UCL Round of 16 - First Legs - Feb 18 - 26

Ronaldo's Mum Eh?

Ronaldo is shite
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Didn't see a thread created about this but I'm starting to get that buzzy feeling everyone in the world gets when they watch this competition.

Some absolute cracking ties this round.



Tuesday, February 18, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET Bayer Leverkusen v Paris Saint-Germain Round of 16 BayArena
2:45 ET Manchester City v Barcelona Round of 16 Etihad Stadium


Wednesday, February 19, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET AC Milan v Atletico Madrid Round of 16 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
2:45 ET Arsenal v Bayern Munich Round of 16 Emirates Stadium




Tuesday, February 25, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
12:00 ET Zenit St Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund Round of 16 Petrovski Stadium
2:45 ET Olympiakos v Manchester United Round of 16 Karaiskaki Stadium


Wednesday, February 26, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET Galatasaray v Chelsea Round of 16 Türk Telekom Arena
2:45 ET Schalke 04 v Real Madrid Round of 16 Veltins-Arena




 
Is there a way we can have that video play when we enter the thread? Cheers
 
I'm probably 1 of the few who don't expect City to get anything from this tie. I see Barca winning both legs.
 
alastair said:
Really excited about this week's fixtures - less so about next week's.

I really think we can cause Bayern some serious problems.
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They have WON 20 of their last 21. The only game they've not WON is the one against City when the group was already wrapped up and they stopped caring.
 
Listened to the anthem again. I am now convinced we'll win the champions league:drool:
 
Ronaldo's Mum Eh? said:
They have WON 20 of their last 21. The only game they've not WON is the one against City when the group was already wrapped up and they stopped caring.
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True, but we did beat Barcelona in their pomp when no-one else could even touch them.

If we get the first goal and make it physical(but fair), you never know.

In other controversial opinions, I reckon City will hit this current Barcelona side for at least three. Maybe more.
 
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET Bayer Leverkusen v Paris Saint-Germain Round of 16 BayArena 1-2
2:45 ET Manchester City v Barcelona Round of 16 Etihad Stadium 1-1

Wednesday, February 19, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET AC Milan v Atletico Madrid Round of 16 Stadio Giuseppe Meazza 1-1
2:45 ET Arsenal v Bayern Munich Round of 16 Emirates Stadium 2-1

Tuesday, February 25, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
12:00 ET Zenit St Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund Round of 16 Petrovski Stadium 0-2

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
TimeHomeAwayStageTVVenue
2:45 ET Galatasaray v Chelsea Round of 16 Türk Telekom Arena 1-3
2:45 ET Schalke 04 v Real Madrid Round of 16 Veltins-Arena 1-3
 
I stand by my prediciton that City will beat Barca over two legs.
 
alastair said:
:lol: Congrats on making me laugh whilst in public. Thanks for that.
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I hate it when that happens. Sometimes I browse on my phone while having a shit in work and burst out into laughter. Must sound proper weird to anyone listening (almost as weird as the fact they are listening.)
 
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Bayer Leverkusen v Paris Saint-Germain
Manchester City v Barcelona

Wednesday, February 19, 2014
AC Milan v Atletico Madrid
Arsenal v Bayern Munich

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Zenit v. Borussia Dortmund

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Galatasaray v Chelsea
Schalke v Real Madrid

Some promising games all round - I'm following the money in most my predictions, but also I have Bayern and Real as my favourites for the competition this season so there should be some very tasty ties in the next round also. I'm interested in how Atletico will do in the competition given the great season they are having. Also be interesting if Leverkusen will be able to get back some dignity after being twated twice in the group stages by a truly terrible side of no-hopers :nono:
 
Why cant they spread the Quarter Finals out too... :(

Although having the two rounds over 5 weeks is really stupid. It should go

Tuesday - Tie 1, Leg 1
Wednesday - Tie 2, Leg 1
Thursday - Tie 3, Leg 1
- - -
Tuesday - Tie 4, Leg 1
Wednesday - Tie 1, Leg 2
Thursday - Tie 2, Leg 2
- - -
Tuesday - Tie 3, Leg 2
Wednesday - Tie 4, Leg 2.

Much more sensible! That doesnt fit in with the Europa League, but who cares. It annoys me so much that we dont get to see all 4 quarter finals.
 
Can't wait to see how City match up to Barca. But Barca invariably disappoint when they come to England for 2 legged matches and they hardly tore it up against Celtic in the group stage last year or this either. Maybe British teams just aren't as soft as others around Europe and don't just them do what they want. I am not including the 2 finals of 09 & 11 in this discussion by the way....

But it's always a great moment to see Messi play over here.
 
Think City will get a result tomorrow. Though over 2 legs, Barca should beat them. Bayern will beat Arsenal pretty comfortably I reckon.
 
Looking forward to the City vs Barca game, whoever wins. That probably sounds weird, but i'm willing to just let the football do the talking if that makes sense.
 
Honestly don't know why you guys have so much confidence in city. I'm expecting Fabregas to run the show tomorrow. Been absolutely immense this year.
 
I also think City will win today - whether they can hold that at the Nou Camp is another question though.
 
Ronaldo's Mum Eh? said:
Honestly don't know why you guys have so much confidence in city. I'm expecting Fabregas to run the show tomorrow. Been absolutely immense this year.
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Only way you can accommodate him and Xavi in same team is to play Iniesta or Cesc in a position further forward. Busquets is a lock. Interested whether the front 3 is Pedro/Alexis---Messi---Cesc/Iniesta or Pedro---Messi---Alexis.

Can't play everyone, and even though there's so much experience in the replacements anyway, Xavi surely has to be in there for an important game like this.
 
Barca have too much firepower for City's defence. Fecking Chelsea and Arsenal created load of chances in their league games vs City. Even if City manage to win the game tomorrow, the result will be 3:2 or something.
 
Goooose said:
City will beat Barca home and away.
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Will they hell, they aren't Bayern Munich. They need to get the ball first and then think what to do with it. Barca on average in away matches in the CL have 68% of it. City's best chance is obviously to counter attack through Navas and defend incredibly well. If he picks both Dzeko & Negredo and plays 4-4-2 he might as well forfeit the tie there and then.
 
Big day for us on Wednesday.

How can we beat Bayern?

One thing I remember from that game last season is that at 2-1, Giroud (who would have guessed) hit the bar, a few minutes later Bayern scored their third.

I know it doesn't mean much but out of Juventus, Barcelona and us, we're the ones who came closest to Bayern. 3-3 on aggregate, people talk about that 3-1 defeat at home but that same Bayern team put 7 past Barcelona without reply. I thought we gave a very good account of ourselves all things considered.

We have come to close to glory for my liking over the past few years. Out on goal difference against Bayern, one goal against Milan and we had a man sent off against Barcelona when we were leading the tie (still only lost by one goal). We just haven't had any luck in Europe and I think we'll need some tomorrow.

I appreciate the Liverpool game because it gave us a preview of what we'll have to face on Wednesday, albeit of a much, much higher quality. For me the most important thing for us to do is keep a clean sheet. Even a 2-1 win would make Bayern massive favourites going into the return leg. For that reason I would start Gibbs + Monreal on the left, whoever we've tried on the left hasn't really worked our put in much of a defensive shift and we will need that up against Robben. I know that won't happen so I would like to see Podolski out there because at least he tracks back more than Cazorla/Wilshere.

We'll need Rosicky's energy in midfield and Giroud to have his shooting boots on, he needs to get out of his funk and quickly. I don't think anyone would be able to take it if he missed another guilt edged chance. We have been pretty good at home, only two losses the entire season and we haven't conceded many at home. Played Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs twice at home, along with Man Utd, Napoli, Dortmund and Everton, only conceded 6 goals in those 10 games facing some of the very best strikers/attackers (Van Persie, Rooney, Mata, Higuain, Lewandowski, Reus, Oscar, Hazard and Adebayor) in Europe. That is a pretty good defensive record, take out the CC game against Chelsea and it becomes 4 goals in 9.

Not sure how we'll stop Bayern in midfield though, Flamini can't make any stupid fouls or its curtains for us. Wilshere needs to remember that his first job is to defend and not leave his midfield partner stranded like he did at Anfield.

Its a hard task but I think we need to win this, losing a game is never beneficial and neither is that whole concentrate on the league thing beneficial. We tried that particular line of spin in 2011 after we went out of the CC, fa cup and Champions league in the space of a few weeks, said it would allow us to focus all our energy on the league and we still collapsed.

Success breeds more success. Can you imagine how the lads will feel going into the Sunderland game just off the back of beating the European Champions?

Whereas if we lose we'll need to recover mentally and once you're in a rut its very hard to get out of it. We can rotate when needed, as evidenced by yesterday so I'm not that worried about fatigue. What this squad really needs is a deep cup run in either Europe or the Fa cup (I want both) to prove that they really can hang with the big boys.

I would love to go into April with two cup semi finals to look forward to as well as being in the league title race, we're one step away from that in the Fa cup and all we need to do is get past Bayern and we'll be one step closer there as well. I don't want us to go out in a blaze of glory or give a good account of ourselves, I want us to win by any means necessary, even if it means we get a penalty from a dive and Bayern get 3 men sent off.
 
Bayern are too strong. I think it'll be a carbon copy of last year's first leg with the power and game management of Bayern being too much. They will take the game away from Arsenal.
 
Hilarious article from Alan Hansen: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...fer-from-complacency-in-Champions-League.html
I'll quote my favourite parts.
There is a growing urge to crown Bayern Munich as European football’s new omnipotent force, the team set to dominate the scene for years to come. But while Bayern are good, they are not yet that good, and I do not see them being miles ahead of the rest when the Champions League resumes this week.

They have emerged from a gimme of a group, with CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen offering nothing to challenge Bayern or fellow qualifiers Manchester City, and while they stand unbeaten and 16 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, I would be more impressed if they were a similar distance clear in the Premier League. Bayern’s dominance in Germany could prove their undoing because if you win every week, complacency inevitably creeps in. You begin to think that the game is all over before it has even started and some of their winning margins this season have given that impression.

But the Champions League is a different matter and what some people have forgotten is how close Arsenal came to knocking them out at this same stage last season. Arsenal were outplayed when losing 3-1 at the Emirates, but they won 2-0 in Germany and had the second leg gone on for five more minutes, Arsène Wenger’s team would have gone through. I am sure Arsenal will gain confidence from that, but they must stand up to the fight when they face Bayern again this week.

But they lack the outstanding individual talents of a Messi or a Cristiano Ronaldo – the kind of players who gave Barcelona and Real Madrid an edge. Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry are great players, but there is no way you would bracket them with Messi or Ronaldo. They do not even come close. Robben has always been a gifted player, but he was hit and miss with Chelsea and I remember seeing him play for Real Madrid at Anfield in the Champions League when he was abject.

Ribéry wants to think he is the best in the world, but he is nowhere near the real game-changers of Messi and Ronaldo.
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Some ridiculous things in that article, many of the things I've bolded.

Whether or not Bayern would achieve that point tally in the Premier League is completely irrelevant. Hansen talks about the match going on in the second leg, but fails to point out that Arsenal had a goal wrongly given to them from a phantom corner, and how their 3 best players were defensive ones in their away win - not a surprise considering how dominant Bayern were.

I found his Cristiano/Messi "edge" and "game-changer" comments pretty funny, especially when you have to consider that the edge Robben and Ribéry gave Bayern pretty much lifted them to a quadruple. Judging Robben on one game in 2009? :confused: Wasn't he man of the match against Juventus in the quarter-finals, Barcelona in the semi-finals, and Dortmund in the final in 2013?

The first (and highest-voted) comment on the article made me laugh out loud.

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Best competition in the world.

Bundesliga watchers: any signs of Bayern coasting in their domestic fixtures? That's the only chance Arsenal have of beating Bayern, if Bayern on the day look lacklustre. A fully primed Bayern will beat any team in Europe right now. That being said, it will be a close tie, either way.

I haven't said much, have I?
 
adexkola said:
Best competition in the world.

Bundesliga watchers: any signs of Bayern coasting in their domestic fixtures? That's the only chance Arsenal have of beating Bayern, if Bayern on the day look lacklustre. A fully primed Bayern will beat any team in Europe right now. That being said, it will be a close tie, either way.

I haven't said much, have I?
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I think they've been if anything more focused lately. Putting teams to the sword with real authority. Dortmund have found some form too lately while Leverkusen seems to be going through a bit of a rocky patch.
 
Zee Germans are going to wipe their arses with Arse.

Citeh have a better chance, because Barca are clearly not the team they were a couple years ago.
 
Not sure what to expect from Barcelona since they've been fairly inconsistent in terms of their play this season, not their results of course. The good is that typically, in Champions League, the team thrives on these sort of encounters and with a healthy squad, that it should bring out their quality.

Then there's Messi. City are a great side so I expect, at the very least, to be entertained. May the best side win
 
Pippa said:
Hilarious article from Alan Hansen: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...fer-from-complacency-in-Champions-League.html
I'll quote my favourite parts.


Some ridiculous things in that article, many of the things I've bolded.

Whether or not Bayern would achieve that point tally in the Premier League is completely irrelevant. Hansen talks about the match going on in the second leg, but fails to point out that Arsenal had a goal wrongly given to them from a phantom corner, and how their 3 best players were defensive ones in their away win - not a surprise considering how dominant Bayern were.

I found his Cristiano/Messi "edge" and "game-changer" comments pretty funny, especially when you have to consider that the edge Robben and Ribéry gave Bayern pretty much lifted them to a quadruple. Judging Robben on one game in 2009? :confused: Wasn't he man of the match against Juventus in the quarter-finals, Barcelona in the semi-finals, and Dortmund in the final in 2013?

The first (and highest-voted) comment on the article made me laugh out loud.

a496cce8de96032a7ebb09c1e96eb374.png
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Usual pathetic stuff from English press
 
Apparently the Old Trafford stadium tour has been sold out to Barca fans.
 
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