
Garcia-Sissoko-Alonso-Riise

---

Cisse.

Subs Carson, Finnan, Kewell, Crouch, Morientes, Warnock, Zenden

Mike.

ps I like this instant edit feature!

eirebhoy

Why's Finnan dropped?

mike65

Good question. Maybe Josemi is being used to convince Sevilla to buy him (they're interested)!

Mike.

cruiserweight

Liverpool 1 up through Cisse!

Benetiz siad he is going to rotate the squad! Finnan was away on international duty unlike Josemi and played at the weekend so I suppose just giving him a rest!

KdjaCL

Lyon game is excellent , Lyon superb going forward but Olym not too shabby either plenty of chances so far, Lyon 1 up.


kdjac

cruiserweight

Damn I am stuck in the office and not seeing any of it! Hopefully I will be home to catch the last half an hour!

Pacifico

Real Madrid are one nil down. Man their defence is comical

eirebhoy

Porto 2-0 up at half time for the 2nd week in a row. I'd say they're nervous.

Pacifico

WOW what a finish from Raul 2-1 now

mike65

Flips sake Chelsea 4 up, I thought Betis might set them a test tonight.

Mike.

Vokes

Thinks are looking up for Woodgate!

But the important question is....did he injure himself while scoring?:)

Pacifico

3-1 real

mike65

So Liverpool and Chelsea win and are in the box seats for qualification. Pity the Reds are'nt playing Betis next week. Still Anderlecht at home should be home win and we're through.

Mike.

Kingp35

Betis were very disappointing tonight I thought they would at least put up some kind of challenge for Chelsea. Liverpool winning is no great surprise as Anderlecht are a woeful side and have a terrible champions league record. They should win easily nest week and go through and I was a little surprised they made such hard work of it tonight.

Glad to see Woodgate get on the scoresheet and hopefully his nightmare start is over. Also glad to see Lyon win as I am a big fan of theirs. they play excellent football which is great to watch and im delighted Govou managed to get a late winner.

Bad night for Rangers only drawing 0-0 despite dominating the game. they will find it tough to qualify now

eirebhoy

How are Artmedia doing so well? Knocked out Celtic, knocked out Red Star Belgrade, 1 goal defeat against Inter, beat Porto in Porto, drew with Rangers in Glasgow. Makes Celtic's 4-0 win look all the better I suppose.

mike65

Glad to see the RTE panel of grumps still giving Pool stick. If they start to praise us I'll be worried.

Mike.