Yeah, the UCL final often isn't a great match. But rarely do we know six weeks in advance that it won't be a great match.
PSG peaking at the right time again. They finished 11th in league play, 1 win in the last 5 matches, but here they are, likely odds favorites now in the semis
post-game Arbeloa: "How can you send off a player for a play like that? Referee ruined the game, that's what happened, nobody understand that red card. " When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
Interesting that lately we've had some teams in the final we would not expect would be there. Inter (2x), Borussia ... I guess Arsenal wouldn't be much of a surprised except for their current form. But that's how the draw fell ... and we choked.
It's a bit different this season. PSG getting results but looking meh in CL. Will be interesting v Bayern. There is a reasonable chance that they destroy by Bayern because of their shaky defenders, high line and 40 year old goalkeeper. Bayern passing has to be better than today and Diaz has to stop sucking, or better yet, not play
Cross-posted from the CL thread: ..."I dont see LPB being humble enough, to work hard enough, and be professional enough, to be consistent enough, in order to be a "legit contender." I knew that their ego-soaked galacticos would let them down. May they extend Vini, and the rest of that mis-matched pile of crap roster for a decade. I do think that Q$G, with their laughable domestic league, can have an advantage going forward. I suppose I'll have to root for Bayern to win this.
I see that La Liga scheduled the Betis v Madrid match ahead of the semifinals on a Friday. Give them some nice rest. 3rd time during the knockout stage they get the benefit of playing on Friday before a CL midweek. .
LOL at the Díaz part. I recall how the poster in the other forum was praising his first leg performance the other day lol. Yeah the alternative might just be playing Musiala over him, but we know it won’t happen…
At least I can watch the rest of the CL w/o stress. Silver linings. My hate of PSG has softened a bit. Still don't like Dembele but it makes me LOL how the CL trophy just seems to avoid Mbappe, or any major club trophy for that matter.
Celta Vigo losing 6-0 to Freiburg on aggregate. How bad is that? Betis likely has to win tonight for Spain to have a realistic shot at keeping their 5th CL spot.
Real Betis out of Europe too. Blew a 2-goal lead at home against Braga. Got embarrassed in the end, and its not like they didn't have a big incentive to win. Results of La Liga teams in Europe this season are really puzzling. There isn't that much of a drop off from Atletico to Betis/Villarreal/Celta, is there? Oh well, at least Betis can focus fully on their upcoming match against Real Madrid .
Article published a month ago about the ref of our 1st leg QF, Istvan Kovacs, really makes you wonder why UEFA appointed him for that match, or any CL match This guy has a disastrous track record. https://valahia.news/istvan-kovacs-officiating-scandal-rapid-dinamo/ And now after his bad showing at the Camp Nou, he's been "dropped" for the rest of this CL season, which of course is only the semis and final. https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/is...mpions-league-controversy/blte0287e8b2b09da72
Real Sociedad wins the copa del ray , they were given a pk and no red card although similar plays against us.
Chelsea lose 3-0 in Brighton. There goes any real hope for top 5 for Chelsea. There is a decent chance that the 6th place team will also qualify for the UCL (if Aston Villa win Europa League), but now Chelsea are 7th and in danger of falling to 8th or 9th by this time tomorrow.
Chelsea have lost five consecutive league games without scoring a single goal for the first time in 114 years.
Arda Guler and Militão now declared injured, likely for the rest of the season: Arda: " muscle injury in the biceps femoris of his right leg" Miltão: "muscle injury in the player’s left thigh" For comparison, Arda has played 56 matches this season, to Lamine's 45.
I'm surprised Guler played that much, but in terms of minutes played, Yamal is still ahead of Guler if you exclude the Club WC (which I consider to be last season). Lamine's playing time is probably more concentrated too. For e.g. he has played nearly 2300 minutes in La Liga despite being out with that small injury that saw him miss most of September/early-October. Whereas its not uncommon for Arda to get subbed or even to start on the bench.
LPB really lucky , Betis could have scored 5 goals in the last 10 minutes of the first half , Lunin with some pretty good saves
so that when shit like this happen ( right in front of the ref too lol ) no one notices i can assure you if it was one of our players it would've been a pk...
With Madrid dropping points today, the magic number is now 8 points. A win tomorrow would probably make it safe.
To get an advantage in case they advanced in CL. Of course, La Liga didn't even wait to see whether it would be Barca/Atleti v Arsenal or LPB v PSG to play next Tuesday.