08/09 Champions League Thread

[TheSchnitzel]

Nice european night... Chelsea lost 2 point, Messi came on late and won the game for Barca and the head-to-head-league-match for my fantasy-team with two goals and last but not least Liverpool got another win. They should have scored more, should have kept clean sheats against such a weak opponent, etc. but in the end this doesn't mean as much as 3 points and of course: goal Nr. 1 for Keane (hopefully the first of many to come) and goal Nr. 100 for Gerrard (typical great Gerrard shot - I love these goals).

[Pagal4321]

What a FRANTIC pace in the set of late games today.

17 goals in 35 minutes?

Man U 1 - Celtic 0
Villarreal 2 - AaB 2
Porto 0 - Dynamo Kiev 1
Fenerbahce 1 - Arsenal 3
Bayern Munich 2 - Fiorentina 0
Steaua Bucharest 3 - Lyon 2
Juventus 1 - Real Madrid 0
Zenit St. Petersburg 1 - FC BATE 1 (full time)

All games, minus the Zenit vs. FC BATE, are all ALMOST at halftime.

[Thunderball]

What a crazy group of matches... 36 goals in 8 games!

Juventus really came out big against Real Madrid... half the team is out with injury or played injured, but their core really, really came out to play despite the huge discrepancy in possession.

Ranieri lived to see another day... the big rumor was if Juve lost today, Donadoni, Deschamps (who was in attendance) or Mancini would replace him by friday.

[Locke]

At least Bayern won. I'm rocking the Bayern Jersey on campus today....

[troutman]

Man U's first two goals were clearly off-side.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Pagal4321

What a FRANTIC pace in the set of late games today.

17 goals in 35 minutes?

Man U 1 - Celtic 0
Villarreal 2 - AaB 2
Porto 0 - Dynamo Kiev 1
Fenerbahce 1 - Arsenal 3
Bayern Munich 2 - Fiorentina 0
Steaua Bucharest 3 - Lyon 2
Juventus 1 - Real Madrid 0
Zenit St. Petersburg 1 - FC BATE 1 (full time)

All games, minus the Zenit vs. FC BATE, are all ALMOST at halftime.

Then there is today, 5 goals in the first 33 minutes.

Athletico 0 Liverpool 1
Basel 0 Barcelona 3
Panathinaikos 0 Werder Bremen 1
Everything else 0-0

That's it!

[Bagor]

Spoke to my BIL today who was at Old Trafford on Tuesday cheering on the bhoys. He was sitting in the middle of Man U fans.

He's travelled all over Europe for Celtic games and said that Wednesday night was by far the dullest atmosphere he's ever experienced at a CL game. Too many prawn sandwiches.

[TheSchnitzel]

Originally Posted by Locke

At least Bayern won. I'm rocking the Bayern Jersey on campus today....

Are you serious? Until now I thought of you as a fellow Liverpool-supporter who also doesn't like French stuff but from now on you will always be the Bayern-fan for me Oh, how the mighty have fallen

[Locke]

Originally Posted by TheSchnitzel

Are you serious? Until now I thought of you as a fellow Liverpool-supporter who also doesn't like French stuff but from now on you will always be the Bayern-fan for me Oh, how the mighty have fallen

I'm not really a Bayern fan, actually in the German league I prefer Schalke, but my friend went to Germany and she bought me the jersey and I really like it (Black CL), it fits really well...

And my feelings on most things French exceed the standard of 'dislike' by a wide margin....

[TheSchnitzel]

Mhm, okay, that softens things a bit. As a German I of course also root for Bayern in European cups - as weird as it feels. At least I'll do until they get kicked out by Liverpool this season. But I would sooner walk through my city with a bare chest than wear any Bayern apparel - damn, I would even walk through the Calgary at -20°C I got to know last year half-naked if I only got a Bayern-jersey

Let's see how Pool and Bayern do in the next games. It would be great if they met during the KO-stages. Perhaps I could even get my hands on some tickets to see Liverpool play in Munich. That would be sweeeet.

[Locke]

Liverpool got incredibly lucky, but the ref for that game was terrible, just mistake after mistake after mistake, even the linesmen were screwing up with startling regularity including two very obvious Athletico handballs right in the box.

Brutal, but I'll take the point, I knew Athletico was going to be the toughest team in the group but they're past them now.

On the plus side, Chelsea got hammered 3-1 by Roma.

[TheSchnitzel]

What a strange week of CL and fantasy soccer that was... Bremen losing 0-3 at home (lucky me for having Diego and Pizarro in my pool ), my defenders from Inter screw up 3 times against Famagusta, both me (for having Gerrard on my team) and Liverpool get undeserved points from an incompetent ref and Barca can't get more than a draw against Basel (but Messi brings home the expected points for my team).

On the good side Barca and Bayern qualified for the next stage, Liverpool almost wrapped it up, too - and Chelsea, ManU and Real lost points .

[GirlySports]

Round of 16 Draw



Should be fun!

[Pagal4321]

Please no Barcelona! Please no Barcelona! Please no Barcelona!

EDIT: Whoa, I'm slow today. Looks like the Gunners will face off with Roma. I'm okay with that.

[Thunderball]

Talk about a draw... all the top teams are playing each other and all the weaker teams playing each other. The England v. Italy clashes are sure to fuel the fires on which league is better.

Very balanced though... in my opinion, every draw is a 50/50 there. No sure things with one exception. Barcelona v. Lyon ... my bet is Barca use Lyon like toilet paper.

As a Juve fan, it could have been worse, but only a little. Chelsea is tough, but I'd rather play them than Arsenal who I think are better built to beat a team like Juventus. Chelsea is relatively slow for an English team, Juve is relatively fast for an Italian team, and Sissoko has a reputation of playing his best against the Blues. Player for player its pretty close. Plus, to win the CL, one has to take out big teams, easy draws tend to build overconfidence.

[Locke]

I have full faith that Liverpool can kick Real Madrid's ass out.

[Locke]

Finally the CL Group stage is over and the knockout rounds are upon us again.

Yesterday's Results:

Atletico Madrid vs. FC Porto - 2-2
Lyon vs. Barcelona - 1-1
Arsenal vs. Roma - 1-0
Inter vs. Man U. - 0-0

I watched the Porto/Atletico game and it was great, but to be fair, Porto really should have won, I cant tell you how many chances Lisandro Lopez wasted.

Anyways, no one cares about any of those chumps when the real men are playing today:

Today's Fixtures:

Chelsea vs. Juventus - Probably the only time I'll ever cheer on Juve, but now is the time to watch Chelsea get screwed in the CL after they've flushed their Premiership hopes.

Villareal vs. Panathinaikos - I would imagine that Villa are huge favourites in this one, I fully expect a victory out of them here.

Sporting Lisbon vs. Bayern Munich - This is going to depend on which Bayern shows up to play, they've been struggling of late so Sporting might be able to take advantage.

And now, for the HUGE match:

Liverpool vs. Real Madrid - As much as it pains me to say it, you have to give Real the advantage here. Sneijder and Robben are healthy again and they just came off a 6-1 demolition of Real Betis, Real are flying high.

Liverpool meanwhile may not have Gerrard, its still questionable, but hopefully they will play their hearts out and take it to Real.

COME ON YOU REDS!

[cSpooge]

Originally Posted by Locke

Finally the CL Group stage is over and the knockout rounds are upon us again.

Yesterday's Results:

Atletico Madrid vs. FC Porto - 2-2
Lyon vs. Barcelona - 1-1
Arsenal vs. Roma - 1-0
Inter vs. Man U. - 0-0

I watched the Porto/Atletico game and it was great, but to be fair, Porto really should have won, I cant tell you how many chances Lisandro Lopez wasted.

Anyways, no one cares about any of those chumps when the real men are playing today:

Today's Fixtures:

Chelsea vs. Juventus - Probably the only time I'll ever cheer on Juve, but now is the time to watch Chelsea get screwed in the CL after they've flushed their Premiership hopes.

Villareal vs. Panathinaikos - I would imagine that Villa are huge favourites in this one, I fully expect a victory out of them here.

Sporting Lisbon vs. Bayern Munich - This is going to depend on which Bayern shows up to play, they've been struggling of late so Sporting might be able to take advantage.

And now, for the HUGE match:

Liverpool vs. Real Madrid - As much as it pains me to say it, you have to give Real the advantage here. Sneijder and Robben are healthy again and they just came off a 6-1 demolition of Real Betis, Real are flying high.

Liverpool meanwhile may not have Gerrard, its still questionable, but hopefully they will play their hearts out and take it to Real.

COME ON YOU REDS!

Let's be honest here, we both know Robben will be injured again just because he is too fragile ... it pains me to say as a dutchmen but it's true.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Locke

I watched the Porto/Atletico game and it was great, but to be fair, Porto really should have won, I cant tell you how many chances Lisandro Lopez wasted.

What did you think of Sergio Aguero?

Got a chance to see him a couple of times at the U-20s here in Ottawa a couple of years back and he was just totally in a class of his own.

One to watch for in S. Africa.

[kdogg]

What I hate about the knockout round is the away-goal rule.

It is pretty lame to be knocked out of the competition based if you have equal goals, but less away-goals

IMO
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Sunset Boulevard Residence