UCL Draw Thread

[Laylabelle 9,359]

Been knocked out of to many comps and been runner up three times?Already!Surley can win one out the seven or so we had a chance of winning!

[pachman40 357]

I'm ecstatic to see my two favorite teams in action once again! Obviously last year in the Champion's League was great, but playing a European final against eachother is a different level. Should be an exciting open game and I look forward to some fun back and forth with you guys. Some of you might recognize me from last year and hopefully your memories of me are positive. I've gone pretty silent in this forum since last year's tie as we had a few Benfica fans leave a bad taste in your collective mouths with their banter. I ended up following my second favorite club through Talk Chelsea more as a spectator instead of being involved on a regular basis. Hopefully this time around we'll get back to the joking / non-hating discussions like it was before the trolls joined up and made a bad impression.

Anyways, on to the match, anything can happen in a one-off so no bold predictions one way or the other from me. Hopefully Jorge Jesus keeps his yap shut and doesn't give Chelsea any inspiration with the verbal diarhea. Benfica lost Witsel and Javi Garcia at the last minute last summer and didn't replace them. Us fans thought the season was going down the toilet with such a glaring hole in the centre of the team, but a funny thing happened along the way, your friend and ours Matic emerged as a hugely improved presence in the central midfield and together with Enzo Perez our midfield hasn't missed a beat. Our offense has improved with the addition of Lima to give us a solid striker combo, and we've been able to avoid the injury bug most of the year. Bottom line is that Benfica has improved this year compared to last year. Hopefully we'll have the league wrapped up by the time the Europa final comes and we can concentrate fully on winning this trophy.

I come in peace and hope we all get along. This has the makings of a really entertaining game and I hope my fellow Benfica fans stay classy if and when they enter as guests into Talk Chelsea's house.

[Manuf 1,448]

I'm ecstatic to see my two favorite teams in action once again! Obviously last year in the Champion's League was great, but playing a European final against eachother is a different level. Should be an exciting open game and I look forward to some fun back and forth with you guys. Some of you might recognize me from last year and hopefully your memories of me are positive. I've gone pretty silent in this forum since last year's tie as we had a few Benfica fans leave a bad taste in your collective mouths with their banter. I ended up following my second favorite club through Talk Chelsea more as a spectator instead of being involved on a regular basis. Hopefully this time around we'll get back to the joking / non-hating discussions like it was before the trolls joined up and made a bad impression.

Anyways, on to the match, anything can happen in a one-off so no bold predictions one way or the other from me. Hopefully Jorge Jesus keeps his yap shut and doesn't give Chelsea any inspiration with the verbal diarhea. Benfica lost Witsel and Javi Garcia at the last minute last summer and didn't replace them. Us fans thought the season was going down the toilet with such a glaring hole in the centre of the team, but a funny thing happened along the way, your friend and ours Matic emerged as a hugely improved presence in the central midfield and together with Enzo Perez our midfield hasn't missed a beat. Our offense has improved with the addition of Lima to give us a solid striker combo, and we've been able to avoid the injury bug most of the year. Bottom line is that Benfica has improved this year compared to last year. Hopefully we'll have the league wrapped up by the time the Europa final comes and we can concentrate fully on winning this trophy.

I come in peace and hope we all get along. This has the makings of a really entertaining game and I hope my fellow Benfica fans stay classy if and when they enter as guests into Talk Chelsea's house.

great to see you back

[AndreSLB 7]

Another Benfica fan here, i wasn't in this forum last year. About those words of Jorge Jesus, well... That's the way he is. He's allways overconfident but is a Huge coach! This year we lost Javi Garcia in the last day of the market and Witsel one week after that to Zenit. We started this season with absolutely no expectations of winning so much trophies. Then a miracle happenned (Mostly because of Jorge Jesus) and Matic emmerged as a FANTASTIC player (Thank you ). Same to Enzo Perez and Lima! Right now we are unbeaten in Portuguese League (1º Place with 4 more points than porto) and only lost 3 games this season (Barça, Spartak (away) and Fenerbahce (away)), we are also in the final of our domestic cup (Taça de Portugal).

As a team, we have a great attack with Oscar Cardozo, Lima, Salvio, Gaitán, Enzo Pérez and Matic (Also have Aimar , Carlos Martins, Ola John, Rodrigo and our youth player André Gomes). Our Full Backs are very good though (Luisão and Garay), same as the Goalkeeper ( -King- Artur) the problem is with our Wingbacks. Maxi Pereira will miss the final and we will play with André Almeida on the Right(Better defending than Maxi, but not so good attacking) and Melgarejo on the left (This is the problem... since Fábio Coentrão left that we don't have a proper left wingback).

We can't have names like Torres, Lampard, Terry, Hazard on our team because the portuguese league is extremely poor (For example, we only receive 7.5 Million Euros per season from tv rights...Wolverhampton (The team that least reveive last season in EPL) received arround 47 Million euros... that's more than 6times our receipts). We need to sell every year 2 key players to survive, but we allways have good teams with capacity to win every game! Let's make this final a Huge football show!

[Amblève. 4,995]

Will the Benfica fans invade the forum again? Too bad there's no Raul Meireles this time. He really shut them up last year

What a lad! Loved that celebration.

Btw, is anyone going to Amsterdam?

[Rmpr 8,977]

Btw, is anyone going to Amsterdam?

No, but I have two friends who are going to the game, but they arent Chelsea fans, they are just football fans who will happen to be there. I convinced them to wear Chelsea kits that I loaned to them!

You going Amels? Anyone else?

[Amblève. 4,995]

No, but I have two friends who are going to be there, but they arent Chelsea fans, they are just football fans who will happen to be there. I convinced them to wear Chelsea kits that I loaned to them!

You going Amels? Anyone else?

Not going to be in the stadium, but yeah, I've been thinking about going to Amsterdam, just to feel the vibe again. I'm not sure about it, though, as it's quite expensive to go on a one-day trip there.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Not going to be in the stadium, but yeah, I've been thinking about going to Amsterdam, just to feel the vibe again. I'm not sure about it, though, as it's quite expensive to go on a one-day trip there.

Really? We have the impression in Brazil that traveling by train in Europe is the most inexpensive and easiest thing in the world!

[YouNameIt 1,511]

Chelsea to win with 3-1

[Amblève. 4,995]

Really? We have the impression in Brazil that traveling by train in Europe is the most inexpensive and easiest thing in the world!

The DB, the German Rail, is quite expensive. Travelling by train is Austria is cheap, however. To get from the west of Austria, where I live, to Vienna (in the east of Austria) you only have to pay about 30 euros. That's a distance of about 650km.

But to get from Lindau (the German city at the border to Austria) to Memmingen, the nearest city with an airport, I had to pay 50 euros alone for a distance of 70km!

Indeed, it is the easiest and most comfortable way of travelling, but outside of Austria it's really expensive.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Hm I watched Benfica vs Fener and their attack is realy good. Cardozo was beast and their AMs realy fit well together and play fast football. Their defending was questionable at times however...

But I see lot of problems for our defenders because of fast passing football that Benfica is playing. Our advantage will be neutral stadium, but if Iva/Luiz/Terry will have bad day, we will be punished for sure.

Losing finals makes questions if our team will handle pressure this time or not...

I predict goals on both sides with hopefuly us scoring more...

[Milan 17,854]

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Chelsea to win with 3-1

Your last couple of predictions have been horrifically shit, so let's hope you're right for a change!

I will make you a Moderator if you're right this time.

[Muzchap 8,966]

Since we are in it now, might as well just create a thread for it.We have qualified for Last 32. Tie commences in February 2013. The draw for the Last 32 and 16 will take place on 20th December(Thursday) - in two weeks time - at 1pm UK time. Final to be held at Amsterdam Arena on 15th May 2013.The Last 32 will include 24 teams will qualify from the Europa League group stages(12 group winners and 12 runners up) and all 8 of the 3rd place team in the Champions League group stages. Then the teams will be divided into 2 pots - Seeded and Unseeded - with 16 teams in each.12 group winners of the Europa League and the 4 best Champions League 3rd place teams(based on points accumulated in the CL group stage) will be seeded while 12 runners up from the Europa League group stage and the second best 4 Champion League 3rd place teams will be unseeded. Teams from the 'Seeded' pot will be drawn against the ones from 'Unseeded' pot.'Seeded' teams will play the Last 32 first leg away from home first and teams from the same country can't face each other till the Last 16. Other than that, it's the standard European knockout stage rules for this. Nothing different.So far the pot looks like this:

Seeded Pot1. Liverpool2. Viktoria Plzen3. Fenerbahce4. Bordeaux5. Steaua Bucharest6. Dnipro7. Genk8. Rubin Kazan9. Lyon10. Lazio11. Metalist Kharkiv12. Hannover13. Chelsea(CL)14. Cluj(CL)15. Olympiacos(CL)16. Benfica(CL)Unseeded Pot1. Anzhi2. Atletico Madrid3. Borrusia Monchengladbach4. Newcastle5. Stuttgart6. Napoli7. Basel8. Inter Milan9. Sparta Prague10. Tottenham11. Bayer Leverkusen12. Levante13. Zenit St Petersburg(CL)14. Bate Borisov(CL)15. Dynamo Kiev(CL)16. Ajax(CL)

Last 32 Draw:Bate Borisov vs FenerbahceInter Milan vs ClujLevante vs OlympiacosZenit vs LiverpoolDynamo Kiev vs BordeauxLeverkusen vs BenficaNewcastle vs Metalist KharkivStuttgart vs GenkAtletico Madrid vs Rubin KazanAjax vs Steaua BucharestBasel vs DniproAnzhi vs HannoverSparta Prague vs ChelseaMonchengladbach vs LazioTottenham vs LyonNapoli vs Viktoria PlzenFirst legs to be played on 14 February 2013Second legs to be played on 21 February 2013

Last 16 Draw:Viktoria Plzen vs FenerbahceBenfica vs BordeauxAnzhi vs NewcastleStuttgart vs LazioTottenham vs Inter MilanLevante vs Rubin KazanBasel vs ZenitSteaua Bucharest vs ChelseaFirst legs to be played on 7 March 2013Second legs to be played on 14 March 2013

Last 8 Draw:Chelsea vs Rubin KazanTottenham vs BaselFenerbahce vs LazioBenfica vs LazioThe first leg will be played on Thursday 4th April, 8.05pm UK time at Stamford Bridge.The second leg will be played on Thursday 11th April April, 5pm UK time at Luzhniki Stadium.

Semi Final Draw:Fenerbahce vs BenficaBasel vs Chelsea The first leg will be played on Thursday 25th April, 8.05pm UK time at St. Jakob Park. The second leg will be played on Thursday 2nd May, 8.05pm UK time at Stamford Bridge.

Final:Benfica vs ChelseaThe match will be played on 15th May (Wednesday) at the Amsterdam Arena and it will kick off at 7.45pm UK time.

Kudos great call Hope you stuck some money on it

[Muzchap 8,966]

5 Sun 16:00 Man Utd A PREM Sky

8 Wed 19:45 Tottenham H PREM Sky

11 Sat 12:45 Aston Villa A PREM Sky

15 Wed 19:45 Benfica N UEFA

19 Sun 16:00 Everton H PREM

Fucks sake we have 2 x games in 3 days and 2 x games in 4 days!

Hope we have completed our Top 4 ambitions by the time we play Benfica as Everton on final day is going to be tough - 9 points against Utd, Spuds and Villa should be good enough

[YouNameIt 1,511]

Your last couple of predictions have been horrifically shit, so let's hope you're right for a change!

I will make you a Moderator if you're right this time.

Really? I did predict the 2-0 against Swansea.

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/15936-chelsea-v-swansea/?p=657305

[Kojo 4,676]

Really? I did predict the 2-0 against Swansea.

http://forum.talkchelsea.net/topic/15936-chelsea-v-swansea/?p=657305

You said Chelsea would come first in the league, then it would be City, then Spurs then United 4th...

I noticed how you removed that off your sig too.

[nachikethas 1,149]

You said Chelsea would come first in the league, then it would be City, then Spurs then United 4th...

I noticed how you removed that off your sig too.

ha ha.lol.

no offense but your PL predictions was weird younameit.