This thread will likely be closed by December, as Favre has never made it past the group stage of the Champions League, which I say is our most probable outcome. If we are lucky we will secure a Europa League spot and that's it, as that has been the farthest Favre has made it in Europe. Should we advance to the last 16 of the Champions League I will be genuinely surprised, even moreso if we somehow top our group. My only wish for tomorrow's draw is no more match-ups with Real Madrid, I'm fed up with always having to face them.
Seedings Group Stage (32 teams) Pot 1 Real Madrid (162.000) Atletico Madrid (140.000) Barcelona (132.000) Bayern Munich (135.000) Manchester City (100.000) Juventus (126.000) Paris Saint-Germain (109.000) Lokomotiv Moscow (22.500) Pot 2 Borussia Dortmund (89.000) Porto (86.000) Manchester United (82.000) Shakhtar Donetsk (81.000) Benfica (80.000) Napoli (78.000) Tottenham (67.000) Roma (64.000) Pot 3 Liverpool(62.000) Schalke (62.000) Lyon (59.500) Monaco (57.000) Ajax (53.500) CSKA Moscow (45.000) Valencia (36.000) PSV Eindhoven (36.000) Pot 4 Viktoria Plzen (33.000) Club Brugge (29.500) Galatasaray (29.500) Young Boys (20.500) Inter Milan (16.000) Hoffenheim (14.285) Red Star Belgrade (10.750) AEK Athens (10.000) Best case scenario - Lokomotiv, PSV and AEK. Worst case scenario - Real, Liverpool and Inter
So far, we got Atl. Madrid and Monaco. Better than getting Liverpool from pot 3 I guess. But we often seem to get tough groups, regardless in which pot we are. Schalke get Lok. Moscow and Porto which is closer to a Euro league group, Bayern get Benfica and Ajax.
Ajax is one tough group and wont be easy. I actually enjoy watching them. I am not scared of Atl Madrid or Monaco and we can beat either. Should be a fun group so far. Wonder who that 4th team will be.
I think Juventus group looks pretty good right now. Young Boys are a fun team to watch. Man United may put it together soon. Valencia not a bad team either.
A tough draw, but there's a good chance to not just win the group, but to top it. City and Bayern got the easy group.
And we get Brugge as our last team. Not a terrible draw. Doable for us. I like it. Schalkes group is crap. Barcelonas group looks very good to me. PSV and Tott are two pretty good teams as well as Inter Milan. PSG's group looks pretty good too. Obviously Real's group is easiest or definitely one of the easiest..Man City's group looks pretty weak too. But our group doesnt look especially daunting that we can't overcome it.
Opponents are Atl. Madrid, Monaco and Brugge. We should be able to survive this if we don't lose both games against Madrid. I think we need 6 points against Brugge and 4 against Monaco.
I think its realistic to get 4 against Brugge and 4 against Monaco.. We get 8 points and we stay home. We get 9 and I think we are through the group. The average group winner needs 13 and the average runner up needs 10. I think with this group there could be a lot of draws and a win may be a premium if you can get it.
That would be a very disappointing performance to get 8 points. We should be aiming for: 6 against Brugge, 4 against Monaco and at least one against Atletico. The aim is to win the group.
Im not suggesting we aim for otherwise but I also remember last years debacle and wonder if we are still lacking. I think that Alcacer will make us a better team. But I also know that I dont know jack and we can only go as far as his goal scoring prowess will take us in the CL. I agree that we should and can win the group but I also know that we can want in one hand and.... in the other and see what happens. What we want may not be the actual outcome. As I said, none of these teams scare me but Madrid does play excellent defense and that game will prove difficult because of our back line if they are not completely playing as a unit by that time. A typical madrid game is going to be 1-0 or 1-1.. Even they are not some high scoring machine so goals against them will be a premium and I see us losing 1-0 as much as I see us drawing with them. But I hope I am wrong and we win the group in Real Madrid style winning all 6...
Here's how I think we could fare in our group: - Atlético de Madrid: Three-time UEFA Europa League Champions and three-time European Cup/UEFA Champions League losers. It really pisses me off that they've managed to stay competitive whilst going against Real Madrid and Barcelona whereas we have stagnated and regressed since the 2013 Champions League Final. They have the edge over us but I think surrendering to a Spanish club is just unacceptable, thus we cannot lose to them as a matter of pride. As long we don't let them beat us I'm fine. - Monaco: Two seasons ago they knocked us out of the Champions League because our players were rattled by the murder attempt, and the way UEFA and Watzke handled the situation still makes my blood boil. We must take all six points from them to prove a point that it should've been US, not them, in the semi-finals. F uck UEFA and Watzke. - Brugge: the only Belgian club to have played a European Cup Final. Let's take all six points from them too.
Dude you and your Spanish remarks.. wtf man... you need help. I dont want to lose to anyone but I certainly dont think there is some type of unacceptable shame losing to a Spanish club. Real, Barca, Ath Madrid are good programs.
Think the group is not that bad, considering what possibilities were out there. Atletico is always going to be tough, if we can get a win at home and a draw in Madrid then it would be more than perfect. Monaco is not what it used to be a couple of seasons ago, but still a strong opponent. We should aim to get two 6 points. As for Brugge - believe it or not, I think that they are underrated and can surprise anybody in the group. But even with that being said, 6 points against the Belgians are a must. Overall, I think we can win the group, provided we don't screw up somewhere. Atletico has shown in previous seasons that they are also a bit shaky in the group stages.
I think Brugge is a lot better than most on here give credit for. Theres a reason we are not entirely huge favorites in our matchup agains them.
Alcacer and Delaney out tomorrow after picking up knocks in the last match. Pulisic is cleared for play however. Anyone care to venture a guess as to the score?
I haven't seen them to judge, but realistically they probably aren't that great unless they have a generation of wonder kids coming through. This is almost certainly a MUST WIN game. I hope Favre realises that and plays a lineup to make it clear. Usually in the CL, drawing away is a good result, but not against the weakest team in the group. Atletico on paper are incredibly strong, but they have started poorly. Alcacer is a blow, but it's better to give him the rest. Hopefully, we have a long season ahead with many games. Delaney being injured should hopefully give Weigl a chance. It's good to have Pulisic back. Lots of the new signings don't have much CL experience.
I know BVB winning the Champions League this season is about as likely as me banging Palina Rojinski, but that doesn't mean the club shouldn't strive to get as close as possible to the European Cup. I just finished checking out a few Champions League stats and let me tell you this sure is one fickle tournament. Here's the relevant info: - The least amount of goals conceded by a club in the group stage is 1. No club with such an impeccable defence in the group stage has ever won the tournament. - Winning all six group stage matches will also jinx a club's chances of winning, as all the clubs that accomplished such a feat have failed to win the tournament. If we want to keep our hopes of the Champions League alive, however slim they are, we need to: - Concede at least two goals in the group stage. - Drop points either by drawing or losing a match. The only ones who can really trouble us in our group are Atlético Madrid, which means dropping points vs them would be fine, and they can score the necessary amount of goals we need to concede (Brugge's attack also looks pretty threatening). The ideal scenario IMO is beating Atlético Madrid by at least 2-1 at home and drawing 1-1 or losing away whilst keeping the upper hand in the H2H. It's totally doable guys.
UEFA cannot get it right. How hard can it be? This season we have two bonafide groups of death with PSG, Liverpool and Napoli in one and Barcelona, Inter and Spurs in another. Conversely, there's Porto and Schalke as top two in another group with no competition at all. Last year the same thing happened with us in a group of death and another with Chelsea, Roma and Atletico. Meanwhile, there was that group with Leipzig which had zero competition. They should just go back to the coefficient based rankings. It's how they divvy up the TV pool anyway.