But you’ll root for Barca over United surely hahaWould I?While it's true I win £200 if Liverpool go trophyless, I'd not actually root for anyone to beat us.
CL Quarters and Semi's
- Thread starter Thunderhead
- Start date
I'll root for a good & interesting game
Ajax will cruise to the semi's imho. Juve are rather shite this season. Apart from the usual Simeone away game meltdown they've been largely unimpressive. De Ligt will nullify Ronaldo with his hands tied behind his back and Tadic, Ziyech and Neres will make old man Chiellini look like an even more hapless ballerina than Morata did.
One of the best draws Juve could have asked for.
Ajax left a ton of gaps at the back against RM, Juve are not only more ruthless, but they aren’t as naive as a Ramos-less Madrid defensively. Should be 4-1 or 5-2 on aggregate for Juve if I had to guess.
Why do we only get 6 days between ties & the other English teams get 8?
I think these draws are self explanatory bar one.
SEMIS:
City vs Juve
Pool vs United/Uefalona
even though my mind tells me Uefalona will win that tie I have hope in United.
SEMIS:
City vs Juve
Pool vs United/Uefalona
even though my mind tells me Uefalona will win that tie I have hope in United.
Nonsense, Ajax will batter them at least 4-0 at home.
Seriously though, yes, Juve are a shite draw for Ajax because they're comfortable with soaking up pressure and countering. Still, even though they beat Real, Juve will still underestimate Ajax. I'd say it 70-30 in favor of Juve.
Bit silly that they can’t play at home on consecutive nights, fair enough on the same day but the day after shouldn’t be a problem
Rigged or not, this is how it should be. This will give a better opportunity for the best teams to play each other in the semis and finals. If it was the other way around people would still be complaining about the fact that a final would be played before the actual final.
I think its due to the fact that often visiting fans come over a day or two before to "enjoy the local
but essentially if we can bid for a world cup etc then you would think that we must have the policing capacity to deal with this kind of stuff and therefore I can only assume its the extra cost? - which for United / City and Uefa you would have assumed was pretty negligible.
Perhaps its just a standard rule to make sure for example that Liverpool and United fans could never be flying into Madrid on the same days for a booze/punch up?
Is there ever a year people aren't whinging about fixes and rigging? 
Yeah, I think there's definitely more to it than just "lazy policemen". For a World Cup though you'd have neighbouring police units helping out, everything planned months in advance and everyone across the country mobilized, now it's just the Manchester department. Accommodation, away fans, safety, ... It's just not worth it to risk even though it's the most important thing in the world to the actual fans.
This made me actually laugh out loud
If Ajax manage to oust Juve I will buy Ajax Pyamas.
Don't tell my family.
Don't tell my family.
I think we’ll lose in a high scoring tie. Messi’s just that good.
What? Ya don't think we can beat Barca and Pool?City - Liverpool in tjekke finale
And if United do the same to Barca I will buy one too. We can be PJ buddies
Too bad Uefadrid didn’t make it or we’d get tons of more offside goals and shithousery and controversy
I'm going for every underdog to go through to the semi's.
First final in years where two un-fancied teams play each other.
First final in years where two un-fancied teams play each other.
Hopefully the OT crowd will be up for this one.
The atmosphere in the home tie against PSG was oddly underwhelming.
The atmosphere in the home tie against PSG was oddly underwhelming.
Not a Madrid fan and in fact they are both as corrupt as can possibly be.
Cheers for the honesty
There's going to be one upset. Question is which game.
No, UEFA does it every year obviously.Is there ever a year people aren't whinging about fixes and rigging?
Also if it makes you feel better I hate Madrid I just don’t like Barca. Madrid by far are in the top 5 worst fans in all of Europe.
I assume of the remaining teams in CL you’ll be pulling for Juventus? I think they’ll beat Ajax and I think they’ll stifle City a bit. If they can play with the intensity of that second leg against Atletico they’ll be in good shape.
Funny I think Juve are favorites to win the CL by far. And Ronaldo will score at least 3 to this kids.
Because it’s true like? Fair play, I’d be doing the same.
I don’t really care much for Juve to be honest. If they win I would not be upset because I am also a Ronnie fan obviously but if they lose I don’t care either. The only team I care about is Sporting Clube De Portugal. As for the remaining teams I would go for United they have a soft spot in my heart as I grew up watching them and have many great memories. If they were to be knocked out then ya I would want Juve to win it.
In Italy I actually prefer Fiorentina because of their ties to Sporting.
We are toast. Forget Messi, Barca just have way more talent than we do.
Against us at Wembley they looked dangerous every single time they went forward. Messi is the orchestrater and the GOAT, but you're right, it's not like he's alone. The supporting cast are deadly in their own right.
They can be got at and aren't as effectively coached as say a City or Juventus side, but the talent in the side can blow you away if they're on song.
Apart from yourselves (and maybe Ajax as well) we've had the toughest route to the QFs so far this season. Toughest group of them all and Bayern in the Round of 16, just when they were hitting good form in the league. Yes, they were poor, but so were Real for example.
But yes, we got lucky this round. It happens. I've seen multiple posters say that you've gotten the hardest draw possible though which is simply not true. City and Juventus would both be tougher draws, and Liverpool would've been more or less at the same level as Barcelona. You didn't have bad luck, you got what one should expect in the QFs of the Champions League. It's just that we did get lucky this time.
I don’t recall saying we had bad luck? However, it would be more fortunate to get Porto than Barcelona, no? I’m not on about just the draw anyway. It all evens out apparently.
Maybe not you, but lots on here go on about your bad luck in draws this season. I'd agree regarding the FA Cup, but drawing a Barca-level kind of team in the QFs of the CL is more or less par for the course imo.
Of course it's a lot more fortunate, I'll never say otherwise. We're very lucky, and have a great shot at another semi-final now which is great considering how far we were off just 3 or 4 years ago. I don't know if it all evens out, I'd like to think so. We had a goal against us last weekend which 200% should be disallowed though, those are definitely decisions that go against us but no one talks about that because we still won the game. As for our luck, yeah, the Pickford stuff was lucky. The penalties, I don't agree with. If you put a lot of pressure on your opponents, you're bound to get more penalties and force your opponents into mistakes more than if you don't do that.
I don't think your group was tougher than our group or Spurs's group. Bayern have also quite obviously not been very good this season and should have finished 2nd since they were the worse team in both matches against Ajax. Juventus as well haven't had an easy route so I don't buy your claim or having the toughest route. Looking at the knockouts overall the three worst performing teams were the German teams.
Anyone drawing Porto this round was the lucky one regardless who did since it's a free pass to the semis. I give Ajax a shot at winning the CL but the chance I've give Porto is the lowest I can give a team in the quarter finals.
Agree to disagree in that case. Napoli are way stronger than Valencia imo. And Spurs made it hard on themselves by losing at an awful Inter side in the last 5mins of the game. Just look at how they crashed out against Frankfurt last night. I still think we had the toughest one but agree there's not that much in it. Bayern, on the other hand, are not as strong as the past few years, no, but it's still the first time in almost a decade that someone can knock them out in the Round of 16. They don't lose at home that often. Beating Bayern over two legs is harder than Roma, Dortmund, Schalke and Lyon.
We've had a harder than average path to the QFs. But yeah, we got lucky this time, although I very much hope the players don't take anything for granted or rely on a good result based on what happened last year.
Still a lot tougher than what City had to beat to get here though.
Barca of cosIf it ends up being a Barca/Liverpool semi final who do you root for?
Testing your United/Ronaldo fandom right now
Barca losing in the QF cannot br considered an upset... they do it all the time
Who's gotten at them this season? They might not be as great as their past sides but those standards are ludicrously high.
Yet they constantly lose in CL QF...