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Only 2 small surprises this evening with Copenhagen hanging on against Juve to draw and Shakhtar winning handy in Spain.
I ended up watching the Copenhagen Juve game, mandated by having a Danish visitor to the house, but glad to as it turned out.
I didn't know Tevez was now with Juve, he missed a sitter late on, Pirlo is still there, still finding an acre of space and the killer passes.
Shakhtar winning possibly isn't as surprising as it seems. Sociedad are a quality team but so were Dortmund when they first entered the competition and they were dominated by such sides as Marseilles and Olympiakos. There aren't many teams that do well in the Champions League at the first attempt and Shakhtar are still a good side despite losing several top players.
I said a 'small surprise' to lose the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Possibly you can argue just how small.
a small surprise
or
a small surprise on the little side of small,
or
a small surprise on the larger side of small :)
I still think it's a bit of a surprise that Shakhtar won there. Yes Sociedad are new to the CL (I think they were last in it around a decade ago), but so were Malaga last year (who I think topped a group with Milan, Zenit and Anderlecht) and they breezed past Lyonnais in the playoff and Shakhtar have floundered a bit in the last few Ukrainian league games, losing at Karpaty and Dnipro and drawing home with Metalist. Also away in the CL Shakhtar dont have a great record, they've only won 2 games away in the CL in the last 2 years (vs Nordsjealland last year and against an already qualified APOEL), and have lost away against teams of similar strength to Sociedad (like Zenit and Porto) as well as big ones (Chelsea, Dortmund).
Shakhtar's weakness in defence last year seemed to be from set pieces / balls into the box (Dortmund destroyed them on this) by Sociedad never really exposed those weakenesses. Overall I'd probably expect Shakhtar to finish above Soceidad, but I was surprised they werent given more of a test in Spain.
RTE's pundit preamble to Milan v Celtic kicks off with 'sure Celtic have a bad away record in the CL they have never won away from home'
(hand slap to the head smilie goes here)
Eamon to the fore as expert on Scottish football speaks and doesn't suss that the Celtic players are in the wrong position in the team sheet.
Why would Lustig be at Centre Half and the Dutch guy at Right Back?
Indirect free kick to Celtic after the goalkeeper infringed in the box.
George and Ray think the ref got it wrong, but the camera in the replay (I suspect) shows the ref got it right.
The Milan goalie controlled the ball with his hand along the ground, then later he picked the ball up into his hands. I presume more than 6 seconds elapsed since he first touched it with his hand, or something to that effect.
It's 4 seconds these days apparently.
And Lustig is R/B, not that it much matters, just the TV use some dubious criteria to pick out their 'formation'.
I wasn't pointing out the tv error, I was pointing out that the rte expert didn't cop on to the glaringly obvious error.
Hey, but that's nothing new...
First time i've ever heard Ray say 'he used the right option there',
but not until after first examining about 4 other possibilities, re Samaras' effort.
Milan come good in the end against Celtic. Stokes came close with a bullet free kick.
Basel dump on Chelsea, anybody who knew anything about football knew that Basel were more than a match for Chelsea ;).
Looks like Chelsea fans might regret wanting Benitez out and Mourinho in... Last year they won at Goodison, Old Trafford and saw off Basel, this year its not quite the same. Benitez on the other hand is still winning European matches.
I did think last season's triumph by Chelsea over Basel was (in the main) down to the the tactical acumen of Benitez.
But I thought some people were saying it was because Basel were not worthy ;)
They're a moderately competent side, I don't see a huge amount of invention in their play. But if Chelsea are going to defend (or not defend) corners like that then Basel will take advantage, as probably most other sides would.
I'm sure Basel will be delighted by your accolade that they are a moderately successful side and will take on board that they need a bit more invention in their play. But it does sound like a Daily Sun review of a Kurosawa film.
Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Seen Basel a few times this season, seem to be very well coached and are getting better with every game. God knows what they will be like come the end of the season!
Very solid team, with excellent wingers, and no big name players (Apart from Salah I guess).
Got my CL tkts, so looking forward to seeing them in the flesh again soon:)
I see Celtic's Ambrose has rediscovered his football personality since it mysteriously disappeared for months after the ACON final. He has a good partner in the Dutch signing Van Dijk. I thought the game was a sure fire draw as both teams were struggling to create chances. Milan looked like a team who had been asked to work overtime, on normal pay. It just shows you, how out of nothing a game can be won late on, cruel but that's football, them's the breaks.
Matthews was uncomfortable all night with his passing and deliveries.
I think it's a while since Celtic got beat away in Europe but deserved better on the night, way back to MON's time, against Juve, Bayern and Lyon.
I thought Matthews did okay, there was space on the wide right and he could have made more of it though thats for sure. I was calling for Boerrighter to be brought in much earlier as he is more naturally an attacker and going to make better use of that space (Matthews is a fullback afterall). I can understand why the change wasnt made earlier though, it was still 0-0, Celtic were comfortable, Milan were not looking particularly dangerous. However we were not making the most of our possession and that always comes back to bite you on the ar$e. It did, unfortunately.
Ah, you're being very naive here geysir. If Basel's players were any good they'd be playing in the Premier League.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
Why Premier League? Don't they traditionally tend to sell their best players to the Bundesliga? (Shakhiri, Xhaka, Derdiyok, the Degens)?