2023-24 UEFA Champions League

Very ironic given who Havertz's manager is!

Usually a tie going to ET midweek is a real problem for teams who are going for a title, but Arsenal will be glad that the fixtures are falling nicely for them again with their weekend game postponed and then the international break directly after that. The ET tonight won't affect their league campaign.

Need English teams for the entertainment level so best result for the prospects of watchable knockouts. Especially given Porto’s hard battling but little else approach

He is still as dirty as ever but Pepe is some man,best defender on the field tonight over 120 mins…….at the age of 41!!!!!!

Squeezing through , will help Arsenal, very tired performance , the 3 week break will refresh them, my team for the league now ,

I think it suits City to have Arsenal progress in Europe, still strong favourites for the league

It does however help the likes of Spurs and United as the better English teams do the more chance that 5th place will qualify for the CL next season

Fairly **** thing to do if true and I don't see why he'd lie about it.

Really? Hadn't heard that, who was it?

The bench did seem to go mad at one point though so maybe something was said?

Never heard about any of that before. Maybe he's just a bad loser so.

True, but Lazio and Napoli are already out at this stage and Inter could follow tonight leaving no Italians in the CL with 2 English still there

Fiorentina and Atalanta are in the balance tomorrow and could go out. You'd fancy Roma and Milan to qualify.

So you could have a situation with only 2 Italian teams left in Europe after this round with City, Arsenal, Liverpool, West Ham and Villa all still fighting in it so there could be a bit of time to go. In that scenario Freiburg would also be out and Dortmund could go out tonight I think that would only leave Bayern and Leverkusen left for Germany?

Lots of ifs and buts and it's still an average of all teams, but I don't think it's completely insurmountable yet

Liverpool and Man City will likely be finalists of their respective competitions so will probably tip PL in favour the 5th spot

For the purpose of calculating the coefficients, the knockout stages of the Champions League and Europa League competitions are treated equally. It doesn't matter if there no Italian teams left in the Champions League if they have the numbers in the other competition. Italy will possibly have 3 teams in the Europa League draw on Friday, England will have 2 at most. I'd have a higher degree of confidence in Atlanta being there than West Ham.

West Ham beat Freiburg twice in the group stage scoring two goals on each occasion, now they have to repeat the feat without conceding a goal and their form isn't inspiring (LWWLLLDD) and they last kept a clean sheet on January 2nd.

If Inter lose tonight, there will be 3 Spanish teams in the Champions League draw and I wouldn't be confident of Arsenal overcoming either of the Madrid clubs. Porto were Atletico lite at best.

England had 8 clubs in UEFA competitions this season, each of the other top European leagues had 7. That's significant because it means each bonus point for progressing through the knockout rounds is worth less for the English teams. The coefficient is calculated using the number of points accumulated by the clubs from a country divided by the number of clubs from the country that qualified for UEFA competitions.

The best hope for an extra Champions League spot for the Premier League next season is if the Italian teams are drawn against each other in the Europa League and similarly for the Spanish teams to be drawn against each other in the Champions League draw.

There could be 4 German teams in the draws on Friday. I wouldn't expect Dortmund to progress any further in the Champions League but Bayern and Leverkusen are both capable of reaching the final in their respective competition.

Probably something like 'son of a bitch' or 'son of a whore' in Spanish. Not nice, but also not really 'insulting a dead member of my family' as it's effectively just a figure of speech.

I checked. It's grey. Lying cheats.

I wasn't over impressed with Arsenal last night tbh. This is an ordinary Porto side, and Arsenal were very very cautious. I'm not saying penalties are lucky or anything, buy it's a very fine line, and Arsenal and Arteta's overly cautious approach is what leaves them behind City and Liverpool. City and Liverpool always go out to win games, these 2 ties were the first time since late last year the pressure was really on Arsenal and they played with real fear. Every selection Arteta made rad defensive, Kuviol instead of Zinchenko, Jorginho in midfield, just playing cautious. I know there are no style points handed out, but I thought it was a sign of them tightening up and it's a long way to go in the season to be playing with fear like that.

The French lad for Madrid had other ideas. Nice zip in the game.

Looks to be Atleti's to lose now alright - though you never know how momentum can shift in these things. Needing to score again Inter might pull the finger out and bring a bit of intensity early in extra time.

Atleti look like they've decided to settle for pens now. Dangerous game, inviting Inter on.

Lautaro had a **** Champions league. Still a way too go to establish himself as a big star on the big stage.

Felt the winner might come from the Atleti and pygmy Milan tie. Two teams with the best foundations to snuff out most other teams. Atleti have had little luck in the tournament to date and there could be a big push on there.

They're a team no one will want to play over two legs in a European game, and most of the top teams aren't setting the world alight. Most are ripe for the taking by a well drilled, hard working defensive team