Champions League Round of 16 (15th Feb - 16th Mar)

[RobinLFC]

Inter are not Seie A leaders. And they've only won 1 in 6 games against the Serie A top 5 this season. And of course, the whole top 5 of Serie A is not worth that much in Europe currently. They are all decent teams, but none of them is expected to make a CL semifinal.

Ah feck, didn't check their standings after last weekend. Still a game in hand compared to Milan though

You're right about the other points, I don't think they're world beaters or anything, but winning there is still nice and a good achievement, even if it wasn't in dominating fashion. I'll take it.

 

[Josh 76]

Agree with that. We were dominated for periods of the game but also had good spells even though we didn’t play very well tonight. Didn’t get into much trouble though imo, partly thanks to Inter’s terrible decision making. Away at the Serie A leaders and going back to Anfield with a 0-2 lead, can’t complain. Like you say, job done and move on.

No away goals this season. I can see Liverpool going through, but it won’t be straight forward as it may seem.

 

[432JuanMata]

No away goals this season. I can see Liverpool going through, but it won’t be straight forward as it may seem.

It most definitely is regardless of away goals. Liverpool at Anfield in Europe is different. Nevermind having 2 goal lead against a team nowhere near there level

 

[BayernFan87]

I would say Italy at the moment is close to the German league.
Yes they don’t have a Bayern but teams from 2-7th are close

I'd argue that the Spanish league also isn't much better at the moment. Real, Atletico and of course especially Barca a much worse than 2 or 3 years ago.

Real, the best team in the league, looked like a pub team yesterday against PSG. And it's not like it was a big exception, they also weren't good in the group stage.

I fancy United against Atletico and also Juve against Villarreal. There won't be any Spanish team in the quarter finals I think.

 

[Bepi]

It is absolutely money, yes - but the level of the Italian league is not the same as England, Spain, Germany.

Parochial owners, inadequate structures, cheapskatism as reason d’etre. A top product is unsustainable these days, as the Juve & Ronaldo fiasco showed well… also that little, recent, self-sustained gem Atalanta now declining and possibly taken over by just another American fund by Friday.

 

[432JuanMata]

I'd argue that the Spanish league also isn't much better at the moment. Real, Atletico and of course especially Barca a much worse than 2 or 3 years ago.

Real, the best team in the league, looked like a pub team yesterday against PSG. And it's not like it was a big exception, they also weren't good in the group stage.

I fancy United against Atletico and also Juve against Villarreal. There won't be any Spanish team in the quarter finals I think.

La Liga is the worst it’s been in years. They dominated for years with Real 4/5 and Barca under Pep.
Then Seville in Europa so they were due a drop off.
But I agree Real decline is hidden a bit by Barca being so bad

 

[abundance]

Klopp has subtly changed this game with a treble substitution. Inter were well on top at that time. Sadly that’s what the elite managers do.

Klopp is a fantastic manager but in this particular case it just boiled down to having an elite bench

 

[Dumbstar]

I was quite impressed with inter. An ageing team that held its own for 80 minutes, pressed Thiago and co making them look ordinary. They were never going to sustain this over 90 minutes though and it showed.

 

[Wolf1992]

It is absolutely money, yes - but the level of the Italian league is not the same as England, Spain, Germany.

It is, Serie A, Bundesliga, and La Liga are very even now.
Inter is second at Serie A, the second places of Germany and Spain would also lose to Liverpool.

 

[432JuanMata]

It is, Serie A, Bundesliga, and La Liga are very even now.

Take in account that Inter is second at Serie A, the second places of Germany and Spain would also lose to Liverpool.

Yeah but we finished 2nd last year and went out to Leipzig. The PL should be the strongest as Leeds get more TV money than Bayern

 

[cyberman]

I was quite impressed with inter. An ageing team that held its own for 80 minutes, pressed Thiago and co making them look ordinary. They were never going to sustain this over 90 minutes though and it showed.

Same here. Not having the players doesn’t lessen their coaching abilities to be fair.

 

[Pintu]

I was quite impressed with inter. An ageing team that held its own for 80 minutes, pressed Thiago and co making them look ordinary. They were never going to sustain this over 90 minutes though and it showed.

They are not an aging team normally. Dzeko and Perisic are the only outfield players over 30. Barella's suspension added a third: Vidal.

And normally Dzeko doesn't start 4 intense games in 10 days in a row. Correa's injury meant he had to.

Even Perisic could have been rested if the last 3 opponents weren't Milan, Roma, and Napoli. They really got very unlucky with the KO stage. Not only drawing Liverpool (probably the toughest opposition possible) but also the scheduling of this game.

 

[432JuanMata]

I was quite impressed with inter. An ageing team that held its own for 80 minutes, pressed Thiago and co making them look ordinary. They were never going to sustain this over 90 minutes though and it showed.

Let’s see the 2nd leg first. Italian teams are always decent at home in Europe even when their level is poor.
Have a feeling Inter get thumped at Anfield

 

[Wolf1992]

Yeah but we finished 2nd last year and went out to Leipzig. The PL should be the strongest as Leeds get more TV money than Bayern

TV money is good, but the real success of Liverpool and City is having Klopp and Guardiola as managers.
Once these two leave, there will be a noticeable downgrade with their next two managers.

Liverpool have had money since the 90s, and bar their 2005 flukey CL, they were shit the rest of the time until Klopp got the job.

Having money without a proper structure and management means feck all
Everton have as much money as Parma had in the 90s, and they are nowhere close to challenge for any trophy, unlike Parma back then.
Money won't buy you success, if your only plan is to throw money at new players, same goes for United.

 

[432JuanMata]

TV money is good, but the real success of Liverpool and City is having Klopp and Guardiola as managers.
Once these two leave, there will be a noticeable downgrade with their next two managers.

Liverpool have had money since the 90s, and bar their 2005 flukey CL, they were shit the rest of the time until Klopp got the job.

Having money without a proper structure and management means feck all
Everton have as much money as Parma had in the 90s, and they are nowhere close to challenge for any trophy, unlike Parma back.
Money won't buy you success, if your only plan is to throw money at new players, same goes for United.

Well obviously it’s the manager as we are the perfect example nearly 1 billion spent since SAF and still crap.
What I’m saying is the bottom 10 in PL can spend money that La Liga and German league’s bottom could only dream of so the PL should be the best

 

[Pintu]

Let’s see the 2nd leg first. Italian teams are always decent at home in Europe even when their level is poor.
Have a feeling Inter get thumped at Anfield

Will they get thumped more like Arsenal losing 4-0 or like United losing 5-0 at home?

 

[Wolf1992]

Well obviously it’s the manager as we are the perfect example nearly 1 billion spent since SAF and still crap.
What I’m saying is the bottom 10 in PL can spend money that La Liga and German league’s bottom could only dream of so the PL should be the best

Indeed, but bottom 10 PL teams can't get the best players and the best managers, so it doesn't matter how much money they have as long as they are unable to attract top players/top managers.

 

[ti vu]

Able to watch the Bayern equalizer now. The goal would be disallowed by VAR if Lewandolski was doing that in our shirt.

 

[Pintu]

Able to watch the Bayern equalizer now. The goal would be disallowed by VAR if Lewandolski was doing that in our shirt.

I didn't see that. Was it a Maguire vs Burnley kind of situation? That was a bad call by the way. Varane's goal should have stood.

 

[ti vu]

I didn't see that. Was it a Maguire vs Burnley kind of situation? That was a bad call by the way. Varane's goal should have stood.

Pogba esque in Ben Mee own goal IMO

 

[Pintu]

Pogba esque in Ben Mee own goal IMO

That was an even worse call. No surprise I didn't see it in Lewy's action.


Now I'm hurt. We really got robbed 2 points that night.

 

[Blackwidow]

Able to watch the Bayern equalizer now. The goal would be disallowed by VAR if Lewandolski was doing that in our shirt.

Don't think that it was questionable. But that was...

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But... English referees...

 

[GhastlyHun]

Bayern-Salzburg is far from over if Salzburg can replicate this performance in Munich. We couldn't deal with their intensity all match, even if we came out on top on nearly all statistics. Apparently we even won more duels, which definitely didn't seem the case to me while watching. It was such a close game, 2-0 would have been an unsurprising outcome if Salzburg would have taken their best chance of the game as well as the first. On the other hand it could have ended 1-2 in the dying seconds if Müller standing in the box wouldn't have been given as a foul. Apart from that our chances were numerous but not convincing, basically never a clear shot at the goal, always a few Salzburgers still there.

 

[::sonny::]

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[11101]

Inter are not Seie A leaders. And they've only won 1 in 6 games against the Serie A top 5 this season. And of course, the whole top 5 of Serie A is not worth that much in Europe currently. They are all decent teams, but none of them is expected to make a CL semifinal.

Best team in Italy though.

Last night highlighted the difference in the leagues though. Liverpool had spells when they weren't at their best, and it wasn't their best lineup, but they were that little bit quicker to do everything.

 

[Pintu]

Best team in Italy though.

Last night highlighted the difference in the leagues though. Liverpool had spells when they weren't at their best, and it wasn't their best lineup, but they were that little bit quicker to do everything.

The PL is stronger than Serie A, that's not even a debate. But last night didn't prove anything. Inter used Liverpool press in the early stages against Liverpool to tire them. Skriniar, Bastoni and De Vrij kept their calm and made Pool's front 3 run everywhere. I wish Maguire and Shaw were capable of that. We would not have gone down 5-0 at halftime.

Last night highlighted the difference between Liverpool and Inter. One team is capable of bringing in Diaz, Firminho, Keita, and Henderson. Actually, Milan did something similar to Inter with far less quality than what Liverpool has on the bench. Milan changed the game and won it with fresh legs at the end.

Inter just played 4 high-intensity games in 10 days. (Roma, Milan, Napoli and yesterday). They did this with the same 11. They didn't rest Dzeko because of Correa's injury and we saw yesterday how out of energy he was. Gosens also could have helped with the depth. But he is still injured too.

On top of that they had to use 33 year old Vidal instead of Barella. Barella is their only dynamic midfielder normally capable of running at this intensity for 90 minutes, and he can do it more than 2 times in one week.

 

[Bepi]

Liverpool, City and Chelsea would walk this Serie A, like Bayern, PSG and maybe Real Madrid. As for second tier clubs, league comparisons and non superteams benchmark, next week ties with good-not-great United and Juventus against good-not-great yet spirited Spanish sides will tell more. The best team in Italy is still Juventus, on the right trajectory again for the seasons to come after this one.

 

[Boavista]

Best team in Italy though.

Last night highlighted the difference in the leagues though. Liverpool had spells when they weren't at their best, and it wasn't their best lineup, but they were that little bit quicker to do everything.

How does it highlight the difference in leagues? It's clear the best two teams in the Premier League are better than any in Italy, but there's also a bit of a gap behind City and Liverpool domestically. Even if you say Inter is the best Italian team, the top third in the Serie A is fairly dense these days with lots of teams on a good and similar level.

And bar Elliott, isn't that more or less Liverpool's best lineup?

 

[ForeverRed1]

Could this be citehs year?

 

[11101]

How does it highlight the difference in leagues? It's clear the best two teams in the Premier League are better than any in Italy, but there's also a bit of a gap behind City and Liverpool domestically. Even if you say Inter is the best Italian team, the top third in the Serie A is fairly dense these days with lots of teams on a good and similar level.

And bar Elliott, isn't that more or less Liverpool's best lineup?

I don't think Thiago, Elliot or Konate feature in Liverpool's best 11 and Jota went off at half time.

 

[Pintu]

I don't think Thiago, Elliot or Konate feature in Liverpool's best 11 and Jota went off at half time.

So bar Elliot it was more or less.

And this somehow proves Wolves and Hammers are so much superior to Atalanta and Roma?

 

[Daysleeper]

The PL is pretty mediocre after the top 3 teams. 2 of the best 3 teams in the world are in the PL though. It’s essentially what la liga was in 2012.

 

[PoTMS]

The PL is pretty mediocre after the top 3 teams. 2 of the best 3 teams in the world are in the PL though. It’s essentially what la liga was in 2012.

True. I agree United, Arsenal and Spurs are mediocre indeed. Although the best of the rest in Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga and Bundesliga are shocking compared to the Premier League.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

These are the leagues as represented by top 15 placements in the UEFA Club Coefficients, which is for data over the past 5 seasons.

1. Premier League - 6 clubs
2. La Liga - 4 clubs
3. Serie A - 2 clubs
4. Germany, Holland, France - 1 club.

Looking at the association coefficients.

England is 10 points ahead of Spain which is 16 ahead of Italy. These are large gaps These ranking comes from points awarded to all qualifying sides for a win or draw, all sides are awarded the same number of points for a win or a draw regardless of the stage of the competition. These are the best indicators of strength in depth for the leagues that we have. In the case of the German league 40% of their club sides compete in European competition.

The sides outside of top 2 in England cannot be mediocre by any obvious logic or it would be impossible the the PL to dominate these charts in such a way at this time.

 

[MUFC OK]

Could this be citehs year?

I think City are favourites, but Liverpool would beat them over 2 legs imo. Don't see a way that the scousers fail to get to the final tbh.

 

[Markolan]

Best team in Italy though.

Last night highlighted the difference in the leagues though. Liverpool had spells when they weren't at their best, and it wasn't their best lineup, but they were that little bit quicker to do everything.

Meh, Liverpool had no players unavailable for this match, everyone was fit while Inter were missing, among others:
- Euro 2020 winner and their most important player: Nicolò Barella
- Copa America 2020 winner: Joaquin Correa
- Germany NT regular starter: Robin Gosens

The big difference is: MONEY.. At one point Klopp subbed on: Firmino, Luis Diaz and Naby Keita, 3 players who did cost € 165 million overall in terms of fee, more than the whole Inter starting XI (Handanovic- Bastoni-Skriniar-De Vrij- Dumfries- Vidal - Brozovic - Calhanoglu - Perisic - Dzeko - Lautaro = € 141 million).

Premier League is the real Super League. Nowadays all the non-PL teams bar Madrid, PSG and Bayern would probably lose to Liverpool/Chelsea/City B teams.

 

[PickledRed]

Also not the achievement it once would have been. The Spanish and Italian leagues are a pale shadow of their former selves. And the PL has never been stronger.

That's true. But when you play your second string in the San Siro and win (v AC Milan) then I think that's noteworthy; plus the fact no other PL side has done it makes it - at the point of writing - remarkable and, by definition, exceptional.

 

[Boavista]

I think people tend to draw too many conclusions from the top teams of a league, especially when the traditional top teams in that league go through a slump. For instance Barcelona and Atletico are having a poor season, but does that mean anything for the likes of Sevilla, Betis or Real Sociedad? If anything Barcelona and Atletico have this season joined the best of the rest, and as far as those go they're not too bad even in their current form.

The same goes for Juventus and Italy. They might not be among the CL favourites like they used to be not too long ago, but they've (temporarily) dropped back into a pack of resurgent teams fighting for top four. Inter, Milan, Atalanta, Napoli, and the two Rome teams have either recovered again to some extent compared to before, or at least fielded some pretty strong teams at times over the last few years.
As for the Bundesliga, you never really know what you're going to get with some of the teams behind Bayern and Dortmund.

 

[PickledRed]

Meh, Liverpool had no players unavailable for this match, everyone was fit while Inter were missing, among others:
- Euro 2020 winner and their most important player: Nicolò Barella
- Copa America 2020 winner: Joaquin Correa
- Germany NT regular starter: Robin Gosens

Liverpool beat AC Milan with Phillips, Minamino, Morton, Williams, Woltman and Bradley...was that meh?

 

[Classical Mechanic]

The big difference is: MONEY..

Inter have actually outspent Liverpool over the past few seasons and the past decade.