Champions League/Europa League 2016/17

[Halie Satanus]

The draw just finished.

Group A
Paris SG(FRA)
Arsenal(ENG}
Basel(SUI)
Ludogorets(BUL)

Group B
Benfica(POR)
Napoli(ITA)
Dynamo Kyiv(UKR)
Beşiktaş(TUR)

Group C
Barcelona(ESP)
Man. City(ENG)
Mönchengladbach(GER)
Celtic(SCO)

Group D
Bayern(GER)
Atlético(ESP)
PSV(NED)
Rostov(RUS)

Group E
CSKA Moskva(RUS)
Leverkusen(GER)
Tottenham(ENG)
Monaco(FRA)

Group F
Real Madrid(ESP)
Dortmund(GER)
Sporting CP(POR)
Legia(POL)

Group G
Leicester(ENG)
Porto(POR)
Club Brugge(BEL)
København(DEN)

Group H
Juventus(ITA)
Sevilla(ESP)
Lyon(FRA)
Dinamo Zagreb(CRO)

Europa League groups:
http://www.flashscore.com/soccer/europe/europa-league/

[Candy_Licker]

Real again, how suprising.

This is getting old now.

[Halie Satanus]

Fully expect the usual suspects to go through the groups. Leicester should go through, the Spuds too have a pretty doable group. City should make it through but have a tough group, be interesting to see if Pep can make them more convincing in the CL. Arsenal, should get through the group, though after scrapping last term nothing would surprise me now.

I seem to have forgot to add Chelsea, oh wait.....

[Knight of Heaven]

As portuguese teams go, this is what i expect:

Porto imo is clear favorite to pass its group, Leicester notwithstanding, i think Porto is superior, and by far more experienced in this competition and has the obligation to pass the group. Fisrt position would be more Normal, but second is also acceptable. Of course i wouldnt be suprised of a different result.. it is football after all. You never know what can happen.

Benfica as a tuff job, special with very hard away games ( italy, and Ukraine, even Turkey) But it should pass In normal circunstances, allthough Benfica seems not as strong as it was last year right now. Still I wouldnt understimate Rui Vitoria competence. In finding proper replacements for Gaitan and Renato sanches within their roster.
It will be interesting to see how Naples handles it without Higuain.....
I expect Kiev to be a very dificult team to beat, both away and at home... Beşiktaş is the easiest in theory, but lets not forget they are the Turkish Champions. No easy games in this group.

Sporting has a nighmarish group, with Real and Dortmund. I would rate them to get the Europa league spot, if things go without suprises.
Depending of Jorge jesus attitude towards champions league this year ( he has the habit of droping the ball on european competitions in favor of the national ones)
But if he faces this chalenge in a serious manner, i wouldnt get past them to make a suprise sensation, but that would require also some luck. that said i wouldnt be suprised in a good result against Dortmund games. If they take this serious that is. Wich i doubt knowing jorge jesus.
Real is another story. Will ronaldo once again score against the club of his heart? Last time he did it a few years back with United, with a Briliant free kick.
Sporting in theory is by far superior to Legia tough.


In other notes, i think Group E is a group of death. Very balanced, pretty much anyone can pass. Rooting for Monaco tough ( because of Portuguese players and coach, plus Bernardo Silva is a briliant player.)

Personaly I also find Group D more balanced then it might apear at first glance. I expect PSV to actualy have a say in the contest of the two first spots.

Group C... i dont see anyone else passing other then City and Barcelona, as much i think Celtic actualy have a good team this time arround. and Borrussia is never easy.

Arsenal should go trough in group A, assuming they dont understimate the smaller teams Specialy Basel. I dont expect them to do good against PSG, but anything is possible realy.

In group H, Juve and Sevilla are obvious favorites to pass. It will be interesting to see what Lyon can do tough. Assuming they will have lacazette.. it is still unclear at this point. Still my bet is on the obvious. Sevilla and on the "Vecchia Signora" to pass.

[Candy_Licker]

As portuguese teams go, this is what i expect:Sporting has a nighmarish group, with Real and Dortmund. I would rate them to get the Europa league spot, if things go without suprises.
Depending of Jorge jesus attitude towards champions league this year ( he has the habit of droping the ball on european competitions in favor of the national ones)
But if he faces this chalenge in a serious manner, i wouldnt get past them to make a suprise sensation, but that would require also some luck. that said i wouldnt be suprised in a good result against Dortmund games. If they take this serious that is. Wich i doubt knowing jorge jesus.
Real is another story. Will ronaldo once again score against the club of his heart? Last time he did it a few years back with United, with a Briliant free kick.
Sporting in theory is by far superior to Legia tough.

How would you rank them compared to Porto/Benfica? I read Sporting contributed the midfield axis for Portugal's team, did they have any significant signings/departures?

I don't expect this to be easy, German teams have often struggled against Portuguese teams in the past, and even though the team is stacked with quality, the loss of 3 key players is a big deal.

[Knight of Heaven]

How would you rank them compared to Porto/Benfica? I read Sporting contributed the midfield axis for Portugal's team, did they have any significant signings/departures?

I don't expect this to be easy, German teams have often struggled against Portuguese teams in the past, and even though the team is stacked with quality, the loss of 3 key players is a big deal.

Well right now, i think the 3 teams are very well balanced, wich wasnt always the case in the past. Last season the league was rather competitive with Benfica and Specialy Sporting fighting for the title very closely. Porto had a terrible last season tough. Wich isnt that usual.
That said, This season it is expected to be even more competitive, as Porto seems to have a bit more stability, and a better manager. And so far is practising way better football. Last season probably one of the worst in the last 10 years or so for Porto.
I suspect the 3 will fight it until the end for the title.

Sporting hasnt changed much since last season, in comparison to the other 2 big teams, Only Joao Mario seems to be going to Inter, yet to be official, but i belive it will soon.
And for that position Sporting has it quite covered. they signed ex Boca juniors Meli, he seems a quite good player. But even without him they have other solid options.

The question is up front if their main goal man is staying or not. Islam Slimani.
He is a good striker, and is a very important player for them.
And if he doesnt stay, i wonder how they will deal with that. They bought some new players for those postitions as backup, but they are an unknown.
And yes their midfield was the axis in the national team in the euro. Joao mario, Adrien Silva, and William Carvalho. All good players. Also the goalkeeper Rui Patricio.

So right now i would rank them on the same level of benfica/Porto , with the advantage of stability due to less key changes in the roster and first eleven.
Also with a very competent manager. They were considered by manny last season to be playing the better football for the most part. Despite not getting the championship. They came of second by 2 points i think. So not very different then Benfica. They were actualy able to win against Benfica 3 out 4 matches with them last season. Not bad at all.

So in resume, dont think Joao mario being absent will make much difference. Slimani absent however, it will. too soon to know for sure tough. Market is still open and all that jazz.

But you know this is taken from a perspective of the Liga NoS. (Portuguese league). In European competitions performances tend to be a bit different, it might not correlate perfectly.
But as i said it all depends, if Jorge Jesus (Sporting manager) Wants to realy bet on the champions league. With a group like this he might drop the ball ( It wouldnt be the first time). Or maybe not, we will see.

I don't expect this to be easy, German teams have often struggled against Portuguese teams in the past..

Well i could easly say the contrary, here "nobody likes to play against German teams" I mean we already know it is going to be very dificult. Whomever might be.

But yeah i dont expect it to be easy for Dortmund either. Last season Dortmund eliminated Porto in Europa league. I dont expect this to be as easy tough. (That was a terrible porto for comparison) Dortmun should expect a better team, then Porto last season, at least tacticaly, and routine plays.
Btw This sunday they play with each other (Sporting - Porto).

[Ybbon]

I think Leicester will struggle, they may seem little teams in their group but they all have more experience in Europe than Leicester. I confidently expect Arsenal to start well, then play a weakened team and end up either losing or barely scraping through the last game to get whacked by one of the favourites like Real or Bayern again. Group C is definitely the nasty one, but they are going to have some great matches at Celtic Park.

[Ybbon]

Well despite an appalling start - 42 seconds! we played much better in the second half, 1-1 in Paris is definitely a decent result but what the hell was the ref doing at the end - he can't have seen the incident to red card either player and Giroud just fell over backwards as far as I could see on one replay.

[Halie Satanus]

We mugged PSG. Yeh we were better in the second half but they missed some sitters and Ospina had the game of his life....

[lolIsuck]

Atkinson put in a very solid bid for worst refereeing display of the season, absolutely abysmal. Cancelling a valid PSV goal after 5 minutes, gifting them a penalty because Narsingh stumbled over his own feet but ignoring a far more obvious penalty in the second half with a Godin handball to name the worst calls. Arguably also Atletico's goal as there were two people down with a head injury at the moment but as the goal was scored in the same attack/action I can understand that one. PSV looked pretty decent, didn't really deserve to lose against Atletico but in the end you do need to convert your chances and if they keep missing penalties (7 misses in the last 13 I think) that's their own fault of course.

[Treva ★]

Yes, that was dismal refereeing -at some point UEFA/FIFA should allow for rematches, but that would equate transparency so would be unacceptable.

Silly Sellik bottled it with that penalty -I think Barça would have won it anyway, but you can't waste your chances against them like that.

Napoli!
(when's the Citeh-Monchengladbach game to be played?)

[Petrucci]

Today at standard CL time

[Treva ★]

Guardiola should take Agüero off now that he's scored his accustomed brace.

[Treva ★]

Commentary

Citeh 4:0 Monchengladbach - Pep didn't pay me any attention.
Neverkusen 2:2 CSKA - Lol Bayer
Totnam 1:2 Monaco - #bestleagueintheworld
Legia Warszawa 0:6 Borussia Dortmund - resurgent Dortmund!
Real Madrid 2:1 Sporting - game doesn't stop until Madrid scores.
Brugge 0:3 Leicester - #bestleagueintheworld
Porto 1:1 Copenhagen - lolporto, group is up for grabs.
Juventus 0:0 Sevilla - 16:3 in goal attempts? !!!
Lyon 3:0 Dinamo Zagreb - only to be expected.

[Treva ★]

I think Leicester will struggle,

Yo.

[Halie Satanus]

I missed the Spuds game, assuming since they hired out Wembley they must have hammered the third best team in France, especially with all that extra support...

What was the score?

And how did Chelsea do?

[Candy_Licker]

Commentary
Legia Warszawa 0:6 Borussia Dortmund - resurgent Dortmund!
Real Madrid 2:1 Sporting - game doesn't stop until Madrid scores.
.

Resurgent? Nah, long way to go. Legia was really, really, really bad. A third division team would've put up more resistance yesterday. And to top it all, some "fans" tried to storm the block and shouted "Borrussia Jude"
For Sporting, this was really bitter. Like you said, game doesn't stop until Real scores

Leverkusen, the king of bottlers, at it again

Thanks to Pep, PL finally has a team that can compete again.

[Petrucci]

Have you heard about Zenit game? They played against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and were losing 0:3 until 77th minute, when they scored. They scored 3 more times last in 90+2 and won the game 4:3! Complete madness!
Must watch that game on footballorgin when it comes online.

[Treva ★]

Should have a Europa League thread, or just add it to the title here and have a thread for both competitions?

[Petrucci]

I just had the same idea. I vote for merging EL and CL into this thread and changing the title according to this.