How much was Ramos paid to insult us in the press? Or was it just done for enjoyment. I hope he enjoys his trip back to Ukraine!
Wouldn't be surprised if Levy put in an appearance to wave their team bus as it leaves for the long trip home...
Some decent teams left in it. Valencia, Napoli, Porto, Lyon, Sevilla, Betis, Fiorentina, Juventus and of course our opponents Benfica. Anzhi have progressed too, somewhat bizarrely, given that they've yet to win a single league game this season. Our old mates Lazio were knocked out by Ludogorets Razgrad, though.
Hope Ramos gets home.Looks like the Ruskkies didn't like the idea of freedom in the Ukraine......they may be waiting at the airport with tanks........
Back from the Lane and browsing some of the comments above, its funny how some things look different from pitch side - and others the same...... I thought we were dire in the first half - no cohesion or understanding anywhere in the pitch. Obvious improvement eventually, but we were once again saved by Ade and a mighty dose of self-destruction from Dnipro. Dembele was again poor, Eriksen ok and got an important goal, but still looking a lightweight and Townsend looking lively, but failing to deliver anything of note. Can we please find someone to actually cross the f**king ball!!!! The defence again looked painfully slow at times and made worse by playing two immobile fullbacks. Naughton produced another stunning performance of mediocrity and as for Friars.... He was even worse, which in itself is quite an achievement!! Soldado worked hard, but looks exactly what he is - a player bereft of any confidence. He surely has to get a few lucky breaks at some point. As for the opposition, they ultimately got what their cheating and time wasting deserved: sweet f**k all. Not sure if it was picked up on telly, but their forwards repeatedly 'targeted' defenders mid-jump, making no attempt to get the ball but likely to cause injury. (Dawson against Stevenage incident, if anyone remembers that) And the fact that they were allowed to get away with all this was down to one of the worst officiating displays I have ever witnessed. Haven't seen the sending off video yet, but it is ironic that that decision in our favour actually changed the game our way!!! Not sure if it's incompetence or something more sinister...... Final word for JD - he got one helluva send-off.
Not long in, I kind of echo the above, our problem for Eriksen and Dembele 1st half was that every time they turned left, there was no option...just wilderness! all down the right and middle, rather easy for anyone to defend against if your opponent is only interested in half the pitch. Who was supposed to be on the left side of midfield.....Eriksen! so he should not have looked so surprised to find no-one out there! Thankfully he found a solution to the problem he created! He cannot do that in the PL though. Remove that and I thought he played well, covered some yards back toward our goal too, determined effort which I was pleased to see, didn't quite catch his man but was close enough to not give him time, and going forward our best stuff came through him it seemed. Thought it was gone at 2 zip down on agg., so to turn that round is good, but we were given a helping hand. Other sides won't be so kind, particularly that list further up! if we don't improve though, Benfica is as far as we go.
WUM of the year must go to JV though. He wound up that tosser with pushes, shoves, the odd elbow and a few ankle taps until the dude lost his cool. Then folded in front of the ref following a pretty hand-bagish head butt. Top marks JV, HAIG would have been proud of you.
Yeah, it was a nothing coming together. But, Vertonghen made sure the ref was looking and then hit the deck like a sack of cement....
To the few ignorant people visiting the board that think that because the headbutt wasn't very strong it wasn't a sending off: you need to learn the rules. If he had attempted to headbutt, slap, punch, kick etc another player/ref/lino and COMPLETELY MISSED then it is still a red card.
Hear, hear. Was a nailed on sending off which Vertonghen got by winding the defender up. Not a tactic I like, but the ref was spot on with that one.
The irony is that Zozulya was the one conning the officials and trying to wind up Vertonghen in the first half, which clearly riled the Belgian. Dnipro won a free-kick in a fairly dangerous area because of the Ukrainian. He grabbed the defender's arm, tussled with him and then threw himself to the ground, which the ref bought. I thought that Vertonghen's reaction was going to get him a booking, but he just got a talking to. They carried on with it all night, til the headbutt.
Nobody's said it wasn't a red, just that Vertonghen wound the guy up and then made very minimal contact look like he'd been poleaxed. I've no doubt that any of their players would have done the same in Vertonghen's position...
In the first half the wannabe Chelsea player elbowed Verts a couple of times before hitting to deck to win a free kick, which clearly riled him.
Considering how it is cheating to buy players with money you don't have, that means 1898 supports the biggest cheats in Premier League history...
Alright lads, Chances of an Eriksen start this weekend, after his start and goal last night? How did he play, in general? And what did he do to upset those upstairs!? Was hoping for big things from this guy!
