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As much as the dodgy refereeing decisions went against PSG (UEFAlona anyone?) - the fact that PSG completed four passes between the 85th and 95th minute (and three of those were from kick off), not to mention the Barcelona goalkeeper spent the last three minutes 10m outside the PSG box without PSG mustering a shot upfield should tell you why they lost this game.

Considering it's Barcelona, this is probably one of the only times it's acceptable to hate the players and not the game (don't think we'll ever see anyone overturn what was essentially a six goal deficit for some time).
 
Well my fear level for tonight just went way up. Not only is England the only one of the top 5 where fixtures aren't moved to make way for Europe (hence we're playing Thursday-Monday-Thursday giving our opponents in the next two games over a week, and one day extra to prepare, respectively), but Phil Jones injured Wayne Rooney in training (Again) on the same weekend our two wonderkids got ill!.

Memphis meanwhile, is in great form over at Lyon. God I hope we have a buy-back for him - with Zlatan and Rooney both leaving in the next two seasons (possible both of them gone by June) we will actually have space in the team again.

I'm just going to leave a link to Memphis' great goal here

Also, Derby sacked Steve McLaren (Again). Ex-Derby boss Steve McLaren is currently considered among frontrunners for the post.
 
Frozocrone said:
If it;s soccer it's fine.

Lost to Chelsea. 10 men won't do. Laaame.
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*Football

Yeah disappointed about the red card - Michael Oliver is atrociously inconsistent, he told Jones to calm down then punished Herrera for one of the softest fouls called in the game. Diego Costa took forever to be carded, then when he did he touched the referee - according to the same referee in our 2014 quarter final touching him warrants an instant second yellow (he sent off Angel Di Maria for similar to how Costa touched him) - whilst Antonio Valencia, heroic as he was, should have seen a straight red for a tackle on Kant? that went unpunished.

To be honest, our performance wasn't good enough even when down to 10 men, Chelsea deserved it. My main gripes are with 2 people: Michael Oliver (see above) and Diego Costa (also above, also any highlights of his conduct ever, his face etc.). Wait, make that 3. Marouanne Fellaini should not have been in that game, so Mourinho messed up big-time (Can't blame the player for trying, just like you can't blame Paul Pogba for costing more than Cristiano Ronaldo despite the fact that his position means he's never going to have stats like him). Kant? means that Chelsea effectively play with 12 - put Fellaini into that when we're a man down and its like Pogba was 1 vs. 3 against Kant? Matic and Kant?. If only we had another defensive midfielder...oh wait, he's at Everton helping them be the best team in the league in 2017 so far.

Also Kostas who's your team? I know nothing about Greek football - Olympiakos' monopoly is such that they're the only Greek team I recall seeing play in Europe in over a decade.
 
Frozocrone said:
City out, Arsenal out, Tottenham left ages ago.

Welp, continue that form and Italy will take the PL's esteemed fourth spot for champion's league.

Leicester and possibly Man Utd to represent England?
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Yeah we gotta hope Juve go out in the next round I guess. Luckily Roma never make it beyond the group stages of the CL.

Leicester are going to win the Champions League. Football writers globally will exhaust every possible Shakespeare-related line in the process. Some things are just inevitable.

Also I really fancy our chances in the EL. Not only do we have Ibra to help us dispatch Rostov, as our opening period against Chelsea showed, if we keep our head we can stand up to Lyon's great (inadvertently boosted through Mourinho's impatience with young players) attack, whilst Sevilla left it too late in dropping out of the CL to defend their title.
 
Amore said:
Yeah we gotta hope Juve go out in the next round I guess. Luckily Roma never make it beyond the group stages of the CL.

Leicester are going to win the Champions League. Football writers globally will exhaust every possible Shakespeare-related line in the process. Some things are just inevitable.

Also I really fancy our chances in the EL. Not only do we have Ibra to help us dispatch Rostov, as our opening period against Chelsea showed, if we keep our head we can stand up to Lyon's great (inadvertently boosted through Mourinho's impatience with young players) attack, whilst Sevilla left it too late in dropping out of the CL to defend their title.
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I think we should focus on Europa League if we want Champion's League next season. I think we've got too many points to catch up and although it's close, the other teams now don't have Europe to think about.
 
Frozocrone said:
I think we should focus on Europa League if we want Champion's League next season. I think we've got too many points to catch up and although it's close, the other teams now don't have Europe to think about.
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Agreed. Especially because in the Europa League teams have to attack us at some point which allows us to go full Mourinho and hit them on the counter. Far too many PL teams have an easy excuse to do the right thing from a tactical point of view and sit back, leaving us to rely entirely on a Mkhitaryan goal of the month to bail us out.
 
Well, pretty bad game but it was enough. Onwards!

So I checked the coefficient...apparently the top four teams from 2018 will get 4 spots.

Sucks, because France are below England and Italy by just over 15 points minimum and having more spots means teams (especially the EPL) generally slack off towards the end.

I also dislike the winter games we have to play, even if Boxing Day football is something of a tradition, it's still something that adds up as to why England is so crap in the Champion's League. The other is obviously not enough star talent.
 
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That rule change in 2018 is going to absolutely ruin the competition. We went from the mid-late-2000s with Uefa fearing English dominance, to the present situation where since 2013 there have basically been only 4 realistic winners (Real, Atletico, Barca and Bayern), and although this season has been more interesting (Even if Leicester aren't gonna be in the tournament again any time soon unless they win it) in 2018 one of the most exciting teams in Europe right now, Monaco, wouldn't even be in the tournament. So soon we're going to have only PSG, Porto and Benfica outside of the top 4 leagues having any chance of making it out of the group stage as everything will be so stratified. Although I'm sure the Italians will love it as Champions League money is the only way any of them will be able to own their own stadiums and compete with Juventus in the next decade.

I'm not sure its entirely the lack of a winter break that hurts English teams, I think a lot of blame can be apportioned to how the Premier League people offer basically no leeway with fixtures for Europe. In the CL at least they get to play on Sundays sometimes, but the likes of Barca would get to play on a Monday part of the time, and if you're in the Europa League that Thursday-Sunday schedule is killer which is why United and Liverpool have only recently taken it seriously with the advent of the "Top 6" and the low likelihood of finishing top four. Paul Pogba pulling a hamstring may well be indicative of the toughness of the schedule - Ronaldo and Messi barely rest but their schedule week to week is a lot better. The winter break is just the icing on the cake for European teams. But the ridiculous Christmas schedule we get instead my be a little bit overkill, as well being incredibly fair to some teams - I think it was Chelsea had only 3 days in-between 3 games whilst one of their opponents in those games had 7?
 
WE ARE FIFTH IN THE LEAGUE, SAY WE ARE FIFTH IN THE LEAGUE.

It's actually nothing home to write about but finally we've moved from sixth. Our destiny for potentially third place is in our hands now.

Yeah, the rule change will ruin the competition. Sick of tired of Uefa and FIFA as a whole. Doesn't help that Premier League teams are worse than other leagues.

I also hate how our fixtures are dictated by TV. Yeah, there's a lot of money but at the expense of fans. Premier League is the best league my arse.
 
Phil Jones made the England squad!

...and he's injured again. It's not even funny any more.

Anyway I'm actually intrigued to maybe even watch England for once - friendlies against Germany always end up being ok games of football, presumably both sides' coaches show their team all the Fleet Street WWII comparisons to rile them up or something. A very different squad from Gareth Southgate as well, for various reasons including injuries and José Mourinho finally managing to get everyone to shut up about Wayne Rooney for an extended period (it was so nice, no doubt it won't last as he'll be going somewhere by the end of the summer).

Also, Bastian Schweinsteiger has gone. Which means our midfield "depth" now consists of Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick (if we play a double pivot), Timothy Fosu-Mensah and the youth teams. Given we'll be playing the terrible schedule that comes from the Premier League powers that be not caring about Europe, its risky to say the least. Also kinda sad it never worked out, I've always liked him.
 
Phil Jones made the England squad!

...and he's injured again. It's not even funny any more.

Anyway I'm actually intrigued to maybe even watch England for once - friendlies against Germany always end up being ok games of football, presumably both sides' coaches show their team all the Fleet Street WWII comparisons to rile them up or something. A very different squad from Gareth Southgate as well, for various reasons including injuries and José Mourinho finally managing to get everyone to shut up about Wayne Rooney for an extended period (it was so nice, no doubt it won't last as he'll be going somewhere by the end of the summer).

Also, Bastian Schweinsteiger has gone. Which means our midfield "depth" now consists of Marouane Fellaini, Michael Carrick (if we play a double pivot), Timothy Fosu-Mensah and the youth teams. Given we'll be playing the terrible schedule that comes from the Premier League powers that be not caring about Europe, its risky to say the least. Also kinda sad it never worked out, I've always liked him.
 
I know this isn't Germany's best (absentees include Boateng, Neuer, Reus, Muller etc) but damn, England look quite good.

I'm especially glad we're playing 3 at the back. Trying new stuff. I always love supporting England, favourite team to support (I don't really have a club I support, just Man Utd this season because I'm predominately based there and they're better than Oil City)

Also, I've given the 4th coefficient points for Champions League place thingy over a bit and I think, due to the extreme closeness of Italy and England...this was primarily done so England could have that fourth spot.

Let English clubs suffer. Let them develop their talent more instead of rewarding mediocrity IMO.
 
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Oh yeah it benefits the English clubs the most, and hurts the French the most, followed by former giants like Ajax, PSV, Anderlecht, Celtic in even lower leagues.

I think it'll be a boon to the Italian clubs in the event that England's sheer managerial star power manages to fend them off in the coefficients by giving them money to help catch up to Juve. Likewise the German clubs trying to catch up to Bayern (I know most German clubs are "solid" financially, but the 50+1 rule means they can't get huge cash influxes to keep up) - as Jos? recently said of Bayern "You know when they started winning the league every year? When, the summer before, they bought Borussia Dortmund's best player!".

I'm in Scotland so I couldn't get the England game sadly. I'm glad we lost to a Podolski belter though, he's great.
 
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