Good grief: Wolfsburg hits the underside of the crossbar in the last seconds of regulation and the ball bounces out in front of the goal and no. 8 for Wolfsburg should have knocked in the ball to win the match but she hits it straight into a Bordeaux player. Oh, my. Into extra time they go!
Bordeaux 2 - 1 Wolfsburg (4 - 4 on agg.) FT Bordeaux survived the onslaught during last 10 minutes and game will go now to extra time. Wolfsburg look favs to me, they have more quality from the bench... but one counter from Bordeaux and it's over. meanwhile Man City 0 - 1 Real Madrid (1 - 2 on agg.) HT https://www.twitch.tv/realmadrid/
Update Pot 1: Barcelona, PSG, Bayern, Chelsea Pot 2:Lyon, Wolfsburg, Arsenal, Breidablik Pot 3: Häcken, Juventus, Hoffenheim, Real Madrid Pot 4: Kharkiv, Servette, Köge, Benfica
Wolfsburg slips past Bordeaux on PKs to win and move on in CL. I believe under the old away-goal system Bordeaux would have progressed as they were ahead 2-1 after regulation play ended and had scored two away goals in the first leg (losing 3-2). I only saw the last 15 minutes of regulation and the extra periods and it was completely open, up--and-down the field play. Very entertaining, if a bit helter-skelter. Wolfsburg had the ball a lot in the attacking third but were wasteful, and meanwhile Bordeaux played their guts out. Wolfsburg seemed to have it won after a goal by Pajor (I think) in the first extra period but someone from Bordeaux hit a wonder strike in the dying minutes of the second extra period to send it to PKs. Bordeaux missed all three of its PKs--the first two hit in the same spot and saved by the Wolfsburg keeper, and Folkertsma (I think) missed with a weak strike as well. Wolfsburg made all three of its PKs to win it.
Tonight's action: (SCO) Glasgow City 1 - 2 Servette (SUI) Chinchilla 14 --- Boho 41, Maendly 48 Servette won 3-2 on aggregate. (DEN) Køge 2 - 0 Sparta Prague (CZE) Fløe 53, Kramer 83 Køge won 3-0 on aggregate. (FRA) Lyon 2 - 1 Levante (ESP) Majri 60, Macario 63 --- Cometti 64 Lyon won 4-2 on aggregate. (GER) Hoffenheim 3 - 3 Rosengård (SWE) Wienroither 8, Linder 27, Brand 67 --- Cankovic 17, Larsson 65, Kullashi 89 Hoffenheim won 6-3 on aggregate. (SWE) Häcken 3 - 2 Vålerenga (NOR) Blackstenius 39, 52, Kaneryd 78 --- Jensen 73, Stengel 88 Häcken won 6-3 on aggregate. (FRA) Bordeaux 3 - 2 Wolfsburg (GER) Snoeijs 36, Gomes 66, Cardia 119 --- Pajor 25, 102 5-5 on aggregate. Wolfsburg won 3-0 on penalties. (ENG) Manchester City 0 - 1 Real Madrid (ESP) Zornoza 44 Real Madrid won 2-1 on aggregate.
Not all that shocking in my opinion. Lucy Bronze, Keira Walsh and Chloe Kelly were all injured. Plus, they didn't have a preseason so most of their new signings haven't fit in yet. Janine Beckie, Ellen White didn't start probably because they were getting a bit of rest after the Olympics. The format of the competition didn't do them any favors this year. That all being said, they really should have done better given the talent that did start but I'm not all that surprised by, it to be honest.
Not surprising at all. Real are very well put together. And ManCity have a lot of overvalued players and yesterday's news.
Bordeaux being newbies in the tournament were nowhere near good enough on the physical side and the intensity of a Champions League game. back to the drawing board and they need to learn to improve on their fitness level. That's where the D1 Arkema hurts because there are not enough difficult games to prepare for the intensity of elite games. In term of quality that game was poor, just a physical battle and very transitional, very much a lot of headless chicken runs and passing. Super high intensity, but not much football.
Speaking of physical games, the Lyon vs Levante match was very physical. There were 9 yellow cards issued, Levante. had 7 of them.
I am not surprised, the first leg had seen a lot of unpunished fouls from the commentary I read. UEFA probably told the referee to watch out.
Update Countries with 3 teams GER 3/3 FRA 2/3 SPA 2/3 ENG 2/3 or 1/3 SWE 1/3 CZE 1/3 or 0/3 If our resident troll Hotjam was still around he would say the FBL is the best league in the world based on those results. Still it does say something that they are the only country who will have three teams in the Group stage.
Even if Bordeaux brought newbies, they still managed to play the #3 team in the continent to a 5-5 draw over two legs, which is honestly fairly impressive in itself; and while Lyon dispatched Levante a bit easier, it's definitely not often that Lyon is played to one-goal games back-to-back either. The top three leagues seem, to me, to be a lot closer to each other than the traditional Franco-Deutch dominance would suggest. It's also a bit of the luck of the draw; I imagine if Arsenal-Hoffenheim and Rosengard-Slavia were the draw instead of the two we got, we'd have 2/3 for all top 5 leagues.
Indeed, that's why I think we should wait for two or three seasons to see an impact and be able to compare the Leagues. We shall see next year as it will be the same six countries with three teams and for a long time as Sweden are 5.750 points ahead of Danemark. The top 6 for next season being already set as: 1. France 92.000 2. Germany 75.500 3. England 68.500 , they overtook Spain which means the English champions will go straight to the Group stage, unlike this year.* 4. Spain 64.000 5.Sweden 40.500 6. Czech Republic 36.500 * in the end the English Champions Chelsea are through to the Group stage as the title holder is also the Spanish champion.
Arsenal and Hoffenheim were both unseeded while Rosengard and Slavia were both seeded. So these pairings were not possible.
Just joined the Benfica - Twente match in the second half. Was 1-0 Benfica at half time but Benfica struck twice in quick succession in the first 5 minutes to make it 3-0. Catching Twente off guard with the pace of Lacasse. Twente of course with a new coach, iirc he was the Dutch wnt head coack before Wiegman and if he had stayed there definitely wouldnt have been any of the succes of recent years [emoji6]. Lacasse continuing to torment the Twente defense, number 6 looking good as well at right back Twente keeper should have positioned herself better for goal number three... Twente played Ajax this past Sunday as well and there was some talk in the match commentary about whether that match shouldn't have been rescheduled but Twente themselves didn't put in a request. Tuesday - Sunday - Thursday should be do able you would think... 4-0 finished by Lacasse, caught on the break again by Benfica pace
Pot 1: Barcelona, PSG, Bayern, Chelsea Pot 2: Lyon, Wolfsburg, Arsenal, Breidablik Pot 3: Häcken, Juventus, Hoffenheim, Real Madrid Pot 4: Kharkiv, Servette, Köge, Benfica
Although I am sure they're a good team, I bet everyone will pray from Breiðablik as their pot 2's team. Edit: anyway, given Wolsfburg's performance at this last round, it's not a given that picking the German team would be worse than picking Breiðablik...
Update for Group stage: Countries with 3 teams GER 3/3 FRA 2/3 SPA 2/3 ENG 2/3 SWE 1/3 CZE 0/3 2 teams DEN 1/2 ITA 1/2 ISL 1/2 NED 0/2 SCO 0/2 RUS 0/2 BLR 0/2 KAZ 0/2 NOR 0/2 1 team still in POR UKR SUI There will be 11 countries out of 16 team.
Although the "big nations keep" dominating, 11 countries out of 16 teams is not so bad, in terms of diversity. Of course, when you factor in that just 5 countries express 10 of these teams (and just 4 countries for 9 of them), the point of view can dramatically change... Having lost all of their three teams sounds like a big hit for Czech Republic!