Pfft! Who cares if Makaay was off? He isn't the only Bayern player. I never said Juventus sucks as a team, they are one of the best teams in the world. What I said was that Bayern was the best team of the group and played the best football, which means they deserve to top the group.
The best team in the group is based on games won, not your twisted slant. I don't care if Michael Ballack bicycle kicked 30 goals against Ajax. They are losing the group and have lost 2x to the winners. There is no justification at all to call them the best team in the group unless we are just going on what team we happen to like. I don't have a problem with Bayern but I hate this "We lost the group but we deserve to win and are the best" crap. Bayern is a good team but they've lost the group and if they played better football they should have beaten Juventus once. Juventus plays effective defensive which is not glamourous or fun to watch, bottom line is it works. Look at the group or Serie A standings if that hasn't sunk into your thick skull.
They are one of the last teams I would pick to win. I'd like to see a Chelsea Barca final with Chelsea winning it.
Rather see Barcelona win it. They are playing with style and from what I have seen, they have plenty of it to entertain us all with. NEVER Chel$ki.
Um Hmm. Idiotic. What u need to do is go live in La La Land. If it had been level on points and u were to say Bayern deserved to go thru as winners based on their better performances, fine. BUT the truth is they lost TWICE home and away to JUVE, and are thus 6 points in arrears! It's simple football isn't played for style points! Scoring 6 one day and losing 3-0 another doesn't make u a great side! (Real Madrid , the GALACTICOS have returned, Max Bretos even gave them someaward and everyone was suppose to submit to this all conquering side, a week lata Barca put them to the sword in devastating fashion) JUVENTUS 18 Bayern 9 Ajax 6 Maccabi Tel-Aviv 3 (That'll be the final group standings, no way in hell u can have them as your group winner). You speak of this great football Bayern Munich play, but they have yet to beat a truly GREAT team this campaign. Let it go, it seems destined that Bayern will draw a great teamin the second round, but JUVE may be unlucky in the next round and draw Barca! I ask you, if JUVE drew Barca and Bayern got lets say PSV, would still be arguing you deserved the best team in your group? In May, then and only then will the best team be left standing, once that team has their captain(be it Del Piero, Maldini, Zanetti, Puyol, Terry, Kahn, Keane, Van Bommel, Cacapa, etc!)
I hate to admit but Juventus is looking like a dominant team this year. I've already started waiting for next year for Barcelona to win it. I'm surprised at the support Bayern has! Many of their players are past their prime, especially Oliver Kahn(obviously).
Next round draw is Friday next week, two days after matchday 6. Your list looks about right, but at this point I'd put PSG instead of Moscow. Barcelona look like they are starting to coast a little, which is good considering their long list of long-term injuries. Hopefully they'll come back cracking, as you say, for the playoffs. And yes, we'll see some giant vs giant battles come Spring.
Hmm the oldest player in the normal starting 11 of Bayern apart from Kahn is Ze Roberto who is 30 i believe. The rest are all around the 25-28 age bracket. I'm sure there are a lot of teams with older teams than this such as maybe Real Madrid who apparently has a "team of stars" even at their ages.
Juventus is the oldest team and I don't believe they'll go the distance. They may be top of both Serie A and their CL group but their football has been hardly inspiring, the overly defensive bent that charactrize their game is a sight as atrocious as any you've seen before... soon they will be found out and the consequenses will be very very painful.. look at this: Ferarra.........37 Montero.......33 Pessotto......34 Iuliano.........31 Birindelli.......30 Thuram.......32 Cannavaro...31 Nedved.......32 Del Piero.....30 & Chimenti.....34 you could argue that the 30 and the 31 year-olds have not yet reached that stage of no-return but evidence on the ground might soon show otherwise. while Juventus' "much-vaunted" defence has been a marvel to behold among the anti-beautiful-football brigade, i've a feeling that as soon as injuries start occur the situation will change for the worse. i see people count Real Madrid out and I say you're not out until you're out! Real just need a victory over Roma by any margin to advance and as soon as we reach the knock-out stage, anything can happen.. we will see but i'm very hopeful....
Idiotic! Real Madrid are the chalk full of youngsters? Zidane 32 Figo 32 Carlos 30 something! Defensively they've got some youngsters, but WAIT they're crap, not just crap, you clowns bought and i still struggle to believe any team cud believe Samuel is a defender that could make things better. Woodgate is a great defender but sadly he looks way too injury prone and the longer you guys play Helguera at the back the worst it'l be for u. This guy would be a great DM but a CB no way is he anygood. Zlatan, Nedved, Camoranesi, Del Piero and even young Olivera are playing vry attractive football, but i suppose you're a FIORENTINO PEREZ kinda clown! It's better to win 6-1, lose 3-0 and then win 5-0, than to win all three games! Congrats on that La Liga trophy by the way! JUVE may not be able to win out but i certainly find it disgusting for anyone to say they play defensive football all the time, we play a very good brand of football and i am a fan is happy and also we got results going our way! Take in a Serie A game or even look at a JUVE UCL game sometime! it'll help cure the obscenity!
How many games of Bayern have you seen lately. I'm guessing only the Champions League games because in the Bundesliga he has been suberb. He is still a world class keeper and if he stops making those stupid errors like he did vs Juventus there is no reason why he still isn't one of the top 3 keepers on the planet.
I don't know, I think Juventus is generally too defensive minded for most peoples tastes. The fact is that there tactics work well. The age thing is complete and utter bollocks. Don't get me wrong, aging players can be a problem at times and are only going to get worse. The thing is that all of this season Juventus' older players have been doing fine. The team as a whole has been doing good in the CL and Serie A, which is seriously a good run. Another thing is the fact that Juventus generates enough money to get new players. I guarantee you that next summer they will get new blood to fill the ranks. They are generally not a talent farming team. It pains me to say this but Juventus are serious contenders for the CL and Serie A. There is still a lot of time and games to see whether that is going to change.
At the moment my vote goes to Chelsea. This club is getting better by the minute and will be extremely difficult to defeat down the stretch. I would not put my money against them.
juve, barca or chelsea. things could change between now and may but if things continue as they are one of these 3.
well wait for injuries to take their toll smart alec and you can come back to me!the season is still young and the trail has just begun, more will happen and things might start to take a different turn altogether....
Sorry for the misinformation. The draw for the first playoff round will be Friday December 17, that is about a week after matchday 6.
I think AC Milan will take it. I also think that Chelsea and Barcelona have a great shot too. Don't under estimate the European Champions either
Just off-topic here, I don't under the format. I went to see the standings on uefa.com website and I got teams A-H or something like that in the group stage. I don't see real madrid or many other teams I know are in the competition.
Is this the same Jokstein that said "Madrid is the most favourite champions league contender every year?" Lol I bet Madrid fans wish they still had Capello and so maybe they wouldn't be on the verge of commiting suicide; in hope that Madrid might actually have a chance at reaching the final.