Year Round The Football/Soccer Thread v2

[Teubier]

And french teams have been so lucky. If things keep this way, they are going to get much more points than us, and maintain their 5º position on the rank, that allows them to have 3 teams (in the max) to be able to reach the groups phase of the CL.

I think this is much likely stupid ... but things always seem to go well for France and not for the Portuguese's teams.
Platini .... you bastard

Oh... lucky, lucky... I wouldn't be too surprised if the Olympique Lyonnais was to lose against the Apoel Nicosie. Even if the O.L. is nowadays more used to the C.L. than any other french team, they still tend to waste their football against so-called weaker teams. They'll have to prove themselves unrelenting to beat the A.N. and that's not a quality they have shown that often since this season's start.
It was a miracle for both the O.L. and the O.M. to reach this round, and I truly doubt that they could repeat that performance to reach the quarter-finals, knowing the misery of French football.
Within the C.L. and the E.L., Portugal still have 4 teams involved and they can all hope to reach the quarter-finals imo. I believe that there is no need to feel tricked .

 

[jorped]

You really underestimate teams.... This is knockout stages, against a hungry german team. This isn't going to be boring, trust me. Napoli is playing better football than Chelsea is at the moment, and a as a certain someone said, they have heart and passion

Yeah. Napoli might defeat Chelsea, but i still think Chelsea is going to be the one to pass to the next phase. But i don't really see Barca loosing at all against Leverkusen.

 

[goldb]

Why did we have to draw Milan, why not APOEL?! I'm hoping for a repeat of 2008; come on you Gunners!!

 

[jorped]

This place has been dead .... it was a good year. The Premier League is the only one apart "Liga ZON Sagres"

Spoiler

Portuguese League

that i watch ... since it's basically the best of all. It has been interesting so far. Arsenal start really bad, but they are finding their way to the good results, and one man needs to be praised, and it is Robin Van Persie.
Thierry Henry is going to play for Arsenal for at least a couple of months, so let's see if he and Persie make an awesome "duo". The only obstacle might be Henry age.

Chelsea needs to hire some young and talented players. They have a lot of old ones, and a change is a must. I actually would like to see some of my team's players there, but only on the end of the season.

The Spurs are doing an amazing performance till now, thought their performance on Europe League was really a shame. But lets hope that they manage to fight against the "Manchesters" for the first place.

Manchester City is the next adversary of my team on the Europe League. And though i think we are favorite, basically because Porto's has a lot more history and we won this trophy last year ... they are definitely the strongest team that we could face at this phase ... manly because Manchester United imo has been really weaker than expected, though on the Premier League they have been sometimes lucky for that to don't be as noticeable as i think it is.

At 7th a classic is going to happen here in Portugal, more exactly in Lisbon, where Porto is going to visit Sporting. If we win ... it will be really important, since Sporting would be 9 points away from us, and we would still be side by side with Benfica, presuming that Benfica will win their game.

 

[goldb]

Porto favourites against Man City? I admit they're strong and have a chance to win but I dunno if I'd consider them favourites over City.

And Arsenal lost again!! they had such a good chance to take advantage of everyone's defeats but wasted it against Fulham. They appeared to be so fatigued and exhausted throughout the second half, btu I think Fulham deserved at least a draw, if not the 3 points as they played better and showed more desire to win.

Man City vs Liverpool tomorrow; should be an entertaining match, I'm going for a draw though as I think City are starting to tire(seeing their last few results), I'm hoping they prove me wrong and show some bouncebackability

 

[kakashi919]

*sigh* Why are people underestimating Liverpool? Everyone thinks this is gonna be an easy win for City... Last time I checked City haven't beaten us for almost a year now. They will never defeat us!

Arsenal threw away another game huh? Well, we will just take advantage of that loss and frog leap Arsenal

 

[goldb]

*sigh* Why are people underestimating Liverpool? Everyone thinks this is gonna be an easy win for City... Last time I checked City haven't beaten us for almost a year now. They will never defeat us!

Arsenal threw away another game huh? Well, we will just take advantage of that loss and frog leap Arsenal

I'm not underestimating them, they are a solid team with good players and stand a genuine chance to win the match; but have you SEEN Man City's starting line-up?

If Liverpool win today, they will go above us! Damn Arsenal!

 

[kakashi919]

I'm not underestimating them, they are a solid team with good players and stand a genuine chance to win the match; but have you SEEN Man City's starting line-up?

If Liverpool win today, they will go above us! Damn Arsenal!

With the exception of Aguero, it's the same team we beat 3-1 last season and it's the same team we should have beaten last month. It's true that City are definitely not the same team,in terms of team chemistry, but Liverpool are very dangerous right now. More so because we finally got a win after all those draws.

Don't worry though... Arsenal can still make it to Champions League football if they don't crumble

 

[goldb]

Don't worry though... Arsenal can still make it to Champions League football if they don't crumble

Dude, Arsenal always do the same shit after the new year; lots of draws and odd wins. Can't string together a long enough run to get some consistency going.

 

[kakashi919]

This season was different though... they had a horrible start. I'm sure with Henry coming back though, they will have better team morale and win most of their games.

 

[jorped]

Porto favourites against Man City? I admit they're strong and have a chance to win but I dunno if I'd consider them favourites over City.

My opinion wasn't based on the strength's of each team, but yes on the fact that Porto has really a lot more history than Manchester City. It's obvious that they have a lot of awesome players, like David Silva,Aguero,Nasri .... but Porto also has Hulk,James,Moutinho,Fernando and we were the previous winners of this competition. The champions might have went badly from us, but anyone that saw the team on the two last games of it, definitely understood that if since the beginning they showed that quality, we would have passed on first.

They have definitely a great team, and a lot more money than Porto. But what have they really achieve?
It's based on this perspective that i say that Porto should go to the game aware that even though we don't have as money and even quality, we can definitely beat them, like we did to other English teams

Spoiler

not Arsenal though

on the last years. Teams that have a budget ridiculously enormous compared to ours.

But my only hope is that it turns into an awesome game. Based on what i know of the 2 teams it's going to be really an amazing math. City is pretty strong offensively but Porto's defense is getting better, and hopefully Danilo will end the pain on the right side of our defense. And i think that City sometimes exposes a lot defensively, so i hope that both James and Hulk will be inspired .. cuz if so, i am sure we can make some damages. Sadly it doesn't seem that Iturbe has still reached what the coach expects from him, so don't think he is ever going to be a solution on these games. But based on the minutes he played, he definitely has quality.

It's also possible that Porto might hire someone with quality to substitute Falcão, cuz until now we haven't found any one that could.

 

[goldb]

3-0; Easy win for City. They had the game under control from the go. Liverpool played well and very aggressive in their attack and defense of the ball, but you could always see that City could strike at any minute and their players looked very comfortable with the ball and not once did they look panicked to me.
Liverpool had one or 2 chances in the first half, that if taken may have made for a more close scoreline or interesting result.

 

[xi0]

3-0; Easy win for City. They had the game under control from the go. Liverpool played well and very aggressive in their attack and defense of the ball, but you could always see that City could strike at any minute and their players looked very comfortable with the ball and not once did they look panicked to me.
Liverpool had one or 2 chances in the first half, that if taken may have made for a more close scoreline or interesting result.

I only saw a bit of the second half, but man, that weather looked insane

 

[goldb]

I only saw a bit of the second half, but man, that weather looked insane

Yeah, spoke to a few friends who told me it was raining but I didn't think it was that bad. Guess walking to work is no longer an option if it stays like that when I return

 

[xi0]

Yeah, spoke to a few friends who told me it was raining but I didn't think it was that bad. Guess walking to work is no longer an option if it stays like that when I return

Yeah, the commentators said the wind and water was slowing the ball down

 

[goldb]

Normally when it's just light rain, it makes the ball move faster and helps improve game flow but it was just too much rain and slowed the ball waaaaaay down. Luckily there were still players like Silva, Toure, Bellamy and Aguero who move fast regardless.

 

[Black Lagoon]

Damn, Madrid won Yesterday ... Don't get me wrong, they were supposed to win but when I saw 0-2 I felt like YEAAAAAH

 

[jorped]

Newcastle 3-0 Man. United
Manchester United is really weak this year. Unfortunately Porto has to face City, cuz imo it would be away easier to face United.
Don't expect to see United winning the Premier League this year. It will be much likely City ... but it would be awesome if the Spurs kept with this awesome campaign and manage to fight for it.

 

[xi0]

Newcastle 3-0 Man. United
Manchester United is really weak this year. Unfortunately Porto has to face City, cuz imo it would be away easier to face United.
Don't expect to see United winning the Premier League this year. It will be much likely City ... but it would be awesome if the Spurs kept with this awesome campaign and manage to fight for it.

Yeah, I think I'm rooting for the Spurs this year, they've just been really impressive when I've watched.

 

[goldb]

YES they lost!!!!

Spurs have had a very good campaign so far and are still amongst it, seeing as everyone is dropping points carelessly as of late. As much as it hurts to admit it, it's been very entertaining watching their live matches.

I've got City to win the league, unless they REALLY start to slip up(which I doubt they will) cos they've got real strength in their squad; more so than any other team in the league.