Champions League Knockouts (12 Aug - 23rd Aug)

Would verrati miss the final ? And what about di maria ?

It's very likely Verratti is out of the competition since he still can't even walk properly. It's still unsure about Navas.

So yeah, if we reach the final, we'll be the underdog.
 
Ignoring Red Bull and them going against Germany’s 50+1 rule, I do have a soft spot for Leipzig. They’ve always hired managers who play good stuff, their players hardly cheat, they’ve never really broken the bank, they mostly buy youngsters and their fans, while new as the club is one of the youngest in the world, are vociferous and loyal as they’re glad Leipzig finally has a representative in the big time.

Honestly, I hope they win it.
What? The opposite is true. They got the lowest audience, they barely get half of their stadium filled. All fans in the germany football world are laughing about that fact. Rangnik were complaining that even in the CL there is barely interest of going into the stadium.
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What? The opposite is true. They got the lowest audience, they barely get half of their stadium filled. All fans in the germany football world are laughing about that fact. Rangnik were complaining that even in the CL there is barely interest of going into the stadium.
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Naturally the fanbase isn’t too big. They became a footballing entity only 10 years ago! However, the current fans are extremely loyal. They love that Leipzig and East Germany are finally back to the proverbial sporting big time.
 
Naturally the fanbase isn’t too big. They became a footballing entity only 10 years ago! However, the current fans are extremely loyal. They love that Leipzig and East Germany are finally back to the proverbial sporting big time.
The "fans" are some families with their kids and people living outside of the city in the countryside, RB got no ultras, no real fans or fanculture whatsoever, you can sum it up like this: they are competing with the Zoo and other atractions here for families. Thats the tier they are into. And trust me, RB don't stand for East German football culture, they are a company running a commercial by shamelessly filling the gap of missing real big football cause of the aftermaths of the revolution. If you want East German football take a look at Union Berlin, Chemie Leipzig, FC Magdeburg and so on. There isn't any love involved with RB, its more a "yeah ok now we can see Bundesliga in a stadium nearby again", thats just a pragmatic sight on it, love gots nothing to do with this. Love and passion, this you get at real clubs, which exists a lot in East Germany. RB is not an East German club, its an invader taking advantage of a city not having big football for a long time and the whole area.
 
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The "fans" are some families with their kids and people living outside of the city in the countryside, RB got no ultras, no real fans or fanculture whatsoever, you can sum it up like this: they are competing with the Zoo and other atractions here for families. Thats the tier they are into. And trust me, RB don't stand for East German football culture, they are a company running a commercial by shamelessly filling the gap of missing real big football cause of the aftermaths of the revolution. If you want East German football take a look at Union Berlin, Chemie Leipzig, FC Magdeburg and so on. There isn't any love involved with RB, its more a "yeah ok now we can see Bundesliga in a stadium nearby again", thats just a pragmatic sight on it, love gots nothing to do with this. Love and passion, this you get at real clubs, which exists a lot in East Germany. RB is not an East German club, its an invader taking advantage of a city not having big football for a long time and the whole area.
At least they also don't have a load of Nazi followers , so there's that.
 
At least they also don't have a load of Nazi followers , so there's that.
Pew, that had to come to the table right? Come on, yeah there are fecking terrible disgusting clubs like Dynamo Dresden or worse, Lok Leipzig. But there are also a lot lovely clubs with dedicated antifascist attitude runned by the fans: Chemie Leipzig, Union Berlin (Max Kruse, hey!). But please don't say "Nazis!" in the second sentence when the first one was about East German football. Please. There is so much more, and you also lowering the work and attitude of well run clubs which have to fight a lot, against the financial situations, against Nazi-fans of the mentioned other clubs, and so on. Its an interesting topic, but this thread was about CL, and thatswhy some comments about this fecking commercial shitshow called RB were posted.

And: It seems you didn't noticed that at RB there was a scandal last season (iirc), cause they got some Nazi-Hooligans from Lok working for them at their doors. So, thats about RB is so clean and the good guys...
 
Naturally the fanbase isn’t too big. They became a footballing entity only 10 years ago! However, the current fans are extremely loyal. They love that Leipzig and East Germany are finally back to the proverbial sporting big time.
Mateschitz is throwing money at PR companies to mimmick "fan culture", pretty much similar to what happened at Hoffenheim a decade ago.
 
What? The opposite is true. They got the lowest audience, they barely get half of their stadium filled. All fans in the germany football world are laughing about that fact. Rangnik were complaining that even in the CL there is barely interest of going into the stadium.

Huh?

RB Leipzig – Red Bull Arena
Capacity: 42,146*
Average attendance: 40,630
Percentage of seats sold: 95.7

MD2 vs. Frankfurt: 40,108; MD4 vs. Bayern: 41,939; MD6 vs. Schalke: 42,146: MD8 vs. Wolfsburg: 39,182; MD10 vs. Mainz: 38,517; MD12 vs. Cologne: 42,036; MD14 vs. Hoffenheim: 38,407; MD17 vs. Augsburg: 40,562; MD18 vs. Union: 42,146; MD20 vs. Gladbach: 40,000; MD22 vs. Bremen: 41,308; MD24 vs. Leverkusen: 41,216

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bunde...dortmund-allianz-arena-signal-iduna-park-6379
 
From what I read, I don't see any similarities between PSG and Red Bull.

The only thing in common is they challenge the established order: Madrid, Munich, Barcelona, etc.
 
Huh?

RB Leipzig – Red Bull Arena
Capacity: 42,146*
Average attendance: 40,630
Percentage of seats sold: 95.7

MD2 vs. Frankfurt: 40,108; MD4 vs. Bayern: 41,939; MD6 vs. Schalke: 42,146: MD8 vs. Wolfsburg: 39,182; MD10 vs. Mainz: 38,517; MD12 vs. Cologne: 42,036; MD14 vs. Hoffenheim: 38,407; MD17 vs. Augsburg: 40,562; MD18 vs. Union: 42,146; MD20 vs. Gladbach: 40,000; MD22 vs. Bremen: 41,308; MD24 vs. Leverkusen: 41,216

https://www.bundesliga.com/en/bunde...dortmund-allianz-arena-signal-iduna-park-6379
Of 17 games they only sold out 4 games. Don't know where the official bundesliga website got their numbers from. Their average number was only 28807.
https://www.transfermarkt.de/rasenballsport-leipzig/besucherzahlenentwicklung/verein/23826
This also adds up to my personal perception. The stadium was never totaly full or even crowded, with the exeptions of Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke. You get a ticket thrown after you. If you want to buy a ticket its like "do you maybe want two?" :lol:
More so, they got one of the lowest numbers taken to away games. There was a CL away game in the round of 16 were they got 20 till 50 fans with them. Imagine that.
 
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Happy to see Hungarian players in the semi-final of the CL..not sure it's happened in my lifetime before :lol:
 
Of 17 games they only sold out 4 games. Their average number was only 28807.
https://www.transfermarkt.de/rasenballsport-leipzig/besucherzahlenentwicklung/verein/23826
More so, they got one of the lowest numbers taken to away games.

Are you kidding here? You know that 28k number includes the empty Corona-games, right? Compare that to the years before.
And look at Dortmund: https://www.transfermarkt.de/borussia-dortmund/besucherzahlenentwicklung/verein/16
Only 57k of 82k for the season. Their supporters must suck too, right?
 
Are you kidding here? You know that 28k number includes the empty Corona-games, right? Compare that to the years before.
And look at Dortmund: https://www.transfermarkt.de/borussia-dortmund/besucherzahlenentwicklung/verein/16
Only 57k of 82k for the season. Their supporters must suck too, right?
Oh, my fault. Their numbers were growing in the last season https://www.sportbuzzer.de/artikel/...uslastung-aber-nur-platz-14-bei-auswartsfans/ . But my point still stands: Interest is a joke compared to real clubs (even in lower leagues), and away-fans are nearly not existing, also in the CL there is less interest, where other stadiums would be packed and away-games would be full. For example take a look at Frankfurt in their EL season, thats what is called fanculture, and RB got nothing of it, thats my point.
And if there is someone in the stadium, is 80% families cause they don't want to got to the Zoo the 10th time in a row to say it polemic.
 
Bayern to win 3-1 but I'd rather see Barca in sf. Don't understand why anyone outside of Bayern fanbase could support them. Co-wned by Audi, Allianz and Adidas, made their league a complete joke, ridiculously arrogant but sure they're the proper club, huh?
 
Going to be a staggering lack of creativity outside of Messi in that starting XI. No width, the full backs aren't great anymore, Suarez is fat and rubbish. No Griezmann make sense but could do with Fati in his place. I think we'll see atleast 30 mins of Dembele as well.
Interesting. Looks like a reaction to Bayern's midfield domination. Guess the days of "we are good as we are, let *them* react to *us* are over
 
Bayern to win 3-1 but I'd rather see Barca in sf. Don't understand why anyone outside of Bayern fanbase could support them. Co-wned by Audi, Allianz and Adidas, made their league a complete joke, ridiculously arrogant but sure they're the proper club, huh?

Don't the fans own a massive majority of Bayern Munich?
 
Oh, my fault. Their numbers were growing in the last season https://www.sportbuzzer.de/artikel/...uslastung-aber-nur-platz-14-bei-auswartsfans/ . But my point still stands: Interest is a joke compared to real clubs (even in lower leagues), and away-fans are nearly not existing, also in the CL there is less interest, where other stadiums would be packed and away-games would be full. For example take a look at Frankfurt in their EL season, thats what is called fanculture, and RB got nothing of it, thats my point.
And if there is someone in the stadium, is 80% families cause they don't want to got to the Zoo the 10th time in a row to say it polemic.

well football is in the first place entertainment.
And thats exactly what they do for their region. Apparently the concept works.
I guess they do not care who ecactly is watchig their games, some hardcore fans or families with kids.

The interest in RBL is given and no one cares as long as they profit.
Also i dont see them as the big money waster Like PSG, City or Chelsea.

But you are right, the stadium atmosphere is something different compared to e.g Schalke, Frankfurt or even Freiburg.
 
Oh, my fault. Their numbers were growing in the last season https://www.sportbuzzer.de/artikel/...uslastung-aber-nur-platz-14-bei-auswartsfans/ . But my point still stands: Interest is a joke compared to real clubs (even in lower leagues), and away-fans are nearly not existing, also in the CL there is less interest, where other stadiums would be packed and away-games would be full. For example take a look at Frankfurt in their EL season, thats what is called fanculture, and RB got nothing of it, thats my point.
And if there is someone in the stadium, is 80% families cause they don't want to got to the Zoo the 10th time in a row to say it polemic.
Fair enough. I'm not a fan of Red Bull as a company or "Mäzenentum" in sports myself. But whenever I spoke to folks from Leipzig I had the feeling that the club is genuinely accepted or even embraced by the city now. I might be wrong of course.
 
Happy to see Hungarian players in the semi-final of the CL..not sure it's happened in my lifetime before :lol:
The last time it happened was in the old European Cup. In the CL this is a first.

(Hrutka and Szűcs got close-ish with Kaiserslautern, if a 6-0 aggregate defeat in the quarter-final can be called that).
 
Bayern to win 3-1 but I'd rather see Barca in sf. Don't understand why anyone outside of Bayern fanbase could support them. Co-wned by Audi, Allianz and Adidas, made their league a complete joke, ridiculously arrogant but sure they're the proper club, huh?
Bayern München is owned to 75% by the club/its members. United is owned to 98% by the Glazers.
 
The last time it happened was in the old European Cup. In the CL this is a first.

(Hrutka and Szűcs got close-ish with Kaiserslautern, if a 6-0 aggregate defeat in the quarter-final can be called that).

Thanks for the heads-up, I actually wasn't able to find info on it
 
Fair enough. I'm not a fan of Red Bull as a company or "Mäzenentum" in sports myself. But whenever I spoke to folks from Leipzig I had the feeling that the club is genuinely accepted or even embraced by the city now. I might be wrong of course.
Its divided. There are some who likes it that they can go watch BuLi in a stadium, often families with their kids. Buts its not like fanculture or that the club is written into the soul of the city like it is with all the other (real) clubs. Its more an entertaining thing competing with other entertaining things. And there are a lot of people with a range of emotions and opinions from at least ignoring till detesting RB. They made a mockery out of the lost and hidden football culture here and sold it like "we only want the best for the city, you have to be thankful to us", despite that the truth is that they used the situation and the city and the gap for their egoistic advantages to build a living commercial.
 
The "fans" are some families with their kids and people living outside of the city in the countryside, RB got no ultras, no real fans or fanculture whatsoever, you can sum it up like this: they are competing with the Zoo and other atractions here for families. Thats the tier they are into. And trust me, RB don't stand for East German football culture, they are a company running a commercial by shamelessly filling the gap of missing real big football cause of the aftermaths of the revolution. If you want East German football take a look at Union Berlin, Chemie Leipzig, FC Magdeburg and so on. There isn't any love involved with RB, its more a "yeah ok now we can see Bundesliga in a stadium nearby again", thats just a pragmatic sight on it, love gots nothing to do with this. Love and passion, this you get at real clubs, which exists a lot in East Germany. RB is not an East German club, its an invader taking advantage of a city not having big football for a long time and the whole area.
Unlike you, I watch the PL far more than BuLi, so the only East German side bar Leipzig I’m aware of is Union, and yes that is love and passion. However, by bringing them up along with saying that Leipzig fans go to the stadium for the sole purpose of watching quality football, are you implying that Leipzig have no real fans? Again, I’m no German football expert, but they get 35,000+ every fortnight!
 
Bayern to win 3-1 but I'd rather see Barca in sf. Don't understand why anyone outside of Bayern fanbase could support them. Co-wned by Audi, Allianz and Adidas, made their league a complete joke, ridiculously arrogant but sure they're the proper club, huh?
Mate, educate yourself (or remain a Newbie here).
 
From what I read, I don't see any similarities between PSG and Red Bull.

Bit of a weird take that.

I'm not one to harp on about tradition and plastic clubs but if you want to go down that route then Leipzig embody everything that fans don't like about modern football. They are much worse than PSG and City.

They are universally hated in Germany and some clubs refuse to play friendlies against them or even show their logo in the stadiums on matchday.
 
Bayern to win for me. Best team I have watched in Champions league this season. And I like Germans, they are efficient at most things except Zorc from Dortmund I despise him.
 
Pew, that had to come to the table right? Come on, yeah there are fecking terrible disgusting clubs like Dynamo Dresden or worse, Lok Leipzig. But there are also a lot lovely clubs with dedicated antifascist attitude runned by the fans: Chemie Leipzig, Union Berlin (Max Kruse, hey!). But please don't say "Nazis!" in the second sentence when the first one was about East German football. Please. There is so much more, and you also lowering the work and attitude of well run clubs which have to fight a lot, against the financial situations, against Nazi-fans of the mentioned other clubs, and so on. Its an interesting topic, but this thread was about CL, and thatswhy some comments about this fecking commercial shitshow called RB were posted.

And: It seems you didn't noticed that at RB there was a scandal last season (iirc), cause they got some Nazi-Hooligans from Lok working for them at their doors. So, thats about RB is so clean and the good guys...

You will find that they have taken many steps to combat that part of their support. There are groups such as 1953International that are actively fighting against racism in the stands and to call the club terrible and disgusting is really uncalled for.

Here's an overview of what the club has done since 2006:
https://www.dynamo-dresden.de/fans/akzeptanz-weltoffenheit/chronologie-aktionen-im-ueberblick.html

This Spiegel article is also good read: https://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussba...chten-fans-in-den-griff-kriegt-a-1258156.html
 
Bit of a weird take that.

I'm not one to harp on about tradition and plastic clubs but if you want to go down that route then Leipzig embody everything that fans don't like about modern football. They are much worse than PSG and City.

They are universally hated in Germany and some clubs refuse to play friendlies against them or even show their logo in the stadiums on matchday.

Thanks for the reply
 
Bit of a weird take that.

I'm not one to harp on about tradition and plastic clubs but if you want to go down that route then Leipzig embody everything that fans don't like about modern football. They are much worse than PSG and City.

They are universally hated in Germany and some clubs refuse to play friendlies against them or even show their logo in the stadiums on matchday.
Right, but in fairness if we call them "universally hated" we have to make clear that Bayern are universally hated throughout Germany as well. For a lot of different and some similar reasons.
 
Unlike you, I watch the PL far more than BuLi, so the only East German side bar Leipzig I’m aware of is Union, and yes that is love and passion. However, by bringing them up along with saying that Leipzig fans go to the stadium for the sole purpose of watching quality football, are you implying that Leipzig have no real fans? Again, I’m no German football expert, but they get 35,000+ every fortnight!
Yes iam implying that. They got "viewers", but no real fans. Every hardcore football fan or Ultra in the country will say this, and i say this as someone living here.

You will find that they have taken many steps to combat that part of their support. There are groups such as 1953International that are actively fighting against racism in the stands and to call the club terrible and disgusting is really uncalled for.

Here's an overview of what the club has done since 2006:
https://www.dynamo-dresden.de/fans/akzeptanz-weltoffenheit/chronologie-aktionen-im-ueberblick.html

This Spiegel article is also good read: https://www.spiegel.de/sport/fussba...chten-fans-in-den-griff-kriegt-a-1258156.html

Ok, maybe iam a bit harsh on them giving the fact that they are trying to crawl out of that pitch since some years. And maybe today its to harsh to list them amongst Lok, Hallescher FC and all the other Fascist morons. But still, i feel no sympathy for them, too much has happened and the area is another world compared to what iam used to, so i don't know how solid their approach is, there are a lot of idiots who can fill their stadium again in no time.
 
Bayern to win 3-1 but I'd rather see Barca in sf. Don't understand why anyone outside of Bayern fanbase could support them. Co-wned by Audi, Allianz and Adidas, made their league a complete joke, ridiculously arrogant but sure they're the proper club, huh?
Bayern München is owned to 75% by the club/its members. United is owned to 98% by the Glazers.
Mate, educate yourself (or remain a Newbie here).

:lol: Looks like City fan has touched a nerve there and I don't understand what ManUtd owners have anything to do with City fan's post.
 
From the moral standpoint, elite football is an abomination. The whole thing is absolutely rotten and decadent. New money teams aren't any worse than old money ones. In fact, they tend to play nice football and have less obnoxious fans.