The General Football Thread

Basel ahead on the night!

 

What sort of team did City put out?

 

I do enjoy watching this Juve side.

 

Spurs choke under the pressure.

 

Great game.

Hope juve win it for buffon.

 

The sort of one we could do with playing on the last day.

 

Me too, so pleased for Buffon.

City put out a fairly strong side but no Aguero, Dave, Kev, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Kompany, or Ederson. Sane was magical for their goal, but they didn’t press the way they normally do and Stones and La Porte were fairly ****.

 

As Juve and Real have demonstrated, there is no substitute to the experience and know-how they provide at CLlevel. Juve just knew when to deliver the deadly blows, while Real knew how to handle PSG.

Only possibility of a new name on the trophy is City, Roma, Shaktar, or Sevilla, who I hope can knock out Manchester United with a team that has been put together at a cost considerably less than SFC, never mind those Red Devils

 

Here is an excerpt from the Lincoln article with the whole article linked below that:

His solution is to allow Premier League B teams into the Football League on the basis that the players can play competitive football in front of larger crowds like they do in Spain. He adds that Barcelona and Real Madrid's B teams play in front of 40,000 to 45,000.

The Telegraph journalist appeared not to question this or conduct any checks to confirm Guardiola's bold statement.

Guess what?

The average attendance last season at FC Barcelona B was 1,656, whilst Real Madrid Castilla pulled in a huge average of 1,208. As the panel above clearly shows, the players are not playing in front of large crowds at all, even away from home, and are clearly a long way short of top-flight playing ability. Only two B teams currently play above the third tier, where the average attendance last season was a mere 1,503.

In case anyone thinks these numbers are deliberately selective, average attendances for other Spanish Liga B teams include Sevilla (1,806), Villareal (1,200), Espanyol (1,087) Athletic Bilbao (911), Real Sociedad (639) and Granada (381).


http://www.lincoln.vitalfootball.co.uk/sitepage.asp?a=520167


EDIT: Word for word he said it (linked below.) He quite literally states that Barcelona B play in front of crowds 1.5x that of the Saints in the PL.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...manager-pep-guardiola-calls-premier-league-b/

 

Last week he said "goals change games."

 

They blend a few dark arts with the finer skills of the game, in both defence and attack.

 

England Ladies needed a draw v USA to win the Shebelieves Cup, but lost to an og sadly. A first run out for Phil Neville.

 

Big learning curve for Spurs and Poch last night. Still lacking that winning mentality a bit for me.

 

Agreed. Experience won that tie.

 

"Vital goal for Arsenal"... Yes, and for Saints too.

 

Why for Saints?

 

The two legs of the QFs are the Thursdays either side of our trip to the Emirates.

 

I almost asked that myself, but as it's Brendy I assumed that was the case

 

Oh right, hadn’t thought that far ahead! Clutching at straws, but if Arsenal are concentrating on the EL, that does give us a sniff of a chance there.

 

I think it's slightly more than straw clutching. I certainly think more noise should be made about it than the amount of times I hear people talking about the possibility of City putting a weakened side out on the last day ahead of the CL final.

Arsenal are gone from the top four race, it's over. They're out of both cups. Their entire season is the EL now. Hence Wenger going to strong right now. I can see him leaving out almost the entire team against us if they make it to the QFs (and the first leg isn't horribly one-sided); treat the match against us almost like a League Cup game for them. And Arsenal's second string is not City's second string!