After the First Stage, who is your biggest surprise at making the second round? Who is your biggest disappointment at not making the second round? Surprise - FC Basel Who? Go Swiss, Go Swiss... Disappointment - Galatasaray In a weak group, they came in last! So much for Turkey football...
Surprise - Lokomotiv Moscow. I never thought they would be able to get a win in that group let alone qualify! Disappointment - Bayern Munich. A team we expect so much of but they didn't deliver! I'd just like to add that Newcastle has to be the great story of this round. They lost their first three games and then came back to grab second place in the last few minutes of the group. They truely have an amazing team spirit.
Biggest surprise has got to be Basel. Personally, I'd never heard of them before their qualifying match with Celtic. Dissapointment- PSV. I expected them to get to at least the 2nd group stage.
What Newcastle did was amazing, after losing the first three I would have never thought that they could come back. Liverpool and Bayern Munich were both very disappointing. They are both very talented teams but they sure didn't show it. Who can say what went wrong.
Surprise Team- Basel. Most of us had never heard of them before. Disappointment- Bayern. Ballack, Elber, Kahn, Ze Roberto, Jeremies, and Hargreaves and they can't make the second round.
Biggest dissappointment: That no one really looks like breaking La Liga's monopoly on the Champions League. On the evidence of the first group stage, Spanish sides collectively remain very much the ones to beat (which isn't, by the way, to say they can't be beaten in the course of the season). Just that for now they're demonstrably the best. Also, Bayern Munich for obvious reasons and Galatasaray (proving that believing your own publicity is never a good thing). Biggest surprise: FC Basel, for proving that Celtic are better than Liverpool though they maybe or may not be better than Blackburn, which should prove that Liverpool won't win the Premiership this season because Blackburn certainly won't though Celtic might next year, when they switch leagues. Still with me? Newcastle. Three down, three to go. Played six. Qualified. Remarkable. Galatasaray. Well, not a surprise to most of us but given the Turkish footballing community's collective submission to a verbal diahorrea virus in the past three months, I assume someone, somewhere in Istanbul must be surprised that it's over the hell rather than welcome to it. Good riddance to the cesspit of the football universe. The champions league is better off without them and it. Is a single visiting supporter anywhere lamenting the demise of Gala?
This is a no brainer ... Surprise team advancing-Basel, without a doubt!!! Cmon people...like you ever heard of this swiss club!?! ( i only knew of Grasshoppers...and with a name like that...i couldn't really respect ANY team from the Alps...but Basle has changed that) Seeing Celtic get knocked out by them was painful...but knowing that Basel was a lot stronger than ANYONE imagined, i have less heartburn now...speaking of Burn...lets hope the Bhoys can run riot over B'burn...i hope Oneil reminds the players of how disappointed it was for them not to qualify last year in the 2nd round of UCL...and that they don't want to have that bitter feeling again...especially from an English club! Biggest dissappointment - Bayern Ass munch...their players did a lot of talking before the first round, saying how Real Madrid was everybody's favorite to win it all this year...but that THEY would lift the trophy come May...HAHHHHHH ...now it looks like the "White Ballet" won't be playing in what they call the Loser's cup, the UEFA cup, cuz they haven't even WON a single UCL first round match!!! At least Liverpool and Gala did that...hands down, the Bavarian Steroid slackers win this award. p.s. You guys can make fun of Gala and turkish teams all you want (hec, i have to say that i hate them too), but you can't tell me that teams like Milan, Arsenal, and Manure are all sighing with relief that they don't have to play in Istanbul (especially in HELL...er Galatasaray's stadium).
Not really, can you repeat with some diagrams, graph, stats, and video? Personally, biggest dissapointment has to be Bayern, not even a UEFA cup place. The surprise is Basel, I kinda hope they keep it up and become the cinderella story of the competition.
Surprise: FCB(asel) - especially because of their difficult group. Disappointment: FCB(ayern) That's because they haven't been Swiss champions since 1980. I happen to love that name and think it is very unique - so shut your mug.
Oh, I'll keep on yapping about the insect team name...especially since they are likely to win the Swiss championship...only to be SQUASHED in UCL qualifying!?!?!? In fact...you're right...it IS a great name... LOL...perfectly suitable.... Flame it...after all...this is BS.
Squashed? Would you like to back that up with facts? Last year's FC Porto would beg to differ... So which team do you support? Embarassed to put it in your profile?
When Gala beat the insects a few years back...i had no respect for the Turkish team THEN...thus, i had no respect for a team who loses to them!?!? (of course, Gala has gotten better since then) Didn't catch the Porto games...but they seemed to have qualified that year if i remember, NOT Grasshoppers. If you wanna argue...let's take this over to rivalries... I change my choice...Grasshoppers is the surprise team !?!?!?!? (p.s. nice pics by the way)
Biggest dissapoinment for me is no French teams in the final 16. I mean Auxerre and Lens aren't rich clubs but their not bad Lyon had the wealth and talent to advance further.
Factual view: Biggest surprise: Basel Biggest disappointment: Bayern Personal view: Biggest positive surprise: Bayern Biggest disappointment: Dortmund advancing
HAHH...the insects out of Uefa....Celtic carry on... life is good. (and hey...even if Celtic get knocked out next round...still did better than Asshoppers!?!) And i thought Bayern Munchass lack of success in 2002 made the year great!!!
Disappointment: Liverpool. With Owen, Heskey, Gerrard, Hyppia, Baros, Carragher and Dudek, I thought these guys would have made the quarter-finals. But such is life. Surprise: Basel. Good coaching and hardworking players.