Thursday Night Lights: The 2014/15 Europa League thread

Let the round of 32 clusterfuck begin

Nice enough finish from Soldado.

Stuart Armstrong! Holy fuck!

i think im watching the wrong game

hi lads been on spurs thread lol at us but still a very good performance this tbh

these matias set pieces are pretty good

these paulinho ones not

Townsend and walker just high performing versions of themselves tonight. no end product whatsoever.

jordan ibe has been great tonight again

oh hey paolo, been missing your input on anglo-scots club relations recently

Some comedy stuff from Celtic tonight but I still think Inter are there for the taking.

Some comedy stuff, as usual in Europe, that is.

So shit from Soldado.... absolutely criminal for a striker to screw up a 2 on 1

Fucking hell Fazio, of all the players on the pitch to give a comedy assist to.

Another goal would lead to extra time now and basically kill our final on Sunday, so I dunno how I feel about the rest of the game now.

extra time for liverpool, not good for the game against man city either

lol smh itv4 cutting out just in time for the pens

impressive penos all round so far

Errrrrr

Lol

....and Lovren blasts it a mile wide

why Lovren to take that peno? idgi

Lovren eclipses Carroll as worst signing ever in an impressively quick time.

hes fairly bad alright

Torino down to ten men after half an hour. 2 justified yellows. They'd completely stifled Zenit with ease until then.

Hulk gets dispossessed more than any player I've ever seen.

Witzel 1-0. Torino have been defending the width of the box quite well, but that was neat play by Zenit.

"He can argue all he wants he has no argument there" - Danny Higginbotham.

palacio 1-0 after Schurrle sloppily gives the ball away. Tentatively suggest this Wolfsburg vs Inter game will be an end to end classic.

Schurrle has been astonishingly bad thus far.

Naldo powers in a header from a de bruyne corner.1-1.

my word rodriguez has put in a couple of absolutely beautiful crosses

de bruyne 2-1. awful 'pass' from inter keeper straight to vierinha on to kdb, goal

de bruyne free kick 3-1. keeper woreful again. stood behind wall and couldn't see the ball.

this has been great & frantic, you wonder why everton don't play like this in the epl

Everton 3-1 down after 37mins. Their defence is SO BAD. Couple of great goals (yarmolenko and lukaku)

What has happened to Roma recently? They have been awful.

5-1 down now, another wonderful strike (antunes)

Best league in the world, guv.

Roma were so terrible tonight it was bordering on the criminal. Goalie lols for the 2nd, non-existent marking for the 3rd. Ljanic sent off at the end. Shambles. They've barely won a game this year.

Once I saw Alcatraz was playing for Everton and Howard was in goal then the result was inevitable. No English teams involved in Euro QF's for the first time in 20 years!

watching wolfsburg on delay, another assist by kevin de bruyne.

Bendtner seals it

Napoli, Wolfsburg, Kiev, Zenit, Brugges, Fiorentina, Sevilla, Ajax/Dnipro

Do Ajax fans always sing that one bob marley song?

Not singing anymore.

so the russian and ukrainian teams aren't allowed to play each other. hardly a free draw then.

blimey lfc representation here as well!

(xp) good way of increasing the likelihood of a Russian v. Ukrainian final.... in Warsaw too!!!!

sevilla - zenit (andre - unai)
dnipro - brugge
kiev - fiorentina
wolfsburg - napoli

looking frwd to that last one.

Sevilla with the perfect away performance so far, early goal and chances on the break.

Howler from Beto, Rondon taps in. Game on. So awful from the keeper.

Beto so shook that Hulk decides to shoot from about 35 yards away on the right touchline, off the bar and in. Outrageous.

Zenit rampant right now. Hulk blasts away from distance, Beto tips over.

Sevilla break, Gameiro strikes. 2nd away goal, Zenit need 2 in 5 mins.

Sevilla through, that was a terrific 2nd half.

Dnipro
Fiorentina
Napoli
Sevilla

napoli vs dnipro
sevilla vs fiorentina

hoping for a napoli - sevilla final tbh.

I think that would be the most likely outcome.

Dniepro goal yesterday was pretty sweet.

rain

Yes! Nikola Kalinic!

Aug 28, 2008 - It was Croatian football coach Slaven Bilić who dubbed the young striker, Nikola Kalinić, "the future of Croatian Football".

kalinic is rightly going to obtain the patronage of a hoy hoy as THE NEXT ZLATAN sometime next season after a backheel thru the legs of kieran gibbs, followed by a £16m january move to juventus and a bidone d'oro

― nakhchivan, Monday, 22 March 2010 11:16 (5 years ago)

The Pole scores!

krychowiak is very impressive, an epl style destroyer with some technique in addition to brute force

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWqP9gZ1UPs

Wonderful free kick.

terrific game this. seville's second so sweet.

itv bros seemed to neglect to mention the quality of the throughball which was even better than the exquisite run and finish

very fond of formerly hyped prospects who do nothing for most of their twenties before a reflorescence in their 30s like reyes and quaresma

been impressed with the variety of seville's corners. btw guardian's interview with emery this morning was a p good read.

shit guardian football liveblog emailers would make a niche thread but

“What started as a great day for humanity has turned into a great afternoon for soccerball here in the USofA,” hollers Art Dubano.

nice pass, assured finish

blimey dnipro player just keeled over with no other player around him

clashed heads a couple of mins earlier, hopefully nothing more serious than concussion

good stuff, glad seville won.

Sampdoria made a massive fuss about qualifying for the Europa League this season, having risked disqualification over a betting scandal, and have just managed to lose 4-0 at home to FK Vojvodina in the preliminary round.

poor old samp (a great-grandfather i never met was a Genoese samp fan so i have some affection for them). i remember very clearly five years ago when they were on the cusp of qualifying for the champions league and threw it away http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/08/25/sampdoria-3-2-werder-bremen-aet-pazzini-puts-sampdoria-in-charge-but-subs-prove-crucial/

odd night for dortmund

Richard Whiteley RIP

hello darkness my old friend

^ sad like :-(

Celtic website spinning brilliantly like it's all one big tournament.

Get behind the Bhoys as the European campaign continues

ha!

the draw for the groups is 12pm GMT tomorrow. Not sure when the fixtures are announced. I know when the dates will be played, and know that if I'm lucky and Celtic play at home on the match day that falls on Thursday September 17th I will be able to go to two home matches at Celtic Park when I'm home to visit for a fortnight. Ha, fingers-crossed to be able to attend a Europa League Group game, what has become of me...

but, you know, nothing like a Thursday night tie against a team half the punters haven't heard of with the top-tier of the stadium closed is there?

Well I assume all the punters have heard of all the teams, at least. 17th September is an away game though.

I'm out of the country when Fenerbahce come to town.

aye im gubbed. no Europa league action for me.

Fenerbahce should be interesting. Hopefully Deila plays Mulgrew at left-back again, he'll have Nani in his pocket no bother.

And Dear Dedryck will have RVP running scared.

That's an interpretation for sure. I'm glad I'll be watching it in a bar where beer is a euro. I may not come back home.

Some potentially good matches on:

Fiorentina / Basel
Ajax / Celtic
Dortmund / Krasnodar
Anderlecht / Monaco
Dnipro / Lazio
Sporting / Lokomotiv

If Spurs are going to get out of the group i think they have to win tonight but i'm not sure it's going to happen.

Rodgers' attitude towards the Europa League is infuriating and should actually be grounds for dismissal imo.

Wtf is this formation? 3 at the back again with emre can back on defensive duty.Gomez a cb by trade I believe but generally playing lb so far for lfc now playing in midfield??

Ah actually Gomez one of the 3 CBS and can in midfield that makes more sense. Outrage retracted. Still Rodgers out anyway.

Commentator just described last season's 6-1 defeat at Stoke as "rather disappointing". Gonna take a lot for him to succumb to hyperbole I guess.

Dortmund losing at home?

Mingolet wipes out kolo toure, looks crocked.

Pulling every single player back to defend a corner is such an idiotic tactic. Just end up clearing the ball to nobody. So basic.

Pedro Chirivella on for LFC. Never seen him before. A DM apparently. Can back in defence and a CM pairing of Rossiter/Chirivella. Lol.

I think I may hate Adam Lallana just a little. Which I feel kinda bad about as he seems like a nice enough guy.

Okay I hate him more than a little now the dawdling prick.

This really is Hodgson level tedium. Bereft of attacking ideas and play, unable to construct dangerous moves. Scored 3 goals this season, 2 absolute spectaculars and 1 that should have been disallowed for offside. Rancid.

I'm kind of glad I don't have BT Sports, watching Liverpool in the EL is excruciating at the best of times

and yeah Rodgers Out

Molde are killing Fener in Istanbul. 3-1 now.

Hahahaha Lallana with an excellent goal. Back to hating him just a little

3 players try to tackle one guy so the ball drops to someone else. 1-1

In general the 2nd half has been marginally better. Gomez looks good at CB and I would always have Sakho in defence ahead of Lovren.

Trippier settling in well. Conceded a penalty after four minutes.

Two in two minutes from Son. Nice work from Alli.

Lamela is playing so badly it's impossible not to feel sorry for him. Nobody is playing well apart from Alli but he looks like a broken man.

Yay! He scored!

he was really good at the weekend when he came on tbh

enjoying this. Danny rose having fun.

lamela cleans up an alli rebound after Charlie carves em up. counter attack in waves there.

nacef Charlie

Annoyed to be on a train and missing this.

after going one up and looking good for another we conceded more and more space and eventually ended up lucky to draw it tbh. Monaco not good at all.

still enjoyed it. cb pairing really a cut above.

Kane, eriksen and lamela all woeful!

Monaco made much smarter substitutions, they looked dangerous in the last 20mins or so that I watched.

There is no reason for Andros to be anywhere near our team any more. On any occasion.

There is no reason for Ambrose to be anywhere near our team any more. On any occasion.

Turns out that hatred of Efe Ambrose transcends international borders. Several nationalities in the pub on Thursday night, all united in facepalming.

Oh get in

oh get out

(p much everyone involved in the running of celtic football club)

p interested in what klopp had clyne doing tonight. Had him going forward a lot (no surprise there since rubin sat deep and didn't attack) but he seemed to specifically task him with taking up attacking positions infield rather than overlapping on the wing. Sort of what pep has alaba doing when he starts at LB.

anyway lfc were alright tonight, v comfortably in control but still having problems scoring. would give can and firmino tick jpegs. still don't understand why sakho wasn't first choice CB under rodgers, he can sometimes hesitate to make a decision on the ball but when he has made his choice his passing is actually v good imo.

yeah there's always been a kind of lol big lad plus mild racism in people's attitude to his poise and his passing. he can appear ungainly on the ball but he actually is a fine footballer. rodgers' dislike was bizarre, anyone i know watching liverpool is a massive fan, he can be a huge player for that team.

What the hell has Poch done to Dembele over the last few games? Is it just playing in a more advanced role or is he just a lazy arse who realises he's on his last chance right now?

Might be as simple as the balance of Dier/ali suits his preferred centre circle/skiing left style

that may account for some of his goals, but he was also excellent against liverpool in a defensive role when dier was suspended. i've read some theorize he is now fitter/trimmer than he's ever been for spurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCUOZvg2kRc

p funny the liverpool fans being twitter-quoted on the bbc live feed sticking the knife into mignolet over essentially a first sign of dementia rather than an actual goalkeeping deficiency

haven't really seen enough of mignolet in general to comment, neither do i know what he's done wrong tonight (not following that game at all) but he is a bit of a poor keeper, with terrible feet/bad distribution.

Milner scum

nice goal from benteke - https://vine.co/v/iaZKUwx9ZUv

should secure the 2-2.

God help me I've watched all lfc's EL games this season. Have a feeling this could be the grimmest yet.

spurs have got fiorentina, liverpool have got augsburg, and manchester united are playing midtjyalland

valencia v rapid vienna
fiorentina v tottenham
dortmund v porto
fenerbahce v lokomotiv moscow
anderlecht v olympiacos
midtjylland v man utd
augsburg v liverpool
sparta prague v krasnodar
galatasaray v lazio
sion v braga
shakhtar v schalke
marseille v athletic bilbao
sevilla v molde
sporting lisbon v leverkusen
villareal v napoli
st etienne v basel

like augsburg, always seems to be a terrific atmosphere there and marcus weinzierl is an excellent manager

dope ties

Very satisfactory this despite alli lucky to stay on and Davies and Son not being great in possession

Jesus tino lucky to stay on there too. Refs good.

How does a goalkeeper contrive to injure himself in the warm up?

Lol utd

WOOF

Deflected but WOOF ANYWAY

Would quite like to.see us sub off some.of these booked players tbh

That was decent enough, we didn't panic when put under pressure after the goal. Fancy us to win at WHL.

Strong Liverpool team out. I guess they all had a nice stroll last Sunday.

not even worth commenting on at this point

Louis remains

xp yeah it wasn't great in the second half but kane rested and hopefully no injuries, and we'd almost certainly have lost that game in other years.

I can't get used to this new spurs positivity.

...are the Augsburg jersey player names in comic sans?

didnt Costa Rica have players names in comic sans in the last WC too?

@SpursOfficial 2 minutes ago

TEAM NEWS: "@HKane has broken his nose and has had an operation today. He will miss tomorrow's game." - Mauricio

#pray4

Based on where we are at the moment, you'd think it'd be easier to qualify for the CL by finishing Top 4 rather than winning the Europa, so wouldn't actually mind if we go out tomorrow - especially given our poor record on a Sunday following the Thursday Europa game.

What happens if United finish 5th but also win the Europa, and Chelsea win the Champions League?

Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together...

but also I'm pretty sure that means only the top 3 plus the two European trophy winners would qualify

Yeah, one country can only have a maximum of five clubs in the CL so 4th would miss out

Stick a fiver on it and you would be too rich to care.

Think Lucas might be playing CB today.

Mignolet, Clyne, Lucas, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Henderson, Milner, Firmino, Sturridge, Coutinho. Subs: Ward, Toure, Benteke, Origi, Smith, Teixeira, Chirivella.

be nice to see studge, firmino, coutinho together again.
obviously overpaid to start with but i wonder just how many millions have been knocked off benteke's value by the summer? here's hoping prem riches/desperation lead to someone willing to cough up.

Leading thru a dodgy pen but my god sturridge is so so good.

This last 15 mins so predictable after spending 70 mins being far too casual in front of goal.5 mins of injury time , a goal is probable.

never in doubt

and yeah so good to have studge back

Utd one nil down, Martial injured in the warm up

the fun never ends

And why didn't the ref play on with Blind almost clean through? Flips sake.

Lovely stuff this.

Alonso m. Looks like ilxor reed m. Imo

Utd 2-1 up now. Marcus Rashford with the debut goal

Memphis having his best game to date

turned out to be quite fun this

Looking at the last 16 and it's pretty big names all the way down. Could be some cracking ties.

memphis looked like he was having the time of life for once. not convinced i didn't just dream that whole performance.

http://i.imgur.com/xXCN1eS.gif

That's such a me move

/pre Dec 15 disaster obv

Ambivalence about the number of games remaining easily trumped by the satisfaction of comfortably beating a proper team.

Really want Dortmund in the next round. Although anyone other than the English teams and Basle would be nice.

liverpool v united in the next round

and spurs v dortmund!

Yessssssssssssss.

Good stuff.

Looks like Poch has got his priorities sorted and fielded a pretty young team against a strong Dortmund side tonight.

Think It's kind of a pity that he's not gone absolutely full-tilt at this tbh, good experience for the champs league next year.

Lovely treat having these two games one after the other tonight

Champions League next year not assured yet though so that has to be first priority.

Fucking hammer shot from Mkhitaryan. Far be it from me to cast aspersions on the relative merits of Tom Carroll and Josh Onomah but we're getting fucking twatted here.

Ugh Robbie Savage. Shame no Gundogan. Weigl has been great this season.

Nice shot by Derek.

Sweet.

I'll be disappointed if it turns out there's no fan song for him to the tune of MIA's Galang

Lol.

I guess we should be happy Aubameyang isn't playing for Arsenal, which in a former era he definitely would be.

Robbie Savage's belligerent insistence that Eric Dier is all that would be required to stem the tide is more annoying than the goal.

Blimey p high there

Reus free kick p wide and p high - Savage "good technique"

Lol he really is obsessed with Dier

The amount of space...

Loathe to admit it for all sorts of reasons but robbie savage basically otm that if poch wanted to rest his best players he'd have been better off doing it against villa, could send the youth team out and come away with 3 points on Saturday.

Imagine how much of a clown he'd look if they somehow lost that though.

Loving Thomas Tuchel's 1995 eurorave puffa jacket by the way. I hope he was blasting out Technohead's I Want To Be A Hippy to get the team all amped up before the game.

When tuchel was at Mainz saw one game where he'd obviously decided the dugout was too far from the pitch cos he was sat in an actual deckchair in the technical area.

Should have been two

Pen surely???

Just seen the Utd team. Fellaini starts which guarantees a shit game but also that Utd will score from a corner.

That was beautiful

Wow

idg poch's plan am I not supposed to watch this game

sounds like I shd go and find a clip of that third goal huh

Yeh it was a nice one - Aubamayang 1st touch, the final ball and the finish all beautiful. Premier league so weird and shit quality this season, it's a shame that the only English team in European competition who have been impressive just gave up right at the moment they came to play someone good.

poch is a cunt for this

welp not quite goal of the season as Clive Allen claimed but p undeniable aye

Hummels has been so smooth tonight.

#freeshinji

tbh spurs could win the prem this season, if they do so it will be the biggest thing in forever for the team and everyone will remember it for a long, long time.

if they were to win the Europa league this season - obviously they won't now - in about ten years people would be like "didn't spurs win the Europa league once?"

Ah idgaf about the uefa if it shores up CL qualification this season.

But I would like our second string to be better than this.

But idk Dortmund a p good template for how we could have possession and also be actually effective so yknow learn from it I guess.

A good template in the same way Barcelona were a good template for Arsenal

who is going to play the pointless and soul-crushing second leg

Yeah but in arsenes first full season

on the sidelines poch smirks. if this don't convince facking levy to cough up for scott parker nothing will

I'm just annoyed with Spurs cos this match was supposed to be the rich delicious crab lasagne with champagne velouté before the fridge cold ginsters of five past eight

I feel bad about mocking Reus's hair for so long now that he's decided to turn himself into Alex Turner.

Do me a favour

Still, another 4-7 games in this competition would have killed us, this is what you get for designing such a stupid, onerous, interminable tournament. Ditch the group stage and the second leg and teams might actually compete properly.

Teams do compete properly. Just not English ones.

The only thing I'd change would be CL drop outs being involved.

Other European leagues have less stupid onerous domestic campaigns though.

God this is gonna be a shit foulfest isn' t it?

is the seemingly team-wide adoption of the stutter-step PK going to be balo's lasting legacy?

Incredible first half for de gea. fellaini absolutely useless in a match like this though, everything is just going around him the whole time

Fucking de gea, gonna regret these missed chances when hendo is sent off.

Bah should be 4-0. John Aldridge used to do the shimmy step peno back in the 90s tbf

He almost had that pen stopped too

I mean I love lil Phil but FFS stick it in with your left foot!!

fellaini absolutely useless in a match like this though, everything is just going around him the whole time

redundant second clause tbf

Carrick's coming on anyway. We desperately need to go 433 but van Gaal has seemingly abandoned it forever

looool 352

what a fucking chancer

When teams who've done next to fuck all in Europe for years decide to throw European games I just want the rest of their season to go to shit.

Boring this, innit?

a match involving lvg's man u boring surely not?

Terrible performance, not getting my hopes up for the hammers at the weekend

this is honestly one of the most perplexing managerial reigns in the history of the sport

NOTHING he does makes sense

and the humiliations just keep coming

LOL

LOL @ SCHOLES actually saying the word "British" in his dire post-match rant

turns out all those times picking up the kids from training and not yet writing autobiographies his internal monologue was worse than the ilx thread

and tbf lol at both these clubs, playing each other on a thursday night and lfc only able to score via a penalty and michael carrick failing to control a terrible cross from an offside jordan henderson

apparently Fellaini elbowed Sakho at some point before the end

I don't think I've ever hated a Utd player more. And Wayne Rooney still plays for us

was that not can. can went down just at the very end, in my stream they said there was some incident with fellaini.

not gonna get wildly excited, but i do feel liverpool are a bit like spurs post-bale, a lot of the signings that seemed a waste are growing in confidence. people even dismissed firmino earlier this year. lallana is really playing well, can is looking like the midfielder we've needed, clyne has been good from the beginning, and allen coming on seemed to steady us a lot.

i mean yeah, prob lose 3-0 next week, but there's some promise there.

I initially dismissed firmino because I watched him play for brazil in the copa america last summer and he was bobbins and missed a diabolical sitter from about 12 yards in one game

Was it him that did that crazy backheel turn between mata and whoever? Need a vine of that

that was lallana i think. he has definitely improved under klopp

Ah yeah right, that was good that

no, I think it was Firmino

edge of the box, right hand side?

Nah that was Lallana, that was unreal. Lallana is thriving. He was sensational against City last week.

https://twitter.com/realfootballhub/status/708045762849087494

Oh I didn't even see that one! This was what I was thinking of:

https://twitter.com/LFCMostar/status/708046671465172992

lallana ftw imo.

not gonna get wildly excited, but i do feel liverpool are a bit like spurs post-bale, a lot of the signings that seemed a waste are growing in confidence. people even dismissed firmino earlier this year. lallana is really playing well, can is looking like the midfielder we've needed, clyne has been good from the beginning, and allen coming on seemed to steady us a lot

Also both Rodgers and AVB gave every impression of not wanting half the players they'd just been given. Unless you have a really exceptional player or one whose playing style is particularly attuned to the EPL then it's always going to take time for them to find their feet, often time that supporters and pundits aren't willing to grant them. Obviously not an issue with Lallana but that was more an issue with injuries/confidence.

Some people even dismissed Vidic and Evra when they arrived in the Premiership, which looks ridiculous in hindsight.

Suarez's first season he was p sloppy

I mean obviously if it's one or two players they get a bit of leeway unless there's a massive fee attached, signing five or six with the money from a talismanic player is pretty much asking for trouble. Was kind of exasperating to watch Liverpool repeat that exact same mistake barely a year on from Bale.

there's the interpersonal element of large scale squad overhaul which does take time and trial/error - poch was insistent on shipping out who he perceived as bad apples spoiling his ideal most receptive group - but imo it's simply the difference between a manager thinking deliberately about specific pieces in a specific puzzle versus recruiting and having around players who just represent endless bloating ~options~ . i mean brendan might have had vague glimpses of possible tactical formulations but there was no clear-sighted vision of plans a b c (and no i don't excuse him from the actions of the transfer committee) and it seems mainly he was driven by his kind of sick vanity backing himself to whip something together ad hoc as he went along, with his talent presumably outshining all the expensive broken toys it left behind. basically the "time to find feet" line is bullshit mostly and applies to the coaches 100x more than the players

like not that brendan didnt come up with solutions in his time but he also spent huge swathes of seasons experimenting before he happened upon them. and by the end they were all knots he'd tied himself anyway

klopp's use of joe allen as 10 these days is quite cool ja

it's motivation as well. dunno if liverpool have ever had a boss who could keep a squad happy, in the way that fergie was so brilliant at doing. klopp seems good at this.

the allen substitution last night was genius, though at the time i cursed it. instantly ended man united's threat.

agree that rodgers seemed to act as if he constantly had to start again, rather than finding ways to use players and keep them happy. it's actually hard to work out how any sort of klopp overhaul in the summer would pan out. he's kinda brought most of the players into the fold again.

man imagine if brendan could wangle himself a gig at like roma or one of the pozzo clubs (place ur bets if quique runs aground), the wholesale clearing house ventures, he'd be like a pig in target-ambivalent shit

Nah that was Lallana, that was unreal. Lallana is thriving. He was sensational against City last week.

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Thursday, 10 March 2016 22:45 Bookmark

him fronting yaya in the cup final (lol was there not one single ilf mention of this entire occasion btw?) was the peak berserker kloppness

basically the "time to find feet" line is bullshit mostly and applies to the coaches 100x more than the players

Yeah I should have caveated that by saying you need a manager who can actually use them in a way that will play to their strengths AND fit the system. Rodgers had a system in mind that seemed to work okay at Swansea (and for some of his time at Liverpool) but he never really bought (or adequately developed) central midfielders with the sort of intelligent passing and movement required to make that vision a reality, or for that matter decent CBs. By the end he was just attempting endless fudges to offset shortcomings or imbalances in every area of the pitch and that sort of clarity of approach just disappeared. AVB had a more coherent system as well, it was just the wrong system for most of the players he had.

There's no doubt in my mind that both Poch and Klopp are superior communicators to Rodgers and AVB, players seem aware of exactly what they're meant to do, and are coached properly to fit into that system. Klopp is a way behind Poch in the curve but, signings allowing, he'll get there. You can just *tell* when players are slotting neatly into allotted roles and when a load of square pegs are being torturously hammered into a succession of round holes.

I suppose what I also meant by finding yr feet is the situation of a player like Etienne Capoue, who was part of the perceived bad apple/shipped out group at Spurs but has been doing fine at Watford. Flores in general doesn't get enough credit for taking virtually an entire team's worth of new signings, most of them new to the Premiership, and quickly getting them to look like an actual team.

Im excited

A reasonably strong Lazio side is currently 0-3 at home at half time vs Sparta Prague.

Im excited

― i;m thinking about thos Beans (Michael B), Thursday, March 17, 2016 2:02 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

Carrick and Fellaini midfield

https://media.giphy.com/media/TeDpSbeCLAPtu/giphy.gif

Not sure if I can be bothered to watch. I spent the vast majority of last week's match looking at my phone instead* and that was when the tie was still in the balance.

*surfing the internet, not just watching it sit on the table

Srsly? No room for Ander? Xp

groin strain

Amazing assist from Susaeta vs Valencia. There was a clear handball in the buildup and GNev is going nuts.

Assist from Garcia, handball from Susaeta.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ygajq_aritz-aduriz-decisive-goal-after-brillaint-assist-by-raul-garcia-vs-valencia-2-1-hd_sport

Flick is pretty sensational

That's some strike

https://vine.co/v/idzO22b2llu

Aww fuck it all to shit

both pool and united looking woeful

Not fussed about that really, match has got a pretty good boil going on

that Darmian sub

vintage van Gaal

89 min: Ryan Giggs has made his way down to the touchline, making a point of looking miserable. A political play, perhaps.

he's at it again

Crowd trouble

really?

Listening on the radio, so no idea if it's any big deal.

"I have seen three red seats from the Liverpools ection being thrown into the Manchester United fans. Seats are being thrown.

"Uefa will take action - mark my words."

from bbc sport. : ( - ffs.

huh I was watching at a bar with the sound off and had no idea

propah nawty

dunno - think that might be a bit dramatic from bbc sport, i'm not seeing any significant mention of it elsewhere.

for LG:

http://www.balls.ie/football/watch-an-apathetic-paul-scholes-rues-uniteds-recent-departures-after-liverpool-loss/327778

that one is more just strange - welbeck would solve everything? but not chicharito obviously since he's foreign.

lol welbeck, evans, fletcher are obv what utd are crying out for, di maria and hernandez not so much.

In fairness Scholes has been banging on ad nauseum about how they should sign Modric, Pogba and Varane as if it's that easy.

thought mcmanaman mentioning evans and fletcher was a subtle dig tbh, jonny evans was a liability more often than not

braga v shakhtar
villareal v sparta prague
bilbao v sevilla

oh fuck
dortmund v liverpool

well thats that then, still will be fun to watch. didn't fancy our chances vs any of dortmund, sevilla, villareal tbh

damn

rigged, surely

Aubemayang is going to do some pretty humiliating things to Sakho and Lovren.

sahko and lovren are good now

all the draws are rigged

that is my 'conspiracy theories you actually believe in'. football draws. all rigged

the cl draw is even more suspicious

that is my 'conspiracy theories you actually believe in'. football draws. all rigged.

blind eye to leicester on the roids etc

What was in that pizza Ranieri fed them etc

Sahko and Lovren were good against an 18 year old who's played a handful of senior games. Dortmund will destroy Liverpoool

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/1/11/Tumblr_mcu2n9is8I1qzycpbo1_500.png/revision/latest?cb=20121215223327

nah. I know how bad Utd are. I just don't think Liverpool are very good either

i've worn that suit before. and will wear it again.

I haven't seen too much of Liverpool under Klopp but I'm sure they're playing better under him, not least because he knows how to coach and structure a midfield that can protect the back four. Still, Alderweireld and Wimmer are better and Aubameyang destroyed them.

Get in

Got them rattled here

everyone has been moving so slowly, took me a minute to realize that it's probably the field?

good result. ive been impressed with lovren lately. i think this team is finally getting its groove on.

Sahko and Lovren were good against an 18 year old who's played a handful of senior games. Dortmund will destroy Liverpoool

knew that'd come back to haunt me :P

Liverpool were fairly solid tonight, worked hard, but I thought Dortmund were disappointingly unimaginative. Lot of aimless crosses

haha yeah never predict, just gloat after the desired result.

knew that'd come back to haunt me :P

Look like you were just a week early

Crazy goings-on....s

:O

you'll never

you what

Fuck me.

Great game

Never in doubt.

top anfield energy

Back

I.LOVE.THIS.TEAM *jumps up and down Steve Ballmer style*

:)

what happens if arse and united finish 3rd and 4th but city and pool win cl and el

was wondering this today

I nearly cried.

i think 5 cl spots but fourth place drops to europa? idk abut qualifiers

fourth place goes if Liverpool win Europa, I think.

I was tutoring a kid throughout the second half. It is the first post-9pm session I've done in like years. The kid has Liverpool FC curtains. lol

http://i.imgur.com/sovpAld.png

lol 'offensive baseball cap'

Thomas Tuchel seemed to be alluding to a supernatural event in his post-match interview. Nobody says that shit about White Hart Lane.

Holy shit did we just become a big club

No and that's why

Lol. Enjoy the night.

big club would prob need to win something of significance and have some fans

Lol. Enjoy the night in Istanbul

a rung above Dublin

just watched --- glad to live in the country and without immediate neighbors

Amazing game and even more ridiculous that it was Sakho and Lovren that won it, but The Real Respect That These Two Sets Of Fans Have For One Another is some sickening bullshit.

how is it? i suppose it'd be better if they both just stood their roaring yid army for 90 minutes

I'm sure it's fantastic when you're at the game but at the same time it's just this kind of... chummy narrative commentary bullshit. No one would have mentioned it if it wasn't for Klopp.

or the fact that it's the anniversary of 96 fans dying, and the dortmund fans organised a mosaic in tribute.

I missed that it was the Hillsborough anniversary, only turned on halfway through so got the love-in without the context.

I know when to climb down off a dumb hobbyhorse. Sorry!

nah i wasn't shaming you, i just honestly think that occasion, the klopp thing, and the fact that both fans sing "you'll never walk alone" was enough to create unity.

xpost TBF there was similar talk in the first leg, at least from Lawro on the radio - he was on about the joint singing of You'll Never Walk Alone. It's not something I mind, though, I think you do get that feeling very occasionally and it seems fair to comment on it when you do, even if it only exists in your imagination.

I suppose Klopp's avuncular daddishness is a factor as well - regardless of how friendly the fans are with each other, you don't get commentators saying that with, say, Mourinho on the bench.

Even allowing for the famously warmhearted Chelsea fans.

there's been a big love-in brewing between the clubs for a while. it's like the start of a romance. a dortmund fan died a few weeks ago and there was a tribute with the fans singing ynwa which went viral among liverpool fans. i guess the presence of death in this is a topic for another day.

i'm sure there'll be friendlies in future. hopefully more european encounters.

xpost

Reading the coverage from last night and the interviews etc, the way Klopp has managed the club itself, and the fans and their relationship to it, is absolute genius. Like he's built a narrative that depends on unity and belief and the performances have followed.

Also creating a situation where fans are going to be a lot more forgiving of early inconsistent performances, especially after years of Rodgers management speak.

managed to avoid the result and watched this morning after work, would have turned off after 10 mins if i didn't find dortmund so lovely to watch even though it was lfc on the receiving end and then OMG!!!!!

so stupid how happy that made me

emre can was immense i thought, and origi looks 3x the player he was at the start of the season.

hummells pass for reus goal was a bit whoa.

xp
yeah it helps that when we've been shit klopp has said so ( i realise that's probably not sustainable for season upon season) but has made a welcome change from rodgers bullshit(see roberto martinez)

Yeah you guys really loved it when Hodgson showed that kind of honesty.

he didn't though? claimed a performance vs everton was great when we were shite.

so don't know what you're on about

yeah exactly - hodgson is the EXACT case in point for moronic post-match interviews. he famously said it was the best performance of his tenure, after we had one of the worst defeats to everton i can remember.

he had a litany of other foot in mouth moments, and has done since leaving liverpool as well. space monkey gate etc. the man is a total windbag.

He'd veer back and forward between that and bitter-disappointment and formidable-challenge-ahead and It'll-be-an-uphill-struggle, it was really weird.

I mean obviously the difference is that there have been several good performances under Klopp while virtually all of Hodgson's were shit.

fourth place goes if Liverpool win Europa, I think.

No country can have more than 5 teams though so in the unlikely event that Liverpool & City both win the Cups AND City finish outside Top 4, then it's going to be a bummer for whoever finished 4th.

In Liverpool and City between them contrive to take a CL place away from a 4th-placed United then they'll probably string LVG up from the roof of Old Trafford.

nah i wasn't shaming you, i just honestly think that occasion, the klopp thing, and the fact that both fans sing "you'll never walk alone" was enough to create unity.

There's a Dortmund/Celtic thing that goes on too - or used to, I don't know anymore now that we're shite and irrelevant.

shakhtar vs sevilla
villareal vs liverpool

sevilla are gonna win this 3 times in a row aren't they? considering their ropey away form this season that would be quite something.

am i right in thinking there isn't a huge amount of difference between the shakhtar, sevilla and villareal? like i mean as far as quality goes...

xpost

the shakhtar

Yes, i think that's probably fair. Anyone could win it.

bearing in mind no sakho, can, henderson or origi i'd take a one goal defeat with lfc scoring tonight gladly.

yeah, team looking a bit spineless minus those few. i've been p impressed by leiva's responsibility over the years though, hopefully he can step up. and allen has been great of late too.

still think it's damage limitation this evening, anything can happen at anfield. pity it's not anfield first. with the week that's in it the atmosphere would have been beyond the usual even.

your shakhtars, your sevillas. the villareals of this world.

http://tvnewsroom.site/images/news-staff/andy-townsend/andy-townsend-Image-003.jpg

no studge. klopp sure does like players who run around a lot.

michael owen "liverpool are the best team left in the competition" he seems awfully confident about that.

also a lil strange that skrtel is now 4th choice CB, maybe even 5th choice behind lucas!!

villareal just encouraging us to cross, to no effect.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChJ3b_uWwAE9mxB.jpg

great work there bbc

bollocks

oh well

thought milner was good tonight

think lfc will win at anfield but not sure if we'll do it by enough with no away goal

It had been coming in the last five minutes. Suarez was excellent all match. 2-0 at Anfield doesn't look impossible though.

Why didnt Sturridge get a run?

Mignolet, Clyne, Toure, Lovren, Moreno, Can, Milner, Lallana, Firmino, Coutinho, Sturridge. Subs: Ward, Benteke, Lucas, Allen, Skrtel, Ibe, Smith.

this may be the only game all season where i'd have liked benteke to start at CF. Villareal don't allow much up the middle and instead allow teams a lot of freedom to go wide and cross.

glad emre can is back but with firmino in as well that's the same CM that got exploited vs dortmund, would have liked to see allen or lucas in there. oh well.

mcmanaman "liverpool will win comfortably"

owen "villareal conceded 3 at madrid, 3 at barcelona, yeah those are top teams but so are liverpool"

otm

listening to this on the radio. it is p amazing that both hosts, lawro and green, are massive liverpool fans. does this happen for any other club? i am quite enjoying it, not so much those two, just normally when i can't see it on tv i use minute-by-minute, i suppose it shouldn't be a surprise that radio is far better.

Radio is far better, except when Alan Green is on it.

reckon liverpool will need the 3 here. best get started.

get in

https://twitter.com/LiverpoolGifs/status/728320687438499840

greezy

still reckon need a third here. no way this team sits on a lead.

aye the one goal lead wi the potential winning-on-away-goals on-aggregate-equalizer is the apotheosis of squeaky bum time

yeah even against 10-men, this team is so soft sometimes, they have to get the third, they have to keep playing. sitting on it just isn't part of what they are.

I often hate the away goals rule and feel like it should be scrapped, but from a neutral's perspective the great jeopardy inherent in these kind of situations - where one goal can change the winning side into the loser - is pretty great sport

yeah i was thinking that tonight is a good example of it making a game work, even though like you i think it's sort of stupid most of the time.

oh yes

otm

― Camberwicker Man (onimo), Thursday, 5 May 2016 20:13 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

is he definitely onside there? lallana i mean...

Man on the line had his hand on the pitch, playing everyone onside.

Benteke on to shore up the defence.

that'll do klopp :))

i love europa league

love big european nights back again - nothing beats them as a liverpool fan over the last decade or so.

shame the final can't be at anfield.

2 finals in 8 months ain't bad

sevilla winning this 3 times in a row would be whoa

yeah it's extraordinary

couple of flaky sides could go either way i think? konoplyanka v moreno might be ugly

be tempted to play flanagan (if fit) myself, but that's not how klopp rolls.

That was a damn near perfect performance. Final should be a ding dong battle and no mistake.

How good was Emre Can btw

love emre

player of the season for us i think with only milner and coutinho coming anywhere near

love firmino

he was the best player tonight. he's been great all season

IN KLOPP WE TRUST

Flanno la's not in the Europa squad I think (unless you get a free call for the final). Seem to remember Klopp expressing some regret at leaving him out.

Haven't seen any of these games due to other Thursday commitments, and will be on holiday in Berlin for the final with my girlfriend's family who find the whole concept of football quite comical.

moreno's fine going frwd obv but he's a penalty waiting to happen, got away with one tonight.

don't know if this is post hoc ergo propter hoc thinking but the champ's league qualification you get for winning the Europa seems to have turned it into a good tournament

It was good anyway, apart from English clubs treating it as a burden on their ambitions to finish 4th.

Moreno was lucky alright

i was v pleased with this game, ty

Just realised that Liverpool achieved this while starting Kolo Toure over both legs.

I was thinking about this just now. Kind of amazing.

Shame that City are out because the possibility of United finishing fourth and Liverpool nicking their CL place was just too beautiful.

I'm not massively confident about the final really. Anfield has been at the heart of most of these good performances.

ISTANBUL.

a 35k stadium in basel doesn't quite have the same potential. i'm guessing sevilla are going to be more likely to score goals. still - it is p great just to have something to care about in may. i know how rare that is!

i mean football-wise - i care about other elements of life

I've been joking around that Klopp '16 = McClaren '06, with the dramatic comeback wins in the UEFA/EL (ok, this semi wasn't on a par with Boro's semi ten years ago) and, hey, it's a final vs Sevilla.

I am fairly confident that Liverpool will not lose 4-0.

Sevilla winning three times in a row would be unprecedented, right? Five times in ten years would also be frankly ridiculous.

eleven years

bit of a failure holding the final in such a small stadium.

have you all seen this btw?

http://www.espnfc.com/video/latest-videos/600/video/2864398?&ex_cid=espnapi_internal

craig burley murdering gabriel marcotti about "expected goals".

as much as burley is just going radge, and probably just hates stats, i can't stand marcotti and a quick look at twitter sees all these stats idiots patting themselves on the back because they're smarter than burley.

I have zero interest in in-game football stats, but CB isn't really making any sense at all there, which is not to say it isn't fun watching these dudes shout at each other.

yeah he's definitely wrong. i prob just hate marcotti.

You've just loved the sainted phrase "I deal in facts" since Rafa's greatest ever day.

This is dull as ditchwater so far isn't it?

this is the first time ive watched fitba in ages

none of banega, firmino (firminho (c) owen hargreaves) or coutinho have really got involved yet

nobody else is likely to do anything interesting

so if Sevilla win this they'll've won the Europa League/UEFA Cup 5 years out of 10.

11

kolo toro has been everywhere today (in a positive sense)

this is way too cagey - that Seville chance says it all. Liverpool don't win games at this tempo.

It's tense. No real momentum for Liverpool yet, while Sevilla dont seem to need momentum to win games like this.

Frustrating match this,

Well well well

Great finish.

sturridge is probably my favourite english player

That was very very good indeed.

Also I only found out today that BT are streaming both this and the CL final on YouTube THIS IS THE FUTURE.

Ok this is momentum

480p is not the future tho

such a skilful player

idk if coutinho and firmino had combined before the goal but with a more open game they should probably be able to kill it

This is also van Gaal's fault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNR2KNXI0v4

reminded of the henry one

the fifth one there is from a corner XD

cuco martina and bournemouth's right-back both hit amazing ones this season too

Quaresma :)

the real heads will have spoken in hushed tones of sylvinho vs chelsea and jon harley vs aston villa

:-o

Dang

continental football called kevin

Moreno is a remarkably stupid player

^^ otm

moreno

istr he played almost as a winger for sevilla? like alves when he was there (not remotely as good tho)

Did Moreno get nutmegged back there?

and failed to clear. he looks like he'd be better as a winger. Liverpool generally terrible for that goal tho.

He created the most chances from full-back this season or smthng

^ For Liverpool or their opponents?

Both. The complete footballer

they release josé enrique last week

Ostia, Gameiro.

this is the real Liverpool now

will liverpool not have known they would have needed josé enrique in this squad a week ago

Granted, that was a beautiful set up.

Dang

pretty great goal

GET JOE ALLEN ON

Seville going for some kind of goals scored in the second half of a European final record.

That came off a Liverpool player. Idk what they are arguing about.

Joe Allen is literally coming on.

there's your Joe Allen...

That Coutinho assist was quite satisfying I must say

Xp lol

Disappointing that Sevilla's supporters have nowt in their repertoire other than singing the name of their club to the tune of Hava Naquila though

I wasn't joking about Allen. Should have done it earlier, strange game, two nervy teams, one with a much worse defence

klopp is bad at cup finals

Xp they could do a rendition of wu tang's sevilla punishment

Liverpool were too casual from the off. Goal was an anomaly. Looked p lethargic all night.

Crying Liverpool fan just ensured his immortality in gif form

lol yes

will he not have realised that would be all over twitter in 4 3 2

I like the Sevilla player time-wasting after the final whistle.

Moreno is a remarkably stupid player

If Lawro is to be believed, it's not so much that he's stupid but that he's Spanish, "You can find 15 full backs like him in La Liga, they look great, and they come to the Premiership and they're not, they're just not".

liverpool were just useless, they had one good chance with exquisite goal but there was no coherence at all, it looked exactly like a crap performance from rodgers' first season, nothing egregiously terrible from midfield onwards but no purposive intelligence and a crap defence

@Carra23

Jurgen, transfer committee, anyone sign a fucking left back.

The front four are generally excellent but Can, Milner, Henderson are so bad at keeping the ball and providing cover they could sign an entirely new back five and they'd still be fragile.

nakh otm. was a very very Rodgers performance.

http://i.imgur.com/Hcxrv5m.jpg

if only we'd had Rooney in midfield

Probably take Hendo's place at the Euros tbf

can wasn't good tonight but he can play as a dmid to a reasonable level, milner too but he was breaking forward far too often so it suggested crap coaching/tactics more than anything else

either manage their limitations and play them as a deep double pivot (like krychowiak/nzonzi for sevilla in the first half) or play a third two-way midfielder rather than lallana to make up for their crap possession game

At least one penalty for Liverpool in the first half but the way they keeled over in the second half was truly abysmal

https://media.giphy.com/media/3oEjI5G81qfciHaDjG/giphy.gif

Beautiful

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/05/18/20/345949D200000578-3597450-image-a-38_1463598252661.jpg

'A goal to win a million games'

Liverpool 1-0 Sevilla

Mark Lawrenson

Former Liverpool defender on BBC Radio 5 live
Posted at 20:37

"Liverpool fully deserve to be in front. There is no doubt Liverpool should have had a penalty - you could argue two penalties. They scored a goal that would win a million games - it was that good. Kevin Gameiro has scored lots of goals - he couldn't have scored a goal like that. Liverpool need a second goal. They also need to play with their heads and their hearts together."

Well they did deserve that goal

https://twitter.com/ThePLZone/status/733037176137654274

no animus against Liverpool but quite a satisfying result after the hubris from the likes of the bastard sounness and lawro in the run up to this game.

yeah i would have preferred them to win, but at least they were chivalrous enough to lose badly and provide some content in the process

i felt p dubious that they could perform away from anfield, and so it proved. they lost away to villareal too. equally i reckon sevilla would prob have found anfield difficult. all the more reason why champions league is the tournament this team need to be in.

i agree klopp possibly got it wrong tactically. there was no aggression or pressing until liverpool scored the goal. that worked very well at that point. maybe that was to do with how seville reacted, but i thought liverpool were in that ponderous/probing mode that we've seen in most of their capitulations of recent years. besides that spell just after the goal.

it was a strange game - i'd say seville had no shots on goal first half and liverpool had none second. the referee was pretty poor overall. but seville deserved it, liverpool didn't hurt them when they were in control first half in anything like the way that seville tore liverpool apart second half.

it's a bad setback but tbh if you believe klopp is the real deal then a one-off loss like this isn't going to stop that. i'm still a bit 50/50. they are incredibly inconsistent, but let's see how he does next season.

also like, seville are exactly the kind of team that beat liverpool. would have been better off with dortmund or some other hot favourite in the final.

kolo toure was brilliant btw

equally i reckon sevilla would prob have found anfield difficult

― japanese mage (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 18 May 2016 22:34 (2 minutes ago)

maybe more that liverpool need the psychological advantage of anfield whoever they play, and it depends largely on being drawn there in the second leg

something similar with atletico, in a two leg tie with real madrid they would probably be favourites, in a single game maybe less so

though in their case as well as the intimidating/euphoric home ground, they have a tactically brilliant manager who can manage small details and play the long game over two legs

klopp idk, could be great but could just sort of drift through a season without ever really getting into that relentless attritional mode that dortmund had; seems as if he could get rid some flaky players but the team will always somehow still be a bit flaky

Sevilla had one once away from home all season iirc.

I would hope that Klopp would have more ambitious plans for that midfield than converting Milner into the new Gareth Barry fwiw.

they were fine in the knockout stages of the europa league, won away vs bilbao, 2-2 vs shakhtar and 0-0 in basel

xpost im pissed off cos CL placing would have made Liverpool a more attractive club for big talent but now its uncertain. i dunno if klopp got anything wrong tactically, liverpool came out strong in the first half which sevilla expected and soaked up (and sevilla did have one good chance in the 1st half with that bicycle kick) but liverpool are a bit soft and yes the capitulation was rodgers-esque. lots of rumours about behrami and gotze (who i think is a bit overrated tbh) to join next year but id say that defeat has taken the shine off

seems as if he could get rid some flaky players but the team will always somehow still be a bit flaky

this is what i believe. said it before on this board, there's a malaise at the club that is deeper than managers or maybe even personnel. i mean maybe that goes if you bring in a few leaders or big characters, but i'm not sure. the fevered anfield performances are as much a symptom of this as the limp capitulations, last-minute goals conceded, endless leads thrown away. it's not sustainable. and in the league they aren't necessarily like that at anfield.

I don't really believe in the innate characters of clubs - it's almost entirely about management and personnel at various levels. That's with the caveat that some Chairmen and some sets of fans make it harder for clubs to build sensibly, but Liverpool fans strike me as relatively patient compared to a lot of other clubs.

If anything reaching the final was an over-achievement and an amazing one. Player for player Liverpool aren't really that good and 8th in the league was about right. Klopp deserves a lot of credit for getting them this far. 99% of clubs are a bit flaky but very few are uniquely so.

yeah maybe - i mean i don't think it's a defining setback to lose last night, but the panic that set in after the seville goal has been a trait of this group for a disturbingly long time now.

whatever about the dull days of rafa/houllier, the team didn't shit itself in that manner. i guess the obvious cliche is "they need more leaders", it's probably true though.

clinging to the optimism of barney ronay's piece: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/18/sevilla-liverpool-europa-league-final-basel-party

GROUP A:

Manchester United

Fenerbahce

Feyenoord

Zorya Luhansk

GROUP K:

Inter Milan

Sparta Prague

Southampton

Hapoel Beer Sheva

Not particularly easy groups. United will be spared a trip to Lugansk given that it is currently a breakaway 'people's republic'.

Dundalk got Zenit

Zenit making friends and influencing people already:

https://twitter.com/zenit_spb/status/769141090809159680

lol it is a reply to some irish braggadocio tbf

Zenit were 3-0 down vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv with 13 minutes to go, currently 3-4 up.

Dundalk seem to have secured a point away in the Netherlands. Full-strength United team a minute away from failing to do the same.

Was posting in the PL thread already, ManU were woeful.

Can't see de Boer lasting more than a couple of weeks at this rate. Inter losing 2-0 to Hapoel Beer Sheva at home.