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

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.

xp Yeah I was really glad he was back for this! He's very committed, puts in great tackles and wins the ball back in such style

Quick word on Jack Wilshere too, I know he's good but I didn't really realise just how until last night, taking one touch when receiving the ball and suddenly finding himself space and leaving two players standing, was really good to watch. They had some really good chances on the counter but nothing came of them, still needs to work on letting go of the ball and making better decisions near the opponents box but just so lovely to see that sort of skill and simplicity

I was thinking about the Liverpool game too, just to see what sort of atmosphere there'd be for that one! But actually not sure I'll really be able to afford to go again for a while, maybe the league cup against chelsea for some cheap thrills though

BGITW

BGITW is a year old next week, when does this stop being a slump?

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljut9qKvny1qf3608o1_500.gif

15 min: Ribéry rushes down the right-hand side of the box, then does an about-turn and tees up Schweinsteiger, whose low shot is saved - yes, saved! - by Hart.

nothing wrong with a cheap shot imo

yep, Fellaini is shite

Galatasaray one-up at Juventus, it's the Mancini effect

Bayern have been just wonderful to watch tonight. total demolition. even Dunphy was begrudgingly complimentary to them at half time.

hart is pony

http://imageshack.us/a/img33/3083/q2ed.jpg

lol never change

Seriously impressed by Bayern. Passing Citeh to bits.

http://i.minus.com/ibfsFampPwV5WI.gif

Are the highlights on regular telly tonight? Last night's highlights were useless - two goals in two attacks for Arsenal, then the rest of the game was all Napoli.

http://celebrityhairstylez.com/greece/kostas-mitroglou-hairstyles/

not often you see a man with such finely sculpted eyebrows

Arsenal - Dortmund being on ITV has made my week. Prospect of midfield's both being slightly lighter-weight than usual with Flamini and Gundogan both out, potential for luscious free-flowing attacking football is high

superfluous apostrophes, really got my money's worth out of that English degree

http://i.imgur.com/52nUfAj.gif

is dortmund's hardman, not gundogan

lewa auba and reus vs big merts ought to be some entertainment

still kinda feel like dortmund will flake this out though

Well yeah Bender obviously more defensively minded than Gundogan but Ilkay plays sits deep and covers quite a lot of ground, won't do them any good not to have him in there with all of Arsenal's attacking mids. Who's playing instead of Gundogan atm, Sahin?

Yup, Sahin. Gundogan is their best mid by far tho. Grosskreutz the weak link at FB. Reus has been terrific so far this season and Aubameyang only so so.

Want back to back Dortmund wins in this double header so that it all comes down to Napoli-Arsenal in the final game.

how has Mkhitaryan been doing so far? Haven't heard much about him

Haven't seen their last 2 games but the 5 before that he was pretty great. Moves the ball v quickly and smoothly, not a tricksy #10 but good at finding space and making runs into the box. I hadn't seen him play before this season but now that I have I'd say that if he had gone to LFC then only Suarez would be remotely on his level.

CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky agrees that the pitch is in a poor state.

Slutsky, whose side have lost five of their last seven games in all competitions, said: "I suppose the quality of the pitch is, absolutely, equal to the quality of our latest results."

Guardian mbm'ing Milan-Barca tonight but not Celtic-Ajax

Keano!

Good work Chilesy, would've been easy to duck that

gah, Keano occupying the moral high ground not as good as watching Keano not

Wrighty pronouncing it 'ozzle' pleases me

bah i missed the keano bit

did he just stop himself from saying "absofuckinglutely" a minute ago btw

Chiles's question was nice: 'On a scale of 1 to 10, how angry are you?'

02 Sep 2002
Sir Alex Ferguson said last night that he had changed his mind about Roy Keane's sending-off against Sunderland and admitted that the Manchester United captain deserved to be shown the red card for his clash with Jason McAteer.

McAteer, one of the Republic of Ireland players who criticised Keane for walking out of the World Cup squad, was clearly shown on television baiting Keane. He mouthed, "Put it in your book", to Keane and mimed writing, a reference to the United captain's controversial autobiography.

ok seen it now. did like wright giggling his tits off tbf

also lol at him with "the all-seeing all-knowing alex ferguson saying those things it seems a bit unnecessary"

clinical

balls up

fuckin Aaron Ramsey eh. getting a big head

umm kit ari anne

lol kloppo is such a cartoon character