GWT: Champions League Semifinals

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Taking a moment just to appreciate how incredible it is that last August people were shocked when Lampard started Mount on opening day, and now here we are with it being totally accepted as a normal thing that he scored in a f***ing UCL semi-final.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

City vs Chelsea is the most unappealing Champions League final match-up I've ever seen

Outside of portions of Bayern/PSG and BVB/City the whole tournament has been a bore since the group stage. The Super League honchos reallh overestimate the entertainment value of these teams repeatedly playing each other I think.

 

[Blender]

Azpilicueta has always been under appreciated. He has played a bunch of different positions in all sorts of formations and almost always puts in a strong performance.

 

[Evilo]

I should also note, Benzema was invisible today. A lot of that is down to Kante and Jorginho dominating the midfield battle and Silva also putting in a clinic at the back, but Benzema truly was a non factor for the most part

And yet he almost scored. Twice.

 

[Evilo]

Also happy for Edouard Mendy. Very nice guy. I saw lots of his amateur games. Turned pro at 24. I never expected (and he neither) him to go this far. What a journey.

 

[robertmac43]

Sorry Chelsea fans but I got to take City in the final... Don't want the CL to come to London via Chelsea again.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

Still doesn't feel real

 

[Power Man]

Mahrez IS a bit of an asshole.
I could give you tons of examples but I'll give you one that happenned just last week :
Gueye kills Gundogan ankle and everyone goes towards the ref. Mahrez sprints and vehemently barks at Gueye.
Gueye answers : I know I made a foul it's OK, I know I did. Mahrez continues to bark and asks the ref for a red card, that he saw it all, etc... Bakker comes in and says "you can't have seen anything from where you were". Mahrez looks at him and says "who the f*** is this guy anyway? Does he even have a name?".
That's obviously not a big deal, but a good way of seeing Mahrez' character. At Bakker's age, he couldn't break Le Havre's first XI in Ligue 2. Bakker was starting a CL semi final (and he totally stifled him in fact).
He's not a very respectful guy.
Kante is arguably the nicest guy in football.

To be fair I’ve never heard of that Bakker dude before the semis either, can’t blame Mahrez on that one

And a lot of players and FO people at City love him, just ask Bernardo, Mendy, Sterling, Gundo, Jesus, Bergueristain, Zinchenko, Cancelo, Stones, Dias
Kante and Mahrez are good friends too, they stayed on the pitch chatting forc10 minutes after the last City Chelsea game

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Azpilicueta has always been under appreciated. He has played a bunch of different positions in all sorts of formations and almost always puts in a strong performance.

He's had a lot of negativity towards him in the past couple years, but he's a legend. Never stopped loving Dave.

 

[Savant]

Also happy for Edouard Mendy. Very nice guy. I saw lots of his amateur games. Turned pro at 24. I never expected (and he neither) him to go this far. What a journey.

Tall goalies man

but congrats to Chelsea. If Kante plays like that they have a chance to beat anyone.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

 

[Peen]

He's so whiney

The guy literally couldn't go ten minutes without injuring himself and wasn't particularly good most of the season either

Has been good and healthy enough recently but it might just be a product of him coming off the bench that maintains his fitness

 

[Moncherry]

Outside of portions of Bayern/PSG and BVB/City the whole tournament has been a bore since the group stage. The Super League honchos reallh overestimate the entertainment value of these teams repeatedly playing each other I think.

Having the 'best' teams playing each other loses it's luster when the games are largely forgettable and bereft of excitement, intrigue or intensity. Don't know if it's a consequence of playing in the Covid-era but I agree, this competition has become incredibly stale recently.

I realize I'm in the extreme minority here (maybe even the only person who holds this opinion), but right now I couldn't give less of a shit about club football, at the domestic or European level. A lot of people complain every time an international window rolls around and criticize the Nations League as being pointless, but I found that far more interesting than anything I've watched here over the past few weeks.

 

[Savant]

He's so whiney

The guy literally couldn't go ten minutes without injuring himself and wasn't particularly good most of the season either

Has been good and healthy enough recently but it might just be a product of him coming off the bench that maintains his fitness

I mean he wants to play. Hard to blame him.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

I mean he wants to play. Hard to blame him.

Still don’t see anything special tbh.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Between bale and this.

madrid fans sure have gotten it. I would off load him for anything after this. Or just ice him out Ozil style.

 

[Savant]

Still don’t see anything special tbh.

He is neither overrated nor underrated. He is rated.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

He is neither overrated nor underrated. He is rated.

Didn’t see otherwise just don’t see anything special about his talent.

 

[Savant]

Between bale and this.

madrid fans sure have gotten it. I would off load him for anything after this. Or just ice him out Ozil style.

I don’t think anything will beat the Coutinho to Barca transfer but this is damn close

 

[Savant]

Didn’t see otherwise just don’t see anything special about his talent.

Yes. I agree with you. He is good but not special. That’s the right way to put it.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

I don’t think anything will beat the Coutinho to Barca transfer but this is damn close

It’s actually worse. Or at least the same level

 

[Savant]

It’s actually worse. Or at least the same level

Coutinho is worse.

Financed the Virgil, Alisson and Fabinho deals. The former two were named the best players of their position and Virgil would not have been an understanding Ballon d’Or winner

Bombed for Barcelona

Was more money/was a more desperate move

LFC won PL and CL since he left

Barcelona paid for Coutinho to knock them out of the CL to knock them out of the CL last year

Coutinho has stayed (relatively) healthy and done nothing

Coutinho to Barcelona has a case for the worst transfer of all time. Hazard to Madrid isn’t at that level yet.

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

I don't think there's any case for the Hazard transfer being worse than Coutinho.

Hazard's fee (105m) was for a player who had been consistently the best player in England for over half a decade. He's had a brutal time with injuries since he arrived and that's why he's barely been on the pitch and has barely settled in. But the fee made sense at the time and it's largely (not entirely, but largely) due to bad injury luck that he hasn't come good on it.

Coutinho's fee (140m) was for a player who had probably never been a top 5 midfielder (let alone player) in England. He's been by-and-large healthy and has just simply been poor. The fact that he scored against Barca in the UCL QF is just funny icing on the cake. The fee was ludicrous at the time, and it's been borne out that the player just wasn't good enough to warrant it.

For me, the latter is very clearly worse than the former.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

What ever LFC did with the money has no effect to Barca's transfer for Coutinho, no does it matter what they did for the previous teams. So, Hazard being better for Chelsea than Coutinho at LFC makes no difference for Madrid or Barca. Unless Chelsea are willing to share their success with Madrid. Blaming injuries for Hazard's play makes it also clear that people are paying attention. He's been shit even without the injuries and these injuries aren't an accident the guy isn't taking care of himself. He doesn't give a shit for madrid, as proven today. Coutinho for all his warts cared, he just isn't good enough. Another thing I almost forget who the f*** did Couts knock barca out? This is worse than that 50 million goal Torres scored both teams were clearly through at the time of the goal. Ridiculous to suggest otherwise. As for the price it was around 20 million in difference and Hazard's contract was expiring. Coutinho actually was ok to start his career he just fell off the map after. Hazard hasn't had more than a decent couple of games. Both are bad and not far off from each other. I would actually say both have a legit shot at worst transfer in history tbh. Both spanish clubs can point to that has to why they slipped in form. One that will be correct but thats another story.

 

[les Habs]

I won’t say the Coutinho transfer isn’t worse than that of Hazard, but it’s really close. @Duchene2MacKinnon is right that some of the things being brought up are irrelevant. What Liverpool did with the money or how good they were or were not before their respective moves doesn’t matter. It’s about how they’ve panned out and Coutinho has been better. I’d also add that that Barca got some money back and saves on his wages when they loaned Coutinho out. And Hazard wasn’t in great fitness from day one and he’s not been much to write home about regardless of that. At the end of the day both transfers were bad and both clubs could have done much better with their money.

On a side note, and I’m not going to say much about it, but the Hazard comparisons to Neymar haven’t aged well.