They'll be sacrificing sheep in the streets of Karagandy tonight - Champions League 2013/14

That first Schalke goal is a Jesper Gronkjaer classic. The move leading up to the third goal is great though.

I hate that the BBC described the Celtic performance as "spirited".

"Brave Celtic sunk by Milan"

I swear that's prob even the right amount of characters for a BBC headline.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUhgRxCCMAAF-fB.jpg

from some twitter bantz merchant: "Wayne Rooney spotted in the Chelsea dugout last night wearing a stick on moustache!"

pretty funny in fairness to the lad.

I love the first Basel goal looks like a football themed pinball machine.

that goal is like the type of fifa passing that people criticize as being unrealistic

fair comment

i mean im not even sure, say there's five involved in the move, that three of them have any idea.

Neil Lennon controversially claims that Barcelona are "good"

It appears that with mega-increased access to TBLITW in the USA the downside is highly-reduced access to Champions League play. (Or so the griping on twitter leads me to believe.)

this is bollocks, why isnt arsenal napoli the tv game

ooh ozil cracker

ozil is my god

if arse get another soon this could end up a thrashing, shredding them on the counter here

havent seen arse play like this in... a long-ass time

Rafa out

zuniga's good fun for napoli

RTC otm. Arsenal on fire the first half.

looking forward to Suedey's report

scott brown sent off for having a kick at neymar

how is neymar

What a moron. Like it isn't hard enough.

Craig Burley totally didn't see anything

i doubt neymar even noticed the kick he was too busy rolling around after the non foul. but brown is a dick for doing that.

sorry it was Craig Levein

still a dick whichever one it was

i know, just assumed Burley wd be more biased

hah i think there's bad blood between burley & celtic actually

barcelona game is dull

maybe something happens but if it does it will be through chance or error rather than deliberately

cesc's lack of quickness is more obvious playing for barcelona in this role than it is when he plays for spain

goal for fabregas

lol

Gonna be a few angry celtic supporters after your blood nakh

good for cesc

i hate watching barcelona without messi

cesc does seem to score a lot of orthodox #9 goals like that when playing 'false #9' for barcelona

someone ahould sms onimo or ailsa at the game telling them who to blame.

fraser forster looks great making those saves most gks find hard to reach

seems like the hype about him from the last time they played barcelona has died down now

lol ajax

if you play in scotland the british media dont care really. If he played in England he would be their #2 keeper i think

yes but to play in england he would have to convince an epl manager/director and have more than half a dozen matches per season vs reasonable opposition in order to be chosen for their national team

you can't say players in scotland are ignored when an epl side pays 3 times what atletico paid for david villa in order to buy a midfielder that kilmarnock's former manager says can't pass

I wasn't at the game. Brown was a tit but Neymar was pulling some Derlei shit all the way through the game and my only shameful opinion is that if he was going to get himself a red he should have kicked him harder.

haha yeah

Have to admit that's what I said in the pub as well, might as well have made it worthwhile.

especially if there's a ban for violent conduct as a result which is presumably what the red card was for.

i think there's bad blood between burley & celtic

He's a touch unhappy about his time at Celtic, it's true, and there's precious few, if any, Celtic fans that have any time for him. He's a negative wee bawsack and I resent every second I've ever spent listening to his whingy negative ignorant dismissive views on anything to do with Scottish football. I believe he's over doing ESPN's coverage of Scottish football in the US, and good fucking luck to anyone who employs that tit to promote their product. I expect if he'd seen Brown's kick at Neymar he'd have completely forgotten his own petulant boot at yon Moroccan dude in the 1998 World Cup and been calling for Brown's public flogging and for Celtic to be expelled from all European competition for the rest of all time.

(I don't like Craig Burley)

Anyway, the game. The main thing I was noticing all game, and it can't have escaped the notice of our management team, is that every time Samaras got the ball there were three or four Barcelona players around him almost instantly. Now, that's three or four players not around someone else, but he rarely had an out ball to whoever those guys were ignoring to crowd around him because nobody showed for him because we don't have a midfield at the best of times, and with Scott Brown off we had even less of one, so he basically had to go and run at four guys who are pretty shit hot at removing the ball from you.

Also, ffs, that free header that Charlie Mulgrew put past the post...

The Arsenal Napoli game last night was kind of odd, I hadn't been to the Emirates before and it was interesting experience. Odd crowd, it WAS quiet, the Napoli fans made more noise than the rest of the stadium it seemed. They sang for the whole game despite the scoreline. Every now and then one or two people piped up after a Napoli song and shouted "now piss off back home" which felt really out of place. Around me were one group of lads, couples, a dude with his mum, kids, tourists, a lot of Japanese dudes, VIP guests of Carlsberg, business guys and also lots of Italians. It was cool but there wasn't much of an atmosphere either, there was a lot of space and lots of polite clapping for good play and only real excitement for the goals... people were still coming in by the second goal as well, which really annoyed me, and started leaving 15 mins early - so on that basis everything I heard was true.

It felt totally unreal like it wasn't really happening, like I was watching myself play FIFA on a really fancy fucking screen or something. The first half was definitely like that, it felt like Napoli weren't even there, Arsenal just dominated everything. Everything was so assured it was ridiculous, they seemed to have the ball the entire time and the passing and skill was never in question even if it didn't always come off. I expected them to score every time, and seeing as they did so early I just wanted more and more and was disappointed when the game sort of petered out. It was a great performance obviously, but it all happened so quickly, I'll probably watch the whole game on the arsenal site today

Some of the Arsenal play was sublime, nice to see Rosicky who was great in the first 45 and had some amazing touches then got tired and a bit sloppy in the second before being replaced by Wilshere. Napoli were never really up to much, they couldn't have had more than a couple of shots in the whole game. Arsenal should have scored more but started getting in each others way and being a little indecisive after the first two, but it didn't really matter (except I got a taste for goals). Ozil's goal was amazing, in the blink of an eye just like his run and pass for Giroud on the second, they were finding space everywhere and Napoli were very disappointing after all the hype. No Higuain but most of their players seemed anonymous to me (although watching live I was finding it harder to keep track anyway) save for Hamsik's hair and oh look, Pepe Reina

Giroud is a fucking beast by the way, he won every single thing in the air and most good play involved him flicking it on or heading it and that was great to see. Ozil was obviously amazing, Ramsey was good but seemed to be trying a bit too hard at times on the wing and trying to score, Rosicky was great for one half and was involved in really intricate stuff - could appreciate him much more live so was glad to see him, love him. Sad I didn't get to see Bendtner come on, I was watching him on the sidelines and hoping. Flamini and Arteta pretty much bossed it, and seeing Per stick a long languorous leg out to stop any dangerous attacks was fantastic. Kos seems like his perfect partner, all last ditch tackles rather than that slow assured style, and he was solid, and Sagna and Gibbs were involved in building up most promising attacks. It was hard to realise this was such a good performance in a way because it felt so easy it seemed like it was always this way, kind of a gentle introduction for me but also now my expectations are sky high and I won't accept anything less.

I couldn't buy a beer because of UEFA regulations, that's the most stupid fucking thing. I think a prem game might be better in terms of atmosphere/beer/lack of UEFA and also I think getting a seat in the lower tiers might be more fun in general, although my view was pretty great (still felt like playing the most expensive game of FIFA)

Great report. I'm holding off on getting Liverpool tickets (on sale today) in hope of picking up exchange tix for the lower tier. Never been down there before, but the upper tier can definitely be like you say - people disappearing at halftime and so on, loads of tourists. aiui touts take out membership cards, and lend them to tourists at a hefty fee plus hefty deposit. So much for cards cutting down on touting.

otm re Rosicky, he's fantastic to see live - so quick how he takes on people in short bursts. He seems to have a rep as this feeble, easily-discouraged guy, but he doesn't look that way in the flesh at all.

calling for Brown's public flogging

Seems fair enough to me. I thought Charlie Mulgrew was going to start crying in his post match interview.