UEFA Champions League

[Croak]

PSG clearly is a team to be watched this year. As I mentioned Real Madrid, IMO, losing its Top3 status, PSG is now in there. Barca clearly looks like the team to beat but still they are also pretty lucky that none of their stud players is injured when it really matters.

Bayern does look vulnerable in the defense but as they are so good in attacking the opponent immediately after they lost the ball they are still top notch. Lately they lacked effectiveness in front of the goal. A lot of really good chances were missed in the league as well as against the black&whites from Torino. It seems that Javi Martinez maybe back in a few weeks and can add much needed depth for the center back position. Hopefully Alaba then can & will be moved back to the left as Bernat is struggling mightily the last few games.

Yep, Bernat is a real head scratcher. He looked like there was good potential there.

 

[mhnessie]

So I registered to get more info about my favorit (american) football team and first post is in the Champions League section Well hello from Austria, home of the the one and only David Alaba

First teams are through to the quarters and well no team was really impressive to me.

Real Madrid won easily 4-0 on aggregate but their defense didn't look that great but for me they clearly lost their spot in the Top 3 in Europe this year.

Wolfsburg did what they had to do against Gent but must have been really dissapointing for the managers of the club to see, that the stadium isn't even sold out on the highest possible stage although their stadium is pretty small 26k for international matches. Of course it was Gent but still...

Benfica got through against Zenit St. Petersburg, didn't see much of that game but I guess drawing the Portugese team in the Quarters wouldn't be so bad for either team.

PSG was probably the most impressive of the 4 against Chelsea FC but it will be interesting to see if they could live up to teams like Barca or Bayern which will dominate the game with their ball possession and superb strikers. Although Bayern first have to jump over the hurdle Juventus which I hope they do as I am a huge fan of the bavarians (since the late 90's, not just since Alaba plays there )

They are playing football in Austria ?
I'm only joking, welcome !
Yeah, Volkswagen is a shame, but what do you expect ? Money can't buy tradition, nobody cares about Wolfsburg despite of all the great players they can buy thanks to all the Volkswagen money.

 

[Schmidi23]

So this week are the last 4 games of the round of last 16.

Standings after the 1st leg

Tuesday:
Atletico Madrid - PSV Eindhoven 0 - 0
Manchester City - Dynamo Kiev 3 - 1

Wednesday:
Barcelona - Arsenal 2 - 0
Bayern Munich - Juventus 2 - 2

Barcelona and Man City should easily be through to the quarters after winning their away games. Athletico did miss this chance after playing 11 vs 10 for more than half an hour in Eindhoven. Wouldn't be too surprised if it ends in a dirty 1-0 for Diego Simeones fighter squad.

Bayern vs. Juventus will be really interesting to watch. I hope Bayern will be able to convert at least some of their many many good chances, because in the last few games they missed many of them. I predict a 3-1 for Bayern.

 

[Croak]

Dortmund is facing suspensions in UEFA for their treatment of the English fans? Is this something that happens often?

 

[Schmidi23]

Dortmund is facing suspensions in UEFA for their treatment of the English fans? Is this something that happens often?

I can't recall a situation where a home team was charged for the treatment of away fans. It often happens that the home team faces sanctions when the fans itself behave inapproiate (pyrotechnics, violence against police or other fans) but for the treatment of the away fans. Never heard of it before. For example when Bayern played in Greece against Piräus this season, the Bayern supporters were already in the section, specially reserved for them when more than two dozen police officers entered the stands and out of nowhere used pepper spray and truncheons against the Bayern-supporters who did absolutey nothing to cause such actions. A lot of Fans got injured, some pretty badly, nothing life threatening but a lot of blood and some broken bones. I do not remember UEFA sanctioning Olympiakos Piräus for this.

 

[Itkovian]

Apparently Dortmund are being sanctioned for violating safety regulations by blocking exits, or something like that

 

[mhnessie]

Wow, half an hour played and Juve already leads 2-0 at Munich

 

[Croak]

Well Pep, this is why you won't equal Jupp's feat. Jupp believed in the importance of a defense.

 

[Bundesbiers]

Bayern pull 1 back... Going to get interesting.

 

[Croak]

Bayern got the W, but I think only because Juve did just enough to lose. That was not a very pretty match. Ugly win.

 

[Croak]

Robben wasn't in this match, but dang, I saw a lot of diving. Some of it was from Bayern, but a lot of it was from Juve. It was like they were dropping at a gust of bad breath. Fortunately this ref saw through most of it. Although he missed some. One time Juve got the call and the replay showed that the player was not even close to being touched.

 

[PackerFan71]

Bayern got the W, but I think only because Juve did just enough to lose. That was not a very pretty match. Ugly win.

Having watched the highlights of the game it seems that Juve had the game but fell at the last, no slant on the Bavarians they took their chances well in the end. But for Juve its a sore one having been two goals up away from home.

 

[Itkovian]

Juve allowed 4 goals in 45 minutes. The first 75 minutes they were brilliant, the last 45 they were poor (though they still managed a few chances). You can't give up 4 goals in 45 minutes and expect to advance, against anyone.

 

[Schmidi23]

Wow, just wow.

Sitting in front of the TV I could not believe how Bayern was playing 70 minutes of this game. The defense was horribly shaky. Especially the man to my left had his worst day in a Bayern jersey since the game against Eintracht Frankfurt a few years ago. Neuer was also not at his best for most of the first half, though he did very well in some scenes and prevented Juve from going 3-0 up. Bayern was really lucky the refs called offside when Morata in fact was not when he scored a goal.

Today I still can't believie how Juve managed to lose that game. They had so many very good chances and Bayerns gameplan was very uninspiring. No movement, many small errors, no shots on target... Very lucky in the end. Overtime was pretty good.

Just glad they came through. The Italians are a very tough opponent. I like Juve a lot but their behavior on the pitch is sometimes not bearable, delaying the game alle the time, elbows in the face, always trashtalking, ... They are such a supberb team, don't know why the think they have to do this sort of thing.

My fiancé was pretty mad at me as I woke her up 7 times during the 2nd half & OT as she has gone to bed early and I was shouting and celebrating in front of the TV

 

[Bundesbiers]

Let's not forget that Juve scored a 3rd goal that was disallowed to offsides. Yet, the replay showed it was not offside. The ref's blew the game, yet no mention of that yet.

 

[Schmidi23]

Bayern was really lucky the refs called offside when Morata in fact was not when he scored a goal.

I did

Although it has to be said, that as I recall it, the ref blew the whistle an Neuer immediately stopped playing while Morata chipped the ball easily over Neuer after that, which would have been the 2-0 lead at that time. This one scene was indeed very lucky for Bayern but for the other part of the match I didn't see the ref giving Bayern an advantage. Looking through my Bayern-glasses I would have awarded at least 22 yellow cards for Juventus for delaying the game. But as some call it, they played "clever".

Juve did blew it themselves IMO and thats why they are mad.

 

[Croak]

I did

Although it has to be said, that as I recall it, the ref blew the whistle an Neuer immediately stopped playing while Morata chipped the ball easily over Neuer after that, which would have been the 2-0 lead at that time. This one scene was indeed very lucky for Bayern but for the other part of the match I didn't see the ref giving Bayern an advantage. Looking through my Bayern-glasses I would have awarded at least 22 yellow cards for Juventus for delaying the game. But as some call it, they played "clever".

Juve did blew it themselves IMO and thats why they are mad.

Yeah, that whole sequence was just weird. But the refs didn't seem too consistent right from the start. I think they lost control of the match early and then confusion reigned. Still, I think we all agree that Bayern can't advance much farther with that kind of defense.

 

[Croak]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...m_medium=referral&utm_campaign=programming-UK

 

[Itkovian]

Let's not forget that Juve scored a 3rd goal that was disallowed to offsides. Yet, the replay showed it was not offside. The ref's blew the game, yet no mention of that yet.

I HATE this argument. They did not score a 3rd goal, they would have scored a 2nd goal. The offsides controversy occurred after the first official goal, and before the 2nd. You can't then automatically assume that Juve would have again scored the second goal, as the entire game changes and a whole new reality is woven.

I know you are a Bayern hater, but please, the refs did not "blow" the game. I'm not saying they had a good game, but I think Juventus giving up 4 goals in 45 minutes, and failing to capitalize on several excellent opportunities had much more to do with the outcome than the officiating.

 

[Itkovian]

On a positive note, Thomas Muller has now scored more goals in the Champions League than any other German, surpassing the legendary Gerd Muller (if only in that one statistic).

 

[Bundesbiers]

I HATE this argument. They did not score a 3rd goal, they would have scored a 2nd goal. The offsides controversy occurred after the first official goal, and before the 2nd. You can't then automatically assume that Juve would have again scored the second goal, as the entire game changes and a whole new reality is woven.

I know you are a Bayern hater, but please, the refs did not "blow" the game. I'm not saying they had a good game, but I think Juventus giving up 4 goals in 45 minutes, and failing to capitalize on several excellent opportunities had much more to do with the outcome than the officiating.

Then no more complaining from you about referee's when calls goes against Bayern. Then it would be fair.

 

[Croak]

Then no more complaining from you about referee's when calls goes against Bayern. Then it would be fair.

Everybody complains about the Refs sometimes, even you, if I recall.

 

[Itkovian]

There's nothing wrong with complaints. You can complain. But you can't blame a game on a ref. That's something I don't do. I'll fuss some here and there, but if Bayern get beat then I typically give the other team their due respect, such as I had to do several times recently.

 

[Schmidi23]

What would be your favorite matchups for the quarters. Draw is in about 2 hours

I hope Bayern dodges the Barcelona bullet. With this defense the chances would be really slim. I would be really ok with Benfica

I would like:

Benfica - Bayern
Barca - Atletico Madrid
PSG - Real Madrid
Wolfsburg - Man City

 

[Croak]

What would be your favorite matchups for the quarters. Draw is in about 2 hours

I hope Bayern dodges the Barcelona bullet. With this defense the chances would be really slim. I would be really ok with Benfica

I would like:

Benfica - Bayern
Barca - Atletico Madrid
PSG - Real Madrid
Wolfsburg - Man City

Well. You got one of them!

Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid
Bayern Munich vs Benfica
Barcelona vs Athletico Madrid
PSG vs Man City

The Bayern USA fans on Facebook are breathing a sigh of relief like this will be an easy match. After the two matches against Juve, I don't think Bayern will have an easy time with anyone coming up in the CL.