UEFA Champions & Europa League 2014-15 Season Thread

[Fernando]

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All places to talk Champions & Europa League  football for this season  

Champions League Round of 16 Draw

PSG vs Chelsea
Man City vs Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen vs Atletico Madrid
Juventus vs Dortmund
Schalke vs Real Madrid
Shaktar Donetsk vs Bayern Munich
Arsenal vs Monaco
Basel vs Porto


Arsenal - Monaco
Celtic - Inter Milan
Chelsea - PSG
Everton - Young Boys
Hull - OUT
Liverpool - OUT of CL dropped into Europa League - Besiktas
Man City - Barcelona
Man Utd - Swansea 21st February (It's about as close to European football as your getting this year) 
Tottenham - Fiorentina

[hampo17]

Liverpool fans showing there class with banners about nuking Manchester, these lot the same lot that want respect for hillsborough. hypocrites

So you see one banner, and condemn every fan?

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Lucky lucky boys

[NickisBHAFC]

2-0 tonight really flattered Arsenal. Could of been a lot worse. They looked awful. Buzzing for Liverpool and Steven Gerrard! Great night for Anfield and the kop!

[Duty281]

Liverpool fans showing there class with banners about nuking Manchester, these lot the same lot that want respect for hillsborough. hypocrites

Can we really expect more from such a vile club?

[hampo17]

Liverpool fans showing there class with banners about nuking Manchester, these lot the same lot that want respect for hillsborough. hypocrites

Can we really expect more from such a vile club?

Again, you are basing this on the actions of a few. Try and act mature rather than brandishing the club and the fans who actually behave themselves the same as a few.

[compelling and rich]

Liverpool fans showing there class with banners about nuking Manchester, these lot the same lot that want respect for hillsborough. hypocrites

So you see one banner, and condemn every fan?

No take everyone as they come, it's just unfortunate that in my experience large majority of the away fans have sung Munich songs and do plane signs when I've been to the games and same fans are the ones always on about hillsborough. I have also met alright Liverpool mainly outside of football grounds though

[socal1976]

Arsenal really were flattered by 2-0. Ozil was poor, Welbeck was poor and enough not for a number of massive saves from Scz this thing could of easily been 4-0. The defense was just awful. Mertesacker is not off to a good start this season and Wenger is paying dearly for overrelying on Kos and Per. We really need to go out and get a defender or two in the next couple of windows if we want any hope of actually win either the league or the Champions League.

[Stella]

Arsenal really were flattered by 2-0. Ozil was poor, Welbeck was poor and enough not for a number of massive saves from Scz this thing could of easily been 4-0. The defense was just awful. Mertesacker is not off to a good start this season and Wenger is paying dearly for overrelying on Kos and Per. We really need to go out and get a defender or two in the next couple of windows if we want any hope of actually win either the league or the Champions League.

Your tactics and midfield left the defense wide open. That was almost impossible to defend against.

[J.Benson II]

Arsenal will do what we know they will do. Finish 2nd in the group, draw Munich/Madrid/Barca in the next round and head home.
Welbeck will frustrate at times since he's not a one chance/one goal type player but I still think will prove himself to be a good signing. You gotta love Wenger for making the worst player in the squad (Arteta) captain.

Liverpool were not much better and fortunate to win their game.

Chelsea and Munich to win tonight.

[Soldier_Of_Fortune]

Liverpool were lucky yesterday, combination of being poor and Ludogrets being better then expected (even though they beat PSV and Lazio last season).

3 points is the main thing.

[socal1976]

Arsenal really were flattered by 2-0. Ozil was poor, Welbeck was poor and enough not for a number of massive saves from Scz this thing could of easily been 4-0. The defense was just awful. Mertesacker is not off to a good start this season and Wenger is paying dearly for overrelying on Kos and Per. We really need to go out and get a defender or two in the next couple of windows if we want any hope of actually win either the league or the Champions League.

Your tactics and midfield left the defense wide open. That was almost impossible to defend against.

Arteta did give the ball away a number of times and he was pretty bad as well. But I don't think Per didn't a particularly good job as he was turned around on more than one occasion. Tactically, I don't know what we did that was any different then what we always do. Same formation, basically the same players. Gibbs was our best defender on the evening and our lack of depth defensively really hurt us when an untested youngster gets run out in the CL at Dortmund. Could you think of a worse acid test for a prospect than this particular road game?

[J.Benson II]

Per was never the quickest and now he looks even less mobile. Arsenal badly needed defenders and defensive midfielders during the transfer window but Wenger unsurprisingly ignored the issue (even selling two fairly decent squad defenders). Like I've said previously, the guy is a clown living entirely of past glories.
Compare him to Mourinho who always addresses the flaws with his squads so his team come back stronger the following season. Wenger just doesn't do this for some strange reason.

[mystiroakey]

The only saving grace for arsernal is that they can still top the group- Dortmund are not clinical enough.

Walcott to come back in could make a huge impact- they didn't have a plan b yesterday - they couldnt up the tempo because they were physically bossed. The game was like a boxing match between a heaveyweight and a welterweight.

If arsernal cant boss the better teams they need walcott back asap as he offers that something extra. He was the player that got them past the better teams in the CL before- If you cant muscle yourself out of a game- you need to be as fast as possible but with the finishing touch- i think walcott and welbeck could have a great link up play and will work well as a plan b- it wont be any tika taka stuff- but it will be smash and grab(wtf happened type thing)

[Liam]

Its getting boring discussing Arsenal's problems now as you could just copy and paste posts from forums all over the country from 3/4 years ago about Arsenal's problems. They need a tough defensive midfielder, at least one centre back and a prolific striker who can take those crucial half chances in big games.

Anyway onto tonight's games involved Chelsea and City. My prediction:

Chelsea 3-0 Schalke
Bayern 2-1 City

[Guest]

Agree Liam, totally boring discussing the predictable outcome of Arsenal's failures in Europe. Wenger has signed the wrong players again & skirted around fixing blatantly clear issues that are holding the club back.

Chelsea should win comfortably, can see Jose making a clear point to the players, that a repeat of the Basel home defeat last year, is unacceptable. City/Bayern is 50/50 for me, looking forward to it. I always do enjoy Guardiola losing for some reason, he just irritates me.

[GSC]

At this point John, every game must be a case of who annoys you less

[mystiroakey]

Any more annoying at man u's problems and fixes and reactionary posts...


Well anyway I think these two clubs will do a lot better than the two last nights pitiful performances..

[Duty281]

I must admit I only saw the game in a pub - most unlike me, twas a good pub though - but from what I did see I thought Arsenal were incredibly lucky to not lose by four or five, and that Danny Welbeck, as always, has absolutely everything in his skill set...apart from finishing! 

And the queer part of me says that Klopp commited numerous crimes against fashion.

Chelsea should be comfortable tonight; would not be surprised if City take a point, either/

[mystiroakey]

I thought he looked relaxed and pretty awesome. But I am a hetero male that dresses casual and at the moment loving the fact that the beard is fashionable aws i means I only shave once a week and pretend I am bearded on purpose..

[monty junior]

Roma were 4-0 up after half an hour, some thrilling football though CSKA's defense is an absolute joke! Shame Iturbe went off injured, he's an exciting player, Gervinho tearing the defense to shreds

[kingraf]

Alonso is such a boss.

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Someone hurt robben already

[kingraf]

Lewandowski is dat guy..

[Fernando]

Looked a penalty that on Silva.

[kingraf]

Boateng looks like his brother now that he has a goatee

[Fernando]

Can finish better then his brother though

Bayern 1-0 - Boateng

[kingraf]

Deserved. City haven't been value for a coin toss here.

[monty junior]

I think Roma will cause both teams a lot of problems, their pace and creativity will cause a lot of problems. I'd fancy them to beat Bayern at home with their high defensive line.

[NickisBHAFC]

Not a good night for the English sides.

FC Porto will be the dark horses.

[Liam]

Not sure you can read too much into Porto's result tonight. Bate aren't exactly top quality opposition as it is but their defending was some of the worst I have ever seen. Embarrassing.

[mystiroakey]

City played pretty well tbf. Not a bad performance. Chelsea rested too many with an eye on the game against city at the weekend.

Even though liverpool won and chelsea drew- city was the best performing PL team.

[Stella]

Only saw brief highlights but they suggested Bayern were much deserved winners, even id their goal was a tad lucky. City and Silva should have had a pen though, and you'd normally think Aguero would put that last minute chance away.

[CFCNick]

Drogba was rusty. I reckon we'd have won if Remy got 90 minutes.

[Stella]

Drogba was rusty. I reckon we'd have won if Remy got 90 minutes.

Why didn't Costa start?

[mystiroakey]

Drogba was rusty. I reckon we'd have won if Remy got 90 minutes.

Why didn't Costa start?

saving him- squad rotation- city game at the weekend. Jose thought the lads should have done the job without key players

[mystiroakey]

Only saw brief highlights but they suggested Bayern were much deserved winners, even id their goal was a tad lucky. City and Silva should have had a pen though, and you'd normally think Aguero would put that last minute chance away.

I would say Bayern were the slightly better team- but there was no gulf in class- both teams playing a very similar game- bayern with a few more chances- it could have easily gone either way though. I would say on reflection bayern winning by one was deserved.

[Stella]

Drogba was rusty. I reckon we'd have won if Remy got 90 minutes.

Why didn't Costa start?

saving him- squad rotation- city game at the weekend. Jose thought the lads should have done the job without key players

A little early in the season for that, plus he's bang in form. In hindsight, not a good decision.

[J.Benson II]

Chelsea should have started with Remy.

Drogba is finished. God knows why Chelsea brought him back. He's been cr@p since that winning penalty against Munich.

[GSC]

Chelsea should have started with Remy.

Drogba is finished. God knows why Chelsea brought him back. He's been cr@p since that winning penalty against Munich.

He was fairly bad before that. Turned up in the big games but was a passenger every other game

[monty junior]

I agree, Drogba was pretty much shot even before that CL final he just put in one last big performance. He was useless for Gala against Chelsea (he should have been docked wages for his lack of effort) then he somehow get's a return to Chelsea, love has obviously made Mourinho blind.

[CFCNick]

I believe, back when his return was just a rumour, that Drogba was mainly bought in as a mentor type figure just in case Costa did a Torres, and/or Lukaku stayed and continued his struggle too.

And obviously a dressing room presence and being setup for a potential coaching role in future.

[J.Benson II]

There's nothing wrong with bringing back an old legend for mentoring reasons but he really shouldn't be starting Europeon games. Drogba's legs have gone and he really offers nothing on the field although I imagine that Mourinho assumed that Chelsea would roll over Schalke regardless thanks to the quality of Hazard/Fabregas etc.

On a slighty different note, this was the first time I watched Julian Draxler properly. I can understand the hype. Very talented player.

[kingraf]

Sorry Mysti, but thats wrong. There wasn't a gulf in class (not should there have been given that Bayern had a debutant defender, missing three centre midfielders, only ten minutes of Robben, no Rubery). It was a half strength Bayern, to be kind, and City should have shown more ambition. If it wasn't for Hart, they coulda been properly Cleaned up. Nearly stole it at the end, with Agüero, but it woulda been hardly deserved.

[CFCNick]

Draxler was a non entity in previous meetings. Even Torres was too much for Schakle to handle. It was understandable naming a "weaker" XI when you also factor in Schalke's horror start to the season.

[Soldier_Of_Fortune]

Draxler was a non entity in previous meetings

Draxler is only 20 now

So he would have been 18 then probs 19 against a defensively solid Chelsea side. He's not exactley going to be running the show.

[Hulking_up]

What's going on with the refs kit? It looks awful.

[CFCNick]

Draxler was a non entity in previous meetings

Draxler is only 20 now

So he would have been 18 then probs 19 against a defensively solid Chelsea side. He's not exactley going to be running the show.

But he was hyped up to do so.

[mystiroakey]

Sorry Mysti, but thats wrong. There wasn't a gulf in class (not should there have been given that Bayern had a debutant defender, missing three centre midfielders, only ten minutes of Robben, no Rubery). It was a half strength Bayern, to be kind, and City should have shown more ambition. If it wasn't for Hart, they coulda been properly Cleaned up. Nearly stole it at the end, with Agüero, but it woulda been hardly deserved.

So what are you arguing. What's wrong?

[Soldier_Of_Fortune]

Draxler was a non entity in previous meetings

Draxler is only 20 now

So he would have been 18 then probs 19 against a defensively solid Chelsea side. He's not exactley going to be running the show.

But he was hyped up to do so.

By who?

[GSC]

Draxler wasn't ripping one of the stronger sides in Europe to shreds at 18.

Should've become a bin man

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