City tend to get easy draws - the fact they went out to Monaco, Spurs and Lyon late stages is really poor given their squad. This season they've had Mochengladbach and Dortmund who might not even finish top 4 in the BL.
They had that legendary game against Inter Milan where they beat them 5:2 away that season. Raul was playing there as well.
Yeah that's the first one I thought, 2016 Real Madrid had a very easy draw.
True that, don't know why anyone would be sorry though. Atletico's role was basically to eliminate opposition that would threaten Real Madrid, and then predictably fold in the final. Worked like a clockwork...
Great run by Real. Were very lucky against Bayern though. And that last minute Ronaldo penalty against Juve.
Bayern game was very tricky, but can't agree with Juve. It was a penalty, and Real were in no danger of getting eliminated in the whole 180mins anyway. Don't see how that counts as being lucky.Great run by Real. Were very lucky against Bayern though. And that last minute Ronaldo penalty against Juve.
Yep. Greatest victory of all was United 1999. Barcelona finished 3rd in our group with Rivaldo (world player of the year) Figo, Xavi, Nadal, Guardiola and the De Boer twins in their side!
If Mhikitaryan had any finishing ability you wouldn't have ruled anything2016/17 was dortmund in the group, then napoli, bayern munich, atletico and juventus
2017/18 as mentioned was a murderer's row
15/16 was a EL run
13/14 was the "real madrid owns german football" run. Germany won the world cup that year too
Spurs - dortmund, city and ajax, after barcelona and inter in the group.
Barcelona 14/15 on paper was incredibly tough, but in actuality they got to play everyone at half strength
Atletico 15/16 beating the two best sides in the world in the QF and SF
Barcelona's toughest run to a final: chelsea, benfica, milan
Porto: manchester united, OL, Deportivo, fairly easy run
Juventus: dortmund, monaco, real madrid. And then porto, barcelona, monaco
Real Madrid with bayern and dinamo kyev in the second group, then defending champions united in QF, bayern in the SF
'Member when Marco Reus was the third best player in the world? I 'memberIf Mhikitaryan had any finishing ability you wouldn't have ruled anything
Yeah that was my immediate thought. Imagine getting rid of the best teams in the competition only to lose to your biggest rivals in the final
They were 0-3 down at home in second leg after winning 3-0 in Turin. How were they not in danger?
They weren't getting past Bayern that year. It was set up perfectly for Bayern to bottle it on all three fronts.Easiest:
Madrid 11-12
Lyon, Ajax and Zagreb in the group.
CSKA Moscow in the RO16.
Apoel Nicosia in the QF
Bayern in the semis, where they got knocked out.
Tip of the hat to little Brondby who managed to get one big punch in before drowning in that group.
What world are you living in? We got drawn against the toughest opponent in the last 16 we could get.
Exactly this.
It was Neuer mostly.
I always feel that we glorify that a little bit. We played fantastic clubs with fantastic players... But Juventus and Inter has a stinker of a year and finished 7th and 8th in the Serie A. A strong league, big clubs, wonderful players... But not great teams at the time.
That Inter side who got absolutely annihilated by young Bale in the group stages?
They were managed by Benitez and were utter crap. The squad was already on retirement mode after winning the treble with Mourinho leaving for Chelsea. Even if we played them it'd still be one of the easier runs to the final.
