Champions League

[BaronSqwelch]

Brilliant that Maribor knocked out Celtic...justice done IMO.

[nakamura]

Absolute justice. As stupid as the other team were last round, they still smashed Celtic. Perhaps a pass for Maribor this round would have been the correct answer?

[EJG1980]

Kicking out Legia Warsaw was far too harsh in the first place. Should have just fined them and replayed the second leg. I'd like the exact same situation to happen with someone like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool or Real Madrid; I have a sneaky feeling they wouldn't be instantly kicked out of the competition for the same offence.

As long as we don't somehow cock-up on Thursday, I'd really like Spurs to get Celtic in the Europa League now!

[nakamura]

I do agree but Legia were stupid enough not to comply to the rules correctly. It was harsh and had no impact on thr result iirc, but rules are still rules and it was sloppy of them.

[EJG1980]

Yup, they only have themselves to blame, but I think intent should be a big factor when deciding a punishment: they had a player who was banned for three matches, they left him out for three matches, but didn't register it with UEFA properly so they didn't consider his ban served. He then came on for, I think, six minutes of the second leg when they were already 6-1 up.

They were clearly not trying to gain any advantage or circumvent the rules, it was a silly admin error, and throwing them out seems way over the top for what happened. As you say though, rules are the rules, and a professional club shouldn't be making a mistake like that.

Brilliant story from the CL last night: Ludogorets goalkeeper gets sent off on the 119th minute vs Steaua so a Ludogorets defender has to go in goal for the penalty shootout... he only goes and saves two penalties as Ludogorets win the shootout Fantastic stuff.

[Nu-Eclipse]

UEFA Champions League 2014/15 - Group Stage

Group A: Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Olympiakos, Malmo

Group B: Real Madrid, Basel, Liverpool, Ludogorets Razgrad.

Group C: Benfica, Zenit St Petersburg, Bayer Leverkusen, Monaco.

Group D: Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Galatasaray, Anderlecht

Group E: Bayern Munich, Manchester City, CSKA Moscow, Roma.

Group F: Barcelona, Paris St-Germain, Ajax, APOEL Nicosia.

Group G: Chelsea, Schalke, Sporting Lisbon, Maribor

Group H: Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Athletic Bilbao, BATE Borisov.

[VR46]

Some tough groups there, especially Man City's. They seem to attract a CL game against Bayern almost every season - three out of the last four seasons it's happened I believe.

Hopefully Liverpool and Real will get through by virtue of beating the other two teams almost alone.

[EJG1980]

38 and still going strong, it's brilliant to see Totti back in the Champions League again. Apparently Man City posted a tweet earlier mentioning the fact that Totti had never scored in England... Oops

[VR46]

Draw for last 16

Champions League last-16 draw
First legs 17/18/24/25 February. Second legs 10/11/17/18 March.

Paris St-Germain
v
Chelsea

Manchester City
v
Barcelona

Bayer Leverkusen
v
Atletico Madrid

Juventus
v
Borussia Dortmund

Schalke
v
Real Madrid

Shakhtar Donetsk
v
Bayern Munich

Arsenal
v
Monaco

Basel
v
Porto

[Shozuki]

We got really lucky there, I was expecting Bayern or Madrid personally...

[VR46]

So it's looking like there will probably be no British teams in the last eight.

Weird game tonight, some cracking goals, and Oscar should get an Oscar.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Good to see Chelsea get dumped out.

****house club, ****house players, ****house fans and a ****house manager.

[EJG1980]

Thought that was going to be a typical annoying Chelsea win: Ibrahimovic wrongly sent off, Chelsea still outplayed by ten men, total miss-hit by Costa just happens to land perfectly at the feet of Cahill for the late goal... and PSG equalise! Then extra time, Chelsea take the lead again... and another PSG equaliser! A top notch evening's entertainment. And also:



Icing on the cake.

By the way, Marco Verratti is going to be some player. Bossed the game last night even though he was on the side with ten men.

Edit: should mention that Real Madrid vs Schalke match from the other night too. What a great game that was! Such a shame that Schalke couldn't find the one extra goal they needed to knock Madrid out, but a great roller coaster of a match none the less.

[EJG1980]

Great match last night between Juventus and Real Madrid. A shame Juve let in the away goal but they deserved the win and I'm glad they got it. They're the underdogs of the final four but I really hope Juve go on and win the whole thing, it'd be great to see someone other than the usual suspects of recent years win it.

Bizarre stuff from Martin Atkinson with the Juve penalty though; Marcelo tripped someone from behind forty yards from goal during the build up to the penalty and Atkinson went back and booked him, but the player who tripped Tevez when he was one on one with the keeper, in the box, zero covering defenders... not even a booking, and it really should have been a red. I wonder what goes through referees minds, sometimes.

Hopefully the Barca vs Bayern Munich match tonight will be a good one, though I think the style of the two teams means it'll be less blood and thunder than last night.

Edit: another good match, although I did enjoy the previous match a bit more. Good to see some semi-finals that haven't been cagey affairs between teams sitting back and afraid to make mistakes.

Absolutely wonderful goal from Messi for his second of the night (not that his first was bad). Looks like an almost impossible task for Munich to qualify now. Hoping for a Barca vs Juve final

[EJG1980]

Brilliant performance by Juve tonight to draw 1-1 in Madrid and get through to the final, thoroughly deserved and they were the better side over the two legs.

I'm glad Juve did it as I much prefer finals with teams from different countries, and I'm glad to see an Italian team back in the final again. Really hope Juve can upset Barca and Buffon can finally win the Champions League to cap off his career.

Really looking forward to the final now!