Discussion The Football/Soccer Thread

[Imperium]

I dont understand liverpool. There fighting for a place in the next champions league, its next to impossible for them to win the premier league. They lost against a championship side (barnsley) but they still, still managed to beat inter. Okay, one could say inter had 10 men, but even before the zidane-abuser was sent off, liverpool were the dominant side! Lets just wait for the next leg...I didnt watch the porto match...but that was another upset.

Edit: And its seems Chelsea's atrocious away kit was also subjected on Europe >.>;. Anyway the results of Tuesdays fixtures:

AS Roma 2 - 1 Real Madrid
Liverpool 2 - 0 Inter Milan
Olympiakos 0 - 0 Chelsea
Schalke 1 - 0 FC Porto

 

[Mendes]

I didnt see l'pool's game, but I think they scored 2 goals in the final 5 minutes mostly because Inter had lost Materazzi and Cordoba (injury). I still believe they can turn this around in the 2nd leg.
Porto's match didnt go well. Schalke scored at 4 min and we only started truly playing in the 2nd half. We missed our chances and its on for the 2nd leg in Porto.

Roma vs Madrid must have been a nice match... today I'm still trying to decide which match should I watch... I'll probably go with Lyon vs Man Utd

 

[Lohnt]

Edit: And its seems Chelsea's atrocious away kit was also subjected on Europe >.>;. Anyway the results of Tuesdays fixtures:

I didn't see Chelsea playing any worse than it normally does, I think they simply underestimated Olympiacos. And the fact of the matter is, Olympiacos didn't go in with their preferred attacking squad, ffs Lemonis was putting in a slow left back as an attacking midfielder because he had no one else to put in when his starters got tired/injured.

I think it'll be interesting to see Chelsea play with Lampard and Wright Phillips from the start, but at the same time, their problem was in the defense, not the offense. Olympiacos' counter attacking was effective and had they been a little faster (which they will be with Lua Lua next game) they would have probably scored. but Chelsea will also likely have a better chance at scoring with their better wingers.. then again, Nikopolidis is a freaking wall, this game didn't even show a hint of his abilities since he was barely tested till the last 10 minutes.

Btw, GO MESSI!!! Although I was happy to see Celtic in the lead to be honest before Messi kicked their butt. Milan Arsenal annoyed me very much, and Real will hopefully turn things around next game as well.

 

[Imperium]

Btw, GO MESSI!!! Although I was happy to see Celtic in the lead to be honest before Messi kicked their butt. Milan Arsenal annoyed me very much, and Real will hopefully turn things around next game as well.

Your not the only one, what is the point of possesion if you dont make it into goals. The milan defense was extremely good, although we had a lot of good chances, the goals never came as they usually do. Well 0-0 against the reigning champions is okay but not what we wanted. Lets just hope that pato stays down for good () and their attacks were like today (but i do admit, once or twice i was scared they might score).

 

[Mendes]

Fenerbahce vs Sevilla was also a great match full of attacking football. The 2nd leg will be most interesting because of the 3-2 in the 1st. Barça is the only team who assured the passage to the next stage. I dont believe Celtic can win in Camp Now with a 2 goal difference.

 

[walkie]

yeah fenerbahce-sevilla was a good match, 2 teams attacked a lot it was fun to watch, a good match but i think sevilla got what they needed, it will be very hard for fenerbahce to stop such a good attacking team, sevilla, in spain...

 

[Imperium]

The Eduardo tackle was really gross...put me off football for a couple of days. But i really feel sorry for Croatia, Eduardo would have been vital in their euro campaign. A real shame. It seems he wont be back for at least 9 months.

---

Have confidence whatever the odds. We made it to the quater-finals, destroying milan in the process. Now the...er..."stumble" we had in the league recently will be forgotten. But its testing time for the "Great Milan". But bouncing back and scraping a Cl place is going to be hard for them i presume. Fio is a couple points ahead but their win agaisnt juve puts them in a strong position. And its probably more likely than ever for the fourth spot to be a fight between juve and milan. God, serie a is getting so exciting.

But now its time to get wasted...

 

[Mendes]

Arsenal did great. If I had the slight perception Arsenal played better at home, this time I think its safe to tell Arsenal totally owned Milan in Milan. A great one-sided match from Arsenal and Milan is doomed to renew their squad. Seedorf's absence was also noticeable.

Still, once again, Fenerbahce and Sevilla stole the show. This time only the penalties could separate them. I expected Sevilla to go trough with more or less trouble, but Fenerbahce made history and they are for the 1st time on the quarter finals. If Porto goes trough, its one of the teams who I'd rather face, along with Olympiakos if they hopefully win the round.

 

[Virusbluemage]

Arsenal did great. If I had the slight perception Arsenal played better at home, this time I think its safe to tell Arsenal totally owned Milan in Milan. A great one-sided match from Arsenal and Milan is doomed to renew their squad. Seedorf's absence was also noticeable.

Arsenal won but I think that was greatly in part due to some bad and perhaps dubious referring, what the fuck was up with the referee? He called Kaka off-side while he was on-side and he gave Arsenal a free kick when they kicked the ball pass the line, and then Kaka was carded for his reaction. I really hate when referees ruin games like this.

 

[Epul]

I certainly didn't expect Arsenal to beat Milan at Milan. I didn't watch the game live but watched it at the repeat telecast. My first thought before I watched the game was Arsenal must have gotten lucky to beat Milan but after watching the game, I must say Arsenal certainly dominated Milan. It surprising to see milan play that bad at home.
Btw, Man united managed to just see off Lyon.

Well, enough about yesterday's game, today I'm really looking forward to Real Madrid Vs. Roma game.
Olympiacos vs. Chelsea game gonna be interesting as well.

 

[Mendes]

I'll stick to Porto vs Schalke. Inter vs Liverpool is scheduled for next week... is it because San Siro already received a game yesterday?

 

[Imperium]

^ Im going to be watching roma v madrid. I have a feeling the chelsea match will be a bit boring, but if grant picks a good side. Then i might start alternating.

Arsenal won but I think that was greatly in part due to some bad and perhaps dubious referring, what the fuck was up with the referee? He called Kaka off-side while he was on-side and he gave Arsenal a free kick when they kicked the ball pass the line, and then Kaka was carded for his reaction. I really hate when referees ruin games like this.

I agree. But although we also got a raw end of the deal. Did you see the hleb tackle? The replays show he was tripped. It was inside the box, it was a penalty! Putting it simply, though. We controlled, the stats say it was 54% possesion we enjoyed and it showed. Even without toure our defence was amazing (senderos didnt get a own goal >.>), as was our attack. When walcott came on, his pace was outstanding. Milan just couldnt keep up.

 

[Mendes]

what a sad night. football's too unfair for a bad looser like myself... i wont be recovering from this anytime soon...

 

[Imperium]

Bad luck mendes. Did porto play bad or was schalke just too good? I didnt watch the highlights for that match. But fern and schalke being in the quaterfinals. Will a lot of teams will most likely be very happy, although its stupid to underestimate them. >.>

 

[Mendes]

Porto did a match worth of barcelona... they totally owned Schalke. We had about 30 chances on score but we sadly missed them all except for 1 at 85 minutes. Then we went to extra-time with 1 less player who was expelled, and still we attacked like we had 12 players instead... Schalke defended the whole match, with 4 defensive midfielders. They only had 1 chance in the whole match.

By what I saw... Neuer, Schalke's GK is the best in the world. So you can see, he defended 2 strikes inside the Short box. He defended against quaresma 1 on 1 and the whole match he was just awesome. Lisandro Lopez's goal was just impossible for him to defend. Huge goal :P
We ended loosing in penalties...

 

[Imperium]

I finally saw some clips of neuer. Some of the saves...his response time, is seriously not human. The porto header were he saved it with his legs, left me speechless. >.>

Meanwhile, in the FA cup over here. Even more drama. These are the teams that were in the quaterfinals: Bristol Rovers FC (League one) v West Bromwich Albion FC (Championship)
Middlesbrough FC v Cardiff City FC (Championship)
Barnsley FC (Championship) v Chelsea
Manchester United FC v Portsmouth FC

4 premier league teams, and 4 lower division teams. At the end, Portmouth was the only premier league team left. But the biggest shock was not manchester uniteds loss but in fact chelsea. Barnsley which beat liverpool 2:1 in the previous round went on to beat chelsea 1:0. With some top-notch defending and a rather good header. Avram grant will be lucky to keep his job before the CL quater finals.

Anyway the semi-finals are below, and the cup is absolutely anyone's now.

Barnsley v Cardiff City
West Bromwich Albion v Portsmouth

 

[Epul]

yeah the FA cup is anyone's now but portsmouth has got to be the favourites to lift it. It was really hard for me to accept that Portsmouth managed to beat Man utd.... Portsmouth hardly had a shot on target but still beat Man utd... Man utd were unlucky.... but that's football....

Liverpool will play Inter tomorrow. It's gonna be tough for inter... I'm sure that Benitez will put out a very defensive team......

 

[thegreatest08]

yeah tru, all the favorites have been kicked out by lower and shittier teams( no offense).
i recon its gonna be ether Portsmouth or Barnsley (because they have kicked two of the best teams out). Inter would need to show an awesome display if they wanna stay in the champions league, bt i hope Liverpool get kicked out (4-2 agg.)

 

[Imperium]

Inter are missing samuel, cordoba and matterazi. To stop torres at his current rate, they need nothing short of a miracle. I kinda want liverpool to win, mainly because it will be a testament to the improving english game. 4/8 teams in the quaterfinal being english would be awesome. But in the end i just want to watch a exciting match.

 

[rykarreolacr]

Beside all the important players that Inter is missing, we are not exactly going through a very bright period. Liverpool can consider itself in quarter finals already.

I would say that Inter has less than 20% chance of turning this around.