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And we're back.

After City's thrashing of Bayern it's damn near impossible not to pick them to go thru. But Ancelotti's Real are the most formidable of adversaries.

It looks as though Milan will be without Leao tomorrow. It's similar to Napoli being without Osimhen game 1 of last round. Money on Inter if he's out.

magik9113 wrote:And we're back.

After City's thrashing of Bayern it's damn near impossible not to pick them to go thru. But Ancelotti's Real are the most formidable of adversaries.

It looks as though Milan will be without Leao tomorrow. It's similar to Napoli being without Osimhen game 1 of last round. Money on Inter if he's out.

City are in my opinion the best team in Europe, but I would never bet against Real in this competition.

Can't wait for this one, should be a great tie.

Gooooolazooo

Wow what a strike by Vini Jr, and great build-up from Modric and Camavinga. Great goal.

Screamer from De Bruyne at the other end. Camavinga misplaces a pass and Rodri recovers it, before laying it off to Gundogan and subsequently De Bruyne, who hammers it from range in the bottom left corner. Another great goal.

Vini Jr is currently the best player in the world alongside Mbappe. He´s in unbelievable form right now

I thought City would win this leg because Militao was out, but Madrid got a goal against run of play and the game was pretty even from then onwards. I don't know what result to expect but Madrid will be stronger next week. I generally enjoy these matchups because on a tactical level Ancelotti and Pep have a lot in common (bias towards narrow players, willing to shift to abnormal shapes to suit the players) and I love seeing my 2 favorite b2b players in Modric and Gundogan play in the same match.

Ancelotti likes to pull out tactical surprises for big matches like these and I hoped Fede Valverde as false 9 would appear because it makes a lot of sense given the natural matchups on the wings and the depth/variety in midfield already. In this leg he was used primarily defensively to cover for the weak cb's, but in the 2nd leg I hope it happens because Benzema has been bad/unfit for almost half a season against good teams. I also hope the midfield personnel potentially get shifted a bit because CIty's midfield can outwork the starters used today despite the heroic performance of Camavinga as both fullback and central midfielder.

It was only a few years ago that Leicester made the final 8 of the CL.

Fantastic atmosphere at the San Siro.

1-0 to Inter. A pinpoint whipping corner is played in from the left side, and Dzeko jockeys for position to volley the ball into the net, leaving Maignan stranded. Dzeko absolutely bullied Calabria there.

2-0 to Inter. Barella carries the ball in midfield and stretches to tip a pass to Dimarco on the left side. Dimarco plays an early pass to find Mkhitaryan running centrally into the box, easily carving the Milan defence open, and Mkhitaryan finishes.

Milan in danger of being run off the park here.

Embarrassing thus far for Milan who also lost Bennacer and do not have any appealing options on the bench

Trash can Origi into the game

Baphomet wrote:

magik9113 wrote:And we're back.

After City's thrashing of Bayern it's damn near impossible not to pick them to go thru. But Ancelotti's Real are the most formidable of adversaries.

It looks as though Milan will be without Leao tomorrow. It's similar to Napoli being without Osimhen game 1 of last round. Money on Inter if he's out.

City are in my opinion the best team in Europe, but I would never bet against Real in this competition.

Can't wait for this one, should be a great tie.

Are City ever going to face serious penalties for FFP?

The PL accused City back in February of violations from 2009-18, during which time they won the PL 3 times.

Do we imagine that they changed their practices or were in compliance with FFP since 2018, during which time they won the PL several more times.

They're likely to win again this year, the main reason being that they have a deeper roster so they're almost impervious to injuries or needing to replace underperforming or unhappy players.


If they win the UCL, finally, it could be their swan song. Or PL and UEFA still won't come down on City, especially if City backs UEFA vs. the Super League?

wco81 wrote:

Baphomet wrote:

magik9113 wrote:And we're back.

After City's thrashing of Bayern it's damn near impossible not to pick them to go thru. But Ancelotti's Real are the most formidable of adversaries.

It looks as though Milan will be without Leao tomorrow. It's similar to Napoli being without Osimhen game 1 of last round. Money on Inter if he's out.

City are in my opinion the best team in Europe, but I would never bet against Real in this competition.

Can't wait for this one, should be a great tie.

Are City ever going to face serious penalties for FFP?

The PL accused City back in February of violations from 2009-18, during which time they won the PL 3 times.

Do we imagine that they changed their practices or were in compliance with FFP since 2018, during which time they won the PL several more times.

They're likely to win again this year, the main reason being that they have a deeper roster so they're almost impervious to injuries or needing to replace underperforming or unhappy players.


If they win the UCL, finally, it could be their swan song. Or PL and UEFA still won't come down on City, especially if City backs UEFA vs. the Super League?

It seems to me they won't face serious sanction. The government's emails with respect to the Newcastle takeover suggest there's too much political pressure to actually enforce rules against this foreign money. Hopefully I'm wrong.

wco81 wrote:

Baphomet wrote:

magik9113 wrote:And we're back.

After City's thrashing of Bayern it's damn near impossible not to pick them to go thru. But Ancelotti's Real are the most formidable of adversaries.

It looks as though Milan will be without Leao tomorrow. It's similar to Napoli being without Osimhen game 1 of last round. Money on Inter if he's out.

City are in my opinion the best team in Europe, but I would never bet against Real in this competition.

Can't wait for this one, should be a great tie.

Are City ever going to face serious penalties for FFP?

The PL accused City back in February of violations from 2009-18, during which time they won the PL 3 times.

Do we imagine that they changed their practices or were in compliance with FFP since 2018, during which time they won the PL several more times.

They're likely to win again this year, the main reason being that they have a deeper roster so they're almost impervious to injuries or needing to replace underperforming or unhappy players.


If they win the UCL, finally, it could be their swan song. Or PL and UEFA still won't come down on City, especially if City backs UEFA vs. the Super League?

I wish I could give you a better response, but my answer is: I don't know. I don't know how long this kind of process takes, or what the repercussions are. Teams generally get fined for FFP breaches, but this is over 100 breaches. I fully expect nothing serious to happen to them, but again, I don't truly know with any kind of conviction without being able to see what's going on behind the scenes.

Here we go. Second leg, all things even at 1-1.

Whoever wins meets Inter in the final. City's XI seems to be the same, Militao comes in for Rudiger for Real.

City come out very aggressively, De Bruyne plays a through ball to Haaland who can't quite control it for a shot, but reaches it at the byline and cuts it back to a dangerous position, but nobody's there.

A few moments later Rodri breaks into the box and skims the ball wide with his shot.

Coutrois! what a save

how did that not go in!

Grealish plays an accurate ball in from the left to find Haaland, but his central header is deflected away from goal by Courtois.

Superb positioning from Courtois to stop Haaland from putting City 2-1 up on aggregate.