It's possible that the CL and EL Semifinals will have one club each from the top four leagues. I'm rooting for AS Roma and Atletico. There is a small chance of having the CL, EL, La Liga, and Copa del Rey won by different Spanish clubs. This requires Real Madrid to win the CL, Atletico to win the EL, Barcelona to win La Liga, and Sevilla to beat Barcelona in the Copa del Rey Final. It was the first time Barcelona was eliminated by clubs from the same country in consecutive CLs since they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Liverpool on away goals in 2006-2007 and eliminated in the Semifinals against Man United in 2007-2008.
Good work @EvanJ. That's the kind of number crunching that makes these competitions more interesting.
Italy could pass Spain for this season, but it will be hard if both Madrid clubs advance. If Atletico gets eliminated in the Quarterfinals, Lazio might be favored over anyone else.
That was me and I deserve ridicule! Italian sides again ruin UEFA's dream match up. In an era of absolutely crushing CL dominance by the Spaniards, Juve eliminated Real in 2015, Juve eliminated Barca in 2017, and now Roma topped a group with Atleti before KO Barca. Roma pulled off a historic victory. Today they had by far the most comprehensive/impressive performance in the CL this year given just how badly they outplayed a Barca side that was undefeated in all comps. Absolutely remarkable. Unless Juve can pull off another Italian miracle, it looks like La Liga, Serie A, and the EPL's probable title winners will all be out of the CL. Maybe this gives Sevilla reason to believe?! It's hard to pin down who the best side in the world is when league success this year hasn't resulted in CL progression.
It's funny because Roma were the team to pull off such a historic victory. It was by far the best CL performance this year. Anyone that hasn't watched the match should do so just to appreciate how well Roma pressed and transitioned. De Rossi played a match that should remind fans of just how good he was in his prime. Could you imagine if Roma somehow win the CL in an era where Juve could be on their way to winning 7 titles but losing 2 CL finals. It would be madness. Still, I think there is something to be said for the fact that so few eventual domestic champions will be represented in the CL semis. The teams that focused and expended a lot of energy getting a lead in the league early on are physically paying the price for doing so in the later stages of the season. Roma, Liverpool, and likely Real have nothing to play for other than CL although Roma aren't guaranteed to finish in the top 4.
That was the best game I've seen in years. What an inspirational performance by Roma. An ESPN poll gave them a 2% chance of advancing.
I know it was. It was a clear penalty. Although Benatia had no other choice. That would have gone in.
actually he did the madrid player was taking it on his chest if he bypassed him both benatia and buffon would have had a stab at the shot or even he **** up the chest down. Benatia panicked as he was out of position
Rispetto per Buffon i'm glad he went out swinging... that english ref needed to be told to go suck on his fish and chips
Some of the fans on the Juventus forum are trying to blame the ref for everything. Ugh we are Juventus and a club smart enough to know that Real Madrid are capable of scoring at anytime and should have pushed for a fourth goal. We sort of did, but not to the extent we really should have. Maybe the penalty was a little controversial but I have seen way softer penalties, and some fans complain in other games when there are even softer challenges against their team in the box that penalties are not given to their team. It all comes down to bias. I feel the ref was very fair today to both teams.
Stop trying to be so diplomatic and earn brownie points for when you travel to other forums. I suppose u also think Ronaldo’s goals against Bayern were onside and they didn’t get screwed either?
Theproblem I have is with the way physical contact is officiated inside the box. It's too inconsistent where it ends up feeling arbitrary. Dani Alves fell over Pogba in the CL final. No PK. Costa is tackled from behind vs Tottenham. No PK. Dybala is lightly kicked by Casemiro in the first leg. Yellow for diving. Benatia tackles through Vazquez. PK. Also, context should play a role. At best this is a soft pk. If you call it in a league match, I'm fine with it. It will eventually even out. This call essentially determined the tie. The magnitude was huge when it really didn't need to be. Had it not been called, there would have been less controversy.
No Bayern were clearly robbed last year. Vidal should have never gotten sent off, and one of Ronaldo's goals was clearly offside. I don't quite remember the others but maybe another one was as well. That game had terrible officiating. The Real vs Bayern game was seriously bad refereeing, but the ref in our game today I felt was pretty fair.
For doing the right thing lol at you buffon got a bottle of olive oil pounded up his ass Hehe now bring it or shut it. Both is good
"I feel both you guys and us deserve a place in the semis, but unfortunately the draw can be unlucky at times which can force one of the best teams to be out a little early. However clearly you guys and us are the top 2 teams. I could tell in this tie with the tricks both of us were using over 2 legs. This was the real UCL final." whoever wrote this is a massive clown. ahahahhahahaha biggest load of **** ever.
That was a soft PK call. In the context of the entire tie it feels like an excessive call to make given that the same thing was not given against Cuadrado in the first leg. Benatia made contact with Vasquez to end the 2nd leg while Carvajal did the same on Cuadrado in the final minute of the first leg. The difference is that one was called a PK and the other wasn't. Another controversial issue was how the referee motioned to Ronaldo twice to get up for non-PK calls inside the box. Yet, Dybala received a yellow for doing the same thing once. Even the contact on Dybala in the box was comparable to that on Vasquez.
The two legs were mirror images of each other. Each team scored very early on their first attack. The 2nd goal came during a period where the opposing team looked more likely to equalize. The third goal for each team came right after halftime against the run of play (both in part were a result of errors). Juve were not 3-0 better than Real tonight. Real were not 3-0 better than Juve in Turin. Both games came down to incidences at the end of the matches. Carvajal made contact on Cuadrado from behind for 5 yards out, no PK. Benatia made contact on Vasquez from behind from 5 yards out, PK. Those two decisions essentially separated those two teams. It a tie of this quality, that is a shame.
was it the same ref in both legs? anyway the better team over the two legs won imho madrid should have scored 7 in turin