Champions League Thread (the dawn of time - 2014)

[Epic]

Even for him this is an all time low, at Inter he used to make an arse out of himself after the group stages, here things are a little different.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I'd give everyone a nice rest tonight - we've won the group regardless of what happens tonight, haven't we? Rest all the big guns for Sunday, I say.

 

[Epic]

BREAKING NEWS: UEFA are set to question the FC Nordsj?lland defence over alleged match-fixing, as Fernando Torres scores twice in one game.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

BREAKING NEWS: UEFA are set to question the FC Nordsj?lland defence over alleged match-fixing, as Fernando Torres scores twice in one game.

Load of rubbish from us tonight, but it didn't mean anything. Still, the defence as a unit is a concern. Jones was good.

 

[barmyarmy]

Chelsea winning and going out barely rating a mention up here after Celtic making it through to the last 16. Very impressive from a group with Barca, Benfica and Spartak.
I get a bit annoyed listening to Chelsea fans whinge about how unlucky they were drawing with Juve from 2-0 up. They don't mention that they fluked a home win against Donetsk with a last minute goal.

Incidentally why are Chelsea out? They were talking about head-to-head on the radio but they beat Donetsk at home and lost to them away. Is it some away goals thing? Seems to me that if both teams won one and lost one it ought to be about overall goal difference.

Edit: to answer my own question.

7.06 If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches,
the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending
order):
a) higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the
teams in question;
b) superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams
in question;
c) higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the
teams in question;
d) higher number of goals scored away from home in the group matches
played among the teams in question;
e) if, after having applied criteria a) to d), two teams still have an equal
ranking, criteria a) to d) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between
the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this
procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria f) to h) apply;
f) superior goal difference from all group matches played;
g) higher number of goals scored from all group matches played;
h) higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question,
as well as its association, over the previous five seasons (see
paragraph 9.02).

Basically works like the knockout stage I guess with away goals.

 

[shravi]

German football is in a very good state at the moment. All three German teams have finished first in their groups. Meanwhile, out of the four English teams, one finished first, one finished second, one finished third, and one finished fourth. The team that finished third are defending champions and the team that finished last are champions of England.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm quite happy with celtic going through (not a fan of theirs normally) but some of their fans are in denial.

getting a lot of "haha chelsea and man city are out and celtic are through, shows you money can't buy you everything." style comments.

when in scotland celtic, along with rangers, have enjoyed a massive financial advantage on everyone one and have been buying the league title for decades.

 

[Epic]

Load of rubbish from us tonight, but it didn't mean anything. Still, the defence as a unit is a concern. Jones was good.

Yeah, big deal, your youth team lost a meaningless game, time to move on to the important stuff.

 

[spooony]

Celtic dived their way into the next round just like Chelsea did last year

----------

I'm quite happy with celtic going through (not a fan of theirs normally) but some of their fans are in denial.

getting a lot of "haha chelsea and man city are out and celtic are through, shows you money can't buy you everything." style comments.

when in scotland celtic, along with rangers, have enjoyed a massive financial advantage on everyone one and have been buying the league title for decades.

and Rangers with their massive financial advantage is playing in the Scottish devision 3 cause the went into administration.

 

[War]

Gary Hooper for England!

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

and Rangers with their massive financial advantage is playing in the Scottish devision 3 cause the went into administration.

yeah, and they're still a stronger position than most after going into administration. they signed a few premier league players before their transfer ban came into effect.

the nicest thing though is that the rangers biased media that spent the pre-season going on about how the SPL lacking rangers would damage celtic's european performance (on account of celtic not having high quality opposition to keep sharp against) have been shut up. Actually they also said the SPL would be boring which has proved untrue as well.

and yeah, surely gary hooper must be in with a shout at the england squad, closest thing to an all round goal scorer they have.

 

[barmyarmy]

To be fair it's damaged Celtic's SPL performance which is arguably the reason why it's so exciting this season.
I don't know if anyone reads the Rangers Tax Case blog but it won the Orwell Prize earlier this year.

 

[Haarithan]

Carra wants Champions League changes - Liverpool FC

Quite an outstanding suggestion imho

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

it's a strange thing to ask for and one I doubt platini or the big teams will go for.

mini leagues are designed to give strong teams the maximum chance of going through, making barcelona/real madrid/man u etc play a knock out at the very beginning of their campaign for champions league qualification is more likely to produce upsets than consistent results.

 

[Auwais]

The big clubs wouldn't want to danger their current hold on a lot of the TV revenue.