2023-24 UEFA Champions League

Ah in fairness the fella very helpfully gives updates throughout the entire season, every single round of results - allow him the catharsis of putting in the final result at the end of it all, even if we know it.

Is it 5 with Spurs and now 1 with Real for Modric? 😜

Dortmund fans not happy about it, had a big banner out at this game too.

I just looked up Modric and the funny thing is in his honours chapter it has paragraphs for Dinamo Zagreb, Real Madrid & Croatia. But nothing for Spurs.

I kinda like Spurs but its telling really.

Apparently, the last and only manager to beat Real Madrid in a European final was Sir Alex Ferguson with Aberdeen in 1983.

crazy, 6 in the last 11. sky have been talking for years about PL teams dominating europe.

I thought the new format would give us lots of original ties, and it might. I dint read the small print about the "tennis type" seedings later on in the tournament. Seeding is one of the biggest scourges in all sport, guaranteeing the maintenance of the elite.

Just caught up on the plus 1. To be honest I enjoy when teams grind out results when not playing well. That is what proper winners do.

15 titles, can't have won so many with luck, Franco and the Spanish goverment. Got to hand it to them, serial winners. They have it bred into them to win, so no surprise they do it even when under the cosh at times.

They are excellent to watch, have exciting players and were nowhere near their best tonight, yet were comfortable enough for a lot of the 2nd half. When you are on top of them like BVB were in the 1st half, you have to take your chances.

I think most of the hate stems from their success. It was the same for Utd, for Liverpool when Klopp turned them around and now for City. People generally don't support successful teams, they grow to hate them.

Real Madrid are a horrible club, always have been, their name and crest is a signal of that.

They rode their luck big-time again last night. Dortmund players were booked for nothing. Real players seemed to have immunity apart from Vinicius Jr's booking in the 1st half. You can't tackle a keeper like that, regardless. He could have been sent off for a second bookable offence, for his later dive, that wouldn't you know it, sees a Borussia Dortmund player booked instead.

The lads in the studio were saying the referee would want to have some nerve to send of a Real player, and a major one at that in a final. And others here were defending the Borussia Dortmund players being booked for protesting. Where were the protests when the Real players weren't booked for their protests?

Camavinga got away with 2 blatant yellow card offences and had a rant. But that's OK. Carvajal went down after a phantom foul, had the game stopped, then had the audacity to slap the BD player's hand away who had done nothing wrong, when he tried to reach out a peaceful hand to him, and had a whinge at the ref as well. But again, it's OK, because he's wearing a Real Madrid jersey.

Yes, Borussia have themselves to blame for their loss, wasting glorious chances, but the referee played his part too. There wasn't consistency, not even close, and that was his job.

So Madrid won because of the ref?

People need to catch themselves on. They won because they took their chances. They could have had 4 in the 2nd half. Dortmund missed their chances in the 1st half, that's how games at this level are decided.

People annoyed by a badge? I've heard it all now.

I haven't even studied how the new format works. I guess I'll find out when it all starts up again.

Did anyone watch the UK coverage last night? (I watched rte).

Wondering what they said about Bellingham? Although he has been brilliant for madrid this season, he has been bang average in the knockouts for them, and even not great in the league of late. He has had a real dip in form, and I think he looks knackered a lot of the time. But tnt sports are so far up his backside, I doubt they'd say he was poor. They probably focused on his amazing assist rather than the certain goal he should have scored.

Doesn't bode well for England if he carries that into the Euros.

Mbappe’s been central most of this season, and still been pretty effective. There’s room for them both with a bit of interchanging alright I think.

Is Mbapoe definitely going there? Like Vini, Bellingham, Rodrygo and Endrick is a ridiculous front four, if he comes in there's somebody that won't be happy.

But the seeding is only based on how you performed in the league stages. With 24 qualifying out of 36, they have to keep some benefit to finishing higher in the league for the teams who start well and are safely into the top 24 with 2 or 3 games still to play.

The good thing is you get to play 8 different teams and everyone will play two of the top seeds (hopefully they will have the top seeds play each other early) and once you are into the league stage, there is literally no advantage for the higher ranked teams compared to lower ranked teams. So it’s a fairer format that the previous one.

In rugby, the move to a similar style has turned a really exciting group phase into a pretty boring one, but the CL group stages had probably gone a bit stale anyway, so worth giving this a try.

Guys like Carvajal don't get enough credit. Forgetting about his goal the other night, I love watching him play. Such a dogged git.

I wasn't a fan of Rudiger before but he's been great this season.

Plus for a dogged right back, he gets forward so often. He's not seen as a flying full back in the style of Carlos, but he is really.

He'll be hard to replace when the time comes.

I was delighted for Carlo Ancelotti and Rudiger. I like Real Madrid and have no real affinity for any German team.