Champions League football thread..

[Pam]

Joke that they were seeded in pot 1 after having to qualify

Indeed. Utter gash. This tournament's seeding system and overall structure makes less and less sense. The Europa will overtake it if it's not sorted soon.

 

[samharris]

T' ra tarquins..

 

[Ducado]

Epic rape, well done Milan. People bash the Italian league but once again like with Napoli against us, a representative shows that it isn't a dead league and is in fact improving a lot again, and their managers are generally tactically superior to ours. Juventus will be the next to make an impact in the CL next season. Even calamity club Inter have managed to make it to the second stage.

Hmmmmmmmm I don't know about that, it's got huge problems with money, very poor economic outlook, poor attendances, and still a strong whiff of corruption.

Granted we did not make it, but that was from a very tough group any other year we would have got through, but like I have said a 1000 times on here, it's obvious that the League has been the club and players number 1 priority this season, everything else just plays 2nd fiddle

 

[Manc in London]

Epic rape, well done Milan. People bash the Italian league but once again like with Napoli against us, a representative shows that it isn't a dead league and is in fact improving a lot again, and their managers are generally tactically superior to ours. Juventus will be the next to make an impact in the CL next season. Even calamity club Inter have managed to make it to the second stage.

Good point. The standard of Italian football is clearly getting better. However, our media would have you believe that Serie A is closer to the League of Ireland rather than the Prem, in terms of quality.



Re Ivan Gazidis: Arsenal may only be left in one competition after this weekend. Give it anouther 4 or 5 games in the Prem and they could mathematically be out of the title race.

 

[Marvin]

Not convinced Milan are that good.

Arsenal just can't defend. Time and again long balls saw Milan in on goal

 

[jake28]

Dunphy on rte has said for the first time in his lifetime there is no world class Brazilian or Italian player and the game is in terminal decline...While I wouldn't say terminal he does have a point.

 

[Speaker]

Don't get me wrong, I am revelling in Arsenal being torn apart by a vastly superior side who we beat relatively easily only a year ago, but an offside and a dodgy pen must be sickening for them.

'Arry no tactical nous? Milan couldn't score against us over 2 legs, but have deserrvedly scored 4 tonight.

I'm not entirely sure what Wenger was doing with his tactics, he should have dropped Ramsey and played Rosicky in the hole with Chamberlain and Walcott on the wings. If there is one thing that Italian sides have always loathed, it is pace. We played them on the counter with pace and profited. Wenger should have set his team up to play the same way.

Spurs fan? Milan dominated you guys for 135 minutes, and were riddled with injuries. A healthy Milan team knocks you out quite comfortably imho

Riddled with injuries? They were only missing one player and that was Pirlo, who was deemed surplus to requirements this summer. It was us who had no king, no bale, and modric just coming back from an injury and not even featuring in the 1st leg. We had far more important players missing than Milan did.

 

[LoveCity]

I believe Milan are now a very good side again who have class in every position. Held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou then were unlucky to lose 2-3 to them at the San Siro in a very good match.

Italian clubs are struggling economically compared to the top English and Spanish clubs at the moment but they are compensating well with shrewd purchases (look at Napoli's Three Tenors - Cavani, Lavezzi, Hamsik - acquired at very little total cost and worth around £80million combined now... and look at what Milan have turned Boateng into) and intelligent managers.

I would break the bank for Thiago Silva if there was any indication he'd be willing to leave Milan for us, he's an amazing defender and with Kompany we'd have the best CB pairing in the world.

 

[IH8MUFC]

Fair play to Wenger for resting Chamberlain for next years europa league.

 

[Braggster]

I believe Milan are now a very good side again who have class in every position. Held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Camp Nou then were unlucky to lose 2-3 to them at the San Siro in a very good match.

Italian clubs are struggling economically compared to the top English and Spanish clubs at the moment but they are compensating well with shrewd purchases (look at Napoli's Three Tenors - Cavani, Lavezzi, Hamsik - acquired at very little total cost and worth around £80million combined now... and look at what Milan have turned Boateng into) and intelligent managers.

I agree, and I think you can add Udinese to that list, as well. Italian clubs have been forced to deploy their capital as efficiently as possible for a number of years now and the result is that they have been getting far better value, and trading players much more efficiently, than the top English/Spanish clubs. (This is partly why I am sanguine, indeed almost glad, that the days of mega spending by City appear to be over.)

The overall standard of coaching in Italy is also much, much higher than in England.