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UEFA Champions League, 2017-2018 Season


Ericandblueboy

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UEFA Champions League Group Stage kicks off today and tomorrow with a couple of tasty matches on the docket:

Tuesday Sept. 12

Barcelona v. Juventus 2:45pm ET (FOX Sports 2)

AS Roma v. Atletico Madrid 2:45pm ET (FOX Soccer Match Pass)

Manchester United v. FC Basel (not necessarily one of the top matches, but they will be on FOX Sports 1)

Wednesday Sept. 13

Tottenham vs. Dortmund 2:45pm ET (FOX Sports 1)

Real Madrid vs. APOEL (Also not a top match, but they will be on FOX Sports 2)

The rest of this week's CL games are on FOX Soccer Match Pass, their subscription streaming service.  Looks like many games are also available on FOX Soccer Plus, and streaming on ESPN 3, WatchESPN, and FOX Sports Go.  

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Juventus is missing half of its starters so I'm hoping Messi gets a hat trick against Gigi!  Interesting to see who starts for Barca....will Dembele get the start or will Deulofeu start?  Will Messi continue to press?  Barca beat PSG last season after Luis Enrique announced he's quitting...so did the players not get along with Luis Enrique but are now working harder under Valverde?  From what I read, Barca's pressing is becoming effective again.  Also, Juve beat Barca last season when Sergio Busquets was out serving a suspension.  Barca now has a full squad sans Neymar but added Semedo, Dembele and Paulinho.  Can't wait to watch this tonight...do not post the result this afternoon! 

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Liverpool pissed away 2 points yesterday.  Their offense is very potent even w/o Coutinho and Barca was offering silly money - should've sold.  But their defense is atrocious.  Lovern's whiff is reminiscent of the low-lights from MLS on ESPN FC every Monday.  There's doubt as to whether Klopp can organize a defense.

Dortmund got robbed by the refs.

 

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50 minutes ago, DanielK said:

You had me nodding my head until you said Dortmund was robbed. Really? Spurs earned those 3 points.

There was a foul by Kane on his first goal.  Aubameyang had a goal called off for offside that was clearly not offside.  So one can argue the Spurs earned 1 point, and the refs gave them 2 points :D

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Champions League returns this week.  For the most part its the mighty vs. the minnows, except for three powerhouse match ups.

Tuesday September 26

Borussia Dortmund vs. Real Madrid 2:45pm FOX Sports 1/ESPN Deportes

AS Monaco vs. FC Porto (could also be a good one).

Wednesday September 27

Paris Saint Germain vs. Bayern Munich 2:45pm FOX Soccer Plus

Chelsea vs. Atletico Madrid 2:45pm ESPN Deportes

Barcelona vs. Sporting CP (for all you Barca fans)  FOX Sports 2

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10 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

How is PSG vs. Bayern Munich not on Fox Sports?  I have to pay another premium to watch certain Champions League games?

Looks like FS1 has the ManU v. CSKA Moscow match, while FS2 has the Barca game. 

I've definitely noticed the FOX channels have a preference for broadcasting the big English teams + Barca/Real Madrid, even if they are not the match of the day.  

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Group stage of the Champions League ended today.  

Group A - Man U, Basel 

Group B- PSG, Munich

Group C - Roma, Chelsea - Atletico Madrid out!

Group D - Barca, Juve

Group E - Liverpool, Seville

Group F - Man City, Shaktar - Napoli out!

Group G - Besiktas, Porto - Leipzig and Monacco out!

Group H - Tottenham, Real Madrid - Dortmund out!

4 Premier League teams topped their group.  One 1 La Liga team topped its group.  Only 1 League 1 team left, PSG.  Only 1 Bundesliga team left, Munich.

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Teams from the same country cannot draw each other, nor can teams who played each other in the group stage.

The task is made especially hard for Chelsea. As the other four English sides won their groups, and Chelsea cannot be drawn against Roma again, it leaves only three possible opponents: Barcelona, Besiktas or Paris Saint-Germain -- meaning they have a very high chance of a tough tie.

Bayern Munich, Juventus and Real Madrid are also likely to face a big tie in the last-16, with Liverpool and both Manchester City and Manchester United on their shortlist of opposition.

Possible opponents for all round-of-16 teams

Barcelona: Bayern Munich, Chelsea, FC Basel, FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Bayern Munich: Barcelona, Besiktas, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur.

Besiktas: Bayern Munich, Chelsea, FC Basel, Juventus, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Chelsea: Barcelona, Besiktas, Paris Saint-Germain.

FC Basel: Barcelona, Besiktas, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur.

Juventus: Besiktas, Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool: Bayern Munich, FC Basel, FC Porto, Juventus, Real Madrid, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Manchester City: Bayern Munich, FC Basel, FC Porto, Juventus, Real Madrid, Sevilla.

Manchester United: Bayern Munich, FC Porto, Juventus, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Paris Saint-Germain: Chelsea, FC Basel, FC Porto, Juventus, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Real Madrid: Besiktas, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma.

Roma: Bayern Munich, FC Basel, FC Porto, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Tottenham Hotspur: Bayern Munich, FC Basel, FC Porto, Juventus, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk.

Sevilla: Besiktas, Manchester City, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur.

Shakhtar Donetsk: Barcelona, Besiktas, Liverpool, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur.

FC Porto: Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur.

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First Round of Knock-Out

PGS v. Real Madrid

Chelsea v. Barca

Tottenham v. Juve

Sevilla v. Man U

Basel v. Man City

Porto v. Liverpool

Munich v. Besiktas

Shakhtar v. Roma

In any case, one of my two disfavored teams (PSG & Real Madrid) will go out.  The only other big clash is Barca v. Chelsea but Chelsea isn't as good as last year.  In fact, Chelsea just lost West Ham (I might as well shred my bet on Chelsea to win the Premier League). 

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PSG and Real are certainly 2 of the top few teams remaining. In some ways, it's disappointing to see one of them go in the round of 16.

Chelsea unlikely to take out Barca, but Liverpool and Tottenham both have reasonable chances to advance. It would be crazy if 4 of the final 8 were EPL.

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45 minutes ago, DanielK said:

It would be crazy if 4 of the final 8 were EPL.

With the draw, that is a very likely scenario.  But EPL is totally unbalanced this year - there is only 1 good team (Man City, which ended the season yesterday by beating Man U).  An awesome final 4 would be Munich, Barca, PSG, and Man City.

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27 minutes ago, Tweaked said:

Bedlam in Bristol! 

Bristol City 2 - Manchester United 1, with the game winner in the 93rd minute (Quarter-Finals League Cup).  Supporters running onto the field, people crying in the stands.  A night to remember at Ashton Gate.

"Bristol City 2 Manchester United 1: Korey Smith's Late, Late Winner Sends Ashton Gate into Dreamland" by Alan Tyers on telegraph.co.uk

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On 1/13/2018 at 6:08 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Depends on who they draw in the next round.  Barça, Munich and PSG are all tough outs.  It’s not clear how good PSG and Munich are because they play in crappy domestic leagues.  Arguably the Premier League is crappy this year and City has faced no tough competition.

It follows, from the quote, that since Real Madrid clearly do not play in a crappy domestic league, it is difficult to predict how they would fare against clubs that do.

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Massive Champions League clash this afternoon - Real Madrid plays PSG.  Madrid's season would effectively end today if they get crushed by PSG.  In that event, Madrid would likely fire their manager, sell the ineffective trio of Ronaldo, Benzema, and Bale and find a way to lure Neymar to Madrid.  If Madrid somehow crushes PSG,  PSG would likely sack its manager, conduct a fire sale to ensure compliance with financial fair play?  One of these clubs will transform significantly as a result of being knocked of the Champions League at this stage.  I love it!

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2 hours ago, Sasha K said:

Injuries to Iniesta and Coman may have a huge impact on this competition.

Especially bad since Iniesta's heir, Coutinho, can't play for Barca in the Champions League this season. They will probably need to use Sergio Roberto instead.

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19 minutes ago, Deac said:

Especially bad since Iniesta's heir, Coutinho, can't play for Barca in the Champions League this season. They will probably need to use Sergio Roberto instead.

Lots of discussion about who plays - Gomez, Paulinho, Denis Suarez....I think Sergio Roberto will play but as a right back. Maybe they could shift him to midfield and start Alex Vidal or Nelson Semedo in right back. 

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Interestingly, when PSG brought in Neymar and Mbappe, the pundits mentioned that it wasn't the lack of offense that caused PSG to get knocked out by Barca last season (after winning the first leg 4-0).  Sure enough, crap defense again caused PSG to lose this year to Real Madrid.  Giving up 2 easy goals in the first leg against Real Madrid basically doomed PSG. 

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8 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Please don’t post results until at least the day after.  These games are played during working hours so I can’t watch live.

People should do what we do in the Film Forum: Put the warning:

*** SPOILERS FOLLOW ***

before anything that will give away the results of a match within 24-hours or so. I'd also urge people not to even open a thread if they know a game they wish to watch is already over. I'll try to be mindful to look for things like this as well, and insert the ***SPOILER *** tag myself if I see it.

This thread is more difficult because it's about a broader topic than an individual game - it's perfectly fine to post about individual games in separate threads (there's plenty of digital storage here), and then if you wish, I can merge the two topics later.

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15 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

When I’m viewing unread content, the content of the post is visible.  So I never actually opened this thread.

Interesting - I never thought about that. I'm sorry that happened to you - I'm not sure what a good solution is: I can't see waiting a day to discuss results of all sporting events, so I don't know what to ask people to do.

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I don't visit websites that would give me the result - such as ESPN FC and Facebook.  I also don't listen to sports radio although they seldom reveal soccer results. I guess I have to remember not to visit DR until I watch the game.

BTW, there's a massive game for Barca fans today.  Barca and Chelsea are tied 1-1 and the second leg is being played at Camp Nou at 3:45 this afternoon.

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20 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

I don't visit websites that would give me the result - such as ESPN FC and Facebook.  I also don't listen to sports radio although they seldom reveal soccer results. I guess I have to remember not to visit DR until I watch the game.

I hate getting spoiled about sports results too.  That said, I wouldn't voluntarily spend time watching a Mourinho side play dreadful anti-football unless someone paid me lots and lots of money.

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5 minutes ago, silentbob said:

I hate getting spoiled about sports results too.  That said, I wouldn't voluntarily spend time watching a Mourinho side play dreadful anti-football unless someone paid me lots and lots of money.

I enjoy watching La Liga teams beat up on EPL teams, especially United.

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Maybe we could all reach a gentleman's agreement to post same-day results as follows:

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

Followed by about 10 blank lines

That way, it won't show up on Unread Posts, and I could delete the blank lines a couple of days later.

---

Here's a better solution: Go to Unread Content, and look towards the top-right: You'll see a toggle between "Condensed" and "Expanded." If you click on "Condensed," you won't see anything except the thread title and the author (no content).

I could swear there's also something on that screen that you can use to filter out individual forums also, but I couldn't find it just now. Still, I think the above will solve your problem.

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Champions League quarter final draws:

Barca gets Roma

Sevilla gets Bayern Munich

Juventus gets Real Madrid

Liverpool gets Man City.

Liverpool and City should be fun to watch but I think City will crush Liverpool.  The only match-up that's unpredictable is Juve and Madrid.  Madrid will be favored but Juve will be  tough nut to crack. 

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pretty happy with Barca's draw there -- probably the best possible result. correct me if I'm wrong, but they now redraw the semifinal match-ups, right? I believe it used to be that following the quarterfinal draw, you knew each team's potential path to the finals.

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23 minutes ago, Deac said:

pretty happy with Barca's draw there -- probably the best possible result. correct me if I'm wrong, but they now redraw the semifinal match-ups, right? I believe it used to be that following the quarterfinal draw, you knew each team's potential path to the finals.

They redraw between every round.  In the round of 16, there are some restrictions - you cannot play against an opponent from the same country or the same group.  No restrictions past the round of 16.  This drawing preserved all the big boys for the semi-finals.

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On 3/16/2018 at 2:21 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

They redraw between every round.  In the round of 16, there are some restrictions - you cannot play against an opponent from the same country or the same group.  No restrictions past the round of 16.  This drawing preserved all the big boys for the semi-finals.

Right but I’m pretty sure it used to be they would draw the round of 16 and draw the quarterfinals,  but not redraw the semis, so you knew who your potential opponent in the semis could be already. 

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17 hours ago, DonRocks said:

[Should I split this thread into smaller units? I have no idea.]

No. We're not active enough in the discussion to warrant multiple threads - they'd die off if we further divided.

There are message boards on Euro Soccer out there that have active threads for every match, every player, and even threads about a single call, but this is not where that discussion happens.

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