re: UCL Round of 16 - 1st Week Discussion/Match Day(s) Thread

he should go to BVB just to destroy the narrative in the bundesliga, but in reality is just a secret double-agent (he is a communist and i've seen enough 1950s movies and also The Americans to know he'd be down for that shite) who destroys BVB from the inside.

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It would be a terrible career choice to leave Bayern and Pep if he cares about his legacy.

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Would be absolute madness.

My thoughts as well. Robben can be an arse sometimes but I have followed him his entire career and he has never been disrespectful towards other players in that kind of way.

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Did he fall out of favor? He's one of Ghana's best players despite his injuries.

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He was just injured so often for that 3-4 year period then he never really got back to playing regular first team football so I imagine it's hard to get called up when you haven't been playing.

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God when he was in top form he was amazing.

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A joy to watch for a number of reasons. We've missed that presence in the midfield greatly since his decline.

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One of my favorite players.

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The primary reason I'm a Chelsea fan.

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Honestly, they've looked pretty off the past couple of weeks. I don't know if it's down to injuries (Villa, Tiago, Felipe Luis, etc.), fatigue, or form. They were almost impossible to break down for the first half of the season. Conceded one goal over approximately 500 minutes against Real Madrid and Barcelona.

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They were pretty good against Milan but they had all kinds of defensive trouble with Milan's right flank attack.

Milan continued to overload the area with Poli and/or Kaka or Balotelli and the RB Di Sciglio and all those early shots that drew miracle pushes onto the post by Courtois came from that combination.

That struggle continued until a pretty ugly tackle by Insua took care of the problem by sending Di Sciglio to the hospital for the rest of the night.

Their midfield looked really good in spurts but that constant concern on their left side seemed to keep any aid in the attack from coming from that side and they really didn't create much until Di Sciglio went off and Insua started pushing forward.


In the end though they kept a clean sheet and came away with a fortunate away goal from a set piece. It was kind of ironic that it was such an old school Italian dynamic.

I'd guess that fatigue and injuries (probably Felipe Luis above all) has to be playing a part.

I may be wrong but I see them around the "level" of Roma or Napoli in that they have some real quality but not the depth of the oligarch clubs to keep from having dips at this time of the year.

Some people in this thread are blind/massive homers. Both English clubs got absolutely outplayed by their betters, even before the sendings off.

Also, Wenger needs to be sacked for being psychologically unfit for the job. 'It could have been 3-0 at halftime"?! Seriously?

cwill, you need to take a break for a bit. Your Arsenal homerism about the sending off is terrible.

This round of matches also brings up a question: Is the Bayern just that much better than everyone in the Bundesliga, and/or is the Bundesliga other than Bayern absolutely shite? Bayer Leverkusen, who are in second in the Bundesliga, have been massacred by a terrible Man United team and a mediocre PSG team.

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This round of matches also brings up a question: Is the Bayern just that much better than everyone in the Bundesliga, and/or is the Bundesliga other than Bayern absolutely shite? Bayer Leverkusen, who are in second in the Bundesliga, have been massacred by a terrible Man United team and a mediocre PSG team.

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I think the answer lies right in the middle of both sides you'll hear. On one hand, the quality of the league overall is in ascension even if there's no real elite club aside from Bayern. There are a number of very good, if not elite, teams in the league and a lot of very good players.

On the other hand, many Bundesliga fans largely over rate the league based on Bayern and Dortmund this past year and a 4th CL spot that came mainly by clubs like Leverkussen etc accumulating ranking points in Europa League play when other leagues tended to downplay that competition.



Leverkussen was embarrassingly bad against PSG but I think it's a bit more of a mental thing with them than complete lack of quality. They were obviously beaten in the first 5 minutes they walked on the pitch if you just saw their body language and approach. PSG may often play like a "mediocre" team but their talent is elite to say the least. It seemed Leverkussen was already beaten by reading the names on the PSG jerseys.

However, Leverkussen looked like a completely different side against other "good" teams more on their level like Real Sociedad and Shaktar (which is how the made the knockouts).

It's discussed earlier in the thread about their 2nd place table position being a bit more due to consistently feasting on a weak lower table.

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sanogo and santi's were the two best from open play in the first half.

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Along with Kroos' left footed rocket that Szcez made a brilliant save on.

Neuer made a very nice save on Sanogo's chance. He got down quick.

Agreed. That was a nice ball by Sanogo to set up that semi-chance.