General Football/Soccer Talk

[SoF'nAwesome]

lolz at gif Yo Phil89 where do you get those?

How hilarious is it that ManC got knocked out by Wigan again? A curse of some sort?

Anyway, rooting for ManC to pull through against a broken Barca. Also, I don't get how ManC played 3 games less than Chelsea in EPL. Feels last week when they were all equal.

And rooting for Wigan in the FA cup.

[Phil89]

A curse named Demichelis No idea why they went cheap and got him instead of buying a good young defender.

The gifs just come from the internet. If something funny or weird happens in football it usually turns up on twitter or other forums.

[Phil89]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26555473

Former Manchester City defender Danny Mills believes the club need to "spend big" on defenders if they are to compete at the top level.

City were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona thanks in part to defensive errors from Martin Demichelis and Joleon Lescott.

"Everyone City player is top drawer apart from the centre-half that plays alongside Vincent Kompany," said Mills.

"They have all the money in the world but have not bought the right player."

Demichelis, a £4.2m summer signing, conceded a penalty and was sent off in the first leg before Lescott, who cost the club £22m in 2009, was dispossessed by Lionel Messi to open the scoring in Spain. City lost 4-1 on aggregate.

This came after Demichelis also conceded a penalty on Sunday as City were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Wigan Athletic.

Mills, speaking as a BBC Radio 5 live pundit, added: "City should have gone out and spent £20m on a quality centre-half, not the £4m they spent on Martin Demichelis.

"You need to pay for quality. They should have spent big, they knew they had big important games coming up but they did not address it."

Hundreds of millions spent on this squad but most of it has been on midfielders and attackers. I expect them to be back in for Mangala from Porto in the Summer after they supposedly almost signed him in January.

-----

Bad news for Arsenal after going out of the champions league. Both Wilshere and Ozil injured and could miss 6 weeks each. That is a big blow for their title hopes. They play Spurs, Chelsea and City in the next few weeks as well. Could help Liverpool get third spot.


I'm excited for the Man Utd match this weekend. Liverpool should win if you look at form, but I think Utd will throw everything at us given that it's being played at Old Trafford. Should be a good contest.

[shadowgrin]

SONUVABITCH.

If Arsenal's chances hopelessly dwindle away while Ozil is out might as well cheer for Liverpool, fuck City and Chelsea.

[SoF'nAwesome]

I was disappointed in ManC. But I think the whole "defenders fault" thing is over-rated. If Aguero is on full form along with some of the guys in the midfield, they are just another team. This is all piling up just because they lost.

Must be a horrific time for Demichelis though

Both Wilshere and Ozil injured and could miss 6 weeks each. That is a big blow for their title hopes.

Phil be funny

I'm excited for the Man Utd match this weekend. Liverpool should win if you look at form, but I think Utd will throw everything at us given that it's being played at Old Trafford. Should be a good contest.

Phil be hilarious

It ain't Old Trafford anymore. It's the Moyes Jungle.

[Phil89]

I expect us to win, but nothing is certain in games against big rivals. They always raise their playing level in these games.

The last time we won at Old Trafford was 2009. We have lost the four matches since. That run should end now though with Moyes in charge.

[Phil89]

Well that was nice.

We should all remember this day, when a visiting team got 3 penalties at Old Trafford. Would never have happened if Ferguson was still in charge

[SoF'nAwesome]

I'm not sure, but if Gerrard scored all of them, would it have been the first hat-trick through penalties?

I caught the Barca game. DAYUM! Messi was truly the Little Magician. Don't remember when it was the last I saw him dominate like that.

And EPL gets more dramatic with Chelsea losing. What say Phil? How do you like them Livpool chances?

[Phil89]

In the Premier League? Yes, I think so. I heard there was another Liverpool player who scored 3 penalties in one of the cup competitions ages ago though.


I feel like Liverpool need to win every remaining game to have a shot at the title.

Cardiff (A) - Relegation team. Should win.
Sunderland (H) - Relegation team. Should win.
Tottenham (H) - Beat them 5-0 at their ground. Should win at Anfield.
West Ham (A) - Not the best place for us to travel. Should grind out a win.
Man City (H) - Key game.
Norwich (A) - Suarez always scores a hat-trick against them. Should win.
Chelsea (H) - Key game.
C.Palace (A) - Relegation team. Should win.
Newcastle (H) - We always beat Newcastle at Anfield. Should win.

The toughest games are City and Chelsea. We have a great record at Anfield this season though - 12 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss - 42 goals scored, 12 conceded.

It's still a long shot. Chelsea and City are the favourites at this point.

[Phil89]

Moyes keeps his job for another couple of weeks with that win.

ESPN FC ‏@ESPNFC 52 mins
Best of the best: This is the first time that all eight group winners advanced to the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.

Barcelona, Manchester United, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich

Will be some great match-ups for the rest of the competition. As a neutral I'd love to see Atletico win it. Just for a change.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Sorry for the late reply here...

Nice summary you did there with the Liverpool fixtures. The Livpool that beat Tottenham 5-0 is not the same one right now. Kinda like ManC. They are not as hot as before. That Norwich summary though

One thing of hope for the Livpool fans is that the ManC matchups are way tougher. They face ManU, Arsenal & Liverpool. Chelsea has only Arsenal & Liverpool with the rest of being easy.

I was rooting for the Greek team there. Fuck RVP for scoring a hat trick. I caught the RMad game earlier this week. CR7 played awesome. I feel like good times ahead of RMad with the league & maybe CL.

lolz at whichever lucky team will get to face ManU.

[Phil89]

I had a quick look at the top 4 fixtures for the rest of the season. Liverpool need to win every single game and hope that Arsenal can draw against both Chelsea and City.

Chelsea - 1st - 66 points

8 games left

vs Arsenal - D
@ Crystal Palace - W
vs Stoke - W
@ Swansea - W
vs Sunderland - W
@ Liverpool - L
vs Norwich - W
@ Cardiff - W

19 points + 66 points = 85 points total

-----

Liverpool - 2nd - 62 points

9 games left

@ Cardiff - W
vs Sunderland - W
vs Tottenham - W
@ West Ham - W
vs Man City - W
@ Norwich - W
vs Chelsea - W
@ Crystal Palace - W
vs Newcastle - W

27 points + 62 points = 89 points

-----

Arsenal - 3rd - 62 points

@ Chelsea - D
vs Swansea - W
vs Man City - D
@ Everton - W
vs West Ham - W
@ Hull - W
vs Newcastle - W
vs West Brom - W
@ Norwich - W

23 points + 62 points = 85 points

-----

Man City - 4th - 60 points

vs Fulham - W
@ Man Utd - W
@ Arsenal - D
vs Southampton - W
@ Liverpool - L
vs Sunderland - W
vs West Brom - W
@ Crystal Palace - W
@ Everton - W
vs Aston Villa - W
vs West Ham - W

27 points + 60 points = 87 points

-----

LIV - 89
MCI - 87
CHE - 85
ARS - 85

It's very unlikely to win every game, but in 2009 Liverpool finished the season with 10 wins and 1 draw. I can dream

Honestly though I'd be very happy just to finish third this season so that we go straight into the group stages of the champions league.

That Norwich summary though

He does though. He scored 4 against them at Anfield this season and has scored a hat-trick on both of his last two visits to Norwich.

[Phil89]

Champions league quarter final draw:

Manchester United v Bayern Munich
Paris St-Germain v Chelsea
Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund
Barcelona v Atletico Madrid

Guardiola vs Moyes

[shadowgrin]

Pep seems like a nice guy, maybe he'll tell his players to just coast through the match once they are up 5-0.

[Phil89]

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/26686933

"Manchester United striker Robin van Persie will miss between four and six weeks with a sprained knee."

Oh dear

Pep seems like a nice guy, maybe he'll tell his players to just coast through the match once they are up 5-0.

Maybe he'll play his u18 team in the second leg.

[SoF'nAwesome]

That's quite an optimistic look at the season, Phil. You a true Liverpool dude. I don't expect Liverpool to win all of them. But it surely will be interesting. Finishing third is the worst thing that can happen to them this season. So, you should be happy...

I don't expect them to win against Tottenham & ManC.

lolz at the "D" for Arsenal against ManC & Chelsea

As for CL, I'm pretty excited that we might have a el clasico in the Semis. PSG & Bayern should be nice too. Or Barca can get hammered by Bayern like they did last time.

And calling 9-2 as a whole on the Bayern-ManU matchup

[Phil89]

That was just a best case scenario for Liverpool to win the league, not my prediction. Third place sounds good.

Champions league final, Real Madrid vs Bayern would be epic. Can you imagine the reaction if Guardiola beat Madrid

[stereoxide]

And Chelsea just raped Arsenal. Liverpool taking the Premier League is getting bleaker.

[SoF'nAwesome]

RMad Bayern would be epic. But without Mourinho, Guardiola is really boring.

BTW, just "wow" at the EPL matches today.

Cardiff City 3 -6 Liverpool
Man City 5-0 Fulham
Chelsea 6-0 Arsenal
ManU should win against West Ham as well.

Wengers' 1000th match

[shadowgrin]

Chelsea just raped Arsenal.

Arsenal's man of the match.. Me, for sitting and watching 90 minutes

Look on the bright side....at least it's not as bad as utd

[Phil89]

And Chelsea just raped Arsenal. Liverpool taking the Premier League is getting bleaker.

We are only 4 points behind, with a home game against Sunderland in hand. If we are still within a couple of points of Chelsea by the time they come to Anfield, we can overtake them with a win. We are unbeaten (9 wins, 2 draws) in 2014 and scoring for fun. Nothing bleak about it

Suarez is back in form. 3 goals and 1 assist against Cardiff. He's now 3 goals ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo as Europe's top scorer and he has got 8 games left to beat the all time premier league record of 34 in a season.

I wonder how badly Eto'o is injured. Could be a big loss for Chelsea.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Van Persie, Lewandowski, Eto'o-- what is happening to these Champions League strikers?

[Phil89]

Messi is back in form and helps Barcelona get a huge win in Madrid. Now there is only 1 point between the top 3 - Real (70), Atletico (70) and Barca (69).

English and Spanish league title races are so exciting this season, unlike Germany and Italy where Bayern and Juventus are way ahead.

[SoF'nAwesome]

I watched it live. Just woke up. 7 goals & 3 from penalties.

CR7 was out of the penalty box for the RMad penalty and the 2nd Barca penalty dive was hilarious. Sad that bad referring was a thing in such a key game. RMad would have still won though if it wasn't for Benzema.

Yep, Premiere League is more interesting though, especially your Liverpool predictions make it more interesting

I think if RMad doesn't go to batshit panic mode they will still be alright.

[stereoxide]

#CFC record v top four under Mourinho (2004-07, 2013-): P24 W14 D8 L2 F36 A13
#CFC v top four under others (2007-13): P38 W16 D6 L16 F53 A54
Something for Phil to get worried about. Though I think City will win it this season though I hate to see them win it. Especially if they win against United today.