Quote:
Originally Posted by phelan
the worst part of it all is: the results had all the makings for any team like...say, ARSENAL, to make a deep CL run
no manchester teams in sight
chelsea sucks *** (sorry jon, but admittedly your side was downright awful against napoli)
basel overturned a suddenly shoddy bayern team
inter is falling apart
lyon and marseille, ligue 1 representatives, aren't exactly lighting it up right now
i mean, aside from the spaniards (barca poured it on but are looking leggier by the day; RM could get shellshocked, you never know), the italians are the only ones playing well. AC milan should have been a close game, but arsenal were never in it. if we had something out of the san siro, i'm confident we could have gotten a positive result at the emirates.
but noooo. in spite of the weakest pool of CL teams in recent memory, we get spanked by the rossonerri. ugh.
maybe naysayers are right, and the EPL just sucks now.
forza...udinese.
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Not disagreeing with you. We played pretty poor on Tuesday. Had at least 3 clear chances of wrapping up the tie in Italy that night; taking a huge, maybe insurmountable aggregate lead back to London, but we gave away chances and paid the price. David Luiz, it has to be said, is a outright terrible defender. He gift wrapped Napoli's 3rd not dealing with a simple ball over the top. Nothing fancy, just clear you lines and get on with it!
If we advance to the Quarter Finals, we will surely go out at this stage unless something is changed. AVB might be out of a job even before then...
You might be right, the strength of the Premier League in the Champions League has not been what it used to be this particular season. Although City are having some success in the Europa league; they sent Porto crashing out of the competition. Against the top European sides though, English teams have been struggling.
Bayern probably should have won that match in Switzerland, but credit to Basel for playing to the last whistle. Its certainly not something Bayern cannot overcome at home, as they are very strong at home in Europe.
I agree the two Spanish teams look the strongest to make it to the final. Madrid have been playing extremely well in all competitions, so you have to say they're the favorites to go pretty far in the tournament. Might be Jose Mourinho's parting gift to Madrid, to present the club with a La Liga title and European trophy before leaving in the summer, just like he did at Inter. If he returns to England, what club will he manage I wonder?
I'd like to see a Madrid/Milan final actually, I think that would be a very entertaining game. Lots of history between these two clubs too, the two most successful clubs in the history of the competition. Wouldn't hurt to see a German side return to the final again either.