Pre match thread : Borussia Monchengladbach away CL

[Marvin]

I see this fixture as being quite similar to our trip to Ajax 3 years ago. Its a game we should win but we need to make sure they don't gain any momentum in front of a large vociferous crowd.

They have to remove the standing areas for European games, and that reduces the capacity to 46k according to wiki.

But it will still be a big game for them.

I think there is a general issue amongst Premiership clubs of fans and clubs not being as excited and motivated by the Champions League as continental clubs. You see that in the performance levels where the opposition raise their game, whereas English clubs just play their same old game. And it's gone as far now as teams like Arsenal resting players in the Champions League. Wenger rested a lot of players in Zagreb in advance of the their league game against Chelsea and he did it again last night. It's the other way around for City. We are nursing our players in the Premiership, but historically for reasons no one understands we still underperform in Europe. I think it's psychological. The moment something goes wrong, it's like here we go again and the belief is not there.

I think we'll get at least a point although Borussia should score against our defence given we're without most peoples favoured back 4 defenders of Zabaleta, Clichy, Kompany and Mangala. That really is a ridiculous situation.

 

[supercity88]

you're probably right but i still see it as a pain in the arse, IMO if it wasn't for CL Juve game we would be on Max points in the PL

Possibly we would be... however this season we're seeing the other English teams struggle domestically and in Europe (despite their groups being a lot better on paper than ours).

If we win tonight, and beat Newcastle then we could be in a strong position in the group as well as top of the league come the end of this weekends fixtures. That's a decent start to things in my opinion.

 

[shemnel]

wow, ive seen a lot of posts here about 0-2 to the Germans, City fucking it up again, red cards, making them look like Barca, Europe this Europe that, fuck ME there's a load of shit on here sometimes! "supporters". if we win just stay off here.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

If yaya and silva are not 100% I hope pellers goes in with a solid 4-4-2 hard working like athletico madrid

hart

sagna
demi
nicolas
kolarov

navas
diniho
nando
kdb

sterling
aguero

 

[Bobby Heaton Moor]

Why is there such an apathy amongst a lot of our fans towards this competition? Not criticising, just genuinely intrigued as to why

 

[adr2.8i]

Why is there such an apathy amongst a lot of our fans towards this competition? Not criticising, just genuinely intrigued as to why

for me personally theres a couple of reasons why i havent got excited by this competition.

firstly we havent exactly "lit" up the tournament yet. I get excited when we have played Madrid/Barca & Bayern but the rest of the games i have been rather subdued for some reason. I think we need a big win in the last 16/quarter final and i think the fans would finally embrace the competition a bit more.

and secondly its the play acting, the diving, the poor officiating, the waving of imaginary yellow cards, and all thats going on at the top with the corruption at Uefa. Its just a money machine and whilst i understand the need for City to be successful in the champions league, the thirst for money and the way people and clubs go about it on and off the pitch leaves a sour taste in my mouth if im honest. Seeing Twatini and Blatter on tv makes my blood boil.
But saying all that, i would still love to see Vinnie lift that fooking huge trophy aloft!

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

wow, ive seen a lot of posts here about 0-2 to the Germans, City fucking it up again, red cards, making them look like Barca, Europe this Europe that, fuck ME there's a load of shit on here sometimes! "supporters". if we win just stay off here.

It's perfectly possible to want us to win, and yet retain a degree of realism about our prospects in particular games, so spare me the shit about "supporters" and "staying off this site". That notwithstanding, what is it about our results at Ajax, Kiev, Napoli, Poznan, Barca, Munich, Dortmund, Hamburg, CSKA and Madrid, that makes you think this will be significantly different? If you rule out Viktoria Pilzen's minnows, we have performed to somewhere near the best of our ability just 3 times away in Europe, at Villareal, Munich and Roma, and 2 of those 3 were born of dogged pragmatism enforced through injury to Aguero, Silva, Kompany and Ya Ya. The number of people who rock up on here and confidently predict that we're going to gub sides from top European Leagues like La Liga and the Bundesliga, as if we were playing Scunthorpe, never ceases to amaze me. I will be astonished if tonight is anything other than an absolute dogfight and if we turn up in complacent mode we will lose. Simple as that

 

[shemnel]

It's perfectly possible to want us to win, and yet retain a degree of realism about our prospects in particular games, so spare me the shit about "supporters" and "staying off this site". That notwithstanding, what is it about our results at Ajax, Kiev, Napoli, Poznan, Barca, Munich, Dortmund, Hamburg, CSKA and Madrid, that makes you think this will be significantly different? If you rule out Viktoria Pilzen's minnows, we have performed to somewhere near the best of our ability just 3 times away in Europe, at Villareal, Munich and Roma, and 2 of those 3 were born of dogged pragmatism enforced through injury to Aguero, Silva, Kompany and Ya Ya. The number of people who rock up on here and confidently predict that we're going to gub sides from top European Leagues like La Liga and the Bundesliga, as if we were playing Scunthorpe, never ceases to amaze me

predicting we can just rock up and thrash anyone is as frustrating to read as predicting we will simply fold. results lend credence to the latter but it's easy to take a negative standpoint as you can either be vindicated or happy when we win.

i dont usually go for childish outbursts like the one i did but i read so many pages of drivel i got a frustrated, there is a core of moaners who love to hammer new signings after 5 games and start threads about 'how many we will win in a row', but i guess it's the same small bunch. just support the team from the get go i say.

 

[Exeter Blue I am here]

predicting we can just rock up and thrash anyone is as frustrating to read as predicting we will simply fold. results lend credence to the latter but it's easy to take a negative standpoint as you can either be vindicated or happy when we win.

i dont usually go for childish outbursts like the one i did but i read so many pages of drivel i got a frustrated, there is a core of moaners who love to hammer new signings after 5 games and start threads about 'how many we will win in a row', but i guess it's the same small bunch. just support the team from the get go i say.

Fair comment

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Why is there such an apathy amongst a lot of our fans towards this competition? Not criticising, just genuinely intrigued as to why

It's difficult not to buy into the notion that Platini and his cohorts at Uefa have not buggered up our chances over the last few seasons. We've had by far the most difficult groups over that time, and as soon as we get out of a group, hey ho, up stumps Barca!! We haven't played well and that remains the mystery. A few have gone on and on about CL experience, we're new, naive, etc, but we have players who have played in dozens of CL games. Experience shouldn't be an issue now. We just don't play a 'CL' game. Pellers approaches it in exactly the same way as he does the PL - the quality of individuals will triumph! We need a fair share of luck, a decent ref (Is this ref a descendant of Dick Turpin or Ben Turpin?) and a whole team performance. The latter being the overriding feature of CL victories.