With OM doing so bad in the league right now, The Champions League has to be the furthest thing from their minds. Same thing with Arsenal. Hmmm I can see Dortmund and Olympiakos being the 2 teams advancing. Not far fetched.
Games this week Tuesday: Olympiacos vs Olympique de Marseille Wednesday: Ajax Amsterdam - Olympique Lyonnais Lille OSC - CSKA Moscow Thursday: Paris Saint-Germain - Red Bull Salzburg Udinese - Stade Rennais F.C. Pretty pivotal opening games in the champions League, if Marseille wants to have any shot at going through I think three points are a must here. Greek soccer has taken a hit lately and Olympiakos haven't played any league games yet so I think OM got a decent shot at a win despite their bad form. CSKA got some injury concerns and lost 0-4 in their last league game at home against Dynamo so would be nice if Lille can start their campaign with a win. Ajax has looked pretty solid in the dutch league so far but Lyon will be the best team they played this year. I'm cautiously optimistic about all games save perhaps Rennes who I think will have some trouble on the road in this European campaign.
Ajax and OL are the 2 youngest teams in the Champions League and of course OM are near the bottom of the list of teams who have been together the longest.
So results last time around: Olympiacos vs Olympique de Marseille 0 - 1 Ajax Amsterdam - Olympique Lyonnais 0 - 0 Lille OSC - CSKA Moscow 2- 2 Paris Saint-Germain - Red Bull Salzburg 3 - 1 Udinese - Stade Rennais F.C. 2 - 1 2W 2D 1L This week: Tuesday: Trabzonspor - Lille OSC Olympique Lyonnais - Dinamo Zagreb Wednesday: Olympique de Marseille - Borussia Dortmund Thursday: Athletic Bilbao - Paris Saint-Germain Stade Rennais F.C. - Atletico Madrid
I'm not confident for a Marseille win in Dortmund considering their awful defense. PSG are on a big roll right now. thats why its hard to see them losing.
OM is clobbering dortmund. from what i've seen on a crappy stream though, both sides are very spotty. probably the worst CL match in history featuring two teams from "big 5" leagues.
Told you Marseille would win, we might flounder in the league but the experience for Europe is there. Dortmund reminds me of Lille to a certain degree, lots of possession, squandered chances and then open for counter attacks. 2W 1D this week in Champions League and still no losses for the french teams, not bad even though Lille should have done better.
Very nice win. It was 3-0 but I read it was much closer than the score. Nice to see them topping the group. I didnt expect that.
Tuesday Lille - Internazionale Real Madrid - Lyon Wednesday Marseille - Arsenal Thursday Rennes - Celtic Slovan Bratislava - Paris SG Really tough games in the Champions League this week, would be thrilled if one of the team could get a win, but could be three losses. Much easier fixtures in the Europa League. Quick predictions: Lille L Marseille W Lyon L PSG W Rennes W
From what I saw Lille dominated the possession but just couldn't score. Julio Cesar was great and Lille inefficient about creating chances. 12 - 3 in Corners for Lille.
Not the greatest week for France, 3 losses and 2 draws and Portugal officially passed the league in uefa's ranking.
i watched Slovan-PSG and couldn't have been less impressed with PSG. selfishness in front of goal, nonchalance, lack of solidarity... they showed all the defects their detractors have been hoping for. for erding to miss everything all PSG fans expect. but nenê had his head dans le guidon all night, menez was worked off ball after ball like a boy playing against men, and saying pastore was mediocre is charitable. worse than losing almost every challenge and misadjusting every important pass he tried, he was just walking around he field. on one throw-in that he felt he should have been rewarded (replays show he was wrong) he just smirked and let play get away right under his nose like a spoiled child. the cherry on top was a gratuitous coup de foulard he lofted right into a group of blue shirts. that's not just showboating. it's faute professionelle and if i had been coaching, cause for immediate substitution and a substantial fine. want more? they finished at 9 and were not far from 8. sebo owned lugano and if either slovan had had another striker of that level or camara had not done the work of two the defense would have sunk corps et biens. even the notoriously chauvinistic thierry roland had had his fill by the hour and started rooting for the slovakians. if you're a PSG fan i give you fair warning before watching any recording: you will not be pleased.
http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2012.html Very small difference but they need to outperform their teams in Europe to hold on to the 5th spot this year, if both Porto and Benfica qualify for the knockout stages they'll probably pull away from France. Can't see PSG having a deep EL run so will probably need some help from either Zenit/Shaktar or Basel.
Lille are almost done in terms of Champions League but OM and Lyon have matches coming up against teams who arent as tough so I'm praying they win those. PSG is looking good now for advancement as their are in 2nd place. I thought Lille would get 2nd place easily but they have disapointed and I'm interested to see if they can finish 3rd now and get the Europa league spot. If we can get OL and OM into the CL knockout stages and PSG and Lille into the Europa League next round then I would satisfied with that. Anything less than that is a failure/disapointment.
as for me, i'm with you not only there but with what you said about rennes elsewhere: i've had it with them. if i was moustache i'd stop sending 4th place to the EL. i'd put the spot up for grabs this way: any L1 club who's interested can put in their application with letter of motivation: "we finished 12th but over the last 15 matchdays we were 8-5-2; players X and Y coming up from the academy are great prospects, we intend to spend X€ in the transfer market and are keeping the same coach. the club chosen is under certain obligations: to play their first team not lose home or away to any club under a certain rating, advance to a certain point in the tournament... in return they get matches on european weeks moved to the day of their convenience, contract fulfilled means guaranteed no relegation, seeding in the next league cup, maybe even their EL scores counted in their goal differential, who knows? not fulfilling the bargain means points docked, both matches against next year's EL candidate played away... i don't know, SOMETHING to make sure the club who goes into the EL will take it seriously!
I wonder if that is legal under UEFA rules, but yea seeing teams mess up the coefficient year after year is frustrating, at this point losing a European spot might be in the league's best interest to avoid the Socheux/Montpelliers etc. I had some hopes for Rennes, they are rich enough not to be forced to sell off big talents right away (like M'Vila) and they do have a quite deep and talented midfield, their downfall to me falls on their inexperienced backline, the goalkeeper and lack of true strikers. Of course they were also screwed with the group draw, both getting a hard draw and then having the 4th seeded Sion getting replaced with a 2nd seeded Celtic. PSG will probably progress but tbh they have looked really awful in most of their Europa league games, severely outplayed by Bilbao and the two games against Bratislava was pretty woeful, if they finish 2nd in the group they might have to play teams like Tottenham, Porto, Shaktar Donetsk or Napoli and it could be a quick exit if they don't improve.
That's not true. PSG totally outplayed Bratislava twice and dominated Salzburg too. The only team that really gave PSG a hard time is Bilbao. I remember we promised hell to PSG during the past season with Dortmund and Sevilla in the group which ended up in PSG going through despite fielding a mixed team everytime.