UEFA Champions & Europa League Football Thread R16 ** spoilers ** [5th - 14th March 2024]

manic111 said:
Tell you what, Ramsdale going over and giving Raya a massive hug. Genuinely seems like one of the nicest guys in the sport.
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Yeah, I have seen him a few times when hes not been playing and hes always laughing and joking with his teammates and seems genuinely happy when his team is doing well or Raya makes a good save.

I thought Porto played really well last night. Stifled Arsenal and got their game plan spot on. Full of energy most of the game and still attacked when they could. They didn't create much overall but made Arsenal work really hard. I didn't think Arsenal were bad, they were just nullified. Considering how free flowing and free scoring Arsenal have been lately, thats no mean feat.


Restricted them to an xG of 1 which few teams have done to Arsenal this season.

Hopefully getting through this round will settle the nerves a little and they play better in the next round.
 
I remember the days when fez was a xg sceptic, now he can't post without mentioning it. Btw @fez, do you want to buy yourself out of our Chelsea bet?
 
BaZ87 said:
I remember the days when fez was a xg sceptic, now he can't post without mentioning it. Btw @fez, do you want to buy yourself out of our Chelsea bet?
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I have completely forgotten our Chelsea bet. Was it that they would finish mid-table? Please say it was that.

Also, I don't even watch games now, I just watch the xG ticker go up.
 
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fez said:
I have completely forgotten our Chelsea bet. Was it that they would finish mid-table? Please say it was that.

Also, I don't even watch games now, I just watch the xG ticker go up.
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I said they'd be ****, you said they wouldn't. 5th place was par and it was £100 per place either side of 5th.
 
BaZ87 said:
I said they'd be ****, you said they wouldn't. 5th place was par and it was £100 per place either side of 5th.
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BaZ87 said:
I said they'd be ****, you said they wouldn't. 5th place was par and it was £100 per place either side of 5th.
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You genuinely gave me a tiny heart attack! I was going to look for the post and then I realised that you're a mod and could change things at your leisure. Perhaps I need more sleep than I have been getting :p
 
fez said:
You genuinely gave me a tiny heart attack! I was going to look for the post and then I realised that you're a mod and could change things at your leisure. Perhaps I need more sleep than I have been getting :p
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All bar the £100 per place was true. We never agreed a stake but you're a decent man and I'm sure you'll do the honourable thing.
 
That was the first ever penalty shoot out I've seen live. Pretty tense! Thought Porto did a number on us, completely disrupted the flow of the game and we weren't playing the ball quick enough to deal with them. Did look like the ref was very one sided but listening to talksport on the way home and reading on here, maybe that wasn't the case, we were high in the upper tier but the whole stadium seemed to be having a moan at him.

On a positive note I can only see 1 of the remaining teams playing like that so hopefully we can be a bit more free flowing in the next round.
 
CliffyG said:
Did look like the ref was very one sided but listening to talksport on the way home and reading on here, maybe that wasn't the case, we were high in the upper tier but the whole stadium seemed to be having a moan at him.
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Football fans would have a moan at the ref if he gave them 3 soft penalties but didn't give a yellow for a dive from one of their players. Its quite comical to see crowds reaction to perfectly good decisions.

I thought the ref was generally great. He let quite a lot go that was theatrical playacting, gave yellows when needed and kept control of the game. He didn't take any crap from anyone. The only thing he was poor on was the constant time wasting from Porto. There should have been more time added on and he probably should have clamped down on it more at the time.
 
The time wasting was the big one, he actually had a word with the keeper in the first half and the keeper took just as long on that occasion and every one since. To only have a minute added in the first half and three in the second was crazy. I was so far away it was difficult to tell if fouls should / shouldn't be given so it's difficult not to get carried away when the whole stadium is calling for it.
 
Porto were like classic Atelico defensively and worked incredibly hard and intelligently to force the game to be played at the pace they wanted. They almost played a perfect away leg tbh but thankfully lacked the firepower at the other end Simeone used to be able to rely on. Don’t think we’ll see that sort of thing from the other teams left in the draw. Just as well there’s a long break now, knackering game.
 
AM probably deserve to go through but dear god they are a scummy team. Ref should have booked probably 4-5 of their players for just making zero effort to get the ball and play the man.
 
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