2016-17 UEFA Champions League Thread

[MUSC4EVER]

So Tottenham crash out of the Champions League after a 2-1 defeat to Monaco, it has been a poor campaign capped by a poor performance tonight, Monaco were really good and could have been 4 or 5 if it wasn't for the immense Lloris in goal, Leicester beat Bruges 2-1 at home to confirm top spot in the group with one game to play, well done to them 👍

Elsewhere, Dortmund beat Legia Warsaw 8-4, no that's not a typo and i haven't made that up!

 

[Liquid]

I just hope now that Leicester have qualified from their CL group with a game to spare that they spend just a few weeks getting some good results in the Premiership.

We wouldn't want a team being relegated as defending champions, would we? They're in danger of getting sucked into the drop zone battle.

 

[Brend]

CSKA vs Spurs should be very interesting, Europa League place at stake.

 

[Liquid]

Tottenham are four points off top spot in the league. If they take a leaf out of Liverpool's apparent playbook this season, perhaps not having any European football for the rest of the season could be a blessing in disguise.

 

[mustafur]

All they need to do is play their usual best in Europe and they will be out anyway.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Rostov just beat Bayern 3-2, going to be another weird night like last night!

 

[Brend]

A classy Barca performance despatched Celtic 2-0 earlier.

That being said, Neymar can take a long walk off a short pier. He is the embodiment of poor sportsmanship and looks totally out of place in a great club like Barcelona.

 

[Brend]

Final game in the CL (and Europe) this season for Celtic.

All in all, the campaign went exactly as I expected. There were some valiant performances (City at home and Gladbach away spring to mind) but still couldn't get that win.

Don't expect anything from tonight but hopefully it's a decent enough game from an entertainment perspective, we know City won't have much focus on it and to be honest Celtic have a ridiculous schedule in December (9 games) so won't be surprised if we don't go with the full first team for 90 minutes.

Rodgers isn't the type of manager to throw away games though, so here's hoping we can somehow go out with a bang.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Most of the groups are pretty much done, the one that's all to play for is Group B with Napoli and Benfica both on 8 pints with Besiktas on 7, in Leicester's group Porto still need to qualify as they have 8 points with Copenhagen in third on 6, but apart from that its done and its just that deciding who will win the groups really.

City v Celtic and Basel v Arsenal for the Brits tonight, Arsenal already through but can win the group if they better PSG's result, City already through and can't get top spot, Celtic are bottom and out of Europe altogether, City have made some changes.

 

[Brend]

Celtic denied a stonewall penalty but a good half of football, 1-1.

Dominant 1-1 draw, absolutely happy with that. Incredible progress since the first game in Barcelona.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Well done to Celtic, put up a good fight in the group overall and got two excellent points against City 👍

Well done also to Arsenal, they won 1-4 v Basel and PSG somehow only getting a 2-2 at home to Ludogorets means Arsenal actually top a Champions League group!

 

[mustafur]

Damn Celtic really could of got through to Europa if they held ''the German team'' at home.

Not bad for probably the hardest group.

 

[Brend]

Damn Celtic really could of got through to Europa if they held ''the German team'' at home.

Not bad for probably the hardest group.

In an ironic twist of fate, we got more points away than at home...

I think is pretty mad City only won 2 games overall.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Leicester and Spurs tonight, Leicester already group winners and Spurs cant qualify.

Big game is Real Madrid v Dortmund, Real currently top on 13 with Dortmund on 11.

 

[mustafur]

Leicester and Spurs tonight, Leicester already group winners and Spurs cant qualify.

Big game is Real Madrid v Dortmund, Real currently top on 13 with Dortmund on 11.

Other way around, Real need to win to take group lead.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

So then Full times, Leicester got thumped 5-0 in Porto (they did make 10 changes!) Spurs beat CSKA 3-1 their Europa League qualifier and Real-Dortmund finished 2-2, meaning its Dortmund and then Real in that group.

 

[Dennisch]

4 Spanish. 3 German. 3 English. 2 French. 2 Italian. 2 Portuguese.

That's 6 countries for the final 16.

 

[adamp93]

Some slightly interesting facts I've noticed from the group stages.
Leicester have equal points from their 6 games as they do from 14 PL games.
Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev finished bottom of their groups whilst conceding the least number of goals.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Last 16 draw on Monday morning from 11am GMT.

 

[Touring Mars]

Last 16 Draw:

Tough draw for Arsenal but should be a cracker of a tie...

 

[mustafur]

Leicester got kinda lucky there, it will be tough but I can see them beating Sevilla if they play as good as they have been in the CL.

Arsenal out again in the round of 16 I guess.

 

[Touring Mars]

Leicester got kinda lucky there, it will be tough but I can see them beating Sevilla if they play as good as they have been in the CL

I don't know about that... Sevilla have won the Europa League for the last three on the trot, and 5 times in the last ten years - they are a mighty good tournament side. Do the losers of the Last 16 draw drop down into the Europa League?

 

[mustafur]

I don't know about that... Sevilla have won the Europa League for the last three on the trot, and 5 times in the last ten years - they are a mighty good tournament side. Do the losers of the Last 16 draw drop down into the Europa League?

Yeah, but they could of got Bayern or Real Madrid who both came second in their group, Sevilla haven't been the best in the CL thus far so it's not the worst case scenario, considering in the last two CL they came 3rd in their group to go back to Europa league, it's kinda a weird success.

As for the Europa league question, no the last time they get get into it is by coming 3rd in the group stage, which goes into the round of 32 for EL.

 

[daan]

I'd have preferred Leicester to get Real/Barca/Juve/Bayern. They're probably going to go out now, and at this stage, you want to out to a huge team.

 

[mustafur]

I'd have preferred Leicester to get Real/Barca/Juve/Bayern. They're probably going to go out now, and at this stage, you want to out to a huge team.

I wouldn't call it soo quick, they have been a very European focused team this year, and when they rested all their players against Porto to focus on EPL for the next month or so they where able to beat Man City, I'm not convinced they have lost last seasons form just changed their focus.

 

[daan]

On the other hand, they qualified from the worst Champions' League group of ever.

 

[mustafur]

On the other hand, they qualified from the worst Champions' League group of ever.

Well yes, but they still convincingly won it, their only loss came from the last game that didn't matter to them so they rested basically their entire squad.

Anyway, ever Wonder why Juventus makes soo much money in the CL compared to everyone else:


I get why the TV Pool Fund is in place but the competition would be soo much better off if that was removed and just added to the performance figure instead.

 

[lxmmy]

I wouldn't call it soo quick, they have been a very European focused team this year, and when they rested all their players against Porto to focus on EPL for the next month or so they where able to beat Man City, I'm not convinced they have lost last seasons form just changed their focus.

Don't be so naive. They have obviously lost their form as last season around this time they would be sitting either between 1st or 2nd. And right now they sit 14th. Even if you think they have changed their focus, it should be more reflective in how much of difference they have been compared to last season by just looking at their last 4 matches before City. They had lost to Sunderland, Watford, Albion and drawn against Boro.

 

[C-ZETA]

I'd fancy Leicester to beat Sevilla. Sevilla are out of their comfort zone - they're not in the Europa League.

 

[mustafur]

Don't be so naive. They have obviously lost their form as last season around this time they would be sitting either between 1st or 2nd. And right now they sit 14th. Even if you think they have changed their focus, it should be more reflective in how much of difference they have been compared to last season by just looking at their last 4 matches before City. They had lost to Sunderland, Watford, Albion and drawn against Boro.

and last year they didn't bother with any Domestic cups and had no european games, it does look bad but it's not the same scenario.