Posted July 1, 20178 yr So this started last Tuesday 27/6/17 Linfield 1 Fiorita 0 :lol: Only beat the San Marino champions with a last minute winner!
July 2, 20178 yr http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nwD_pfmGEVw/U2SxxUkNGLI/AAAAAAAAB3c/z1l1pg1ZXTA/s1600/gun__1381310671_uefa_champions_league.jpg Odds: [William Hill] Barcelona 5-1jf Real Madrid 5-1jf Bayern Munich 11-2 Juventus 10-1 Man City 10-1 Chelsea 14-1 Man Utd 14-1 Atletico Madrid 16-1 PSG 16-1 Borussia Dortmund 20-1 Liverpool 20-1 Tottenham 20-1 Monaco 40-1 RB Leipzig 40-1 Sevilla 40-1 Roma 50-1 Porto 66-1 Napoli 66-1 Hoffenheim 66-1
July 3, 20178 yr I will not be surprised if Real Madrid win this again for the 3rd time in a row. I just hope Man United can go quite far into the tournament, Quarter Final and beyond would be decent.
July 12, 20178 yr Author 1-1 in the Dundalk Rosenberg game - big return in Norway next week! Celtic Linfield on Friday now - gwan the Celts!!
July 14, 20178 yr Champions League third qualifying round draw Slavia Praha (Czech Republic) v BATE Borisov (Belarus) or Alashkert (Armenia) Spartaks Jurmala (Latvia) or Astana (Kazakhstan) v Mariehamn (Finland) or Legia Warszawa (Poland) Zrinjski (Bosnia-Herzegovina) or Maribor (Slovenia) v Hafnarfjördur (Iceland) or Víkingur (Faroe Islands) Zilina (Slovakia) or Copenhagen (Denmark) v Malmo (Sweden) or Vardar (Macedonia) Linfield (N Ireland) or Celtic (Scotland) v Dundalk (Ireland) or Rosenborg (Norway) Hapoel Beer-Sheva (Israel) or Honved (Hungary) v Zalgiris Vilnius (Lithuania) or Ludogorets (Bulgaria) Viitorul (Romania) v APOEL (Cyprus) or Dudelange (Luxembourg) Hibernians (Malta) or Salzburg (Austria) v Rijeka (Croatia) or The New Saints (Wales) Qarabag (Azerbaijan) or Samtredia (Georgia) v Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) or Kukesi (Albania) Partizan (Serbia) or Buducnost Podgorica (MNE) v Olympiacos (Greece) Steau Bucaresti (Romania) v Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic) Nice (France) v Ajax (Netherlands) Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) v Young Boys (Switzerland) AEK Athens (Greece) v CSKA Moskva (Russia) Club Brugge (Belgium) v Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkey)
July 15, 20178 yr Author Nice vs Ajax is a tasty clash! And a great incentive for Dundalk in Norway next week!
July 16, 20178 yr Real Madrid winning every year and the semi final line up always being the same, calls for a huge shake up in format. Man United will either go out in the quarters or go out in the group stage, drop into the EL and win it again like last season. They had a piss easy run to the trophy, not one team they played was in the top 30 of the UEFA club ranking.
July 16, 20178 yr Well you can only beat what's in front of you. It'll likely be a similar situation with Arsenal this season unless we have some big shocks in the CL group stages. And this is nothing new in the CL, in the mid to late noughties it was the English teams dominating, pretty much the same Semi line-up for 3 or 4 years in a row. It's all cyclical, Real Madrid won't be at the top for much longer.
July 16, 20178 yr Author I agree it's not just cyclical it's money rising to the top 8-12 super clubs and staying there so they dominate - give it take the last 8 of the champions league is always the same and it'll get worse. The fact Celtic have to play 6 games to get a group placing shows everything that's wrong with UEFA at the moment!
July 17, 20178 yr Man United's Europa League win was not as easy as it looked. In the semi final we were one kick away from getting knocked out when Celta Vigo's striker (I cant remember his name) missed a tap in with the last kick of the match. When it came to the final I think we wanted it more than Ajax and we controlled the whole match but that doesn't take away how good Ajax are as a side.
July 17, 20178 yr No offence or anything, but it makes me laugh United fans take pride in winning a trophy they mocked Liverpool for celebrating back in 2001. They even made a banner featuring Mickey Mouse with "Real McCoy May 1999, Barcelona". This big 8-12 Super Club elite group, is everything that is wrong with money in football right now. So Celtic have to play 6 qualifying matches against three different teams to actually get to the group stage now?. Ajax may have got to the final, but haven't got out of UCL group stages for a while now. Also, Dutch football is not quite the force it once was. Edited July 17, 20178 yr by LadyLea
July 17, 20178 yr Author Agreed, Dundalk beat AZ Alkmaar last season in the Europa league. As for united they didn't have to play one team in UEFAs top 30 to get to the final so we're lucky enough to win it in comparison to Liverpool who were paired with United/Villarreal/Dortmund/Sevilla the season before. But fair play a trophy is a trophy and personally I've always been fond of the UEFA cup!
July 17, 20178 yr Seem to have lost sight of how poor the Scottish league actually is. Celtic have to go through so many qualifiers because they're a blue whale playing in a goldfish bowl. They aren't even that good either, they're flattered by having no actual competition in their league.
July 17, 20178 yr As for united they didn't have to play one team in UEFAs top 30 to get to the final so we're lucky enough to win it in comparison to Liverpool who were paired with United/Villarreal/Dortmund/Sevilla the season before. But fair play a trophy is a trophy and personally I've always been fond of the UEFA cup! Liverpool fans and assorted ABUs keep saying this as if United had any sort of control over this?! Like what did you expect us to do? Go on strike because the team in the quarters wasn't ranked as high as Villarreal are or because they're only a top 100 side instead of a top 30 side? We can only play who we're drawn against from the pool of clubs that make up that years Europa League. Doesn't make our win any less worthy than someone elses. Don't get the obsession with bringing up that we had an 'easier' run in. It's still a tough trophy to actually win because you play Thursdays so it f***s your domestic campaign, plus you end up playing in places outside the 'big' leagues where the facilities aren't great and you have to consider how shit the pitch is into your estimation of how good the opponent is. They're used to the shit surface, a big-5 league side is used to perfectly manicured grass. While a good team in theory should be able to play any surface, as an athlete a shit pitch will throw off your mental game because the ball won't do what you expect it to or are used to it doing so it'll impact your game. I can't remember 'pools pre-knockout run but I'd be surprised if there wasn't one ropey away leg in there. United had trips to seriously sketchy pitches in Russia and Ukraine in December. Luhansk could have been 1 or 10001 on the UEFA rankings, playing on a truly horrific surface in Ukraine in December is a tough draw.
July 17, 20177 yr Seem to have lost sight of how poor the Scottish league actually is. Celtic have to go through so many qualifiers because they're a blue whale playing in a goldfish bowl. They aren't even that good either, they're flattered by having no actual competition in their league. Exactly. The Scottish Premiership is League One standard at best...
July 17, 20177 yr Author Liverpool fans and assorted ABUs keep saying this as if United had any sort of control over this?! Like what did you expect us to do? Go on strike because the team in the quarters wasn't ranked as high as Villarreal are or because they're only a top 100 side instead of a top 30 side? We can only play who we're drawn against from the pool of clubs that make up that years Europa League. Doesn't make our win any less worthy than someone elses. Don't get the obsession with bringing up that we had an 'easier' run in. It's still a tough trophy to actually win because you play Thursdays so it f***s your domestic campaign, plus you end up playing in places outside the 'big' leagues where the facilities aren't great and you have to consider how shit the pitch is into your estimation of how good the opponent is. They're used to the shit surface, a big-5 league side is used to perfectly manicured grass. While a good team in theory should be able to play any surface, as an athlete a shit pitch will throw off your mental game because the ball won't do what you expect it to or are used to it doing so it'll impact your game. I can't remember 'pools pre-knockout run but I'd be surprised if there wasn't one ropey away leg in there. United had trips to seriously sketchy pitches in Russia and Ukraine in December. Luhansk could have been 1 or 10001 on the UEFA rankings, playing on a truly horrific surface in Ukraine in December is a tough draw. I'm not taking anything away from united or saying they didn't deserve to win it just pointing out how the opposition is an important factor clearly. As for Celtic and the Scottish league - Celtic are former European champions - the reason why the league is of declining standard is because so much resources end up getting sucked up to a very few wealthy clubs and it's bad for the game imo.
July 17, 20177 yr Stupid that Leigh Griffiths has been charged by UEFA over putting an Celtic scarf on the goalpost during the first leg against Linfield.
August 2, 20177 yr Author Not many shocks in the third round - Dynamo Kiev beaten by Young Boys & Ajax out against Nice!
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