2015–16 UEFA Champions League

cgf · Post #1121 » by **cgf** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 1:42 am

It'll be interesting to see if Leverkusen or VFL can join Bayern in the knockouts or if the BuLi is going to try to win the EL by having all of the teams.

Both Leverkusen and VFL still have to make trips to the east (against BATE and CZKA respectively) against teams who still have a shot at advancing, that their primary rivals for the 2nd spot in the group gets to face at home. Both Vizekusen and FC VW have the benefit of facing the top teams in their groups on the final matchday and at home; but United will still have first place to play for in that match no matter what happens in the next matches...though Barca should have first locked up if Roma can not upset them at the Camp Nou.

Bayer's road looks easier as CZKA are a stronger side than BATE and Barca can secure first before the final matchday; but I have more faith in VFL to actually do what they have to...and united being such an underwhelming top team doesn't hurt their chances either, even if they will have something to play for. So both teams could well drop down the EL.

And BMG have the big re-match with Sevilla at home; which they should be favored in with their current form. If they get the job done and Juve beat Citeh like they should, then the top two will be locked up before the final matchday and Juve/Citeh will only have playoff seeding to play for while BMG/Sevilla will have the EL spot still hanging in the balance. Wouldn't surprise me if Juve ended up drawing or losing to Sevilla on the final matchday after securing the knockoutstages with the win over Citeh, while Citeh try their best to finally win a group and avoid an early meeting with Barca. Though the top two is all but officially decided, I'm very curious how this group plays out.

In Group A, it's tough to see PSG dropping points to Malmo in this next match after the frustrating defeat to Real, though if Verratti is gone for long that could be serious trouble...he's soooo good. Which would mean they'll have nothing to play for against Shaktar on the final matchday if Real take care of the ukranians. Shaktar are by far the more talented of the bottom two...but those swedes could be good for an upset if one of the giants in their group doesn't show up...and the impact of the war on the Donetzk club's morale/psyche is impossible to measure. Still gotta favor Shaktar to get third, but I'm a lot less certain of that then I was when I started writing this paragraph.

Group C seems pretty straight forward; athleti need to take care of business against Gala and show up with their A game to that final match with Benfca to top the group. Though Simeone may well just not give a **** and rest his guys for the League campaign once the knockouts are secure...like I see Juve doing in their group. Gala's got a really tough trip to the Calderon to try and give their CL lives a second wind, but the EL seems more likely to be their fate...unless they just completely give up on europe and **** the bed when the Kazakhs come to turkey on the final matchday.

Arsenal need to get their **** together against Dinamo and pray that Bayern don't switch off again, but luckily for the Londoners the greeks have to go to the Allianz, and they are much less dangerous away from home. That will leave Arsenal's fate in their own hands as a 2 goal win out of their trip to greece would then see them through. If Kos wasn't just being rested in a match Wenger knew he'd lose, then they should worry; otherwise that's a very doable task. Though they've used up almost all of their margin for error. Either Arsenal or Olympiakos could cause some trouble in the EL as long as Arsenal don't **** the bed against Dinamo.

Haven't seen any of group G, and have only seen the Zenit-Valencia match from group H; though that one seems very straightforward...Zenit are the top team in that group while Valencia should be challenging them, not losing to Gent to give the Belgians a lifeline.

treiz · Post #1122 » by **treiz** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 1:52 am

God damn, Roma and Chelsea raising my blood pressures to all time highs today

Foye · Post #1123 » by **Foye** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 6:58 am

DD12 wrote:How come a team playing against an even opponent at away but concedes a counter goal 1st minute and 20th minute?

Seriously what is the logic? I don't get this why? It is like playing against Barca at Barcelona and conceding a goal from counter in the first minute. How do you do this? You have got to defend dude.

Its clearly the way Schmidt wants to play. He wants to play the extreme pressing game that Guardiola teams do but forgets his team isnt good enough to complete 90+ % of their passes. It looks good if teams dont find a way to go over their pressing wave...but if you manage to beat that pressing you will get a good goalscoring opportunity like every time.
I agree its a bullsh*t tactical approach that will only work against teams with less individual quality. But it wont change until Schmidt is gone.

As I said, I'm also not surprised his Salzburg teams never made it to UCL.

EArl · Post #1124 » by **EArl** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 7:37 am

Suarez and Neymar are finally comfortable playing by themselves.

El Turco · Post #1125 » by **El Turco** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 7:59 am

they scored like barcelona's last 17 goals, they've been comfortable for awhile

Det the Threat · Post #1126 » by **Det the Threat** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 11:42 am

One interesting moment on this game day was after the match of Gladbach vs Juventus.

As soon as the game was over Buffon(who likes Gladbach) ran into the north stand and wanted to exchange his gloves for a Gladbach scarf but some idiots said no to him.
Though, the Gladbach fans(and fan project) realized it and met him in front of the dressing rooms to appologize and happily gave him a one of their scarfs.
Gigi was very happy and thanked them, while also signing a lot of stuff before Juve left Borussia Park.

Just shows that Buffon's a good guy and he'll probably get a lot more merchandise cause a lot of Gladbach fans showed their displeasure about some Ultras saying no to him on social media and want to send him some merchandise.

Foye · Post #1127 » by **Foye** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 4:53 pm

Det the Threat wrote:One interesting moment on this game day was after the match of Gladbach vs Juventus.

As soon as the game was over Buffon(who likes Gladbach) ran into the north stand and wanted to exchange his gloves for a Gladbach scarf but some idiots said no to him.
Though, the Gladbach fans(and fan project) realized it and met him in front of the dressing rooms to appologize and happily gave him a one of their scarfs.
Gigi was very happy and thanked them, while also signing a lot of stuff before Juve left Borussia Park.

Just shows that Buffon's a good guy and he'll probably get a lot more merchandise cause a lot of Gladbach fans showed their displeasure about some Ultras saying no to him on social media and want to send him some merchandise.

Idiots...Gigi Buffon gloves are a gold mine even if you hate other teams players lol.

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Rasho Brezec · Post #1128 » by **Rasho Brezec** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 5:15 pm

Why does Buffon like Gladbach?

DD12 · Post #1129 » by **DD12** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 5:20 pm

Foye wrote:
Det the Threat wrote:One interesting moment on this game day was after the match of Gladbach vs Juventus.

As soon as the game was over Buffon(who likes Gladbach) ran into the north stand and wanted to exchange his gloves for a Gladbach scarf but some idiots said no to him.
Though, the Gladbach fans(and fan project) realized it and met him in front of the dressing rooms to appologize and happily gave him a one of their scarfs.
Gigi was very happy and thanked them, while also signing a lot of stuff before Juve left Borussia Park.

Just shows that Buffon's a good guy and he'll probably get a lot more merchandise cause a lot of Gladbach fans showed their displeasure about some Ultras saying no to him on social media and want to send him some merchandise.

Idiots...Gigi Buffon gloves are a gold mine even if you hate other teams players lol.

Sent from my GT-I9001 using RealGM Forums mobile app

Have you ever been at a Mainz game in the stadium?

Det the Threat · Post #1130 » by **Det the Threat** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 6:19 pm

Rasho Brezec wrote:Why does Buffon like Gladbach?

Because of a game he played as a kid which included Borussia Mönchengladbach.
He couldn't really pronounce the name of the club but he liked it so much that he always chose to play with it in the game.

It's also something you can read in his book(Numero 1), where he named five clubs, other then Juventus, he'd like to play for.
It included:
Real Madrid
Celtic
West Ham United
Genoa(I think)
Borussia Mönchengladbach

cgf · Post #1131 » by **cgf** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 6:36 pm

Det the Threat wrote:
Rasho Brezec wrote:Why does Buffon like Gladbach?

Because of a game he played as a kid which included Borussia Mönchengladbach.
He couldn't really pronounce the name of the club but he liked it so much that he always chose to play with it in the game.

It's also something you can read in his book(Numero 1), where he named five clubs, other then Juventus, he'd like to play for.
It included:
Real Madrid
Celtic
West Ham United
Genoa(I think)
Borussia Mönchengladbach

Buffon's hipster-credentials confirmed.

Post #1132 » by **Baphomet** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 7:32 pm

West Ham and Genoa are esteemed company to be in.

cgf · Post #1133 » by **cgf** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 8:06 pm

I really hate that I can't help but like watching West Ham this season. So much time that I've spent making fun of my friend for picking them to be her EPL team, and now they're one of the only teams in England I put some effort into trying to watch.

It's always so disappointing when reality decides it needs to remind me of my hipster-sympathies...

MaliBrah · Post #1134 » by **MaliBrah** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 8:18 pm

Doormatt wrote:
MaliBrah wrote:I think we need to beat Zagreb at home and then beat olympiakos by 2 goals to qualify. Man I don't want to finish 3rd

i got a better AV for you

ahah if we Lose to spurs i'll put it up

Post #1135 » by **Baphomet** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 8:34 pm

cgf wrote:I really hate that I can't help but like watching West Ham this season. So much time that I've spent making fun of my friend for picking them to be her EPL team, and now they're one of the only teams in England I put some effort into trying to watch.

It's always so disappointing when reality decides it needs to remind me of my hipster-sympathies...

I think No_20 posted about it earlier this year, but he was correct in saying that West Ham are the ultimate game raisers. Watch them against the big clubs and they'll play well, but against the likes of Watford and Bournemouth they'll lay an egg.

DD12 · Post #1136 » by **DD12** » Thu Nov 5, 2015 10:01 pm

cgf wrote:I really hate that I can't help but like watching West Ham this season. So much time that I've spent making fun of my friend for picking them to be her EPL team, and now they're one of the only teams in England I put some effort into trying to watch.

It's always so disappointing when reality decides it needs to remind me of my hipster-sympathies...

West Ham games are a lot of fun. Leicester and West Ham games are my favorite. Others are so boring.

cgf · Post #1137 » by **cgf** » Fri Nov 6, 2015 1:16 am

Baphomet wrote:
cgf wrote:I really hate that I can't help but like watching West Ham this season. So much time that I've spent making fun of my friend for picking them to be her EPL team, and now they're one of the only teams in England I put some effort into trying to watch.

It's always so disappointing when reality decides it needs to remind me of my hipster-sympathies...

I think No_20 posted about it earlier this year, but he was correct in saying that West Ham are the ultimate game raisers. Watch them against the big clubs and they'll play well, but against the likes of Watford and Bournemouth they'll lay an egg.

So true. I've made that point myself cause that is just so true; from their playing style which is more effective against teams used to dominating the ball, to their coach (as Bilic's Lokomotiv was the exact same way), down to the club ethos itself. West Ham are great underdogs and terrible front runners. They're like my Giants where before they started sucking ( ~2006-2011); a team who can go toe-to-toe and beat the best teams (even when they're playing their best football), and the next week get destroyed by the worst team in the league in every aspect of play.

Foye · Post #1138 » by **Foye** » Fri Nov 6, 2015 1:34 am

DD12 wrote:
Foye wrote:
Det the Threat wrote:One interesting moment on this game day was after the match of Gladbach vs Juventus.

As soon as the game was over Buffon(who likes Gladbach) ran into the north stand and wanted to exchange his gloves for a Gladbach scarf but some idiots said no to him.
Though, the Gladbach fans(and fan project) realized it and met him in front of the dressing rooms to appologize and happily gave him a one of their scarfs.
Gigi was very happy and thanked them, while also signing a lot of stuff before Juve left Borussia Park.

Just shows that Buffon's a good guy and he'll probably get a lot more merchandise cause a lot of Gladbach fans showed their displeasure about some Ultras saying no to him on social media and want to send him some merchandise.

Idiots...Gigi Buffon gloves are a gold mine even if you hate other teams players lol.

Sent from my GT-I9001 using RealGM Forums mobile app

Have you ever been at a Mainz game in the stadium?

Sure. I've never been an ultra, though. So I might not understand what was going through Gladbach ultras head (if anything) when refusing those gloves.

Post #1139 » by **magik9113** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 6:34 pm

BATE 1 - 1 Leverkusen 13 minutes to go. Calhanoglu just subbed out. Anything but a Bayer win is huge for Roma

Post #1140 » by **magik9113** » Tue Nov 24, 2015 7:55 pm

looking like its going to be a painfully long day for Roma. and Bayern up already