jones wrote:

Claudius wrote:

I love Johnny-come lately Barca fanboys. They've all been annoyed as hell that Ronaldo did what he did yesterday and they're facing elimination tonight. Hope Allegri does them in and ends their corrupt regime.

Funny that you mention Juventus and Real because they are two of the very few clubs who are even bigger bribing cunts than Barca

The irony in hoping that Juventus will end Barca's corrupt regime is almost too much.

UEFA CL is a farce this year.
RM last night,
Barca v PSG,
and the decision to go ahead with BVB v Monaco only 24 hours later,
and that's without counting the annual R16 farce from AFC.

Real were the better team over both legs. Barcelona deserved going through as well given PSG's complete collapse

Dortmund shouldn't have played but it was their piece of shit CEO who said they could. Bar our embarrassing showing I can't complain too much, couple of great games and turnarounds and fucking Bayern are fucking out

Anzac has a point. The refereeing last night was shambolic and if Barca wasn't given that many goals, when would the PSG collapse happen? It won't.

Yeah, Atletico are going to make one of the semi finals incredibly boring to watch.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Yeah, Atletico are going to make one of the semi finals incredibly boring to watch.

Atletico v Monaco would be fun.

Swashbuckling v stalwart.

I'm sick of the arrogance and cheating of Bayern, Barca and Real. Thankfully it looks like that domination is about to be broken up. Just need someone to do a job on R.Madrid and we're good.

I love how it's only been over a decade since they were relegated for match fixing and Juventus are some how seen as the 'nice guys' who don't 'cheat'.

Watching Dortmund. Which games are you guys doing?

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

jones wrote:

Funny that you mention Juventus and Real because they are two of the very few clubs who are even bigger bribing cunts than Barca

The irony in hoping that Juventus will end Barca's corrupt regime is almost too much.

There is a massive difference. Juve are accepted as cheats and have been punished sufficiently for their sins. 
Barca, on the other hand, have pulled the wool over a lot of casual fans eyes with this 'more than a club' branding and tippy-tappy football, while underneath it all they are riddled with scandal. 

Mbappe has 23 goals in 50 senior games. WTF. 17 in his last 16 (or thereabouts). Just WTF is this guy?

mbappe scoring again.

Claudius wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

The irony in hoping that Juventus will end Barca's corrupt regime is almost too much.

There is a massive difference. Juve are accepted as cheats and have been punished sufficiently for their sins. 
Barca, on the other hand, have pulled the wool over a lot of casual fans eyes with this 'more than a club' branding and tippy-tappy football, while underneath it all they are riddled with scandal. 

There are some nuances between the top clubs but they all come in the same colour. Mirth is right - it's a bit rich thinking Juventus will save Champions League by showing that being corrupt to the bone has absolutely zero repercussions in the larger perspective.

Thinking that European football has gone stale because everyone's doing the same thing is a valid thing though. Juve are tactically different from both the Spaniards and Bayern. I think it'd be a good thing for Europe at large if we got some diversity back.

Dortmund tie is over. Mbappe, then Falcao. The number of goals these two guys score together is ridiculous

Monaco's second goal was just beautiful.

Playing great stuff, and as a neutral it's great to see a team succeeding with a young star alongside Falcao (who I had written off as being done just a year ago)

Watching the Juve v Barcelona game. High quality football two days in a row now. It will be doubly depressing seeing the contrast this weekend when we play.

Claudius wrote:

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

The irony in hoping that Juventus will end Barca's corrupt regime is almost too much.

There is a massive difference. Juve are accepted as cheats and have been punished sufficiently for their sins. 
Barca, on the other hand, have pulled the wool over a lot of casual fans eyes with this 'more than a club' branding and tippy-tappy football, while underneath it all they are riddled with scandal. 

They were punished but that league has had to suffer a lot because of their actions which I don't believe they've sufficiently atoned for - and neither do a lot of Italian football fans. I think playing the moral high ground for any of the top clubs is a fool's errand. I want Juventus/Dortmund/Monacco to go further than Bayern/Real/Barcelona because it's more interesting viewing, it's cringeworthy to suggest it's in someway connected to a moral victory.

at least barca have a principle on the pitch and aim for entertaining attacking football always. I don't understand this dislike towards barca against the other big clubs, especially when there's real madrid right around the corner.

Mirth wrote:

They were punished but that league has had to suffer a lot because of their actions which I don't believe they've sufficiently atoned for - and neither do a lot of Italian football fans.

This is spot on. Relegating Juve without doing somehing about all the power they held in Italy was like handling a billionaire a £10 million fine. It was a momentary setback that barely registered in the bigger perspective. They're actually better now than they've been since the mid-90s - which was a period when they were doped out of their minds in addition to all the match-fixing. You also had GEA, the sports agency Luciano Moggi and his son ran, that were outright extorting and blackmailing people with Mafia-like methods.

Juve aren't alone in misbehaving, but they have done more than anyone else to destroy Italian football. There will never be anything moral about that club no matter who you're trying to contrast them to.

goon wrote:

Yeah, all the top clubs are are bad as each other, which one you dislike more depends on which one has been fucking you over more recently.

True! 10 years ago Madrid were the annoying ones who kept trying to tap up Vieira and Cole.

For me, these top team are so far in the horizon it doesn't bother me.
Leicester, on the other hand, ...

Really want to get Allegri - anyone who can keep MSN at bay like this is worth getting. Never mind the corruption, never mind everything else - this is a great performance for 135 mins so far. I know they haven't quite been the force this year that they were in the last couple of years, but this is still a great defensive performance.

Mirth wrote:

I love how it's only been over a decade since they were relegated for match fixing and Juventus are some how seen as the 'nice guys' who don't 'cheat'.

I'd forgotten about that tbf  

Mbappe needs to improve his fitness/stamina

3-1 Monaco

Defensive masterclass from Allegri.

Too good for Arsenal.

Big baby Neymar

BWoolley wrote:

Really want to get Allegri - anyone who can keep MSN at bay like this is worth getting. Never mind the corruption, never mind everything else - this is a great performance for 135 mins so far. I know they haven't quite been the force this year that they were in the last couple of years, but this is still a great defensive performance.

Why would Allegri come here? More money?

I guess. Hopefully he wins the CL this year and wants to move on to a new challenge. And few jobs as challenging as Arsenal at the moment.

There's only one motivation and that's money. It's a pretty good one though.

Klaus wrote:

Mirth wrote:

They were punished but that league has had to suffer a lot because of their actions which I don't believe they've sufficiently atoned for - and neither do a lot of Italian football fans.

This is spot on. Relegating Juve without doing somehing about all the power they held in Italy was like handling a billionaire a £10 million fine. It was a momentary setback that barely registered in the bigger perspective. They're actually better now than they've been since the mid-90s - which was a period when they were doped out of their minds in addition to all the match-fixing. You also had GEA, the sports agency Luciano Moggi and his son ran, that were outright extorting and blackmailing people with Mafia-like methods.

Juve aren't alone in misbehaving, but they have done more than anyone else to destroy Italian football. There will never be anything moral about that club no matter who you're trying to contrast them to.

There's been a lot of complaints about the ref calls they get this year too. (http://www.goal.com/en/news/8/main/2017/03/11/33512762/its-always-them-milan-fury-only-adds-to-controversy-over)

Higuain will be their downfall in UCL!  

goon wrote:

Watching Dortmund against Monaco has put me off the idea of Tuchel taking charge here. They've looked dire going forward and flakey as fuck at the back.

Yeah. Basically Tuchel has been found out this season a little, especially in the German League. His defence is horrendous and his attacks depend too much on individual players form.

Jardim on the other hand, going from strength to strength. I will see hope back in football if Monaco wins the UCL.

juve will win this imo. keeping barca scoreless over 2 legs (even though barca have been rocky this season) is serious stuff

Shady wrote:

Mirth wrote:

I love how it's only been over a decade since they were relegated for match fixing and Juventus are some how seen as the 'nice guys' who don't 'cheat'.

I'd forgotten about that tbf  

i don't recall anyone on this forum describing Juve as the nice guys that don't cheat. my personal gripe with Barca is that they are as bad as the worst clubs (Real, Juve, etc.), but somehow get away with it because they're such a 'pure' team. i can't stand them. i want very much to love them but can't. fuck 'em! 

on Allegri, two straight weeks of defensive masterclass. we have not defended so stoutly in over a decade now. we have to make Allegri a priority. he would've been in the chase for 1st/2nd with the current team we have. we score enough goals. we're just too open in the back. 

Clrnc wrote:

goon wrote:

Watching Dortmund against Monaco has put me off the idea of Tuchel taking charge here. They've looked dire going forward and flakey as fuck at the back.

Yeah. Basically Tuchel has been found out this season a little, especially in the German League. His defence is horrendous and his attacks depend too much on individual players form.

Jardim on the other hand, going from strength to strength. I will see hope back in football if Monaco wins the UCL.

In Tuchel's defence I'd say he has a woeful set of defenders to pick from. Burki is also a pretty average goalkeeper to boot.

They also lack quality generally. He has to play a lot of average players and young players. Other than Aubameyang, who wouldn't get near any of the big boys teams, and Reus, who's always injured, they don't have anything like a top player. Not sure on him myself but I wouldn't write him off just yet.

His set of defenders is a lot better than most Bundesliga teams, and the quality of the Dortmund side is also much better than say Leipizig and Hoffenheim who is performing much better than them. I have seen his team play really poorly and drop stupid points in a lot of matches this season, often leaving themselves too exposed because of the team's shape.

I don't even think on paper the Monaco team has a more quality squad than Dortmund for starters, nobody would think so at the start of the season certainly. They are younger but more well managed and coached in many situations.