Champions League QFs (11th - 19th April)

My predictions :
Real will win again, same as Monaco.
Lecister will win 1-0 and game reaches penalty kicks which Athletic will win
Barca will win but Juve will pass easily, though.
 
Hummels is nearly definitely out. Boateng will probably play, but likely he will be out of steam after one hour at max. Without Pep style domination of the midfield, to prevent attacks from even testing the defense, this will likely get ugly.
 
Hummels is nearly definitely out. Boateng will probably play, but likely he will be out of steam after one hour at max. Without Pep style domination of the midfield, to prevent attacks from even testing the defense, this will likely get ugly.
I just watched some footage of Bayern's training and Boateng looked way away from match fitness. So slow... I can't imagine Ancelotti playing him tonight.
 
I love Champions League football :drool:

Expecting Atletico to shut out Leicester tonight. This is the exact kind of game that they specialise in. They'll defend deep so that Vardy can't run in behind and they'll bag a goal themselves on the counter attack. I'll say 1-1.

Think Bayern have a fairly decent chance with Lewandowski back. They should have bagged more goals in the first leg and it was the sending off that killed them (although Madrid were starting to control the game just before that). I reckon it'll be 2-2 though with Madrid going through.

Fancy Juve to do a job on Barca. There'll be no replay of the PSG game and I expect them to score as well. 2-1 to Barca.

I don't know how Dortmund got on on the weekend but I think it's reasonable to think they could still be shook up after the attack. There'll be a fair few goals in this one but I reckon Monaco will have too much going forward. Another 3-2 to Monaco.
 
Interesting graph:


C9kFjuWWAAAXE9q.jpg:large


Shit Thomas Müller still as good as best ever Modeste :D Also as good as Griezmann and Dembele.
Messi amazing, Ronaldo not so much.
 
No team has won the CL twice in a row however I can totally see Real doing it. Or is Juve their dark horse?
 
No team has won the CL twice in a row however I can totally see Real doing it. Or is Juve their dark horse?

They haven't kept a clean sheet this season in CL, will be interesting if Bayern score first.
 
I think Juve could go on to win the thing

A lot will depend on the Madrids result against Barcelona in La Liga this weekend. If they win, they'll have a nice gap in the league and can potentially rest a few players for Europe. If however they lose, the title race is going to end up being tight and I think that will have a knock on effect for Madrids bid for the Champions League as fatigue will get to them.

Juventus on the other hand has a very nice 8 point gap in Serie A and can therefore afford to rest players.

Wouldn't discount Atletico either tbh.
 
If there's one team that knows how to defend a 1-0 lead it's this Atlético one, but I really hope it'll be an interesting game.
 
I can totally see Juventus going all out for the CL since Serie A is pretty much wrapped up for them anyway. They played without Dybala in the away game last year against Bayern right?
 
I think that Real, Juve and Atletico won`t have too many Problems to go through.

Not sure about Dortmund. With Reus back and hopefully the awful Events from last week out of their heads I can see them turning things around.
 
I think that Real, Juve and Atletico won`t have too many Problems to go through.

Not sure about Dortmund. With Reus back and hopefully the awful Events from last week out of their heads I can see them turning things around.
In the Ligue 1, Monaco have lost only once at home. They also score like 2-3 goals per game at home + Dortmund is significantly worse away.
It's going to be exciting nevertheless.
 
Godin saying Atletico's title was a bigger achievement than Leicester's. What a numpty :lol:
 
If there's one team that knows how to defend a 1-0 lead it's this Atlético one, but I really hope it'll be an interesting game.

Would love to see Leicester win tonight but the risk of losing that 4th CL spot is just too high. Utd won't be getting knocked until at least tomorrow so tonight I'm going to have to hope Leicester lose.
 
People underrate this RM team. Yes, they are lucky, but they are a hard team to beat. I give Bayern as many chances as Barca. About 10-20%.
 
I think that Real, Juve and Atletico won`t have too many Problems to go through.

Not sure about Dortmund. With Reus back and hopefully the awful Events from last week out of their heads I can see them turning things around.
The events aren't out of their heads, players are quite vocal about their trauma. As much as I like to believe we go through, it's highly unlikely given the circumstances.
 
Godin saying Atletico's title was a bigger achievement than Leicester's. What a numpty :lol:
I think he's saying overall their achievements are more than Leicester's which is correct. Their totally deserved title win in 2014 when you consider the duopoly in Spain is right up there in great modern football achievements but Leicester's makes zero sense even though everyone else was crap. Some perspective though is Atletico have been mighty unlucky not to have 2 CL titles and Leicester were in serious danger of relegation a month ago.
 
In the Ligue 1, Monaco have lost only once at home. They also score like 2-3 goals per game at home + Dortmund is significantly worse away.
It's going to be exciting nevertheless.
You extrapolate from the leagues which is IMHO not relevant. As just posted tough, I think it's highly unlikely BVB will go through. The trauma is far from being digested, i.e. the home game killed the chances to make it into the semis. The game won't be exciting at all.
 
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Godin saying Atletico's title was a bigger achievement than Leicester's. What a numpty :lol:
Hmm... What does he base that on? That the other top PL teams underperformed which lead to an 'easier' win for Leicester? I've forgotten the season Atletico Madrid won - how good/bad were Barcelona and Real Madrid?
 
Interesting graph:


C9kFjuWWAAAXE9q.jpg:large


Shit Thomas Müller still as good as best ever Modeste :D Also as good as Griezmann and Dembele.
Messi amazing, Ronaldo not so much.
Statistically speaking, goals are rare events and therefore not a very reliable measure in terms of attacking ability. For the same player, you'll see quite some variance between seasons. More reliable or consistent are shots and shot assists, or even better a pre-defined number of last attacking events (which can be a shot, a pass, a take-on, an interception etc).
 
Hmm... What does he base that on? That the other top PL teams underperformed which lead to an 'easier' win for Leicester? I've forgotten the season Atletico Madrid won - how good/bad were Barcelona and Real Madrid?
Real Madrid were European Champions that year. Barca were good too probably actually slightly better than Real. It wasn't a case of underachievement from either side, just that Atletico were brilliant.
 
Godin saying Atletico's title was a bigger achievement than Leicester's. What a numpty :lol:
They did it in a significantly stronger league, on a similarly tight if not tighter budget. The difference is their team was much better than Leicester's and kept playing at the same level afterwards and were also considered decent before.

They had to overcome Real Madrid and Barcelona which nobody thought was possible. It was a huge shock. The level of competition Leicester faced last season was not anywhere near Barca or Real.
 
To be honest I am not excited at all, it may be anticlimax or possibly disaffection, couldn't care less and do not work for or represent any club in any way, may even remove my Juve tag from my profile and just watch football as a neutral. Should I be worried? Too young to surrender a club-tinted pair of glasses, ffs! :wenger:
 
They did it in a significantly stronger league, on a similarly tight if not tighter budget. The difference is their team was much better than Leicester's and kept playing at the same level afterwards and were also considered decent before.

They had to overcome Real Madrid and Barcelona which nobody thought was possible. It was a huge shock. The level of competition Leicester faced last season was not anywhere near Barca or Real.
The gap between Leicester and the top sides was larger than Atletico and the top two. The fact Atletico carried it on and Leicester couldn't shows how well Leicester performed that season.
I mean, La Liga watchers keep telling us how competitive their league is so making out that Atletico becoming champions from 5/6 place equates to a side narrowly avoiding relegation doesn't add up.
Leicester aren't a top side while Atletico are.
I'd say Atletico was a surprising win and history will view it as surprising rather than the biggest shock in football history due to their accomplishments since then.
 
The gap between Leicester and the top sides was larger than Atletico and the top two. The fact Atletico carried it on and Leicester couldn't shows how well Leicester performed that season.
I mean, La Liga watchers keep telling us how competitive their league is so making out that Atletico becoming champions from 5/6 place equates to a side narrowly avoiding relegation doesn't add up.
Leicester aren't a top side while Atletico are.
I'd say Atletico was a surprising win and history will view it as surprising rather than the biggest shock in football history due to their accomplishments since then.

I sort of agree that it's not the same level of shock, not necessarily that it's not as much of an achievement.

That's because they built a much better side at Atletico. They did not do this because they had a lot of money, or because they were a massive club, but because they spent their resources wisely and managed to get the best out of what they had. I wouldn't hold it against them that as opposed to winning the title with average squad they managed to build a better one with largely similar money.

I agree on the last point. Atletico have carried on since then and will probably win 1 or 2 more titles in the next 10 years. They were on the verge of winning Champions League twice in the last 3 years which goes to show how good that team is - they were actually in the CL final in the very same season when they won the league so of course this wasn't huge shock that they won the league. It doesn't change the fact that overall what Atletico have done in the last 4 years or so is an incredible achievement which may actually go beyond what Leicester achieved last year, but as a result obviously the success they have enjoyed will not go down as nearly the same sort of shock.
 
Today Bale does not play, so will be Isco or Asensio. It will not be easy but I am optimistic.Bayern have to attack and hopefully we will catch them in some counter. I usually support the Spanish teams but I'm tired of playing against Atlético. Better a semifinal against Leicester or Monaco :drool:
 
Hmm... What does he base that on? That the other top PL teams underperformed which lead to an 'easier' win for Leicester? I've forgotten the season Atletico Madrid won - how good/bad were Barcelona and Real Madrid?
We beat them in the CL final, Barcelona made easy work of City(PL winners) and while not the machine of the pep era or the following season, they still went into the final game with the chance to win the title if they beat atleti at camp nou
 
Juventus are favourite for me. Can't find any weak point in them.
Allegri deserves credit for that IMO. He kept Juventus competitive in Europe and dominant in the Serie A. Complacency post-Conte could have caused them to regress but instead they have built upon Conte's success. Juventus know very well what they're doing.
 
Allegri deserves credit for that IMO. He kept Juventus competitive in Europe and dominant in the Serie A. Complacency post-Conte could have caused them to regress but instead they have built upon Conte's success. Juventus know very well what they're doing.
Exactly. He has even done much better than
Conte in Europe.