Champions League, Europa League & Europa Conference League 22/23

[Sutekh]

The capital of Turkey is in Europe.

Do you really need it explaining why Israel don't play in Asia?

The capital of Turkey is Ankara which is located on what is generally considered the Asian side of the divide between Asia and Europe. However there is no definitive line between the two continents as such, more a cultural construct that tends to follow the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, the Bosporus Strait, the Black Sea, the Greater Caucasus, Caspian Sea, the Ural River and Mountains.

[From Despair To Where?]

The capital of Turkey is in Europe.

Do you really need it explaining why Israel don't play in Asia?

The capital of Turkey is Ankara which is located on what is generally considered the Asian side of the divide between Asia and Europe. However there is no definitive line between the two continents as such, more a cultural construct that tends to follow the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea, the Bosporus Strait, the Black Sea, the Greater Caucasus, Caspian Sea, the Ural River and Mountains.

You are if course right. I had a brain fart and thought Ankara was where Istanhul is

[URZZZZ]

Why do City keep letting Mahrez take penalties! He seems to miss every one

[Hendo]

Why do City keep letting Mahrez take penalties! He seems to miss every one

City have failed to score 25 of their 80 penalties, excluding shootouts, since the Catalan took over in 2016.

For a team blessed with so many good attacking/goal-scoring players, that is quite an odd stat!

[Whore Jackie]

Why do City keep letting Mahrez take penalties! He seems to miss every one

City have failed to score 25 of their 80 penalties, excluding shootouts, since the Catalan took over in 2016.

For a team blessed with so many good attacking/goal-scoring players, that is quite an odd stat!

Wow, wonder how many points or trophies they've lost out on due to that?
You'd think Pep would just bite the bullet and sign Ivan Toney. Or at least recruit Matthew Le Tissier to his coaching staff. Oh.

[Franchise FC]

Why do City keep letting Mahrez take penalties! He seems to miss every one

City have failed to score 25 of their 80 penalties, excluding shootouts, since the Catalan took over in 2016.

For a team blessed with so many good attacking/goal-scoring players, that is quite an odd stat!

Wow, wonder how many points or trophies they've lost out on due to that?
You'd think Pep would just bite the bullet and sign Ivan Toney. Or at least recruit Matthew Le Tissier to his coaching staff. Oh.

Haaland has a very good penalty record. So has De Bruyne.
But neither were on the field at the time

What's stunning is that Mahrez seems to hit the same one every time. Half way up the goal and half way to the keepers right.
How does he not learn ?

[genome]

For a team blessed with so many good attacking/goal-scoring players, that is quite an odd stat!

Wow, wonder how many points or trophies they've lost out on due to that?
You'd think Pep would just bite the bullet and sign Ivan Toney. Or at least recruit Matthew Le Tissier to his coaching staff. Oh.

Haaland has a very good penalty record. So has De Bruyne.
But neither were on the field at the time

What's stunning is that Mahrez seems to hit the same one every time. Half way up the goal and half way to the keepers right.
How does he not learn ?

https://youtu.be/rblfKREj50o?t=35

[Franchise FC]

Wow, wonder how many points or trophies they've lost out on due to that?
You'd think Pep would just bite the bullet and sign Ivan Toney. Or at least recruit Matthew Le Tissier to his coaching staff. Oh.

Haaland has a very good penalty record. So has De Bruyne.
But neither were on the field at the time

What's stunning is that Mahrez seems to hit the same one every time. Half way up the goal and half way to the keepers right.
How does he not learn ?

https://youtu.be/rblfKREj50o?t=35

[Orion1871]

Barcelona have qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League.

[Vision]

Controversial finish to the Tottenham v Sporting game.

Kane has winning goal disallowed because his knee is a fraction ahead of the ball when Emerson heads it.

The ball was travelling backwards when Emerson headed it but apparently that doesn't matter in the laws which I have to say was news to me.

[URZZZZ]

Controversial finish to the Tottenham v Sporting game.

Kane has winning goal disallowed because his knee is a fraction ahead of the ball when Emerson heads it.

The ball was travelling backwards when Emerson headed it but apparently that doesn't matter in the laws which I have to say was news to me.

It’s just nonsense

Said before - I get it isn’t a particularly deep thought argument but it really does take away the raw emotions of the game. 3 and a half minutes to check a goal - certainly doesn’t fit the remit of a “clear and obvious error”

[Royal Rother]

Controversial finish to the Tottenham v Sporting game.

Kane has winning goal disallowed because his knee is a fraction ahead of the ball when Emerson heads it.

The ball was travelling backwards when Emerson headed it but apparently that doesn't matter in the laws which I have to say was news to me.

It’s just nonsense

Said before - I get it isn’t a particularly deep thought argument but it really does take away the raw emotions of the game. 3 and a half minutes to check a goal - certainly doesn’t fit the remit of a “clear and obvious error”

Don’t think clear and obvious error comes into it.

It’s just offside or not.

[Vision]

Controversial finish to the Tottenham v Sporting game.

Kane has winning goal disallowed because his knee is a fraction ahead of the ball when Emerson heads it.

The ball was travelling backwards when Emerson headed it but apparently that doesn't matter in the laws which I have to say was news to me.

It’s just nonsense

Said before - I get it isn’t a particularly deep thought argument but it really does take away the raw emotions of the game. 3 and a half minutes to check a goal - certainly doesn’t fit the remit of a “clear and obvious error”

Don’t think clear and obvious error comes into it.

It’s just offside or not.

I'm hoping someone can confirm if it's always been the law that you can be offside even if the ball travels backwards at the point you're supposedly in an offside position. Also as an aside if VAR is drawing a line from the actual ball, what part of the ball are they drawing it from? The centre? The furthest point forward? The furthest point back?

It may be that I've had this law wrong all along but my concern here is that the laws are being set to help service VAR rather than VAR being there to service the laws.

That said watching Conte lose his ever loving shite was amusing.

[Stranded]

It’s just nonsense

Said before - I get it isn’t a particularly deep thought argument but it really does take away the raw emotions of the game. 3 and a half minutes to check a goal - certainly doesn’t fit the remit of a “clear and obvious error”

Don’t think clear and obvious error comes into it.

It’s just offside or not.

I'm hoping someone can confirm if it's always been the law that you can be offside even if the ball travels backwards at the point you're supposedly in an offside position. Also as an aside if VAR is drawing a line from the actual ball, what part of the ball are they drawing it from? The centre? The furthest point forward? The furthest point back?

It may be that I've had this law wrong all along but my concern here is that the laws are being set to help service VAR rather than VAR being there to service the laws.

That said watching Conte lose his ever loving shite was amusing.

It has always been the case that the direction of the ball is meaningless when it comes to offside decisions (at least for as long as I can remember). The only things that are important are (alongside the relatively new active passage of play part)

1. Are there 2 defenders (one may be the GK) between you and the goal?
2. If 1 is no, are you behind the ball when it was passed to you?

Naturally, 99.9% of the time if you are behing the ball it goes without saying that if the ball goes backwards you will be behind the ball but in this instance Kane was fractionally in front of it which meant he was offside.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

What on earth happened with Atletico!?

Final whistle blown at 2-2. Referee was advised to visit the monitor to check for a handball in the penalty area by Leverkusen defenders (there were two handball incidents), the penalty was given which then "re-started" the game in the 8th minute of stoppage time. Atletico then missed the penalty, the following rebound then hit the crossbar and the 2nd rebound back off the crossbar from an Atletico player hit Atletico's Rodrigo de Paul, who was stood only a yard or two from the goal line, and flicked up and over the bar, then the whistle was blown a second time for full time. All that drama was then checked again by VAR for encroachment or the goalkeeper being off the line, but all was ok.

That result knocked Atletico out, where it otherwise wouldn't if they had scored the penalty or subsequent chances, and keeps Leverkusen in with a shout of qualifying for the EL.

If you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a watch.

[Stranded]

Most groups are done and dusted accept the Spurs group.

With one round left, any of the four sides could win the group and any could finish bottom.

Final round of games:

Marseille v Spurs
Sporting v Frankfurt

Both games are essentially straight knock outs with Sporting and Spurs having the draw as a fall back.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Most groups are done and dusted accept the Spurs group.

With one round left, any of the four sides could win the group and any could finish bottom.

Final round of games:

Marseille v Spurs
Sporting v Frankfurt

Both games are essentially straight knock outs with Sporting and Spurs having the draw as a fall back.

Spurs can't actually finish bottom of the group as they have a better head-to-head record than Frankfurt. So, they will definitely be competing in Europe in 2023.

[Stranded]

Most groups are done and dusted accept the Spurs group.

With one round left, any of the four sides could win the group and any could finish bottom.

Final round of games:

Marseille v Spurs
Sporting v Frankfurt

Both games are essentially straight knock outs with Sporting and Spurs having the draw as a fall back.

Spurs can't actually finish bottom of the group as they have a better head-to-head record than Frankfurt. So, they will definitely be competing in Europe in 2023.

Ah yes, missed that - yes worst outcome for Spurs is 3rd if they lose and Frankfurt win.

Frankfurt played some excellent football last night, a team growing in confidence at this level - they have generally performed better away from home in Europe over the last few years, so back them to get a win in Lisbon.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Most groups are done and dusted accept the Spurs group.

With one round left, any of the four sides could win the group and any could finish bottom.

Final round of games:

Marseille v Spurs
Sporting v Frankfurt

Both games are essentially straight knock outs with Sporting and Spurs having the draw as a fall back.

Spurs can't actually finish bottom of the group as they have a better head-to-head record than Frankfurt. So, they will definitely be competing in Europe in 2023.

Ah yes, missed that - yes worst outcome for Spurs is 3rd if they lose and Frankfurt win.

Frankfurt played some excellent football last night, a team growing in confidence at this level - they have generally performed better away from home in Europe over the last few years, so back them to get a win in Lisbon.

Yeah, it's certainly wide open in that group though. You could back any team really. Sporting can go either way, can look really impressive or blunt as a butter knife. Marseille may be considered the weakest but will always be a difficult fixture away from home, could easily see them turn Spurs over 1-0. Spurs would probably say they are the strongest team, but can look suspect themselves.

Hopefully, from the entertainment perspective, the group doesn't sort itself out easily i.e. Spurs and Frankfurt win 3-0. I can't imagine it though.

[Stranded]

Spurs can't actually finish bottom of the group as they have a better head-to-head record than Frankfurt. So, they will definitely be competing in Europe in 2023.

Ah yes, missed that - yes worst outcome for Spurs is 3rd if they lose and Frankfurt win.

Frankfurt played some excellent football last night, a team growing in confidence at this level - they have generally performed better away from home in Europe over the last few years, so back them to get a win in Lisbon.

Yeah, it's certainly wide open in that group though. You could back any team really. Sporting can go either way, can look really impressive or blunt as a butter knife. Marseille may be considered the weakest but will always be a difficult fixture away from home, could easily see them turn Spurs over 1-0. Spurs would probably say they are the strongest team, but can look suspect themselves.

Hopefully, from the entertainment perspective, the group doesn't sort itself out easily i.e. Spurs and Frankfurt win 3-0. I can't imagine it though.

The results have been pretty even across the piece and interesting* how points have picked up.

Marseille beat Lisbon twice for their 6 points
Frankfurt have beaten Marseille twice and drew with Spurs
Lisbon have beaten Frankfurt and taken 4 points from Spurs

Only Spurs have taken something from each opponent but will find it tough in France.

Lisbon did beat Frankfurt 3-0 on opening night but that was based on a 10 min spell where Frankfurt lost their heads and were the better team for most of the game.

I'm going for a tight Frankfurt win and a draw in France seeing Frankfurt top the group and Spurs through in 2nd.