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On December 11 2014 22:11 clusen wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2014 09:39 Mensol wrote:
I hope Juventus does well in knock-out round. It's been four years since we had Italian team in semi finals/finals.
I really would like to see Juventus playing semi final or even finals. They have tools to beat any team out there.
I don't know what happened to them last season, but they probably would have made it into the semis the season before if they didn't meet Bayern in the quarters. They were really strong that year!
They got Drogba'd last season 
On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zuctFsb.jpg) why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest.
I think you shouldnt put Juventus on same tier with Leverkusen and Schalke. I dont think Juventus is worse team than Arsenal or MCity..
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On December 11 2014 22:20 Pandemona wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. -snip- Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. This is how i see it. I don't give crap if we get PSG Dortmund or whatever, we have to play them eventually this is the biggest competition in the world against the best teams. I'll happily take a Barcelona over a Leverkusen/Monaco as well. Those the games you can't "get up for" and become boring and stale. Also potential slip ups if they take eye off the ball.
You also have to remember that this starts in February.
That's a solid 2 months away.
Not only will most/all injuries be recovered from, but you have the winter transfer window and the winter break to deal with.
Many of these "easy" opponents may be quite frightening come February.
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2 red cards for KOB on first half? :D
This evening is turning out to be a catastrophy...
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Oh well, there's always next year.
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lol another power outage in Turkey
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http://gfycat.com/GiftedVengefulArkshell
Hands down the craziest play I've see in the box.
Europa League pot 1 teams:
Gladbach, Club Brugge, Besiktas, Red Bull Salzburg, Dinamo Moscow, Inter, Feyenoord, Everton, Napoli, Dynamo Kyiv, Fiorentina, Legia Warsaw
Pot 2 teams:
Villarreal, Torino, Tottenham, Celtic, PSV, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Sevilla, Wolfsburg, Young Boys, AaB, Guingamp, Trabzonspor
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Norway28916 Posts
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Omg, Legia got out of their group with 5 wins and 1 loss, that's awesome, considering they gotta be the weakest team in the whole Europa League group stage! Hopefull they won't meet some Champions League dropout team in the coming round.
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Pandemona
Charlie Sheens House51493 Posts
Champions League & Europa League Draws - Monday 15th December @ 11:00 GMT (+00:00)
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On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:Show nested quote +On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest.
Based on the way their games panned out Basel put in a much stronger showing against top quality opposition than Shalke and Leverkusen did.
They also play very nice football so I would put them above the current Schalke and Leverkusen.
Juve also falls in the higher bracket for me.
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Netherlands13554 Posts
On December 12 2014 15:44 ViperPL wrote:
Omg, Legia got out of their group with 5 wins and 1 loss, that's awesome, considering they gotta be the weakest team in the whole Europa League group stage! Hopefull they won't meet some Champions League dropout team in the coming round.
From what I've seen from Legia is that they are hardly the weakest team in the Europa League  . Looks like a good team to me!
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On December 12 2014 19:46 Rebs wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest. Based on the way their games panned out Basel put in a much stronger showing against top quality opposition than Shalke and Leverkusen did. They also play very nice football so I would put them above the current Schalke and Leverkusen. Juve also falls in the higher bracket for me.
Schalke are pretty meh, but Leverkusen can play awesome football on good days. They could certainly beat the likes of Liverpool, too.
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Netherlands13554 Posts
I think anyone still in the Europa league can beat Liverpool, especially the teams from pot 1 which they'll be playing against.
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On December 12 2014 23:39 Maenander wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2014 19:46 Rebs wrote:On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest. Based on the way their games panned out Basel put in a much stronger showing against top quality opposition than Shalke and Leverkusen did. They also play very nice football so I would put them above the current Schalke and Leverkusen. Juve also falls in the higher bracket for me. Schalke are pretty meh, but Leverkusen can play awesome football on good days. They could certainly beat the likes of Liverpool, too.
Yeah when I said quality opposition I didnt really count Liverpool.
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On December 12 2014 23:39 Maenander wrote:
Schalke are pretty meh, but Leverkusen can play awesome football on good days. They could certainly beat the likes of Liverpool, too.
Leverkusen has a lot of talent but they are also the princes of choking.
Maybe they get their shit together, but I don't see it happening.
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They also don't defend very well and will be missing their best CB (Ömer Toprak) for the first leg.
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On December 13 2014 00:40 clusen wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2014 23:39 Maenander wrote:
Schalke are pretty meh, but Leverkusen can play awesome football on good days. They could certainly beat the likes of Liverpool, too. Leverkusen has a lot of talent but they are also the princes of choking. Maybe they get their shit together, but I don't see it happening.
As a Bundesliga watcher i have to agree, if schalke doesnt draw monaco and leverkusen porto they wont stand a chance against the other group winners. I thought with schmidt leverkusen maybe come over their choking internationally, but till now thats not the case.
If they draw atletico there might be some tension in the second leg, i will give them that..
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On December 12 2014 19:46 Rebs wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest. Based on the way their games panned out Basel put in a much stronger showing against top quality opposition than Shalke and Leverkusen did. They also play very nice football so I would put them above the current Schalke and Leverkusen. Juve also falls in the higher bracket for me.
Basel didn't really face higher opposition. They faced Ludogorets and Liverpool, aside from their losses to RM.
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On December 13 2014 03:00 Stratos_speAr wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2014 19:46 Rebs wrote:On December 12 2014 00:24 Black Gun wrote:On December 11 2014 21:31 Rebs wrote:On December 11 2014 16:19 MajuGarzett wrote:On December 11 2014 15:55 ViperPL wrote:
Aw damn, City made it through, well good for them. I bet they pray to get Monaco or Porto in the next round. How does that even work, every group winner can have any 2nd place team assigned to them or are there some restrictions?
I'm really happy Milik scored for Ajax, he's having awesome season for them, 17 goals in 16 games across all competitions.
And for all the disapointment and questionable performances their teams provided in group stage Germany has the most teams in ro16 with 4. Not bad. No team can vs a team from their group or country in the round of 16 I think. There might be some other restrictions due to TV as well. Those are the only 2 restrictions. Generally and im to lazy to do the math and someone will do it anyway, your chances of playing a tougher team if you placed second get higher if you have fewer teams in general qualfiying from your country becauase it will narrow the opponents top teams can draw. So with more German teams qualifying Bayern or Dortmund (although since Dortmund is piss poor at the moment it actually might not that be that bad) and a trio of spaniards second place teams are kind a fucked because of the large pool of tough opposition they can draw. Thing is, usually group winners are quite scary. This year not so much. Plenty of favorable match-ups like Porto, Monaco and Dortmund for runner ups. Teams will feel unlucky to draw tougher opposition. Then again its the Champions league. You have to be able to beat anyone so no one should be cribbing much. Edit: there we go.. why does real have a higher probability to face against schalke than leverkusen according to that table? edit: figured it out myself, its because schalke had an english team in their group while leverkusen had a french team advancing with them. otherwise, i agree. bayern real chelsea barca (in no particular order) are certainly the top4 teams in the world right now, pretty much every 2nd place team will want to avoid them. atletico is a tough one, but i feel like they are slightly weaker than last year. (but still reallly strong...) dortmund is a team that can be ridiculously strong on a good day (cf 2nd leg against real last season), but they havent really had such a "top" day in a long time. but they might get their game together till the ro16. porto and monaco certainly the weakest group winners. among the second place teams, psg, city and arsenal are standing out. schalke, leverkusen and juve are in the middle and basel and shaktar probably the weakest. Based on the way their games panned out Basel put in a much stronger showing against top quality opposition than Shalke and Leverkusen did. They also play very nice football so I would put them above the current Schalke and Leverkusen. Juve also falls in the higher bracket for me. Basel didn't really face higher opposition. They faced Ludogorets and Liverpool, aside from their losses to RM.
Yea but the showings were stronger against RM.
RM is about high as opposition gets and yes they lost but they didnt look embarrasingly bad. Point being its a stable consistent team. So that would be a harder matchup for me as a group winner then say a Leverkusen who have a higher ceiling potentially but are pretty inconsistent at this level and have the ability to lose a tie in one leg.
Also Ludogrets. Pretty decent about as much as a Benfica,, maybe even Lisbon. well above your Maribor's and Borisov's
But thats just my opinion.
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EPT
