Champions' League 2013/4

[Closed Account 2]

It was a foul, his movement was impeded since his arm was trapped by Ivanonv. The manner of him falling is neither here nor there.

Schalke are one of the richest clubs in Europe?? News to me, but youre a massive fan of the Bundesliga and Germany in general, so I'll bow to your better judgement there. It's a worry when you of all people tell someone to get a life. Still good luck in the Europa, and good luck with replacing Salaah when he goes - presumably another great academy product?

[Charlie Darwin]

As has been said on here before, Basel are middling team by European standards, with a good successful academy, with middling income levels, playing good attractive football, attempting to punch above their weight playing against the richest clubs in Europe, managing to haul a few big scalps on a regular basis and earning kudos from football fans around Europe, in a similar way that Athletic Bilbao did.
Edmundo, get a life, Basel beat Chelsea home and away, sh+t happens, does anybody really care how you feel about that or how that home and away win against Chelsea went against the grain of your previous appraisal of Basel. And now that Basel are out of the CL, you have a dossier of facts ready to prove you were right about Basel all along and that Schalke one of the richest clubs in Europe are actually better than Basel?

If they were that good they'd be playing in the Premier League.

And yes, Edmundo, they're the third biggest-earning club in Germany, just behind Dortmund.

[Closed Account 2]

Haven't they been net sellers in 3 of the last 5 seasons? I can only recall 3 over-€10m signings in the last few years for them, Huntelaar, Jurado, possibly Boateng. In that time they've sold players like Neuer (something like €25m) and Westermann and Rafinha (who were around €10m each).

[Charlie Darwin]

The season they sold Westermann and Rafinha for about €15 million, they spent €40 million on players as well as bringing in Raul who was on a big wedge. Neuer leaving was a practical decision - he was out of contract the following year and had made it clear he'd be a Bayern player either through being sold or his contract expiring. They're pretty heavy net spenders most of the time.

[Closed Account 2]

Not sure where you are getting your figures from, but this site doesn't suggest a gross spend of 40m that season, and the net spend was around 15m.

http://m.transfermarkt.de/de/fc-scha...a_default.html

They have singed free players on expensive wages, but they've also under sold players (who were about to leave on frees) who were on, high wages too, Rakitic, Holtby, Jurado. I really don't think you can class them as one of Europes richest clubs.

[Charlie Darwin]

Gah, don't be linking me to mobile sites. That website puts the figure at €36 million, which is pretty close to €40 million considering these are estimates, and the fact they've underestimated the Jurado fee by €2 million.

Look, you don't have to consider them one of the Europe's richest clubs if you don't want to, but the fact is that they nevertheless they do have the 14th highest income in European football, which is pretty good. They also have legacy debt issues which probably hampers them, but clearly they're not afraid to spend their money.

edit: to add to the discussion about Swiss football, Swansea are currently withstanding a siege in little-fancied St Galen, and the home team really should be 3 or 4 up, was it not for the goalkeeper's heroics.

[Closed Account 2]

I don't think their net spend on transfers suggests they are one of Europe's richest clubs. If you look at teams like Barca, Real, Bayern, City, Juventus, Chelsea, PSG, Monaco, Tottenham, Zenit, possibly even some of the other eastern sides like Shakhtar or Dinamo I would class these teams as Europe's richest and I'm not sure how Schalke can be in that bracket.

[Charlie Darwin]

I don't think their net spend on transfers suggests they are one of Europe's richest clubs. If you look at teams like Barca, Real, Bayern, City, Juventus, Chelsea, PSG, Monaco, Tottenham, Zenit, possibly even some of the other eastern sides like Shakhtar or Dinamo I would class these teams as Europe's richest and I'm not sure how Schalke can be in that bracket.

Because they're the fourteenth richest club by income in Europe and their net spend exceeds many of those clubs.

[Closed Account 2]

Who are the "many" teams from that list who have a net spend less than Schalke?

From what I can see it's only Tottenham and Shakhtar over the last 5 years.


Team____Total_______13/14______12/13_____11/12_____10/11_______09/10
City_____448.27____104.293_____17.65____65.135_____144.842_____11 6.35
Chelsea__360.485____65.2_______89.75____71.45______108__________26 .085
Real____348.9_______49__________0_______47__________83_________ 169.9
PSG_____336.55______84.4______144.25____96.7_________2__________ _9.2
Bayern__199.65______22.5_______69.8_____44.6________11__________ 51.75
Barca___195.75______41.9_______32.5_____13.05_______19.8________ 88.5
Juve____189.015_____-6.085_____45.1_____80.7________23.9________45.4
Monaco__177.575____159.95______21.15____-3__________-4.35________3.825
Zenit___161.41______-5.7______102.01____15.1________41.4_________8.6
DinMos___87.15______48.9_______-7.8_____29.5_________0.65_______15.9
Schalke__13.325_____19_________-0.35___-24.275______15.15________3.8
Spurs____7.19________3.855______5.47___-33.8________23.165_______8.5
Shakr__-11.605______-0.5______-11.6______5.23_______21.45______-26.185

[Closed Account 2]

Knockout draw:

Man City V Barca
Olympiacos v Man Utd
AC Milan v Atletico Madrid
Leverkusen v PSG
Galatasary v Chelsea
Schalke v Real Madrid
Zenit v Dortmund
Arsenal v Bayern Munich

[pineapple stu]

Nasty for Arsenal and Man City, who missed out on winning their groups by a single goal I think.

[DeLorean]

Definitely worth winning the group this time around. City have every chance against Barca though I would think, couldn't really say the same for Arsenal. Munich will play the two legs this time! On current form Atletico should easily account for Milan.

[DeLorean]

City didn't deserve to top their group anyway to be fair, just a case of Bayern taking their foot off the pedal.

[McNasara]

Some interesting facts:

Man City vs Barcelona
Manuel Pellegrini (Man City coach) has a very bad record against Barca (4-4-14), but City have never lost against Spanish team at home and the Catalonians haven't won in their last five away games in England.

Olympiacos vs Man Utd
Man Utd won every game (5) against Greek clubs at home (goal difference 17:1) and Oly lost every game (11) in England (goal difference 3:34).

Galatasaray vs Chelsea
Galata haven't lost in last five home matches versus clubs from England.

Schalke vs Real Madrid
Real Madrid didn't win in last ten away games in Germany (0-2-8).

[Closed Account 2]

Europa League R32

Dnipro v Spurs
Betis v Rubin Kazan
Swansea v Napoli
Juventus v Trabzonspor
Maribor v Sevilla
Plzen v Shakhtar
Odessa v Lyonnais
Lazio v Razgrad
Esbjerg v Fiorentina
Ajax v Salzburg
Tel-Aviv v Basel
Porto v Frankfurt
Anji v Genk
Kiev v Valencia
Paok v Benfica
Liberec v AZ Alkmaar

[Closed Account 2]

Europa League R16

R16

Liberec/AZ v Anji/Genk
Lazio/Razgrad v Kiev/Valencia
Porto/Frankfurt v Swansea/Napoli
Odessa/Lyonnais v Plzen/Shakhtar
Maribor/Sevilla v Betis/Rubin
Dnipro/Spurs v Paok/Benfica
TelAviv/Basel v Ajax/Salzburg
Juve/Trabzon v Esbjurg/Fiorentina


Potential Seville derby in there and potential Juventus v Fiorentina (latter are the only team to beat them in the league this season so far).

[Neish]

Man City V Barca
Should be a great game both have excellent attack and rather dodgy defences

Olympiacos v Man Utd
United should win but on recent form anything is possible

AC Milan v Atletico Madrid
Fancy Atletico to take this

Leverkusen v PSG
After watching Leverkusen against United PSG should easily beat them

Galatasary v Chelsea
Chelsea should be too strong but would be funny if a Drogba goal or two sent them out. One things for sure both sets of fans will get on well together

Schalke v Real Madrid
Real should easily dominate

Zenit v Dortmund
Dortmund would be too strong for Zenit

Arsenal v Bayern Munich
Again should be a good game but can't really see Arsenal beating Bayern

[DannyInvincible]

When he was informed about the goal difference thing, Pellegrini was quick to assume an air of supreme defiance, as in 'we don't care who we meet we're not concerned about such petty details as topping the group'.

I wonder would he say the same thing now.

[DeLorean]

[McNasara]

Tuesday 18 February 2014	Team 1	Team 2
Bayer 04 Leverkusen v Paris Saint-Germain (19:45 GMT)	3.75	1.36
Manchester City v FC Barcelona (19:45 GMT)	2.87	1.5
Wednesday 19 February 2014	Team 1	Team 2
AC Milan v Atlético de Madrid (19:45 GMT)	3.5	1.42
Arsenal v FC Bayern München (19:45 GMT)	5.3	1.28
Tuesday 25 February 2014	Team 1	Team 2
Zenit Saint-Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund (17:00 GMT)	5.5	1.23
Olympiacos v Manchester United (19:45 GMT)	5.3	1.25
Wednesday 26 February 2014	Team 1	Team 2
FC Schalke 04 v Real Madrid (19:45 GMT)	9.8	1.14
Galatasaray SK v Chelsea (19:45 GMT)	4.75	1.25