European Football Thread

[Fernando]

First topic message reminder :

To be used for discussing European transfers and matches from Anywhere but the PL

La Liga
Bundesliga
Ligue 1
Seria A etc

The Bundesliga & Ligue 1 start today with Big Spenders PSG in Action as are German Champions Bayern Munich

[Guest]

Amazing to think that in the 90's Serie A was by a country mile the best league on the planet.

Now it's god awful. How the mighty have fallen indeed.

[GSC]

Gervinho has always had talent and ability.

As expected Valladolid lead in the Nou Camp

[Fernando]

and 5 minutes later Barcelona inevitably equalize.

[GSC]

God awful is a bit harsh. Juve would still give every English side a good match at least IMO. Leagues fluctuate, wasn't long ago the PL dominated Europe. Now the Bundesliga is on top

[kingraf]

Madrid just about squeeze out of it. 50 goals for Ronaldo in 2013

[Guest]

Juve would possibly run our top teams close but I'd still back any of our elite to beat them more often than not.

The PL never dominated Europe. I've never got where that thought came from to be honest.

Italian football hasn't fluctuated, it's sunk.

[GSC]

When PL teams were in the final annually.

[Hero]

I'd say that Serie A is on the up again, a lot of young and exciting talent coming through currently after years of the old guard. Juve's midfield rivals any in Europe barring Bayern.

[Guest]

But how much of that talent will remain in that league for the long haul?

[GSC]

El Shawaary is still there, Balotelli is finally living up to his potential

[Luke]

If you view it on competition at the top, than siera a is on the up, Roma, Juventus, Fiorentina, Napoli challenging, Milan not far behind.
Only premiership the same, and that's only because United are poor this season.
Ligue 1 - PSG & Monaco dominating as expected, and with the money they''ve got should do for a while, Bundesliga - Its between Dortmund & Bayern again as has been for last 2/3 seasons. LA Liga - only really between 2 teams every season (it's only this season with regards Athletico, and while I hope, can't see them really troubling Barca or Real).

[Guest]

Incredible. Madrid have a penalty in the 95th minute. 

Never a penalty, poor poor poor officiating. 

Ronaldo scores.

Yeah, saw the highlights last night but anyone who watches the league, understand this happens week-in-week out. Said it for a while, some of the officiating is quite frankly embarrassing. The favoritism shown towards Real/Barcelona is ridiculous. The league is a joke in terms of diving, play-acting & match officiating. Must be back-handers flying around throughout the league systems in Spain.

Further to this Gerard Pique tweeted: 'Watching a great comedy on Canal + #LaLiga..', in reference to the embarrassing officials performance. Later Portuguese defender, Pepe, had told other journalists that it had not been the right decision at all.

Further to this, released today, La Liga president Javier Tebas says, ''that at least eight matches in Spain's top two divisions are fixed each season''.

I'm pretty sure they've only scratched the surface.

[Guest]

Anyone see the Leverkusen goal tonight. More embarrassing officiating from Europe. Kiessling heads the ball, it hits the side netting, goes through a small hole in the net & creeps into the goal. The ref gives the goal. Absolute shocker.

[Guest]

I slowed that goal down and still can't work out how it crept through the net. Amazing.

[Fernando]

For those watching El Classico on Saturday your miss the 1st 15 minutes due to laws in England saying football cannot be shown before 5:15 and it's 5pm KO

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

I slowed that goal down and still can't work out how it crept through the net. Amazing.

It's like some sort of optical illusion

On another note Frak Freiburg

[Guest]

the first fifteen minutes will just be players rolling around, cheating & the ref being shoved money in his pockets from cristiano for a decision later on in the game. can't see bale starting either but you never know.

[Fernando]

Barcelona: Valdes, Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Adriano, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Messi, Fabregas, Neymar

Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Carvajal, Ramos, Varane, Marcelo, Modric, Pepe, Khedira, Bale, Ronaldo, Di Maria

[Ent]

No strikers, did anyone ever think we'd see this?

[NickisBHAFC]

Neymar is the man with the name in flashing lights so far.

[Lumbering_Jack]

Wonder if this ref could be anymore pro Barca?

El Classico is such a bad advert for football. Cheaters, divers, stupid officials.

[NickisBHAFC]

Real Madrid 5-3 Sevilla

Bale and Ronaldo on fire

[JamesLincs]

absolutely crazy game

[JamesLincs]

7-3 now

[NickisBHAFC]

Got to love Spanish Football!

[Guest]

This is why bale will eventually be a success, his game is built for this poor league. The defenses in Spain are quite frankly embarrassing, when he's fully fit, sure he`ll be banging double figures.

Ronaldo 22 hattricks in three years is it? Di Stefano took eleven years or something to match that, crazy. Rinaldo hattricks in the EPL, maybe two off the to of my head?

Also the downfall of Valencia continues with a 2-1 defeat to almeria. Said it a while back, Swansea beating Valencia was not a massive upset, if anything was predictable. Media reaction at the time to that win was all wrong.

[kingraf]

To be fair to Ronnie, hes also smashed braces and hat tricks in Champions League.

[CFCNick]

Spanish football is terrible. I'd rather watch Stoke vs Bolton on a cold Wednesday night in December.

[J.Benson II]

Good to see Bale on target for Madrid. He is a top, top player when fully fit and on song.

[Guest]

He absolutely blew away Alberto Moreno of Seville, who is highly regarded and was called up to the Spanish squad last time out. Once he truly settles, understands the team philosophy & style, he'll be back to the level he was at Spurs & may even produce even better results, in terms of stats, given the lower quality of the opposition on most weekends.

[Guest]

Vallecano 2-3 Madrid, been a great game so far. Bale's got two assists & Ronaldo's got two goals.

[Guest]

Friedrich & Papaspoupolous or whatever his name is are pretty shoddy replacements for Hummels & Subotic. Those injuries basically seal Bayern that title this year. 0-3! Shocker.

[monty junior]

Dortmund had plenty of chances to take the lead, if they can get to christmas without being more than 5 points behind they'll have done well. It's always the problem with BVB excellent first team but really lacking in depth.

[Guest]

Bale scores again. Header on a plate.

[Guest]

Bale scores again. Header on a plate.

Too easy La Liga. 3-0 Bale has two. He's going to make last season's goal tally look poor most probably. Just look at what Ronaldo has achieved since leaving the EPL.

[J.Benson II]

Bale hat-trick!
Tearing La Liga defences apart. He'll be the face of world football in a year or two.

[NickisBHAFC]

Bale easily 3rd best player in the world.

[Guest]

Yeah, surprised the hatred people showed towards Bale regarding this move & the doubters. Already showcasing what ability he has & will easily break his goal scoring record of last year. A hat-trick already just shows how inferior this league is defensively compared to EPL though. Brilliant player regardless.

Just to add, it apparently took Cristiano 60 odd games to get his first hat-trick for Madrid (I hear)

[Guest]

Bayern just won 7-0.....ridiculously easy.

Dortmund play Leverkusen tonight. Judging by United, shows how bad Leverkusen truly are.

[Guest]

Just to update, Leverkusen beat Dortmund. How the mighty have fallen this year. Without Hummels & Subotic they are weak at the back & Lewandowski is mentally thinking about the next stage of his career in my opinion. Bayern are already champions. Easy for Pep.

[monty junior]

Bit of a shame as BVB made such a good start to the season but they just lack the depth and certainly are playing nowhere near as well as last season.

[NickisBHAFC]

Barca 2-0 down. 3-2 up at half time, thanks to a 9 minute hatrick from Pedro! Wow.

[Guest]

5-2 in the end, Cesc banged a double. Real won 3-2. Exciting three way title challenge in La Liga this year.

As for Borussia Dortmund, it goes from bad to worse. Lewandowski/Gundogan will want out relatively quick.

[Guest]

Interesting to see Valencia being possibly taken over soon & their debts being removed. Their already being linked with numerous players, including Dzeko. Would be good to see them back playing at the level we have seen them in the past & hopefully now in their new stadium from next season. One problem could be no European football to offer though in their recruitment drive. Interesting to see how it goes.

[Fernando]

HT Atletico Madrid 0-0 Barcelona

[Guest]

Messi is needed

[NickisBHAFC]

Boring game.

One could be forgiven for falling asleep, which i would of done had i not been singing Viva Orlandi in the pub the whole time.

[Guest]

Nick pub reference 1517. Tally em up kidda.

0-0 was something like 20/1. A lifeline for Real perhaps?

[Guest]

Yeah, good result for Real.

Interesting that Barca play Atletico last day of season.

[Guest]

Golden Boot update

1. Luis Suarez - 22
2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 20
3. Diego Costa - 19

Selection -
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - 15
Guiseppe Rossi - 14 (Injured for three months)
Sergio Aguero - 13
Edinson Cavani - 12
Robert Lewandowski - 11

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