Champions League Draw is today. 5 am EST on FSC The only rules are Group Winners play Runners-Up and you can not play a team from previous group OR home country. So no Malaga or Juventus for us. GROUP WINNERS: PSG, Schalke, Malaga, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United. Runners- Up: Porto, Arsenal, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Shaktar Donestk, Valencia, Celtic, Galatasaray Basically I'd like to avoid Dortmund and Barcelona while the others would be tough but should be fun to face Munich or Man U. Ideally, Id want Schalke of that list but Im predicting PSG. Its pretty much stars aligning . Should be fun to watch. Feel free to post comments,concerns, anything relating to the matchups... My prediction: PSG vs Milan Schalke vs Porto Malaga vs Shaktar Donestk Dortmund vs Galatasaray Munich vs Arsenal Juventus vs Real Madrid Barcelona vs Celtic Manchester Utd vs Valencia
We played them 4 times last season already. It didn't help that 4 Spanish teams qualified which increased the chances of drawing them but it was still a 1-5 crapshoot. If their intention is to embarass our guys I want us to hurt them physically so they're crippled for the next round. EDIT I still haven't forgotten the unceremonious parting gift to Nesta handing the guy a ridiculous penalty by that Dutch Cruyff lover referee. It took me a while to get over that.
celtic beat barca at the nou camp. we can do the same. i'm also looking forward to celtic beating juve.
what's up with these spanish teams?? we got real madrid in the groups for two years, now barca in the knockouts!
ah that's right... but they held them at the nou camp until the 94th minute. it can be done... any given wednesday.
I just watched the draw taped. Why couldn't AC Milan draw someone else? Man U and PSG were both still on the board.
because barca, manu, and psg won their groups... milan, valencia, and real madrid were the three remaining teams.... valencia/real madrid can't be drawn against barca because they are all from spain. we were the only team left for barca. bad luck i guess. then again, we got barca in last years group stages as well as the quarter finals...
2011-2012: group with barcelona, BATE, viktoria plzen. get 2nd in the group. round of 16 possible opponents: APOEL, arsenal, chelsea, real madrid, benefica, bayern munich beat Arsenal in Round of 16: 4-3 aggregate lose to Barcelona in Quarterfinals: 3-1 aggregate 2010-2011: group with real madrid, ajax, auxerre. get 2nd in the group. round of 16 possible opponents: tottenham, schalke, man u, barcelona, bayern, chelsea, shakhtar lose to tottenham in round of 16: 0-1 aggregate 2009-2010 group with real madrid, marseille, zurich (i believe we were the 1st seed, real madrid were the 2nd seed) we get 2nd in the group round of 16 possible opponents: bordeaux, man u, chelsea, barcelona, sevilla, arsenal lose to manchester united in round of 16: 2-7 aggregate 2008-2009 Did not qualify 2007-2008 group with celtic, benefica, shakhtar. win our group! round of 16 possible opponents: liverpool, schalke, olympiacos, lyon, fenerbahce, arsenal lose to arsenal in round of 16: 0-2 aggregate 2006-2007 group with lille, aek athens, anderlecht. win our group! round of 16 possible opponents: porto, celtic, real madrid, psv, barcelona beat celtic in round of 16: 1-0 aggregate beat bayern munich in quarterfinals: 4-2 aggregate beat manchester united in semifinals: 5-3 aggregate beat liverpool in the final: 2-1
Heres my lineup vs Barca. We arent going to beat them quality wise so I say straight counter attack down the sides. Flood the midfield with so many defenders that they have no holes to go through . 3-5-2 formation. ----------Abbiati------------- ----Mexes-Zapata-Yepes---- ------------Montolivo-------- Abate----Nocerino-----Urby-- ------------Boateng----------- -Robinho-------------SES----------- If Binho is gone than put in Bojan
It wont be pretty but if we clog midfield and hit long balls to center forward ala Chelsea with Drogba than we have a shot. We cant play them 11v11 straight up. Bunker down and counter attack with speed when they make a mistake or have too many guys up
He can play, but he's said he won't celebrate if he scores. Milan need to focus on the leg breaking tackles, and that will depend on whether UEFA want Barfa in, or eliminated early. I can't come up with a reason for the latter. Regardless, if in, cards come out early and Milan need to adjust, if not the card stays in the pocket and Milan go all out with wear and tear football!