Gareth Barry won't be on dis ting: Champions League and Europa League 09/10

After the euphoria of Celtic's first away win in a century... we get Arsenal.

Battle of Britain! Form book out the window!

Celtic dropping into Europa probably :(

http://i26.tinypic.com/1e9y0h.jpg

"Click here to replay draw"

Tried it. Still Arsenal.

Europa League qualifying draw is at 11.30 BST I think, featuring Everton, Aston Villa, Fulham and Hearts.

Stuttgart are Spanish!

haha well spotted

Today's No Shit Sherlock Award goes to new Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee.

Poor defending cost us - McGhee
Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee rued defensive lapses as the Dons went out of the Europa League with an 8-1 aggregate defeat by Sigma Olomouc.

Pana v Atletico could be a tasty tie too

well yeah it involves the champions to be.

Man, the Aberdeen fans that went to that away leg...

arsenal? oh shiiiiii-

: (

are Sigma Olomouc any good? Like, at all? Or are Aberdeen really just that rubbish?

Silly Celtic, if they'd only won the Danish league they'd have it easy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SK_Sigma_Olomouc

SK Sigma Olomouc is a Czech football club from the city of Olomouc. They reached the quarterfinals of the 1991-1992 UEFA Cup. They also absolutely smashed Aberdeen in the Europa league qualifying rounds. Interestinly Diego Maradona's half brother, Tino once visited the city for a weekend break local sources are claiming this has something to do with there recent europa victory.

Just realised Hearts are unseeded and all three English clubs are seeded. Could be two Battles of Britain.

in these troubled financial times etc.

I think there is only a set of five teams that each seeded team can play? Villa can get St Patrick's Athletic but not Hearts. Worse case scenario is Genoa, the Italian Villa.

Bah was just thinking Villa vs Hearts would be a good tie. I'm sure Mad Martin would never tire of beating them.

ooohh NAC Breda - Villareal :) will we get another beating like Newcastle Castle gave us back in the days.

eh Newcastle Utd. :) 5-0 away (for us) and 0-1 (at home)

Everton vs Sigma - watch out for the tear gas!

Fulham vs Amkar

Dinamo Zagreb vs Hearts

tough one

lol

Hoping Twente get Dinamo Moscow given that Shteve wash thinking Sheltic would be an, how you shay?, eashy draw in the Championsh League.

Instead they get Qarabag Khankendi - some mob from an amateur league in Azerbaijan.

Hey, if he can get knocked out of Euro 2008 qualifying by a country with a tea towel for a flag there's no telling what could happen.

Also, just try saying Azerbaijan in a fake Dutch accent.

Would probably end up sounding like he was saying "that's your boy, Shane"

"Asherbaydshan, I think we, how you shay, shruck lucky"

Rapid Vienna vs Aston Villa

Fulham have to play against the easternmost football club in all Europe on the Thursday then play an away league game the Sunday after.

When are these games played?

CL is 18/19th and 25/26th August
Europa is 20th and 27th

Celtic vs Arsenal is currently listed on the BBC as Celtic Park on the 18th and Amirites on the 25th - not sure is that's official or not.

Had to look up Sigma Olomouc but someone has got to the Wiki site before me:

"SK Sigma Olomouc is a Czech football club from the city of Olomouc. They reached the quarterfinals of the 1991-1992 UEFA Cup. In the third qualifying round of the 2009-10 competition, they defeated Aberdeen F.C. 8-1 on aggregate, before being drawn against Everton of the F.A. Premier League, in the playoff round of the competition.. They are universally expected to achieve a smiliar result against the scousers but rumours are already circiling the town of olomouc to protect there hub caps with there lives . Everton's most famous fan,Stan Bilo is widely expected to go and shag a local kid. Interestingly Diego Maradona's half brother, Tino once visited the city for a weekend break local sources are claiming this has something to do with their recent victory. There is not really much point in Everton turning up, they are going to get hammered."

Silly Celtic, if they'd only won the Danish league they'd have it easy.

If they'd only won the SCOTTISH league they'd have it easy :-(

(I saw us against a Danish team last year and didn't think we looked capable of winning anything, tbh)

i'd feel silly not posting here after ailsa so kindly reminded me of it's presence. insane goals from olympiakos (?) tonight then?

Second one was nice, aye. I'm reasonably upbeat about Celtic in the Europa League - even at my most confident I can't see us overturning the 2-0 at the Emirates, but we didn't look out of our depth at any point tonight. I heard 'Arry was up looking at Scott Brown - ten million of your English pounds and he's all yours, mate. Thought Aiden McGeady and Glenn Loovens were top drawer, and Arsenal were made to work for a convincing-looking-on-paper victory they scarcely deserved.

Anything said on the telly about the clown who chucked a drink at Arshavin at a corner? There's always one...

arshavinshrug.jpg

i'm not sure about brown- he seems a little 7/10 in all depts, when we really need a little more inspiration in midfield.

celtic weren't shamed tonight- two flukey goals and plenty of counter themselves.

didn't see any of the other highlights, so no more on arshavin drink chuck, but after dida last season the stewards might want to up their game for a while (not that much can be done, thinking about it)

Quite enjoyed the game last night, think Arsenal probably deserved to win but it was a pity about the nature of the goals (obvs wont say no etc). Might have helped if Donati had stopped kicking it straight out of play from promising positions.

Didnt catch anything on telly about anyone chucking a drink at Arshavin, no.

<3 Vermaelen and Denilson so far this season. Vermaelen just goes for everything doesnt he? Interested to see how he'll fare against a Drogba/Torres/Rooney type, looks classy so far.

Crap FB status update joke:

What's the difference between Arsenal and U2? Nothing, both rocked Glasgow last night and went home with the edge.

Might have helped if Donati had stopped kicking it straight out of play from promising positions.

^^^this.
Felt a bit cheap losing that way. Arsenal weren't great but didn't need to be, Celtic weren't great but did. Pass marks for McGeady, Boruc, N'Guemo and maybe Loovens. Everyone else needs to step it up. N'Guemo is suspended for the Emirates, looks like Donati will get another game and Brown's possible sale will be held back.
I don't think 'Arry would have seen much last night to convince him to part with £10m.

Oh and Fabregas needs to stop the clutching ankle rolling around thing when he's not hurt. Just about every player I've ever admired from afar has come to Celtic Park and let me down by being a moaning/diving/cheating/injury-faking prick.

Arsenal played well in bursts, were good at the start of the second half. Goals were cheap, it felt a bit cheap winning that way. But considering how often I've seen Arsenal fail to score in games like this but seemingly hit the post 50 times I'll take it.

Weren't they supposed to be tormented and troubled playing at Celtic Park? How different is this team from the one that beat AC Milan etc?

Weren't they supposed to be tormented and troubled playing at Celtic Park?

I don't remember anyone saying that (on here at least). Arsenal have played in any number of huge games in front of huge crowds - didn't they score 5 in the San Siro? I assume some lazy Scottish hack asked Wenger if his players would be scared running out at Celtic Park?

I heard Arsenal were woeful. Four goals worse than woeful, in fact.

lol

Oh no, that wasnt aimed at you onimo! But, yeah a large part of the coverage I saw/read was dedicated to that sort of thing (I think partly on the assumption that Arsenal are *always* on the verge of crumbling as much as anything else). But how different is the team under Mowbray? Didnt they beat Man Utd at Celtic a while back?

Oh no, that wasnt aimed at you onimo!

I know, I just thought it was funny. We drew 1-1 with Man Utd last time they came to us (late equaliser for them) and beat them 1-0 the time before.

The playing style is significantly different under Mowbray. He is prepared to allow the creative players freedom to roam while trying to make everyone else mindful of the fact that e.g. McGeady might occasionally lose the ball and we need to cover for that. So far it's much more pleasing on the eye than Strachan's rigid 4-4-fucking-2 but it remains to be seen if it's any more effective in terms of results.

Aye, I thought so. I dont get to see Celtic much outside of Champs League so (barring anything unforeseen next week) am hoping to see them do well in the Europa. I think they'd be a good match up for any of the prem sides, which is prolly the only way I'd get to see them.

the praise for Arsenal from BBC radio team last night seemed somewhat OTT

Suedey 2, Celtic are available on yr Sky Sports several times this season. Though whether you want to watch them having lumps kicked out of them by an assortment of random thugs on a half-ploughed field every other week is entirely up to you.

Loovens made it in the Dutch squad. finally. 'bout time, we have no defenders anyway.

What a disaster for Hugh Grant.

atletico madrid winning is like rangers winning; wtf is this

Poor old Fulham

"we all know it's shots on goal that score goals"

yes we do.

― bracken free ditch (Ste), Wednesday, 12 May 2010 21:12 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or mis-kicks that go in off the defender's balls.

Steven Gerrard's arse to thread.

Cardiff v Leicester just gone to pens on Sky Sports 1, btw.

Of all the football people who've had the wankhat donned on them in earnest over the last couple of years, Hodgson is the one who least deserves a backlash; the man is class

aw etc.

but fulham looked well knackered after about 100mins. athletico were all over them but it's still sad they could have hung on for 5 more mins

Of all the football people who've had the wankhat donned on them in earnest over the last couple of years, Hodgson is the one who least deserves a backlash; the man is class

lol at my Spurs-supporting friend grousing about Manager Of The Season within 10 minutes of the final whistle

Boro finished 14th and got beat in the UEFA Cup Final and everyone thought McLaren was a bawbag. Fulham finished 12th, below Blackburn.

Much as I like Hodgson, Redknapp taking Spurs from bottom of the league to the Champions League in 18 months = MOTS for me.

Brave John Terry has bravely defeated a suspected cowardly broken metatarsal. The Brave defender, who courageously dragged Chelsea to a Premier League title this season, had been bravely rushed to hospital earlier following a training ground injury. Brave Terry, who has the heart of a lion, defied the odds and heroically overcame the injury that claimed David Beckham and Wayne Rooney amongst others in recent years. Pundits will point to brave Terry's bravery, courage, bravery and heart of a lion as the main reasons for his brave overcoming of this brave injury. Brave.

Lethal Bizzle: antisemite

http://football365.com/story/0,17033,16290_6149431,00.html

So, are you the kind of Arsenal fan who was cheering on Man City last week?
I kind of was, yes. I was kind of hoping they could do the Yid Army scum. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it. It didn't feel right cheering on Emmanuel Adebayor though - it's funny that it turns out he left Arsenal for Europa League football.

Redknapp- League MOTS, with honourable mention for Ancelotti.

Hodgson- Taking into account cups yeah wouldn't begrudge him it.

Rafa- Taking into account lols.

4th Qualifying Round for Non-Champions (10 teams)
Seeded teams
Sevilla 108.95
Werder Bremen 94.84
Zenit St. Petersburg 61.26
Tottenham Hotspur 56.37
Ajax *3 55.31

Unseeded teams
Fenerbahçe *3 54.89
Dinamo Kiev *3 42.91
Sampdoria 30.81
AJ Auxerre 19.75

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seedcl2010.html

we're going out at this stage aren't we?

Spurs vs Fener would be hilarious.

How come Spurs are seeded? How is that coefficient calculated? Everton unseeded in 05-06 CL, famously drawing Villareal, Collina's last game, Ferguson header disallowed, can't let go, pass the lemons, blah blah.

We're a Big Club

European Tiddler's League counts the same as the CL in UEFA's eyes.

We're a Big Club

Oh yes, sorry. Had briefly forgotten about Blanchflower. Memory like a sieve! Can't remember where I left my keys, the last film I saw at the pictures, league wins 49 years ago...

Quite alright. Carry on.

Hey, LondonILXors, suggest a good pub to watch the Champion's league final in.

The Friend At Hand is quite a reliable one with two well positioned big TVs

Thanks. That might just work.

I'm going to watch it in 3D. I am not in London though.

It's on Saturday, right?

What's the 3D experience like? I'm a relatively recent convert to streaming, and amazed at how much enjoyment is preserved when I can just see a pattern of dots moving about. Ramping up to HD or 3D seems unnecessary

I will be on Merseyside in the house I grew up in (which is increasingly empty as we gradually clear the place), watching it from the same sofa and on the same TV* as I saw the Porto-Bayern final of '87.

(* - it didn't need a set-top box to work back then)

3D is a bit odd, I've only seen adverts on it (some footage they show on rotation on Sky's 3D channel of boxing, tennis (pretty cool) and football). It's not like the OMG WAU of proper 3D IMAX stuff, it's more like watching a moving version of those wee viewmaster toys you used to get when you were a wean.

Amusingly, they are only carrying it in one pub in Paisley, which is mostly full of very old people. The landlord has been giving all his regulars goes of 3D glasses to entice punters in, and the general response is "it doesn't work", mostly because he's trialling it in a pub full of pished blokes who all have glass eyes and cataracts.

I'm mostly going to watch it on the telly just to see what an actual match looks like in it, tbh. It's kind of meh so far, but I can see the potential in it.

I didn't think the finals were on telly in those dark days. Pretty sure I remember being gutted that I could only find the one PSV won reported later on ceefax

Ah, PSV. Winning the top prize in Europe with five draws. Beat that, Rangers.

Yeah, post-Heysel, terrestrial coverage of Euro finals was pretty spotty (the English ban diminishing interest, I guess) but I can certainly remember the Steaua-Barce bore-draw, Milan winning 4-0 and Koeman's free-kick winner vs Sampdoria at Wembley.

Atletico's record this year was the equal of Rangers' until the final, amazingly

That 4-0 is still about the most jaw-dropping performance I've seen. There must've been a pick-up in interest post-1990 because I remember Waddle et al's efforts with Marseille being amazingly engrossing and glamorous - though I have no memory of Red Star at all, who were by all accounts pretty amazing themselves other than that final.

wow, fox is showing the CL final in the US. Regular fox, where I don't know if they have ever shown a football match before.

http://nerdcityonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/cleatus.jpg

I'm not expecting a classic tonight. I seriously rate Inter and suspect they'll overpower Bayern from early on. 3-0, and a bit like Jose's other final.

oh man if Fox give the final the futbolbot treatment I am going to lolllll

fuck this saturday bullshit

sorry yankees I appreciate this is probably better for yous

Atletico's record this year was the equal of Rangers' until the final, amazingly
― Ismael Klata, Tuesday, May 18, 2010 9:19 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

atletico madrid winning is like rangers winning; wtf is this
― cozen, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 9:13 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

way ahead of me

howard webb misses blatant handball in the box

Gabby Milito is a dude.

srs miss old school finisher strikers, should be more gabby militos.

11 behind the ball now?

srs miss old school finisher strikers

― tart w/ a heart (a hoy hoy), Saturday, 22 May 2010 20:21 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

11 behind the ball now?

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Saturday, 22 May 2010 20:22 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

now?

it was only 10 before the goal

cant believe that the long ball punt up the park led to a goal in a champions league final.

milolto

game over

eh the game was over when the peado got suspended against lyon

lucio dribbling from his own area waaaaay into the opposition half is one of the great sights in football

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/6073/69807344mourinho1720119.jpg