Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[JGibson]

Arsenal blow a 2-0 lead to Liverpool and draw 2-2, coughing up 2 critical points in the title race. On the other hand, Arsenal are lucky to gain a single point, thanks to Aaron Ramsdale (and Mo Salah's penalty miss).

[JGibson]

Same story as last Sunday: Arsenal blow yet another 2-nil lead to draw 2-2 and throw away another 2 points, this time to West Ham, whose solitary point gained in the table may be huge for their survival chances.

As for Arsenal's title race, it took another blow.

[Santander]

Wild match between Napoli and Milan. Winning Serie A is already a huge accomplishment for Napoli, but you have to say this was a missed opportunity.

[NewYorkExpress]

Chelsea is now out of the Champions League, and almost certainly will not be playing in Europe in next season


In fact, there's a non-zero (but very small) chance that they could be relegated, as they are in eleventh, twelve points from the drop (and ten points behind the lowest possible European position).

[NewYorkExpress]

The USMNT with a 1-1 draw against Mexico tonight, despite fielding just two players (Sergino Dest and Alan Sonora) playing outside MLS (AC Milan and Juarez respectively). The Stars and Stripes have not lost to El Tri since September 6, 2019.

The USMNT will play Mexico again on June 15 in the CONCACAF Nations League Semifinals, with the winners facing either Canada or Panama on June 18.

[JGibson]

The UCL Semis are set: AC Milan v. Inter Milan and Real Madrid v. Manchester City.

[NewYorkExpress]

The UCL Semis are set: AC Milan v. Inter Milan and Real Madrid v. Manchester City.

Derby matches in the Champions League are always nice.

The San Siro is going to be packed for both legs of the Derby Della Madonnina (which'll make five games in this derby this season-two Serie A games, the Italian Super Cup and the UEFA Champions League Semifinals. Inter currently leads the season series 2-1-0.)

[JGibson]

The UEL and UECL semis are now set:

UEL: Juventus v. Sevilla [Juventus just got their 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed... for now] and AS Roma v. Bayer Leverkusen
UECL: Fiorentina v. Basel and West Ham v. AZ Alkmaar

[NewYorkExpress]

The UEL and UECL semis are now set:

UEL: Juventus v. Sevilla [Juventus just got their 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed... for now] and AS Roma v. Bayer Leverkusen
UECL: Fiorentina v. Basel and West Ham v. AZ Alkmaar

Going to go out on a limb and say we'll have an all-Italian Europa League final.

I'll take Fiorentina and West Ham in the Europa Conference League, and in the Champions League, I'll take AC Milan and Real Madrid.

[Santander]

F**k Juventus.

[Santander]

[bottle.png]

[NewYorkExpress]

Arsenal with another draw, this time coming back from being down 3-1 against bottom of the table Southampton.

Arsenal's got a rough road ahead, with trips to Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle in their next three fixtures.

It's looking likely the Gunners won't have the Premier League lead by mid-May (though they should clinch a spot in the Champions League barring something going horribly wrong).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Not a bad year for Italian teams in Europe, shall we say... (actively hilarious that we eliminated all three of the Portuguese big ones, especially to me as a noted Lusophile).

[Mike88]

Not a bad year for Italian teams in Europe, shall we say... (actively hilarious that we eliminated all three of the Portuguese big ones, especially to me as a noted Lusophile).

Benfica "mocked" Porto for not being able to defeat the "weak" Inter, but at the end, guess who's laughing now. Of course Benfica, still has the "Guttmann curse" over them.

[JGibson]

Wrexham are promoted to League 2 (England's 4th tier), as they beat Boreham Wood 3-1 to win the National League (England's 5th tier) and secure its auto-promotion spot. They are back in League football again.

[NewYorkExpress]

Borussia Dortmund is atop the Bundesliga following their 4-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt, and Bayern Munich's 3-1 loss to Mainz.

[Santander]

It's the history of the Bottleham.

[NewYorkExpress]

The FA Cup final on June 3 will be a Manchester Derby, following Manchester United knocking out Brighton and Hove Albion on Penalties today, and Manchester City easily beating Sheffield United 3-0 yesterday.

[NewYorkExpress]

Newcastle United absolutely obliterated Tottenham Hotspur today, 6-1.

The Tottenham loss means they remain six points behind Manchester United for fourth place and a Champions League place.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

FeralpiSaló won the northeastern group of Serie C and wins its first ever promotion to Serie B!

Serie B race has gotten very exciting with Genoa is tremendous form - but the last decent squad they faced was 11 matches back and it was an very inconsistent Palermo team. They've somehow gotten within 2 points of the league leaders who were running away with it - and they face each other yet. 3 of the last 4 will be against the other top 4 squads.

Bari sitting in third is still alive for automatic promotion by virtue of that daunting schedule for Genoa and a 90th minute goal to get all three points in a comeback over Pisa. I Galletti have a very winnable next three matches before closing in Liguria with a game destined to have high stakes.

All three should be promoted, but Parma has looked better of late and could cause a play-off upset. Cagliari has done respectable given their difficult schedule, but they'll need to get over some serious draw-itis.

[NewYorkExpress]

Wrexham are promoted to League 2 (England's 4th tier), as they beat Boreham Wood 3-1 to win the National League (England's 5th tier) and secure its auto-promotion spot. They are back in League football again.

Wrexham hasn't been in League Two in fifteen years. Also, Ryan Reynolds owns the team along with Rob McElhenney.

I personally would rather see them in the Premier League next season instead of Manchester City or Newcastle United.

[NewYorkExpress]

Following their 6-1 embarrassment at the hands of Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur have fired interim manager Cristian Stellini.

[NewYorkExpress]

It looks like Mauricio Pochettino will be in charge at Chelsea starting from next season.

Not a bad hire, with three trophies from his time at PSG, but Chelsea definitely could have been able to hire Julian Nagelsmann or Luis Enrique if they put the effort in, so they could have done better than Pochettino.

[Lechasseur]

The UEL and UECL semis are now set:

UEL: Juventus v. Sevilla [Juventus just got their 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed... for now] and AS Roma v. Bayer Leverkusen
UECL: Fiorentina v. Basel and West Ham v. AZ Alkmaar

Going to go out on a limb and say we'll have an all-Italian Europa League final.

I'll take Fiorentina and West Ham in the Europa Conference League, and in the Champions League, I'll take AC Milan and Real Madrid.

My predictions are actually the same as yours, I totally agree with this

[Lechasseur]

It looks like Mauricio Pochettino will be in charge at Chelsea starting from next season.

Not a bad hire, with three trophies from his time at PSG, but Chelsea definitely could have been able to hire Julian Nagelsmann or Luis Enrique if they put the effort in, so they could have done better than Pochettino.

Honestly, I think Pochettino was probably the best fit for the Chelsea job. He's who I would have picked as well.

And it's good to see he's getting better than Spurs. I think there goes any chance of Tottenham holding onto their star players like Kane. Spurs will be mid-table at best next year lol