[EU] Champions League 2008/2009 (22 Viewers)

[dogsarecute]

Arsenal has been Man U's bogey team for the past few seasons. I think the result depends on how Anderson plays.

 

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[BillyG]

Arsenal has been Man U's bogey team for the past few seasons. I think the result depends on how Anderson plays.

if...fergie not gonna rest scholes i don't tink

 

[Salvatore]

Rooney, Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, all seemed unable to make a difference yesterday.

I thought Rooney did quite well last night considering Berbatov, Anderson and Carrick were very average.

Arsenal has been Man U's bogey team for the past few seasons. I think the result depends on how Anderson plays.

Why Anderson?

 

[Fred]

We would have surely eliminated Roma, and maybe even Villareal ( i say maybe because we were going to play without Sissoko and Amauri and because our form is really bad), but we were surely going to lose against Manchester with our current team and form.

Arsenal actually has a chance against ManU. They don't fight for anything in England, they can rest the entire starting XI before the CL matches, and they can concentrate completely on CL. They survived the CL stages where they were missing their best players and now with their best players very well rested, hiting the right form, they can eliminate Manchester and even win the final.

CL has always been about luck. Since there is no second chance most of the time, the timing of the matches is extremely important.
In 2007 Milan had a pathetic period from September-March. They got Celtic in the first knock-out round and they needed extra time to eliminate them. Then they got Bayern and they drew 2:2 on the first match.....And then they hit the right form.
What if they got Barcelona/ManU/Liverpool etc in the first rounds instead of getting Celtic and Bayern? They'd have surely been eliminated. But on the contrary, they won the whole thing.

The same could be said about Arsenal this year.

But this shouldn't be an excuse for those who dislike Milan (like me :smile: ) or dislike Arsenal. We all know that CL is like this, that luck plays huge part and we know that this isn't a long championship where consistency is the most important.
The CL is a competition where timing, where one moment, is the difference between playing in the semis or losing in the 1/8 finals, between winning and not winning the whole thing.

To sum up, no-one should underrate Arsenal's achievment so far in CL and their chances till the end. Imo, every team left in the competition now has 25% chances to win this year's edition of CL.

Very good post and i can't say i disagree with anything there. But i'd like to emphasize the fact that we had our most important players injured for most of the time, so had we played against a big team in the second round Arsenal fans would have claimed they were unlucky and they would have won had it not be for the injuries.

Now its time to prove ourselves to the neutrals(and the doubters(me included here admittedly)) we're going to have our important players fit for Man Utd and we have no excuse if we lose. If we beat them however, it means that we proved we deserve to be in this stage, because beating Man Utd over two legs means you deserve to be where you are imo.

Its a big turnaround in fortunes for us, not to mention a huge turn in confidence as well. 1 and a half months ago i was saying we won't qualify for next season's CL now i'm thinking of winning it, go figure.

 

[.zero]

hell, disgusting.

there have never been two teams of one city in the finals (chelsea and arsenal), there have never been the same final for two years (chelsea and manure) and there have never been barcelona vs manure final. so i will go with usual Arsenal - Barcelona final and cheer for Venger, as i love his tactics, he`s one smart motherfucker.

same here

 

[Albertmare]

Why Anderson?

simply because he has a coolest haircut .

 

[chester]

I thought Rooney did quite well last night considering Berbatov, Anderson and Carrick were very average.

True, he fought for it and was ok considering he played a bit out of position.

 

[Bozi]

What a performance by Theo ey? That kid run Capdevilla ragged all day long and ripped em a new arsehole.

oh hi there (insert anal english commentator) when did you hijack Fred's account?


listening to them yesterday was embarrassing, creaming over the strike(yes it was a good finish) but the flick by Fabregas into his path was exquisite yet completely ignored by Pleat and the rest of the ITV team. the rest of teh game was spent wanking over Walcott's performance even after yet another cross failed to find a red shirt:melayyanandmessi:

 

[Fred]

oh hi there (insert anal english commentator) when did you hijack Fred's account?


listening to them yesterday was embarrassing, creaming over the strike(yes it was a good finish) but the flick by Fabregas into his path was exquisite yet completely ignored by Pleat and the rest of the ITV team. the rest of teh game was spent wanking over Walcott's performance even after yet another cross failed to find a red shirt:melayyanandmessi:

But the thing is we already know Cesc is a wizard, nothing new there, i always expect the most of him. But Theo hasn't been consistent in his end product, and he's missed his fair share of chances, but the way he played yesterday and the way he finished that goal was brilliant. I don't know if you remember but i was and always will be one of his biggest critics. I'm still not convinced that he's that special player that the press is making him out to be, but i do think he's a very useful weapon to have in your Arsenal(No pun intended )

 

[Salvatore]

oh hi there (insert anal english commentator) when did you hijack Fred's account?


listening to them yesterday was embarrassing, creaming over the strike(yes it was a good finish) but the flick by Fabregas into his path was exquisite yet completely ignored by Pleat and the rest of the ITV team. the rest of teh game was spent wanking over Walcott's performance even after yet another cross failed to find a red shirt:melayyanandmessi:

You should have heard Drury and Pleat in the City-Hamburg game.

"I was desperate for Robinho to sidestep him in the box and maybe get a penalty"

"WAS HE OFFSIDE?"
"NO HE WASNT ... oh he was"

 

[Bozi]

But the thing is we already know Cesc is a wizard, nothing new there, i always expect the most of him. But Theo hasn't been consistent in his end product, and he's missed his fair share of chances, but the way he played yesterday and the way he finished that goal was brilliant. I don't know if you remember but i was and always will be one of his biggest critics. I'm still not convinced that he's that special player that the press is making him out to be, but i do think he's a very useful weapon to have in your Arsenal(No pun intended )

aye his pace is unreal but tbh he reminds me of Ivan Sproule when he was at Hibs, in a good passing team he looked the business, pacy direct but absolutely no ends product 90% of the time. put him into a less flamboyant team and he will look like a sprinter/ headless chicken

You should have heard Drury and Pleat in the City-Hamburg game.

"I was desperate for Robinho to sidestep him in the box and maybe get a penalty"

"WAS HE OFFSIDE?"
"NO HE WASNT ... oh he was"

pleat is a cunt of the highest order with absolutely NO knowledge of football outside of yorkshire, have to stop myself putting my foot through the TV when he commentates Juve games and have to listen to his say Camresi,Camoronsi,camernenensi.........

 

[pitbull]

Camresi,Camoronsi,camernenensi.........

 

[V]

Alen,

could you please dig up that post of yours, where you explained the new qualification system for next year. I'm having trouble finding it.

Budi drug.

 

[Alen]

Alen,

could you please dig up that post of yours, where you explained the new qualification system for next year. I'm having trouble finding it.

Budi drug.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_2009-10

If you don't get it from there, i'll try to simplify it and explain it to you better.

 

[Alen]

I'll explain it anyway

22 teams will qualify directly for CL. These are the 22 teams :

3 teams from England (Manchester, Liverpool, Chelsea ? )
3 teams from Spain (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla ? )
3 teams from Italy (Inter, Juve, Milan ? )
2 teams from Germany (Wolfsburg, Bayern ? )
2 teams from France (Marseille, Bordeaux ?)
2 teams from Russia (Rubin Kazan, CSKA Moscow - official )
1 team from Romania (Dinamo Bucharest ? )
1 team from Portugal (Porto ? )
1 team from the Netherlands (AZ Alkmaar - official)
1 team from Scotland (Celtic ?)
1 team from Turkey ( Sivasspor ? )
1 team from Ukraine (Dinamo Kiev? )
The CL winner of 2008/09. If the CL winner already secures qualification through the domestic league then the 22nd team that will go directly to CL will be the champion of Belgium (Anderlecht?)

TOTAL: 22 teams

------------------------------------------------------
Only 10 teams will make it to CL through qualifications. The qualifications will be done in two separated groups. 5 will come from one group while the other 5 from the other group.

5 teams will come this way:

Round 1 (10 teams)
3rd placed team from Russia (Dinamo Moscow - official)
Runners up from Romania ( Unirea ?)
Runners up from Portugal (Sporting?)
Runners up from the Netherlands (Ajax?)
Runners up from Scotland (Rangers?)
Runners up from Turkey (Besiktas?)
Runners up from Ukraine (Shakhtar?)
Runners up from Greece (Panathinaicos?)
Runners up from Belgium (Standard?)
Runners up from Czech Republic (Sparta?)

The 5 winners will play in round 2 against these 5 teams..

Round 2
4th placed in England (Arsenal?)
4th placed in Spain (Valencia?)
4th placed in Italy (Genoa?)
3rd placed in Germany (Hamburg?)
3rd placed in France (Lyon?)

The 5 winners go in CL groups

----------------------------------------------

The last 5 teams will be given after 3 rounds played between the champions of the smaller leagues. 40 teams will participate here and only the 5 best will qualify.
It's interesting because the strongest team among these 40 teams will be the champion of Greece. The teams won't risk playing against Arsenal or Valencia in the qualifiers. For example, the champions of Croatia can make it to CL if they eliminate the champions of, lets say, Wales and the champions of Slovenia. In worst case the road to CL will be open if you eliminate the champs of Israel and the champs of Greece.

 

[V]

I (almost) understood it from the wiki article, but your explanation sealed the deal.

 

[Dostoevsky]

Mozes bar da se zahvalis coveku.

 

[JCK]

Alen, where are the teams from Scandinavia in the whole equation? Ireland and Wales also?

 

[Alen]

Alen, where are the teams from Scandinavia in the whole equation? Ireland and Wales also?

All of them are in the last part. Among the 40 "small league" teams.
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Wales.... all of them.

 

[Alen]

I named the countries and the teams that will go directly to CL and the ones who will play in the tougher qualifications group. If you don't see your country there, then you can be sure that it's in the last group of 40 teams