European Football Thread

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Chelsea edges out another win today, I thought for a moment Terry was going to start throwing fists again.

[Vasall des Midas]

German cup semifinals coming up.
Tuesday Nuremberg vs us (I'm going!)
Wednesday Wolfsburg vs Stuttgart.

If we win and Stuttgart wins, we're back in Europe. Well not technically yet, but Stuttgart would have to take a maximum of 2 points from the remaining five games to drop to sixth place - and even that only if Leverkusen wins everything and Nuremberg wins everything except their upcoming away game to Leverkusen. So we'd probably be officially back in Europe by next weekend.

[Tender Branson]

Today it was announced that Poland/Ukraine are hosting the 2012 European Football Championships.

It´s the 3rd time 2 states combined are hosts after Belgium/Netherlands in 2000, Austria/Switzerland in 2008 and now Poland/Ukraine in 2012.

[Vasall des Midas]

German cup semifinals coming up.
Tuesday Nuremberg vs us (I'm going!)
Wednesday Wolfsburg vs Stuttgart.

If we win and Stuttgart wins, we're back in Europe.

That didn't go too well...

[Jack Vance RIP]

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, HORRIBLE events are occuring at this moment in time, Unspeakable really.

Though the plus side is now Chelsea won't do the three in a row.

[GMantis]

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, HORRIBLE events are occuring at this moment in time, Unspeakable really.

Though the plus side is now Chelsea won't do the three in a row.

Yes, Liverpool qualifing for another Champions League Final is indeed horrible.

[Јas]

Horrible, Horrible, Horrible, HORRIBLE events are occuring at this moment in time, Unspeakable really.

Surely not, United winning the title instead of Chelsea - good
Sunderland promoted under the guidance of the legend that is Roy Keane (who did turn around the awful work of the evil McCarthy) - excellent!

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Charlton were relegated today, they fought very very hard, and I feel bad for Alan Pardew, who hit a bad patch at West Ham and was fired, only to very nearly pull a poor Charlton out of the pits, I like him, I think their chances in the Championship next year are good, I hope they're back up soon.

[Tender Branson]

Today Champions League Final:

AC Milan vs. Liverpool

In their rematch of the legendary 2005 Final in Istanbul, when Liverpool kicked their @ss. One of the best games I´ve ever seen.

I hope Liverpool wins again today

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1oIPrGbsfvw

[GMantis]

And I hope that Milan have their revenge today .

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Well... the game has just finished, Milan played better, but what in the hell is the deal with the referee ending the game before MINIMUM stoppage had passed? Benitez has good reason to ask for an explanation.

Congrats to Milan, I still hate Italian football, they're horrible examples, and AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

[Vasall des Midas]

Well... the game has just finished, Milan played better, but what in the hell is the deal with the referee ending the game before MINIMUM stoppage had passed? Benitez has good reason to ask for an explanation.

No such thing as "minimum stoppage". Nor anything unusual, at least in the Bundesliga, about the game ending up to 30 seconds before the referee's earlier estimate of how much he'll grant. (Which is all that figure on the sign is.)

[Јas]

AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

Strongly agree.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

Strongly disagree.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United made the Semi Finals of the Champion's League. This can't be brushed off as poor.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

Strongly agree.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

Strongly disagree.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United made the Semi Finals of the Champion's League. This can't be brushed off as poor.

I agree that we did well in the Champions league, but we lost, and the Prem was boring this year, only two teams ever has a shot, Arsenal wasn't competitive, Liverpool stopped caring many weeks before the end (try Christmas) and West Ham cheated and no justice was done.

[Tender Branson]

Grrr, Lucky Lombardian Pizza Bakers !

[Vasall des Midas]

AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

Strongly agree.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

Strongly disagree.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United made the Semi Finals of the Champion's League. This can't be brushed off as poor.

I agree that we did well in the Champions league, but we lost, and the Prem was boring this year, only two teams ever has a shot, Arsenal wasn't competitive, Liverpool stopped caring many weeks before the end (try Christmas) and West Ham cheated and no justice was done.

The Premier League (the championship that is, not relegation etc) has not been entertaining since... well ... since it has been the Premier League.
Not that Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, Primera División etc are any better.

[Јas]

AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

Strongly agree.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

Strongly disagree.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United made the Semi Finals of the Champion's League. This can't be brushed off as poor.

I agree that we did well in the Champions league, but we lost, and the Prem was boring this year, only two teams ever has a shot, Arsenal wasn't competitive, Liverpool stopped caring many weeks before the end (try Christmas) and West Ham cheated and no justice was done.

Performance of teams in the Champion's League is a reasonably objective (or at least about as objective as is possible) measure of how strong the top teams in any particular league are.

Yes, Milan won, but by brushing off the fact that 3 Premiership teams made the semis - in describing it as a poor year for English clubs - this implicitly means that every other league (bar Serie A) had a 'poor year'. What exactly would make it a 'good year'?

As to the internal Premiership competitive balance, it's probably not fair to say that only two teams ever have a chance, things change from year to year. This year, Arsenal suffered because of Henry's injury trouble - had that not been the case, they could have been  serious challengers.

As for Liverpool, they stopped playing in the Premiership only when they got to the Champion's League semi - due to the importance of the semi (and later the final); and because it was only around that stage that they were solid for a top 4 finish and so qualification again next season (To say they stopped at Christmas is hardly fair, considering they were four for four in January).

Finally, as to West Ham, sure there was some sort of malarchy over the transfers, but I'm actually glad that it was the results on the pitch that decided matters, not some technical flaw in the transfers.

[GMantis]

Well... the game has just finished, Milan played better, but what in the hell is the deal with the referee ending the game before MINIMUM stoppage had passed? Benitez has good reason to ask for an explanation.

Congrats to Milan, I still hate Italian football, they're horrible examples, and AC Milan doesn't deserve to be in competition this year.

This year, despite all the star power, has been a poor year for English clubs (even if you're a Man Utd. fan) I think next year will be a million times better.

I supported Milan, but even I can't claim that they played better. Especially in the first half, their attack was feeble, and their defense not much better. Liverpool could easily be two up by the break and the goal was totally against the run of the play.
In the second half Milan did play better, but it's usually easier to play better if you're in the lead.
I agree that Milan didn't deserve to be in the Champions League: what use was their punshment if it didn't deprive them of their main source of income?

[Јas]

Beckham back in the England squad

[Gustaf]

Really?

That's fun, it isn't the same without him.

Less than a week till the next round of qualification games now! I sure hope we can beat Denmark...a tie would be ok, but a loss could be it.

[Keystone Phil]

I guess we can use this thread for the Euro Cup discussions...

[The Man From G.O.P.]

Beckham back in the England squad

Good news.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

England 1-1 Brazil


Not the win that would have saved McClaren, but a good sign nonetheless.... you would think they could have held Brazil off for few more seconds though....


Beckham was in fine form, I hope he can continue producing like that.


In very sad news, Giggs has quit the Wales national team, he was one of a few bright spots for the team, I can hope sometime soon we can build a good young team, but for now, Wales stays at the bottom.

[Vasall des Midas]

Representation of European Nations in first full round of European Cups (CL+UEFA), assuming Sevilla doesn't slip up against AEK (game was postponed for a week. In case of a sensation, Spain is 3+5 and Greece is 2+4):

Scotland 2 + 1
England 4 + 4
Netherlands 1 + 5
Belgium 0 + 3
France 2 + 5
Spain 4 + 4
Portugal 3 + 4
Norway 1 + 2
Sweden 0 + 5
Finland 0 + 1
Denmark 0 + 4
Germany 3 + 4
Switzerland 0 + 3
Austria 0 + 3
Italy 4 + 4
Poland 0 + 1
Czech Republic 1 + 2
Slovakia 0 + 1
Croatia 0 + 1
Bosnia 0 + 1
Serbia 0 + 1
Macedonia 0 + 1
Greece 1 + 4
Turkey 2 + 2
Cyprus 0 + 1
Israel 0 + 1
Bulgaria 0 + 3
Romania 1 + 2
Ukraine 2 + 2
Belarus 0 + 1
Russia 1 + 3

[Jack Vance RIP]

Basically confirming what we already know.. the leagues outside the big five or so in Western Europe continue to get shafted.