⚽UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread -- 2021/22 winner - Real Madrid!

[buwaytress]

This is the discussion thread for the Champions League (UCL).

Europa League thread is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5161551.
Europa Conference League thread is here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5342840

Greeting European League punters! With the old UEFA threads closed/locked, I'm creating 2 separate threads to discuss the two seasonal UEFA club competitions. Please keep the discussions to the correct thread!

================= Summary 2020/21 season =================

COVID happened, so yeah you know the deal but to sum it up, all remaining games were played on in a 12-day mini tourney in Lisbon with the remaining Last 16 legs to be played before the closed-door finals.

City's first final appearance and a second all-English final in 3 seasons, but MOTM Kante won Chelsea's second UCL, after a 12-day mini tourney and last-16 played behind closed doors.

================= Summary 2021/22 season =================

Season starts on 22 June with Qualifying Preliminaries.

3rd Qualifying Round proper begins on 3 August. Groups drawn on 27 August.

Real Madrid took the final with a 1-0 win over Liverpool in Paris.

[swogerino]

Some of the teams are strong teams like Rangers,Cervena Zvezdia and a few others that are playing in very early in qualifiers.This will make this phase of the competition a bit more beautiful although seeing the odds that should be no surprises here,these strong teams both should already qualify since the first match.

[DeathAngel]

Difficult for me to be interested in the qualifiers. It’s weird to think the final was only a month ago & now the qualifiers are beginning. This thread will definitely be of interest to me but I can’t even pronounce the names of some of these teams let alone know much about & bet on them

[buwaytress]

Difficult for me to be interested in the qualifiers. It’s weird to think the final was only a month ago & now the qualifiers are beginning. This thread will definitely be of interest to me but I can’t even pronounce the names of some of these teams let alone know much about & bet on them

Yeah, it is kind of weird, but only because my beloved team won it so it still feels like yesterday.

I've always been interested in qualifiers (not the prelims though), but maybe also because I've had good memories of Liverpool playing all the way through from 1st round qualifiers (when they won the cup in 2005 and a new ruling ensured t hey as holders were allowed to participate -- but through the whole gauntlet of 3 qualifying rounds) all the way to last 16 where we were stupidly knocked out by Benfica haha.

I recognise RS Belgrade and Maribor here most of all, since Liverpool played them both in the group stages of 2 seasons past, and Qarabag, well they nicked 2 points off Athletico so they weren't that shit. Heh. RS beat US 2-0 too!

@ I've definitely got good hopes for Rangers but they're only playing in Europa... it's going to take them winning the Prem to ever play with the big boys, such is the state of Scottish football =\

[tokeweed]

What happened to the old threads?  Locked?  A mod (our friend?) has been going ape shit insane in the gambling section locking threads.

I love it! 

[Pmalek]

I am surprised to see a team like Celtic playing in the first round of the qualifiers. Scottish football isn't at its best unfortunately.
Even a team like Ludogorets taking part this early is surprising taking into account that they used to play in the group stages of the UCL a few seasons ago. 

[Dreamchaser21]

What happened to the old threads?  Locked?  A mod (our friend?) has been going ape shit insane in the gambling section locking threads.

I love it! 

Yeah, hard to comment on gambling section becauce of many locked threads. Anyway there are so many good teams to watch for, this is a long league and only good teams will place on top. I’ll place my bet later on after many games to see the positions between great teams, more time to analyze.

[legendster]

Other than Valletta and Celtic I do not recognize any other team here. So hard for me to get excited. But when Liverpool plays I make sure I watch. When they won I felt such a relief! I always considered them an underdog and are always brushed under the carpet thanks to ManU, ManC, and Arsenal. UEFA is the only place where Liverpool has consistently proven themselves.

[DarkDays]

What happened to the old threads?  Locked?  A mod (our friend?) has been going ape shit insane in the gambling section locking threads.

I love it! 

Not sure how you are loving it but it is driving me ape shit crazy alright! Its hard to find good topics to get engaged in here because not many people are creating quality threads. Anyways, about UEFA, I am not sure if I am going to be able to follow it this season. But I will cheer for Ajax. I want to watch another UEFA nation's league though that was exciting. Almost World cup level enthusiasm.

[Lafu]

I am really curious how the german teams beat this year! How far the teams are coming is hard to say,
but I think 1 team will definitely go as far as every year. Will follow this thread for sure .

[LTU_btc]

Today we have few surprising results in qualifiers - AIK lost to Ararat 2:1, and Dudelange draw with Valletta. Only HJK who won their match 3:0, and maybe Celtic who won 3:1 can be confident before second leg.
I watched Suduva - Crvena Zvezda game which ended 0:0, I had under 2.5 on this game. It's first match for Crvena Zvezda this season and they played terrible. They can be happy that they didn't lost this game. They will be big favorites before second game, but everything is open.

[Harkorede]

Today we have few surprising results in qualifiers - AIK lost to Ararat 2:1, and Dudelange draw with Valletta. Only HJK who won their match 3:0, and maybe Celtic who won 3:1 can be confident before second leg.
I watched Suduva - Crvena Zvezda game which ended 0:0, I had under 2.5 on this game. It's first match for Crvena Zvezda this season and they played terrible. They can be happy that they didn't lost this game. They will be big favorites before second game, but everything is open.

I had a couple of bets on these matches to Rangers, Celtic and CSKA Sofia all won comfortably and should easily make to the next stage, I lost my bets on The New Saints and Crvena Zvezda, I was expecting to them win too, I barely or have never heard of their opponents until this game, Celtic also had shaky start but were able to turn the tie around.

[rachman mahesa]

Other than Valletta and Celtic I do not recognize any other team here. So hard for me to get excited. But when Liverpool plays I make sure I watch. When they won I felt such a relief! I always considered them an underdog and are always brushed under the carpet thanks to ManU, ManC, and Arsenal. UEFA is the only place where Liverpool has consistently proven themselves.

If you look at the list above, what I know is also celtic and others, maybe I don't know for sure. I think I just don't know many clubs, it turns out you are too. And as a matter of fact I am more pleased when UEFA has entered the last 32. That means I have recognized a big club there.

[Upgrade00]

This is just the pre qualifiers, so it's no surprise that some do not recognize majority of the teams squaring up against each other. There are a couple of names which stands out from the rest, mostly due to previous appearance in the finals of the UEFA competition.
As we advance to higher rounds the tournament would get more exciting and there'd be many exciting clashes to stake on.

[leea-1334]

Sometimes I do feel pity for the teams who are at this qualifying stage, because it is almost just a game to see who will be the last placed team in the Group Stage! But as you point out,,, there are good teams too, Celtic is one who will always try to go far, and we saw how a few of them caused upsets before. And it is a chance for small countries to enter a big competition,,, even group stage is a few millions in prize money, to help buy a new star maybe;)

[swogerino]

Sometimes I do feel pity for the teams who are at this qualifying stage, because it is almost just a game to see who will be the last placed team in the Group Stage! But as you point out,,, there are good teams too, Celtic is one who will always try to go far, and we saw how a few of them caused upsets before. And it is a chance for small countries to enter a big competition,,, even group stage is a few millions in prize money, to help buy a new star maybe;)

Yeah we have seen Fc Astana from Kazakhistan to enter the Champions League group stages before and for a small country and a relatively small club reaching this stage means a lot to them.They win a good decent amount just for playing the group games and if they win any of the group games the monetary reward is even higher.

[buwaytress]

@leea @swog Yeah, I know some people think these whipping boys shouldn't be in the group stages even, because of the gulf in quality but we've to remember some of them are actually competing with a fraction of the resources of the big clubs, so even qualifying appearances give them some extra money they could really do with, plus the exposure to compete across borders in club competitions.

Liverpool and England were banned from Europe before and they took a long time to re-establish themselves, so we know it's important to have these competitions as widely open to access as possible without diminishing the prestige and quality. I thought the idea of a breakaway league was terrible it should just be a balance carefully maintained.

And look at clubs like RS Belgrade shaming Liverpool last season. Or Young Boys smacking Juventus. I love these games.

P.S. I got one of my underdogs right last night (hooray Armenia) but I had to parlay it with Crvena Zvezda heh heh.

[buwaytress]

Got another nice underdog win last night (the New Saints, go you lucky green dragons!) and parlayed it with the right team this time so off to a pretty good CL campaign. The games all look so tight, it's probably good value to go for slight upsets or handicaps, but then you never know.

I'm thinking to back Armenia's Ararat again. They already won and the bookies think they'll play for a draw away, but that does open space for a sneaky goal.

I'll ruminate but my picks are Ararat (16/1), Astana (5/1) and Sutjeska (7/1).

[iyah adrian]

Celtic is one who will always try to go far

Celtic is a team that I feel is always in the big commission every year. But in the end they will experience a defeat in the last 32 with a bigger European club. Every year will always be so, because we have seen the quality of the game is also different.

[angel55]

Most don't even know anything about these teams since people mainly only know the big four leagues.  Celtic and Rangers are an exception because they are very famous for always winning the Scottish League.