UCL 2013/14 - Champions League Thread

Tuesday 5th November 2013

UEFA Champions League - Group A

Real Sociedad 0-0 Man Utd
Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

UEFA Champions League - Group B

FC Copenhagen 1-0 Galatasaray
Juventus 2-2 Real Madrid

UEFA Champions League - Group C

Olympiakos 1-0 Benfica
Paris Saint Germain 1-1 RSC Anderlecht

UEFA Champions League - Group D

Man City 5-2 CSKA Moscow
Viktoria Plzen 0-1 Bayern Munich

* * *

A strange game at Real Sociedad, which could have been won by either side although Man U probably played better and should have won it.

Juve & Real was a cracking game with Gareth Bale scoring his first UCL goal and Ronaldo getting his million'th or something. :lol:

Man C showed two things in tonight's game. Fristly, how good they are when they attack especially Aguero who was everywhere and scored two. Secondly, how they really need to concentrate in defence when they dominate a game. No Kompany playing again may explain things a bit, but all other UCL teams will always fancy scoring against them if they play defence like that again. (A bit like Arsenal now.)

:smile:
 
Ronaldo getting his million'th or something. :lol:

I don't know how many career UCL goals he has, but I heard it was his eighth of the season. On that note, he has an outside chance of reaching the record for the number of goals scored during a calendar year. He'd have to average two goals/match until the end of the year.
 
I'm going to paint myself in a corner here and say I really appreciate what Rafa did with the team last season. He had a group of players he did not choose, so just looked on how to use them most effectively. He played his best backs, rotated out his effective midfield, and tried to get his useless strikers to score occasionally. Good things happened.

Mourinho only needed to stay with the winning formula, sign an effective striker (and no, I am NOT talking about Mr. Potatohead) and get on with it. Any new players would have to earn their way on to the pitch. The Mata, Oscar, Hazard triumphant would have put Basle to bed and we would be is better position in both the EPL and CL. Now we are, as JC said, just shit.
He should sign Lukaku, no wait. ...
 
I don't know how many career UCL goals he has, but I heard it was his eighth of the season. On that note, he has an outside chance of reaching the record for the number of goals scored during a calendar year. He'd have to average two goals/match until the end of the year.

Even for Ronaldo, averaging 2 goals a game for two months is asking a bit much :)
 
Wednesday 6th November 2013

UEFA Champions League - Group E

Basel 1-1 Steaua Bucharest
Chelsea 3-0 FC Schalke 04

UEFA Champions League - Group F

Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Arsenal
Napoli 3-2 Marseille

UEFA Champions League - Group G

Zenit St Petersburg 1-1 FC Porto
Atl?tico Madrid 4-0 FK Austria Vienna

UEFA Champions League - Group H

Ajax 1-0 Celtic
Barcelona 3-1 Milan

A good recovery result for Arsenal, making the tie with Dortmund even at one away win each. Now that didn't look likely after last time.

I don't know how many career UCL goals he has, but I heard it was his eighth of the season. On that note, he has an outside chance of reaching the record for the number of goals scored during a calendar year. He'd have to average two goals/match until the end of the year.

I like him to return to Man U or the EPL at least, he was a real character.

He should sign Lukaku, no wait. ...

He's not been quite so good this year, so far. Torres on the other had has been playing well and scoring too.

:smile:
 
Weird thing is, Torres has always done better in European play than EPL while with Chelsea. Something like 50% scoring in European appearances while only 20% in the Premiership. I would love to believe he has turned the corner and will be more productive as a striker this season, but so far it is just talking points. Talk to me after Boxing Day.
 
Even for Ronaldo, averaging 2 goals a game for two months is asking a bit much :)

Ronaldo supporters keep wishing he can even compare to Messi ;)
 
Bad news for Borussia Dortmund: Not only will Subotic miss the rest of the season due to the cruciate ligament rupture he got in the last Bundesliga match - Hummels is out till January and Schmelzer for about three weeks. Both got harmed in that stupid international match in England yesterday (while L?w gave most of the Bayern players some days off to relax in preparation for the next Bundesliga match, see below).
This basically means that their whole first defense (Pisczek still out, too) is out of order for the crucial last two Champions League group stage matches against Napoli and Marseille that Dortmund both must win.

This Saturday, Bayern will visit them in Bundesliga, and I fear they will utterly humiliate Dortmund.
 
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Tuesday 26th November 2013


UEFA Champions League - Group E
Basel 1-0 Chelsea
Steaua Bucharest 0-0 FC Schalke 04

UEFA Champions League - Group F
Arsenal 2-0 Marseille
Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Napoli

UEFA Champions League - Group G
Zenit St Petersburg 1-1 Atl?tico Madrid
FC Porto 1-1 FK Austria Vienna

UEFA Champions League - Group H
Ajax 2-1 Barcelona
Celtic 0-3 Milan

* * *

Chelsea played not so well, but qualify anyway! (Well done Basel.)
The Arsenal game was pretty poor too, but the Gunners got the job done with the win. A messy end to the group next time with anything possible, except Marseille qualifying.

Dortmund win, Dan happy! :happy:
They played well too and looked good.

Porto did not need a draw, but Wien scored a goal! :lol:
Zenit looking like favourites to qualify 2nd behind Atl?tico.

Already qualified Barca maybe weren't concentrating, Ajax got a win which gives them a winner-take-all "playoff" against AC Milan next game.
Celtic don't even qualify for Europa League, a bit sad for the 1967 Champions.

Bad news for Borussia Dortmund: Not only will Subotic miss the rest of the season due to the cruciate ligament rupture he got in the last Bundesliga match - Hummels is out till January and Schmelzer for about three weeks. Both got harmed in that stupid international match in England yesterday (while L?w gave most of the Bayern players some days off to relax in preparation for the next Bundesliga match, see below).
This basically means that their whole first defense (Pisczek still out, too) is out of order for the crucial last two Champions League group stage matches against Napoli and Marseille that Dortmund both must win.

This Saturday, Bayern will visit them in Bundesliga, and I fear they will utterly humiliate Dortmund.

The TV guys mentioned Dortmund and the loss on saturday, unfortunately your prediction was correct. :sad:
 
Dortmund win, Dan happy! :happy:
They played well too and looked good.
Indeed I am. :D It was a good game, with all the usual traits. At the gathering where I watched, the people were so tense, hardly anyone cheered when Reus converted that penalty.
I was seriously impressed by the improvised defense, even though Napoli didn't have their best day. Sven Bender getting his nose broken (again) after less than 20 minutes, but doesn't care... and reportedly they fetched some spare jerseys for him from the merchandise shop because of all the blood. :D

Now the final match day in that group has epic potential. Arsenal needs at least a draw to win the group, Dortmund must get at least as many points as Napoli to achieve second place and can still come first if both Napoli and them win, and Napoli has to hope for Marseille not being useless or alternatively beat Arsenal with three goals.
If Marseille didn't play Dortmund in the last match, I'd root for them out of pity...

The TV guys mentioned Dortmund and the loss on saturday, unfortunately your prediction was correct. :sad:
(Un-) Fortunately, I couldn't watch that match, but pretty much every article on it says Borussia was much better than expected, and the win for Bayern was higher than deserved. And that the problem was not the defense, but once again the poor using of their own opportunities to score.
 
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Wednesday 27th November 2013

UEFA Champions League - Group A

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0-5 Man Utd
Shakhtar Donetsk 4-0 Real Sociedad

UEFA Champions League - Group B

Juventus 3-1 FC Copenhagen
Real Madrid 4-1 Galatasaray

UEFA Champions League - Group C

Paris Saint Germain 2-1 Olympiakos
RSC Anderlecht 2-3 Benfica

UEFA Champions League - Group D

CSKA Moscow 1-3 Bayern Munich
Man City 4-2 Viktoria Plzen

Man U and PSG qualify for R16, along with the previously qualifed teams (e.g. Bayern Munich).

:smile:
 
Galatasaray - Juventus abandoned due to snow, will apparently be played tomorrow. It really didn't look that bad to me, but there you go :)
 
Tuesday 10th December 2013

UEFA Champions League - Group A

Man Utd 1-0 Shakhtar Donetsk
Real Sociedad 0-1 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

UEFA Champions League - Group B

FC Copenhagen 0-2 Real Madrid
Galatasaray v Juventus - Match Abandoned due to Snow

UEFA Champions League - Group C

Benfica 2-1 Paris Saint Germain
Olympiakos 3-1 RSC Anderlecht

UEFA Champions League - Group D

Bayern Munich 2-3 Man City
Viktoria Plzen 2-1 CSKA Moscow

Not a great first half for Man U, with Donetsk having a couple of good chances.
Better second half, with a goal from Jones to decide the game. A good win without being totally convincing and top of their Group. You can't ask more than that really

An away win for Man C at Bayern Munich! Two nil down and came back to win is not bad, even though neither team needed to win and City were always unlikey to score enough to win the Group on GD. (Ironic for them really.)

Galatasaray - Juventus abandoned due to snow, will apparently be played tomorrow. It really didn't look that bad to me, but there you go :)

Hmm, yes. Does that area get snow much in winter, I wonder.
The TV guys were really astonished, well Adrian Chilles was anyway.

:smile:
 
Yeah, hail then snow.

Officials apparently worried about player safety, etc., even after the pitch white lines were uncovered.

Match continues tomorrow at 14:00 Local, with 58 minutes to play.

(Temp was 20C the previous day, so is claimed.)
 
Juventus will struggle a bit. They expected to go back to italy after the game, but since it got postponed til today, they had to sleep at the hotel again. Except the hotel they were at was fully booked, so they had to find a new one. Which turned out to be a bit difficult to get to because of the massive traffic chaos. Guess they don't change to winter tires in Istanbul:p
 
Wednesday 11th December 2013

UEFA Champions League - Group B

Galatasaray 1-0 Juventus

UEFA Champions League - Group E

Chelsea 1-0 Steaua Bucharest
FC Schalke 04 2-0 Basel

UEFA Champions League - Group F

Marseille 1-2 Borussia Dortmund
Napoli 2-0 Arsenal

UEFA Champions League - Group G

Atl?tico Madrid 2-0 FC Porto
FK Austria Vienna 4-1 Zenit St Petersburg

UEFA Champions League - Group H

Barcelona 6-1 Celtic
Milan 0-0 Ajax

* * *

Group Winners:
Spain: 3 = Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barca
Germany: 2= Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund
England: 2 = Man U, Chelsea
Other = PSG

Maddest Group = Group F
THREE teams ended up with 12 points, which were Dortmund & Arsenal, who stay in the UCL for R16 and Napoli who were in third place and will get a Europa League place.

:smile:
 
Maddest Group = Group F
THREE teams ended up with 12 points, which were Dortmund & Arsenal, who stay in the UCL for R16 and Napoli who were in third place and will get a Europa League place.
Indeed. Napoli didn't make it to the next round with twice the points Zenith St. Petersburg made...

Today's match was typical Dortmund style. Olympique were utterly outplayed for most of the time, and yet Borussia managed to miss ridiculously good opportunities to score. The worst shot on the goal ended up in it, then, with only three minutes (plus four) to go... phew. I'm glad for Schieber and Gro?kreutz for that goal. :)
But even better than the goals was the yellow-red for Marseille's payet - for a dive! Somebody got actually booked for a dive as written in the rules, and only one minute after his first yellow to boot! That was so epic. :D
But all in all, the referee was not really up to speed. Marseille's goal was offside, and perhaps am offensive foul directly before. Lewandowski should have gotten a penalty shortly before the end, too.

Speaking of blind referees: Schalke's second goal. Only about half their team was offside... :rolleyes:
 
Indeed. Napoli didn't make it to the next round with twice the points Zenith St. Petersburg made...

Today's match was typical Dortmund style. Olympique were utterly outplayed for most of the time, and yet Borussia managed to miss ridiculously good opportunities to score. The worst shot on the goal ended up in it, then, with only three minutes (plus four) to go... phew. I'm glad for Schieber and Gro?kreutz for that goal. :)
But even better than the goals was the yellow-red for Marseille's payet - for a dive! Somebody got actually booked for a dive as written in the rules, and only one minute after his first yellow to boot! That was so epic. :D
But all in all, the referee was not really up to speed. Marseille's goal was offside, and perhaps am offensive foul directly before. Lewandowski should have gotten a penalty shortly before the end, too.

So Dan = :happy: :mouse:

Also, Jay for Chelsea, plus MWF & Tobias for ManU, also Whappeh & all the Gunners for the Arsenal.

(Any Bayern Munchen or Man C fans on FG? They deserve a "well done! too.)

Anway, Marseille ended up with ZERO points from the Group stage. Easily the worst, don't worry about them. Next game is all that matters.

PS Arsenal messed up a bit by not winning or getting a draw, then topping the Group. That could cost them in the R16.

Speaking of blind referees: Schalke's second goal. Only about half their team was offside... :rolleyes:

:lol:
 
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