2008/9 Champions League Thread

[wr50l]

Time for the Last 16, time to start talking football on VSN!

Looks like Man U are without a centreback to pair with Rio Ferdinand for the first game. Vidic is suspended, Neville and Wes Brown are injured, and Johnny Evans is unlikely to play after an injury vs Blackburn on Saturday. United's only experienced reserve is John O'Shea who may not even be clear to play as he's injured as well. With that in mind I think Inter are good for a goal or two.

The fixtures for the first leg are below, my predictions are beside them. What's everyone else's predictions?

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Arsenal v Roma 0-2
Atletico Madrid v FC Porto 3-2
Inter Milan v Man Utd 2-1
Lyon v Barcelona 2-2

Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Chelsea v Juventus 1-0
Real Madrid v Liverpool 2-1
Sporting v Bayern Munich 0-0
Villarreal v Panathinaikos 3-1

[Bigpapa42]

Would've liked to see Arsenal get more than one goal against Roma today. Still, a win is a win. The second leg is going to be tough.

[Kuzzy Powers]

Gotta be happy with Porto being able to get a tie out of that game, where Madrid was heavy favourites. In reality Porto has little chance in the Champions League tho.

[wr50l]

Would've liked to see Arsenal get more than one goal against Roma today. Still, a win is a win. The second leg is going to be tough.

How many times in the Champions League in particular have Arsenal killed a team and missed a gluttony of chances? I get a serious feeling of deja vu every time I see Arsenal fail to score on their many chances on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Anyway it would seem that I am not very good at predictions! Most surprising result was obviously Bayern just mauling Sporting 5-0, watching the highlights Franck Ribery put on an absolute masterclass.

[PP]

Bayern FTW. They raped. I loved it.

[Bigpapa42]

How many times in the Champions League in particular have Arsenal killed a team and missed a gluttony of chances? I get a serious feeling of deja vu every time I see Arsenal fail to score on their many chances on a Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Anyway it would seem that I am not very good at predictions! Most surprising result was obviously Bayern just mauling Sporting 5-0, watching the highlights Franck Ribery put on an absolute masterclass.

How many times has Arsenal done that in the league in the past few seasons. I think they simply don't convert enough opportunities. Its not usually a problem in creating them. They just need to do more in finishing them off.

Bayern are a somewhat inconsistent side, but they are very capable of playing very well.

[wr50l]

Call me crazy but I still think we'll win the league. We're only 4 pts back with more than a few matches still left to play.

Crazy.

Can I also call you an outrageous homer? Did you see Rick Parry walked the plank by the way?

[Senser81]

Sporting lost 5-0, but they are really overmatched and either they or Panathinaikos are the worst of the remaining clubs. I think the worst performance I saw in the 1st leg was Inter Milan's 0-0 home draw to ManU. It looked like Inter wasn't even trying. And this is the Mourhino "attacking football" that people want to see at Chelsea?

Real Madrid really didn't do much against Liverpool, either, and Arsenal dominated AS Roma.

[Bigpapa42]

The Bayern Munich win was impressive. That tie is pretty much over. The rest are very much still open for the 2nd leg.

It doesn't really feel like any club has the consistency right now to truly be a favorite. Manchester United repeating or maybe Barcelona. Lot of sides have the quality but just don't have the consistency to get the results. In the CL, it doesn't even take a bad match, just a bad few moments, and you can be out.

[Bigpapa42]

Yeah, I was worried when the match went to penalties as well. Thrilled they got through. Next round could be really tough, depending on who they draw.

[Senser81]

Arsenal was very lucky, But how crap was the player that missed! How much money are these guys on and they cant even take penalties

I thought Arsenal was clearly better than AS Roma when you take both legs into account.

Real Madrid looked horrible. Cannavaro has been mediocre for Real Madrid ever since they signed him, and Pepe is a joke as a defender. I've never seen a guy on defense dive for free kick calls as often as Pepe. I don't know how Gago can be a 1st team regular at Real Madrid. He'd have difficulty cracking the Middlesboro lineup. Really, the entire team is Casillas making a ton of saves and Sniejder trying to make something happen. Its strange how average Real Madrid has become. 5 straight 1st round exits from the Champions League knockout stage.

[calgaryballer]

Tuesday April 7
Manchester United v Porto
Villarreal v Arsenal

Wednesday April 8
Liverpool v Chelsea
Barcelona v Bayern Munich

Quarter-final second legs

Tuesday April 14
Chelsea v Liverpool
Bayern Munich v Barcelona

Wednesday April 15
Porto v Manchester United
Arsenal v Villarreal

Semi-finals
Manchester United/Porto v Villarreal/Arsenal
Barcelona/Bayern Munich v Liverpool/Chelsea

[Bigpapa42]

Much as it pains me to say it, my finals picks would probably be United-Bayern at this point. With Bayern taking the final, unlike '99.