Association Football 2020/21

[Mike88]

lol, I bet on Vitória de Guimarães to win, and they play with 10 men for 75 minutes. They actually did okay considering they were a man down.

Didn't watch the Vitória game. Still, losing 2-4 to Gil Vicente isn't that flattering, TBH. Porto was able to win, thank God, 2-0 against Paços de Ferreira, even though the game was very boring and 1st Porto goal was scored by Pepe.  

Also, horrible what is happening to Di Maria. His house was robbed and his family was held hostage while he was playing.

[Santander]

Sacked in the morning!

[NewYorkExpress]

A couple of upsets in Europa League action today.

Molde (Norway's Eliteserien) knocked out Granada, while Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) shut down Tottenham Hotspur in Zagreb, and knocked them out of the Europa.

[Santander]

A couple of upsets in Europa League action today.

Molde (Norway's Eliteserien) knocked out Granada, while Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) shut down Tottenham Hotspur in Zagreb, and knocked them out of the Europa.

Um... no? Again, not only are you not even watching these matches, you don't even know what happened in them.

[NewYorkExpress]

A couple of upsets in Europa League action today.

Molde (Norway's Eliteserien) knocked out Granada, while Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) shut down Tottenham Hotspur in Zagreb, and knocked them out of the Europa.

Um... no? Again, not only are you not even watching these matches, you don't even know what happened in them.

Whoops. Thank you for correcting me.

[Santander]

Porto has a real chance to make the Champions League final.

[Mike88]

Porto has a real chance to make the Champions League final.

Hmm, maybe, we'll see, it will be difficult as Chelsea is very strong right now, but not impossible. I'm more cautious and actually happy we reached this far. The money is also very important as Porto is in a complicated financial situation.

Also, in the Portuguese League, Porto just won 2-1 against Portimonense, without any of Porto's players actually scoring a goal. The two Porto goals were own goals by Portimonense's players. Sérgio Conceição and Portimonense's coach were also expelled from the game as a fight almost began between them.

[Santander]

Porto has a real chance to make the Champions League final.

Hmm, maybe, we'll see, it will be difficult as Chelsea is very strong right now, but not impossible. I'm more cautious and actually happy we reached this far. The money is also very important as Porto is in a complicated financial situation.

Chelsea and Real Madrid/Liverpool will be favorites, of course, but Porto already played well against Man City and Juventus, who are better on paper, so I think you can be cautiously optimistic. Better than being in the other side of the draw with Man City, Bayern, and PSG, anyway.

[Santander]

David Moyes - European Manager of the Year
Jesse Lingard - Signing of the Year

[Mike88]

Sporting slipped, yesterday, when they draw (1-1) with Moreirense. The point difference between Sporting and Porto is now down to 8 points. The Portuguese League Title is now open for grabs, but, Sporting still has the edge as Porto still has to face Benfica.

[Mike88]

Well, Porto had a good run, IMO. Porto won, tonight against Chelsea 0-1, but it wasn't enough to reduce the 2-0 Chelsea victory on the 1st leg. If Sérgio Conceição had put Taremi since the beginning, maybe things would have been different, but we'll never now.

Also, Bayern won against PSG but, because of the away goal rule, PSG moves ahead. Tomorrow we'll now who will face Chelsea and PSG in the semi-finals.

[Santander]

Assuming Man City finish the job vs Dortmund (far from a forgone conclusion), PSG vs Man City should be a great tie. Despite what the odds and English-speaking media say, I think PSG is the better team (starting XI... obviously Man City have the best squad in the world) and I consider them slight favorites. Comparing their regular starters, I would only pick Foden, De Bruyne, and Walker from Man City. Marquinhos and Kimpembe will be by far the best central defensive partnership Man City have played all year, and it'll be tough for Man City to break through without a proper striker. But it's PSG, we all know they can lose to anyone.

[JGibson]

The UCL Final 4:
Real Madrid v. Chelsea
PSG v. Manchester City

[Santander]

Saddest semifinalists ever.

Fascists vs. Russian oligarch
Oil emirate vs. Oil emirate

The fascists are clearly the least bad.

[Alcibiades]

Saddest semifinalists ever.

Fascists vs. Russian oligarch
Oil emirate vs. Oil emirate

The fascists are clearly the least bad.

Yes, it really is the most awful final four in years.

[JGibson]

The UEL Final Four:
Manchester United v. Roma
Villarreal v. Arsenal [Emery v. Arteta]

[Santander]

I love how Mkhitaryan has played for 3/4 of the Europa League semifinalists. Maybe a summer move to Villareal is on the cards?

[Santander]

Thomas Tuchel is a (far) better coach than Pochettino. PSG gave Chelsea a gift by sacking him and letting them have him for free.

[JGibson]

Premier League Promotion/Relegation Notes:
- Sheffield United clinched relegation down to the Championship next year with their 1-nil loss to Wolverhampton.
- Norwich City return to the Premier League.

The other auto-promoted place and the playoff places are still unsettled in the Championship and the other two relegation spots in the Premier League are officially unresolved (although West Brom is all-but relegated, while Fulham most likely goes down).

[Alcibiades]

Reports that the big English, Spanish and Italian clubs could be set to announce a breakaway European Super League, with UEFA and the relevant member associations likely to react harshly (as they should, IMO). I really hope this doesn’t happen - it would destroy the principles which make football so much more exciting than franchised-based, American-style sports. Very disappointed that Arsenal are allegedly part of it.

[Santander]

Reports that the big English, Spanish and Italian clubs could be set to announce a breakaway European Super League, with UEFA and the relevant member associations likely to react harshly (as they should, IMO). I really hope this doesn’t happen - it would destroy the principles which make football so much more exciting than franchised-based, American-style sports. Very disappointed that Arsenal are allegedly part of it.

Should not be surprising from American owners like Kroenke, the Glazers, and John Henry. It also completely devalues European fixtures from something special to just an engineered fixture. But I don't see any way this will go forward without government intervention.

[Alcibiades]

Reports that the big English, Spanish and Italian clubs could be set to announce a breakaway European Super League, with UEFA and the relevant member associations likely to react harshly (as they should, IMO). I really hope this doesn’t happen - it would destroy the principles which make football so much more exciting than franchised-based, American-style sports. Very disappointed that Arsenal are allegedly part of it.

Should not be surprising from American owners like Kroenke, the Glazers, and John Henry. It also completely devalues European fixtures from something special to just an engineered fixture. But I don't see any way this will go forward without government intervention.

Indeed. It’s basically the Americans + Perez and Agnelli. But yeah, the outrage has been too unanimous to see a realistic way forward for it. Leaking it early seems to have been designed to gain extra leverage over UEFA when they confirm the new UCL plans, but even that might have backfired now.

[bore]

Its a diagnosis of a real problem by people who have completely the wrong cure and an absurdly misplaced idea of the cards they hold and the affection others hold them in. In this sense it is the Change UK The Independent Group of the sporting world.

[JGibson]

The European Super League idea is an abomination of the timeless values of competition integrity in footy and God's teachings! I am an Arsenal fan and I am livid about this insult to competitive integrity!


Every single owner (especially Stan Kroenke) agreed to this travesty should be caned by dommes on international TV!!!
#NoToSuperLeague #NoEuropeanSuperLeague #NoSuperLeague

[Santander]

Whatever their reasons were, credit to Bayern Munich and PSG for saying no. Who would've thought we'd be sitting here saying PSG deserve credit for doing the right thing?