UEFA Champions League 2015-16

[ThePhilosopher]

regardless of the legal outcome, it is unthnikable that benzema comes backin the french national team after that

And Giroud must now be the #9 for France,after scored this absolute beauty against Bayern(a game Arsenal never ready for,with all the injuries):

https://streamable.com/h6hz

He's in great form and he's one of the best when it comes to scoring those types of goals.In fact,while there are better strikers out there(Aguero,Lewandowski,Suarez....),I'd say he's the best in the world right now when it comes to old fashioned strikers who can hold the ball up,head it and give it back to the most physical defenders.:nod:

 

[frederic38]

And Giroud must now be the #9 for France,after scored this absolute beauty against Bayern(a game Arsenal never ready for,with all the injuries):

https://streamable.com/h6hz

He's in great form and he's one of the best when it comes to scoring those types of goals.In fact,while there are better strikers out there(Aguero,Lewandowski,Suarez....),I'd say he's the best in the world right now when it comes to old fashioned strikers who can hold the ball up,head it and give it back to the most physical defenders.:nod:

with yesterday's goal, he scored more goals than benzema in the league+champions league
8 goals for giroud and 7 for benzema
benzema started 1 more game than giroud
and giroud is also ahead of benzema in goals/minutes ratio

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Sterling and Fernandinho missed two horrible sitters as ManCity lost to Juventus 0-1:


https://streamable.com/cufi

https://streamable.com/e950


Griezmann scored two goals for Atletico:

https://streamable.com/ldcu

https://streamable.com/gah0


Elsewhere,Martial missed the easiest chance of a drab 0-0 draw between ManU and PSV.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

And Giroud must now be the #9 for France,after scored this absolute beauty against Bayern(a game Arsenal never ready for,with all the injuries):

https://streamable.com/h6hz

He's in great form and he's one of the best when it comes to scoring those types of goals.In fact,while there are better strikers out there(Aguero,Lewandowski,Suarez....),I'd say he's the best in the world right now when it comes to old fashioned strikers who can hold the ball up,head it and give it back to the most physical defenders.:nod:

Just when Arsenal needed a miracle,Giroud is there with a hat trick:


https://streamable.com/3jib

https://streamable.com/vgzk

https://streamable.com/izzu


Arsenal went into this game against Olympiakos with one foot firmly in the Europa League as they needed a 2-0 win to go through,and Olympiakos hardly looses on home soil.Then...Giroud!!!!!!:drum:

 

[frederic38]

Just when Arsenal needed a miracle,Giroud is there with a hat trick:


https://streamable.com/3jib

https://streamable.com/vgzk

https://streamable.com/izzu


Arsenal went into this game against Olympiakos with one foot firmly in the Europa League as they needed a 2-0 win to go through,and Olympiakos hardly looses on home soil.Then...Giroud!!!!!!:drum:

this is why arsenal needs a "world class striker", like benzema who just scored a hat trick.....against malmo in a 8-0 victory
very good season by giroud, if only he had not been benched for a long time to start walcott, he could be have even more goals
but that's what happens with strikers usually, they have to fight for their place
unlike benzema who is the only striker of the biggest club in the world, and was outscored by morata, higuain, chicharito etc, but was still kept while they were sold

 

[frederic38]

great win by benfica against zenith, without getting a goal scored against them at home
i hope they will make it to the next round but they have a very difficult schedule, they have played (and lost) against porto just before and then they will face the leaders of the portuguese league in the most important match of the season, perhaps

 

[frederic38]

arsenal: 7 whites, 2 "european" blacks, 1 arab marketing player, 1 mixed south american
barcelona: 8 whites and 3 mixed south americans

2-0 for barcelona in the "emirates" stadium of arsenal
barcelona have muslim marketing player munir on the bench (worst player to ever play for barcelona since that infamous nigerian defender)
and the other muslim is suspended
hopefully he won't play very often because as it is right now, barcelona is a very good team to root for

 

[frederic38]

so benfica, before playing the 2nd leg of the champions league playoffs, is facing the huge rivals sporting lisboa
the league title will probably be decided in this match and then the champions league season

 

[Matra2]

Looks like Benfica are going to go through anyway. Pretty exciting match against Zenit St Petersburg.

 

[frederic38]

Looks like Benfica are going to go through anyway. Pretty exciting match against Zenit St Petersburg.

nicolas gaitan
they also won against sporting in the most important league match so they are in a good position to win the title

 

[frederic38]

chelsea lost against psg
i don't know why the chelsea coach decided to star the well documented flop obi mikel instead of matic
at one point matic was one of the best in the world in his position
maybe there are problems with him in the lockers room
but that's an incredibly dumb decision
hopefully matic will go outside of the premier league next season

equally surprising is the fact that he now starts a young brazilian player named kenedy as a fullback
he takes baba's place
baba, a black player chelsea bought for a LOT of money in the german league, now longer plays after some costly mistakes
that's a huge flop considering baba just arrived to the club this season for more than 20 millions (incredible for a fullback) and kenedy is not a true fullback and it was not expected at all to see him take his place

from wikipedia's baba page:

"On 27 February, Rahman made an error which allowed Southampton's Shane Long to score in the 42nd minute; he was substituted for Kenedy at half time and Chelsea eventually won 2–1 at St. Mary's "

"On Baba, Hiddink said: “I can easily say he was injured – but no, he was just taken off because of that [mistake]."
http://www.westlondonsport.com/chelsea/hiddink-explains-baba-substitution-and-praises-kenedy

 

[frederic38]

about PSG , with only 1 non south american black starter in this match (for a french club, and the blackest city in europe!), this season have been a success thanks to this victory
di maria especially is a very big satisfaction
he does what is expected of him and is the thingthat makes psg better this season

there are too many brazilians though
thiago silva, suposed to be the best defender in the world when they bought him, is no longer called in the brazilian national team after some ridiculous showings (crying while his team needed him to fullfill his captain role for example)
lucas is still a flop
these are the ones that psg could do without
they started 6 brazilians out of 11

 

[ThePhilosopher]

there are too many brazilians though
thiago silva, suposed to be the best defender in the world when they bought him, is no longer called in the brazilian national team after some ridiculous showings (crying while his team needed him to fullfill his captain role for example)
lucas is still a flop
these are the ones that psg could do without
they started 6 brazilians out of 11

Haha,I still remember that ManU actually had a 30m bid accepted(by some Brazilian club) for Lucas Moura,and PSG then bid 45m leaving Fergie red-faced.What a flop of epic proportions he has been,for both Brazil and PSG.

 

[Matra2]

Bad miss by Narsingh - one of the very few pro-footballers in Europe of Indian background - in the penalties for PSV Eindhoven. He's the only one who missed. I like watching Atletico so I'm glad they won.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Haven't seen the game,but Atletico really need to rethink their gameplan,considering that they couldn't put a goal past PSV in 210 minutes.Very,very bad.Of course,it is all because they messed up when they spent big bucks on Jackson Martinez.

Link to the penalty shootout,for anyone interested:

https://streamable.com/2e5i

 

[frederic38]

Haven't seen the game,but Atletico really need to rethink their gameplan,considering that they couldn't put a goal past PSV in 210 minutes.Very,very bad.Of course,it is all because they messed up when they spent big bucks on Jackson Martinez.

Link to the penalty shootout,for anyone interested:

https://streamable.com/2e5i

agreed but it's a bigger problem in the spanish league than in the champions league
they are a very dangerous champions league team because of their defense
but they should be able to do something else against smaller teams
jackson martinez + fernando torres, they spent money on big players but one was expected to be not at his best and the other one was supposed to be great and turned out to be a flop
they should give more chances to vietto

 

[frederic38]

in bayern - juventus, great work by morata and nice finish by the colombian cuadrado:

https://streamable.com/hxk7

so far only very white teams remain except the english team
i think bayern and juventus might be teams with the most black players left except for the english team

almost no african players (players representing an african nation internationally) left ...except in the english club

 

[frederic38]

8th goal in this year's champions league for lewandowsky
+24 in the german league where he's the top scorer....

 

[frederic38]

on the juventus side the one who made them lose is surely evra....pathetic match once again, but nothing new he has been doing that for ages, he's like marcelo except unlike marcelo he's not skilled at all and can't hold the ball (marcelo has no end product but that's another story)

on the last minute equalizer by bayern evra gives the ball away in his own 1/4 of the field, very close to the penalty area:

https://streamable.com/yctm

then on the goal that gives bayern the lead he gives the ball away again, this time in the penalty area:

https://streamable.com/sjhu

what an horrible game
one thing a defender has to avoid is losing the ball like that close to his goal
and evra did it twice in the same game!

for bayern alaba is guilty on the first goal too:

https://streamable.com/p88c

 

[ThePhilosopher]

in bayern - juventus, great work by morata and nice finish by the colombian cuadrado:

https://streamable.com/hxk7

Morata had another great Champions league night.His WRONGLY disallowed goal when the score was 1-0 in favour of Juve would have sealed the tie:

https://streamable.com/kkfc

The last Bayern defender clearly played him onside,and that was a decent finish to put it in the net.Sadly,things were not meant to be that way.I understand football cannot have a video referee but there must be an appeal system where each team has atleast one chance to opt for a video review of a decision by an off field official.If the decision is reversed,the team would still hold that one review and even one wrong appeal would mean that they are left with nothing.Such a system would prevent misuse and it will hardly take 30 seconds to review the decision,and that much time is commonly wasted in passing incidents like freekicks.

on the juventus side the one who made them lose is surely evra....pathetic match once again, but nothing new he has been doing that for ages, he's like marcelo except unlike marcelo he's not skilled at all and can't hold the ball (marcelo has no end product but that's another story)

on the last minute equalizer by bayern evra gives the ball away in his own 1/4 of the field, very close to the penalty area:

https://streamable.com/yctm

then on the goal that gives bayern the lead he gives the ball away again, this time in the penalty area:

https://streamable.com/sjhu

what an horrible game
one thing a defender has to avoid is losing the ball like that close to his goal
and evra did it twice in the same game!

for bayern alaba is guilty on the first goal too:

https://streamable.com/p88c

Pathetic by Evra and Alaba.Its a shame that both are recognised as among the best LBs in the world and Alaba apparently is the perfect footballer for he can play in all positions and will become the world's best player

 

[Rebajlo]

Here's the draw for the quarterfinals:

Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid
Bayern Munich vs Benfica
Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid
Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester City

First legs (5-6 April); second legs (12-13 April)

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Here's the draw for the quarterfinals:

Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid
Bayern Munich vs Benfica
Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid
Paris Saint-Germain vs Manchester City

First legs (5-6 April); second legs (12-13 April)

Real,Bayern have straightforward ties on paper.PSG should cut through ManCity,and I expect ManCity to be humiliated badly if all of Aguero,KDB,Silva aren't fully fit.They won't be able to score without the trio on the pitch.

Barcelona-Atletico will be quite a spectacle.I can bet Barcelona will be the unhappier of the two.If there's one team which can keep Messi,Suarez quiet,it it this.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I'll cover a few things in this post:

Masceranho made a great tackle against Welbeck to deny him a goal scoring opportunity(knowing Welbeck though,there was no real danger):

https://streamable.com/891s

He has to be one of the most underrated professionals in World Football today.He has everything,skill,tenacity and a great last ditch tackle(he actually tore his anus in one of his most famous ones in the 2014 WC and just carried on like nothing happened).How many CFs have been able to take advantage of his height?He'll never get the Ballon D'Or sadly,not unless it has separate awards for defenders/midfielders.


EUROPA LEAGUE UPDATE:

Coutinho scored a brilliant goal against ManU:

https://streamable.com/8tp9

I remember Coutinho andBalotelli breaking out in the Inter team under Mourinho in 2008.It was plain to see Coutinho was brilliant and Mario was a twat.Coutinho had to cut his teeth at clubs like Espanyol and then was transferred to Liverpool for a paltry 12m,after being declared a flop while Mario was being whored out by Mino Riaola(the same agent who is now whoring out Pogba) to the biggest European clubs for millions despite having never done a worthwhile thing in his life.Now look at where each player is.Coutinho is being linked to Barcelona(they too need depth,and Coutinho shouldn't cost a bomb) while "Super Mario" will most likely end up in filthy Turkey.

Adruiz is finally being called up to the Spanish National team.Here is his goal against Valencia:

https://streamable.com/5htr

 

[frederic38]

Real,Bayern have straightforward ties on paper.PSG should cut through ManCity,and I expect ManCity to be humiliated badly if all of Aguero,KDB,Silva aren't fully fit.They won't be able to score without the trio on the pitch.

Barcelona-Atletico will be quite a spectacle.I can bet Barcelona will be the unhappier of the two.If there's one team which can keep Messi,Suarez quiet,it it this.

don't underestimate benfica

 

[frederic38]

for example jonas has an incredible season for benfica: 31 goals in CL + league