Sparta Praha (H) - Wed 23rd Oct, 20:00 | CL | Pre-Match Thread

[aka blue jambo]

Looking forward to the famous colours of Sparta face our sky blues (hopefully no more Oasis kit at home). Should be a good game.

Sparta have only used 15 players all season. They should be easy go work out within the opening minutes. A chance to score a few may happen. But, City are City. And we shouldn't be arrogant.

0-1 defeat, written nowhere near it. I wouldn't bet against it. Confidence-wise, I'd say this is a game to find our shooting boots, but could also be a scraped win, draw or narrow defeat. If we up our tempo, we'll bury them.

Any team that plays in the same colours as the Famous Heart of Midlothian FC are worth watching!!

Busy couple of days .. overnight in Manchester then straight to Tynecastle tomorrow.
Incidentally Jovetic is playing for our Cypriot opposition

 

[fanatic1]

I know that plenty here criticize the current league table format but under the old group system there were several teams that were very likely to finish bottom or next to bottom of their group. In consequence there were many dead rubber games especially the final one as the top 2 had moved to the knock out stage already. At least this system needs focus on all the qualifying games as any below par performance in the later games could mean that a seeded top 8 outfit could easily be caught and passed by one of the next level. The same applies to positions 9 to 16 in the table (seeded for 2 leg play-off)

 

[Xhavenjoe]

Didnt realise we can have the longest unbeaten run in champions league history tonight?

I heard that on some radio show this morning and the sports news presenter couldn't get in quick enough that we lost to Madrid on penalties.
When it was pointed out to him that this is normally classed as a draw he said" they lost, didn't they"

 

[Gremlin]

Blow them away and around 55/60 min introduce McAtee, O'Reilly etc.

We say this type of thing about a lot of games and that is usually the cue for it to be 0-0 (or even 0-1) at 75 mins and everyone starting to sweat...

 

[richards30]

I heard that on some radio show this morning and the sports news presenter couldn't get in quick enough that we lost to Madrid on penalties.
When it was pointed out to him that this is normally classed as a draw he said" they lost, didn't they"

lol! they are hurting so bad! Pep just gotta make sure we dont lose tonight and then its another record for the club!

 

[jimharri]

Any team that plays in the same colours as the Famous Heart of Midlothian FC are worth watching!!

Busy couple of days .. overnight in Manchester then straight to Tynecastle tomorrow.
Incidentally Jovetic is playing for our Cypriot opposition

Who?

;-)

L

 

[IronsideKozuch]

We say this type of thing about a lot of games and that is usually the cue for it to be 0-0 (or even 0-1) at 75 mins and everyone starting to sweat...

Really? I dont. Maybe some think its a scenario for Fulham or Wolves away then - yes, they may be for a surprise.

This game should be relatively easy, bar special disasters like red card. Sure, at the day anything can happen, we all know it and thats a power of football. But Sparta Praga is simply at the level of Slovan Bratislava and we won very smoothly at their ground.

 

[IronsideKozuch]

This is always my first option but Pep seems to pick a starting eleven that he thinks will win, whilst the opposition pick their strongest eleven and we take all fuckin' day, or night, to get a first shot on goal! What odds are on offer for us conceding first?

Sure, anything can happen in football, but we are playing at home Sparta Praga.

For almost everybody we are the best team in the world, top2 at least. So, in short, you are using some very far-fetched hyperbole:) We quite often have a first goal or shot on goal in the game.

 

[Gremlin]

Really? I dont. Maybe some think its a scenario for Fulham or Wolves away then - yes, they may be for a surprise.

This game should be relatively easy, bar special disasters like red card. Sure, at the day anything can happen, we all know it and thats a power of football. But Sparta Praga is simply at the level of Slovan Bratislava and we won very smoothly at their ground.

On paper - yes, of course. But as Brian Clough once famously said "on paper we were the better team, but unfortunately the game was played on grass". Play this game 10 times and we win 9 of them comfortably, but the 'typical City' worrier in me still can't shake the concern over the other 1 time. But, after all, that is sport - if there was no jeopardy then we wouldn't bother watching.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

On the paper its basically Slovan Bratyslava type of the opponent in the power rankings. Its been pretty easy back then.

No red cards, no injuries and we should be fine.

Regardless I do not think starting eleven will be entirely different. Pep wants a bit of continuity, still to build fitness and chemistry among starters.

But I hope for Nunes to start. He has done proper job against Wolves when things been hot for him.

Blow them away and around 55/60 min introduce McAtee, O'Reilly etc.

They’re better than Bratislava. They were decent enough against Stuttgart.