Topic: Europa League / Champions League / Conference League QF 2nd Leg 16th-18th April

[farawayred]

Bayern - Real semi-final should be a great watch, very excited for that one.

Pundits made to look like fools yet again. Yes Bayern and Real are not as dominant as they have been in previous years but looking down on them, you are just asking to be ridiculed.

Really? I mean I'm happy that's the case, but the game might be overshadowed by the excitement over the growing grass...

[BarryCrocker]

Really? I mean I'm happy that's the case, but the game might be overshadowed by the excitement over the growing grass...

Bayern v BvB Final with Die Schwarzgelben to win and Harry Kane to continue his fine footballing legacy.

[latortuga]

The English press desperate to make Real Madrid's win about England.

Apparently Jude Bellingham was "instrumental" because he "passed the ball" in the build-up to Real's goal and scored his penalty. 

C'mon people, he's been largely anonymous in Real games for weeks/month now.  It's like they can't handle that golden child Phil Foden was so bad that they were left to rummage through the disaster on the night for English football and just make stuff up.

[elsewhere]

how good was that B Silva panenka? 

[spider-neil]

It looks like there will only be 4 teams for England in the CL next season.
Potentially Villa will be the only team left in European competition after tonight.

[spider-neil]

how good was that B Silva panenka? 

Of all the players that missed he is the one that brought me the most joy. I will never forgive that twat for not clapping the guard of honour.

[Draex]

Yep. Needed them both through really. Either of them can win it for me if it means we win the league.

Why? Another cheat title, who cares.. they only care about the champions league so missing out hurts those c*nts the most.

[peelyon]

Of all the players that missed he is the one that brought me the most joy. I will never forgive that twat for not clapping the guard of honour.

There's few players I "hate" but Silva is one of them.  Made worse by the fact when he isn't rugby tackling our players, he's actually quite a good footballer.  Made up that not only he missed, but the way he missed.

[lobsterboy]

I'd say it is to be fair.

Decisions against us v city and Arsenal and the spurs game have killed us

But so has our finishing. Should've beat United and palace comfortably. Got 1 point

But that can happen in a game. You can be unlucky in front of goal.
But you cannot do anything about bent officials stealing points off you.
A perfect season is required to beat the cheats. We can't do that because PGMOL will ensure its not possible.

[Nick110581]

There's few players I "hate" but Silva is one of them.  Made worse by the fact when he isn't rugby tackling our players, he's actually quite a good footballer.  Made up that not only he missed, but the way he missed.

Maybe the juice he takes doesn’t help with penalties.

[spider-neil]

Momentum shouldn't be ignored in football both positive and negative. I think City and Arsenal progress would have been a positive for their momentum in the run in. I don't buy into a CL semi final becoming a distraction in the league. It wasn't a distraction for City last season,

[bird_lfc]

Momentum shouldn't be ignored in football both positive and negative. I think City and Arsenal progress would have been a positive for their momentum in the run in. I don't buy into a CL semi final becoming a distraction in the league. It wasn't a distraction for City last season,

Absolutely. Plus it’s pretty much all the eggs in one basket so the pressure has been raised. Arsenal I’m not sure can handle that - it’ll be interesting to see how both teams react over the weekend

[latortuga]

Momentum shouldn't be ignored in football both positive and negative. I think City and Arsenal progress would have been a positive for their momentum in the run in. I don't buy into a CL semi final becoming a distraction in the league. It wasn't a distraction for City last season,

Or any season since we've been challenging them for titles.

Pep's comment about De Bruyne and Haaland asking to be taken off is very strange.  Apparently he berates his players in public to get a response.  Does he also humiliate them as well to get a response?  What player asks to be taken off in a quarter final with everything on the line?  Bizarre.

[Working Class Hen-Pecked Hero]

Guardiola is just a c*nt isn't he. I can understand frustrations because they absolutely dominated Real, and he's used to teams just folding to their constant pressure and shit cut back football. But he just can't show dignity in winning or losing. Bald fuckin robot

[Nick110581]

Guardiola is just a c*nt isn't he. I can understand frustrations because they absolutely dominated Real, and he's used to teams just folding to their constant pressure and shit cut back football. But he just can't show dignity in winning or losing. Bald fuckin robot

It is just the way he is.

Even when he is humble, it becomes across as sarcastic.

[spider-neil]

I hate Real just as much. It's a pity they couldn't both lose.

[deano2727]

Momentum shouldn't be ignored in football both positive and negative. I think City and Arsenal progress would have been a positive for their momentum in the run in. I don't buy into a CL semi final becoming a distraction in the league. It wasn't a distraction for City last season,

I don't buy going out will damage City's league chances. It hasn't before.

[JRed]

I don't buy going out will damage City's league chances. It hasn't before.

Going through prob wouldn’t have damaged them either

[deano2727]

Going through prob wouldn’t have damaged them either

It might have helped by giving them less time to prepare for the league games. I'm definitely of the opinion that them going through was better for our league chances. That said, we're shite at the moment, so City not winning the lot again might be for the best.

[gazzalfc]

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

England's hopes of securing a fifth Champions League spot have taken a big hit over the past two nights.

With Italy clear at the top of Uefa's coefficient rankings, the second of the two available spots has turned into a battle between Germany and England.

Before this week, Germany had a narrow lead even though they only had three teams left in the quarter-finals of the three European club competitions, compared with England's five.

That position has strengthened further with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both reaching the last four.

It meant the pair each collected three coefficient points this week - two each for the win and a bonus point for getting through. Those points are divided by seven - the number of German teams who started out in Europe this season - which takes them to 17.642.

While Manchester City's defeat by Real Madrid ends their Champions League hopes, as penalties do not count in coefficient terms, the game ended in a draw, meaning England have amassed only one point so far this week, which has to be divided by eight. It leaves England on 16.875.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Yep. Needed them both through really. Either of them can win it for me if it means we win the league.

Fuck that


Got a spring in my step today. Arf.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Simon Stone
BBC Sport

England's hopes of securing a fifth Champions League spot have taken a big hit over the past two nights.

With Italy clear at the top of Uefa's coefficient rankings, the second of the two available spots has turned into a battle between Germany and England.

Before this week, Germany had a narrow lead even though they only had three teams left in the quarter-finals of the three European club competitions, compared with England's five.

That position has strengthened further with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich both reaching the last four.

It meant the pair each collected three coefficient points this week - two each for the win and a bonus point for getting through. Those points are divided by seven - the number of German teams who started out in Europe this season - which takes them to 17.642.

While Manchester City's defeat by Real Madrid ends their Champions League hopes, as penalties do not count in coefficient terms, the game ended in a draw, meaning England have amassed only one point so far this week, which has to be divided by eight. It leaves England on 16.875.

Good. And Simon Stone can go and fuck himself, the inbred weird looking fucking prick.

[Redknight60]

The odds for the league with the bookies didn't move an inch after last night. Likewise if we go out or find a comeback tonight, they probably won't change either. The effect of European elimination is always way overstated, the true effect is miniscule. Happy city are out, didn't really care either way on Arsenal.

[Peabee]

Progressing in the CL and FA Cup really hindered City last se... oh , hang on.

[BoRed]

Did RedBull pay UEFA some Money to have Salzburg in that Tournament.

 

It's on merit, apparently. FIFA decided it would be the CL winners of the past four years, plus the next best eight in European competitions, with a maximum of two per country. An exception would have been made if there were three winners from the same country, that's why the last place wasn't known until Arsenal were knocked out. So once you have two from England, Spain, Italy and Germany, plus PSG, they had to go down the rankings (past the likes of us and Barcelona) to get to Porto, Benfica and finally Salzburg.

Wouldn't be surprised if FIFA make it a maximum of three per country next time to boost their revenue. I'm sure they were counting on Barcelona being there, but they're getting Salzburg instead.

[thejbs]

But that can happen in a game. You can be unlucky in front of goal.
But you cannot do anything about bent officials stealing points off you.
A perfect season is required to beat the cheats. We can't do that because PGMOL will ensure its not possible.

We might’ve missed the penalty at city. We might not have won the spurs game. We scored after the Arsenal basketball incident. Had those decisions gone our way we might be no better off. Had we taken just some of our many chances against Utd and palace, we’d be 5 points better off.

[thejbs]

It's on merit, apparently. FIFA decided it would be the CL winners of the past four years, plus the next best eight in European competitions, with a maximum of two per country. An exception would have been made if there were three winners from the same country, that's why the last place wasn't known until Arsenal were knocked out. So once you have two from England, Spain, Italy and Germany, plus PSG, they had to go down the rankings (past the likes of us and Barcelona) to get to Porto, Benfica and finally Salzburg.

Wouldn't be surprised if FIFA make it a maximum of three per country next time to boost their revenue. I'm sure they were counting on Barcelona being there, but they're getting Salzburg instead.

They’ll absolutely change it. They want us, Man Utd and Barca in there. Three of the top 4 most watched teams globally.

[JRed]

It might have helped by giving them less time to prepare for the league games. I'm definitely of the opinion that them going through was better for our league chances. That said, we're shite at the moment, so City not winning the lot again might be for the best.

I was of that opinion but as someone else pointed out, as soon as the first leg kicked off I changed my mind. I just could not want them to win. Yes, the two extra games would maybe affect some teams, but going deep into cups hasn’t affected these one bit in recent seasons. I firmly believe they are supping on Ped’s magic juice, although some in here think that’s impossible.

[stewil007]

We might’ve missed the penalty at city. We might not have won the spurs game. We scored after the Arsenal basketball incident. Had those decisions gone our way we might be no better off. Had we taken just some of our many chances against Utd and palace, we’d be 5 points better off.

Or we could have scored the penalty at city, we could have won at spurs and we could have won at arsenal - we were a slightly different team at those times and then had we taken our chances against Utd and Palace, we'd have the league wrapped up by now.  But who's to say that the previous 3 haven't had an effect on the last two.......sometimes its the drip drip of curcumstances that eventually get you.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

We might’ve missed the penalty at city. We might not have won the spurs game. We scored after the Arsenal basketball incident. Had those decisions gone our way we might be no better off. Had we taken just some of our many chances against Utd and palace, we’d be 5 points better off.

I wouldn't even say it was the 'big' decisions that PGMOL have fucked us over on. It's all the supposed free kicks (When we have 70 or 80% possession) and the continual breaking up of our attacks and rhythm continually through the season..

We apparantly are pretty much the dirtiest team in the league (going by fouls) but one of the cleanest (Going by cards)

[lobsterboy]

Regardless of if we would have gone on to actually win the points, it's still at least 6-9 points PGMOL have made certain we wouldn't get.
You cannot win a league when you are up against bent officials.

[Mahern]

They’ll absolutely change it. They want us, Man Utd and Barca in there. Three of the top 4 most watched teams globally.

There would have to be about 50 teams in the next tournament for UTD to qualify, going by their 7 co-efficient points this season and potentially 0 next.

[RedForeverTT]

Of all the players that missed he is the one that brought me the most joy. I will never forgive that twat for not clapping the guard of honour.

Classless twat. Happy that he was instrumental in getting City out of the competition.

[Clint Eastwood]

Bellingham is great but he’s a bit much isn’t he? Loves the camera.

[Zimagic]

What player asks to be taken off in a quarter final with everything on the line?  Bizarre.

I'd say one who really wants to win and realises he has nothing left in the tank to the point that he knows he's a liability. Better to hold up your hand and get fresh legs on at that point.

Takes a certain amount of humility to do it.

And if you can't run any more at the business end of the season, you need to look at the manager and the fitness teams and ask why they didn't rotate more in the league to preserve these players.

[...]

Bellingham is great but he’s a bit much isn’t he? Loves the camera.

Whenever I've watched him his workrate seems shite. Walks around when the opponent is attacking far too often.

[Jookie]

Wonder if Villa have taken as many fans to Lille as the Blues? Think it was about 60k Everton took to Lille.