Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Mike88]

Man Utd are a legit good team. Full-backs are questionable, but Ronaldo should be getting excellent service from Sancho, Pogba and Fernandes. Now the world will see what a hopeless coach Solksjaer is, because they still won't win anything beyond maybe an FA Cup or Europa League.

Ronaldo won't accept anything less than titles....a treble

Yeah, I agree. But the only place where was really successful, and happy, was in United. Real was a fiasco as was Juve.

[Mike88]

Man Utd are a legit good team. Full-backs are questionable, but Ronaldo should be getting excellent service from Sancho, Pogba and Fernandes. Now the world will see what a hopeless coach Solksjaer is, because they still won't win anything beyond maybe an FA Cup or Europa League.

Ronaldo won't accept anything less than titles....a treble

Yeah, I agree. But the only place where was really successful, and happy, was in United. Real was a fiasco as was Juve.

Well, yes. But I am sure he was happy at Real, he won a lot of titles there 

Not really. Yes he won titles but he had a toxic relationship with Mourinho, the feud with Florentino and the Spanish press was really tough on him. Things weren't that pretty in Real.

[Mike88]

This evening's Sporting vs FCPorto match was a complete trainwreck. The game had 13 cards (12 yellow and 1 red) and 40 fouls. Neither of the teams were brilliant, far from it, but taking into account Porto's recent performances, the draw wasn't a bad result.

[Mike88]

I simply don't understand why VAR annulled that Porto goal. I just don't get it. The rest of the game, both teams were very competitive. (I wished that Porto would play like this in the Portuguese league, but, alas). Diogo Costa was, once again, amazing.

[Mike88]

Barcelona 🤣

This match was as big of a joke as yesterday's Porto-Liverpool match.

[Mike88]

As unsavoury as Serbia are, and as incomplete a World Cup without Ronaldo would be (although he would probably end up going home after the Round of 16 as usual), that was an incredibly exciting match, and one cannot help but feel a little Schadenfreude at Ronny’s predicament.

Portugal has been a joke for some time now. The match with Ireland was already, well, no comments, and this one had, like you said, an unsavoury Serbia dominating Portugal.

[Mike88]

One more nail in the coffin of Barcelona....

[Mike88]

Major scandal in Portugal as Belenenses SAD was forced to play with Benfica after 17 players of their team contracted Covid:

https://twitter.com/SkySports/status/1464890055504404483?cxt=HHwWhoC9ldDvqtQoAAA...

Farce, ridiculous, chaotic, this is how the media is portraying the Belenenese-Benffica match last evening in Lisbon. 17 players of Belenenses team are infected with Covid and instead of postponing the game, the Portuguese league forced the match and Belenenses presented 9 players, with 2 goalkeepers and just one player from the main team. The game had to end at minute 48, because Belenenses ran out of players to put on the field and the final score was Benfica 7, Belenenses 0.

The Portuguese League authorities are being trashed for forcing the game and there are already calls for the resignation of the whole League leadership.

[Mike88]

The Champions League draw was today:

Salzburg vs Bayern
City vs Sporting
Benfica vs Ajax
Chelsea vs Lille
Atletico vs United
Villareal vs Juventus
Inter vs Liverpool
PSG vs Real Madrid

Well, Lille, Salzburg and Sporting are "toasted". But there will be good matches like the the Madrid-PSG, or the Atletico vs United.

Also, props for UEFA for botching up the game draw.

[Mike88]

7 days and two Porto wins against Benfica: 3-0 on 24 December for the Portuguese Cup; 3-1 today, 30 December, for the Championship. Beautiful!! So happy!

[Mike88]

This evening's Porto vs Sporting ended in chaos:

https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1492267272722919425?cxt=HHwWgsC5ybPLz...

The match ended in 2-2 draw.

[Mike88]

Chelsea is the new world champion

The English team defeated Palmeiras, whose most famous fan is this one https://placar.abril.com.br/placar/palmeiras-sera-bicampeao-mundial-em-2019-diz-bolsonaro/

Hope that Abel Ferreira isn't reacting to the defeat like this:

[Mike88]

I'm still shocked by Ajax being defeated by Benfica. The world has completely gone crazy.

[Mike88]

I'm still shocked by Ajax being defeated by Benfica. The world has completely gone crazy.

They are the two greatest "finishing schools" for top talent in Europe.

Yes, Ajax played better, and have better talent right now, but they didn't create many real chances, and I don't know a single Ajax supporter who begrudges Benfica their win.

Also, Atleti merely lived up to expectations by beating Man Utd, unlike what some in the English media are saying. You look on paper, and while Man Utd is a good team, so is Atleti. João Félix (most talented young player in the world alongside Camavinga, imo), Griezmann, Koke, Llorente, Oblak... this is a world-class team.

Yes, I agree, Ajax didn't played to win and that was surprising, but because Benfica's campaign in the Portuguese league has been a disaster, with recent tumbles against Vizela, Gil Vicente and Boavista, makes this win even more of a shocker.

United has been quite complete bad. Cristiano himself seems completely lost, don't know if he's fed up with playing in England anymore.

[Mike88]

I think we've found our 2022 World Cup Champion.

Who?

North Macedonia, who apparently beat Italy today and I didn't notice.

After watching today's match, I think it was rather Italy that lost and not Macedonia that won. Portugal didn't played a brilliant game, but Macedonia never had a chance.

[Mike88]

Portuguese league is now in the home stretch:

Porto faces Portimonense this evening and is eyeing to continue their 57-win record streak in the league. Tomorrow, Sporting faces Benfica in the "Lisbon Derby". If Porto wins today, and there is a draw or a Sporting loss, Porto's lead could become insurmountable.

Can't believe that I'm actually rooting for a Benfica win tomorrow. It literally goes against every fiber of my being.

[Mike88]

Portuguese league is now in the home stretch:

Porto faces Portimonense this evening and is eyeing to continue their 57-win record streak in the league. Tomorrow, Sporting faces Benfica in the "Lisbon Derby". If Porto wins today, and there is a draw or a Sporting loss, Porto's lead could become insurmountable.

Can't believe that I'm actually rooting for a Benfica win tomorrow. It literally goes against every fiber of my being.

Done. Porto defeated Portimonense by 7-0.

[Mike88]

Benfica defeated Sporting 0-2 this evening. Porto now has a 9 point advantage with 4 rounds yet to play.

https://twitter.com/sporttvNAO/status/1515800486762491914

Matheus Nunes literally tossed Gil Dias like a piece of paper. Yikes.

[Mike88]

PSG wins the French Championship Ligue 1.

[Mike88]

Real Madrid "crushes" Espanyol 4-0 and becomes champion of La Liga, their 35th title.

[Mike88]

I'm sorry for my ignorance, but I just realised that there's an Europa Conference League. xD xD

I never heard of it before...

Wow, one of the all time great UCL ties. An instant classic over both legs.

Amazing game. I was rooting for Madrid, and that turnaround in just 5 minutes was just, wow, beautiful. And to see City lose like that, perfect.

[Mike88]

FCPorto has won the Portuguese Championship!!!

Porto defeated Benfica in Luz Stadium 0-1, Zaidu scored. This is also Porto's 100th victory against Benfica, and its 30th Championship win!!

PORTO ALLEZ, PORTO ALLEZ!! I'm now going to celebrate.    

[Mike88]

Jesus, those people climbing the bars at the Stade de France without tickets...

[Mike88]

Liverpool to sign Benefica forward Darwin Nunez for 100 million Euros.

This is a fantastic signing for Liverpool, especially with both Sadio Mane and Mohamad Salah's future at Liverpool in doubt, signing a forward like Nunez is a great move. He'll pair well with Roberto Firmino too.

Benfica just lost its main player. The team is already on the ropes because of scandals and internal infighting, and next year doesn't sound promissing at all.

[Mike88]

Manchester United still has too much individual talent to actually be relegated, but if they keep playing like they have been the past two weeks, it's a real possibility.

The whole "Cristiano is in, Cristiano is out" soapopera doesn't help either.