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2019-20 Champions League

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
Wake up everyone, the Playoff Round is upon us.

There were 2 surprises in the 3rd Qualifying round that ended yesterday; Celtic lost at home 4-3 to lose the tie 5-4 on aggregate and Porto lost at home to Krasnodar 3-2 to lose on away goals. Celtic will have to fight through the Playoff Round to get into the Europa League Group Stage, playing the winner of AIK/Sheriff Tiraspol. Porto goes directly to the Group Stage.

First leg on 8/20-21, second leg on 8/27-28

Dinamo Zagreb v. Rosenborg
CFR Cluj v. Slavia Prague
Young Boys v. Red Star Belgrade
APOEL v. Ajax
Lask (Austria) v. Club Brugge
Okympiacos v. Krasnodar


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Celtic absolutely disintegrated at home ... coincidentally the same week they finally folded under the pressure to sell right back Kieran Tierny to Arsenal. Celtic fans are ... let's go with "not happy" with management at the moment.
 
jeffbear said:
Celtic absolutely disintegrated at home ... coincidentally the same week they finally folded under the pressure to sell right back Kieran Tierny to Arsenal. Celtic fans are ... let's go with "not happy" with management at the moment.
Click to expand...

Not only did they sell Tierney (thanks for that), they took the fee in installments with Arsenal screaming poverty all summer on fees.


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andyt said:
Not only did they sell Tierney (thanks for that), they took the fee in installments with Arsenal screaming poverty all summer on fees.


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Click to expand...

The natives, as they say, are restless.
 
The Group Stage draw was today.

Group A - PSG, Real Madrid, Brugge, Galatasaray
Group B - Bayern Munich, Spurs, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade
Group C - Man City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta
Group D - Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group E - Liverpool, Napoli, RB Salzburg, Genk
Group F - Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter, Slavia Prague
Group G - Zenit St. Petersburg, Benfica, RB Leipzig
Group H - Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille

First matches 9/17-18
 
Good Group H for American fans. Pulisic, Weah and Dest all in the same group and all featuring in the first 11 for their clubs ... when healthy. Nice.

City got a gift wrapped group while Liverpool got a sneaky tough one and Spurs should be fine in theirs. Chelsea's probably in trouble, but expectations are low this season so that it cause too much concern if they bow out early ... so long as they put up a fight.
 
I missed Lyon in Group G. I think that and Chelsea’s Group comes closest to a Group of Death, if only because the Pot 1 teams are weakest.

In the Europa League. Arsenal drew Eintracht Frankfurt, Standard Liege and Vitoria de Guimaraes (Portugal). Man U drew Astana, Partizan (Serbia) and AZ. Wolves fought their way out of the 2nd Qualifying Round and drew Besiktas, Braga and Slovan Bratislava. Celtic drew Lazio, Rennes and CFR Cluj.

Man U looks to have the toughest travel schedule, stuck in Kazakhstan and Serbia. Arsenal have short hops to Germany, Belgium and Portugal
 
Celtic fans are freaking thrilled to be seeing Cluj again, after barfing up their CL qualifier to them a couple of weeks ago. Sarcasm FULLY engaged.

And Groups of Death ... as you know, I find the term to be 90% hype, but in the case of Chelsea's group in the UCL I'd label it more "the group of four teams that are more or less the same level of decent."
 
Match day 1 starts with Groups E - H. Turner has the TV broadcast rights, Bleacher Report has the streaming rights. On TV today, we have Inter v. Slavia Prague at 12:55 and Napoli v. Liverpool at 3:00
 
Match day 1 is in the books. Liverpool lost at Napoli, but they lost all of their away Group Stage matches and we saw how that finished. They were in the same group last year and finished tied on points and goal differential but Liverpool advanced on total goals scored, the 7th tiebreaker. Salzburg curb-stomped Genk, 6-2. Dortmund and Barcelona played at scoreless draw. Ajax, with 18 year old American Sergino Dest playing 90 minutes eat Lille while Chelsea lost at home to Valencia. Atletico Madrid and Olympiacos both overcame 2-0 deficits at home to salvage draws, against Juve and Spurs, respectively. PSG held Real Madrid without a shot on goal in a 3-0 home win. Man City won at Shakhtar 3-0.

Match day 2 in 2 weeks.
 
Through 2 match days and there are already a few teams in trouble. Spurs were crushed at home by Bayern and have 1 point. They outplayed Bayern in the 1st half but were down 2-1. Then things got ugly. Serge Gnabry had 4 and then trolled Spurs on Twitter, harkening back to his days at Arsenal. Real Madrid needed a 2nd half comeback at home to salvage a 2-2 draw with Brugge on the heels of their 3-0 wipeout at PSG. Inter have 1 point after losing at Barcelona, following their 1-1 home draw to Slavia Prague
 
Crazy match at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Ajax had a 4-1 lead after 55 minutes and ended up with 9 men for 21 minutes and a 4-4 draw. Azpilicueta pulled into back in the 63rd. Both of their center backs were sent off with their 2nd yellows on the same sequence and Jorginho converted the resulting penalty, his 2nd of the game. James equalized 3 minutes later and Azpilicueta had the winner chalked off after a VAR review.
 
Another oddity today. Man City substituted their keeper, Ederson, at the half. Claudio Bravo came on but picked up a straight red in the 81st minute. So Pep sent in Kyle Walker. It took 7 minutes to straighten it all out, make sure he had the right kit, etc. In the meantime, AtalaNTC was trying to take the free kick without a keeper in the Man City goal. Walker made the stop and City held on for a 1-1 draw.
 
The Group Stage ended today. Here’s how they finished, top 2 to the Knockout round, 3rd place to the Europa League round of 32

Group A - PSG, Real Madrid, Brugge, Galatasaray
Group B - Bayern Munich, Spurs, Red Star Belgrade, Olympiacos
Group C - Man City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta
Group D - Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow
Group E - Liverpool, Napoli, RB Salzburg, Genk
Group F - Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Inter, Slavia Prague
Group G - RB Leipzig, Lyon, Benfica, Zenit St. Petersburg - Benfica And Zenit tied on points, Benfica advance on head to head goal differential.
Group H - Valencia, Chelsea, Ajax, Lille - Valencia and Chelsea tied on points. Valencia win the group on head to head points
 
The Europa League Group Stage is complete. Arsenal, Man U and Celtic win their groups. Rangers and Wolves finish 2nd in their groups and also advance.

The draw for the next round of both competitions is Monday, 12/16.
 
Round of 16 draw. Man City and Liverpool won their groups and will host the 2nd leg, Chelsea and Spurs host the 1st leg.

Borussia Dortmund v. PSG
Real Madrid v. Man City
Atalanta v. Valencia
Atletico Madrid v. Liverpool
Chelsea v. Bayern Munich
Lyon v. Juventus
Spurs v. RB Leipzig
Napoli v. Barcelona

In the Europa League round of 32, Wolves drew Espanyol, Arsenal drew Olympiacos, Man U drew Brugge, Celtic drew Copenhagen and Rangers drew Braga
 
Europa League draw notables:

Celtic drew Copenhagen
Man United got Brugge (good luck ... they're good)
Arsenal got Olympiacos
Wolves drew Espanyol

Good draw for Celtic, not so much for United. Arsenal and Wolves got capable middlers.
 
So with Turner/Bleacher Report bailing on their contract, CBS has picked up the Champions and Europa Leagues. They released their broadcast schedule today and it blows. All but 3 matches will be on their CBS All Access subscription streaming service, and those 3 will be on CBS Sports Network, not big CBS. They’ll have Man City/Real Madrid on Friday, 8/7 and Barcelona/Napoli on Saturday 8/8 in round of 16 2nd legs. That’s it until the Champions League final on Sunday, 8/23. All Europa League matches are streaming only.
 
The Champions League is back today, with the 2nd leg of 2 round of 16 matches. Juventus host Lyon, trying to overcome a 1-0 deficit and Man City host Real Madrid with a 2-1 advantage. The two goals at the Bernabeu are huge, effectively requiring either a 2 goal win or a 1 goal win and scoring at least 3 goals by Los Blancos.

Tomorrow is the 2nd legs with Barcelona hosting Napoli and a 1-1- draw in Naples and Bayern Munich hosting Chelsea and holding a 3-0 advantage from Stamford Bridge.
 
Juventus beat Lyon 2-1 but lost the tie on away goals. Then they fired Maurizio Sarri. Man City best Real Madrid and took the tie 3-2 on aggregate. Barcelona beat Napoli and took the tie 4-2 on aggregate. Bayern Munich best Chelsea sn took the tie 7-1 on aggregate.

The rest of the tournament moves to Portugal and both the quarterfinals and semifinals will be single leg. The quarterfinal draw is:

Man City v. Lyon
RB Leipzig v. Atletico Madrid
Barcelona v. Bayern Munich
Atalanta v. PSG
 
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