European Leagues.

[RedHand88]

This is like 2019 Liverpool.

[Mourne Red]

Bit baffling why the Gala manager left a clearly injured Oshimen on until half time

[RedHand88]

Bit baffling why the Gala manager left a clearly injured Oshimen on until half time

Sure he had injuries all over the pitch to deal with in the first 20mins.
Injuries have dried up since though thank god.

[Armagh18]

Chelsea 2 psg 8 is probably a better reflection of the quality of the 2 teams than the result in the world cup in the summer. 3 nil to Chelsea in that final.

Club World Cup was a money racket of glorified friendlies. 

Simply not true. Once they were there teams were trying to win it.

I was seriously surprised that Chelsea won it. Looks like PSG definitely try harder to win in the Champions League.

Absolutely. That doesn't mean it was a "glorified friendly".

Was a great money earner, but I'm sure players would have been better off with a rest in the summer, especially with the world cup this year.

[Blowitupref]

Last 8 line up

PSG v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Bayern Munich
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid
Sporting v Arsenal

Spain 3
England 2
Germany 1
France 1
Portugal 1

[Milltown Row2]

Some tasty line ups.. anyone's game now

Sporting scoring 5 at home will fancy themselves

[Armagh18]

Last 8 line up

PSG v Liverpool
Real Madrid v Bayern Munich
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid
Sporting v Arsenal

Spain 3
England 2
Germany 1
France 1
Portugal 1

PSG should get through, fancy Real to beat Bayern but could go either way, Barca Atletico again could go either way, Arsenal should have enough you would think.

[lurganblue]

That tube Durham was on at HT of the Barca v Newcastle game for talksport.  Two things....  He actually said, "I was gonna say that Yamal is no Max Dowman, but he scored that penalty".  My god.

Also Lewis Hall was presented as the best left back ever to touch grass. I dont know why I do it to myself.  It must be like listening to the Nolan show every morning.  Pure drivel

[tiempo]

Arsenal v Leverkusen, Ally is Rice the best MF in the world?

That a week after Valverde scored a hat trick v City

You couldn't be up them

Just makes the inevitable World Cup fail even funnier

Especially when they'll get totally bossed in MF by the first decent team they come up against

[Armagh18]

Arsenal v Leverkusen, Ally is Rice the best MF in the world?

That a week after Valverde scored a hat trick v City

You couldn't be up them

Just makes the inevitable World Cup fail even funnier

Especially when they'll get totally bossed in MF by the first decent team they come up against

Rice is a very good player but he wouldn't lace the boots of the very best.

[J70]

Knock out stages of champions league this season have showed Newcastle,Chelsea,Tottenham and Manchester City to be out of their depth

Three of those went out against last four standard teams. Aside from Newcastle they all got the last 32 bye.

Is everyone who can't realistically win it out of their depth?

Wouldn't consider a team out of their depth when competitive in a knock out tie.

Group stage is shadow boxing. None of Tottenham,Newcastle,Chelsea and Manchester City was competitive in these knock out ties.

You didn't answer the question. Spurs aside, they were all playing tier 1 teams that may win the whole thing. There are few teams apart from other tier 1 teams who WOULD be competitive i.e. lose by a goal or or bring it to extra time. A nice draw and a so-called out-of-their-depth team could the last eight or even last four.

I answered it.  When qualified for the Champions League knock out stages the objective is to competitive regardless of what "tier" team they are playing. 

So if City or Chelsea had met, say, Leverkusen or Galatasaray instead of Real Madrid/PSG and progressed, they'd have been competitive?

[Baile Brigín 2]

Knock out stages of champions league this season have showed Newcastle,Chelsea,Tottenham and Manchester City to be out of their depth

Three of those went out against last four standard teams. Aside from Newcastle they all got the last 32 bye.

Is everyone who can't realistically win it out of their depth?

Wouldn't consider a team out of their depth when competitive in a knock out tie.

Group stage is shadow boxing. None of Tottenham,Newcastle,Chelsea and Manchester City was competitive in these knock out ties.

You didn't answer the question. Spurs aside, they were all playing tier 1 teams that may win the whole thing. There are few teams apart from other tier 1 teams who WOULD be competitive i.e. lose by a goal or or bring it to extra time. A nice draw and a so-called out-of-their-depth team could the last eight or even last four.

I answered it.  When qualified for the Champions League knock out stages the objective is to competitive regardless of what "tier" team they are playing. 

So if City or Chelsea had met, say, Leverkusen or Galatasaray instead of Real Madrid/PSG and progressed, they'd have been competitive?

I don't have much confidence they would have won those ties.

The point is the British media is back with their nonsense. Clearly the EPL isn't the quality Sky and so on are telling us. And within that they are bigging up English players to silly heights again. When the internationals start England will be favourites for the WC again. And round and round we go.

[tiempo]

Rice is a very good player but he wouldn't lace the boots of the very best.
[/quote]

His physicality is something else, doesn't seem to tire, a couple of times he's run top class operators into the ground, against the top 1% with that added guile he'll get caught a bit, but not for lack of willing, such a driving force and I think he makes the players round him better which is a huge intangible

Interesting that not much ball being directed to Saka of late, has gone off the boil, hopefully springs back into life now sooner than later, has played a ton of football without much break the last 5 or 6 years

[Captain Obvious]

Knock out stages of champions league this season have showed Newcastle,Chelsea,Tottenham and Manchester City to be out of their depth

Three of those went out against last four standard teams. Aside from Newcastle they all got the last 32 bye.

Is everyone who can't realistically win it out of their depth?

Wouldn't consider a team out of their depth when competitive in a knock out tie.

Group stage is shadow boxing. None of Tottenham,Newcastle,Chelsea and Manchester City was competitive in these knock out ties.

You didn't answer the question. Spurs aside, they were all playing tier 1 teams that may win the whole thing. There are few teams apart from other tier 1 teams who WOULD be competitive i.e. lose by a goal or or bring it to extra time. A nice draw and a so-called out-of-their-depth team could the last eight or even last four.

I answered it.  When qualified for the Champions League knock out stages the objective is to competitive regardless of what "tier" team they are playing. 

So if City or Chelsea had met, say, Leverkusen or Galatasaray instead of Real Madrid/PSG and progressed, they'd have been competitive?

The way City,Chelsea played over both legs they were getting knocked out by whoever they played.  Even Tottenham one of the worst Premier League teams this year showed a bit of fight last night or be it probably says Atletico Madrid are likely making their exit in the next round.

Your own Liverpool will be more competitive against PSG than Chelsea were and Real Madrid won at their ease without some important players and some did return with just a cameos off the bench in the 2nd leg when the tie was already won.

[J70]

Knock out stages of champions league this season have showed Newcastle,Chelsea,Tottenham and Manchester City to be out of their depth

Three of those went out against last four standard teams. Aside from Newcastle they all got the last 32 bye.

Is everyone who can't realistically win it out of their depth?

Wouldn't consider a team out of their depth when competitive in a knock out tie.

Group stage is shadow boxing. None of Tottenham,Newcastle,Chelsea and Manchester City was competitive in these knock out ties.

You didn't answer the question. Spurs aside, they were all playing tier 1 teams that may win the whole thing. There are few teams apart from other tier 1 teams who WOULD be competitive i.e. lose by a goal or or bring it to extra time. A nice draw and a so-called out-of-their-depth team could the last eight or even last four.

I answered it.  When qualified for the Champions League knock out stages the objective is to competitive regardless of what "tier" team they are playing. 

So if City or Chelsea had met, say, Leverkusen or Galatasaray instead of Real Madrid/PSG and progressed, they'd have been competitive?

I don't have much confidence they would have won those ties.

The point is the British media is back with their nonsense. Clearly the EPL isn't the quality Sky and so on are telling us. And within that they are bigging up English players to silly heights again. When the internationals start England will be favourites for the WC again. And round and round we go.

Both things can be true. The PL is extremely competitive and is overall at a higher level than every other league except, arguably, La Liga. Just because there are a handful of ultra-elite teams in PSG, Barca and Real, and Bayern, who will normally beat all ahead of them except for the English elite in certain seasons, doesn't contradict that.

Plus, Spurs, Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool are all in some state of transition and disfunction this season. PSG, despite playing Liverpool off the park in Paris last year and clearly being the best team on the continent, just about got through against Liverpool and Villa, had it a bit handier against a malfunctioning Arsenal, but hammered seven shades of shite out of Inter in the final.