GWT: Champions League Matchday 6: 12/8-12/9

[Deficient Mode]

But seriously, all the Arsenal haters are running back to their hiding places after today.

Arsenal barely squeezed through in a group with Dinamo and Olympiakos...

There's still plenty of fuel for ridiculing them.

 

[Virtanen18]

Please god no. Evilo will be insufferable for weeks

PSG is the strongest team that finished second so that would definitely be the toughest draw. But I want revenge.

Rubber match has to happen.

Willian is a boss.

 

[Cassano]

Anyone but Barcelona and I'll be happy. Just tired of seeing them owning.

 

[Peen]

Rubber match has to happen.

Willian is a boss.

nah psg will kill us. third best team in the world this year.

i'd rather just take the easy matchup lol.

 

[Virtanen18]

nah psg will kill us. third best team in the world this year.

i'd rather just take the easy matchup lol.

We ain't winning **** either way, lol

 

[Halladay]

Arsenal barely squeezed through in a group with Dinamo and Olympiakos...

There's still plenty of fuel for ridiculing them.

They deserve credit for winning.

Now a matchup against any of the Spanish teams is ideal .

 

[Savant]

But seriously, all the Arsenal haters are running back to their hiding places after today.

And I can't wait for the Giroud haters to get their pitchforks out again

Arsenal are a great team at meeting expectations. Exceeding them? Not so much.

 

[Edo]

Arsenal's depth is ridiculous. Pretty clear that the biggest hole in the team is Mertesacker. He's predictable and always attempts to play crazy tackles/challenges that he never wins which leads to a break going the other way. You see it coming miles away and it's almost as if Arsenal play with 10 men when he's in. Replace him, and I'd take Arsenal's team over anybody in England 10 times out of 10.

As it stands, the only team we can't beat is Barcelona. Barcelona would tear us to shreds. Praying to the gods that we don't face them.

Today was a good day.

It's safe to say that Arsenal are finally Ozil's. You associate Barcelona with Messi, Ronaldo with Madrid, City with Aguero, and now Arsenal with Ozil. I don't know what's taken him so long, and if this form will last, but it's brilliant.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Why do Liverpool fans always overreact?

 

[maclean]

When they say 'income', isn't that a bit of a misleading indicator? Shouldn't it be by spending? The Russian teams for example, I have no doubt they don't make a lot of money, but I'd imagine they spend a lot more than this chart would indicate..?

 

[Vipers31]

I get being relieved from Arsenal fans. Obviously. But they narrowly avoided humiliation in a group they should have absolutely walked through. It's a moment to express relief, not to celebrate or be bold for no reason whatsoever. They also got shown their limitations pretty handily when Bayern started to give a ****.

 

[Peen]

Only team you can't beat is barcelona?

Lol

 

[Bures Elbow]

Portos coach is a idiot, starting with no striker, layun as a winger, holding ruben neves back on the bench, and martins indi at lb.

against a chelsea team in disarray this season.

He did something stupid like that as well vs bayern munich in the second leg last season as well.

 

[Edo]

Only team you can't beat is barcelona?

Lol

We've beaten Bayern Munich. Real Madrid aren't really that imposing. Who else is there?

Not really sure what this whole "avoided humiliation" thing is coming from. I get that the majority of people hate on Arsenal just because it's in, but they were never in danger of not qualifying. They were never not going to beat Olympiakos. And Olympiakos were never going to get a result out of Bayern Munich. Arsenal knew they had to beat Bayern Munich after losing their first 2 games, and they did. After that win, them getting in was an automatic.

Pretty clear that out of the 16 teams left, Barcelona are the huge favourites. I'd group Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, PSG, and Atletico Madrid together after that.

I just can't see a better starting XI being put together than what we see with them. This team is better than what Pep had. Save for Bravo/Ter Stegen, I don't think I would interchange any one of their players for anybody. I don't even know how you get around to plan on stopping Barcelona.

How would people rank the 16 teams?

Barcelona, PSG, BM, RM, Atletico, Arsenal, City, Juventus, Roma, Chelsea, Zenit, Wolfsburg, Benfica, PSV, Kiev, Gent.

 

[Savi]

Gent outplayed Zenit twice, and I don't see them being worse than Benfica, PSV or Kiev. They'd also beat Roma I think.

 

[Vipers31]

We've beaten Bayern Munich. Real Madrid aren't really that imposing. Who else is there?

Arsenal yet again beat Bayern when they didn't care. It was painfully obvious that they never got out of 2nd gear in London given the standings. After that loss, even a hint of motivation on Bayern's side resulted in the thrashing of the return leg. Enjoy the collapse of any hope built on such fragile foundation.

 

[maclean]

they were never in danger of not qualifying. They were never not going to beat Olympiakos.

Ehhh, never in danger of not qualifying? I think they were very much in danger. They did what they needed to do to advance and that's great, but let's not rewrite history. You really can't imagine a situation where they didn't get fouled in the box and then Olympiakos manages to score one at the last minute, leaving them one goal short, just like nine months ago?

I think there's a big difference between being confident in your side's ability (i.e. potential) to beat a team (by the right amount) and never doubting they could just as easily not do so.

 

[HajdukSplit]

So just a roundup

- All 8 Pot 1 teams qualified to the next stage; four however did it as runners-up (PSG, Juventus, Benfica, PSV Eindhoven). So Platini will argue the new system works where even PSV goes through despite them really being a Pot 3 team

- Four teams from Pot 2 advance with three winning their group (Atletico, Real, Man City) with Arsenal being the lone runner-up. Porto, United, Leverkusen and Valencia all drop to the EL

- Mixed success for the Pot 3 teams, two advance to the next stage (Dynamo Kiev and Roma) while another four drop to the EL (Shakhtar, Sevilla, Olympiakos, Galatasaray). Two finish bottom of their group (Lyon, CSKA)

- Pot 4 actually so two teams progress, one as group winners (Wolfsburg) and Gent as runners-up. However the other six teams all finished bottom. BATE, Dinamo, Gladbach, Malmo each had a win at least while Astana earned four draws. Only Maccabi Tel-Aviv went pointless and scored only one goal

Top Scoring Teams
19 - Bayern Munich, Real Madrid
15 - Barcelona
13 - Chelsea, Zenit

Top Scoring Players
11 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
7 - Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
6 - Artyom Dzyuba (Zenit)

Also, a record 10 different countries will be represented in the Round of 16 draw, first time that's ever happened. Could have been 11 had Arsenal failed at Olympiakos

 

[Cassano]

Arsenal yet again beat Bayern when they didn't care. It was painfully obvious that they never got out of 2nd gear in London given the standings. After that loss, even a hint of motivation on Bayern's side resulted in the thrashing of the return leg. Enjoy the collapse of any hope built on such fragile foundation.

TBH you can say the same for Arsenal in the rematch game. If Arsene cared for the Bayern game, he would've started Koscielny and Bellerin. He knew that getting results vs. Zagreb and Olympiakos would be easy the 2nd time around with a more motivated squad that had the confidence of beating Bayern and having a good run of form in the league. For Bayern the 2nd match was a must win because Olympiakos could've gotten first place in the group with a win vs. Zagreb - which would've been pretty embarrassing for the best club in the world - even if temporarily.

 

[Power Man]

Why is the draw on Monday?

 

[maclean]

Why is the draw on Monday?

Maybe not to take away from the EURO draw on Saturday?

 

[Savant]

How would people rank the 16 teams?

.

Rank is irrelevant. It's all about the draw.

(which is probably rigged :p)

 

[Power Man]

Maybe not to take away from the EURO draw on Saturday?

Meh I'm more interested in CL draw tbh

 

[Power Man]

is it gonna be the first Europe League participation for Bastian S ?

dude is used to CL with Bayern lol

 

[Vipers31]

TBH you can say the same for Arsenal in the rematch game. If Arsene cared for the Bayern game, he would've started Koscielny and Bellerin. He knew that getting results vs. Zagreb and Olympiakos would be easy the 2nd time around with a more motivated squad that had the confidence of beating Bayern and having a good run of form in the league.

I don't buy that, really. When you're down as many points as Arsenal was, you can't afford to not care about any of the remaining points on the line, while giving yourself away even more into others' hands. From what I heard back then, Bellerin/Koscielny just weren't realistically available to play, the mere lack of options just had Koscielny still on the bench.

is it gonna be the first Europe League participation for Bastian S ?

dude is used to CL with Bayern lol

Not the first, unfortunately, no. One year we managed to go out in that style, and wound up getting eliminated against St. Petersburg in the EL pretty quickly and embarrassingly, too, IIRC.