"Sterling rising versus weak Euro?"- Europa League 2012/13

spurs match felt like a pre season friendly, especially in the second half. empty stadium, poor opposition, slow pace, noone too bothered.

Posted on the wrong thread. Thudd's defending still laughable.

that is a proper football match at Anfield tonight, directly after...this

I just accepted what he said oh no what have I become

Not the time to patronise the little guys imo

gerrard is lol to watch in this team sometimes, like he's consciously trying to keep it one-touch and high tempo but his interpretation is still a one-touch 40 yard glory ball attempt

Penalty surely

Nah

Assaidi I think I like. Him, Sterling and Suso are most unLiverpoollike.

ya they're forwards

I don't like this Anji spelling though - you want your 'zh' from your Russians imo

It's more that they're tricky tbh - I'm more used to Kuyt types

Liverpool without Sterling really do look considerably worse.

Stilted conversation ahoy

Downing to LB

Sterling rising, Stewart downing

Radio Raheem

good break

Big raheem sterling

wtf

Drowning? Walking on water more like!

I step away for a couple of minutes...

Ah a Traore at Anfield......good times.

Pandemic, how come Bayern's commercial income is so huge?

Hm don't know. Most successful team in one of the worlds biggest economies, global brand etc The commercial strength of German teams did take me by surprise at bit, not so much Bayern, but just how much teams like Hamburg and Stuttgart rake in.

Not sure how much revenue is raised by the relatively new Alianz Arena also, corporate facilities etc

Got the feeling we're on the verge of conceding here

What is it brings in the money exactly? Aiui they don't have the biggest kit deals or the biggest shirt sponsorships; are they branded offfield to within an inch of their lives, or what?

Was an xp. I think corporate seating would be part of matchday revenue. I'm always struck by how far Bayern are ahead of even the Spanish big two, just wondering what it is.

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2012/02/bayern-munich-opportunities-lets-make.html

Re Bayern, Audi have a stake in them and give them money each season. They have the biggest shirt sponsorship in Europe as well iirc

Awesome from Agger! And welted in w/out looking too!

Thanks gents xp

Agger and Skrtel have been excellent tonight.

skrtel's sliding block from that shot midway through the second half was incredibly good, that was going in i reckon.

decent performance tho there is some fragility there through the middle and suarez was v poor i thought. they need an out and out central forward and then they can have suarez in the one of the wide forward roles.

assaidi really looks good to me, uses the ball excellently, really good decision making, and that flick to put himself through before the suarez rugby tackle was amazing.

wisdom too looks really tidy, some excellent moments.

Skrtel only needed 1mm of hair to look respectable

raheem's hair was another highlight.

as were the maxi and sami songs.

yeah i was wondering why they were singing for sami, just love for sami i guess.

good run of clean sheets. i thought jones was decent too.

jesus so much for us competing for dis ting

walker went out tonight and did his best to fuck himself in the corner again, stupid boy

lennon excellent

thudd not the type of guy you want left last man

naughton not great at all

sigurdsson not in it

hmmm

So LFC with the early kick-off today. 5pm in Moscow vs Anzhi. Looking like the starting eleven will be even youthier than usual, no Allen, Raheem, Gerrard, Agger, Glen-Jo, Pepe or Nuri.

Almost 3 months in and I'm still not quite sure what to make of 'em. As Ismael, apparently channeling Marlo Stansfield, put it- he wanted it to be one way but it's another way.

Positives
Sterling - a revelation to me. Had hoped he would be a useful bench player as the season progressed and maybe a starting option by the end of the season. So far he's way way better than that, and even though he mostly got his chance due to the paucity of options at LFC's disposal, he's shown more than enough for me to be happy with him as a fixture in the team for the seasons to come.

Shelvey - Again exceeded my expectations, and aside from a truly glaring miss at the weekend has been surprising adept at providing an attacking option from a nominally non-attacking position on the pitch.

Allen - Pretty much the player he was at Swansea. Will have to await the return of Lucas to see whether he can provide more insightful penetrative passing when freed from his current position as deepest lying midfielder.

Suarez - I was pretty sure that his best position was as one of the wide wing-frwds, and wanted LFC to find a central striker to allow Suarez to move wide. But he's been great as a central striker and that's probably where he should be playing. Feels like he's scoring a better proportion of his chances compared to last year (not sure if the stats confirm this or not)

Negatives

Not enough clean sheets - A mixture of an uncertain back line, our big strength last season, and a MF that seems easy to break on. As far as the actual defense goes I think that our best full backs are Glen-Jo playing LB and Kelly playing RB. Obviously due to injury this isn't a combo that has had much of chance this season and nor will it for the foreseeable future. Enrique continues to be a disappointment to me and he really needs to rediscover his form of 12 months ago.

CB - Agger/Skrtel clearly our best pairing. The easing out of Carragher has been long overdue but at least it's happened.

GK- Don't think this position is killing us, but it's now a net neutral when in years gone by it's been a big positive. Reina has gone from being outstanding, imo, to merely being pretty good with 3 or 4 howlers a season thrown in (literally on occasion) for good measure.

Joe Cole - Pointless. Hopeless.

Undecided
Borini - movement looks excellent but finishing looks anything but. Still time for him to come good.

Assaidi, Wisdom, Suso have all looked decent at times and getting so many minutes of first team football this season should hopefully accelerate their development.

Henderson - I still think he's a good player, though not as a RB Brendan WTF?, and his marginalisation under Rodgers bothers me a bit. Has he been given a start this season as the deepest central player behind Allen and Gerrard in a MF 3?

It's looking like 4th place could be secured with a not particularly high points total this season due to Spurs, Arsenal, Newcastle regression. Unfortunately doesn't look likely that we'll be taking advantage though I haven't completely given up. With their start to the season Everton seem most deserving so far.

Despite this I've been kinda enjoying the season so far, all these youngsters thrown in, some evidence that the Academy has a plan and a style of play. Certainly having more fun than I did last season and way way more than the 5 months of Hodgson.

Am now off for a nap before the game.

good post, will disect after 6pm. Nice to see you taking ilf thread feedback on board imo.

don't think kelly's the answer tbh, i'm not impressed by him going forward. was hyped up massively because he can defend and those runs down the wing were kind of fun for a while, but then you realise he's not at all cultured and his one trick appears to be kick ball and run really fast. delivery into the box also poor. i think robinson may be the longterm answer at leftback.

baffled by henderson. rodgers keeps bigging him up and i'd have thought he'd be a decent fit for the lucas position, which means you can push allen further forward as you say. the lucas thing is kind of annoying really. he was the vital cog in dalglish's team, and we keep saying 'when lucas is back we'll be fine' - why wasn't an adequate replacement brought in last season or this season? if he's that crucial and the whole thing doesn't work if he's not there, why do we keep deciding not to mould someone else to do that job (henderson) or buy someone else? also no guarantee that he'll be the same player when he returns.

great to see the kids getting a go, but also concerned that we're relying on them too much, although you can partly blame last summer's transfer dealings + carroll for that, which i think may have wrecked any chance we have of getting back to where we want to be for good.

also, i miss dirk and maxi so fucking much.

man i kinda forgot about Lucas. he's only 25! and where is Sahin? How many times has he played?

So much Liverpool talk and no-one mentions match-winner Downing.

hi chris.

kelly is v impressive imo, but i like my fullbacks as defenders first. I think, like carragher before him iirc, he'll move to centre in time.

sahin looked good against norwich and west brom, arriving late into the box and building the play from deep, but he hasn't impressed me much since then tbh. he's been playing further forward with gerrard deep, which i'd have thought should be the other way round if you want to get the best out of them.

downing's not perfect but i think him and assaidi should still be getting more minutes in the league. i don't think suso's ready to play week in week out.

yeah kelly's good. perhaps my judgement is clouded by everyone raving about his adventurous runs down the wing. plus i think as good as johnson is at leftback, i prefer him on the right.

and hi darragh :)

hoping we see Adebayor and Lloris starting for spurs today, though without Dembele and Sandro I'm bracing for another poor performance

vuvuzelas in Dagestan

We do lose some attacking threat with Johnson at LB but him left and Kelly right is the most solid defensive combo IMO.

Robinson was good vs Arsenal away but terrible against Blackburn iirc. I don't know enough about him to know how promising he may be.

Sahin has been no better than okay, certainly not up to the standards he set at Dortmund. I'm hoping this is due to not having played much football last year and adjusting to a new league this, and that he will shine in the 2nd half of the season.

Ah Hendo shoot mate!!

Nice save from Brad Jones especially as he must have been shocked to see Eto'o in the box for once.

dece finish

Fucking sucker punch on the stroke of half time

We do lose some attacking threat with Johnson at LB but him left and Kelly right is the most solid defensive combo IMO.

defending's overrated ;) na, see what ya mean mate.

nice to see a traore doing the business in a european match involving liverpool again.

I'm actually probably a bit out of touch with the role of the FB in today's football cf GNev's assertion that is now primarily an attacking position especially if you have wide players who tend to come inside.

Suso has been good since he came on. Actually think it's been a p good performance all told.

That would explain why so many shite defenders keep getting games at fb.

xp

I didn't actually watch that as such but the little I did see looked pretty boring. I really wanted them to have a right go at the Europa League this year, I'll be fizzing if they don't even make it out the group.

dawson captain.

AVB idk

this is very bright stuff indeed, now let's score pls

Done!

thks

thudd the last man again jeez.

Ade needs to be on the end of bale's crossing here. He's been class this first 25 mins

Bale goes to the right, cue legendary self-sabotage

Spurs were great for most of the first half hour tho

classic strike

and there it is

absolute fucking embarrassment

unreal fuckhead clowns

defoe's general play is appalling, and these two just can't link or take up positions as a pair.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqOfY-CH580

setanta commentary some cuntishness. all lloris's fault (partly, sure but ffs the pass was moronic) and all avb's fault (no, we're killin them but the two strikers won't get into position).

Can only blame a manager for individual errors when he fails to remove players consistently making them. And gallas is on the bench tonight.

such a cunt xp

little tom carroll is good!!

finally, a ball through the middle for defoe. Twelve years into his career someone susses crosses arent his thing

lovely little touch

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2228368/Tottenham-Hotspur-scouting-West-Ham-striker-Andy-Carroll-summer-switch.html

otm

oh no you've scored, i just tuned in napkin tucked into shirt expecting a fiasco

stupid from bale

bale's future career in microcosm there

naughton will not defend, what's he doing there ffs

that Carroll pass was just... edible

effing Townsend going on about Dawson "panicking", the ball bounced up and hit him on the hand, it was a bit dopey but contained no discernible element of panic

after one minute i can exclusively reveal i don't fancy your defence tonight, lookin v flat flooted

ooh bale

i do love a scoop

lovely move

been a really good performance this, except for the defending and the positioning of our strikers

ref h8s bale

lloris' distribution is just asking for it

othe rsid eof the ref tbf but that's a forearm

fuckin setanta goons are fuckin idiot cunts

'can't see anything there, maybe bale's kicked himself on the chin on the way down'

call it wrong in real time, see it clearly on replay, just make up somethin inutterably stupid rather than backtracking

strange thing is he does look like he dives every time does bale

clear foul but seemed fake

REF WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

who is this cunt commentator
david speedie
cunt idiot cunt

yeah lol that is outrageous

'defoe's tried to buy that'

no you cunt he woke up and it was outside his door with a docket on it you stupid cunt

ref's enjoying this tbh

christ it's easy to get through us

and for all we get the ball up to the opposition full back, we constantly fail to hurt them

what is it what goes on what do we do this for why

setanta team think it's outrageous that we're forcing belgian left back vertonghen to play at left back. when our first chouce left back is injured. ye're struggling lads, ye're struggling cunts

we're good on the counter tho

tremendous goal

take bale off now pls

david speedie advocating poor repressed spurs players should rebel against evil avb overlord and pass it accurately and defend better

david speedie does not deserve unwhipped eyeballs and unscorched tongue

ugh ade is so terrible off the ball

i'm not sure either of them can really play in a classic 2

btw levy sitting next to kilnnsman ain't subtle

even avb's not paranoid enough to fall for that one tbf

he should be, klinnsman doppleganger lives in levy's bottom drawer for 1:0 losses at home to wigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kY5o3bBmYA

ya

fuckin setanta goons are fuckin
idiot cunts

'can't see anything there, maybe
bale's kicked himself on the chin
on the way down'

call it wrong in real time, see it
clearly on replay, just make up
somethin inutterably stupid rather
than backtracking

95% of Davie Provan's utterances are like this. 'Ah, yes, Hooper's clearly offside there ' [cut to footage showing linesman to be blind/stupid] 'ah, yes, you can see how the assistant referee was fooled, it's close, he's had to make the call and he certainly looked off to me at first glance' shut up you bawbag and admit you just both got it wrong.

they all do that

they all do that alright- but this guy wasn't clarifyin how you could get it wrong, which is excusable, i'm saying clown clearly sees an elbow full on bale's chin three or four times from different angles, but can't bring himself to say 'hang on, got that one wrong'. Same with tackle on defoe that was a clear red, numerous other calls all night. He was as bad as any co-caller i've ever heard in terms of accuracy.

It's really hard to give any credit to a cunt who makes such a theatrical meal out of every fall but I agree with the general point that commentators should correct themselves with the benefit of replays.

typical diving foreigner

fair!

DMac favs Dempsey and Sidurdsson start. As does Tom Carroll, looking frwd to seeing what all the fuss is about.

Dembele on the bench so maybe he'll get 20 mins and be ready for the weekend.

Bale gets goal wrongly chalked off for offside

Tottenham: Lloris, Walker, Caulker, Vertonghen, Naughton, Sigurdsson, Sandro, Carroll, Bale, Dempsey, Adebayor. Subs: Cudicini, Huddlestone, Lennon, Defoe, Dembele, Dawson, Livermore.

some cunt's call, that. great ball from carroll

fuck's sake lloris

Lloris proving you right there almost

Skipped round vertonghen a bit easily there too

Good save but he's got to score that

decent save

thats a miss

Excellent by Lloris there

Good daily express commentary too - 'bureaucracy gone mad'

not a handball there?

adebayor not doin his job, sigurdsson doesn't know what his is. dempsey poor. walker playing ok tho, and bale

that is appalling defending from vertonghen for that chance lloris rushed out for

Yah, vertonghen's having a terrible time. Dempsey looking about a quarter of the player he was last season.
Naughton not ready for this by the looks of today and Saturday.

looks like shelvey's the #9 (or is that the false 9?) tonight.

naughton has had a few decent outings but the shaky centre of recent weeks doesn't give him much to bed in

Joe Cole and Downing both playing. Brendan is testing my willingness to watch tonight.

lloris doin ok now, compared to everyone else

Carroll was tidy I thought. Here comes a 'proper player' in souness parlance.

Dembele I mean.

carroll's looked good in his few games, certainly.

cunt!

Save!

Young Boys bringing it tonight.

That was a weird bit of commentary spoken directly to Ray Clemence

Young Boys keeping it tight in the back?

Great pass Shelvey. Henderson should have buried that.

That's fabulous from Shelvey, typically Henderson makes an arse of it

Henderson and Sahin starting to boss this. Assaidi been direct as ever.

Here comes Steven??

Is poor old Henderson going to RB?

funny substitution

Joe Cole does something good. I'm flabbergasted!

Nicely done

I can't believe we haven't won the league for six years now

That was a v good 35 mins.

he's king of the golf, he's king of the golf, jonjo shelvey, he's king of the golf

i love assaidi

look at him there taking players on, on the wing. it's as if rafa and houllier never existed.

Bring back Roy Evans

Mark Walters

mike marsh

Derek Hatton

Oh crap. Excellent goal tho.

can Liverpool be any more predictable?

kick in the nuts

Guy in the pub pointed out Sterling was warming up way before the second goal so Joe Cole wasn't even planned to be on the pitch when it was scored.

Europa League to be scrapped, another part of me dies

"I can't see how it could work outside the Uefa framework. Who will referee them? In what stadiums will they play?"

Um, professional refs who are offered more than you pay and um, their own fucking stadiums?

looool that will be one boring ass competition until march

We will always treasure Athletic Bilbao's run to the second group stage

Ach, Suso should have made that 2-0 there. Robbie Fowler at half time opines that Carr a is still the best defender at the club... he better fuckin' not be.

I know it's more difficult than it seems, but I do think players at this level should be at least be able to get a shot on target with their wrong foot. Should have been 2-0

Fear a Udinese goal here

If we don't see this out against ten men I give up.

Gah here comes di natale

Fuck, thank god.

what a chance

i love di natale

Delighted. Bring on Chelsea.

No chance does Andy Townsend try to pronounce the name of the Pana #45

looks like i watched the worthwhile half of Udinese-Liverpool then

Liverpool, Plzen, Fenerbace, Bordeaux, Steaua, Dnipro, Genk, Rubin Kazan, Lyon, Lazio, Metalist, Hannover, Chelsea, Cluj, Olympiakos, Benfica

v

Anzhi, Atletico, Monchengladbach, Newcastle, Stuttgart, Napoli, Basel, Inter, Sparta Prague, Spurs, Leverkusen, Levante, Zenit, Bate, Dynamo Kiev, Ajax

I think I want Inter, so's not to spoil the Cavani v Falcao match-up that this tourney must bring

Atleti, Inter, Napoli would be the most challenging/interesting.
Gladbach, Sparta, Levante would give us the best chance of progressing.

watching spurs game on delay, naughton needs another loan spell

Time for the real big boys competition...

cmon then

bantz with kluivert atm

As seeded teams Liverpool and Chelsea could face the likes of Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen. As two of the unseeded teams Newcastle and Tottenham could be paired with teams of the calibre and history of Lyon, Benfica and Fenerbache.

great seeding process.

Bate vs Fenerbache
Inter vs Cluj
Levante vs Olympiacos
Zenit vs LFC

Well I suppose there was no doubt one of us was getting Zenit

Kiev vs Bordeaux
Leverkusen vs Benfica
Newcastle vs Metalist
Stuttgart vs Genk
Atleti vs Rubin
Ajax vs Steaua
Basel vs Dnipro
Anji vs Hannover

Sparta Prague vs Chelsea
Gladbach vs Lazio

Jibe vs DMac still possible

Spurs vs Lyon
Napoli vs Plzen

It's on!

lloris coming back to gerland. i really wish we could have had an easier draw but at least it should make for an interesting game.

yeah i'll take that

Have we had an international derby before? I want aggro, xenophobia, comic misunderstandings.

Napoli/Plzen vs Bate/Fenerbache
Leverkusen/Benfica vs Kiev/Bordeaux
Anji/Hannover vs Newcastle/Metalist
Stuttgart/Genk vs Gladbach/Lazio
Spurs/Lyon vs Inter/Cluj
Levante/Olympiacos vs Atleti/Rubin
Basel/Dnipro vs Zenit/LFC
Ajax/Steau vs Sparta Prague/Chelsea

I didn't know they were going to do that. Ouch at Spurs'.

No way dude, that's proper. We love it at the San Siro anyway.

Napoli, Benfica, Newcastle, Lazio, Spurs, Atletico, Liverpool, Ajax would make for a tasty quarter-finals alright

i think you mean to put lyon in there in place of spurs right? :D

jibe

stand the fuck down

thx

it's ok man what's the europa league to english giants such as spurs. better to let lyon win !

there was talk of europa away games being a possible mac couple midweek jaunt but i have to tell you, ms mac gave lyon the gasface

well it's only one of the most beautiful cities in france with fabulous food, there really is little to love. it's just too bad you didn't draw anzi makhachkalalala or bate borisov, prob great places for a midweek jaunt.

i'm reading about it now on wikipeida but unfortunately got sidetracked immediately into reading some awesome celtic mythos cos of the derivation of the name from lugh of the long arm

i'll float the idea again

Jibe's quiet. Too quiet.

i'm mourning ahead of time because those last few lyon games have more than lowered my hopes. switching allegiances to become a bandwagon-hopping psg fan. sticking needles in my gbale voodoo doll. hoping lloris remembers where he came from and lets everything in.

i can't even count on lloris to let us win, friedel'll be in the goals for the game apparently. i can't even get basic predictions right these days.

ah Tottenham hubris, nothing sweeter

was assuming the Liverpool would be among the early kickoffs, being out east, and couldn't work out why itv4 were ignoring it

Spurs-Lyon have a bit of previous

That sounds brilliant tbh.

One minute in, could be two nil down.

Ooh Suarez just wide.

This could be a wild one.

Another good save from pepe.

Good grief!

It'll be a miracle if lfc concede fewer than 2 goals tonight judging by the first ten mins.

poor choice from Suarez there

FFS Suarez misses a clear one-on-one.

Another sitter missed! Gah Suarez.

Should have had 2 away goals here.

his touch is certainly off not helped by the bad pitch either

Lovely from Hulk.

Terrific goal.
Lfc gotta keep it together now. Think we'll score a couple at Anfielr

Semak!

Oh crap. Just like Monday night.

Really should've had a couple of away goals at least. Zenit aren't very good.

As mentally frail as latter day Arsenal.

I missed it; you paint a grim picture.

Hulk's goal worth watching IK.

two goals conceded in each of the last five games

Thoughts turning to next season already. Suddenly we need about six players.

Was gonna be lending support to Lyon tonight but seeing as Jibe named Airplane 'worst movie ever' I'm not sure I can in good conscience;)

The most worrying aspect is the total regression of the defence this season.

Going into this season that was the bit of the team that I thought needed least improvement.

It's only since Christmas really - even Agger's got it now. Carra top man atm, just in time for retirement.

Glen Johnson was really good tonight tbf to him.

He's been excellent most of the season, but he can only do his thing with a reliable platform behind him. What about Lucas? He's looked off-the-pace since he came back.

Didn't come on to protect the back four until we were 2 nil down. MF 3 were Gerrard/Allen/Henderson.

We need a Chris state-of-the-nation review thing I feel, he's been gone too long.

nice finish from Oscar

Bale!

amazing miss from bale, amazing skill from bae to get out of his own corner

That makes up for the miss.

Bale.

I loved how AVB watched that goal

Woah! It's Andy Gray and Keysy on al-Jazeera.

They really dig the heart celebration! Keysy can't do it, Graysy can.

Bale seems to have perfected that weird Ronaldo top-spin on free kicks.

Graysy to Curbs just now: "you remember Didier Drogba, when he was at Chelsea?"

yeah, gets up and down so fast
xp

This is woeful presenting and punditry, the Qatari boys are being royally fleeced here

Woah @ Hulk's goal

Woah @ Napoli 0-3 Plzen - I guess the Cavani v Falcao dream final is off :o(

Also Atletico losing at home. TAKE THIS MORE SERIOUSLY YOU FOOLS.

Adebayor is breaking my heart

Oh yes - that looked gorgeous from that angle

Omg what a goal

What a strike!

cheating cunt levels with rocket

Think theyve deserved it too, couple of penalty shouts and decent pressure

hoooooo whatta hit

prior to that was about to posit that BAE looks uncomfortably hands-on in his own box on maybe three occasions now?

Someone loop that so I can watch in perpetuity

Far too easy to shut us down, far too easy to cut through us. We've not been bad but it's all lapse in defence and no spark in attack. Dembele has stopped finding space or playing neat little passes, lennon sees no ball, gallas and parker dawdle far tok long on it, adebayor nor dempsey hold on to it. Frustrating stuff without ever being terrible or anything.

Someone loop that so I can watch in perpetuity

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 14 February 2013 21:19 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://i.minus.com/ibwGlB8yaTthEj.gif

Jesus Christ he's amazing.

cheat code this guy

amazing

Last five Spurs goals all from Bale iirc.

wonder what the 'modern times' record for that is

(longest stretch of goals scored by one player)

Utd and spurs are the new stoke

if the keeper had stood a foot to his right at the end this would probably be written up as a mostly average Bale performance. hopefully it will still be written up as such for Spurs in general. even periods of eight or more passes every so often felt weirdly futile

Otm but it's nice to have that element of set piece danger to our game at last, it's been a long time since ziege

But yeah lets not let it overshadow how terrible gomis made adebayor look by comparison

crafty spurs giving bale a pound shop flyaway ball for the 2nd

Someone loop that so I can watch in perpetuity

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, February 14, 2013 9:19 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

seriously. was in the pub this eve and someone got a text about this goal, cue ipad, that gif, several minutes of collective enthusiasm

did not see the match since at that ungodly hour i was drunk with non-football watching people. but now that i've seen the goals, i regret not watching. it feels like in the past few games lyon keeps letting opposing teams score in extra time, it's a very bad habit to have. and clearly my anti-bale magic completely failed.
also, if my friends are to be believed, i can blame the ref for this loss. was there really a possible penalty on gomis that wasn't called? apparently the foul before bale's first freekick was non-existent?

Nah, both bale fk's were fair enough iirc.

yeah, gomis could have had two penalties, tho either alone would have been soft.

lyon were excellent off the ball, i dont make us favourites to go through tbh

thanks for that. hopefully i'll watch the return leg and see for myself but tbh i'm surprised lyon did well cos their last few games were horrendous. we have a big issue these days with our forwards, lisandro wants to be up front but he's being put on the left side so gomis can take that spot. so we have to settle with our defenders scoring lovely goals.

I've for beer, I've got chips, now all I need is a Lyon victory. Give me a good reason for coming in to work totally tired.

Deems tell your boys to let Lyon win, this Europa league would just drain them of their energy in the epl and the fight for a cl spot

Lyon looking pretty sharp so far.

yes! good start

ugh walker

This is p much how spurs play these days tbh

Nobody near the box, cepg adebayor ambling the other way

fuckin hell i'm scared every time bale takes off

Ah we're so bad tho

that cross where no spurs player were in the box was hilarious

That is normal

adebayor is some winger

gah, Atletico are out

come on get that second goal. i've seen too many games where they let one in in the last minutes of games to feel safe at all

Lyon are as someone said last week first rate off the ball but by no means have all of Spurs' 80000 misplaced passes been a result of pressure

ridiculous ten seconds that was

wtf! doesn't look like a penalty but shit. also not a good idea conceding a freekick on the other side

man the past 2mns have been crazy

so much action these last two minutes

wouldn't mind seeing a proper replay of that high Lyon foot

Is there a goalline assistant that isnt a cheating cunt

i like how the entire stadium boos friedel every touch he gets because they wanted to see lloris in the goals.

huh

oof

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, just as i said, goals in the last minutes of games :(

that ball didn't rotate at all, what a hit

Amazing strike

what you know about underperforming players with late rockets, Lyon

BAE's gait while going to take this throw is hysterical

Ms Mac might be able to lower herself enough to go to Milan

i hate this fucking game, i hate that i stayed up till 3am to watch this shit, i hate that i was expecting that spurs goal for basically all of second half and that it still killed me when it happened, i hate that lyon always find ways to piss me off

We were awful, and we've been about that awful or heading that way since our formation turned into bale +10. Commiserations jibe

i think you won though

ha

2nding deems tho tbh

if the tie winner had been Bale's side foot from ten yards I'd've been more inclined to think it deserved, in that it was an A++ bit of carvery/quick passing

Im not offering to swap performance for results, weve been that team forever. Im just unconvinced there's not more of a middle ground. But that is a very good lyon team so no underestimating the result or anything

i read someone saying that we didn't let in a goal in 180mns of regular time which makes it even more painful rn. i feel bad cos i really like the team ith all the young players from the academy and they keep getting me to hope for good things and then crush my hopes. i usually kinda like spurs so i hope they'll beat inter but tbh i agree with you deems and i was kinda disappointed by how they played.

Taxi for as-yet-unidentified Inter right-back.

I had to work late and missed everything and presumably missed 75mins of pain so I can just glorify in the result and skip the handwringing.

sure sign of becoming a big club, that

Night gets better

Shitest goal ever

Wonder if this is even worth watching now? Zenit could dish out a memorable spanking I suppose.

IT'S ON

deserved tbf

Zenit have a little the air of a team capable of fucking this up

i read someone saying that we didn't let in a goal in 180mns of regular time

Dembele was 89:30 approx but nitpicking aside... yeah I knew a team like that once

Smicer!

"That Joe Allen, see, it just shows you've got to get stuck in" - multitudinous cretins for the next two seasons.

Come on!

that were superb that

Somehow still half an hour to go as well

Ideal time to make a double change, having just scored.

i always seem to forget that "LIIIIIVerpool.... LIIIIIVerpool" is the worst sound in humanity

http://i.minus.com/iVC4ENpC3a9Mt.gif

reina is such a bombscare

xp

wow what a free kick

Ideal time to make a double change, having just scored

Hm, was scratching my head at that. Assaidi is nice to watch though.

"LIIIIIVerpool.... LIIIIIVerpool" is the worst sound in humanity

Wha'?!

I think Liverpool will get their fourth.

Unfortunately it will be just after Zenit score, or immediately before they do.

the Shelvey substitution might have cost them this

Sterling rising, etc

Ugh all this "cometh the hour cometh the Gerrard" drivel. Not sure Clive and Andy have noticed that he isn't the player most likely to win it for them.

haha the tone of distaste in townsend's commentary then

I think we can call that a stamp in the back.

ah, shame

Hang on I don't understand, we were promised an inevitable winner?

then Shelvey came on

Yeah, Hazard got it

Robbie Fowler says potentially this team could get better

Tbf would you be any more definitive?

Potentially he could be right

i don't want to say that that double substitution at that time cost us the tie but etc etc

Taking the rest of the season off is suddenly an option.

idk didnt turn out a great choice for us last year

sure yeah gallas why not

looking forward to seeing what this kovacic lad's got to say for himself

AVB's presumably thinking that Dawson has a big bottle in him at this level, but I'd take that over a Gallas clanger.

Watching the highlights again, fuck me we beat Inter with Jermaine Jenas on the pitch. Jermaine Jenas!

Awww, playing Level Up by Sway over the highlight of last time. Wrong version, mind, but still <3

Jenas to Inter was a weirdly persistent transfer rumour a few years back

So it was. Every window, Jenas to Inter; next window, Jenas to Inter. Then he finally moved, to QPR.

mourinho rated him you know
these red inter kits are awful. and totally unnecessary

yes i'm excited to see kovacic

jesus, Clive and Andy get around these days. ITV must be cutting costs

sigh can we just not ever mention jenas please

don't even really wanna watch this seeing inter's kit. whoever decided that is a cunt

for the Asian market iirc

fucking hell

this is all very agreeable

think even cr7 himself would blanch at the amount of hairspray his wannabe's got on

not a single hair moved when he headed that

i'd have given that

That was a theatrically slow yellow card from the ref there, the cunt was loving that. No Bale at the San Siro.

c'mon that was a disgraceful dive

Yeah I think Bale deserved that, the ref enjoyed it though.

Gylfi truly you are the king of the opportunistic tap-in.

Actually I'm being harsh he had to really run for that.

"thought Defoe was going to leave that"

not seen him play before then?

trod on his toe imho

inter are chumps, this could finish 5 if spuds keep their foot on the gas

There is no more beautiful a sound than Spurs fans singing 'are you Arsenal in disguise' at Inter.

Although the mass chorus of 'Dixon, Dixon you're a cunt' was very enjoyable.

ref is a bit of a busy cunt alright

he also pointed to his little respect badge when bale questioned the decision.

The red Inter shirts are really deflating my sense of occasion here. Might as well be playing Cardiff.

yeah i did that one

Struggling to work out whether that first half was the best I've seen Spurs play all season, or whether Inter have just failed to turn up.

c'mon to fuck, Inter

blimey

here's my boy Guerin

lovely chorus, that

ref spot on again

Tyldesley on AVB: "I think he's worked management out in the last year, hasn't he?"

worst attempt at showboating I've ever seen

haha yeah that was weird
lennon's nutmeg was lovely though, would have been a great goal

I missed the first half :( but that was crazy fun to watch

Sigurdsson was excellent today, that's probably the best I've seen him play in a Spurs shirt.

yeah,so glad to see gylfi come good in the last couple of weeks, could be an important player for the run in.

watching this now. it is the best we've played i think matt. inter didnt show but we've put three by them now and it should have been 6

bale needs not to dive as much tbf

parker positively giddy this last ten mins

keith andrews is wearing a quality suit on tvs, looks like it might be made of felt

Was watching Vertonghen quite closely last night, he was bellowing at Gallas on several occasions, also was making 'slow it down' gestures to Parker at one point. It's that sort of presence of mind and leadership we've lacked in the past.

he is pure class, no doubt

arsene fucking up his signing puts sentimental stubbornness through to straight up senility

I was watching the Spurs-Arsenal highlights last night and was thinking just how flaky Vermaelen can be. Typical of Arsenal to go for him instead, for Gervinho instead of Mata, etc.

verm's first season was legit, injury and coaching or lack thereof did for him

absolutely fuck this ref for that

we're gonna get raked if he's that 'receptive' to the crowd, he'll put one in himself if they need one with two mins to go

ahahahahahahaah brilliant dive

he'd have gotten that if he'd been touched, it looked v good tbfttl

he'd've scored had he stayed on his feet an'all

ooft

we look slightly vulnerable down the left, where that fucking cunt naughton plays

ooooofffff

this is brill

srsly

avb in obv

but ffs

the high line is not a v good idea some nights

all im saying

love yr work boo xxx

brad friedel is a fine gk but it's cruel to subject him to this sprint practice

am i right in saying that just because you play a high line you don't need to ignore the fact that there's a guy in forty yards of space to yr left?

parker looks like a player in a different sport

adebayor nearly got jogging there tbf

aw fuck adebayor so much

dembele class tho

spurs really need backup wingers huh

livermore was booked wasn't he?

take him off imo, he's not much good when he can't tackle

aw fuck adebayor so much

― gubba hoy hoy (darraghmac), Thursday, March 14, 2013 6:35 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very poor stuff

avb needs to change everything imo, everything

how much longer is dempsey out?

(rly just asking bc of upcoming usa quals)

i'd not heard he was injured tbh

just assumed form

setanta focus on adebayor is not flattering

Great stuff from Basel. Held out for a one nil defeat away (had 2-0 lead from fitrst leg)at zenit despite playing the entire 2nd half with ten men. Zenit had 20+ shots but the goalie was a hero capped by saving a penalty 5 mins from the end.

this is all on avb

fuck the two of them upfront, cowering away from dembele there

Outpaced by zanetti

Gareth Brett: "Goal in the next 10 mins I make Spurs favourites, otherwise it's Inter's for the taking."

really stuck the neck out there, hasn't he. ffs.

Gallas you cunt.

Gallas

Walker is crap btw

Zanetti still outpaces opponents on the regular doesn't he?

Anyway I think I'll watch Newcastle v Anzhi.

agent gallas

Only just started watching. Did we really start 442 at the fucking San Siro? Even Redknapp didn't do that.

Avb has thrown this match. Ten mins in we were fucked. Ref is a crook, adebayor, naughton and gallas each a total disgrace.

i was gonna stick money on this, but im def gonna back us for fifth now

Ref just took cassano out fer ya

Yeah these couple of games will really kill our self belief. Still holding out for a bigger Chelsea choke though.

Ooh so close

FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING FUCKING GALLAS

Later days of chelsea reign avb is out in force

fuck me tho hard to blame him for naughton and walker tho the cunts take the piss

ref is genuinely unreal.

We started 442 matt but with no intention of scoring nor defending, sheer fuckin tactical nonsense

basically just a mid-table shambles when Bale isn't around to kiss everything better

I mean 442 is dumb but doesn't explain umpteen pointless offsides and defensive clangers

Yeah both Kyles and Gallas together was never going to work but surely being a man short in midfield didn't exactly help either?

Spurs can't play without wingers, moral of this week.

Thats not true about us without bale, but that backline, that four man midfield, adebayor up front? An awful, awful team selection and they never knew what to do out there

Jesus howve we missed those

Here's the thing- this inter team are fuckin rubbish at the back

Can't go to penalties thank fuck.

they really started to sit back circa 85 mins or so

still not confident

xp hell yeah

Parker has been awful on the ball ;_;

srsly inter gone now, theyre as bad as us

By the way Holtby has shown enough to suggest he should be in the team every week.

Naughton and walker again there ffs

Holtby has shown that since his first twenty minute sub appearance imo, for siggurdson obv

By the way even if we get through we've probably destroyed ourselves for the Fulham game. At least AVB can rotate like half the team I suppose.

Who came off there, naughton? Thank fuck

Dembele rip

This doesn't look good, pretty sure the top of his head was bleeding and he was in absolute agony.

Jesus, this is horrible.

Lovely goal

Away goal is enough

Say it softly but adebayor looks alright since his goal

Lucky to stay on there

still no fuckin rb

Parker jesus christ

Here it comes

Has to score

omg PASS!!

Dembele holtby lennon so vital

ridic, the whole thing

Glory glory. Haven't seen a spectacle like that in years.

great game

there was no way I was typing this while it was still in play, and he did still manage to botch a clearance, but Gallas was really fucking solid for the last 25 minutes of extra time

Gonna win dis ting.

Bale will have to beat Fulham pretty much on his own though.

oh man how'd i miss this?

3 English clubs in the last 8. BLITW

Cech - "every game is a final"

for Rafa

Rachel T: "Winning games when they've played badly. Proof that this Spurs team has GRIT."

Is that an acronym for some kind of new disorder?

I agree about gallas, he was p good considering palacio had him for pace

fucking hell that ref was appalling, a blatant crowd tool

Whatever AVB said before extra time certainly worked. Don't think he's really put a foot wrong all season but that was a complacent and hubristic team selection and he got let off. He won't do that again.

Chelsea-Rubin
Spurs-Basel
Fenerbache-Lazio
Benfica-Newcastle

How many air miles have chelsea clocked this season?

As the crow flies they've travelled 23000 miles to non-domestic matches. Kazan will add another 4000.

(round trips)

Good draw for us

In french, FC Basel is FC Bâle, so the match will be Bale FC vs FC Bâle.

Less of it you

Sweet (xp)

With this in mind it seems likely the next two months of midweek football will be sidetracked by the competing excitements of newbie Europa enthusiasm plus, at a lower pitch, a chorus of hipsterish dismay as the full-beam mainstream descends on a tournament that has carried a sense of being a niche pleasure for those who like their European football underexposed, anti-Redknapped and blessed with an almost nostalgic sense of hinterland.

Heh, Barney Ronay's got my number alright.

Fuck cunts throwin hipster accusations at football fans, worst new trend, and ronay miles behind it

It's a fair point, no true hipsters would be a football fan

Hey Spurs fans, if you squint a bit tonight you can pretend we're playing Barcelona.

Hm, do I go with the slick contest in Lisbon, or the ILFeraderie of watching Spurs

Gallas injured phew

Pack of rolling cunts these

curious to see if naughton looks any better playing on the right

Newcastle taking it to Benfica thus far

not unless he has a serious fecklessness imbalance

If you squint a bit, William Gallas looks like a footballer.

Krul all but chucking a slitherer in

Jesus we are awful

Newcastle score, they've been very good tbf

1-0 Chelsea

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66756000/jpg/_66756523_66756521.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66756000/jpg/_66756523_66756521.jpg
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66756000/jpg/_66756523_66756521.jpg

Bale should be lw, holtby central. Would be much better for allowing dembele and adebayor to get involved.

Newcastle could've had two in two minutes there, this is completely unexpected

I dunno what's up with Benfica. They're doing the high line thing ...

1-1 as I type

What an effort, we sure love part time fullbacks who can hit em

ooft

Shockin two mins from ekotto

Moses scores for Chelsea.

FFS!

Young Boys all over again.