i beg to differ. while it was perfectly clear that PSG was a richer and more talented side they were perfectly dreadful in both matches; in bratislava i would even say they were outplayed and deserved to lose. i always root for french clubs, even ASSE and OM, but that night PSG were so infuriatingly nonchalant that by halftime i was pulling for slovan in the worst way and so was that chauvinist among chauvinists thierry roland.
unless i'm mistaken, a fed can send whomever they want to these competitions: they can award spots to cup winners, and the english FA once considered giving the spot everton had earned in the standings to liverpool who had won the CL but not finished high enough to qualify for the next.
a little tiff between Le Lay and JMA: after lyon-rennes was moved up to friday, Le Lay said; "i don't give a damn about Olympique Lyonnais' match against Ajax". JMA's reply: "someday rennes will probably feel the need to win their european matches too. in fact they'd do well to start because for the UEFA ratings, they count too".
Isn't he the one who said "barqua" instead of barça ? Football got insanely politically correct over the past years therefore people like Le Lay coming from the media reach high responsabilities in football clubs. It's really a tendancy that I don't like since most of them knows nothing about football and are there for other reasons. That's why I like Louis Nicollin who is really part of the identity of his club and who is not bland like most of the other presidents.
Pivotal week in Champions League for our clubs and coefficient. CSKA - Lille Lyon - Ajax Marseille - Olympiakos pretty much must wins for all the clubs involved if the teams don't want to rely heavily on other results going their way to progress.
Maxifoot posted OL's probably lineup and it was an A lineup of mostly thei best players and also they are playing at home so they should win this and if they dont its a big fail. Lille-CSKA I'm predicting a draw but I hope I am wrong. Maxifoot has Cole instead of Payet in the probable lineup btw.
Draw's seems to be Lille's speciality so I think so too + playing in Russia in November is always tough. Lyon really should win but I do have a bad feeling about them and Ajax is having a disaster season in the league so I'm sure they put 100% of their focus into this tie.
The good thing about Lille is they are going in with the mentality of they want to win and they havent thrown in the towel.
well, maybe they're having a bad year in the eredivisie because they're not very good. let's hope so anyway! and suddenly (unless trabzonspor beat inter again) they qualify with a draw against the turks in villeneuve d'ascq!
I said I'd settle for 2 of the teams going into in the next round and the other one to the Europa League and we are still on track for that so I'm not too upset yet.
Ajax had a very tough schedule at the start of the season, consecutive games against the likes of PSV, Twente, AZ, Feyenoord etc. inbetween CL games. This has caused us to lose some strength holders during those difficult games, but we haven't lost to any of our rivals yet. It's because of those injuries that our bench consisted of mostly Academy players: GK Jasper Cillessen (22), Daley Blind (21), Jody Lukoki (19), Dico Koppers (19), Ruben Ligeon (19), Lesley de Sa (18) & Davy Klaassen (18).
the same with me but i was hoping to see OM in the europa league... oh well. after all the griping i've done about clubs not doing their best in the EL i hope OL gives it their best shot. i think i was wrong about lille: i believe they need to win their last match to go through. you know, lyon still has a chance to get through: score 5 in zagreb, and hope karim comes through for us too!
OM were terrible. Olympiakos deserved their win. I can see France's UEFA coefficient slowly being flushed down the toilet.
OL and OM couldnt beat supposed weaker teams at home so of course I'm not confident Lille will beat the Turks.
I'm throwing in the towel on this OM season and on the french clubs in europe, at this rate I wouldn't be surprised to see PSG get eliminated by Salzburg in the Europa league, Cyprus > Ligue 1.
PSG players love their manager and know he could be gone if they get eliminated so they will want to win for him to try to keep his job. At least thats what I hope for. I tried watching the OM match but my stream kept dying so from what I saw they didnt create that many chances which is inexcusable really when youre playing a weaker team at home. Gignac and Lucho need to go. I know they came on late and didnt have much time but the fact they were even on the bench to begins with shows they are replaceabale.
Well I am happy OM and OL move on and sad that Lille doesnt even get the Europa League but also happy ManU and Man City got knocked out of the Champions League so I guess the positives outweigh the negative.
wow, i didn't know that about the other groups! lille had the easiest last step to get through and they blew it. you could say the olympics came through but the dogues' official name is Lille Olympique Sport Club.
I'm already hearing complaints about match throwing. 7-1 on the road and Ajax getting goals taken away...
I only care about match throwing if the team I like that got screwed and they didnt so i dont give a crap. The better team advanced in the end.
hey we got screwed royally against PSV, it's tuff titty. if the a'dam boys don't like it they should go to eindhoven to get their payback.