A Beautiful Thread for the Beautiful Game

Atlético's chances at giving Barcelona a run for their money are around 25% to 50%, depending on whether or not they manage to defeat Barcelona in their direct confrontation.

Madrid's chances are around 5% at this point.

There is a possibility of San Siro being demolished in favour of a new stadium. The Mayor of Milan is hell-bent on not selling the stadium, which means he'll have to deal with economic and political pressure from Inter's and Milan's investors. I agree that the San Siro should not be sold if demolishing is the outcome, but it could use a bit of a renewal, since it's crumbling a bit. It would be sad to see a cathedral with so much history and atmosphere like the Giuseppe Meazza being demolished, that's for sure.

Vitória SC 1-0 Marítimo

I didn't watch the match, since I was mentally tired after doing my regular run and exercise outside and practicing some stuff on a program. This win was a tough one, it came from an unlikely source, and, after our draw last week and Moreirense drawing this weekend, the distance has been shortened to 3 points again between us and them.

Marítimo's GK was pretty much on point tonight, and their team would've gotten away with the single point, but Welthon scored, after 16 months without doing so. No wonder he was visibly emotional (he has not been a regular as well, to boot).

Next week... oh boy, it's the derby. We will be going to Braga, whose side hasn't been part of the title race for a couple of weeks. A win for us would definitely destroy their remaining aspirations of getting back into it.

Goals, highlights (and league table) of the matchweek, if anyone wants to see.

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 4th 2019 at 11:30:49 AM

I wonder what's so bad about San Siro that both clubs have decided to switch for a stadium with a smaller capacity.

Or they are losing fans?

Doubt it. Milan is big and football-loving enough city for the stadium to be filled regularly.

My guess is it's probably because of the venue's age. Giuseppe Meazza was built in 1925. It was reconstructed in 1956 and 1989 and, as Quag 15 said, the time to renovate it has come again, if they're considering demolishing is any evidence. They've probably figured it would be easier just to build a new stadium.

Edited by Millership on Mar 5th 2019 at 7:23:35 PM

The want for a new stadium from the American and Chinese investors associated with the clubs probably was inspired by Juventus' success, who demolished the Stadio delle Alpi (a stadium that was uglier, had far less history^note it was built in the late 80's, for the 1990 World Cup) in order to build a smaller stadium in order to fill it up every time the team played (thus generating even more popularity than they already had).

I think the only time when San Siro currently fills up entirely is when the derby is played, so, both clubs' investors & owners may want to have it fully packed every time each team plays.

These clubs are too big to lose local fans. Though it is true that attendances declined a bit in recent years (due to TV deals, violent ultras, the poor conditions within the stadium, and the doldrums both clubs were into throughout most of the decade).

Today, two CL matches. Tottenham won 1-0 at Dortmund (4-0 on agg.), with a goal by Harry Kane. Dortmund continues to go from bad to worse, and will likely lose the title to Bayern, at this rate.

But the highlight today was the other match. Real had won 2-1 away at Ajax, so, it would be easy to maintain the aggregrate lead, right?

Well... they lost. 1-4 (goals here, plus Nacho getting a red card). 1 - 4!! The end of an era has come, not with a whimper, but with a spectacular bang.

Football... bloody hell. I wonder how this match would've gone, if Ramos hadn't done that intentional booking (and been promptly suspended by UEFA). What An Idiot...

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 5th 2019 at 10:12:40 AM

A bit early, and kind of mean to ask this, but...

Any bets on who'll be the next manager of Real?

Yawch!

Weeeell I hope it's not the late oughties all over again for RM.

Hello, darkness my old friend
I've come to talk with you again

Also, that Schone goal was awesome.

Edited by Millership on Mar 5th 2019 at 9:21:18 PM

Quelle surprise! PSG lost 1-3 at home against Manchester United (3-3 on agg.), and so, are out. Buffon will probably never win a CL. Goals and highlights here. That VAR decision that gave Manchester United's penalty (and third goal) will certainly be controversial.

Porto won 3-1 on extra time against Roma (4-3 on agg.) Goals and highlights here, in a match where Porto definitely wanted to compensate their loss against Benfica this past weekend and pushed as hard as possible. Both Roma's penalty and Porto's third goal (also penalty) came from stupid moves by Militão and Florenzi, respectively. It's probably the end of the line for Di Francesco, while Sérgio Conceição has pulled his motivating sleeves as hard as possible (even though both coaches made a couple of bad/inefficient substitutions).

So it ended the Night of the VAR.

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 6th 2019 at 10:47:35 AM

Well, that was truly unexpected.

Man Utd. went into it 2-0 down on aggregate, at an away game, and managed to win it 3-1. What did it come down to? A penalty in the 4th minute of injury time, due to a handball and VAR. Very interesting, to say the least.

Though it might win VAR more acceptance in English fans to say the least.

Talk about timing.

Edited by RainehDaze on Mar 6th 2019 at 10:46:15 AM

It was fun while it lasted. Being champions for over 1000 days was surely a hell of a ride.

The real hell, however, is likely yet to come, because of who will potentially come. I sincerely hope it's not Mourinho. Yikes!

As for the PSG-United match... is anyone really surprised on how much of a hack PSG are? Has anyone really forgotten how hard they were humiliated by Barcelona after winning 4-0? This is already their 3rd fizzle in the 1/8 round in a row. There are players who need to go. Anyone can explain why Di María was cheerfully tying his shoes while the other players were aiming to score a goal (sure, the goal did come, but still). And Buffon, man.... I really feel bad for him. He should have retired after his last year at Juventus.

PSG really lacks something to truly be a contender. At least to keep the leads they get.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is having a great run so far. Of course, being a caretaker manager and building a campaign from the start are very different contexts, but it would be very interesting to see what happens to Manchester United if he stays.

Europa League round of 16 (1st leg):

Villareal might be fighting to avoid relegation spot in the Liga, but they have one foot in the quarter-finals after winning 3-1 in St. Petersburg against Zenit (goals here).

The first of two big surprises: Sevilla drew 2-2 at home with Slavia Prague. All four goals were scored in the first half, and Slavia's second one is kinda funny.

The other big surprise today was Rennes winning 3-1 against Arsenal - goals and other highlights here - in a match that saw Sokratis getting the two yellows. Arsenal still has a chance, but the way they lost tonight after taking the lead first was something else. This is the first time ever Arsenal lost against a French team in France.

Dinamo Zagreb won 1-0 against Benfica with a penalty goal by Petkovic. It's clear that Bruno Lage wants his team to focus on the Liga, judging by his choices today. Also, Seferovic got injured, so, the honeymoon period has more or less come to an end.

Eintracht Frankurt x Inter ended in a goalless draw. Trapp saved Brozovic's penalty, and there was controversy with a penalty not being given to Frankfurt after the one that was saved was given (in light of how soft they seemed to be, judging by the comments). Neither side left satisfied here.

Valencia 2-1 Krasnodar (goals here). Rodrigo is certainly in top form, and his brace showed it, but Krasnodar still managed to pull one back that will certainly be useful for the second leg in Russia.

The last two matches were 3-0 wins, by Chelsea against Dynamo Kyiv and Napoli against Red Bull Salzburg. Napoli might very well be the team that wins the Europa, in light of how Ancelotti tends to be good with managing teams during cup competitions.

In other news, Fellaini retired from international football; Eusebio Di Francesco was sacked after yesterday's elimination at Porto, with Claudio Ranieri now taking over the job; and drama in Madrid continues amidst rumours of Sergio Ramos being threatened with a sack by Florentino Perez and Mourinho making a possible return (link in Spanish).

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 7th 2019 at 10:24:45 AM

Yeah, the Champions really made some teams reconsider what they need to do to be competitive. The market will be crazy for the next season.

Gotta say, this was crazy. On the first round of the Libertadores' group phase pitted the chilean team Universidad de Concepción against the Sporting Cristal of Peru. While not exactly a beautiful match, it ended 5-4 with two comebacks. Not something you see everyday.

Edited by Blueace on Mar 7th 2019 at 7:39:40 AM

Now that Zidade is in charge of Real, he's probably thinking of how to get Ronaldo back, because Ronaldo scored the hat-trick that was necessary to beat Atlético and put Juve through to the quarter-finals. The penalty that led to his third goal is a bit controversial (certainly a soft one), but the man was certainly on a mission, and no one would've stopped him tonight.

He also equalled Messi in the total of hat-tricks in the competition (8).

Manchester City comfortably destroyed Schalke 04 by 7-0. Easy peasy.

Sorry for not being around in these days (though anybody who followed the news on Venezuela's unprecedented abysmal electric crisis will know why I was unable to post here ). While I'm glad Zidane is back in Madrid, I do hope they don't believe that'll be enough. There has to be a huge overhaul on the player catalogue.

I do admit this news caught me by surprise in the first place, since I was unable to connect online during this 120-hour blackout (and I'm not ruling out that there's another on the way...)

Is this thread still in Yack Fest?

Yes. You can tell by the directory right under the header saying the thread's name.

Last weekend River defeated Atlético Tucumán 0-1, which allows them to rely on themselves as far as qualifying to Libertadores 2020 goes.

Once again, MyFinalEdits, no need to apologize for the problems that are ongoing.

If Anthony Lopes hadn't been substituted in the first half due to a possible concussion, it is possible Lyon wouldn't have lost by the following amount against Barcelona: 5-1 (goals here, including a brace by Messi).

Bayern lost 1-3 at home against Liverpool (goals here, including a brace by Mané). There are 4 English teams in the quarter-finals for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 13th 2019 at 10:04:41 AM

That penalty will really weigh on the Lyon for a while.

Sorry, it's that this particular blackout truly shattered my heart because of how long it lasted. But I'll keep any stuff about my absences from TV Tropes for myself from now on, I promise.

I watched the Liverpool match. It was very impressive. While it's too soon to tell if Liverpool will win this UCL, they have nonetheless managed to keep up with the level in this season. For the first time in ages, four English teams make it to the 1/4 round.

Naturally, though, British comments sections are expecting (either conspiratorially or not so) that somehow the draws will wind up so that there's some sort of Highlander-style knockout so only one British team could actually get to the final.

Hey, I never said you have to keep them for yourself. I only said you don't need to be sorry, because we understand how tough the situation is right now and is not something you can control.

Wouldn't have expected anything different from the comments' section. That being said, it's very likely that at least two English teams will face each other in the quarters or in the semis.

The Europa League round of 16 has just ended.

If it wasn't for the Napoli away goal today, Red Bull Salzburg could've turned it around. The latter won 3-1 (4-3 on agg. in favour of Napoli). Goals here

Krasnodar were really close to winning the necessary 1-0 to go through thanks to their away goal, but Gonçalo Guedes equalized on the very last minute, allowing Valencia to go through. 1-1 (3-2 on agg. in favour of the Spanish side), goals here.

Dynamo Kyiv were mercilessly destroyed by Chelsea at home by 0-5 (8-0 on agg for the Blues). Goals by Giroud, Giroud once more, Marcos Alonso, Giroud sealing his hat-trick, and Hudson-Odoi.

Inter lost at home by 0-1 against Eintracht Frankfurt (goal by Luka Jovic), as Icardi's absence is now being really felt. Now that Inter are out of the Europa and with the Derby della Madonnina coming up, Spalletti's job might be on the line this weekend. Especially since Milan are now above them in Serie A, fighting for a CL spot.

Villareal won 2-1 (5-2 on agg.) against Zenit (goals here), and are through to the quarter-finals.

Arsenal pulled off the comeback in spectacular fashion. After losing 3-1 in the first leg against Rennes, Arsenal had to win by 2-0. They ended up winning 3-0, thanks to Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles (goals here. Aubameyang got a yellow card for doing a Black Panther celebration with a mask on after his second goal.

Benfica won 3-0 (after extra time) against Dinamo Zagreb. It's amazing how, in spite of focusing on the league, Benfica continue to pull it off in the EL this season. Goals here, plus two yellow cards for a Dinamo Zagreb player in quick succession due to verbally abusing the ref. I recommend watching Grimaldo's goal, because it's Tsubasa-esque.

And now, the match of the day, perhaps of the Europa League itself this season (at least, it is so far). Slavia Prague had to fought hard, and went through all emotions, but they managed to destroy Sevilla's EL plot armour in extra time by 4-3 (6-5 on agg.). The goals are here. The order of the goals showed how Slavia Prague began well, trembled, recovered, trembled even further and, in extra time, could have lost their morale, but fought back once more and, as the penalties were getting closer, a sort of own goal managed to put them through to the quarter-finals. The match itself is very much worth a full rewatch, so, if you can find it, do watch it, it was intense.

Here are the leagues and its teams that are still represented in the quarter-finals of the CL and the EL:

6 teams - England (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Man City, Tottenham)

3 - Spain (Barcelona, Valencia, Villareal)

2 - Italy (Juventus, Napoli)

2 - Portugal (Benfica, Porto)

1 - Netherlands (Ajax)

1 - Germany (Eintracht Frankfurt)

1 - Czech Republic (Slavia Prague)

Edited by Quag15 on Mar 14th 2019 at 11:04:04 AM

Well, the CL draw is out.

Ajax vs Juventus, Man City vs Tottenham, Liverpool vs Porto, Man Utd. vs Barcelona. If I've read this right, the winner's of the first two face each other in the semis, same for the winners of the second two.