GWT: Champions League - League Stage

[Jack Straw]

Barcalona Dormund is kind of crazy

 

[John Price]

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Barcalona Dormund is kind of crazy

Shoot off

My god Frenkie would’ve never recovered from that if it ended up a goal. Barca fans would’ve sent him to the moon

 

[John Price]

Ohhh! Barca score!

 

[Jack Straw]

Beautiful pass by Yamal

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Lamine is so classy . What a ball and confident finish Torres

 

[ScottishCanuck]

I don't think Red Star are awarded that goal if it's at the other end.

There were multiple fouls in the box from Milan there.

 

[bluesfan94]

Saka with two goals and an assist, bringing him to 14 goal contributions in 14 Champions League matches

 

[JoVel]

Apparently Schlotterbeck was taken off on a stretcher at the end of the game.

Yet again this team is f***ed because they don't believe in depth on defense.

 

[Juve]

I would have called everyone crazy if someone would have told me Juve would Man City when this game was announced.

 

[Power Man]

CROFL City

 

[Power Man]

 

[Power Man]

 

[Corto]

I don't think Red Star are awarded that goal if it's at the other end.

There were multiple fouls in the box from Milan there.

Welcome to the world of clubs from smaller nations.
We've lived with that since forever.

It's been 27 years, and I still remember vividly how DInamo was absolutely robbed in the CL qualis vs Newcastle. Asprilla elbowing people in front of the ref, no card. Newcastle players jumping hands and feet into the Dinamo GK to cause a drop, goal, no foul.
ANd that's just one example.

In short, I'm not yelling conspiracy here or anything, but there's definitely a hint of "big club call" on that Milan - Zvezda goal.

---

Also, City look awful. Not a "short term crisis" awful, they genuinely have no protection for the back 3/4 with no Rodri or Kovacic on the pitch, defensively they're always at risk and offensively they're just slow and inept.
Gundo is 34, KDB is 33, they're not as mobile as they used to be. Even Walker lost a step, he's 34 too, and very much reliant on his speed.
Stones has been unable to recover his CL winning form, he's basically a rotational player now.
Foden in and out, nowhere near his form from last season. Doku and Savinho are inconsistent and bring flashes rather than consistent pressure and performance.
Gvardiol has seriously looked like their best playmaker playing LB and inverted fullback - but has also been visibly shaken defensively in the last 4-5 games.
Akanji and Ake struggling with injuries, Ruben Diaz with form etc.

They've played the most competitive games in the last 4-5 years, along with Madrid.
It's not a coincidence that they're struggling with injuries and - as a result - form.
But it just seems so slow offensively that there's a non-zero chance IMO that it's more than that - maybe this core has just come to the end of the road. Maybe it's time to move on from KDB, Walker, Gundo, Stones, even Bernardo.
Madrid usually does that fairly cleanly, moving on from guys like Casemiro, Varane, Ramos, etc., just before they start their decline. Maybe City should try and emulate that.

---

To be clear, I'll take as much joy in a City-downfall as the next football non-City fan.
But still, feel bad for guys like KDB etc.

 

[cgf]

The fact you are up against teams that don't have the same schedule is a problem.
How can anyone deny for instance that Brest has a much easier schedule then PSG even though they're pot 4?

The fact you are up against teams that don't have the same schedule was a problem under the old format as well. How can anyone deny for instance that Celtic had a much easier schedule last year...Atletico, Lazio, Feyenoord vs Dortmund, Milan, Newcastle...than PSG even though they were pot 4?

That's the part where I don't understand the criticism. The draw can give you a much harder schedule than a lower pot team under either format, but the old format could also guarantee that a big team didn't advance. Sure it was equally unfair to PSG, Dortmund, Milan and Newcastle, but it was still unfair compared to teams in any of the easier groups.

 

[Evilo]

The fact you are up against teams that don't have the same schedule was a problem under the old format as well. How can anyone deny for instance that Celtic had a much easier schedule last year...Atletico, Lazio, Feyenoord vs Dortmund, Milan, Newcastle...than PSG even though they were pot 4?

That's the part where I don't understand the criticism. The draw can give you a much harder schedule than a lower pot team under either format, but the old format could also guarantee that a big team didn't advance. Sure it was equally unfair to PSG, Dortmund, Milan and Newcastle, but it was still unfair compared to teams in any of the easier groups.

Oh it was often unfair too, no doubt !
Problem here is that it's unfair for teams you're playing against !
In the old format, you had "group of deaths" where say Pot 1 team has rough luck from pot 2, then rough luck from pot 3 and sometimes even rough luck from pot 4. But at least those 4 teams fought against each other.
Here, you have a team like PSG who managed to have rough luck 7 TIMES out of 8. What's the probability? Very slim I'm sure.
And as I said, those 8 teams they're up against don't nearly have the same difficulty and as such don't have the same pressure and risk of being eliminated (contrary to old format).

Idiots will always be idioting, hence why I used the Brest example, but they keep on idioting and calling it bias.

But Brest is tied for 3rd in this year's CL after 13 points in 6 games. They have faced TWO top tier teams (Barca and Bayer) where they did well and managed 1 point. They faced one slightly better tier (PSV) and got 3 points, great. All the other 3 teams they faced where inferior tiers (3 wins).
So all in all, they won against who they should have, won against PSV in a game they could have lost on paper and grabbed 1 point against clearly better opponents. That's a very nice run, but frankly nothing unwordly and yet they're 3rd.
PSG has faced three inferior tier teams (2 wins, 1 draw = 7 points) and 3 top tier teams (all losses) including 2 away. Have they performed well? Hardly. Have they lost games they shouldn't have on paper? No. Not one.
Now they have 2 teams to play. They're out of the CL all together as of now. Of those two games, they must play the champions of England and a top 4 team from the Buli.
I think you can say neither of those games are cake walks (though City is crumbling right now but look at them being pumped up against PSG).
Brest has two games remaining, one very winnable and one they should lose (on paper, Real Madrid). Heck of the top 4 teams they faced, Brest will host 3 of them (away at Barca).