Champions League Latest - March 8th

**pete** · 08/03/2006, 7:30 PM

Lyon 1 PSV 0 (2-0 agg)
Cocu (PSV) sent off.

Liverpool 0 Benfica 1 (0-2 agg)

Arsenal 0 Real Madrid 0 (1-0 agg)

Milan 2 Bayern Munich 1 (3-2 agg)

Never seen match night on Uefa.com but its very impressive.

**dfx-** · 08/03/2006, 8:11 PM

Come on Real!

(I should shoot myself for saying that, but how and ever

)

**Karlos** · 08/03/2006, 8:46 PM

Looking forward to Sunday against the Pool now

should be plenty renditions of - One Team in Europe, there's only one team in Europe!!

**Marked Man** · 08/03/2006, 9:42 PM

Worst defence of the Champions League since they dropped the knockout format, apparently.

**Poor Student** · 08/03/2006, 9:54 PM

Porto lost in the 2nd round last year after finishing second in their group. How is Pool's defence any worse than that?

**Poor Student** · 08/03/2006, 10:03 PM

On research they are the only defending side apart from Marseille (banned from the 1994 tournament) and Porto last year not to at least make the quarter finals the following year. You could call it the joint least successful defence. In the old format Celtic went out in Round 1 in 1968 after winning in 1967. However, they lost to Dynamo Kiev in the days of no seeding.

**Closed Account 2** · 09/03/2006, 12:39 AM

It goes to show how important winning the group is. All the group winners except Liverpool went through and all the runners up went out except Benfica. Although the Inter - Ajax match is next week so we will have to see on that.

If you can go away and score then it gives you a great chance in the home leg.

Think Barca have it in the bag now.

**OwlsFan** · 09/03/2006, 9:13 AM

That Arsenal vs Real game was a classic and remained on a knife edge throughout. I started watching the Liverpool vs Benfica game but once Benfica scored I went over to watch the game at Highbury. Henry is different class when he's up for a game. Was there an Englishman on the Arsenal team ? End to end stuff - great game.

Watched the highlights on RTE - George Hamilton and his cliche "the crossbar saves Arsenal" irks me no end. How exactly did the crossbar save Arsenal - did it jump in the way of the ball and prevent a goal. He thinks this is a real cool way of saying "the ball hit the crossbar". He always says it and I grimace waiting for it.

Actually agreed with Dunphy

about Cisse and the montage of his pathetic attempts to cross the ball were amusing. Benfica were poor as well but not as bad as he tried to make out. However, his call for Robbie Fowler I wouldn't have agreed with. He touched the ball twice in the 20 minutes he was on (once for the corner when the ball when out and another pass). Crouch actually did well for the first 30 minutes and Liverpool should have been out of sight by half time. Then we heard the same old stuff about Liverpool that was trotted out last year and of course "Do you agree with that John ?" "I do Eamon"

Giles said Benitez had done "reasonably well". Hmmmm, he won the CL last year - the top trophy a team can win. I'd like to know what you have to win to do a good job.

**NeilMcD** · 09/03/2006, 9:23 AM

I think the point that Giles would argue and I think Karlos agrees with this is that you can be lucky to win the Champions League and week in week out the League is a better barometer of how you are doing. Liverpool are a better team this year than they were last year but they may win nothing and they certainly will not win the Champions League.

Sometimes the truth is in the details and Liverpool winning the Champions League last year was bizarre and Lawrenson and Hansen both said that it should not paper over the cracks of what was a very very poor team. That is the nature of cup Competitions that the best team does always win it. I think when Giles Says Benitez has done a reasonable job he means that he took a team that finished 4th the year before and the next year they finished 5th. This year they will finish 3rd probably and possibly 2nd. So i think reasonably well in those circumstances is probably accurate.

**klein4** · 09/03/2006, 9:30 AM

expect a bad run to follow in the league from the pool after last nite. think dunphy got it spot on when he said Benitez looked like he was looking at the game goin " what on earth can I do to fix this lot". great manager and expect him to leave at end of season unless he gets a bit of cash. should have sold gerrard when he got the chance. good player but not irreplaceable. could have built a team with the money. I can see what crouch does for liverpool but he should be more of a plan B than a plan A.would have liked to have seen fowler on for a bit longer. as far as I know from his newspaper columns and newstalk interviews giles rates benitez as a manager.

**NeilMcD** · 09/03/2006, 9:49 AM

I agree with you there Klein especially about crouch, I think he is right to be in the England squad but would not start him. The same for Liverpool. They dont have 1 top class striker either.

**Dodge** · 09/03/2006, 9:53 AM

Over on Sky Ruud Gullit was saying that in italy strikers are judged only on goals. It doesn't matter if you have effort and link up well. You're paid to score.

Liverpool fans are way too soft on Crouch, morientes et al

**Schumi** · 09/03/2006, 11:52 AM

Was Fowler carrying an injury or something? I would have thought he'd be a better starting option than Morientes who seemed really low on confidence.

**jockser** · 09/03/2006, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by Dodge

Over on Sky Ruud Gullit was saying that in italy strikers are judged only on goals. It doesn't matter if you have effort and link up well. You're paid to score.

Liverpool fans are way too soft on Crouch, morientes et al

Liverpool fans are sick to the teeth with morientes for the last 5 or 6 games we cant wait to get rid of him! As for crouch at least he offers more of a threat than nando but i would only have him on the bench as a plan B option. We need 2 proper strikers at liverpool.
oh and cisse can leave too!

**OwlsFan** · 09/03/2006, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Schumi

Was Fowler carrying an injury or something?

No, a stomach

. The guy is a has been. He hasn't been a success since he left Liverpool. Why all of a sudden should he be a success because he pulls on a red jersey. Doesn't work that day. Benitez sees him day in, day out in training. If he thought he was up to it, he would have started with him. As it was he made no impact when he came on.

A tall striker doesn't have to be a Plan B. The trouble is Crouch doesn't have anyone who can effectively feed off him. He did well for the first half - the second he disappeared and should have been substituted after an hour.

Klein - Dumphy can now read Benitez's mind

? I doubt it.

Neill - "reasonably well" is not winning a Champions League. It is brilliant. Most managers would gladly accept 3rd/4th in the league for a CL victory. It was not a fluke - they won it on merit.

**NeilMcD** · 09/03/2006, 12:38 PM

Well I think he has done reasonably well and so does Johnny Giles. I was just explaining where Giles was coming from if you dont want to know thats fine. But you seemed puzzled why Giles said reasonably well I was just spelling it out for you. Its a matter of opinion after that.

This tells you about the winning of the Champions League by Liverpool and Porto and the European Championship by Greece

Liverpool got knocked out last 16
Porto got knocked out last 16
Greece failed to qualify for World Cup

They were won off not victories by great teams but a combination of good tactics, commited players with passion and playing for one goal and a huge slice of luck.

**NeilMcD** · 09/03/2006, 12:40 PM

Neill - "reasonably well" is not winning a Champions League. It is brilliant. Most managers would gladly accept 3rd/4th in the league for a CL victory. It was not a fluke - they won it on merit.[/QUOTE]

It was 5th in the league the the league is a better barometer of where is a club is going and the long term future of the club.

**klein4** · 09/03/2006, 12:51 PM

give it a rest owlsfan.......of course dunphy cant read minds...it wasnt magic...it was just smart!

**OwlsFan** · 09/03/2006, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by NeilMcD

They were won off not victories by great teams but a combination of good tactics, commited players with passion and playing for one goal and a huge slice of luck.

Huge slice of luck

? Where was that ?

Good tactics + committed players with passion playing for one goal = a good side provided they have a modicum of ability. It's no use being fancy dans without have these elements in a team.

**NeilMcD** · 09/03/2006, 12:58 PM

Could be argued the goal V chelsea was luck but they should have had a penalty there also. They rode their luck away to Juventus when Juve where all over them. Shevchenko having one of those nights whenthe ball just would not go in for them in the final was a bit of luck also.

Also Finnan getting injured in teh final was lucky as Hamman changed the game for them.

I am not saying I want fancy dans. I am just saying that Liverpool will not be one of the Winners of the Champions League that will go on to dominate Europe or be up there year in year out and have sustained quality or sucess. LIke they were in the 70s and 80s and like Milan were in the 90s or Juvenus were in the late 90s early 00s and munich where also and Ajax