The European/World Football Thread III

Original post by ra-ra-ra

.

So we've both missed qualification, as expected. Benfica managed a good 2-1 win over PSG, which surprised me and I thought we played really well again and deserved the win. We definitely have a "Jekyll and Hyde" syndrome, we can't beat Arouca at home, but we can beat PSG at home a few days later, how does that even work?! Some serious motivation problems there..

Unfortunately it wasn't enough because Anderlecht were doing their best to implode against Olympiakos. I mean, three penalties and three sending-offs? Wow.

We managed 10 points and usually that would be enough to qualify :/

Anyway, our qualification was lost against Olympiakos and especially due to all the saves Roberto made in the match that they won.

As for Porto, well.. just not good enough. Started off well enough, but conceeded a cheap goal (I thought Helton should have covered the near post) and then managed to miss the penalty. Hit the post a lot of times though, so I suppose Porto were a bit unlucky to have lost 2-0 in the end, but it still wasn't a performance good enough for a win.

Sucks, because Vienna even managed to get an amazing result against Zenit to help out Porto's cause, but they didn't take advantage of that.

On to the Europa League now... Thankfully Benfica are seeded (as opposed to Porto), so we can avoid some of the bigger teams, like Napoli and Tottenham. I reckon we have a good chance to do well in this competition again, even though I'd rate the two mentioned + Juventus and Shakthar as the favourites to win the whole thing.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 803

Original post by aa22

...

Unfortunately for Benfica they did what they had to do against PSG but sadly Anderlecht let you down completely. Whereas we were a bit unlucky, again (I feel I’ve said this often in this CL campaign) with hitting the woodwork on so many occasions and missing the penalty but it was even more frustrating to see Zenit lose and we couldn’t take advantage of it.

Dare I say it? Our Europa League ties are winnable. Considering who Porto could have been tied against I’m happy with that draw, then the possibility of playing either Napoli or Swansea. If we progress I’m quite happy to face either. I would love it to be Swansea just so I could take a trip down South and watch Porto again this season but then if it’s against Napoli it should be a good game and I have some family friends from Naples who are Napoli fans so that should be a bit of a laugh. Benfica should be okay against PAOK and then I bet you’ll be wanting a draw against Spurs with them being a London based club you usually wish for? However, considering the season we’re both undertaking with not looking great in the games we should be winning, we should just take each game one at a time!

As for the weekend just gone, Olhanense put up a fight but they just couldn’t hold on as soon as they took the lead on both occasions. Not the best of goalkeeping by Artur and a nice finish by Matic. Another not so great performance by Benfica but they managed to pick up all three points. As for Porto, Carlos Eduardo started and the guy didn’t disappoint. A good game for him against Rio Ave but again, we weren’t great. Not really looking forward to tomorrow against Olhanense as I say we’re playing worse than you lot right now. Finally, Sporting. Same as usual, looking good again.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 804

Original post by aa22

..

Well, in the end we had no problems against Olhanense. One week they nearly pull off a draw against Benfica and then the next they look absolutely terrible. I think they were that bad they made us look great. At least we finished this year on a good note. I think the break has come at the wrong time for Carlos Eduardo though. Another impressive game by him, hopefully he’ll still be in this form in the New Year.

The Setubal-Benfica match was pretty poor overall. Benfica weren’t the best in the first half but stepped it up a little in the second half and got their goals. Not a great game again by Benfica but you got the three points which is what matters.

I didn’t watch the Sporting-Nacional match but I saw the goal that never counted when they were showing the quick highlights on the news this morning. Sporting were unlucky for that not to count.

This half of the season ends with all three clubs tied on 33 points and two good games to look forward to in the next round after the Christmas break. A trip to the Luz for Porto and Sporting away at Estroil, which should be a good contest. Before that, I'm sure we'll enjoy reading all about the transfer rumours with the window opening soon. :rolleyes:

Reply 805

Original post by ra-ra-ra

Well, in the end we had no problems against Olhanense. One week they nearly pull off a draw against Benfica and then the next they look absolutely terrible. I think they were that bad they made us look great. At least we finished this year on a good note. I think the break has come at the wrong time for Carlos Eduardo though. Another impressive game by him, hopefully he’ll still be in this form in the New Year.

The Setubal-Benfica match was pretty poor overall. Benfica weren’t the best in the first half but stepped it up a little in the second half and got their goals. Not a great game again by Benfica but you got the three points which is what matters.

I didn’t watch the Sporting-Nacional match but I saw the goal that never counted when they were showing the quick highlights on the news this morning. Sporting were unlucky for that not to count.

This half of the season ends with all three clubs tied on 33 points and two good games to look forward to in the next round after the Christmas break. A trip to the Luz for Porto and Sporting away at Estroil, which should be a good contest. Before that, I'm sure we'll enjoy reading all about the transfer rumours with the window opening soon. :rolleyes:

RE: The Europa League draw, yeh, I'd say both teams should be able to go through. It'll probably be Napoli for Porto in the next round if both of the favourites go through, but yeh, Swansea would be a great chance for you to go watch them.

As for Benfica, I really don't see PAOK being much of a threat, it's a very winnable tie. And yes, I would absolutely love it if we got Spurs in the next round... the only problem would be I have no idea how I would go about getting tickets.

Back to the league. It is quite amazing how all three teams are tied on 33 points at Christmas. We're all in first place, and everyone has a happy Christmas, lol.

I caught Sporting's match about 5 minutes before that goal was chalked off, it looked like Sporting were dominating but Nacional were being quite dangerous on the counter. The goal probably shouldn't have been disallowed, but I'm not complaining >_>

Benfica's match was poor, as you said. In the first half, it just wasn't working with Matic and Fejsa in the middle, and Enzo lost on the wings. Second half was much better when we took off Fejsa for Sulejmani, we went back to the system from last year, with the Enzo/Matic combo in the middle and two proper wingers, and we turned into a completely different team and scored in 5 minutes.

I don't get why JJ keeps playing Fejsa, even against the smaller teams where we don't need to be so defensive.

As for Porto. Goddamn. Carlos Eduardo has transformed Porto's attack. And typically, just in time for the match against Benfica! I wish we had faced you earlier, because it will be a much more difficult match now.

And yes. Once again the transfer window opens. I can't really see any big outgoing transfers happening at Porto or Sporting, should be interesting to see Quaresma back at Porto though. Matic will be in the radar of all the big teams again (especially now that we're out of the Champions League). I hope we can keep hold of him until the end of the season.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 806

Thought I'd take a wander here to ask how Fonseca (if that's right) who is managing Porto is safe in his job?

With AVB out of work and no chance of him getting another job in England, maybe he'll return to more homely comforts in Porto?

Why he left in 2011 for Chelsea when he could have led them into the CL with an exciting side, IDK.

Reply 807

Original post by Aky786UK

Thought I'd take a wander here to ask how Fonseca (if that's right) who is managing Porto is safe in his job?

With AVB out of work and no chance of him getting another job in England, maybe he'll return to more homely comforts in Porto?

Why he left in 2011 for Chelsea when he could have led them into the CL with an exciting side, IDK.

I think his job is pretty safe. They've had a bad start and poor performances for most of the season (especially in the CL). But they've recently had some better performances and results, and they are still in joint first place, so there not much reason to sack him.

I doubt Avb will be looking to go back to Portugal anyway. It would be too much of a step back for him now. He has already achieved everything in Portugal as it is.

As for why he left.. Probably because he couldn't say no to an offer from Chelsea. Or the fact that that Porto side lost, or was going to lose, a few important players, namely Falcao.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 808

419

14

Avb next destination is France. Possibly with Monaco.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 809

^Or PSG. He's good friends with the President, al-Khalifi and he tried getting AVB in the summer. Blanc's doing well tbf but I imagine if they suffer a shock exit in the CL (which they won't) and lose the league to Monaco, they'll see as the sufficient excuse to change. I'm still waiting for the expected Ibrahimovic-Blanc bust up but latter must be handling it OK.

Reply 810

419

14

Original post by Aky786UK

^Or PSG. He's good friends with the President, al-Khalifi and he tried getting AVB in the summer. Blanc's doing well tbf but I imagine if they suffer a shock exit in the CL (which they won't) and lose the league to Monaco, they'll see as the sufficient excuse to change. I'm still waiting for the expected Ibrahimovic-Blanc bust up but latter must be handling it OK.

Why would they bust up? Ibra is the central if everything PSG which is what he wants. He's scoring lots with lots of assist. He ain't got **** to be unhappy about heck he's loving life right now.

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 811

Original post by 419

Why would they bust up? Ibra is the central if everything PSG which is what he wants. He's scoring lots with lots of assist. He ain't got **** to be unhappy about heck he's loving life right now.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I guess Ibrahimovic thrives even more when he has a manager he gets on well (Mourinho, Ancelotti) with and when I heard Blanc was going there - I just felt there might be friction of some sort. But guess Blanc ain't that dumb to tick Zlatan off because he knows in battle between him and ZI, only Zlatan wins.

Reply 812

shawn_o1

21

Zlatan for Celtic??? The Sun really did have to stoop so low this time...

Reply 813

^I bet he's not even made those comments or if he did, they were made years ago when Larsson was actually playing.

Reply 814

Original post by aa22

...

So, after all the speculation... He's back, with his number 7 shirt too.

I still don't know about this one, he's getting on a bit too. I didn't realise he was 30 years old until i read it the other day. One of them, could work out well or just be an utter waste. If I'm honest i think part of the reason behind this is to get the fans back on side with things too. Things haven't been great these past few weeks but the fans love him as it was shown with the open training session the other day so it has given all a bit of a buzz to see him return. I guess we'll have to wait and see but if he comes off the bench to score a winner next week at the Luz then it'd be completely worth it. :wink:

Disappointed that it has been decided that it's an early 4pm kick off for the Benfica-Porto match. I'm going to need to escape from work early which might be a bit of a task but i don't want to miss it. I prefer this fixture as a night fixture too.

Reply 815

Original post by ra-ra-ra

So, after all the speculation... He's back, with his number 7 shirt too.

I still don't know about this one, he's getting on a bit too. I didn't realise he was 30 years old until i read it the other day. One of them, could work out well or just be an utter waste. If I'm honest i think part of the reason behind this is to get the fans back on side with things too. Things haven't been great these past few weeks but the fans love him as it was shown with the open training session the other day so it has given all a bit of a buzz to see him return. I guess we'll have to wait and see but if he comes off the bench to score a winner next week at the Luz then it'd be completely worth it. :wink:

Disappointed that it has been decided that it's an early 4pm kick off for the Benfica-Porto match. I'm going to need to escape from work early which might be a bit of a task but i don't want to miss it. I prefer this fixture as a night fixture too.

First of all, RIP Eusebio. Really shocked when I heard it this morning. I remember seeing his statue at the old Luz for the first time and being really impressed by it..

I reckon Quaresma will be a good addition to to Porto. Probably have the same effect Lucho had when he came back.

Two good matches for both of us in the cup, just before the big match. I agree that it'll be a bit weird to see the match when the sun is still out. This fixture has the image of an intense and fiery night in my mind. It's a Sunday so I'll probably be able to watch it without any problems. Hopefully. Usually, the later a match is played, the easier it is for me to watch.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 816

Original post by aa22

First of all, RIP Eusebio. Really shocked when I heard it this morning. I remember seeing his statue at the old Luz for the first time and being really impressed by it..

I reckon Quaresma will be a good addition to to Porto. Probably have the same effect Lucho had when he came back.

Two good matches for both of us in the cup, just before the big match. I agree that it'll be a bit weird to see the match when the sun is still out. This fixture has the image of an intense and fiery night in my mind. It's a Sunday so I'll probably be able to watch it without any problems. Hopefully. Usually, the later a match is played, the easier it is for me to watch.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Very sad news indeed. Like i said in the other thread i imagine there will be a great tribute next Sunday at the match. The statue outside the ground now is completely covered with scarves, flags, flowers etc.

Hopefully. I always had doubts about old players returning until Lucho came back. He instantly became a favourite again.

Yeah two big scorelines for us and a range of goalscorers. I think your result is perhaps a bit more worthy because you were playing against a fellow Liga team. You kinda expected us to win and thankfully we avoided the 1-0 defeat like it was a couple of years ago. Even the previous tie against Sporting was good tie in preparation for us though, a good encounter between the two.

Yeah, that's exactly it. You expect it to be a night match, it'll be odd to see in the daylight. Anyway, all eyes turn to that game now with the Taça games out of the way.

Reply 817

Deshi

Giuseppe Rossi might have done his cruciates in the same knee AGAIN. How unlucky can you get, WC year as well. Top scorer in Serie A, he'd be going. Hopefully it's not as bad as they think

Reply 818

Original post by aa22

...

The Estoril-Sporting match wasn’t as good as I expected it to be, a game with very few chances between the two. Either could have scored right at the end though but two good saves from both keepers kept this one as 0-0. Sportings(and Rui Patricio’s) sixth clean sheet in a row in the Liga which is great stuff for them but especially for Patricio in my eyes looking towards the WC. I know it’s a while off but it’s good preparation for him and he has pulled off a few good saves to keep the goal count at zero. The result doesn’t really do Sporting many favours and it’s a chance for either of us to go a couple of points clear, although the way we all keep messing up when we are a couple of points clear at the top doesn’t seem to mean a lot right now.

Tomorrow. :biggrin:

PF said today that Quaresma is on the bench. It's absolutely meant to be for him to come off the bench and score the winner. If so, i think i might have to dig out my old Quaresma top and hang it up in the lounge for the rest of the family to enjoy. :wink:

I'll be lucky to still have a roof over my head if he scores though!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 819