Of course... But hopefully up into the round of 16 and not getting out of it by going to Europa. We have to be favourites, but it won't be easy.
They are infuriating, hope we’ve learnt a lesson not to play into their hands with their bullshit antics
If you shoot actually on target sometimes it help against them <OK> seriously though, its groups for points not knock out so 2 draws there is good. Milan we need to beat. They lost donnamura at the back and have giroud and zlatan up top. zo no pace. We need to beat them twice. I am assuming atletico will tear them up, er sorry grind them down to be more accurate. Porto is the kick in the teeth. This is imo a harder 3rd place team than we would like. Especially away. our record agasint them is good but they are a proper side. We need to beat them at anfield and draw away to secure 2nd. Again i could see them getting a result v atletico. In these groups you really want the other "seed" (thats what 1st and 2nd pots really are) to hockey the other teams and deny them points. However everyone could take points of everyone. 2-4-0 = 10 points and imo enough to top the group potentially. 3-3-0 = 12 and it in the bag. 1-4-1 = squeeky bum time.
Saint - are you disappointed we're playing big name teams in the CL? I know this was one of the reasons you were against the ESL
as a point however, did you not note how the pot allocations were done to actually ensure that we would have a ESL group phase in all but name. the guys on stage were prepped to bring it up time and again how good the games were going to be. Man city PSG Inter, Real Bayern, Barca Villa real v atlanta cheslea Juve Atletico Liverpool Dortmun v ajax they even tried to big up leipzig who are stripped of talent Benifca v barca and bayern as well. did you note how somehow due to some reason salsburg were not possible for our group so despite them not having any real reason ensured we had to end up with porto this is all getting people used to an ESL style group stage before 2024 when it'll be 10 games in the league portion for each club and it really will be ESL lite.
Why couldn’t they? They’re the only club from Austria? If you swap them and Porto then still only 1 club from each country in both those groups. Not like they went into sportings group or anything
something to do either with the tuesday v Wednesday thing or tv or something. they stated clearly cos i said to myself yes please when salzburg game out but they then said they could only go in two groups neither of which was ours. I don't know why still and it was very unclear. We were basically then assured of porto If we had got salzburg this group would be a straight forward beat AC milan and you are through in 2nd discussion.
oh and btw when we were drawn out by our mate ivanovic I noted that essien was there and as the balls were put in the bowl our went in first then the others a while later and essien basically isolated and homes on on our ball differently to others and pulled it. fix
Oh yeah the Tuesday Wednesday things rings a bell. Same way they have to split the English teams into each side of the draw etc.
Yeah but I was confused as to why a single Austrian team would then have to go to that side of the draw by rules.
Probably because Porto had to go in the other side to Sporting and if they went into Salzburg current group they’d have been same side to Sporting.
Apologies if it was already mentioned but it was announced that English teams playing in the Champions League on a Wednesday will no longer by involved in 12:30 Premier League kick-offs on Saturdays. I remember when Klopp was complaining about the fixture scheduling last season and Des Kelly from BT was giving him a hard time about it, along with all the other idiots like Gary Lineker, Jake Humphrey etc, saying that Klopp should stop moaning about it. Funny how the PL have agreed with Klopp's thoughts ...
Yeah someone mentioned that few days ago. Went quietly under the radar. Remember him and Ole getting slammed for it in the press but just so stupid. Always been reluctant to help our clubs in Europe when Spain Italy Germany all rearrange fixtures for their European clubs to avoid fatigue.
On similar note, Klopp and Ole been getting slammed last week for their comments on physicality and how need to be careful not to go too far the other way. funny thing is, was listening on talksport and had someone on (I think ironically it was des Kelly from BT) who was saying what klopp actually said was reasonable and wasn’t actually pinpointing anything from the Burnley game was more speaking in general how we have to be careful not to go too far, how still need to make sure players are protected, how was crazy the Brentford goal wasn’t a foul on Leno when player was holding his arm. All valid points and wasn’t really a rant. However Ole on the other hand saying how was a definite foul on Bruno (despite no one thinking so, even under last years more relaxed rules), and how football has gone from volleyball to rugby league in space of a season
We need to get Guilliani and Powell onto it. And that drunk woman from the hearings. please log in to view this image
Tbf, Des Kelly is not a bad guy. It was the way. Klopp unloaded onto him that was a bit shocking. The argument has been put by Ole, Pep and others as far back as Wenger. **** knows why it's taken this long to see common sense.
I didn't think Klopp was talking specifically about the Burnley game either when he was saying that the players need to be protected. He mentioned a couple of examples including the Leno one. They went straight to pitchside after he spoke and whatsisname Jake? immediately goes on the attack and surprisingly Crouch and Cole agreed with him. They forget that these managers aren't speaking in their native tongue and while both Klopp and OGS are fluent in English, they don't always get the nuances.
