UEFA Champions & Europa League 2014-15 Season Thread

[Guest]

First topic message reminder :

Messi is no Harry Kane.

[lorus59]

I always thought that Luiz is at his best as a defensive midfield player. He can be a liability as a central defender.

[Hammersmith harrier]

Luiz, however limited in defence, is still a quality, technically gifted player, who can score, pass, take set-pieces & knows how to manipulate referees to his advantage, a key play in today's football. £40m was a good deal, but he's still a very good player & he just knocked Chelsea out the cup, signifying his importance & value to PSG.

Kevin De Bruyne is now one of the hottest properties in Europe, once he was given the opportunity to shine. 15+ goals & 22 assists in Germany proves that & while Chelsea got £18m, he's now commanding a fee of £35m, one year later. Schurlle was a quality player & a World Cup winner, no surprise he was sold for over £20m.

Were they mediocre players or just handcuffed in Jose's restrictive style?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Luiz is an awful defender, there are no two ways about and to get £50mil for him was ridiculous, he gave the single worst defensive display in a top level game i've ever seen and likely any of us have ever seen. None of what you say makes up for him being a limited defender.

De Bruyne when he was sold was seen as a mediocre player while Schurle was surplus to requirements, the fees involved for all three is well above their market value which I find baffling.

[monty junior]

De Bruyne was only seen as a mediocre player to those who have never watched him play, he had had a fantastic season at Bremen but Mourinho didn't give him a chance, or said he was lazy in training. Mourinho likes hard working defensive players, De Bruyne was seen as a luxury but they sure could do with him now with their complete lack of creativity against PSG in both legs.

[Ent]

Just remember Kagawa lit up the German league.

[GSC]

De Bruyne just wasn't a fit at Chelsea. Schurrle was just a bit mediocre. It happens, some players don't fit at a club

[monty junior]

Henry was a Juve reject, Viera a Milan, Pirlo an Inter reject. As you say sometimes players just don't fit. True about Kagawa he seems to have lost all confidence though he is constantly Dortmunds worst player these days.

[compelling and rich]

what a goal that was!

[Guest]

Chicken Kiev 5-2 Everton

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Hard place to go, they started to chase and throw caution to the wind and it was boom or bust.

Does make their season look an absolute waste though

[Guest]

Difficult to not stagnate now for Martinez at Everton. No Europe next season, difficult to see them making top 4 & possibly losing Miralles/Barkley in the summer. Fans already putting pressure on him, not sure what they expect though.

[Ent]

Atletico vs real
Psg vs barca
Monaco vs juventus
Porto vs bayern

Predos?

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Real
Barca
Juve
Bayern

[whocares]

the big three + juventus should go through with ease

[Ent]

I'd probably plump for altetico.

Unbeaten in 6, beat them 4-0 a month ago.

Think the only time they've beaten them in 2 seasons was last years cl final- but id need to check that.

Agree with the rest.

[Ent]

double post.

[GSC]

Fairly yawn inducing other than Barca PSG

[Guest]

Not sure why your yawning, you seem to complain about everything. Barca vs PSG should be good & the ties between Real & Atletico have been brilliant recently. We don't want the big sides facing each other anyway until the semi's.

[Azzy]

Tie of the round is Juventus vs Monaco for me, Pogba vs Kondogbia, Pog vs Dog. Can't wait. CL football generally bores me so this unusual tie is the one I'll be looking forward to.

[Ent]

Cl becoming a case of the usual suspects more than anything with real, barca, bayern rarely missing out on semis in last 5 years.

[Azzy]

It's why I don't find the CL appealing any more. Back in the early days of the competition, and before it the European Cup, a clash of the big names would be a special occasion - a rarity. Nowadays I feel I've seen Barca play everyone, Real, Bayern, Chelsea, they've all seemingly played each other. It just feels like a European league these days, ordinary, run-of-the-mill. And the Europa League has ruined the feeling of the old UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup - all those games were even more interesting but because of the league format, I'm bored of the EL before they've even reached the knockouts. Platini really needs to grow a pair and make European competition exciting again.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

The Europa League is worse than the intertoto cup - and thats really saying something

[Ent]

There are just a lot of games so it seems like that, also tv coverage of domestic football is vast so when one league dominates the fixture will have been seen many times before.

Altetico and dortmund have given great entertainment in recent years.

Real couldn't win a knock out tie before mourinho took over.

[Ent]

The Europa League is worse than the intertoto cup - and thats really saying something

The huge modern squads and wealthy clubs stockpile players and as a consequence the middling sides are just a bit meh.

[monty junior]

Tie of the round is Juventus vs Monaco for me, Pogba vs Kondogbia, Pog vs Dog. Can't wait. CL football generally bores me so this unusual tie is the one I'll be looking forward to.

Pogba is out for the rest of the season.

[Guest]

Europa League prize money is set to rise by 65% next season. The 48 clubs in the tournament will share 381 million euros (£276m). One way of making it more appealing, I guess, with the guaranteed Champions League slot for the winner too.

[Fernando]

Atletico XI: Oblak, Juanfran, Miranda, Godin, Siqueira, Gabi, Mario, Arda, Griezmann, Koke and Mandzukic

Real XI: Casillas; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Modric, James; Bale, Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo

[GSC]

Reasonable half. Neither team has really thrown caution to the wind understandably, Real have probed and Atletico have matched them for work rate

[Fernando]

Mandzukic is angry after being elbowed by Ramos and has gone in the book for trying to elbow him back.

[Fernando]

Juventus 1-0 Monaco - Vidal Pen.

[Fernando]

Carvajal throws a punch/slap at Mandzukic

[Fernando]

(D)Isco on for Benzema...

[Fernando]

Raul Garcia on for Griezmann

That's ballsy with Mandzukic trying to get sent off by continuously elbowing people...

[Fernando]

Torres on for Koke

[GSC]

That's a penalty.

[GSC]

Real are on the ropes big time.

[Fernando]

FT Atletico 0-0 Real

Good for Atletico no away goal for Real.

FT Juventus 1-0 Monaco

[GSC]

0-0, a result both teams played for really, neither wanted to lose.

Still think Ramos was very lucky not to concede a pen on Torres. Bale and Ronaldo passengers.

[GSC]

Carvajal should also be suspended for the 2nd leg

[Guest]

Porto 2-0 Bayern

No surprise given Bayern's recent form & injuries, saw them vs Leverkusen in the German Cup & were very average

[Guest]

PSG been awful & it's a shame after beating Chelsea that they have no Zlatan, Verrati or Silva. See Barca strolling through

Porto 2-1 Bayern

[Lowlandbrit]

Porto 2-0 Bayern

No surprise given Bayern's recent form & injuries, saw them vs Leverkusen in the German Cup & were very average

Bayern central defenders seemingly decided to give Porto a 2 goal lead and almost got Neuer sent off doing it.

[Crimey]

Guardiola's need to experiment will cost him. If he was slightly more pragmatic don't think Porto would have a chance. I guess it's what happens when they dominate the German league, get bored winning normally so come up with wild and wacky formations. Think he should stick to more simple stuff in Europe.

[Fernando]

3-1 Porto - Jackson Martinez

[monty junior]

Bayern centre backs are terrible terrible defenders, what is this new style of defending where the players can't actually defend. 

[Crimey]

I miss Suarez 

[Guest]

Suarez makes it 2-0. Game over, tie over & David Luiz proves again how woeful he is.

[GSC]

Imagine paying 50m for a defender who can't defend.

[Crimey]

A big goal in a big name from Suarez as well, laughable that people think he only delivers against small sides.

[GSC]

I might be missing something, but did anyone say that

[GSC]

Now you could say that about Zlatan, not sure I've heard it about Suarez

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