How's he doing Notso ?? He's the youngster I was telling PNP to remember the name and keep an eye out for.
Wolfsburg highlights... [video=youtube;XRXnxrxESh4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRXnxrxESh4&[/video] You weren't kidding about us wasting some easy chances Spurcat and I'm not sure what our keeper was trying to achieve for the penalty. 2 lovely goals though, very intelligent assist for the second.
Evening mate He was being used on the right, did ok, but I wouldn't say its his favourite place out there! but when the play dictates and he finds himself in the centre with the ball, quick feet, very neat and tidy, good first touch and holds his man off well so has strength, surprised he's only 15, he looks a lump, in an athletic way of course, that or the Welsh are shrimps! He's made a good first impression on me. I was hoping you'd bite on the Billy Nick thread! Still can't get a pm to you??
Pritchard really does look like he's on another level, from those highlights. That run to earn the free-kick for the first goal was immense, resulting in a rather brutal hack and his composure for the second was impressive, though the pass to him was excellent. Two really cheaply conceded goals, though. A naive bit of defending after some poor ball control for the first and the right-back failing to stay level with his teammates for the second. You can tell by their reaction to the equaliser that they knew they shouldn't have been in it. You'd have thought that they'd won the whole tournament.
Yeah, Pritchard looks too good to play at that level really. Looking at our remaining fixtures I still think we're well placed. Anderlecht is obviously the crunch match and if we win that we're pretty much home and dry given how poor Wolfsburg have been I can't see them getting more than a draw against Barca. Elsewhere it's interesting to see Arsenal and Dortmund starting slowly as they've produced a lot of talent in recent years and Chelsea is a surprise too as they've spent the last few seasons buying up all the talent they can at smaller clubs.
Anderlecht game : Sunny winter day outside in Enfield. I assume the training pitches have undersoil heating for at least one pitch. London airports were fog-bound yesterday, so tis possible that the Anderlecht team were not able to travel. I am checking around for info as to if/when the game is announced as cancelled. And finally, the reason we should have beat Wolfsburg the other month ... NextGeneration ‏@NextGenSeries Chelsea will qualify with a draw/win against Ajax in Amsterdam or if Anderlecht or Liverpool do not win their final game.
Worst performance I've seen by far from the Nextgen squad. First half was so-so. Second half was very poor. No CM creativity throughout the match. Their number 9 (very Gazza-esque IMHO) was a real handful in the 2nd half (he won the penalty - thought the Spurs GK might have got a red) . And their number 5 too. And when it came to chasing the game, Anderlecht were not broken down. And more a case of big kids vs little kids in the challenges (Spurs players were nearly always out-muscled or lost control of the ball in the contact) .
If the Poool don't win their game against Inter, Spurs appear to qualify via being in the 'next best four' group.
Even if Liverpool win wouldn't we still go through with the best 4 3rd placers because Marseille and City are both worse 3rd place finishers?
There are reports that we're through already, so I think that you're right, YV. Certainly looks that way to me, judging by the tables.
Just got back from this game and yet again we saw a game of missed opportunities by us. We really should have been at least a goal ahead at half-time, but failed to put our chances away.Then in the second half, the same old story of the visitors taking theirs and making us rue what might have been and what should have been. The reality is that this team blew a decent chance of qualifying automatically and I suspect one or two thought that after winning in Barcelona, all they had to do was turn up today. True we missed the guile and creativity which Alex Pritchard gives us, but overall it remains a disappointing performance and result. Indeed only a very generous act of leniency from the referee kept our goalkeeper Vigoroux on the pitch. I was at the Chelsea v Ajax NextGen game yesterday, and if we had shown half the appetite for todays game that those two side showed, we would have won comfortably.
"Even if Liverpool win wouldn't we still go through with the best 4 3rd placers because Marseille and City are both worse 3rd place finishers?" Yes (doh) . I will try to blame my general bad mood over this game on the error. The training centre is nice though.
