Rennes against Boys: the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2020/2021 thread

Someone had to

United have seemed comfortable.

The second half of Zenit vs Bruges was absolutely wild.

this is the PSG we know and love, but Utd have been really solid

Telles has an unbelievable cross on him. Hopefully our lads will learn how to attack them eventually

Lovely header from Martial.

Ah fuck off

Bizarre

I actually cannot fault that performance

Not even the kit?

The kit's grown on me

Bless Eder and his ability to score once in thirty matches, but only in big games.

Real are two nil down

Lol, three.

Against the Shakhtar b-team as well!

Great goal from Modric. If Shakhtar sit back, there’s no way they’re holding this lead.

Vinicius scores three seconds after coming on.

this is the sort of predictable fascist parade that they specialise in

it'll finish 6-3

VAR comes good at last.

Good draw for Lokomitiv.

oh excellent, my jinxes never work usually

Szoboszlai is so good. Traore at Ajax looks excellent too - only one goal so far today, he scored five at the weekend.

The five at the weekend was amateur hour tbf

Madrid 2-0 down, you love to see it.. again!

Madrid level!

I was thinking the fake crowd noise at the Chelsea game was unusually good

then I realised there are actual fans in the stands

Morata has had three goals disallowed through VAR.

Rashford for PM

Hat trick!

Joao Felix looks excellent this season. Consistently the biggest threat Atleti have.

Looking forward to seeing how Gomez and Williams handle Zapata, Muriel and the other Gomez later.

Jota with two brilliant finishes.

Five nil, Jota hat trick. This is hugely impressive counter attacking.

The bittersweetness of enjoying Jota's rise won't stop, but I am pleased for the cunt

Surely a bit more sweet than bitter in that it's clearly a transfer that everybody benefits from

Every time he scores I assume it ups the fee and he clearly wasn't in Nuno's plans so yeah it is more sweet than bitter but he's killing it, which is great, but obvi sigh

I mean basically he's a good lad so god speed

He looks like he's been playing for us for years

“Jamie, you couldn’t even name top five women’s players so don’t tell me you watched me play.”@AlexScott did not hold back on @Carra23 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/VJgvi7xyiY

— Champions League on CBS Sports (@UCLonCBSSports) November 4, 2020

United turned over by Erdogan’s boys.

Atrocious performance again

A loss to Everton and I think/hope Ole is gone

Madrid currently losing to Donetsk again. As it stands, they’re third, level on points with Shakhtar. Depending on how the other game tonight goes, Shakhtar could potentially be playing an already eliminated Inter last.

RBS vs Lokomotiv has been great fun.

Lokomotiv penalty, brawl, Salzburg goal in two minutes.

lol, 2-0 Shakhtar.

i don’t understand how they took the tying goal off the board in the inter match... like i literally don’t get it

Embolo was fractionally offside, which usually wouldn’t matter as he didn’t touch the ball, but he was blocking the vision of the goalkeeper so was considered ’active’.

ah ok. seems like a crazy subjective rule. somehow the VAR toothpaste needs to be put back in the tube

sadly it's here to ruin football forever now

That Inter shirt is fucked up

Some game this in leipzig

Jesus keeper

Yep, straight down the middle.

tbh, you could have been talking about either keeper though.

It would be good if that kind of thing wasnt a red card imo

lol

These cunts are like children it’s hilarious

Orange all day trevor

Another one there

Ref giving them a benefit

All four finalists from England for the second time in three years would be pretty bleak tbh.

ESLland rather than England tbf.

Nothin unbleak about oligarchy or shadow financing teams from any country owning the game tbh

But we're told the stout-hearted football fans of England would give up reaching Champions League finals by beating PSG in the semis for 51% fan ownership and midweek Carabao Cup games against Rotherham Utd.

If twere offered

christ this Madrid team is dire

It's completely mystifying how badly both Sarri and Lampard managed Kante.

kante, I was just msging friends about this, I did lol when fat Frank dropped him completely and sari's positional messing around was unnecessary too (to accomodate jorginho), tuchel is currently living at ngolo's house and wrapping every surface in cotton wool. he know's he's a winner, full stop.

Hazard : a sad shadow in this dad's army real team, no loving from zidane coming off, on the pitch at the end, laughing and joking with Chelsea subs, Madrid fans will be going mental

Romance of the cup the final everyone wanted

Is this is the worst season of football ever?

8,000 fans from the UK travelling to Turkey to watch City v Chelsea seems perfectly sensible

Fine if Turkey can be persuaded to keep them.

Sure that post-match Hazard image won’t be a big deal in Madr ... ah pic.twitter.com/e5pJih2RiX

— James Dart (@James_Dart) May 6, 2021

If shonda isnt all over this then idk what

Turkey is in full lockdown until at least May 17. My work colleague is in the Ankara suburbs and tough luck if you can't persuade the gendarmerie that you're grocery shopping. Still, Istanbul, eh? Maybe, JUST MAYBE.

xp guardian journos plagiarising less prominent journos tweets is it

I'm sure they are taking the defeat well in the Madrid pre-ah. pic.twitter.com/AcFiDaPmC2

— Gavin Cooney (@gcooney93) May 5, 2021

not Chelsea's weekend so far. that first 30 secs were insane. lieke martens tho. running the game.

🚨 Noticia @partidazocope

💥 Informa @isaacfouto

💣 La @UEFA tiene la intención de expulsar de la @ChampionsLeague a @RealMadrid, @FCBarcelona y @JuventusFC por la Superliga

💸 Además se exponen a una fuerte multa económica

📻 #PartidazoCOPE pic.twitter.com/2RnXq2qiuT

— El Partidazo de COPE (@partidazocope) May 25, 2021

No suggestion that English clubs might be affected yet.

Why would they be exempt

The only reason I can imagine is they all dropped out and the rest kept the idea alive longer.

Ah, justice

So Man City v Chelsea again next year?

Hate to admit it but the game has been great so far.

Is this on YouTube? Sounds like a great game tbh.

Yes, on YouTube.

It's not bad at all for a game with no palatable outcome

Nice appetiser for the Euros, the surrogate 2022 world Cup

happy for tuchel and havertz

Happy for Kanté!

Really wanted that Mahrez ball to go in for the game to go extra time, it was a fun match.

Chelsea are scum but pretty hilarious that Guardiola has once again failed abjectly to do the very thing he was hired to do.

sacked in the morning

Please.

Wanted the final annulled and every Chelsea fan who went to Porto to get covid but they totally played City.

don't like de bruyne but when a guy spends five minutes on the ground concussed, maybe don't immediately start grabbing and patting his head once he gets up

Thought that shoudve been a red tbh

Chelsea were excellent, just excellent. Decisions and execution individually all over the pitch just at an extraordinary high level

away goals abolished, which i get even though i am a fan of them. what i don't get is having 30 mins of extra time before pens in event of an aggregate draw, seems unfairly weighted in favour of whoever has the 2nd leg at home.

Away goals are great, fucking uefa

True.
I'm not sure what I think about that change but I kinda liked that away goal rule although I agree that it was difficult to justify nowadays.

xpost

Why is it difficult to justify nowadays? What's changed?

for elite teams i assume ease, comfort and time of travel.

Sorry, don't understand.

away goals rule was instituted when plane travel was slower and less comfortable, and some teams even travelled via bus to neighbouring countries. accommodations could be unpleasant, training facilities sub-par. football was also a lot less developed so teams weren't taking their sports scientists and nutritionists with them, these roles not existing then.

back in the day many uk teams have sob-stories about mammoth journeys to eastern europe, dingy digs, dodgy food, training in car-parks. all that jumpers for goalposts "real football" type shit.

now it's millionaires taking a flight, usually just for a few hours, going to an interchangeable luxury hotel that could be in any city, having an identical routine pre and post-match in terms of food, training in comparable facilities etc.

Indeed but why is it difficult to justify the away goals rule nowadays? It was introduced in the era when teams might have to play a third match to settle a match, and that's not about to happen again, and also to stop teams parking the bus in away ties.

Is the theory that penalty kicks are a fairer way to settle ties?

By the way, when I said, "What's changed", I meant from last year, not from 1965.

jim that's a solid summary of where the rule came from but away goals always create a tactical slyness that will be missed, just another bland step to TV mulch