PSG ne sera pas sur cette chose - It's the Champions League 2017-2018 thread

this year in particular it means that the options are v limited for english teams

Last years there frequently were four Spanish sides w/ the last 16. I can get behind trying to avoid a Moscow-Kiev match for obvious reasons, but in a tournament for best club in the world, why still not allow same country draws when you're down to 16? Makes no sense.

celtic romped into the europa league

Where they should have been all along.

All this draw talk is silly anyway, but it's daft that clubs from the same country can't draw each other once we enter the knock-out stages.

As someone who watched approx. 253 Chelsea v Liverpool matches in the 00s I'm entirely pro-gerrymandering in this regard.

I empathize, but it still doesn't make sense. The whole CL doesn't make sense though. It's unsustainable anyway. Aren't the four biggest countries promised yet another spot in the near future? 6 sides for England, Germany, Spain, France/Italy. G'luck with that draw m8.

As someone who watched approx. 253 Chelsea v Liverpool matches in the 00s I'm entirely pro-gerrymandering in this regard.

it was only the two group ones that were shit, like really shit. the 05/07/09 semi-finals were all p epic.

need to have a straight knockout with the top 528 teams in europe

Otm.

it was only the two group ones that were shit, like really shit. the 05/07/09 semi-finals were all p epic.

Yeah I know but even then, it's just not as much of an event when it's a team you play two or three times a season anyway.

i actually really enjoyed some of the all-english ties over the years. something about a midweek knockout game at night in a higher stakes tournament - the drama just felt much higher.

need to have a straight knockout with the top 528 teams in europe

this is obviously otm tho

Bit like the FA Cup, starts two years before the final.

Make it four years and that would cover the danger of there not enough games for TV because you'd have four competitions running simultaneously at different stages.

tbh prob every registered team in the world, and all international teams should be in a league

it'd be good as games would be a once in a lifetime chance

Fans could choose 40 teams to support, so, if one of their teams only ever gets to play two games, in their brief existence, they have other teams to fall back on. Think of the revenue in replica jerseys.

i was thinking one leg games at a neutral ground

Even better. Obviously there would need to be some safeguards, we can't have a free-for-all, in the event of any EPL team or any of the leading teams in Europe being beaten the result would have to go to either a public vote or, better, a vote by a panel of experts.

:)

one leg games at a random neutral ground, announced the day before the match

best league in the world

rip dortmund

Liverpool 3 up after 18 minutes and in one of those moods were they look like they'll score with every attack

Dortmund back in the Europa now Spurs have scored.

Saving the look like they'll concede with every attack for the second half xp

Naturally

Barring a second half collapse though, Chelsea now guaranteed Barca, PSG or Besiktas in next round

Excellent Bernard goal for Shakhtar. Looks like Napoli might be doomed to the Europa.

Shaktar trumping Napoli would be the biggest surprise of the first round imo. That and Besiktas winning their group.

2-0!

Terrible from Ederson.

Dortmund back from the dead. 2-2

Liverpool on faya

xp could save Bosz' job, that

If Napoli can't win in Rotterdam they don't deserve anything tbh

Enjoying this and I hope poch has grown his balls a bit re refreshing the first team tbh.

Aurier is a cunt. Rotten tackle there.

Playing lovely direct swashbuckling if patchy stuff tho, a really nice change from the stultifying stuff the first roster have been serving up

No idea what has inspired us to make three needless yellow/reddish challenges in the past ten minutes

Anyone watching just saw Danny rose's Tottenham career end I think

Being treated for a minor cut but stormed off down the tunnel away from medic/poch and took a few mins to get sub on, looks Ike the kind of reaction earned Townsend his beatdown

if liverpool sell coutinho to barca during the transfer window i'm gonna spit

I'm sure his price went up 800 million tonight.

true

also hoping that the prospect of a decent run into the CL might make him want to stick around for the rest of the season at least

Leaving in winter never a good idea imo.

I completely forgot Nkoudou was at Spurs! He's not played all season has he?

Not in the league but has in the Carabao Cup.

Well done L'pool for ensuring Celtic weren't on the end of the biggest tanking in the CL this year.

Really flat atmosphere in the stadium though, except for the Nicosia fans. Anyone would look swashbuckling against that lot, except Dortmund mystifyingly.

I don't think our first team would have risked the ball with such direct passes all night tbh

Certainly they wouldn't have run at their man time and again like nkoudou did (to such little effect for most of it, but still)

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/cpsprodpb/BD0F/production/_99099384_hi043431513.jpg

didn't lol but kinda smiled

That's fine. He's alright.

feel like liverpool's problems earlier this season were due to the attack as well as the defence. firmino, mane, and coutinho were either absent or off-form. now those three and salah are flying, it's a formidable setup. okay the defence is still shit but plenty dropped points in CL and Prem were cos of failing to score, they're on fire in that regard at the moment, at a good time of the season to come into form.