Zlatan can’t do it against English clubs part 2,342
Yeah, well about time he did tbh
Good draw for the French sides there imo
Would watch all of those games
Nice draw on the whole and yeah, good draw for Lyon. Bit less so for Marseille but at least it’s not Barca, Madrid or Bayern Munich (the three best teams right now imo).
so
Lyon—Apoel
Napoli—Chelsea
AC Milan—Arsenal
Basel—Bayern Munich
CSKA Moscow—Real Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen—Barcelona
Zenit St Petersburg—Benfica
Marseille—Inter Milan
Who knows what the form/squads of these teams will be come February, but
Lyon, Chelsea, AC, Bayern, Real, Barca, Benfica, Marseille FTWs
Arsenal will beat AC imo
If their one man is fit.
can see the Arsenal and Chelsea ties going either way
Agreed that the Arse can beat Milan
Lyon—Apoel
Napoli—Chelsea
AC Milan—Arsenal
Basel—Bayern Munich
CSKA Moscow—Real Madrid
Bayer Leverkusen—Barcelona
Zenit St Petersburg—Benfica
Marseille—Inter Milan
Lyon, Napoli, Arsenal, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Zenit, Marseille I’d hope for (while remaining realistic, I’d love for Real and Barca to go out, but so not gonna happen)
wait so who is united playing?
Sporting Pécs iirc
Anorthosis Famagusta
Bendtner going down the Jermaine Pennant career route.
Bendtner is such a Stoke player, can see it already.
castlebar town fc
He’ll be playing with a tag on soon enough.
Porto—ManC !
Ajax—ManU !
Hopefully both fall at the first hurdle then
Pretty great draws there!
hoping for Stoke—PSV tbh
I’m assuming Lee Cattermole waited for the car to go past him and then charged in two-footed from behind. And then stamped on it.
United can just pretend its the CL now.
stoke—valencia! beautiful
merde. Stoke—Valencia
Some really great games here though!
psv should be safe as long as they don’t get udinese though
Yeah you’re probably right. Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Stoke should request playing at Tuesday night tbf
Reckon Stoke will beat Valencia actually.
Ajax—ManU !
Woo! Love this competition so much.
they won’t have encountered anything quite like Crouchy etc.
and yeah, great draw for Utd
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
Wouldn’t like to get Trabzonspor tho
:-(
ha
They did win and draw against Inter in the CL group, but I do have to admit I don’t know how strong they really are. I’m not pessimistic about though. If you want to win it you should be able to beat everyone etc :)
Ah, if PSV and Stoke win they meet in the next round
wait so who is united playing?
Heh, I was genuinely wondering this as I scrolled down and saw the likes of Apoel being allocated, quite wrongly, to mid-ranking clubs.
Europa League is great, obv, other than the new British deadwood entering at this stage. But Utd fielding the kids against Ajax, and still winning, is going to be awful.
“Every young, black player who appears at Santos is called Pelé, but people need to know how to differentiate that, because Pelé was a myth. There has not been anyone similar to Pelé nor will there be one. Another Pelé will not be born,” Robinho told Globoesporte. “Each player needs to make their own history. Neymar is already making his very well.”
that only applies to black Pelés tho, surely?
that rough pélé will have slouched towards lancashire to be born
ya obv
oh man english clubs got hit hard. milan! napoli! valencia!
zlatan has already scored 2 against us. i still think we have like a 75% chance but that was the hardest draw out of the hat.
valencia should beat stoke but its stoke, so quality on paper means nothing.
utd will get punked by ajax because playing the kids and owen is stupid.
cavani v. david lolz will be a horror show.
porto are really unfortunate. i can see city taking this v. seriously.
Evra was clearly annoyed by something and it was also reported that when he was shown a yellow card later in the match, he allegedly said to Marriner: “You’re only booking me because I’m black.”
C’mon son
“You’re only booking me because I’m black and you’re blind.”
... esprit d’escalier, Patrice
Kieron Dyer requires a foot operation and is ruled out for the season, having played a grand total of 7 minutes for QPR. Even King and Woodgate have been getting a regular run-out this year.
that’s gotta be it for kieron in the epl
i dunno track record suggests some more clubs will still try and go for him because they are stupid
He’s 32 now, so I doubt that
I wonder how wealthy he is. The thought that’s he’s probably squandered the lot—can’t decide if that makes me feel better or worse.
Bad language at the match, well I never:
Took my son to Underhill last night to watch the FA Youth Cup game against Derby County.
Went to the tea-bar under the main-stand at half-time and a few of the younger first team squad players were in front of us in the queue. My initial thought was that it was a good thing they’d come to support the youngsters, but this was quickly soured by what happened next...
Craig Eastmond was being asked by another player to get him a hot chocolate—his reply loudly—in front of my six-year-old and at least five other youngsters in the vicinity:
“F**k off man, I’ll f**k you up, I’ll kill you, get your own”—whilst the threat is obviously some kind of new tongue in cheek way young lads like Eastmond like to speak with each other, the language was a disgrace and he just shrugged when I said mind your language.
Shortly before we’d got to the front of the queue Frimpong shouted the following to Pat Rice who was walking past “Hey Pat, hey Pat, shouldn’t you be in bed old man!”—I’m not offended by this (neither was Pat who smirked back) BUT is this indicative of a real lack of respect and awareness? The Eastmond case definitely is in my opinion. Frimpong more an issue of discipline which is worrying—I have a feeling from recent seasons (and things I have seen) that this attitude is rife at the club. I can’t bring myself to warm to them and support them because of this.
http://onlinegooner.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=33347
At the barnet game it was jut pure banta between me and Pat but some Busy Guy just decided to make a deal out of it told pat he laughed :)
https://twitter.com/#!/Frimpong26AFC/status/147686143889113088
LOL uptight twat pwned by Frimpers
Bayern-Koln, Ribery sent off, quite ridiculously, after 30 mins
1-Ribery falls theatrically in the box
2-Koln defender angrily gestures for him to get up
3-Ribery aims a weak ass punch at defenders back(doesn’t connect)
4-Goes forehead-to-forehead with defender
5-Ref books both players
6-As they are walking away after receiving their respective yellow cards, Ribery grabs defender by the throat in front of the referee
7-Ribery sent off!
So stupid!
It was 0–0 at the time and Koln were playing an ultra negative 3 CBs with 2 wing-backs pushing up against Robben/Ribery, leaving Podolski v isolated up front. After the sending off they didn’t change and still continued to sit back looking for the draw. 10 man Bayern calmy passed the ball around, dominated possession, and carved them open multiple times in the 2nd half. Ran out easy 3–0 winners (at 2–0 Koln took off Podolski and moved one of the CBs to CF instead!)
Cowardly performance from Koln. I don’t like Podolski, but he’s right, he is too good for them.
Haha, sounds great. I hate that though, the little team getting the upper hand and yet still end up pulverised.
ppl interested in futbol books might enjoy this, put out by a friend and featuring the writings of several other friends and acquaintances:
http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2011/12/16/the-very-best-of-pitch-invasion/
that site is a treat, thanks dan!
dude would tip the scales even with two and a half swps against him
anyone remember the hype around owen coyle? that was stupid huh. (and i admit to being involved in it.)
They’ve got no money, it’s not entirely his fault, they’ve been outspending their means for years.
Big story today though is Woodgate being hauled off after one conceded penalty, one unrelated booking, and fifteen minutes.
They are absolute rubbish though.
Aw what, Stoke are winning now? This is turning into the scenario I was fearing before the Fulham game:
Win and there’s a huge top/bottom split that likely won’t be bridged again this season; lose and there we are in the middle ground, could go either way, season of transition type-of-thing.
Ooh Odemwingie, what a beauty. I knew this was the game with most potential.
Shit.
woodgate should have walked with two yellows and a penalty conceded in the 1st half last week iirc
been shopping, been having a bad day, got a text from Elliot telling me were only 1–0 up but played pretty well first half, got home, checked score.
My feed reckoned Kean was on a four-point ultimatum from today and the Bolton game on Tuesday. If he does go, inevitably the ‘post-Kean bounce’ game is v Liverpool on Boxing Day.
with the ‘post-Kean lull’ game even more inevitably at Old Trafford a few days later
Cheer up lads, Utd could be back in the Champions League before you know it
You better not be, that’s all I’m saying. That’d be the most dispiriting thing ever.
Yeah, even i don’t want it to happen
What what what?
Manchester United could in theory be reinstated to the Champions League after Fifa threatened to suspend Switzerland over the case involving Sion.
The Swiss FA has been given a deadline of 13 January to follow Fifa’s instructions on the registration ban imposed on Sion or face a suspension which would also result in Basel being expelled from the Champions League. That could potentially see Sir Alex Ferguson’s side back in the competition while another option could be that Bayern Munich, Basel’s last-16 opponents, are given a bye.
“Should this deadline not be respected, the Swiss FA will be automatically suspended from 14 January 2012 onwards,” the statement said.
If suspended, Switzerland – due to host Argentina in a friendly in February – would not be able to play any international matches. Euro 2012 would not be affected, however, as Switzerland did not qualify for the finals.
The warning follows a complex legal battle in which Sion defied Fifa and Uefa statutes by taking its case over a transfer ban to a civil court.
The case began when Sion signed six players in the summer while still subject to the transfer ban for poaching a player from an Egyptian club in 2008. The six players took their case to a civil court in the canton of Valais, which ruled they could play. Sion subsequently fielded them in the Swiss league.
Some of the players appeared in a Europa League qualifying tie against Celtic. Sion won the tie but were then expelled from the competition by Uefa who ruled the players were ineligible. Sion then obtained an injunction at another court in the canton of Vaud, where Uefa’s headquarters are based, ordering European soccer’s governing body to reinstate them to the competition.
However, this injunction referred the matter to the court of arbitration for sport which on Thursday ruled in favour of Uefa. In the meantime, the injunction obtained by the players in Valais canton was also overturned by a higher court.
Fifa now wants the Swiss League to award 3–0 defeats against Sion in every domestic match in which any of the six players were fielded. “The executive committee decided to give a final deadline of 13 January to the Swiss FA to enforce the registration ban imposed on Sion … and to sanction the attitude of the club repeatedly trying to circumvent this decision in a legally abusive manner,” said Fifa.
“As a consequence, all matches in which the relevant players participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted respectively.”
shame abt billy sharp’s kid. never like to see that happen.
uefa are pissed that swiss fa hasn’t done anything to punish fc sion for rule breaking, may take it out on fc basel. i’m sure they’ll find a comprimise by the end of the year.
It’s the fallout from the Sion thing. They were tossed from the Uefa cup for fielding ineligible players, but won a court order in switzerland and continued to field them domestically. Fifa are now threatening to suspend Switzerland, I think for the heinous crime of letting the actual courts rule on football, unless Sion are retrospectively deducted all points from those games. If that happens, Basel get dumped out the CL.
Utd-Bayern does have significant lol potential right enough.
That would be embarrassing, tbh, but I can’t see it happening.
Wigan seem fairly tidy, but in the same way that you might see an eight-year-old doing his karate moves really well. Sooner or later Chelsea will go in for a shoulder charge, or kick the ball really hard, and they will just crumple.
maybe put Celtic into the Champions League, have them win it through a series of losses reversed by administrative peculiarities.
ffs that couldn’t be a clearer penalty
wigan-chelsea has been strangely engrossing.
JT’s in a bit of trouble here
Ebjt injures himself kicking someone else in the kidneys.
Not quite so much trouble, then, the big girl.
recovered from a knackered acl in three minutes as opposed to the usual six months, talk about bravery.
Cech pretty much cleaned him out there, surely?
No, was actually a great tackle from Cech.
Heh xp, JT actually did get the full bravery acclaim from the commentator (“it takes a lot to knock JT off his stride”) as if he hadn’t been blubbing about nothing two minutes previously.
Well well
Ho ho ho!
lol cech
FFS
ref bottled it
Not sure what to make of that last shout—it was like them both tackling a patch of air that the ball never arrived at.
it was a clear foul outside the box but the ref bottled it incase he had to show a red
Fucking hell, every single youtube link in that Guardian poll of the greatest ever Premier League goals has been taken down due to a copyright claim from the Premier League. The horrible fuckers
They’re all shite anyway.
Except Bergkamp’s. Not a single team goal there either. Which is a shame, because it rules out goals like Liverpool’s 3rd at Wolves last season, which is obviously the greatest goal of all time. Pfffff.