The true treble. Vanarama North, Johnson’s Paint Trophy, Champions League.
Champions League - Round of 16 - 2nd Legs 5/6/12/13 March
- Thread starter TheGame
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
A bit grim. In one match everyone has a chance, but even the thought of watching another final with them is annoying. In 2 legs I really can't see anyone going past them. Arsenal maybe has a chance but they will probably fall apart in about 3 weeks from now.
Ah... That would be.. Feckin justifiable!? (so no chance)
I wish people would stop this massive over-rating of City, they arnt all that this season.
Well, I wouldn't if I didn't watch Bayern recently and Madrid today.
City are still the best team, even if they are not great as last year.
All other top teams are having some issues currently. From all the other teams left, Inter are arguably the best one overall, and i am not sure they are good enough to stop them.
All other top teams are having some issues currently. From all the other teams left, Inter are arguably the best one overall, and i am not sure they are good enough to stop them.
Have you watched City recently? They havent exactly been the best and struggled against Brentford and Bournemouth managing to win only 1-0 against both plus drew 1-1 with a poor Chelsea side.
The way City completely dominated Madrid at home last season goes way beyond just choices of players. They are far ahead of you as a team because Pep is a level above Ancelotti tactically. I feel like Pep has your number and only individual moments of brilliance could save you. Your tie against Leipzig doesn't inspire much confidence in your ability to beat them either.
I have no idea why Madrid want to sign Mbappe. Sesko carried them through these two games almost by himself.Unofrtunartely he´s suspended for the next round.
That Real performance at The Etihad last season was probably the worst performance ive ever seen from a Real Madrid side as they couldnt string 2 passes together or keep possesion and did very little anywhere on the pitch, the performance when the destroyed Liverpool at Anfield was lightyears above it, I guess Real being carried by 36 year old Benzema and 38 year old Modric cost them in the latter rounds when their ageing legs had gone.
Bored of Guardiola and city, please go away.
Tito Flo is working his magic. Our next 3 opponents will play Upamecano at the back and Sesko up top. Also we'll play 15 vs 11, refs will finally be allowed to wear the holy shirt
United should sign Benjamin Sesko, make him captain and use him as a deep space false nine. We must now think of the next generation.
Mind, we should be cautious about making Maquis signings.
In all seriousness, I despise 'Leipzig'. Not one iota of sympathy for their projekt.
Mind, we should be cautious about making Maquis signings.
In all seriousness, I despise 'Leipzig'. Not one iota of sympathy for their projekt.
Like I said; they’d certainly be favorites. Two games left until the international break. Hope Carlo evaluates and fixes whatever is wrong with the team. We can do so much better.
This 5 man midfield thing never works. He tried it twice before (against Barca and Atletico) and we lost horribly. Yet he keeps doing it. Frustrating.
Got your blue shirt ready?1-0 City. Akanji from a corner.
Rest up the boys now, Guardiola. Big game this weekend.
Got a sneaky feeling for Atletico this year. If they beat Inter could definitely shithouse it all the way, just need to avoid City early. Everyone else is meh.
I actually think he's a good player, by far the worse game I've seen him play
Typical Real Madrid win. First leg the referee stole Leipzig a goal, second leg the referee for reasons only he will know didn't send of Vinicius who then of course scores their goal against the flow of the game.
If it's true that over time the wrong decisions balance out, Real won't win shit over the next 10 years even they have Mbappé, Bellingham and Haaland.
I'm so tired of this.
If it's true that over time the wrong decisions balance out, Real won't win shit over the next 10 years even they have Mbappé, Bellingham and Haaland.
I'm so tired of this.
Anyone else think this is the least interesting CL they can remember? I just can’t bring myself to give a toss about it. Not watched a single minute of the knockout games.
It's a poor season for sure, City should be walking through the tournament. Madrid, Barca and Munich are bang average so there's not much standing in their way.
It does seem the quality has steadily been decreasing the last 5 years or so. I think what used to make the CL so great was the PL wasn’t so finically dominant so you’d get these massive away games at AC, Inter, Barca, Real, Bayern etc. where they’d be favourites.
Now it feels like you could pick the top 3 from the PL and they’d be favourites for basically any game in the CL.
Which is why Madrid is calling for the super league. Over time they will become irrelevant. Is that good for football? No. Is the super league good for football? No.
Greed will kill the sport one day.
Watch us cheat our way to another CL now. Just to spite you, personally
I'm kinda surprised people have made so much of the Vinicius decision tbh. They barely mentioned it in the (English-speaking) commentary of the game that I was watching.
"Us" congrats on your achievement.
I don't think it has that much to do with Ancelotti.
Real Madrid aren't very solid against teams that press a lot and play with intensity. You can look at the semis against Chelsea in 20/21, 2nd game against Chelsea in 21/22, and the games at the Etihad in the last two seasons. That's happened with different managers and players. La Liga football isn't as intense and players are not as used to it.
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You should have added. Is it good that the EPL gets so much more revenue that s single club (Chelsea) can spend more than the Bundesliga, Liga A and Ligue 1 in one transfer window? No.
Thank you. It is a great achievement. You'll never know what it feels like, but that's the game innit. Some of us are born under the right stars, and others are born barcelona fans and are thus doomed to be unhappy
Eh. I mean we have the players for it, what we lack is the coaching. LaLiga might lack intensity compared to the PL but a manager can impose that on their team. Athletic Bilbao can run and sprint and hustle with any PL side you care to mention
Agree. It is 100% part of the problem. I just don't have a solution right now. I love the Bundesliga model but it simply isn't competitive. When Bayern start losing german players (it's already started) it will lose the top tier league tag.
Born, eh? Are you from Madrid?
To be honest the CL doesn't get super interesting until the quarters at least. You get the odd thriller in the Ro16 and the group of death but that's about it. The lack of interesting teams remaining this season doesn't help either.
I also think that no matter what you may think about the away goal rule, scrapping it has removed a lot of the "spice" that knockout games used to have.
No surprises yet. Not sure if I want Arsenal to lose this round against Porto because it's funny or if it would be more intriguing for them to be tested against one of the big boys.
Thankfully our good stars cover a very big planet
Yet we always came out on top against Klopp’s Liverpool which is the embodiment of high press and intensity. I think it’s to do with Ancelotti, he never really builds those types of systems.
Last 5 years only City and Liverpool have been consistently relevant in the CL from the PL. This ‘PL is so dominant in the CL’ idea I don’t agree with. Not to mention when Pep also leaves City and with Klopp going next year…who knows.
It's more about the steady drain of players from those leagues, it's not really to do with any managers. City will be uber rich and spend big with or without Pep, Pool, Arsenal ,United, Chelsea, Spurs, Villa to be honest most PL teams are very rich and spend big comparatively to most teams in Europe now. Sure the CL is a knock out and there are still a couple of stronger teams in Europe who can beat the PL teams but it's getting more and more uncompetitive my opinion.
Also not sure re ''relevance" in the CL comment. SA= Serie A, LP = Liga Portugal, L1 = Ligue 1, DL = Dutch
22/23. QF's. 3SA, 2PL, 1LL, 1BL, 1LP. (PL winner)
21/22. QF's. 3PL, 3LL, 1BL, 1LP (LL winner)
20/21. QF's. 3PL, 2BL, 1LL, 1 LP, 1L1 (PL winner)
19/20. QF's. 2BL, 2LL, 2L1, 1SA, 1PL (BL winner)
18/19. QF's. 4PL, 1LL, 1LP, 1DL, 1SA (PL winner)
So 3/5 CL's have been won by a PL team.
And QF appearances PL is top with 13, La Liga 8, Bundesliga 6, Serie A 5, Liga Portugal 4, Ligue 1 3, Dutch 1
RM beat them comfortably in years when they were having issues (20/21, 22/23). In the 2022 final RM had trouble keeping them at bay and in 2018 they were not the finished article and lost from a legendarily terrible GK performance and a wonder goal that came out of nowhere.
2018 with a freak injury to their best player, and a legendary performance by their keeper sandwiching one of the best CL goals ever. And still we struggled
20/21 - Covid, empty stadiums, they were playing 2 guys they picked up in emergency in january at CB and were losing at home to every PL bottom feeder at the time. And still at Anfield we needed Courtois to save our arses
21/22 they beat us from pillar to post only to smash into probably the greatest goalkeeper performance in football history, and we suckerpunched them. Also, let's face it we were simply destined to win that CL
22/23 we caught them at the right time. The first leg was a weird game - more of a collection of individual episodes, most of which going our way than us outplaying them or anything. We also played them at the right time - they unraveled on their own. Second leg was a formality and there were still moments where they troubled us. The worst Chelsea of the last 10 years coached by Frank fecking Lampard had us on the ropes in the second leg too
PL is clearly dominant right now, come on. Outside 19/20 with the Covid interruption and restart which created unequal conditions(German and French teams doing really well - the ones who finished the league in June or didn't restart at all. This wasn't chance) since the 17/18 season every CL final has involved at least 1 PL team, with 2 all english finals. Yeah it's mostly the same two teams but so what? That's normal. It's not like during Spain's dominance there were 6 or 7 teams around - it was Madrid and Barcelona. Sometimes Atletico - like Chelsea for the PL
On the one hand it's about time for another Bayern - Real clash (and i'm hopelessly optimistic after our first good game in months against Lazio), on the other hand we will have even more games to discuss back and forth if there are some wrong or debatable decisions by the ref and the VAR....
What do you think fellow Bayern and Real fans?
What do you think fellow Bayern and Real fans?
I want Bayern and I want it to be supersuspicious with criminal refereeing and VAR and the losing side - Bayern's - having the meltdown to end all meltdowns over it. I want it allOn the one hand it's about time for another Bayern - Real clash (and i'm hopelessly optimistic after our first good game in months against Lazio), on the other hand we will have even more games to discuss back and forth if there are some wrong or debatable decisions by the ref and the VAR....
What do you think fellow Bayern and Real fans?
least toxic Real Madrid fanI want Bayern and I want it to be supersuspicious with criminal refereeing and VAR and the losing side - Bayern's - having the meltdown to end all meltdowns over it. I want it all