Re: Who will win the Champions League this year?

by Forza Mon Sep 07, 2015 3:57 am

Don't call me James wrote:In terms which team I think should have retained the CL since the renaming, it has to be Ancelotti's Milan. Not only retaining once but consecutively retaining. From 2003-2007 they were *bleep* scary in Europe.

Dida, Maldini, Nesta, Costacurta, Stam, Cafu, Serginho, Gattuso, Seedorf, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Rui Costa, Kaka, Rivaldo, Shevchenko, Crespo, Inzaghi, Dahl Tomasson with the few exceptions were all mainstays in that team during their primes. How *bleep* more stacked could you possibly get?

- 02-03 they win

- 03-04 they let a 4-1 lead from the first leg slip away in the quarters to Super Depor. It was glorious to myself and neutrals of course, the banter was unreal. Should have easily won that year. They were better than any team in Europe. Would have dispatched Porto or Monaco quite easily imo.

- 04-05 I don't even have to tell you about Istanbul. Biggest choke in all of sports history.

- 05-06 completely outplayed Barca in the semi at San Siro, yet they somehow managed to lose. That Barca team wasn't as well balances as the Milan side. That first leg result killed them. there was no way they could win at the Camp Nou.

- 07-06 they win.

Honestly should have won 5 in a row.

Those were the days Proud

Spoiler:

The greatest FIFA team of all time :bow:

by Gil Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:12 am

Lmao forgot how overpowered players used to be pre FIFA 08.

by El Gunner Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:40 am

Since we're at it, I think we would've done one over Milan if they reached the final in '06 instead of Barca.

by S Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:57 am

Being *bleep* scary in Europe helps when your only objective every year is competing and winning the Champions league.

Barça competed or compete every year for a treble in their dominant years and even now.In literal sense, Guardiola's Barça were probably the 'scariest' team to face in the Champions league era and if we're talking about hypotheticals then yeah, they should've retained it on two occasions.But football doesn't always work like that.
Sometimes some small moments decide the whole outcome of a result.

by jibers Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:31 am

I cannot say who will win but depending on the draws I expect the front runners to be Barcelona, Bayern and Madrid, with Atleti PSG and perhaps City challenging for that dark horse spot.

by The Franchise Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:44 am

Hapless_Hans wrote:
The Franchise wrote:
I would pick Bayern by their midfield options are a bit weak for my taste. Either they are needed some place else (Lahm, Alaba), too young (Gaudinho), too old (Alonso) or not quite good enough (Rode). Thiago may get hurt again for all we know and its probably too much to rely so heavily on the new guy (Vidal) in Pep's mentally demanding philosophy.

I also dont think it helps its not totally clear who the best 11 are and how they fit together.

I do not disagree, but just would like to point out that Pep has stopped rating Gaudino for some reason. The kid has been demoted to the 2nd team.

The new youngster in the mix is Joshua Kimmich who's 20.

Didnt know that. Kimmich is your player or signed from somewhere else?

by Kick Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:47 am

The Franchise wrote:Didnt know that. Kimmich is your player or signed from somewhere else?

Signed from the Red Bull team in Germany.

by The Franchise Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:47 am

Forza wrote:
The Franchise wrote:Barca have everything they need to win, clear game plan, star players, defensive solidarity and offensive fire power.

However, I believe more in the fact no team has ever retained a CL.

I would pick Bayern by their midfield options are a bit weak for my taste. Either they are needed some place else (Lahm, Alaba), too young (Gaudinho), too old (Alonso) or not quite good enough (Rode). Thiago may get hurt again for all we know and its probably too much to rely so heavily on the new guy (Vidal) in Pep's mentally demanding philosophy.

I also dont think it helps its not totally clear who the best 11 are and how they fit together.

I truly dont know who wins. Not that I ever do.

I believe more in the fact that it is extremely difficult to retain the CL back-to-back than some kind of curse. The re-naming of the tournament is a bit of a cop-out considering that there were some great teams that achieved the feat of winning the European Cup multiple times in a row. Nevertheless, it's not like this is a common occurrence in recent history...

You have to go back 25 years to 1988-89 and 1989-90 for the last back-to-back winner (Milan) and a further decade back to 1978–79 and 1979-80 to the second-most-recent back-to-back winner (Nottingham Forest).

Bizarrely, the 70s were the golden-age of back-to back winners. Nottingham Forest's double in the late 70s was immediately preceded by Liverpool's victories in 1976–77 and 1977–78, which was immediately preceded by Bayern Munich's three in a row in 1973-76; which was immediately preceded by Ajax's three in a row from 1970-73. Indeed, every single EC in the 70s was won by a team that had multiple EC victories that decade.

The 60s and 50s also see back-to-back victories for Inter and Benfica, and Real Madrid's 5 in a row.

European football has obviously become much more competitive at the top levels since the 50s. I would argue that the increase in competition has naturally resulted in a reduction in the number of back-to-back victories. Another factor behind this is likely to be that it is much more difficult to keep a team together for successive seasons in modern football. Big money transfers for top players who are in their prime to European competitors are no longer uncommon. This has made it even more difficult to keep an elite team together.

It is impossible to definitively draw a line where "old football" ends and "modern football" begins because modern football is continually changing and moving forward. However, what we can say is that going back-to-back post-1980 is, statistically, at least, a more difficult feat than it was in previous decades.

I dont believe in some kinda curse, im not into those kinds of things. Just think its too hard to even win it once. When you win 1 CL, you require the quality (which is hard itself obviously) but you need some kind of luck on the way. Someone gets injured, the ref makes a favourable decision, anything really.

As for the "European cup" thats another debate for another day, but I did say Champions League for a reason.

by Hapless_Hans Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:59 am

Kick wrote:
The Franchise wrote:Didnt know that. Kimmich is your player or signed from somewhere else?
Signed from the Red Bull team in Germany.

Belonged to Stuttgart but was on loan to 2nd BuLi team RB Leipzig. Cost quite much, 8m € I think.
Played as a starter in the U21 Euros.

Could imagine Pep will give him some decent time.

In fact, Pep almost started a row with Nigel De Jong at half time, after De Jong fouled Kimmich in the Milan preseason game and he had to come off after 20 minutes.

by Forza Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:32 pm

That incident with De Jong is the only reason I know Kimmich.

by Valkyrja Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:43 pm

Gil wrote:Lmao forgot how overpowered players used to be pre FIFA 08.

Walcott had 98 potential in 07 Laughing

by Hapless_Hans Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:54 pm

Forza wrote:That incident with De Jong is the only reason I know Kimmich.

It wasn't that bad a foul tbh

by Hapless_Hans Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:28 pm

Winter is Coming wrote:The problem I have with this is we don't bring it up as much as others do, did we get favourable calls? Yes, of course we did, but the gif Harmonica posted are you saying that couldn't have been a PK

If that was converted and we had headed to Stamford Bridge with a 1 - 0 lead whats to say the game would've ended the way it did?

Barca fans don't bring up Chelsea being undeserved winners in 2012?
Don't make me laugh.

As for the gif, that's the thing you come up with? Some soft pen from the first leg?
Yes, that maybe could've been a penalty. Quite possibly. It looks like a dive though.

But we're talking about the second leg.
Chelsea got robbed.
Barca got gifted the final by the referee.

There's no way Barca would've made it to the final without an absolutely, inconceivably, blatantly and outrageously bad and one-sided refereeing performance.

Because a simple bad ref performance wouldn't have sufficed, Chelsea would still have been expected to have, say, 1 or 2 pens awarded from the 4 hundred percent ones and the other 2 debatable ones they were denied.

Barca didn't have a single good goalscoring opportunity the whole game, until the goal.
They had their first half-chance after an hour.

Chelsea were the rightful winners, and it took a ref so blatantly bad to deny them that one can't help but suspect it too be fishy even if it wasn't.

That's why I said. Some humility wouldn't hurt.

by Kaladin Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:36 pm

Something something Nesta dubiously sent off in camp nou, 2 penalties something something

by Harmonica Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:44 pm

El Shaarawy wrote:Something something Nesta dubiously sent off in camp nou, 2 penalties something something

Still remember how the Uefa rats tried to hand the tie to Milan in the first leg. Mad

Who will win the Champions League this year? - Page 4 UAk1KRY

Who will win the Champions League this year? - Page 4 Ie8mToQ

Who will win the Champions League this year? - Page 4 L62V5ax

"I see no fouls or penaldos here." hmm

Against only 2/4 clear penalties given, why? Because Uefa tries artificially even the games against Barcelona.

Thank god Messi decided to slap Uefa, Milan and corruption with the foot of justice once again. :bow:

by Kaladin Mon Sep 07, 2015 2:50 pm

Thank God Chelsea won that CL

by Myesyats Mon Sep 07, 2015 3:02 pm

Harmonica might be crazy but he's the only one backing up his claims.

Others just spout BS according to their preferences. Keep it up.

by LeVersacci Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:32 pm

El Shaarawy wrote:Thank God Chelsea won that CL

ffs

by izzy Mon Sep 07, 2015 5:23 pm

linetty wrote:Harmonica might be crazy but he's the only one backing up his claims.

Others just spout BS according to their preferences. Keep it up.

Who will win the Champions League this year? - Page 4 E4pSQfS

by Gil Mon Sep 07, 2015 5:27 pm

El Shaarawy wrote:Thank God Chelsea won that CL

Who will win the Champions League this year? - Page 4 LqTiF4t

Que injusticia!

Absolute state of these fans, Henry falling over by himself justifies almost 5 good years of corruption in their eyes.

by El Gunner Mon Sep 07, 2015 5:39 pm

lol at the 4 people who are lying to themselves saying Arsenal will win it.

by Raptorgunner Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:09 pm

El Gunner wrote:lol at the 4 people who are lying to themselves saying Arsenal will win it.

We know you are #5 on the voting list. :bow:

by El Gunner Mon Sep 07, 2015 11:31 pm

unfortunately not.
Voted for Bayern Munchen

by S Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:21 am

Raptorgunner wrote:
El Gunner wrote:lol at the 4 people who are lying to themselves saying Arsenal will win it.

We know you are #5 on the voting list.

by Kaladin Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:45 am

Very surprised that Arsenal didn't top this poll

by VendettaRed07 Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:51 am

If we are on the poll, then Malmö should be on there too. Odds are about the same tbh

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