UEFA Champions and Europa League 2015/16 Thread

[Dolphin Ziggler]

First topic message reminder :

It begins for the English today as West Ham face FC Lusitans in front of a sold out Upton Park this evening. The team will be a bit mixed. Randolph, O'Brien, Tomkins, Burke, Page. Jarvis, Oxford, Poyet, Amalfitano. Zarate, Sakho.

[Duty281]

Excellent performance from Malmo.

[Fernando]

FT Malmo 2-0 Celtic

Markus Rosenberg has taken them out

£20 million down the drain.

[GSC]

Celtic are currently triple checking every Malmos players registration

[Fernando]

Dinamo Zagreb
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Malmo
Valencia
Shaktar Donetsk

All through to the group stage. Monaco,Basel & Celtic to the Europa League.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Wonder if that will force Van Dijk to move on? Or Delia Smith to lose his job

[Hero]

Team news for tonight:

Muller, Bale and Neymar are ruled out of the Man Utd game tonight due to the fact they play for different clubs.

[Ent]

Lol Very good.

Be nice to see a few goals tonight.

[Hero]

You'd hope there would be a few, just wish they do the same at the weekend rather than the drudgery we've been witness to so far.

[Ent]

Playing against a better standard of opposition really.

Team just isn't great, we played very poorly against bruge at home - that last minute goal was a life saver as they have an excellent home record and poor away record apparently.

Hope Rooney is "rested" tonight.

[compelling and rich]

nah he's starting ent

at least we have the better option of fellaini off the bench

[Ent]

No such luck.

Herrera starts, might get a bit more going forward but could leave us short on the break.

[compelling and rich]

cant see a performance here, this is pure and simply about getting into the group stages, weve got a two goal lead so coming out all guns blazing was never going to happen

so far its the same old same old, patient possession that usually ends by rooney giving it away/wasting it

[compelling and rich]

weh hey its finally hit the target, cue the media tomorrow saying he's back to his best.

to be fair he took it well and great set up play by depay but the defending was awful

[Guest]

Brugge are terrible. Rooney scoring vs woeful sides is nothing new, done it to a tee at international level

[compelling and rich]

Brugge are terrible. Rooney scoring vs woeful sides is nothing new, done it to a tee at international level

couldnt score against your lot on saturday

[Hero]

Nice to see Memphis lay it off rather than go for glory.

[Duty281]

Experienced, composed finish by Rooney - but it was so nice of the two central defenders to ceremoniously part like the Red Sea to accommodate the goal.

Think it's clear to see that United will need a big step up in quality for the group stages (dependent on who they draw of course!).

[Hero]

Looking at the coefficient rankings Utd are currently 20th (a huge drop of 10 places) so will be in Pot 3 with City (who are 17th).
Could potentially get Bayern and Real in their group

[compelling and rich]

Looking at the coefficient rankings Utd are currently 20th (a huge drop of 10 places) so will be in Pot 3 with City (who are 17th).
Could potentially get Bayern and Real in their group

you sure, id heard that we were pot 2. there may be some teams there who haven't qualified

[Hammersmith harrier]

Brugge aren't any worse than Newcastle or Aston Villa, they just haven't sat back and attempted to soak up the pressure.

[Hero]

Looking at the coefficient rankings Utd are currently 20th (a huge drop of 10 places) so will be in Pot 3 with City (who are 17th).
Could potentially get Bayern and Real in their group

you sure, id heard that we were pot 2. there may be some teams there who haven't qualified

All 19 clubs above have qualified.

[Hero]

And that's the Memphis Id expect rather than layoff.

[compelling and rich]

our attack is so ponderous, were second to all the 50/50 balls. mata, rooney and januzaj have no pace. our left side is the only place we have pace

[Fernando]

If only you had someone like Pedro.....

[Hero]

our attack is so ponderous, were second to all the 50/50 balls. mata, rooney and januzaj have no pace. our left side is the only place we have pace

For me Utd have to go all out for Griezmann who would perfectly balance the right side with Depay on the other side.

[compelling and rich]

Looking at the coefficient rankings Utd are currently 20th (a huge drop of 10 places) so will be in Pot 3 with City (who are 17th).
Could potentially get Bayern and Real in their group

you sure, id heard that we were pot 2. there may be some teams there who haven't qualified

All 19 clubs above have qualified.

i know dortmund and napoli havent, are ac milan above us?

[compelling and rich]

Looking at the coefficient rankings Utd are currently 20th (a huge drop of 10 places) so will be in Pot 3 with City (who are 17th).
Could potentially get Bayern and Real in their group

you sure, id heard that we were pot 2. there may be some teams there who haven't qualified

All 19 clubs above have qualified.

i know dortmund and napoli havent, are ac milan above us?

neither did schalke and leverkussen havent yet

[Fernando]

Napoli,Dortmund,Schalke & Basel haven't made it so your 16th (2nd pot)

[compelling and rich]

Napoli,Dortmund,Schalke & Basel haven't made it so your 16th (2nd pot)

cheers nando, thought so

[Hammersmith harrier]

You're looking at the current coefficient not what the coefficient was at the end of the 14/15 season.

[Fernando]

You'd have been 3rd pot if Basel won yesterday  So you can thank Maccabi Tel Aviv for that

Surely it would be done by the current one? Otherwise UEFA are just stupid (highly likely tbf)

[Hero]

Phew that's a bit better then, thought we'd get groups like City have had the last few years.

Just me or is Romero actually looking a decent keeper for us?

[Hammersmith harrier]

You'd have been 3rd pot if Basel won yesterday  So you can thank Maccabi Tel Aviv for that

Surely it would be done by the current one? Otherwise UEFA are just stupid (highly likely tbf)

Why would it be done on the current one? That would be a ridiculous idea.

[Fernando]

I just went off the basis of this http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/

Either way your in Pot 2

[Hammersmith harrier]

The Coefficient is so messed up anyway, unsurprisingly the Spanish teams seem to get extra points for just being Spanish. Sevilla getting more than Bayern Munich is a massive joke.

[Fernando]

I guess that's the advantage of winning the Europa League 2 years in a row.

[compelling and rich]

buys rooney another few bad performances this and will probably mean we dont sign a striker. how can it be a bad thing our striker scoring a hatrick

[Hammersmith harrier]

I guess that's the advantage of winning the Europa League 2 years in a row.

It's so stupid, a team not good enough to make an impact in the Champions League gets rewarded for being the best of the non starters.

[Fernando]

I think it wasn't likely anyway after Louis decided Fellaini was a forward.

[compelling and rich]

hopefully we'll build some confidence on this performance, but i have to say this brugge defence is one of the worse ive seen

we'll have it much tougher on sunday against swansea

[Hammersmith harrier]

hopefully we'll build some confidence on this performance, but i have to say this brugge defence is one of the worse ive seen

we'll have it much tougher on sunday against swansea

I doubt we'll face another team who go all out attack against us, even the likes of City are conservative when they play us.

[compelling and rich]

hopefully we'll build some confidence on this performance, but i have to say this brugge defence is one of the worse ive seen

we'll have it much tougher on sunday against swansea

I doubt we'll face another team who go all out attack against us, even the likes of City are conservative when they play us.

we generally do better against the better sides who will open up against us a bit more, our record last season was decent. its the weaker teams who just shut up shop we struggle against

[Hammersmith harrier]

I don't think many teams in the league are stupid enough to open up against us, sit deep and we suddenly look impotent, come at us and we look pretty damn good.

[Hero]

Does Chicarito know what a goal is nowadays?

[Liam]

Brugge are poor but we played some good stuff second half. Again looked solid. Tonight showed the difference when Herrera played further up top. He's got superb vision and also offers a goal threat. I think Januzaj has potential but atm he's not doing anything to warrant a starting place. Hopefully we see Herrera get a run at 10 because he could be the man to improve our attack and get everyone ticking, namely rooney. He's also got a great relationship with mata. I actually hope we do draw a top team from pot 1 tomorrow. Be great to see some of the real big names back at OT. Bayern hopefully.

[Duty281]

Looking forward to tomorrow's media - Is Rooney World Class? This lad on twitter can perhaps lead the way:

Jacob Badcock ‏@BadcockJI 7m7 minutes ago
Criticise Wayne Rooney at your peril. The guy has always been world-class and will remain to be world-class. #MUFC

[Liam]

Rooney has only been world class once, and that was i think 2010/11 when he scored 30+. Since the euro's he's showed glimpses but was never consistent enough to be considered world class. Top top player though, and hopefully he can go on a run. He will hit plenty of cold patches again though and that's when we need others to step up, aka a new signing...
But great to see him back in the goals and hopefully he can get a run together. Took his first goal very well and his second.

[NickisBHAFC]

Roooooooooney

#LetTheHatersHate

[Fernando]

Pot 1: Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St. Petersburg and PSV Eindhoven.

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Atlético, Porto, Arsenal, Man Utd, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Man City

Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Kiev, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Galatasaray, Roma

Pot 4: BATE, Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmo, Astana

[Dolphin Ziggler]

This new system might be "fairer" with winners of the top seven leagues in pot one, but a group with PSV and Porto as the top two teams is going to affect the quality of the knockouts.

Worst case scenario Bayern. Sevilla. Wolfsburg for an English side in pot 2?

Best case PSV, Dynamo Kiev, Astana?

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