2011/2012 UEFA Champions League

[IAceI]

Had to be a fix, no way could Bafetimbi Gomis score three goals in seven minutes. In fairness the player could have just been winking to say "you want the ball back? come get it big boy..." or something slightly less creepy..

Really, really bizarre night last night. Entirely for the fact non-United supporting fans will be delirious, while the fans try and hold back the likes of Liverpool fans with "Well at least we're in Europe" and the City fans snipe in with "Champions League was never the goal this year, just gaining experience, we want the Premier League this year..". Arsenal fans, if they have any sense, will keep quiet else their own defenders will once again probably resort to punting the ball in their own net again.

Meanwhile the question is asked whether or not Zagreb were on the end of a fixing scandal or are they just really, really bad (unsurprisingly the highest amount of goals conceded in the Group Stages by any team) and actually worse than a bad Ajax team. Madrid and Barcelona are imperious and undefeated leading to La Liga fanatics everywhere to call their league the best in the world because they have such powerful teams and in the league Valencia got a 2-2 with Barca a while back and Levante beat Real Madrid so they're not perfect just very, very, very, very nearly are so that makes it better than the Premier League.

Whilst Italy have THREE teams in the knock out stages, meaning they are the most represented league in the knock out stages. The dead and buried Serie A where no one scores any goals and no one cares anymore. Yep, that Serie A. Inter Milan, AC Milan and Napoli the obvious participants there.

AND Sepp Blatter's hughely controversial and much despise 'give the other teams a chance' mantra with his 'lesser league winners pot' (not the actual name I assume) and the 'best of the rest pot' ditto. From that we've had Basle go through ahead of Man Utd and Otelul Galati and just behind Benfica (remember, the piss-poor Man Utd group that they were obviously given secretly to appease SAF and give them an easy passage), APOEL topped their group, Plzen scored two late goals to get a massive draw against AC Milan in their final game.

Sure, all this may just be a bit more money and revenue for Sepp and friends, that wouldn't shock me. And sure most people don't care about the group stages because it's full of 'shit teams' they haven't heard of. I, for one, enjoy seeing these new European teams on a bigger scale - it's a great payday for them, they seem to rotate quite regularly (I'm sure from Romania we've seen Steau and Rapid Bucharest, Cluj, Unirea Urcizeni and Otelul Galati all compete recently) so it's not causing too much problems in their domestic leagues.

And while I'm not here to laugh in the faces of Man Utd fans, I'm sure there's plenty who will do that anyways, but surely Basle and APOEL getting through shows that the system isn't totally flawed and does have some redeeming qualities? At least in my eyes.

Going to be an interesting knock out stage. And perhaps, given the national team's World Cup debacle (and the impending Euro underachievment in 2012 I'm sure) and the fact the two best current domestic teams have floundered in the Champions League leaving us with only two representatives who no one is probably expecting much from. Maybe all this means we can take a long hard look at ourselves, like the Germans did when things weren't going right for them in 2000, and invest like they did and maybe in 12 years time we can have players like Gotze, Grosskruetz, Sven & Lars Bender, Reus, Marin, Holtby, Kroos, Badstuber coming through at youth level for our domestic clubs and playing for our national team.

Alternatively we could just blame everyone but ourselves and continue as is?

I wonder which one we'll do.

End of ramble.

Edited December 8, 2011 by IAceI

[Baddar]

Being out at the group stage sucks - and part of me would have preferred to finish bottom to avoid the Europa League, but fuck it, Man City are in it too, and if we win the Europa, we'll get another crack at the Super Cup. Yes, I'm clutching at many straws.

[stokeriño]

Still cannot comprehend APOEL winning their group. Have they really improved five-fold since we last played them in the group stages two years ago? :/

[MDK]

There's something wrong with my satnav, it can't find Manchester in Europe

[Baddar]

That's kind of shit actually, because, y'know, both clubs still are.

[MDK]

You can still win a Europa!

[IAceI]

EDIT: @Stoker, obivously. PS. Get in the anime thread more...

I'm not sure how they played against you when you last met, or even if they had the same manager but I know they're a pretty defensive and counter attacking side who basically play with four at the back and two screening midfielders who barely venture forward.

Combine with the fact the group wasn't the most difficult, this seemed to play quite well for them. They drew all their away matches (1-1, 1-1, 0-0) which is probably as much as you can hope for; and then seemed to do well at home. The likes of Shakhtar and Zenit possibly/maybe don't travel too well, especially to places like Cyprus, and APOEL lost their only match at home (and in the group) when they had already qualified (2-0 to Donetsk).

I know their win against Porto was quite fortunate, they went 1-0 up and then sat back, gave away a last minute penalty and then managed to go downfield and score a late winner (fortunate/plucky/talented/take your pick). They got through with nine points (baring in mind City went out with 10) so I think there was an element of good tactical set up, a bit of luck and possibly a relatively good group to have (may be cliche but I don't know how well East European teams are going to travel).

I'm sure their defensive 4-2-3-1 they use would be derided by Clive Tyldesley as; "Plucky European minnows setting up in a defensive manner and getting lucky."

But they seemed to lure teams in and then hit them on the counter attack and do it effectively.

Not sure if any of that is similar to them against Chelsea when you played each other but thats the impression I got from them this year from what I've read and the bits and pieces of them I've seen. Good on them, too.

Edited December 8, 2011 by IAceI

[The Future]

Absolutely shellshocked by that result, and further worried now that Vidic is out with what seems like a nasty injury.

How lost the team seems to be without someone as young as Cleverley is extremely worrying

[stokeriño]

EDIT: @Stoker, obivously. PS. Get in the anime thread more...

I'm not sure how they played against you when you last met, or even if they had the same manager but I know they're a pretty defensive and counter attacking side who basically play with four at the back and two screening midfielders who barely venture forward.

Combine with the fact the group wasn't the most difficult, this seemed to play quite well for them. They drew all their away matches (1-1, 1-1, 0-0) which is probably as much as you can hope for; and then seemed to do well at home. The likes of Shakhtar and Zenit possibly/maybe don't travel too well, especially to places like Cyprus, and APOEL lost their only match at home (and in the group) when they had already qualified (2-0 to Donetsk).

I know their win against Porto was quite fortunate, they went 1-0 up and then sat back, gave away a last minute penalty and then managed to go downfield and score a late winner (fortunate/plucky/talented/take your pick). They got through with nine points (baring in mind City went out with 10) so I think there was an element of good tactical set up, a bit of luck and possibly a relatively good group to have (may be cliche but I don't know how well East European teams are going to travel).

I'm sure their defensive 4-2-3-1 they use would be derided by Clive Tyldesley as; "Plucky European minnows setting up in a defensive manner and getting lucky."

But they seemed to lure teams in and then hit them on the counter attack and do it effectively.

Not sure if any of that is similar to them against Chelsea when you played each other but thats the impression I got from them this year from what I've read and the bits and pieces of them I've seen. Good on them, too.

Well in 2009 they finished bottom of the group with 3 points (3 draws, 3 losses), only one of which at home (v Atletico Madrid) where they always parked the bus. Plus one of those draws barely counts because they came to Stamford Bridge in the last game when Chelsea were already guaranteed to finish top (like Arsenal this week), so we dicked about to end with a draw. Porto were in that group as well, and they took 6 points off APOEL.

So yeah. I find their transformation to group winner status entirely bemusing.

[Crybaby Bunting]

What's the difference between Manchester United and a DIGNITAS patient?

Nothing, they both bowed out gracefully in Switzerland

[stokeriño]

I can't decide if that's tasteless or not.

Plenty of Manchester United jokes circling, of course. Apparently the way to flummox them is to wear blue and red stripes: Barcelona, Crystal Palace, Basel...

[Crybaby Bunting]

It's as if they're turning in 2-1 big joke :/

[Lineker]

Palace wore yellow!!

And don't worry Baddar, your matches will be followed by Showgirls... get used to it!

[IAceI]

EDIT: @Stoker, obivously. PS. Get in the anime thread more...

I'm not sure how they played against you when you last met, or even if they had the same manager but I know they're a pretty defensive and counter attacking side who basically play with four at the back and two screening midfielders who barely venture forward.

Combine with the fact the group wasn't the most difficult, this seemed to play quite well for them. They drew all their away matches (1-1, 1-1, 0-0) which is probably as much as you can hope for; and then seemed to do well at home. The likes of Shakhtar and Zenit possibly/maybe don't travel too well, especially to places like Cyprus, and APOEL lost their only match at home (and in the group) when they had already qualified (2-0 to Donetsk).

I know their win against Porto was quite fortunate, they went 1-0 up and then sat back, gave away a last minute penalty and then managed to go downfield and score a late winner (fortunate/plucky/talented/take your pick). They got through with nine points (baring in mind City went out with 10) so I think there was an element of good tactical set up, a bit of luck and possibly a relatively good group to have (may be cliche but I don't know how well East European teams are going to travel).

I'm sure their defensive 4-2-3-1 they use would be derided by Clive Tyldesley as; "Plucky European minnows setting up in a defensive manner and getting lucky."

But they seemed to lure teams in and then hit them on the counter attack and do it effectively.

Not sure if any of that is similar to them against Chelsea when you played each other but thats the impression I got from them this year from what I've read and the bits and pieces of them I've seen. Good on them, too.

Well in 2009 they finished bottom of the group with 3 points (3 draws, 3 losses), only one of which at home (v Atletico Madrid) where they always parked the bus. Plus one of those draws barely counts because they came to Stamford Bridge in the last game when Chelsea were already guaranteed to finish top (like Arsenal this week), so we dicked about to end with a draw. Porto were in that group as well, and they took 6 points off APOEL.

So yeah. I find their transformation to group winner status entirely bemusing.

Well I'm just assuming Jovanovic has them working in a system that they seem to do well with, a very counter-attacking style. Porto change year-on-year and are probably a bit weaker than they where then anyways.

They'll probably be back next year and get hammered, but their group was probably one of the best they could have been handed and they just played a smart tactical game against their opponents. Odd that they could draw Basle in the next round though, cat amongst the pigeons much?

[Crybaby Bunting]

The Lyon match is now being investigated by a French gambling watchdog following "suspicious betting patterns"

This could get interesting.

[IAceI]

I heard that, but was told that that sort of thing is entirely common and happens regularly so I wouldn't expect much.

[Colossus]

Still cannot comprehend APOEL winning their group. Have they really improved five-fold since we last played them in the group stages two years ago? :/

No. They are really bad, just had luck and a couple of good games

[Crybaby Bunting]

I heard that, but was told that that sort of thing is entirely common and happens regularly so I wouldn't expect much.

Ok, I'll admit that the second picture was taken a year and a half ago, but why on earth would a football player ever go to a bookies?

[Lineker]

Dude looks like a missing Darwinian link.

[9 to 5]

Because people from all walks of life like gambling? To people with that sort of money, it isn't about winning money for a weekend's piss up or anything, but the thrill of the outcome.