Champions League Group Stages

First topic message reminder :

The draw is tonight and we could have some potentially crazy strong groups, Manchester City have a 50% chance of being in the same group as Bayern Munich or Barcelona.

What is the tie everybody wants to see in the group stages?

#BetterThanBeingANoManTeam

Giroud or Kiessling?

Game over. I know Leverkusen have a few injury problems but their defence has been really abysmal tonight.

Ah, Wayne Rooney. Different class.

Be afraid Citeh, be very afraid.

Solid wins for the English teams tonight then, good stuff from Utd and City.

Madrid have decimated gala, a team they lost against last season. PSG look very dangerous already as well

Good to see city finally do something on Europe, sterner tests shall await them

Yeah United looked class tonight. RVP and Rooney both even decided to do Torres impressions. 

How good was Bayern L first goal btw!!

Already looking like the sides with the big wins tonight e.g. United, Munich, Madrid and PSG will top there groups.

United weren't that great, Bayer L were terrible defensively with another dire goalkeeping performance. You know a team is bad when they make Antonio Valencia look like a 'world class' winger. Madrid were sensational going forward last night, Isco pulling the strings and Ronaldo's third goal was very good. Big wins for the main teams, making sure they get off to good starts in the hope of qualifying early and avoiding slips ups. Competition really won't get exciting until the second round really.

Yeah, good goals from Weiss & Rolfes last night.

It is only one result but perhaps the Leverkusen result does show that we may be over exaggerating the Bundesliga's strength and the PL's weakness. Obviously Bayern and Dortmund are far ahead but Leverkusen are supposed to the Bundesliga's third best club but got torn apart from United who have looked quite poor this year.

You'd think a team managed by Sami Hyypia would at least be able to defend. They were so bad defensively last night it's scarcely believable. It could well have been more than 4 goals conceded and on top of that, they had little threat going forward. Rolfes' goal was deflected and their second was just bad goalkeeping. Crimey makes a fair point, a lot of people hopped on the Bundesliga bandwagon far too early. I bet only Dortmund and Munich qualify from their groups out of the four teams.

Exactly. Below Bayern/Dortmund....it's not great. Okay, they might have had a couple of injuries and lost Schurlle & Carvajal but they were poor. Goalkeeper obviously went to the Moldovian school of keepers classes. United's biggest threat is Shakhtar, but if they win or draw there, then the group is basically won.

I'd definitely fancy all of Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool against Leverkusen, at least at home, which shows the strength in depth.

Crimey wrote:I'd definitely fancy all of Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool against Leverkusen, at least at home, which shows the strength in depth.

Yep, would agree with that 100%.

Think BL are an Everton level kind of team. Useful, and potentially dangerous, but just a genuine notch below the top teams.

United showed what happens when Rooney is on form and Moyes has the balls to field an attacking lineup. Great stuff.

Another hat-trick for Ronaldo, that guy is an absolute phenomenon. Almost any other era he'd probably have spent 5 years as the best player in the world rather than being generally regarded #2.

The problem for Rooney is consistency, if he could put those displays in on a regular basis than there would be no doubt that he'd be classed as one of the best in the world, the only problem is he seems to have long periods where his form drops off completely and he looks a totally different player.

Yeah, if Rooney is 95%+ fit, he looks quality. Anything below that is a different story & it begins to look difficult for him and he becomes frustrated, impatient and he becomes devoid of any first touch. Bayer were awful, no two ways about it. I would judge United and Rooney after the City game, that will give you a real indication of where their at. Away defeats at Liverpool & City would not look great.

As for Ronaldo, apparently that's like 21 hat-tricks for Madrid since he left United. Something ridiculous like 206 goals in 203 games now (correct me if I'm wrong). Unbelievable player.

207 in 204 I believe, he scored at the weekend to go 204 to 204.

Sow what are we all expecting tonight then guys?

I can see Arsenal and Chelsea complete an English clean sweep tonight. Cant remember the last time that happened.

Napoli/Dortmund looks like the game of the night. Can Celtic get anything in Milan?

5-0 to Celtic in Milan tonight

Dont be silly Kay. I'd expect Milan to at least score. 1-5 then  

Seriously though I suppose we have to go there and if we got a draw I'd be ecstatic but I can't help getting the feeling that Milan are there for the taking, that being said they could turn us over 3-0 tonight with ease if they hit top form but I do think we've got players who could hurt them if we can get some chances, I'd be absolutely delighted with a draw tonight but cant help think we could possibly sneak it.

I do know if we get humped tonight this post will look even more ridiculous than it does now

I think a draw isn't out of the question, Milan are a shadow of their former selves, I don't think they've really got any genuine world class players having lost Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva. Keep Balotelli quiet and Celtic have a got a chance, they've shown they can beat the big guns before and Milan aren't even close to Barcelona.

Willian, Eto'o and Van Ginkel all start for Chelsea tonight. Looking forward to seeing them in action!

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole, Oscar, van Ginkel , Lampard, Willian, Eto'o, Hazard. Subs: Schwarzer, Mata, Mikel, De Bruyne, Ba, Terry, Azpilicueta.

Basel: Sommer, Voser, Schar, Ivanov, Safari, Salah, Diaz, Frei, Stocker, Sio, Streller. Subs: Vailati, Philipp Degen, Ajeti, David Degen, Delgado, Sauro, Xhaka.

Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy)


Marseille: Mandanda, Fanni, N'Koulou, Lucas Mendes, Morel, Romao, Imbula, Payet, Valbuena, Andre Ayew, Gignac. Subs: Samba, Mendy, Cheyrou, Jordan Ayew, Lemina, Thauvin, Khelifa.

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Flamini, Ramsey, Walcott, Wilshere, Ozil, Giroud. Subs: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Jenkinson, Miyaichi, Akpom, Hayden.

Referee: Olegario Benquerenca (Portugal)

AC Milan: Abbiati, Zaccardo, Zapata, Mexes, Constant, Muntari, De Jong, Nocerino, Matri, Birsa, Balotelli. Subs: Amelia, Robinho, Poli, Cristante, Emanuelson, Benedicic, Iotti.

Celtic: Forster, van Dijk, Lustig, Ambrose, Izaguirre, Brown, Matthews, Mulgrew, Commons, Samaras, Stokes. Subs: Zaluska, Biton, Boerrigter, Balde, Rogic, Pukki, McGeouch.

Referee: Wolfgang Stark (Germany)

Kay Fabe wrote:5-0 to Celtic in Milan tonight

20000000000000/1 bet.

going on the last two united games.......


PALACE>Bayer!

 

mystiroakey wrote:

Kay Fabe wrote:5-0 to Celtic in Milan tonight

20000000000000/1  bet.

500/1   Tbh the Milan don't look very good apart from the front 2.

You could sneak a win.

Arsenal's bench looks worse than Brighton's bench tonight 

Chelsea playing some good football early on against Basel. How quick is the Basel number 22 btw!!!

I bought a jumper from brightons bench in 2006

Basel are fast on the break. Good effort so far

Yeah been impressed with Basel tonight. Good game of football so far. Not changing over to Sky Sports 2 or 4 just yet!

This is high tempo football.. great game

1-0 Oscar

Great little goal. I thought Lampard was going to ping it, but a nice small well weighted pass to Oscar, who scored superbly well.

Great goal. Great half.

Proper pl style game. None of this slow paced international style football

Nice little finish that from Oscar. Better build up too, great movement and crisper passing.

Good game but Jose won't be happy, Basle can get at Chelsea on the break with too much ease. Arsenal finding it more difficult than at woeful Sunderland. Higuain scored, not sure if that's a good result for Arsenal, if Dortmund open up with a loss. Also, watching the Barcelona game, without doubt Barcelona have lost a significant amount since 2011. Too predictable and reason why they find it so difficult when Messi is not playing. Sense teams not only at club level but internationally against Spain, are finding effective ways to play that style.

Im going to flick over to the Celtic game.

Well john. Mourinhio will just tighten things up now they have the lead. This half could be dire.

Messi double

Marseille 0-1 Arsenal - Walcott - Ultimate cockup by Morel

To be fair to mourinhio. They have got men back but they are still playing very attractively.

Chelsea haven't looked comfortable all night. Fully deserved from Basle. Mourinho's struggling to find a formula so far for Chelsea.

If anyone is to win this game, i think Basel now.

What Ronaldo can do Messi can do........

Cristiano must be sick of Messi.

BASEL!!!!!!!!

2-1!

unbelievable. Mourinho has problems. What does he do with Luiz, who's the holding midfielder and who is going to be the no.1 striker. Mourinho's return is looking very tough. Shocker if this stays the same

Marseille 0-2 Arsenal - Rambo

Milan 1-0 Celtic. Sounds like its very harsh on Celtic

Arsenal 2-0 up, Ramsey with the goal again!

Uefa need to investigate Aaron Ramsey for performance- enhancing drugs.