Official Football Thread

I of course watched Roma vs United and it was an entertaining match. But from the summary of Schalke vs Barca shown afterwards that seemed to have been a good game as well.

Roma had more posession than United and were good in several aspects of the game - but not in the final passes and finishing. Efficiency is important in football and United had it. They made more out of their posession and took the opportunities well. However, mixed feelings as Nemanja Vidic went off with a knee injury in the second half. He's been great this season and if he's out for the season it will be bad news for United. I hope it's just a little twist - sure enough it is painful there and then but with a little luck he might be back next week. But I can't see him playing against Boro on Sunday.

I must also say that Barca were not impressive against Schalke. The Germans had most of the scoring opportunities and Barca's winning goal came from a goalkeeper mistake. But as for Roma - poor finishing doesn't take a team to titles, even though they play well.

Anything but United vs Barca in the semi will be a massive surprise now. For the second one I'm sure we'll see Chelsea there, but Arsenal and Liverpool are very even and no one will be able to trick me into stating a favourite.

Update, after Wednesday's CL games

Entertaining stuff again, this time at the Emirates stadium. Arsenal and Liverpool put on a great performance - Arsenal were the better team and should've won, but Liverpool shouldn't be ashamed of themselves. However they were lucky not to get a penalty against them when Dirk Kuyt pulled down Alexander Hleb in the penalty area. With the ref being just 5 meters away, it was quite unbelievable to see that one pass.

Didn't see much from Fenerbahce vs Chelsea, but watched a 10 min summary and it seemed like Chelsea were the stronger team for the first 2/3 of the game and then the Turks (or Brazilians?) took over and managed to turn the score to their favor. Well done to Fenerbahce, but I still think Chelsea will be too strong. However a draw at SB would be a nice surprise.
 
I really thought Schalke had a chance to try and win the game in the first leg, what with the absentees in the barca squad. I'd be very surprised now if Barca didn't finish the job at the Nou Camp next week. As fir United..they played the perfect away leg of a European tie. They let Roma have the lion's share of the posession, snuffed out any attacks (Ferdinand was EMMENSE) and popped up with two vital away goals. Totti will probably be back for the return leg and I wouldn't put it past Roma to score but I think only a very brave or stupid man would bet against a Man Utd v Barcelona semi final.

In the otherlegs I still think Arsenal will progress as I can see them scoring and cancelling out Liverpool's away goal. Chelsea will be too strong for Fenerbache who are notoriously poor away from home.

I'm personally hoping for a Man U v Chelsea final where we can avenge last year's FA Cup defeat. And hopefully the game will be better than the Wembley bore from last year.
 
Tonight the quarter finals in the UEFA-cup (returns @ 10th of April)!

Leverkusen - Zenit
Rangers - Sporting
Bayern - Getafe
Fiorentina - PSV 


Might be tough for PSV, playing vs the Italian no. 4!

edit: Wow --> Fiorentina - PSV: 1-1!
First Fiorentina scores, then Gomez gets an injury and has to be replaced, and right after that PSV equalizes with a great shot!  :ok:

Other scores:

Bayern Leverkusen - FC Zenit: 1-4
Bayern München - Getafe: 1-1
Glasgow Rangers - Sporting Port: 0-0
 
Uefa Cup is just so difficult to call. If there was one result I'd have been certain of pre-kickoff, it would have been Bayern to beat Getafe at home.

I'm still confident my predicitons for the Champions League will come true. Though, Barca beating Man U is probably somewhat wishful thinking (Barcelona is my favourite team outside of W12).
national acrobat said:
Predictions for Champions League:

Liverpool beat Arsenal
Man U beat Roma
Barca beat Schalke
Chelsea beat Fenerbache

Semis:
Liverpool beat Chelsea
Barca beat Man U

Final:
Barca beat Liverpool
Click to expand...
 
Forostar said:
edit: Wow --> Fiorentina - PSV: 1-1!
First Fiorentina scores, then Gomez gets an injury and has to be replaced, and right after that PSV equalizes with a great shot!  :ok:

Other scores:

Bayern Leverkusen - FC Zenit: 1-4
Bayern München - Getafe: 1-1
Glasgow Rangers - Sporting Port: 0-0
Click to expand...

This means Zenit St.Petersburg are nearly there - the rest very very open yet. But the teams I expect to go through are the ones who played away first - one is always in a good position with a draw in the away leg. A possible exception for Rangers vs Sporting because 0-0 is an inferior result to 1-1. Rangers will go through with 1-1 away meaning Porto will probably need to be careful.

Acrobat: I actually hold Arsenal as favourites against Liverpool now, simply because they seem to have more capacity in their team right now. Liverpool were, for most of the 2nd half, trying to use their defensive CL tactics, but still Arsenal created lots of chances. I simply don't think Liverpool will be able to keep a clean sheet against Arsenal, so it will have to be a very open game. And that benefits Arsenal.

I sure agree that Chelsea will probably go through, the Turks are no good away from home. But I also think they will beat Liverpool if the scousers should deal with Arsenal. They are in better form and in addition to that comes their motivation to avenge the earlier semi-final defeats. If we get Chelsea vs Arsenal I see it as a completely open affair.

The other semi seems to be destined to be Barca vs United and that, too, will be a very close call. Barcelona are a team that have shown poor form recently (compared to what they are capable of) but if they have a good day nobody will be able to cope with them. Man United are more stable and have been very strong in defense lately. If their preferred back four is available I think they can stop anything Barca will throw at them.

We can actually end up with a situation where the last four finals have included only four teams ... and if the trend continues, Arsenal will win the trophy:

2005: Liverpool beat Milan
2006: Barca beat Arsenal
2007: Milan beat Liverpool
2008: ?

:)
 
I'm sticking with a Liverpool Man U final. Arsenal may score at Anfield, but so will 'Pool - and they will quite probably get two. The Man U tie is over and Chelsea have a small bit of an uphill struggle and may come a cropper at the Bridge.

On to much more important matters - have a look at the team that heads the current form in League One. If they carry this momentum into the play offs, they will quite possibly win promotion. Nine (hopefully) games to go. :D
 
Albie said:
I'm sticking with a Liverpool Man U final. Arsenal may score at Anfield, but so will 'Pool - and they will quite probably get two. The Man U tie is over and Chelsea have a small bit of an uphill struggle and may come a cropper at the Bridge.

On to much more important matters - have a look at the team that heads the current form in League One. If they carry this momentum into the play offs, they will quite possibly win promotion. Nine (hopefully) games to go. :D
Click to expand...
Good luck with that. Hopefully you get promoted as I believe QPR have a score to settle with the Shrimpers, so we can destroy you on our march into the Premiership next season.  :bigsmile:

I'll be down the Bush tomorrow as usual; home against Preston, and there's not much between the two sides.
Pos.    Team  Played  GoalDif. Points
14  QPR    41    -2        53
15 Preston    41 -2     53
 
Southend in the Premiership - interesting thought. Not sure I would want it just yet as it would inevitably destroy the record that only Southend hold - the only club to have a 100% record against Man U.

Although mathematically they can still make it, I guess even the most over optimistic supporter will not bet on QPR making the play off's - so should the Shrimpers get promoted, we shall see if that score can get settled.

Good luck tomorrow - home games really need to be won at this stage of the season.
 
2-0 down to the in-form Preston in injury time at the Bush - and QPR still managed to salvage a draw. Did you really expect that?

Talk of lucky escapes, Southend won their away game against Crewe today 3-1 and were, by all accounts, worthy winners - but Crewe had two (yes, two) penalties saved. Now I have bleated on about Southend scoring from just about every position, but their discipline is the very worst in League One. This has to be sorted if they want to get promotion - and survive in the Championship. I really think that two more wins from the last 5 games should be enough to secure a play off place - and in their current form, I would not be surprised if they won all five.

From 2010, Southend could very well be playing in their new Stadium (a short drive from their current home). And for £50m, they get this:

0,,10444~3199157,00.jpg


Looks bloody good to me. :D
 
Albie said:
2-0 down to the in-form Preston in injury time at the Bush - and QPR still managed to salvage a draw. Did you really expect that?
Click to expand...
It was a fantastic end to a pretty dreadful match.

Talk of lucky escapes, Southend won their away game against Crewe today 3-1 and were, by all accounts, worthy winners - but Crewe had two (yes, two) penalties saved. Now I have bleated on about Southend scoring from just about every position, but their discipline is the very worst in League One. This has to be sorted if they want to get promotion - and survive in the Championship. I really think that two more wins from the last 5 games should be enough to secure a play off place - and in their current form, I would not be surprised if they won all five.

From 2010, Southend could very well be playing in their new Stadium (a short drive from their current home). And for £50m, they get this:

0,,10444~3199157,00.jpg


Looks bloody good to me. :D
Click to expand...
I saw the highlights of your game, good finish for the third goal. Poor old Kenny Lunt - missed a penalty, and has a name that should never be misread. (Lenny who?:D)

Stadium looks great, but what the hell's the thing coming out of it??

What would the capacity be of that stadium, and do Southend have the fan-base to fill a large ground? This matter has been the subject of some discussion for quite a while at QPR, because Loftus Road is very crampt and has no scope for expansion. Now with the new investment, there's no doubt we have the funds to build a stadium worthy of a team that one day might be competing at the top end of the Premiership; the question is, what capacity would the new ground be? Being in London, QPR have to compete with most people supporting Arsenal and now Chelsea. We took 35,000 to Cardiff for the Div 2 play-off final, but I would be very suprised if QPR could attract those numbers every week in the Premiership.
 
The Tower of Babel has risen again. I am also very glad for Kuijt, who probably won't get an invitation for the Dutch team @ Euro'08. If he won't play at the European Championships then let him win the CL, g$d d***mit!
 
I was amazed by Kuyt's sheer energy! He ran and ran and ran.

Presumably van Nistelrooy is still your no.1 striker, but who else is there? Roy Makaay is probably too old, and he never seemed that good at international level anyway. Surely van Hooijdonk isn't still playing? :D
 
I disagree with you both, Acrobat and Forostar.

I don't like Arsenal much. I really don't. I don't like them at all. But try having the Champions League broadcasted by a bunch of wankers who seem to want to spread the "gospel of Merseyside" to the Norwegian people. They rant on about "fantastic" and "dream semi-final" and as Manchester United is "my" English team I really wouldn't like to see Liverpool go through, Especially not when it looks like they have been given the spot in the semis by poor reffing. OK, such things do happen, but twice in a week ...

You see, English football is quite big in Norway - many people who are really into football actually follow an English team with about the same passion as they have for their local Norwegian team and I am sure I will be told about this result from Liverpool fans often for the next weeks.

The only thing that can stop their mouths would be United beating them in the final. However I don't think I will survive such a final. For my health, I hope the Russians beat them in the semis.

Forostar: Kuyt and Babel might be nice people, but as long as they play for Liverpool I cannot wish them anything but failure  ;) (at the club level, that is - let them do their good stuff for the Netherlands).
 
national acrobat said:
I was amazed by Kuyt's sheer energy! He ran and ran and ran.
Click to expand...

That's his major strength, his drive seems unlimited, and he is a menace as well when the opponent is in ball possession. His passes mostly go well, and he hardly loses the ball.

national acrobat said:
Presumably van Nistelrooy is still your no.1 striker, but who else is there? Roy Makaay is probably too old, and he never seemed that good at international level anyway. Surely van Hooijdonk isn't still playing? :D
Click to expand...

Well, this has to do with Van Basten, his system and the positions where strikers are playing in their clubs. Van Basten says that he has better players. Van Persie, Van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Huntelaar are all higher in rank than Kuyt, and Affelay is getting their as well, so are a couple of mid fielders. As a sub there is Celtic's Vennegoor of Hesselink who always scores when he is brought into the field. So a lot of concurrence. Holland has too many good strikers too chose from. Many people also don't get it that Seedorf (the first, and to date, the only person to have won the Champions League with three different clubs: Ajax (1995), Real Madrid (1998), and AC Milan (2003, 2007)), is not playing as often, because he is so good for Milan. But to be honest: again a lot of concurrence, and the Dutch system works different than Milan's.

I hope I'm wrong, because I really enjoy the passion of Kuyt in the field.

@EW: I am not sure if Man U will reach the final. ;)
 
Heh the name "Vennegoor of Hesselink" sounds like some bad-ass medieval lord to me.  :D
 
The name has confused some Dutch people as well, because of the double last/family-name.
One of the meanings of the word "of" is "or", so that's even more confusion but also very funny.

I know someone who thought that the commentator wasn’t sure if the scorer was Vennegoor or Hesselink!
 
national acrobat said:
Stadium looks great, but what the hell's the thing coming out of it??

What would the capacity be of that stadium, and do Southend have the fan-base to fill a large ground?
Click to expand...
The thing coming from it is (I believe) a parade of shops - fans have been asked to give them a name. The stadium will hold around 22k and should they be playing in the Championship come 2010/11 season, then filling it would be probable - there is enough people in that part of Essex to do so and in that area, on the whole, it's most peoples second team. They get an average of around 6000 to 7000 at the moment.

Forostar said:
@EW: I am not sure if Man U will reach the final. ;)
Click to expand...
And it's certainly not given that Barca will beat Man U. I can't believe that Roma will overturn a 2-0 deficit away from home and Barca should be able to finish the job tonight - so the semi's should be Barca v Man U. And the form of Man U at the moment, it would not surprise me if they reach the final.

And what a game at Anfield last night - especially the last 10 minutes. No great surprise that Wenger is winging. :D
 
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