Why not?Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
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Why not?Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
I thought there was some rule brought in.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
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.
These are unreal scenes. I love that club. Everything that used to be great about football and then brought into the 21st century.
Here's the regs:Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/...9_DOWNLOAD.pdfQuote:
Originally Posted by UEFA
Seems he could be suspended for his 3rd yellow.
I dunno what he's on.
RTE cut back to the studio straight after the game so missed out.Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
Meanwhile we are looking at John, Liam, Eamon and Bill.
According to stats, that's his first yellow, so he should be okay. You can sleep all the more sounder.Quote:
Originally Posted by BonnieShels
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.
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.
I used to say the same about Eastern European teams. They find angles we never see in "our" football.
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.
I suppose Hatchetman Luiz's goal when he should have been off the pitch balanced that out.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Must... resist... urge...Quote:
Originally Posted by cfdh_edmundo
Well lets just say things will have to go like clockwork for them if they're to have any chance.
I'd be fairly neutral on the subject.
Not at all, nothing, zero?Quote:
Originally Posted by cfdh_edmundo
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
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.Quote:
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.
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.Quote:
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.
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 gameQuote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
too late surely
and so it begins... ;)
unbelievable
And so it continues...
Cracking finish
2-0!!
well that was exciting
What is the purpose of all that? You appear to be getting sidetracked in some attempt to support your absurd opinion that Basel are some affluent club with serious under-performing issues.Quote:
Originally Posted by cfdh_edmundo
If by pumping money you mean Novartis pumping Eur2m p/a for shirt sponsorship? Maybe by Swiss standards that's pumping money and Basel are well off, but we are talking about a club making its way in European competition on an income of ca Eur30m p/a, not how Basel can ably operate in Switzerland. How they spend that income is a credit to the way the club is run, is seen by the standard of their academy and performance in European competition.
If it doesn't meet their last year's European standards, then so be it. I don't have any strong opinions about the relative merits of this year v last year. I'd just look at their general standard, appreciate their technique and on occasion awestruck by the way they try to play football. I'm impressed by their efforts and performances over the last 2 years.
Philip Lahm getting a yellow tonight; a tragedy for football? Discuss.
I'm struggling to understand what logic is behind Barcelona's tactics, if any. There is no shape to the team and no discernable plan. It's bizarre how easily Bayern are dominating.
Dani Alves doing the old "make a late tackle and roll around injured" routine. Classic.
Barcelona getting um "barcelona'd" never seen them getting so comprehensively out played.. seem so devoid of ideas and have no spark about them.. they are just clueless without messi
Get them sprinklers on, full blast.
The Panel - typical Irish behaviour squabbling at a wake.
Eamo's thousands of hours of intensive study of La Liga have revealed to him that the Barcelona players are burned out.
John "you can only play with the players you have at your disposal" Giles made the 'Barca burnt out' comment a few minutes previous.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
So we can conclude that Eamon's thousands of hours of intensive study of La Liga were a total waste of time.