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Champions League, Europa, Conference League 2024-2025

I'd post the Champions League draw, but ... screw that. The new format is WAY too weird. Here's a link and here's me being a bit conflicted about Villa having to play Celtic. I will say that the new format kind of levels out the old strong group/weak group issue.

 
jeffbear said:
I'd post the Champions League draw, but ... screw that. The new format is WAY too weird. Here's a link and here's me being a bit conflicted about Villa having to play Celtic. I will say that the new format kind of levels out the old strong group/weak group issue.

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I was just about to post the link to the NYT article since I wasn't able to find a link that showed all the "pots" together, or even each pot individually (not on Twitter/X). 😁 And yes: this new format IS confusing! Not to mention the nonsense of the "league phase". But hopefully this makes for some more interesting contests overall.
I AM excited about my Reds getting to play Xabi's Leverkusen at Anfield. That'll be some moment
 
Yeah ... Villa get Bayern at home, which is cool. They also get Juve at home. The road legs are sneaky tough ... especially Leipzig and Monaco
 
The league phase of the Champions League kicks off today. With the expansion to 36 clubs, the matches run Tuesday-Thursday. CBS/Paramount+ have the TV rights. Villa and Liverpool play today, Man City and Celtic play tomorrow and Arsenal play in Thursday.
 
I'm starting to get a little concerned about Emery not rotating the squad at all. Other than replacing injured starters, we've started the exact same lineup every match this season and are continuing to do so for the champions league match three days after our last match on an artificial pitch. We're bringing three keepers and Philogene isn't even on the bench. We added a lot of depth to the squad over the summer and I assumed the whole point of that was to not have to play the starters nearly as much as we did last season.
 
Yeah ... that's above my pay grade. I've read some stuff on how he handled roster management differently at Villareal, but that was Europa League and this isn't. I dunno. You and both would shoot Digne into the sun if we could and yet he's constantly getting involved in scoring plays. So ... yeah. They won today. I'm good with that. I'm less good with two VAR reversals that absolutely wouldn't have happened otherwise. And I'm still not convinced Ollie even touched that first one. Neither is the VAR guy. He just felt like waiving one off.
 
Unless there was another secret angle that VAR had, I saw nothing close to definitive that the ball touched Ollie's hand or arm. The second one was a bit different, on one hand it was absolutely a blown call that I saw in real time and was surprised the ref missed. On the other hand, it was clearly in a different phase of play of the eventual goal and therefore should not have factored in at all. The VAR official was clearly playing fast and loose with the rules and it should have been a five nil statement thumping rather than a workmanlike three nil performance.
 
I hadn't watched a full YB home match in a while ... probably the last time Celtic played them in Europe ... and had forgotten how weirdly militant and generally aggro their fans are. Calm down. You live in freaking Bern and support a team with a name that had to have come from an improv group.
 
Did Dinamo Zagreb piss on Bayern’s shoes? Bayern dismantled them, 9-2 and it could have been worse, they had 2 goals chalked off for offside. Bayern jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Dinamo made the mistake of scoring 2 goals in 2 minutes to make it 3-2 and then Bayern exploded, answering 7 minutes later and the rout was on. Kane had 4 goals, 3 on penalties, Olise had a brace.
 
Yeah, Celtic have played them a lot in European competitions and I know from experience that that bunch from Zagreb can be a bit salty to play. A lot of their matches get a bit testy, even when they travel. They must have ticked the wrong guy off in warmups or maybe said a few magic words after they scored those goals.
 
jeffbear said:
I hadn't watched a full YB home match in a while ... probably the last time Celtic played them in Europe ... and had forgotten how weirdly militant and generally aggro their fans are. Calm down. You live in freaking Bern and support a team with a name that had to have come from an improv group.
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When Jordan Pefok played for them I did a deep dive on their history. Their name is a derivation of an older Swiss club known as Old Boys. Weird choice to name their team (and their strip is similar, too) but they've been around awhile .
 
David Raya with another 10 bell save saved Arsenal’s bacon at Atalanta yesterday. He saved a late penalty and then dove back to his left to get a hand on the follow up. But Arsenal is struggling offensively without Odegaard and he’s out for a while. It doesn’t bode well for the league match against Man City on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Monaco beat 10 man Barca, 2-1. Eric Garcia was sent off in the 10th minute. In their UCL debut, Brest beat Storm Graz at home, 2-1. Leverkusen scored 4 first half goals at Feyenoord in a 4-0 win.
 
Ed H in Pasadena said:
When Jordan Pefok played for them I did a deep dive on their history. Their name is a derivation of an older Swiss club known as Old Boys. Weird choice to name their team (and their strip is similar, too) but they've been around awhile .
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Oh, I'm aware of their history, I just forgot how aggressively obnoxious their fan base is. Most Swiss sides are ... not that.
 
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