The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Vesper 29,079]

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Round of 16

Sevilla FC                      
Borussia Dortmund     

http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/champions-league-sevilla-vs-borussia-dortmund-s2/#!

https://www.totalsportek.com/stream-page-2/

Edited February 17, 2021 by Vesper

[Vesper 29,079]

2020-21 UEFA Champions League, Round of 16

FC Porto              
Juventus              

http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/champions-league-porto-vs-juventus-s1/#!

https://www.totalsportek.com/stream-page-1/

Edited February 17, 2021 by Vesper

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

Why did Juventus sacked Sarri again?? 

[DANILA 290]

These player-manager experiments are NOT working... Lampard, Pirlo, Arteta, Rooney... all failing. They need experience in lower leagues first. Gerrard is doing it right

[Blues Forever 1,232]

6 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

Why did Juventus sacked Sarri again?? 

Mainly because of Sarri's failure in CL and boring football.

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

26 minutes ago, Blues Forever said:

Mainly because of Sarri's failure in CL and boring football.

At least he gave them title. And Lyon was no joke. They knocked out City later. I didn't saw Pep getting sacked and City is probably more desperate for CL success. 

About boring football... Well, even here he said that he needs 2 years to make his football work. Napoli was playing better season by season... 

In his last 3 jobs he got replaced by managers who did worse. Ancelotti, Lampard and Pirlo. 

First two got sacked fast and Pirlo is not that far away by looking at results. 

Now they can enjoy Conte taking title from them. If that is what they wanted 😁

[Jase 43,479]

4 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

At least he gave them title. And Lyon was no joke. They knocked out City later. I didn't saw Pep getting sacked and City is probably more desperate for CL success. 

About boring football... Well, even here he said that he needs 2 years to make his football work. Napoli was playing better season by season... 

In his last 3 jobs he got replaced by managers who did worse. Ancelotti, Lampard and Pirlo. 

First two got sacked fast and Pirlo is not that far away by looking at results. 

Now they can enjoy Conte taking title from them. If that is what they wanted 😁

City more desperate for CL success? Why do you think Juventus went all out to sign Ronaldo from Real Madrid? They bought him literally to help them get over the line in the Champions League, a competition they haven't won since 1996 despite reaching 5 finals between then and now. They are bloody desperate to win it considering they are already so successful domestically. Am sure they can survive not winning the Serie A for a season or two. 

Sarri played nice football at Napoli but never won anything with them. Gattuso came in after Ancelotti and won the Coppa Italia. So, go figure. 

The stats may suggest Lampard did worse than Sarri but on the flip side, had Sarri stayed, am not sure he would have been able to successfully integrate the youth players into the first team as Lampard did, especially after a season where he largely relied on Hazard to do the business.

I guess one could say that we and Juventus made a dumb decision to hire Sarri in the first place. Given the type of our squad and Juventus' - both excelling in pragmatic football - it was never going to work with Sarri's style of play and even more so when he's super rigid in his ways. Both teams would have to likely rebuild the entire squad just to fit his way, which would obviously be more costly and take longer than just sacking one person. Most of the players Sarri had at Napoli were already there and he just bought a few notable players over the 3 seasons to complement with the rest of the squad. So in some ways, the pieces already fell into place for him at Napoli. Plus some managers are better when managing a second-tier side than when managing a top tier side. Less pressure and all that.

[Jase 43,479]

6 hours ago, DANILA said:

These player-manager experiments are NOT working... Lampard, Pirlo, Arteta, Rooney... all failing. They need experience in lower leagues first. Gerrard is doing it right

How is Rooney not doing it right by starting in the Championship? How is Rooney even failing? He's won 5 of his 7 games since being appointed permanent manager of Derby. That's a decent start and it's way too early to even judge him. And managing in the Championship is probably similar to, if not tougher than, managing in the Scottish Premier League. The Championship is way more hectic than the Scottish Premier League given how many teams are trying to get promoted, although Gerrard might have more pressure considering he's managing one of the big two there.

Is Arteta really failing at Arsenal considering their recent standards? It's kinda par for the course since they are trying to rebuild after years of falling off from the best and their peak years. Different case with Lampard at Chelsea and Pirlo at Juventus where the expectations are higher, there are better players and there's more spending power. 

[Tomo 21,733]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

Is Arteta really failing at Arsenal considering their recent standards? 

Fuck it i'll bite. Emery finished 5th with a significantly worse squad, we had a worse squad last season and finished 4th. He's also breaking negative record after negative record while extending contracts of his deadwood players (which takes away any excuse he may have had at first about players holding him back). Off the top of my head he begged Xhaka to stay, extended the Ceballos loan deal and now wants to make him permanent, made Bellerin vice captain, kept the wrong keeper, has extended Holding, Luiz, Nketiah while pissing of two of their biggest talents (Saliba and Balogun)- infact think i read on reddit that 16/24 players in the squad are at Arsenal today thanks to his input be it signing, contract extension, convincing them to stay so the not his squad excuse is long gone, he should at a minimum be challenging top 4. Also Moyes went to West Ham at the same time and look at the difference.

The excuses being created for Arteta are worse than the Torres one's, the guy is out of his depth and i hope Arsenal keep him for many years to come. 

[Jase 43,479]

36 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Fuck it i'll bite. Emery finished 5th with a significantly worse squad, we had a worse squad last season and finished 4th. He's also breaking negative record after negative record while extending contracts of his deadwood players (which takes away any excuse he may have had at first about players holding him back). Off the top of my head he begged Xhaka to stay, extended the Ceballos loan deal and now wants to make him permanent, made Bellerin vice captain, kept the wrong keeper, has extended Holding, Luiz, Nketiah while pissing of two of their biggest talents (Saliba and Balogun)- infact think i read on reddit that 16/24 players in the squad are at Arsenal today thanks to his input be it signing, contract extension, convincing them to stay so the not his squad excuse is long gone, he should at a minimum be challenging top 4. Also Moyes went to West Ham at the same time and look at the difference.

The excuses being created for Arteta are worse than the Torres one's, the guy is out of his depth and i hope Arsenal keep him for many years to come. 

For the record, I wasn't making excuses for Arteta and I could care less about whether he's out of his depth or not. The point is, Arsenal's expectations are at their lowest in ages. They seem content with taking the long road back to the top and content with being an "experimental playground" for Arteta. Not sure if anyone would be batting an eyelid if they finish outside the Top 4 or even the Top 6 this season. 

[Tomo 21,733]

19 minutes ago, Jason said:

For the record, I wasn't making excuses for Arteta and I could care less about whether he's out of his depth or not. The point is, Arsenal's expectations are at their lowest in ages. They seem content with taking the long road back to the top and content with being an "experimental playground" for Arteta. Not sure if anyone would be batting an eyelid if they finish outside the Top 4 or even the Top 6 this season. 

BIB: Both true but that's mainly because of Edu and Arteta brainwashing the fans and outsiders.

Wenger's head was on a stick for only finishing top four and winning FA Cups, Emery was hounded out for 3 loses in 18 but Arteta's getting a free pass on the guise on the rebuild even though he's dropped Arsenal to depths those two didn't even sniff.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Edu is def not liked amongst Ars fans, most of their fans I know have realized Arteta aint good enough in the end, though their squad is not top 4 worthy imo.

[Vesper 29,079]

2020-21 UEFA Europa League, Round of 32

Real Sociedad                       
Manchester United              

http://www.sportnews.to/mysports/2021/europa-league-real-sociedad-vs-manchester-united-s2/#!

https://www.totalsportek.com/page-3/

[Atomiswave 6,072]

Spurse ahead 1-3

United 0-2 ahead....of course bruno the olympic diver scored both

[MoroccanBlue 5,320]

The deeper United, Spurs, and Leciester go in the Europa league, the better news for us. 

[NikkiCFC 8,063]

Looking at Barca the other day and now Sociedad and we know what happened to Real against Shakhtar, I think that Atletico is nothing special just all others are so bad.

With Lampard I did not have any hope against them but now with Tuchel I think we have great chances. We need to attack them, they dont score a lot and away goal in Romania is essential next week.

Edited February 18, 2021 by NikkiCFC

[Jase 43,479]

5 hours ago, Tomo said:

BIB: Both true but that's mainly because of Edu and Arteta brainwashing the fans and outsiders.

Wenger's head was on a stick for only finishing top four and winning FA Cups, Emery was hounded out for 3 loses in 18 but Arteta's getting a free pass on the guise on the rebuild even though he's dropped Arsenal to depths those two didn't even sniff.

But let's not pretend as if Arsenal weren't already falling down the pecking order under Wenger. He regularly got them into the Champions League but they don't make any impact at all, constantly crashing out in the last 16. Winning the FA Cup is always nice but no one is gonna be satisfied with just winning FA Cups if the team aren't doing anything in the other competitions. It's Arsenal, not Newcastle. 

Because of what happened in the latter years of Wenger's regime, Arsenal have basically found themselves in a position where (a) sane, top quality players will not join them and (b) no sane, top clubs will buy any of their players except maybe Partey and at a push, Aubameyang and Lacazette. Couple those with an owner who is reluctant to spend big money on players, although strangely (to put it kindly) committing to big money contracts on old players, you end up with a club that have to scrape the barrels for players. 

If Arsenal want to seemingly take the long road, pursue a road that doesn't seem to be leading to anywhere and with a newbie in charge, then I'd say let them have their "fun" with it. 

[Jase 43,479]

Just seen Leicester's lineup in their Europa League game. Seems like Brendan Rodgers is taking the competition seriously.