Sometimes I think 'Tuz fans think that other teams are not playing to win also...
We're into the SFs in Europa. We beat Fiorentina and Lyon to get there. Of the teams progressing to SF, we had, by far the toughest opponents. We won 3-1 on aggregate here, and 2-1 against Fiorentina after having gone into the away leg in a poor position. We're doing well. This was always going to be a tough match with the way Lyon man-marked us and ran their socks off. We've had a bit of an injury crisis through February and March, meaning a lot of our starters did not get much rest, so of course we're tired. So are other teams who have had injury troubles. We're still winning though. On pace for 98-100 points in league, and in Europa semi-finals.
Teams don't see that they're playing Juventus in Europe and just roll over and play dead. Not even Bayern, or Barca, or Madrid inspire this. Everyone is playing to win in Europe. In the league, often teams play for draws away from home, (besides us and a couple other frontrunners), in knockout, everyone is trying to win obviously. Real Madrid was knocked out of UCL 6 years in a row in the round of 16 including Ronaldo's first year, and against much weaker sides often.
The Atletico Madrid people are all obsessed about, played Europa last year, and got knocked out by Rubin, in the round of 32. Europa League, round of 32, Rubin. And this was under Simeone. Talk about embarrassing. This year, they're doing fantastic. Good for them. But don't act like Simeone is some kind of god because he has had the good fortune of having some of the best strikers in Europe fall in his lap, and has had great success this year, as opposed to a piss-poor year last year.
Everyone plays to win. Sometimes good teams get upset by lesser teams. Unfortunately this happened to us in the group stage this year. However, we're doing very well in the EL. Maybe take some pride in your club's accomplishments, rather than behaving like spoilt children, acting like the apocalypse is here. Have you forgotten the two 7th place finishes already?
And to suggest that we've regressed from Conte's first year is beyond absurd. We weren't even playing in Europe, we finished the season with, I think, 84 points. We already have 84 with 6 rounds left this year. Our nickname was Drawventus. People seriously think we have regressed since a 15 draw season (unbeaten albeit) without even having to deal with European play? We drew against have the bottom dwellers in the league that season.