Champions League 2012-13

[geysir]

An onside goal! Dortmund are doing it the legal way, 2 fingers up to Bayern.

[Charlie Darwin]

An onside goal! Dortmund are doing it the legal way, 2 fingers up to Bayern.
Definitely onside, but I love how German TV neglected to show an instant replay... just in case.

[Stuttgart88]

Great comment there by Gary Neville in context of how coolly Lewondowski took his second goal. The best players can slow their minds down when everything's quick around them.

3 now, what a player. What a kop.

[geysir]

I bet that 3rd goal will be a You Tube hit.

[BonnieShels]

Holy jesus!

[geysir]

Bayern have superior teamwork, make fewer mistakes, but Dortmund have some players who are just pure class, a joy to watch.

[Charlie Darwin]

I bet that 3rd goal will be a You Tube hit.
Put it to a cheesy 80s pop soundtrack and watch the internet money roll in.

[Stuttgart88]

80s European power pop. What's not to like? Opus "Life is Life". It's Austrian after ski music and has its place.

[Stuttgart88]

That was onside by German standards.

[Charlie Darwin]

And now we have our penalty. Reus's hair stuck two fingers up to gravity as he fell.

[BonnieShels]

No doubt with that one.

[geysir]

A long 12 yards there with the camera angle.
Charlie would be pleased with height in that one.

[Stuttgart88]

It's not over yet but I look forward to 70,000 Germans singing Footballs Coming Home at Wembley.

[Charlie Darwin]

George has kittens every time Hummels gives the ball away.

[geysir]

I hardly notice George, Ray just grabs the mike and talks and talks.

[Charlie Darwin]

From a neutral perspective, a Real goal would make this more interesting.

[Stuttgart88]

Yeah, but I'm hoping for a Dortmund 5th, just based on the flow of the game and how my instincts are leading me.

I'm a bit worried by Lewondowski's yellow card.

[Charlie Darwin]

I don't think Lew looks like doing anything silly. We should just be glad that we saw a different Lewandowski for Poland in Dublin.

[BonnieShels]

Yeah, but I'm hoping for a Dortmund 5th, just based on the flow of the game and how my instincts are leading me.

I'm a bit worried by Lewondowski's yellow card.


He can't be suspended for the final though if he gets carded in the 2nd leg though can he?

[Stuttgart88]

What a miss by Varane.

[Stuttgart88]

He can't be suspended for the final though if he gets carded in the 2nd leg though can he?
Why not?

[BonnieShels]

Why not?

I thought there was some rule brought in.

I know in Euros and WCs you can't get suspended for a second yellow in a semi if your team gets to the final. I suppose you could call that the Blanc Rule.

[Stuttgart88]

These are unreal scenes. I love that club. Everything that used to be great about football and then brought into the 21st century.

[BonnieShels]

Why not?

Here's the regs:


Article 22
Yellow and red cards
22.01 As a rule, a player who is sent off the field of play is suspended for the next
match in a UEFA club competition. The Control and Disciplinary Body is
entitled to augment this punishment. For serious offences the punishment can
be extended to all UEFA competition categories.
22.02 In case of repeated cautions:
a) before the group stage, a player is suspended for the next competition
match after three cautions in three different matches, as well as after the
fifth caution;
b) from the first match in the group stage, a player is suspended for the next
competition match after three cautions in three different matches, as well
as following any subsequent odd-numbered caution (fifth, seventh, ninth,
etc.).
22.03 Single yellow cards and pending suspensions are always carried forward
either to the next stage of the competition or to another club competition in the
current season.
22.04 Exceptionally, all yellow cards and pending yellow-card suspensions expire on
completion of the play-offs. They are not carried forward to the group stage.
22.05 Cautions and pending yellow-card suspensions from club competition
matches expire at the end of the season.

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/competitions/Regulations/01/79/68/69/1796869_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Seems he could be suspended for his 3rd yellow.

I dunno what he's on.

[BonnieShels]

These are unreal scenes. I love that club. Everything that used to be great about football and then brought into the 21st century.

RTE cut back to the studio straight after the game so missed out.

[Stuttgart88]

Great stuff. Fans going mad, players just sat down in front of the stand to take it all in. A big mutual love in basically.

[geysir]

Meanwhile we are looking at John, Liam, Eamon and Bill.

[geysir]

Here's the regs:

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/competitions/Regulations/01/79/68/69/1796869_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Seems he could be suspended for his 3rd yellow.

I dunno what he's on.

According to stats, that's his first yellow, so he should be okay. You can sleep all the more sounder.

[geysir]

The B league tonight. I see that Ivanovic has made an amazing recovery after that savage assault which resulted in a 10 match ban for the offending player.
The wonders of modern medicine.

Fenerbahce got a penalty before half time, at first it looked soft but replay showed the ref got it right, but the penalty was missed which kinda indicates the ref got it wrong and justice was done.

[Charlie Darwin]

I'm watching Basel v Chelsea. Chelsea are winning without really offering much. Some of the passes the Basel players hit are so imaginative - miles ahead of the stuff we see produced around here.

[Stuttgart88]

I used to say the same about Eastern European teams. They find angles we never see in "our" football.

[geysir]

Chelsea for the most part, controlled the game and gave Basel no space. It was limiting but effective and smart enough by Rafa on the night. The Salah threat was virtually nullified.
Desperate penalty award though. You'd hate to see that happen against a team you like, at this level of competition.

[Charlie Darwin]

I suppose Hatchetman Luiz's goal when he should have been off the pitch balanced that out.

[geysir]

0-1 would have better than 1-2. The Basel wall for that free kick had a gap that you could drive a truck through. Some really sloppy defending by them.
I didn't think the Luiz tackle looked that deliberate, 'it just happened that my foot followed through and made contact' defence.
I had thought Basel were good enough to beat Chelsea, they were disappointing on the night, not a patch on their other good European performances.

[Charlie Darwin]

Yeah, that's a good point actually. 2-1 makes the away goal active.

I thought it was a very efficient performance by Chelsea and clever tactically on Rafa's part. As good as Basel are, if Manchester United or Spurs had approached them in the same manner I think they would have beaten them fairly comfortably - Spurs over two legs and United in the groups.

That Basel front three will be picked off in the summer I fancy.

[geysir]

In Basel's case, they probably would have handled the tie better if they had the away game first.
I think Streller is a bit on aged side but Salah would be of interest to many. It would take a hefty cheque to prise him from Basel's hands.

[Closed Account 2]

I dont really rate that Basel team at all. They looked average, lethargic and devoid of any real ideas of how to get at Chelsea. It was a case of hit it to the quick man Salaah and hope something happens. There was no invention and apart from the quick Egyptians there was very little attacking movement, bar the occasional run up the pitch by Dragovic, they were very static. Tactically I think they were naive, they couldnt even hold out for a draw when they had been gifted a penalty in the 88th min, and worst of all they gave away a free kick in such a crucial area, it was shades of QPR v Wigan the other week. It was naive to do a risky challenge against the Chelsea player (Ramires?) there, better to try and shield him out wide or force him to pass it. Having conceeded it they gave everyone an excellent demonstration of how not to defend a free kick. The wall totally collapsed and the shot was really hit without much pace at all, the keeper got a fair hand on it but it just flapped passed him despite it not really being a hard driven shot, it was a inside foot from Luiz it wasn't as if they were beaten by a wonderful free kick. The defending was so comical it was almost as if they were trying to engineer puns about walls having holes like Swiss cheese and the keeper having wrists made of Lindt chocolate. If the Irish team set up to defend a crucial set piece like that in the last minutes of the game (or at any point in the game in all honesty) I would be livid.

Chelsea haven't been impressive in Europe away this season (lost at Steaua, drew in Prague, lost away to Rubin, as well as at Juventus and Shakhtar in the CL) and last night was easy for them. I saw the Chelsea v Steaua return leg in London and the Romanians had a lot of attacking movement, they dragged the Chelsea centerbacks and midfield in all different directions and really had them on the rack at times, Basel were nothing like as effective last night. The Swiss now have a mountain to climb and their away form is Europe is patchy at best with only one win at Sporting Lisbon, the other away results are fairly average (D Genk, L Videoton, D Dnipro, L Zenit, D Spurs) and they will need a sensational result to get to the final now.

[Charlie Darwin]

The Swiss now have a mountain to climb
Must... resist... urge...

[Closed Account 2]

Well lets just say things will have to go like clockwork for them if they're to have any chance.

[DeLorean]

I'd be fairly neutral on the subject.

[geysir]

I dont really rate that Basel team at all. They looked average, lethargic and devoid of any real ideas of how to get at Chelsea.
Not at all, nothing, zero?
I thought they played very well against Spurs away, last season Bayern at home and Man U away. Over the 6 games I have seen of them in the last 12 months, this was easily their poorest performance, last night against Chelsea. For sure it would take a better team than Basel to weave their way past a Chelsea packed in their own half, protecting a fortunate enough lead.
But by what standards are you rating them at zero?
They have knocked out 2 of the top 4 EPL teams recently and finally look like they will be beaten by the 3rd in a semi final this year. A club working on a budget of ca Eur25m, not enough to balance the books, they have a very good academy and try to play good football.
They are a club who have rejected investment, who stay as true as they can to an admirable model of a football club, a small club in the scheme of European competition, making their way and making good progress, as far as I can see.

[Charlie Darwin]

I'd take issue with calling the away draw with Spurs an average result too. The scoreline belies the fact they utterly dominated the match and it was only for the fact their forward players aren't great finishers that they didn't win by 4 or 5.

[Closed Account 2]

Not at all, nothing, zero?
I thought they played very well against Spurs away, last season Bayern at home and Man U away. Over the 6 games I have seen of them in the last 12 months, this was easily their poorest performance, last night against Chelsea. For sure it would take a better team than Basel to weave their way past a Chelsea packed in their own half, protecting a fortunate enough lead.

They were more inventive last year, but then they did have Shaquiri and Granit Xhaka playing and also even Chipperfield who gave them a bit of experience in terms of linking play. This season the strategy seems to be an over reliance on pace.


But by what standards are you rating them at zero?
They have knocked out 2 of the top 4 EPL teams recently and finally look like they will be beaten by the 3rd in a semi final this year. A club working on a budget of ca Eur25m, not enough to balance the books, they have a very good academy and try to play good football.

Judging them on the standards of other teams in the Europa league this season. Even if you just look at the opposition Chelsea have faced then Sparta Prague and Steaua (both of whom probably have smaller budgets than Basel) were much more inventive and much more of a threat to Chelsea. I think they've had a fairly easy run to the semis, they made hard work of it away from home in probably easiest group in the group stage (compare their group Genk, them, Videoton and Sporting Lisbon, to the group the other Swiss team got Liverpool, Anzhi, Young Boys and Udinese). They've been decent at home (except last night) but it's "functional" at best, it seems to be a strategy of eeking out narrow wins and having just enough for the away leg.


They are a club who have rejected investment, who stay as true as they can to an admirable model of a football club, a small club in the scheme of European competition, making their way and making good progress, as far as I can see.

Really? If by rejecting investment you mean they don't have a rich owner then you are correct. But Novartis (giant Swiss pill company) have been pumping money into them for well over a decade, and they enjoy a level of sponsorship that other big Swiss clubs (Young Boys, Grasshopers, FC Zurch etc) can only really dream of. They also have the largest club stadium in the country, which is owned by some local co-operative (it was fully re-furbished a decade ago for them at very little cost in some local government / council scheme). They regularly outspend other Swiss teams and usually sign the best players from the regional (let alone national) rivals, Dragovic was signed for over €1m a few years ago, Bobadilla and Degen came for similar fees from Young Boys, years before they signed Petric from Grasshoppers for over €3m, it's a domestic transfer policy that is shades of Lyons in the 2000s and the recent Götze to Bayern move. When they signed Alex Frei from the Bundesliga a few years ago (paid over €3m) financially no other club in the region could do this (even the dodgy owners at Sion couldnt pay fees in that region) same with Streller from Stuttgart. I know you'll probably say, this post is like something of wikipedia, but the facts belie this idea that they are some sort of altruistic, organically grown club, they are at the top of the food chain in Alpine football and their signings usually ensure their place.

[Charlie Darwin]

This game is as good as the first!

[patrickccfc]

This game is as good as the first!
yeah very good game.. doesnt feel like one team is 4-1 up such is the intensity of the game

[patrickccfc]

too late surely

[SkStu]

and so it begins... ;)

[patrickccfc]

unbelievable

[SkStu]

And so it continues...

Cracking finish

[Charlie Darwin]

2-0!!