2010/2011 UEFA Champions League

[stokeriño]

Chelsea are playing a flat 4-4-2, according to Sky anyway. Holy rarities Batman.

With that said, it will no doubt morph into 4-3-3 several times throughout the evening.

[stokeriño]

Anelka, you beauty.

He seriously plays like five times better in the Champions League than anywhere else. I don't understand it.

[stokeriño]

Chelsea are looking good but a lot of that is simply how awfully Copenhagen are playing. They're giving Chelsea loads of space and offering very little in return. If only Chelsea could figure out how to play against a team that actually defends in numbers like virtually every team in England does...

With that said, could still see Copenhagen nicking a goal off a set piece at some point.

[Lineker]

Just realised that I never posted about my Milan experience.

Well, this video pretty much sums it up.

[EddieG]

Especially that last comment about the blackpool game.

[badotori]

Quietly confident about tonight. The midfield three have imposed their will early and our wingers have also found space. Just wish Smalling would stop hoofing it.

[Starvinho]

A decent 0-0 last night, I'm confident we'll finish the job at Old Trafford. A bit disappointed Fergie didn't bring Hernandez on with 10 or 15 to go to try and find a winner, but oh well. Big 3 prem games for us now anyways, I'm hoping for 7 points out of the three.

[Lineker]

Germany's Bundesliga has secured a fourth UEFA Champions League spot for the 2012/13 season at the expense of Italy's Serie A, the German Football League (DFL) has confirmed.

The recent performances of German sides in European competitions have moved Germany's teams ahead of the Italians in UEFA's rankings and they will have three automatic spots, as well as one play-off spot, in 2012/13.

As a result, Serie A will only have three Champions League places: two automatic places and one play-off spot.

Inter Milan suffered a late defeat to Bayern Munich in the last-16 first-leg match last week and all three Italian sides in the Champions League lost their home ties while Napoli were eliminated from the UEFA Europa League.

Despite Inter winning the Champions League last season, German sides have now moved ahead in the UEFA rankings. German clubs have increased their total points to 68,103, opening up an 8,122-point lead over Italy's Serie A, which has 59,981.

As a result, Germany can no longer be ousted from third place behind England and Spain in UEFA'S five-year coefficients, which determines a nation's ranking based on the performances of their domestic teams.

Italy, lol

[Pesci]

Yesss, Germany > *. It's probably only a matter of time until they take over the rest of us with their sensible () way of running the league.

[stokeriño]

Chelsea are in the midst of such spectacular failure with regards to the home leg Copenhagen tickets, it's actually a little funny.

The club's ticketing policy with regards to Champions League knockout round fixtures has always been the following:

1) Tickets priced as the equivalent of a 'Category A' league fixture (the group stage games were roughly half that), i.e. mostly circa £55.

2) Only 1 loyalty point given for buying a ticket. This too places it as the equivalent of a 'Category A' league fixture ala United, Spurs, Liverpool etc. Other league games get 3 points, FA/Carling Cup and CL group stage games get 5 points. If it's a really 'nothing' game (e.g. home match v MSK Zilina when we'd already qualified from the group), they might bump it up as far as 8 points.

This policy is okay provided your Champions League knockout round fixture is a gripping tie against a big time like Inter Milan or Barcelona. What they apparently did not consider was:

1) Drawing Copenhagen

2) Winning 2-0 away at Copenhagen in the first leg

So at the moment, fans are clearly of the opinion "Pffft, £55 ticket for a crappy game that will be on Sky? With the rising cost of living and all that? You're having a larf." and ticket sales are poor. They can't reduce the ticket prices (until maybe at the very last minute), because all those fans who have already bought one will be pissed.

All they can do at the moment is raise the loyalty points you'll get, which have gone up from 1 to 5 so far, and keep sending members emails to REMIND THEM THAT TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE! But of course, there aren't many games left in the season where loyalty points will even be useful (well we're not getting to the FA Cup final for one thing), so I doubt that's working particularly well either.

Let's just say I will be interested to see how many empty seats there will be.

[EddieG]

Loyalty points?

[stokeriño]

Big games are made available to season ticket holders and members on the basis of how many loyalty points they've accrued so far in the season - i.e. how many games they've been to already.

So for example, the tickets to a game against Manchester United might to be first made available to members with at least 80 loyalty points. Then 70. And so on, until all tickets are gone. It's virtually unheard of for any tickets to be left to go on General Sale at such games, such is the ridiculous level of demand.

[Colly]

Interesting system by the sounds of it. Newcastle just run a simple 1 game, 1 point system on away and cup games which has been rolling for 15ish years and seems to work well. If Chelsea only do it season by season doesn't that cause chaos if Man Utd or similar is the first away game of the season?

And yep, sounds like they've made a right mess. Loads of tickets for local schools?

[stokeriño]

Very early games in a season are done by the previous season's loyalty points (since your membership/season ticket number remains the same).

[Lineker]

Robin van Persie has travelled with Arsenal's squad for Tuesday's Champions League last-16 tie at Barcelona, while Cesc Fabregas is likely to be fit.

Fellow midfielder Jack Wilshere has been passed fit but Alex Song (knee) is out along with Theo Walcott (ankle).

Barcelona will field a makeshift central defensive pairing with captain Carles Puyol ruled out with a knee problem and Gerard Pique suspended.

Eric Abidal is set to be paired with defensive midfielder Sergio Busquets.

Abidal, normally a full-back, played only 19 minutes of Barca's 1-0 victory over Real Zaragoza on Saturday, when striker David Villa (29 minutes) and midfielder Andres Iniesta (nine) were also used sparingly and other players were rested.

Barca assistant coach Tito Vilanova, who gave the post-match conference to allow coach Pep Guardiola to nurse a back problem, said: "We will arrive at the match against Arsenal well prepared.

"We rested some players and improved the physical condition of others. I think they will all be able to play on Tuesday without problems."

Arsenal midfielder Andrey Arshavin came off the bench in the first leg at the Emirates to score the goal that gives the Gunners a 2-1 advantage going into the Tuesday's game.

Fabregas played in that victory but has missed the Gunners last three matches with a hamstring injury, while Van Persie injured his knee in the Carling Cup final on 27 February.

Wilshere declared his availability on Sunday after recovering from an ankle knock picked up in the 0-0 draw against Sunderland on Saturday.

With centre-back Thomas Vermaelen still out, Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny will be tasked with taming Lionel Messi, Villa and, in all probability, Pedro Rodriguez in attack.

Barcelona, the Spanish league leaders, beat Arsenal 2-1 in the 2006 Champions League final and 6-3 on aggregate in last year's quarter-finals.

Abidal & Busquets at centre-half? I fancy Arsenal to get through this.

[therockbox]

Didn't Barcelona have a similar problem last year, with Puyol and Pique missing in the second leg?

[Pesci]

As long as Barca have Xavi, Iniesta and Messi I can't see this going wrong. Their best defence is their ball retention.

[DavidMarrio]

Yeh they did, I think if Barca don't do the stupid "Lets settle for a 1-0 by taking Villa off and bringing on Keita" plan again then I still can see Barca going through as I can't see Arsenal being able to soak up the pressure again....

However if Arsenal perform like they did in the first 10/20 minutes of the 1st half and the 2nd half then I can't see why they can't advance.

Prediction: 0-0 or a score draw, Barca's problem was finishing their chances and getting stuck in the final third at times. The away goal helps in terms of a 1-0 would be enough but if Arsenal can get an early goal it's theirs to lose and if I was Wenger I would try and get the 1st goal.

[Lineker]

Corluka in line to start tomorrow

Also, davidmarrio, your sig is moronic and pointless.

[Guest viperlike]

If i had Marrio's sig i would have been banned from this site.

Fancy Arsenal to win by a goal tonight!

Should be a fantastic contest whatever the score though!