re: CL Draw

I hate it but you are probably right.

My picks to go through are :

Athletico / Barca in bad form.
Bayern
PSG
Real Madrid

Man. City has never did anything in CL football.

A.M. play in La Liga with Barca and know how to slow them down better, they already drew with them 0-0 and are in second place behind Real Madrid.

I didn't say it wouldn't be an upset, I just have a hunch.

quote:

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Look at what these players have done since Mou left. He's the reason they were playing at that level.

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I don't know. That Inter Milan team was primed for a great season. Sneider's move to Real was probably premature, but by the time he got to Inter Wesley was a seasoned midfielder. Also players like Zanetti, Cambiasso, Samuel, Lucio, Maicon, Stankovic, Motta, and Eto'o were good before and after Jose, but were all in the prime of their careers anyway. Only Cesar fell down really hard, but his move to QPR was a massive mistake. Jose got the most out of them as a team, but they were hardly also-rans. Inter had to rebuild after Mourinho left, but that had more to do with Moratta than anything else.

At Porto he had some really good players, but there were some big upsets in the QF's that made things slightly easier for Porto. Deportivo La Coruna had an improbable 4-0 victory against an absolutely fantastic Milan side after Milan won 4-1 in the first leg. And then Monaco beat Real after Madrid was up 4-2 in the first leg. The fact that those deficits were overturned twice in the same season is rare enough, but those Milan and Madrid teams were some of the best teams of this decade.

Aside from that context, you could easily argue that Pep would have taken Jose's Real Madrid sides to the CL final at the minimum. That was a massive underachievement on Jose's part, not entirely his fault, but an underachievement nonetheless.

ETA: As an aside, I loved that Inter Milan team. Methodical, patient, and blistering on the counter. In terms of team play, I think it might be Jose's best team. They just needed one more winger who was more dynamic than Pandev and more disciplined than Balotelli.