European Football Thread

[TCO]

4 hours ago, Colly said:

I can't even work out how he got his foot that high.

Also, Fyffes bananas are still a thing which is cool.

It's great that we don't have a single betting sponsor in the league as far as I'm aware!

Also Bohs away kit this year is a beauty and the sponsor space is attracting a bit of attention with it being donated to Amnesty International. I really wish O'Neills would get more involved with English football, top quality gear with unique designs! 

[Hobo]

4 hours ago, Colly said:

Also, Fyffes bananas are still a thing which is cool.

Fyffes are based in Dundalk! (IIRC)

[Colly]

This is some crazy stuff. The Twitter thread eventually gets to a 5 Live interview on it.

 

[FLiam]

Been watching Lecce/Atalanta this morning. Atalanta are so fun to watch this season, scoring 4 again already (55th minute).

Checking the Serie A table and they’ve scored 67 goals in 24 games this season. For comparison, Liverpool have scored 64 in 28 league games. Brilliantly entertaining team to watch, with no “superstar” in sight.

[Baddar]

Vinicius opens the scoring in the Clasico! 

[Arjen Robben]

On 29/02/2020 at 08:43, MDK said:

Went down the rabbit hole of the best volleys:

But obviously...

Sumo, you are my hero.

I love volleys 

[gunnar hendershow]

A 4th tier side has knocked off Fortuna Dusseldorf for a spot in the DFB-Pokal semis.

Let's take a quick look at those match stats.

 

[The Lusophone]

Monaco winger Gelson Martins has been banned for 6 months after twice pushing a referee in his team's 3-1 defeat to Nimes.

[Lineker]

Quote

Danish side Brondby have quarantined 13 people, including a player and their assistant coach, after former Denmark international Thomas Kahlenberg was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Brondby director of communications Christian Schultz says Kahlenberg contracted the virus in Amsterdam last weekend and was at Brondby's game against Lyngby on Sunday.

Defender Joel Kabongo, 21, is in quarantine alongside assistant coach Martin Retov, while Lyngby also have three players in isolation.

Schultz told BBC Radio 5 Live that Kabongo met Kahlenberg after the game because they were former team-mates and they "shook hands".

Schultz also confirmed that their data analyst, psychologist and nine members of staff, including their chief executive Ole Palma, were in isolation.

Lyngby midfielder Martin Ornskov, right-back Kasper Jorgensen and left-back Patrick da Silva are also in 14-day quarantine after meeting Kahlenberg after the game.

Schultz said Kahlenberg was "very, very sorry for the commotion he's caused" but he was in "good spirits".

He also revealed former Liverpool midfielder and now Ajax assistant coach Christian Poulsen is in quarantine after being with Kahlenberg in Amsterdam.

Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf are also reporting that exercise physiologist Alessandro Schoenmaker and one of the Ajax physiotherapists are in quarantine.

There have been more than 90,000 cases of the virus in 88 countries.

[Lineker]

All sporting events cancelled in Italy
The Italian Olympic Committee has called for all sporting activities - including Serie A football matches – to be cancelled until April 3^rd. It has urged for the government to issue a new decree and formalize the decision to halt all sports.

[Baddar]

LFP announce all of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 fixtures suspended indefinitely.

[Malenko]

So, how much did Barcelona pay for those 3 matches Braithwaite played?

Edited April 24, 2020 by Malenko

[Lineker]

Barcelona have reportedly put ‘almost entire squad’ on market amid financial struggles

[Baddar]

French season is over.

[TCO]

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1274876/FA-concerns-Champions-League-plan-Premier-League-top-four-Man-Utd-Chelsea-Arsenal

New UEFA plans for Champions League qualification aka "Super League" phase 1. They should just cut the bullshit, cut out the middle man and just invite the teams they want because this is going to kill any prestige the Champions League has anyway.

[gunnar hendershow]

One of the best features of the Champions League, that has slowly been eroded as the same dozen clubs are almost always in the knockout rounds, is the fact that it felt like the only chance you might ever have to see two legendary clubs with legendary players meet. Now we seem to run a cycle where all the big clubs meet each other at most every 3 or 4 years. It's still significant but it feels less like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Structuring it around a system that all but excludes the smaller clubs who have a great season or two before selling off their players is really lame. Because the part of the Champions League right now that remains intriguing is the potential for a deep run from a Tottenham last year or an Atalanta this year. This also sucks from a domestic competition standpoint where there isn't a battle for the Europe spots among an established side like Arsenal and upstarts. Instead Arsenal could theoretically have 3 top 5 seasons, finish 10th the next, and never miss Europe. Granted if UEFA really got its wish I guess there might not even be domestic competitions in the traditional sense.

I think taking an approach where the major domestic leagues get 1 or 2 slots through this method is okay, but using it to basically exclude almost everyone is awful.

[METALMAN]

I've found the Champions League a real slog. It's boring and it's outrageously unfair. 55 countries in UEFA but 16 of the 32 places are reserved for just four countries. When I started watching the tournament there was a bit of romance to it, teams from a much larger number of countries (even Scotland) could have a decent go at it. But now it does little more than further entrench inequality. Europe League is a bit better.

[gunnar hendershow]

8 minutes ago, metalman said:

I've found the Champions League a real slog. It's boring and it's outrageously unfair. 55 countries in UEFA but 16 of the 32 places are reserved for just four countries. When I started watching the tournament there was a bit of romance to it, teams from a much larger number of countries (even Scotland) could have a decent go at it. But now it does little more than further entrench inequality. Europe League is a bit better.

Oh yeah the days of a Steaua Bucharest winning are long gone and that's kind of sad. The current approach to the Europa League after a certain round basically winds up as having half of Sevilla, Valencia, Atletico, Man Utd, Arsenal, and Chelsea which kind of ruins the excitement of that too.

[Lineker]

Europa League is ruined by the 3rs placed CL teams dropping into it, imo

[TCO]

The Europa League was never good. The straight knockout of the UEFA Cup made for a fun alternative to the Champions League. Now it's just a marathon of games with 56 teams with 8 of those being rejects from the Champions League.

They've been angling for this for ages. Got shot down the last time when they tried to make qualifying through historical coefficient when Man United and Milan were suddenly shit but their money was still good. Instead they gave 4 automatic spots to the best leagues as a compromise.

The amount of greed is absurd. The reasoning in this document is to "protect the revenue streams of elite clubs" because performance on the pitch literally doesn't matter any more. FPP is also a massive crock of shit that was only brought in to make sure only the rich clubs could stay rich and ensure they'd keep qualifying.