it's amazing how even with 10 men and under pressure, Porto could often calmly playing out despite being pressured. I've been watching Arsenal too much it seems.

FEBravo wrote:

it's amazing how even with 10 men and under pressure, Porto could often calmly playing out despite being pressured. I've been watching Arsenal too much it seems.

but we do the same... some recency bias happening there?

Klaus wrote:

Claudius wrote:

Away goals rule is a disaster.

Why do people keep saying that? I think it's fantastic. It just got Juventus knocked out. That alone makes it one of the best rules in all of football, never mind the fact that it actually rewards teams for coming out to play on away grounds, which there would be little point in doing otherwise. Football is defensive enough as it is already.

Don't mind the away goals rule even if it feels a little archaic. It should be limited to the aggregate after 90 minutes though, not 120 minutes. The team away from home in the 2nd leg shouldn't get an additional 30 minutes to score an away goal.

Rohit wrote:

Klaus wrote:

Why do people keep saying that? I think it's fantastic. It just got Juventus knocked out. That alone makes it one of the best rules in all of football, never mind the fact that it actually rewards teams for coming out to play on away grounds, which there would be little point in doing otherwise. Football is defensive enough as it is already.

Don't mind the away goals rule even if it feels a little archaic. It should be limited to the aggregate after 90 minutes though, not 120 minutes. The team away from home in the 2nd leg shouldn't get an additional 30 minutes to score an away goal.

This is what shocked me. I assumed it would be cleared after 180 minutes and it would be evens at that point.

I'm on the ridiculous rule-side. If you play 0-0 and 1-1 I simply don't think one team deserves to go through more than the other. Also if it encourages teams to play attacking football away, doesn't it equally encourage teams to play defensively at home?

They did try to scrap the away rule in extra-time in some competition, but just like the short-lived ABBA they chose what's the least confusing to fans instead of what's most fair and went away to the traditional rules.

I agree but think about it if there were no away goals yesterday there won't be the frantic finish where Juve was so desperate to score the goal to send them through. Both teams would just settle for penalties.

I look at it the other way around, that goal Rabiot scored was pretty much meaningless where it would have otherwise been huge. After Porto took the lead the tie was pretty much already dead. Away goals kills more ties than it revives.

I also don’t think it encourages more attacking football, away sides still play on the counter and if anything home sides play with more caution.

And scrapping the rule encourages attacking football for either side?

I'm with Klaus here, it just got Juve done and you lot are bitching. If you're a team with decent fans that home support for another 30 minutes is definitely an advantage when everyone's legs are gone too.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

I'm on the ridiculous rule-side. If you play 0-0 and 1-1 I simply don't think one team deserves to go through more than the other. Also if it encourages teams to play attacking football away, doesn't it equally encourage teams to play defensively at home?

I don't think it does. If the first leg was away and the now home team lost they obviously need a win, if it was a draw they won't sit too deep either because a loss by a single goal would see them out, only if they won the away game will they sit and no one could blame them there. And very few teams don't play attacking football when they play home first.

I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to how teams approach games either way until away goals actually come into focus. At which point, it can work either way. But I think it kills more ties than it revives.

As for the 'Juve have gotten knocked out what's your problem' line of thinking, do I need to list the number of times we've gone out to away goals or at least it's made the 2nd leg next to impossible after a bad home results? Olympiakos, Monaco, Bayern... hell I'm still scarred by John Fucking Carew.

Juve going out to away goal obviously doesn't affect what I think about the rule in general, that'd be stupid.

Didn't see it mentioned here but Jude Bellingham owned the midfield against Sevilla. Super mature performance Dortmund going to flip him for 3 or 4x the price again

goon wrote:

I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to how teams approach games either way until away goals actually come into focus. At which point, it can work either way. But I think it kills more ties than it revives.

As for the 'Juve have gotten knocked out what's your problem' line of thinking, do I need to list the number of times we've gone out to away goals or at least it's made the 2nd leg next to impossible after a bad home results? Olympiakos, Monaco, Bayern... hell I'm still scarred by John Fucking Carew.

If there wasn't any away goal rule we would have found another way of fucking it up. Bayern Monaco etc could have won 8-1 in the first leg we would have won the return leg 6-0 then, scrapping the rule wouldn't have made a difference.

As for Juve it's not a line of thinking it's schadenfreude at the expense of a shitty club. I'd say you and Quincy with his deadpan shtick must be fun at parties but I'm not sure you get invited to any.

Clrnc wrote:

Didn't see it mentioned here but Jude Bellingham owned the midfield against Sevilla. Super mature performance Dortmund going to flip him for 3 or 4x the price again

I do wonder to what extent Dortmund have suffered a bit from being youth heavy this season. There are days they’ll have Reina, Bellingham, Sancho, and Haaland all out at the same time in the front 5. It’s great that they have 2 100m pound players and another 2 40m pound players already out there, but has this been costing them points?

jones wrote:

goon wrote:

I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to how teams approach games either way until away goals actually come into focus. At which point, it can work either way. But I think it kills more ties than it revives.

As for the 'Juve have gotten knocked out what's your problem' line of thinking, do I need to list the number of times we've gone out to away goals or at least it's made the 2nd leg next to impossible after a bad home results? Olympiakos, Monaco, Bayern... hell I'm still scarred by John Fucking Carew.

If there wasn't any away goal rule we would have found another way of fucking it up. Bayern Monaco etc could have won 8-1 in the first leg we would have won the return leg 6-0 then, scrapping the rule wouldn't have made a difference.

As for Juve it's not a line of thinking it's schadenfreude at the expense of a shitty club. I'd say you and Quincy with his deadpan shtick must be fun at parties but I'm not sure you get invited to any.

I loved Juve going out and love it even more that they went out in such a bullshit way, but this is pretty much the same as pointing to some ugly club not getting a penalty they're supposed to get when you complain about bad refereeing. "How can you not love bad refereeing it made Liverpool lose that match"

jones wrote:

goon wrote:

I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to how teams approach games either way until away goals actually come into focus. At which point, it can work either way. But I think it kills more ties than it revives.

As for the 'Juve have gotten knocked out what's your problem' line of thinking, do I need to list the number of times we've gone out to away goals or at least it's made the 2nd leg next to impossible after a bad home results? Olympiakos, Monaco, Bayern... hell I'm still scarred by John Fucking Carew.

If there wasn't any away goal rule we would have found another way of fucking it up. Bayern Monaco etc could have won 8-1 in the first leg we would have won the return leg 6-0 then, scrapping the rule wouldn't have made a difference.

As for Juve it's not a line of thinking it's schadenfreude at the expense of a shitty club. I'd say you and Quincy with his deadpan shtick must be fun at parties but I'm not sure you get invited to any.

WTF 

His new UCL format proposal is rubbish. 10 matches in group stage is borefest

Meanwhile Haaland is something else

I wonder if teams will treat it a bit like the NBa playoffs. Charles Barkley used to say the real season begins when the playoffs start. As long as you can qualify for the playoffs, you just take it from there.

What is Nagelsmann wearing tonight? Looks like he woke up late for Calculus 1.