It's good that the big clashes are avoided this early in the competition. You want them in April, May. I've got limited knowledge on many teams here, and few previous meetings complicate predictions, but here goes nothing: Sparta Prague vs Linköping (25 / 75) Gintra Uni. vs Barcelona (5 / 95) Chelsea vs Rosengård (70 / 30) LSK Kvinner vs Manchester City (35 / 65) Brescia vs Montpellier (40 / 60) BIIK Kazygurt vs Lyon (0 / 100) Fiorentina vs Wolfsburg (10 / 90) Stjärnan vs Slavia Prague (40 / 60)
Rosengard is the favorite against Chelsea (65-35). More quality in squad, much more experience in WCL. And you really underestimates Montpellier, it's more 90-10 for them
I'd be surprised if Rosengård go through given their recent form. I think Chelsea has more quality and much more depth in squad at the moment. Rosengård struggling big time in Damallsvenskan lately with key players Schelin, Boye and Nilsson on injury list and the head coach recently left the club. Decent starting XI but just youngsters on the bench.
Everything can happen but Chelsea seems weak to me, I don't think you need Schelin or Nilsson to beat them.
So do you really feel like Brescia-Montpellier is closer than LSK-Kvinner-Manchester City? Montpellier had some seriously awful displays in this beginning of season, but I wonder if you're not being a little superstitious for the LSK-Kvinner prediction...
I think both of these games are at the same level with Brescia and LSK being slight underdogs. Montpellier getting Jakobsson back is a major plus for them though. I still thought they would be more convincing against Zvezda than they were. Brescia beat a relatively decent Ajax team also. I stand by my percentages. Never underestimate Italians when they are underdogs. I'm cautious on LSK's behalf because I doubt whether their top level is good enough this year. Far better last year. LSK have no strikers of high quality this season. Haug, Kvernvolden and Berget all rotate on the #9 position and none of them is anywhere near a NT squad. The central defence with an 18 year old school girl and a slow Finnish veteran is untested at this level as a pair. On the plus side is continuity in tactics, formation, leadership and great team spirit. Few thought LSK would win the league this year after so many key players left last year. This year the team is stronger than the sum of the individual players. I'm very curious to know how strong Man City are.
By the way, when exactly this Champions' League round will be played? Before or after the end of Norwegian Toppserien?
I wld say Chelsea-Rosengard would be the best match to watch ... not sure about the other matches, apart from the dominating teams like Barca, Wolfsburg, ManC, Lyon who are def to win their matches.
Meanwhile, sad news from Italy: Men's club Brescia FC decided that the women's team would not be allowed to keep using their stadium for the next Champions' League match because "they would ruin the pitch". The team will have to play the home leg Brescia-Montellier at Saleri stadium in Lumezzane (at a dozen Kms from the town) intead of usual Rigamonti stadium in Brescia. Here's an article in Italian. I don't know what to say and I am ashamed of my country.
Looks like a regular athletics stadium. Is this where Brescia's women's team play their league matches?
No, Brescia play their league home games in the "Club Azzurri" stadium in Mompiano, just a pair Kms from men's Rigamonti stadium. But this little pitch doesn't respect UEFA standards for Champions' League games: that's why, since 2014 when Brescia played for the first time in Champions' League, they use to take on loan Rigamonti Stadium from the men's team (paying all of the expenses for the organisation and management of the match: tickets, lights, field, changing rooms, etc.). The stadium belongs to the city of Brescia but is on permanent rent to Brescia men. There was anyway a gentlement's agreement that let the women play here their Champions' League home-matches for the last three years. Then Brescia men's president decided that he would have allowed women to play here just until round of 32 this season (justifying that with the fact that the pitch is in bad conditions and couldn't support too many competitive games during the week). I find really sad that the women's team can't play in what's been their historical Champions' League stadium (by the way, I had been in Rigamonti Stadium, quite easy to reach by train from Milano where I live, in 2014, to watch a very enjoyable Brescia-OL match, that I have fond memories of. It would have been much more difficult to me to, for transports reasons, to reach Lumezzane).
Agree, very sad story, and to add insult to injury, the match will be brought forward at 3 pm because the light power of the stadium is not enough (at least, for UEFA standards) to manage an evening match.... This means that many supporters won't be able to attend the match so, the (small) advantage for the home team to play in a filled stadium will vanish, and furthermore the Brescia president Cesari had to justify before some raged supporters for a situation in which he is not to blame at all. The article (in italian): https://www.calciofemminileitaliano...el-presidente-giuseppe-cesari-alla-tifoseria/
Blissett, you know a message board is dead when it's CHAMPIONS LEAGUE day, & nobody's posting! The Firotinian's(or whatever their name is)s are taking on Wolfsburg, you & gricio are acting like your at an funeral! Com'on, act alive, the way WOB been playing lately, they just might win. Here's a link to keep up with scores http://us.women.soccerway.com/ the champions all ready played http://us.women.soccerway.com/match...-kazygurt/olympique-lyonnais-feminin/2633887/ shji, once again an superstar lineup except for the 16 year old, Bacha, who got the start over the more heralded, Cascario. Whats happened with M'bock? I know Buchanen took her starting spot but wasn't expecting the two time world youth p.o.y to just be a bench warmer along with van den Sanden
Selma Bacha has played a few games with OL this season. Cascarino is a winger, Bacha is a left-back for OL so she did not really play instead of her. Buchanan is in form and the coach prefers to play her. As long as Buchanan performs M'Bock will be used in the squad rotation.
Lol, at the very least you learn how to lure me out: there is no possible way on earth you can mispell Fiorentina at this level of randomness, so it has to be obviously intentional. Meanwhile, talking about Italian teams, Brescia-Montpellier looks like an incredible lively match: at 43' we already are on 2-2; who said that they had no chance vs the French team? The result is still good for Montpellier, but Brescia are fighting. Unluckily I can't seem to find any working stream for the match. About Fiorentina, someone talked about the match being streamed tonight on Viola Channel, but actually I can't find any trace of that on the website. Probably Gricio61 will know much more than me about it.
Brescia-Montpellier 2-3 final. It's a shame, but in the end I guess that was predictable: with their line-up, Montpellier just couldn't keep stumbling all season. Very difficult to overturn the score in the second leg, but Brescia can anyway try.
Looks to be a comfortable win for Barcelona. On the other hand, I'm not sure the Lithuanians are actually trying: Jaysus - Gintra clear on goal with 3 players & they trip each other up! pic.twitter.com/mUrGyguweX— Michele Taylor (@BarcaWomen) November 8, 2017
In other results, Lyon won handily away in Kazakhstan, which we've discussed before as being easier said than done, making Lyon's 7-0 romp even more impressive (even if they were heavy, heavy favorites to advance from the series). For perspective, here are all of BIIK's home games in the knockout stages of the UWCL ever: 2009, 1-0 vs Sparta Prague 2012, 0-4 vs Roa 2014, 2-2 vs Frankfurt 2015, 1-1 vs Barcelona 2016, 3-1 vs Verona 2016, 0-3 vs PSG *** 2017, 3-0 vs Glasgow 2017, 0-7 vs Lyon *** *** two of their only three home losses were after advancing from the R32 to the R16. They've had bad luck drawing French teams!
Looks like the link I gave works (although you have to look for this sublink): 0-0 at HT at the moment.
Unbelievable goalmouth scramble at around 7 mins. Got to be on Twitter soon. Rosengård lucky to escape a goal there.
Tough second half for Fiorentina. Not exactly many mouth-watering return legs to look forward to next week.