Yeah, Liverpool v Man City would've been more exciting if we knew Barca-Roma were playing the winner. But I'm still surprised they reverted back to doing the SF draw before the QF stage. Having a draw before each round seemed to work well.
Anyone bored? I’ve seen that UEFA are looking to scrap the away goals rule. I think this is a bad idea; despite being a bit of an anachronism, it makes two-legged knockout football more interesting. Here’s why! (thread – all stats for the Champions League since 2003)— Omar Chaudhuri (@OmarChaudhuri) February 7, 2019 We've done this dance before, back in 2014. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/ue...oad-to-lisboa-r.1993034/page-10#post-29359499 The thread to Raphael Honigstein's reply on the topic has some interesting names from the journalistic world chiming in with their thoughts. 100 per cent in agreement with this. https://t.co/mQbUxGNjOP— Raphael Honigstein💙 (@honigstein) February 7, 2019 My thoughts haven't changed: Bad idea if it was scrapped. https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/20...draw-the-road-to-milan.2024060/#post-32843287
Seems rather unfair to scrap the away goal rule. After all we lost to Roma last year because of it...
I don’t particularly like the away goal rule .... but it probably does more good than bad in the grand scheme of things . But football is a bit different today . Not sure teams would revert to bunkering on away games like before . Unless you’re Mourinho of course . Then again he bunkers at home if he has a half goal lead .
Nah, we lost cuz we sucked! Never deserved to win the first leg 4-1 in the first place. But even putting aside the luck factor that was on Barca's side, if there wasn't an away-goals rule we would've had another 30 minutes of football in Rome when they had all the momentum and Barca already looked tired. Chances are Barca lose 4- or 5-nil.
We sucked but Roma aren't that good... At any point in that match I feel like we could have won if a break went our way. Anyways here are my predictions for the Round of 16: Man Utd v PSG Roma v Porto Ajax v Real Madrid Tottenham v Borussia Dortmund Liverpool v Bayern Lyon v Barcelona Atletico v Juventus Schalke v Man City I am not confident about Man U. I can see PSG winning still. They have Mbappe, better defense, and have the advantage of not being favorites for once. Roma could also beat Porto. Other than that, I'm confident in other predictions. Yes I don't want to jinx us but we should beat Lyon. Seriously... LPB will own Ajax. Wishful thinking to expect them to lose.
PSG are still favorites and certainly have the lion’s share of the pressure. If they lose its an absolute disaster ! And actually PSG have rarely been the favorites entering a R16 tie. Not sure what you mean “not favorites for once”.
Ever since Neymar came they had enormous expectations. Last year most people predicted they would beat Madrid. Now with injuries to Neymar and Cavani, their expectations are much reduced. They can play more freely perhaps.
This week's Champions League matches. The numbers in parenthesis denotes the number of official matches each team has played since the new year. (6) Roma -v- Porto (10) (8) Man Utd -v- PSG (9) (10) Tottenham -v- Dortmund (5) (5) Ajax-v- Real Madrid (12)
People are too quick to judge. They call Neymar going there a failure and it has been literally one season there and they faced the eventual champions in the R16 without their main guy in the 2nd leg at home. Losing to ManU would be bad, but people seriously need to consider the context.
Hey man I agree with you. I'm just saying what the prevailing narrative is! If I remember correctly, Thiago Silva was hurt for last year's CL clash as well? He was important for them in the back.
Well, the context is that PSG has done nothing in CL since they struck oil and Neymar was brought in to rectify that. The R16 exit last season put in that context is a major disappointment, even if they did lose to Real Madrid. I mean they were pretty much toast before the Neymar injury. But yeah, too early to call the Neymar move to PSG a failure. He can still win the CL & Ballon d'Or this year. IMO, it can only be classified as a failure after he leaves or after 3 years of not winning CL, whichever comes first.
It's too early to tell and anything can happen. It's clear to see they need a better midfield. He put himself in a position where only winning the CL is considered success. But it took for example Ronaldo 5 seasons to do it at Madrid. I don't consider winning leagues failure, but in his case it will be. But hey, if he wins a WC ... it's all cool with me.
Well, it also depends how far they go in CL when they don't win it. If they continue to get molested in the R16 like last season then its gonna be considered a failure even if they keep winning Ligue 1.
Well yeah ... if they had a full team and failed vs ManU it'd be a big failure. Now it's all up in the air. It was unfortunate for them they faced Madrid last season. But even with that 3 x 1 score in the first leg, they weren't bad. They didn't get played out of the park. Remember Lo Celso did a really stupid PK and then Ronaldo's goal was pretty fortunate.
It'll be a big failure regardless. Its not like their injury list is that long. No excuse if they can't at least keep it close tonight so they can advance at home with a healthier squad. I still think they will advance though.
As long as Verratti and Cavani play. Having those 2 plus Neymar out I'd say is pretty bad wouldn't you say ? Verratti probably won't be in form either. Not making excuses, just reality.
is Cavani available? PSG is also without Meunier and Rabiot. although Rabiot's absence is totally self-inflicted by PSG, having banished him for not renewing his contract.
Above are the odds after the draw (compared with pre-draw odds), below are the current odds to win it all, from taking the highest payout, longest odds available via Oddschecker which provides update odds from about 20 online bookmakers. ManC 57/17 - 3.353 Barca 4.75 Juve 7.5 Liverpool 9 PSG 10 Real 11 Bayern 14 Atletico 22 BVB Dortmund 25 ManU 25 Tottenham 33 Ajax 100 Roma 100 Porto 125 Lyon 150 Schalke 400 For an alternate view see the 538 computer model which favors ManC 22% to win it all (not worth the bet though), PSG (13%), Barca (13%), Bayern (11%), and Liverpool (10%), etc. You can see those odds as well as the odds of making quarterfinals, semis, etc. in their model. For instance they give ManU just 25% chance against PSG; Roma and Porto are 50/50; Bayern and Liverpool are 51%/49% respectively.... Ajax has dropped quite a bit from earlier predictions of a super even match but are still given a 41% chance of beating Real. Basically, I don't think that the computer gives too much extra weight to extremely recent results (like ManU going on a tear, Real rounding into form, vs. Ajax taking some bad recent losses). https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/champions-league/
Above are the Post draw and pre-draw Europa odds to win it all, now, before the games start, here's an update on the odds for all teams to win it all at 50:1 or lower payouts (the top half only) - there are still 32 teams in it so odds are longer than for CL favorites: Chelsea 5.5 Arsenal 6.5 Napoli 7 Inter 12 Sevilla 12 Valencia 20 Salzburg 22 AC Milan 25 Eintracht 25 Lazio 28 Bayer 33 Benfica 33 Betis 35 Zenit 40 Shaktar 40 Villarreal 40 For an alternate view see the 538 computer model which favors Napoli to win it all but only at 13% so still a waste of money to gamble with a 7:1 payout. Followed by Inter 11% (good payout at 12:1), Chelsea 10% (terrible payout at 5.5:1), Valencia 8% (great payout at 20:1), Sevilla 7%, Arsenal 6% https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/europa-league/
Too many players in their squad that are past their prime. Cavani 32, Di Maria 31, Silva 34, Buffon 40+, Alves 35. And those are just among the regular starters! So, yeah, Neymar + <100% Verratti is bad but made worse because they are not that good to begin with. Lots of big names, but most of them are on the decline. Some probably shouldn't even be on the field, really.
still a strong lineup, representing a lot of money in transfer fees and salaries, so no excuses PSG...