Champions League group stage draw in about half an hour. Well, after the unnecessary crap UEFA always makes us wait through, anyway. Premier chapeau : 1 Barcelone 121.853 2 Liverpool 118.899 3 Chelsea 118.899 4 Manchester United 111.899 5 Milan AC 110.582 6 Arsenal 106.899 7 Seville 100.853 8 Bayern Munich 98.339 Deuxième chapeau : 9 OL 91.033 10 Inter Milan 87.582 11 Real Madrid 78.853 12 CSKA Moscou 71.525 13 FC Porto 68.292 14 Alkmaar 64.826 15 Juventus 63.582 16 Glasgow Rangers 56.575 Troisième chapeau : 17 Olympiacos 52.633 18 OM 48.033 19 Dynamo Kiev 46.370 20 Stuttgart 45.339 21 Fiorentina 42.582 22 Atlético Madrid 41.853 23 Bordeaux 40.033 24 Besiktas 32.445 Quatrieme chapeau : 25 Wolfsburg 21.339 26 Standard de Liège 21.065 27 Maccabi Haifa 17.050 28 Zurich 14.050 29 Rubin Kazan 9.525 30 Unirea Urziceni 8.781 31 APOEL Nicosie 4.016 32 Debrecen 1.633 For those unaware. So, of the teams from the three other pots, the only one we can't draw is Lyon.
was really hoping to get into group H with arsenal because that would have been easier to get through but hopefully deschamps can work his magic like he did with monaco and get us a second place finish.
It's not Group G with Stuttgart, Rangers, Sevilla and Unirea but I don't think it's impossible. I'm thinking if we can take care of business against Zurich and pull 4 pts from Milan (which I don't think is beyond reason) there's your 10 pts right there. 2nd place would be fine enough for me. Who knows maybe this Galactico thing will fail, alright, now I'm being delusional. Alez L'OM!!!!
Mardi 15 septembre : OM-Milan AC Mercredi 30 septembre : Real Madrid-OM Mercredi 21 octobre : Zurich-OM Mardi 03 novembre : OM-Zurich Mercredi 25 novembre : Milan AC-OM Mardi 08 décembre : OM-Real Madrid The first match is huge.
we are ********ed, i hope the summer recruitment's have CL mentality, otherwise OM will be overwhelmed
By what? I think Real will be a beast, otherwise I don't think it's as bad as it might look on paper. I don't see Zurich being much of a problem and I find AC Milan to be hugely overrated this season based on their first match (which they hardly dominated). I'd take AC Milan in my group over Inter and Juve and possibly even Fiorentina this year.
+1 One thing we have to remember, this is a rebuilding year for L'OM. New players and a new philosophy. It will take time for L'OM to be the King of the mountain. They will have to cut their teeth a bit.
On paper the draw looks really rough for you guys, but anything can happen on the pitch. If OM can hold down the fort at home (at least prevent those pesky away goals), and if Milan or Real are having an off day when OM play them away, qualification is definitely feasible. Don't forget that Lille beat Milan in the San Siro a couple of years ago, and Real definitely know what its like to lose to a French team (they had galacticos back then, too).
Even getting 6 pts. vs Zurich will be difficult. If they dont get 6 pts from them then they have no chance of finishing 2nd. Even if they finish 3rd and get the Europa spot, its not too exciting considering how French teams treat that competition which is to say not very seriously.
Anyone still fearing Milan?? The club is in shambles. Gattusso "hurts" himself and then proceeds to nearly murder Sneider despite being "injured". In the process he picks up his 2nd yellow and then blows up on the new coach (Berlusconi's puppet) Leonardo screaming at him all the way from the pitch to the locker room because he didn't substitute him quickly enough. By the way this all took place in the first half of the match. I might be a bit more concerned about FC Zurich at this point than Milan.
I know I'm biased (pro-Marseille and just as much anti-Me-lan) but I don't really see it. I mean Seedorf looks like someone's grandfather on the pitch. I see it being a rough year for them and I felt this way before the CL draw. Their 1st match v. Siena was a dog fight until the last 1/3 of the mach. Yesterday was an abomination. Aside from Pato, no one is really oozing class. I will say that Marseille haven't been rolling over the opposition but I think today will tell us a lot about this season. And let's not forget that Lucho should be back in action come the 1st matchday.
Pato, Inzaghi, Huntelaar, Ronaldindo in attack is pretty good. Ok maybe their defense is subpar but offensively they are alright.
Not trying to turn this into an argument because I agree with you that on paper that is a pretty solid offense. However, Inzaghi and Ronaldinho are certainly not far from being washed up and Huntelaar seems to be a guy who has a ton of potential but hasn't been able to unlock it. I agree that Pato is an excellent player and will probably only get better. Here's hoping that Roman Abromovich busts open the wallet late tomorrow and pries him away from Me-lan. Then I'd put $ on 4 points for L'OM. I think that after watching the match today that Marseille's defence looks really good right now so if they were able to quiet some of Milan's attack, they should be able to put in a goal or 2 against the poor defence. We will have to wait and see. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Marseille is missing their key man in Lucho so things should only improve. As for Milan this appears to be as good as it's getting.
i think this may turn out to be the paper tiger group. marseille and madrid (in different registers of course) had big headline splashy transfer summers and have all the pundits agog. but cash outlay and on-field success are not automatically and directly proportional. 200M€ or no, kàkà, c. ronaldo and benzema remain human beings. i don't see any reason to fawn over milan either. selling off your best player and standing pat with a starting lineup average age over 30 is no more guarantee of success than checkbook management. the appearance is that italy is leaving the company of spain and england for the more mundane comradeship of germany and france. hoping for an eventual coming of age of pato or renaissance of ronaldinho is fine for an objective of finishing 10 points behind inter but no reason for OM to get an inferiority complex. but as for OM forgive me for expressing doubts about a team that brings in 8 new bodies and still fields edouard cissé and matthieu valbuena in their first important match of the year! one runs and runs, the other stands and stands, and in the end it all comes to the same thing.
edouard cissé will be a backup before all is said and done. He's not the problem. The problem is Ben Arfa because he doesnt play like his friends Benzema and Nasri. Those 2 have blown right past him and if was playing like them like he's supposed to then OM would be in better shape. Valbuena should replace him if he continues to fail to impress.
a PSG blogger contributed this to the CdF recently (my translation): By his own admission, Édouard Cissé can neither attack nor defend. His preferred position is therefore in midfield, backed up by a feisty n°6 to take care of winning the ball and surrounded by creative playmakers to run the offense... in this formation you can almost forget that Édouard Cissé is totally useless, and you can even reach a Champions League final with him. Édouard Cissé inaugurated the series of rubbery traffic cones placed hapahazardly on the turf of the Parc – even today Grégory Bourillon lights a stick of incense on his altar every morning. PSG supporters can reread with joy, lying tranquilly in a bathtup of salt, articles from the turn of the millenium predicting for the duo Ducrocq-Cissé a future à la Deschamps-Vieira (the author assures us he really read that). To rince the wounds they can think back on that day they hadn't dare hope for: PSG had managed to sell Édouard Cissé, to a real football club (albeit turkish), and for real money – ah! what a day that was! watching OM-Bordeaux, one can see he wasn't exaggerating!