"Three at the back? Early in the sack." Van Gaal won't be on these '14-'15 UEFA Champions League nights thread

Lallana just wasn't sharp enough when he came on, always looked a half-second off when making decisions esp as Real took their foot off the gas for a period there in the 2nd half. Liverpool fans annoyed with Balotelli swapping shirts with Pepe going into the dressing room.

Arsenal have thrown away a three goal lead. Mitrovic with the equaliser.

Bayer's free kick routine, expertly finished by Son, was really sweet yesterday
http://gfycat.com/ifr/UnrulyTimelyArctichare

http://gfycat.com/ifr/UnrulyTimelyArctichare

CSKA leading!

and no longer.
what do people think of doumbia?
he's got a good scoring record

He's excellent. Must be carrying a long term injury, though. He is the best striker in Russia but rarely plays more than a half.

great control and finish by Doumbia for the second goal

Natkho has also been excellent this season.

I turn away for a bit and all of a sudden City are down to 9 men

Luiz Adriano has scored five for Shakhtar vs BATE

He made it eight against them in two games tonight.

Joe Hart not covering himself in glory tonight.

just the usual from manchester city in europe, hart is great so long as he doesn't have to think about what he is doing, kompany can't cope with clever movement, apart from aguero who is their best player by miles now (15 in 25 in the cl for city) they are useless

no yaya tonight so a missed opportunity to see him reprising his usual traffic cone role vs a fast pressing midfield

Watching PSG-Ajax. I dont think I've ever, in my entire life, seen such a boring, predictable match.

Why are PSG so terribly uninspired and lazy and nihilistic in the CL? Do the players want to get rid of their trainer or owner or something? Abysmal.

city needed a dreadful error, got one

*two

this is the most gifted win i can recall

all three goals on major errors by Bayern, crazy

not really, guardiola said before the game that as much as they were serious about winning, to be at their best a team need to be slightly afraid, with no material consequences to losing and perhaps their entire first choice midfield out, this is what happens

aguero though

Chelsea were flying tonight. Just saw them goals, that's some 2011 Barca shit man, as much as I have to admit it.

have=hate

messi just scored an entire hat-trick with his weaker foot while playing in a deeper role (100 passes hit)

were man city that bad yesterday? I didn't watch but all the talk on 5live after was about how bad they were considering how much money they spent etcetc. almost like the last 10 min hadn't happened.

they were the definition of a shit team with one of the best three centre forwards in the world
44% possession at home to a team vs a team with 10 men for most of the game

No David Silva or Toure, yet you'd want to expect better.

scholes said he would pick lampard instead of toure based on his cl performances and lack of defensive tracking, although his overall form this season suggests he is on the downslope anyway

lampard wasnt particularly great either, typical sturdy but unexceptional chelsea style performance in europe

fernando and fernandinho behind silva could work in a counterattacking team

this cumbersome translation of a german article is just about worth reading in terms of the general uselessness of english teams in europe (apart from the one coached by mourinho) relative to expenditure

http://spielverlagerung.com/2014/11/21/the-problem-with-english-football/

Chelsea were flying tonight. Just saw them goals, that's some 2011 Barca shit man, as much as I have to admit it.

― a pleasant little psychedelic detour in the elevator (Amory Blaine), Tuesday, 25 November 2014 22:32 (Yesterday)

the fuck is this? john terry header from corner, useless goalkeeping error at near post, ludicrous own goal from corner and two simple counterattacking goals while schalke were chasing it

their most important attacking player this season was one who couldnt even get in the crap 2013 barca team, in a world of terrible defences its pretty clear what their main virtue is (arguably their back six is the best in the epl in every position)

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79286000/jpg/_79286770_dortmund_bvb_4.jpg

I saw great beauty in the two counter attacking goals, the passing leading up towards them, but whatevs nakh

that barca team never gave the ball away, they were the least counterattack dependent of all great sides
those goals clearly resemble jose's madrid that scored about a dozen goals one season from the other teams' corners

they were the definition of a shit team with one of the best three centre forwards in the world

hugely otm but god, Aguero is a delight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxW3dToU_Tw

I know there are no good CBs any more but it makes me so angry that EBJT (being readied for the scrapheap 3yrs ago) is still able to consider himself one of the best defenders in the EPL.

this is the first time ive ever had any respect for terry precisely for managing to prolong his career beyond death

in any other side he would probably get burned but he has two of the best recovery defenders in the world next to him in azpilicueta and cahill, and matic ahead of him, which is very similar to gallas, carvalho and makalele during his prime

good central defenders is another matter, thiago silva the best by miles, bayern, madrid and dortmund all have three of them, kompany and maybe koscielny in england, probably mathieu deserves inclusion and mascherano, improbably, laporte and maybe mangala will get there shortly

Comedy goals in the Liverpool game so far. Mignolet spills a shot hit straight at him and someone bangs in the rebound. Ludogorets defenders let the ball bounce in the box twice and Lambert heads it in. Two shit teams, there's going to be a few goals at least I reckon.

Feeling for the guy but that was dire by Mignolet

Scandalous

are you fucking shitting me

Ikr decent second half performance and then go and concede a goal from a corner with 2 mins left. 3rd goal conceded from a set piece in the CL so far. Even so if they won it would still all be down to the next match against Basle.

Liverpool are struggling against Basel as if they are the main character in Kafka's Metamorphosis, having just woken up.

Xp fuck this, got punished instantly by Gerard :(

well-struck

holy shit dat goal

Whoa Walter Samuel... Didn't know he was still playing...

Have great admiration for Basel trying to get their foot in the door so consistently with Europe's best 16.

Man City through to the last 16

non-rampant totti

Yeah ridiculous really, he was a passenger for the entire game.

good article

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2014/12/11/champions-league-60th-anniversary-wolves-honved-gabriel-hanot

seems a bit of a contradiction that the man so moral to be above committing a professional foul has no problem purposefully creating a water logged pitch to give his team an advantage.

Remember that Chelsea fan who used to post here? Pete something? I remember him once tearing a strip off me for associating Chelsea with Rangers, he was all, "How dare you try to infect us with your tawdry sectarianism", or words to that effect (obv., as a Celtic fan, sectarianism could be inferred in my case).

Pete was a really good poster but iirc he fucked off after we intimated john terry might be a cunt

i think of pete most tuesdays whenever i disconsolately leaf thru the snotrag yuppie brochure masquerading as time out these days

(sudden urge to shout PARK LIFE after reading that post back, soz)