A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

The other matches today have ended.

Group E: Well, Liverpool just pulled a reverse Istanbul, so to speak. They were winning 3-0 away at Sevilla (goals by Firmino, Mané and Firmino again), but the latter recovered and ended up equalizing at the very last minute (brace by Ben Yedder - the second one being a penalty - and the equalizer by Pizarro after the corner)!

With this result, Liverpool will have to at least draw at home against Spartak Moscow in order to secure qualification. Sevilla will have to win against Maribor to qualify.

Group F: Manchester City won 1-0 against Feyenoord - goal by Sterling - while Napoli hasn't given up yet, by beating Shakhtar Donetsk by 3-0 (goals here). If Shakhtar Donetsk lose at home against City and Napoli beat already eliminated Feyenoord, then it's Napoli that will go through, while Shakhtar would fall into the Europa League knockout round.

Group G: Monaco are eliminated, after they lost at home 1-4 against RB Leipzig (goals here). With this result, Porto and RB Leipzig have the same amount of points (with Porto only being above due to having more goals scored in the head-to-head matches, iirc). Porto will have to win against Monaco if they want to go through to the next round, otherwise, they might end up in the Europa League if Leipzig win against Besiktas on the final matchday.

From going to semi-finalists to not even going to the EL... quite the fall for Monaco.

Group H: Tottenham has secured the top spot of the group, after beating Dortmund at the latter's stadium by 2-1 (goals here), while Real will take the second place, after destroying APOEL in Nicosia by 6-0 (goals here, including a brace each by Benzema and Ronaldo).

On the last matchday, if Dortmund loses and APOEL gets a draw (against Real and Tottenham, respectively), it'll be APOEL who will get the EL spot.

Not sure if it's been commented here yet, but Sevilla coach Eduardo Berizzo has prostate cancer. My best wishes for him.

Also, Gallardo will continue managing River Plate. Hopefully he'll win the Copa Argentina Final so he doesn't end 2017 empty-handed.

edited 21st Nov '17 3:55:01 PM by MyFinalEdits

May his recovery/treatment be a speedy one.

Two CL matches have ended already.

In group C, Chelsea has secured qualification after comfortably beating Qarabag away by 4-0. It helps that Qarabag were harshly reduced to 10 men before the penalty goal that opened the score. Goals here.

In group A, Benfica loses once again (and are thus eliminated from all European comps), this time by 2-0 in Moscow against CSKA. Goal by Schennikov (it probably should have been ruled offside), and an own goal by Jardel.

With this win, CSKA Moscow will await the result of the match between Manchester United and Basel. Also, a meme has reached its end, as CSKA GK Igor Akinfeev finally got a clean sheet in a CL final stage game, thus ending a run of 43 games without one! How generous of Benfica...

On another note, the Portuguese Cup Fifth Round matches have been drawn. We'll face Porto at their stadium.

Fuck.

On another note, remember when the Saudi FA/FF sacked Van Marwikj, the guy who managed Saudi Arabia and led them to the World Cup qualification, and replaced him with Bauza?

Well, after just... I don't know, 2, 3 months, Bauza has been officially sacked (tweet in Arabic).

edited 22nd Nov '17 11:07:46 AM by Quag15

I think it's best for Bauza to just take a break until after the WC. He's been sacked for the third time this year.

Arsenal's next game might actually be interesting. Since Arsenal have, surprisingly, already secured qualification from a tough Europa League group, the final game of the group stage, away at Köln, is a great opportunity to rotate the squad and play a bunch of youngsters and benchwarmers.

Walcott apparently has an injury, and Giroud was also injured during the international break, but apparently he's actually traveled to Germany, anyway. I think he'll be on the bench - he would've started, probably, but I doubt he'll be risked after the injury.

The only other first-team injury (that I can think of at the moment) is Cazorla, who isn't expected back until January at the earliest. That means that despite missing their 3rd best player, Arsenal are still in a much better situation, injury-wise, than they've been probably ever since I started supporting them in 2018. Having only one player who would be starting the big games out, with only the best bench player out as well, is better than I ever expected Arsenal to have it. Even Ospina, apparently, is back in first-team training.

Here's the starting line-up I think we'll see:

Macey
Chambers Mertesacker Holding
Nelson Elneny Willock Maitland-Niles
Iwobi Wilshere
Welbeck

I think Holding, Chambers, Mertesacker, Wilshere, and Welbeck will all start even though there are alternatives for some of them in the youth/reserve squad. Even though the result doesn't matter much, the youth players who do start will benefit from having at least some first-team players on, and of course, the first-team players who are usually on the bench will benefit from a game. Nketiah, Dasilva, and one of Debuchy or Coquelin might also feature from the bench, depending on how the game goes.

The place where my prediction is most likely to be wrong is the centre-back positions; Elneny might be played there again, although there are no overlapping injuries forcing that at the moment. Debuchy might also start the game because he needs first-team football, probably more than the players I named do. If Elneny starts as a defender, Coquelin will probably be in the midfield. There's also the possibility that Debuchy might start as the right wing-back, but that's not a natural position for him. He has to learn that if he's to stay at Arsenal beyond this season, though. (That said, I do think he'll want a transfer in January, now it seems he'll finally be bit during a transfer window.)

There are rumours that Arsenal are trying to loan or buy Draxler, Lemar, or Leon Goretzka. I don't know why Draxler should be available, but I can understand Lemar (Monaco are out of European competitions for the rest of the season), and Goretzka's contract expires this summer, so he can already sign a pre-contract with a foreign club in January, so it makes sense for the club to sell him to get at least something. That said, for both Lemar and Goretzka, a move to Arsenal would seem like a step down in their career, and they might want to make a move to a club that's either as big or bigger than their current clubs.

edited 22nd Nov '17 1:22:55 PM by BestOf

True, true.

The other CL matches tonight ended a few minutes ago.

Group A: Basel managed to win 1-0 against Manchester United, with a goal by Michael Lang. MU will still go through (unless they lose 6-0 and Basel wins their next match), which means that it's pretty much a matter of who will go through to the next round or who will fall into the Europa League round fo 32 - Basel or CSKA.

Group B: Bayern won 2-1 away against Anderlecht (goals here). As for PSG - Celtic... well, Celtic scored in the first minute of the match. Bad move. PSG curbstomped them. 7-1, goals here (including a brace each by Neymar and Cavani).

Group C: Atlético beat Roma by 2-0 (goals here), which means that Roma is obligated to win at home against already-eliminated Qarabag in order for them to go through. If they lose or draw and Atlético wins against already-qualified Chelsea, it's Atlético that would go through.

Group D: Juventus and Barcelona (with Messi on the bench during the first half and the early minutes of the second half) got a goalless draw, while Sporting CP beat Olympiakos by 3-1 (goals here, including a brace by Bas Dost). With these results, if Sporting somehow wins against Barcelona away and Juventus doesn't win at home against Olympiakos, it's Sporting the ones that would go through to the next round. It's more likely that Sporting will go to the EL, but with their heads held high.

edited 22nd Nov '17 2:13:43 PM by Quag15

To tell you the truth, I have the feeling that Atletico will not make it into the 1/8. Their last bout is against Chelsea in London.

Also, Bielsa "temporarily suspended" from Lille. Huh? What happened?

Even if Atleti do win at the Bridge (I wouldn't doubt the possibility), it wouldn't be enough if Roma still beats Qarabag (which is a more likely scenario).

I must say I'm very afraid of the knockout rounds of the Euros, what with the clubs that are coming down from the Champions League. Arsenal have to win their group so they'll get at least one round before they'll have to face an opponent from a tier above.

I was wondering if there's any certainty yet about which teams are coming down to the Europa League, so I took a look. The possibilities are:

A: Basel or CSKA Moscow. B: Celtic or Anderlecht, but very probably Celtic. C: Roma or Madrid. D: Juventus or Sporting. E: Spartak or Sevilla, but almost certainly Spartak. F: Shakhtar or Napoli. G: Leiptzig or Porto H: Dortmund or APOEL.

So I'm guessing: Basel, Celtic, Roma, Sporting, Spartak, Napoli, Leiptzig, and Dortmund.

Out of those teams, Roma, Sporting, Napoli, and Dortmund would definitely be considered favourites if they were drawn against Arsenal. The more rounds pass before Arsenal meet those teams, the better.

EDIT: As pointed out in , I somehow misread the standings and fixtures in that group; so substitute Atletico for Roma in this post.

edited 22nd Nov '17 2:59:50 PM by BestOf

I'm going to miss the beginning of the game, but here's the confirmed line-up:

Ospina
Debuchy Mertesacker Holding
Chambers Elneny Coquelin Maitland-Niles
Wilshere Welbeck
Giroud

It seems this game is prioritised a lot higher than I thought it would be. Wenger must be afraid that Arsenal wouldn't win the group with a younger squad, so he's picked a lot of experience. Makes sense; by finishing second in the group, Arsenal would be very likely to get knocked out in the next round.

Why's that?

Köln 0 - 0 Arsenal at half time.

Arsenal have dominated possession, getting the ball in the final third frequently. They just can't seem to get it in the penalty area, except when there are already about 10 Köln players in there. The final ball from Arsenal isn't reaching anyone dangerous, and that has to improve in the second half if Arsenal are to get anything from this game.

UPDATE: 1-0 for Köln, with 4 minutes of added time. With the time wastage (including 1-minute+ goal kicks, fake injuries with stretchers on the pitch, etc), I was thinking that anything less than 7 minutes of added time would be clear grounds for an investigation into the involvement of organised crime in this game, in terms of match-fixing by the referee. I really hope there will be an investigation, but of course there won't be. If you're a less famous team, you'll get away with wasting dozens of minutes per game, especially when you're ahead.

The goal was from Köln's only attack all game, and it was a very soft penalty call.

Arsenal have been very poor, especially in the final third, but I think Köln's man-of-the-match for this game will be the referee, and if similar favours had been given to Arsenal and the Köln manager pointed it out, he'd be lauded as a hero by the press.

FULL TIME: 1-0 for Köln+whoever bribed the referee, 0 for Arsenal.

This was a poor, poor game. One side had at least 8 players within 5 metres of their box for 60+ minutes of the game, and the referee made sure that there was never any penalty for time wastage. The linesman game the goalkeeper at least 4 talks for time wastage, but the main referee was never there, nor was there a card. The referee should be more embarrassed by this result than Arsenal, but I'm sure he'll say it's a job well done for the money he was probably paid by some gang.

edited 23rd Nov '17 11:57:38 AM by BestOf

They're leaders of the league at the moment, they're always favourites against us, and it's at their home. They will not chill, especially since our defense is... not good enough.

Half of the EL matches have ended.

Group A: Villareal won 3-2 away against Astana and are qualified. Goals here.

Group F: Lokomotiv Moscow won 2-1 against Copenhagen (goals by Farfan, Verbic, Farfan again.

Group G: Lugano won 1-0 against Hapoel Be'er Sheva, while Viktoria Plzen won 2-0 against FCSB/Steaua Bucharest (who were already qualified). Can't find the goals. All Plzen has to do to qualify is to draw against Be'er Sheva. Plzen has qualified, after all.

Group H: BATE Borisov and Crvena Zvezda (aka Red Star Belgrade) drew 0-0, while Köln won 1-0 against Arsenal (penalty by Guirassy). Arsenal is already qualified, thanks to the other result, while the other three are still trying to get the second place (Red Star and Köln will duke it out directly).

Group J: The Swedish fairytale continues, as Östersund won 2-0 against Zorya Luhansk (goals by Gero and Ghoddos) and are, therefore, qualified to the round of 32. Athletic Bilbao won 3-2 against Hertha Berlin (goals by Leckie, Aduriz (penalty), Selke, Aduriz (penalty... again) and Iñaki Williams. Hertha are eliminated as a result, while Bilbao and Luhanks will duke it out for the second place.

Group K. Nice are qualified in second place, after beating Zulte Waregem by 3-1 (a brace by Balotelli, Zulte's goal by Hamalainen, confirmation by Tameze. Lazio and Vitesse drew 1-1 (goals by Linssen and Alberto.

Group L: All things are wrapped up here. Real Sociedad won 1-0 away against Rosenborg and are qualified, thanks to a goal in the 90' by Oyarzabal (can't find the gif). They will duke it out with Zenit for the first spot (aka seeded spot in the round fo 32), whol won 2-1 against Vardar (goals by Poloz, Rigoni; can't find Vardar's goal).

Group I: Konyaspor drew 1-1 with Marseille (a penalty for the former and an own goal in favour of the latter at the very last minute), while us... well...

Red Bull Salzburg 3-0 Vitória SC

Embarassing display (apart from a couple of players, such as Celis, and a shot to the bar). Goals by Dabbur, Ulmer (the goal that killed whatever motivation the team had) and Hwang Hee-Chan. With this result, Red Bull are qualified.

Our only remaining hope of qualifying is that we win at home against Konyaspor and that Marseille loses against RB. Problem is, the latter are already qualified (so, they will relax), while Konyaspor will also seek to win against us. It's likely that we blew it, anyway.

edited 23rd Nov '17 4:22:55 PM by Quag15

Sorry to hear that. :(

Robinho has been sentenced into 9 years in jail due to sexual abuse.

It's alright. At least we aren't doing as bad as, say, Benfica in the Champions League. Thank you for the kind words.

The other matches tonight have ended.

Group A: Slavia Prague won 2-0 away against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (goals by goals by Husbauer and). Slavia Prague will duke it out at home with Astana for the second place, and only need a draw to get it.

Group B: Partizan won 2-1 against Young Boys and are qualified as a result (can't find the goals) and Skënderbeu Korçë won 3-2 against Dynamo Kyiv (can't find all the goals, but this is a great one). With these results, Young Boys and Skënderbeu are eliminated, while Partizan and Dynamo Kyiv will duke it out of for the first place/seeded spot. It's the first time in 13 years that Partizan has qualified for the knockout stage of an European competition.

Group C: Braga are qualified, after winning 3-1 at home against Hoffenheim (goals by Marcelo Goiano, Uth, and a brace by Fransérgio. Ludogorets Razgrad lost 1-2 at home against İstanbul Başakşehir (goals by Visca, Frei, and Marcelinho). Hoffenheim are eliminated.

Group D: Milan secured qualification, after comfortably beating Austria Wien by 5-1 (hilarious own goal by Bonucci, Milan's goals by Rodriguez, André Silva, Cutrone, André Silva again, and Cutrone again). AEK Athens and Rijeka drew 2-2 (goals by Gorgon, Sergio Araújo, Christodoulopoulos; can't find one of Rijeka's goals). Austria Wien will have to win at home against AEK, if they want to go through. Rijeka are eliminated.

Group E: This group is all wrapped up, as both Atalanta and Lyon secured their qualifications, with two curbstompings. Atalanta destroyed Everton at the latter's stadium by 5-1 (goals by Petagna, Cristante, Ramirez, Gosens, Cornelius and another one by Cornelius (that I can't find); there was also a penalty saved by Everton's GK Robles). Lyon won 4-0 against Apollon (I only found the last two goals).

Group F: Sheriff Tiraspol won 1-0 against Fastav Zlín (no goal to be found). The latter are eliminated, the former will have to not lose against Copenhagen away (or hope that Lokomotiv Moscow don't win against Zlín).

edited 23rd Nov '17 2:24:41 PM by Quag15

So, this happened (goals here). Notice the tale of two halves. Yes, Dortmund bottled a 4-0 lead in the Ruhr derby today.

A scuffle ensued.

edited 25th Nov '17 8:35:40 AM by Quag15

Between that and the UCL elimination, I'll be shocked if Bosz survives in the club for longer than this month, or at longest this year.

Oh, and Madrid won agonizingly 3-2 against Malaga, while Atletico comfortably won 0-5 against Levante. But honestly, neither have chances at making a comeback in La Liga at this point.

With Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham dropping points, two clubs with a roughly equal record so far this season, Arsenal and Burnley, have a chance to fight for 4th place in the league. The game is at Burnley and starts in about 6 hours.

Burnley have had a tough schedule so far in the season. They started the season with a defeat at Chelsea, but their next away game - against Spurs - was a 1-1 draw. They also drew away at Liverpool and lost to Manchester City. Their record from their 12 games so far is 6-4-2, giving them 22 points and a goal difference of +3.

Arsenal have, in addition to (barely) winning the Europa League group that included travel to Belarus, Germany, and Serbia, also collected 22 points from the league, and a goal difference of +3. I'd say Arsenal, too, have had a tough schedule. The season started with the Community Shield, which Arsenal won against Chelsea. Arsenal's away games have mostly been ones they wouldn't expect to win, including Stoke, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Everton, and Watford - and now, Burnley. Needless to say, Arsenal have lost most of those games, drawing against Chelsea and winning against Everton. Tricky home games have included Tottenham, Leicester, West Brom, and Swansea - all of these are games that Arsenal typically lose or draw, but Arsenal have surprised everyone by winning all of those difficult home fixtures.

If this game against Burnley was at home, I'd maybe predict a win, but with the way things are going for both teams, I think it'll be a 1-1 draw.

Having rested most of the squad against Köln, Arsenal can pick their best players (except Cazorla) for this game:

Cech
Koscielny Mustafi Monreal
Bellerin Ramsey Xhaka Kolasinac
Özil Alexis
Lacazette

That's a very good squad on paper, and if Arsenal play like they did against Tottenham, they should get a result even against a team that will surely park the bus. I think it's more likely that if Arsenal don't score early, they'll start to get really frustrated and sloppy, giving away chances for counter-attacks from nothing. Burnley can punish Arsenal if that happens. Arsenal will probably have most of the ball possession in the game, but the question will be whether they can get the ball inside the penalty area. Typically, they can't, because there are 11 players inside the area or standing on its edges.

Getting to the top-4 would be great, though. It would really improve confidence and maybe help the squad to stay focused for a bit longer before the dip that's coming around in December through February. Arsenal could even make a push for 6th, which is more than anyone would've expected from them this season.

What a game! It looked like one of the best 0-0 draws you'll ever see until the 91st minute, when a stupid push in Burnley's penalty area resulted in a penalty, which Alexis converted for the 1-0 win.

Burnley absolutely dominated the first half, and the second half was the complete opposite of that. Arsenal kept attacking constantly, and Burnley could do little more than to clear and hope that the long ball to their forward would result in a free kick. They were diving constantly. The Burnley fans chanted that Arsenal were cheaters, but they were booing the referee after every tackle, even if the decision went for them, and the replays almost always showed that their player had dived. That's not something you'd really expect from Burnley, to be honest.

Özil didn't play because he was ill. Instead, Iwobi started, but didn't do much until he was replaced by Wilshere, who looked promising. Arsenal had a couple of chances, but Burnley's defenders would always block their shots.

Rio Ave 0 - 1 Vitória SC

A solid win, which puts us with the same amount of points as Rio Ave (17, they're in 6th place and us in 7th). Our goal was scored by Héldon, and it was a really good one (the way he beat those two defenders was great).

In the second half, we were mostly content to defend the result, so, we sat back with an ultra-defensive bloc that allowed us to annul Rio Ave's more creative players. Most players performed well, and, unlike what happened in recent matches, our defense and lower midfield were very consistent.

In other news, Montella has been sacked. Milan appointed Gattuso to replace him (link in Italian). Yes, that Gattuso.

And, in lighter entertainment, this happened in a J-League match.

edited 27th Nov '17 3:17:47 PM by Quag15

Over a year ago, I had hyped a very particular 3-man defense formation as an aesthetic ideal for the EPL.

Although Chelsea won the league last season playing with a "flat" 4-man midfield, Chelsea have adopted this exact formation in their last two EPL fixtures.

—————————————————————————
——————————-COURTOIS——————————
—————————————————————————
———-—-AZPIL——-—-CHRIST———CAHILL—————
—————————————————————————
—ZAPPA———————————————-—-ALONSO—
———————————KANTE———————————
——-—DRINKAGAS——————-—-BAKAYO———
—————————-—-HAZARD——————————
—————————————————————————
——————————-MORATA———————————

Big Sam will become Everton's new manager, for the remainder of this season and the next one, apparently.

West Brom appoint Alan "Pardiola" Pardew. Old and potentially new memes will come out of these two characters.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the FA have now appointed as manager... Juan Antonio Pizzi (link in Arabic). You know, the guy that failed to take Chile to the World Cup.

Torino will honour Chapecoense a year after the latter's plane crash]] by wearing a green shirt in the match against Atalanta. Torino know what it felt like in the past, so, it's a nice gesture.

Today, it's the 2nd leg of the Libertadores final. Grêmio won 1-0 at home against Lanús in the 1st leg, now it's the Argentinian team's home turn.

This is a seminal day for "Proper Football Men" who "know the League."

Regarding another manager, ex-Porto, Chelsea, Tottenham, Zenit boss Andrés Villas-Boas has quit his job as head coach of Shanghai SIPG, and he will not be looking to take the reins of another club (at least, not for the foreseeable future) because he intends to take part in the 2018 Dakar Rally—a grueling 15-day motorsport race beginning in Lima, Peru, through Bolivia, and ending in Córdoba, Argentina.

I don't know if there is a translation, but for once, L'Equipe released a thoroughly researched dossier on the free-kick masters: Platini, Pirlo, Juninho, Mihajlovic, Roberto Carlos... It includes both mechanical analyses (body positioning, number of steps, foot support...) and psychological ones (mind games with the GK...), mixed of course with "history" lessons featuring great free kicks (Mihajlovic vs Munich in '91, Carlos vs France in '97).

If you understand French (or have a good translation tool), it is super interesting.

edited 29th Nov '17 11:05:47 AM by Julep