The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Kieran. 6,317]

Holy shit, Dortmund-Monaco postponed after an explosion near the BVB team bus and Bartra has been taken to hospital.

[Laylabelle 9,292]

Dortmund game called off after explosions round team coach..let's hope that's all it was 

[kmk108 1,186]

Sounds like nothing serious for Bartra luckily

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Insane world we live in these days. 

[Beigl 1,387]

Dybala is wonderful player. Nice to see that Barca is getting trashed yet again.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

Dybala over Neymar for me. Sensational player is Dybala. This is the level we need to be at. Competing against the best in the CL knockout phase.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Hope no refs help this time...

[OhForAGreavsie 5,774]

34 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Dybala over Neymar for me. Sensational player is Dybala. This is the level we need to be at. Competing against the best in the CL knockout phase.

More depressing evidence of the urgent need for the club to make good player assessments and act on them quickly. When some of us were recommending Dybala as a transfer target two summers ago, the usual objections were raised here; not proved in the Premier League, not proved full stop, not sure he's good enough. Our club cannot afford to wait until footballers are established superstars. If we do that, clubs higher up the food chain will always take them, and we will always miss out.

[DYC. 7,542]

Dani Alves is such an OG. I rate Lahm as much as anyone but Dani is my guy as the rightback of that generation. Love that guy. And his defensive prowess has always been very underrated by (too) many for me.

Alex Sandro is top class. Technically, tactically, physically. The man has it all. Brazil being able to pick from Sandro, Luis and Marcelo is ridiculous.

Dybala with a nice demonstration on the difference between good players and top players. Players like Costa, Lukaku, Kane would've taken two, three extra touches and might not even have released a shot. Because of the level of awareness Dybala possesses and his ability to think and act so quickly, he just needed two touches for his first goal and one for his second. He has his first big moment now and I hope many more will follow. Wonderful player

Higuain has the quality but lacks the mental fortitude for a true world-class striker. Can't take the heat. Time and time again he's failed to decide big and/or high pressure ties. He looks heavy btw.

Chiellini is a beast. For some reason he's never been very popular but he's been such a great defender for years and he's still going. Bonucci is a fantastic ball-player but he doesn't touch Chiellini defensively.

Great win for Juve. Real team performance. Barca need to make some changes. Balance is completely off.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,774]

18 minutes ago, xPetrCechx said:

Hope no refs help this time...

Was just about to post the same thing. Officials do not, in my opinion, deliberately set out to favour Barceloana. It's just that they are in sympathy with the Catalan club and its living legends on the pitch. Officials are subconsciously seduced into seeing things Barca's way. A brilliantly talented Barcelona player, a paragon of the beautiful game, makes contact with a brutish player of that other team. Of course it's a foul. Of course it's a free kick to Barca. Unless it's a penalty of course.

This nonsense has been going on for too long. Barcelona must not be allowed to cheat their way through another round of the competition.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

The refereeing was beyond awful. Really embarrassing for this level.

Great result for Juve, but Barcelona have become rather easy to beat away. Can't see Juve pulling a PSG this time, though. 

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Barca without MSN is nothing but a good team. 

Two of MSN are in their 30s already. 

IMO they have so many positions to upgrade and bench, with not much money available. 

Their era is coming to an end I believe. And as a fan of football, I cant wait for the return of english and italian clubs to the top like they were in the past. 

[BlueLyon 9,359]

1 minute ago, CHOULO19 said:

The refereeing was beyond awful. Really embarrassing for this level.

Great result for Juve, but Barcelona have become rather easy to beat away. Can't see Juve pulling a PSG this time, though. 

I wonder why they always pull some turkish, polish,... refs who are quite unknown. Why not go for Proenca, Clattenburg etc. While they arent great, at least they are big names. 

With refs like today, it almost feels they are picked because no one would give a shit if they never judged again but they would help barca continue for this particular game.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

It's UEFA and Barcelona so expect the impossible to become possible in Camp Nou. I'm absolutely rooting for Juve though against the forces of darkness. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,774]

17 minutes ago, DYC. said:

Dani Alves is such an OG. 

What's an OG?

[DYC. 7,542]

52 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

What's an OG?

Someone who's been around for a very long time and is still capable of producing the goods in his/her respective field.

[Johnnyeye 7,405]

Great job Juventus, now lets hope they dont do a PSG in the 2nd Leg and actually get the job done, lets see how the referee handles this one, expect a lot of Barca play acting and cheating, surrounding the ref, etc... at Camp Nou like they always do when in trouble, we know it better than anyone, what a sad lot they are. Goodluck Juventus, i really want Buffon to win the Champions League this season, this Juventus team is incredible, he lost 2 finals already, maybe 3rd time lucky this time? we´ll see, still a long way to go. Cheers

[kmk108 1,186]

Some updates:

It was a deliberate attack, though it has either not been released or is not known who attacked or why.

A letter has been found close to the scene but the details have not been released.

Marc Bartra is in surgery for a broken wrist.

The match will be played tomorrow.