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

[KTChampions]

There are already a few top-class games today,



There are already a few top-class games today,

Monaco against Donetsk is probably the most competitive match today, but tomorrow also PSV against Benfica will be very interesting. As an Austrian, I'm rooting for RB Salzburg even though I'm not really a fan of Salzburg, but it would be important points for the 5-year ranking. For the Champions League group stage there are bonus points.

A little off topic, but the evening today is really very rich in football, in addition to these matches, the match for the German Super Cup between the two principal rivals Borrusia and Bavaria will take place almost in parallel. I expect an interesting game and taking into account the fact that in recent years Borrusia very often beat Bayern in the Super Cup, this will be a fundamental confrontation.

[casperBGD]

after the draw, we had all news about potential Dinamo - Crvena Zvezda match in Balkans, but it seems that Sheriff will make hard time for Dinamo after kicking-out Zvezda from Champions League
so, eventually, match could be played in Europa league

@buwaytress, have you put money on the line for Brondby, they delivered HT2 in Salzburg, congrats if you did, nice guess

[LTU_btc]

Wow, Sheriff! 3:0. And Dinamo should be happy that they conceded just 3, Sheriif had plenty of chances to score more. Sorry Croatian folks, but I don't see Dinamo making comeback in 2nd leg.
I wouldn't call Shakhtar win as big surprise. Maybe bookmakers understimated them too much. Maybe draw would reflect game better, but still, 2nd leg game will be very interesting.
Most of us expected easy Salzburg win, but it was difficult, they were losing 0:1, but managed to win 2:1.

You mean Salzburg 

Oh yeah, thanks for correcting me .

[el che]

completely underestimated sheriff's chances, it will be a difficult comeback for dinamo to say the least.
i managed to break a little above even by going for a salzburg win at the start of the second half, the odds were around 2.2, although I had to sweat it out until the last moments of the match.

[KTChampions]

As I said, Monaco's chances were overestimated, or rather, Shakhtar was underestimated. It is difficult to say that the result is completely logical (if the match ended 1-1, it would more accurately reflect the situation on the pitch), but nevertheless, Shakhtar won an important victory and now hopefully they will not lose at home. The return game will be even more interesting as Monaco will be forced to attack and Shakhtar will be able to increase their advantage on counterattacks.

[tomahawk9]

Wow, Sheriff! 3:0. And Dinamo should be happy that they conceded just 3, Sheriif had plenty of chances to score more. Sorry Croatian folks, but I don't see Dinamo making comeback in 2nd leg.

♪ I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no! Oh! ♪ - Bob marley

seriously tho, i lost a free bet because of them    at least Bayern winning the super cup will soften the blow (i had a betbuilder at 2.5 odds)...And, I agree, game over for Dinamo

[morvillz7z]

I'm strongly considering to place a max bet on the rematch in Zagreb on both teams to score (odds will probably range between 1.7 to 1.8x). On one hand, you have a desperate team that needs to score three or more goals, a team with European experience, and enough quality players to keep it interesting and score one or two goals at the least. Then there's Sheriff, playing direct football with lots of pace and is extremely dangerous on counter-attacks. Given that Dinamo must attack from the start, there will be so many chances next week that i can't see the Croats keeping a clean sheet.

Cristiano, who is this guy? He started as a right-back for Sheriff before switching to the left in the second half, he was simply sensational. He could easily play for some of Europe's top clubs, literally the best player nobody has ever heard of.

[Trofo]

seriously tho, i lost a free bet because of them    at least Bayern winning the super cup will soften the blow (i had a betbuilder at 2.5 odds)...And, I agree, game over for Dinamo

Did not watch any of the games today but really surprised with Dinamo loosing 3:0. Not game over yet, if they managed to turn 2:0 from Spurs they can turn 3:0 from Serif for sure. By the way did you guys knew that Dinamo player couldn't play today because the did not let him in the country? He is from Kososvo and Moldova does not recognize them as sovereign country. I couldn't believe stuff like this is happening, sports and politics should not mix.

Funny how we all see matches differently, I was sure Dortmund is winning today and I was sure S. Donetsk is not loosing today. In the end positive 0 for me.

[Kusman]

I must say that Monaco got a really shocking result against Shakhtar Donetsk today. The match was in Monaco but they lost 0-1. I think that they are actually a much better team than Shakhtar. But something must really be going wrong for them lately. They couldn't start the Ligue 1 well either. It looks like they can be eliminated by Shakhtar in the CL if they don't pull themselves together immediately.

[hahay]

An unpredictable match between Benfica - PSV, in my view these two teams are on the same level so they are both favourites. Despite looking at the head to head and other factors, I still can't decide who will win but even so, maybe they will still score. So is betting on both teams to score a good idea, or do you have a strong prediction on which team will win?

[Swordsoffreedom]

I must say that Monaco got a really shocking result against Shakhtar Donetsk today. The match was in Monaco but they lost 0-1. I think that they are actually a much better team than Shakhtar. But something must really be going wrong for them lately. They couldn't start the Ligue 1 well either. It looks like they can be eliminated by Shakhtar in the CL if they don't pull themselves together immediately.

As I expected, Shakhtar Donetsk and Red  Bull Salzburg won their match. And I won my bet. I agree with you that Monaco is a good team. But their defeat was expected. I have been watching for quite some time, they have no rhythm. I said it would be hard for Dinamo to win the match, but I thought they would be managed to win. But they have been defeated in a very bad way. They lost 3-0. I expected better gameplay from them.

[Daniel91]

seriously tho, i lost a free bet because of them    at least Bayern winning the super cup will soften the blow (i had a betbuilder at 2.5 odds)...And, I agree, game over for Dinamo

Did not watch any of the games today but really surprised with Dinamo loosing 3:0. Not game over yet, if they managed to turn 2:0 from Spurs they can turn 3:0 from Serif for sure. By the way did you guys knew that Dinamo player couldn't play today because the did not let him in the country? He is from Kososvo and Moldova does not recognize them as sovereign country. I couldn't believe stuff like this is happening, sports and politics should not mix.

Funny how we all see matches differently, I was sure Dortmund is winning today and I was sure S. Donetsk is not loosing today. In the end positive 0 for me.

I'm also surprised with such a high defeat of Dinamo.
So far they have had very good and safe performances in Europe and this is an unexpected result.
However,  in the past Dinamo had big problems with this opponent in European competitions, although they mostly won  in their mutual matches in the past.
Dinamo now needs a miracle in the return match and the match they played against Tottenham happens once in a life time so I'm not optimist.

[joker_josue]

I was surprised to see Monaco lose the game.
I wasn't expecting Dinamo to lose either, on top of that by 3-0. The Sheriff should have his entry into the Champions almost guaranteed.

[snipie]

https://i.ibb.co/LtCN1nZ/ch1.png

I was surprised to see Monaco lose the game.
I wasn't expecting Dinamo to lose either, on top of that by 3-0. The Sheriff should have his entry into the Champions almost guaranteed.

I guess everyone is surprised with such result from Dinamo games. A final score of a draw or one of them winning with a 1 goal difference was the suitable result but receiving 3 goals is very disappointing. Good luck for Dinamo in the second leg, they will have a hard time passing this stage..
Benfica vs PSV today and Benfica seems to be the most favourite for bookies.

[Juggy777]

seriously tho, i lost a free bet because of them    at least Bayern winning the super cup will soften the blow (i had a betbuilder at 2.5 odds)...And, I agree, game over for Dinamo

Did not watch any of the games today but really surprised with Dinamo loosing 3:0. Not game over yet, if they managed to turn 2:0 from Spurs they can turn 3:0 from Serif for sure. By the way did you guys knew that Dinamo player couldn't play today because the did not let him in the country? He is from Kososvo and Moldova does not recognize them as sovereign country. I couldn't believe stuff like this is happening, sports and politics should not mix.

Funny how we all see matches differently, I was sure Dortmund is winning today and I was sure S. Donetsk is not loosing today. In the end positive 0 for me.

I'm also surprised with such a high defeat of Dinamo.
So far they have had very good and safe performances in Europe and this is an unexpected result.
However,  in the past Dinamo had big problems with this opponent in European competitions, although they mostly won  in their mutual matches in the past.
Dinamo now needs a miracle in the return match and the match they played against Tottenham happens once in a life time so I'm not optimist.

I don’t know much about that player but UEFA should have tackled this and got the player the permission to play, and I wonder if he played would he have created any major impact on this game. Also 3 goals doesn’t guarantee anything in European football, so their return fixture will be an entertaining one and would be full of goals.

[Cryptmuster]

My guess is that Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk and Red Bull will win today. Although Monaco is not a bad team, Shakhtar is more stable than them. Salzburg's opponents on the other hand are easy. Hope for an easy win for Salzburg. However, winning Dinamo Zagreb's match today will be a bit difficult. Dinamo would be wrong to think the Sheriff Tiraspol team is an easy team.

Dynamo Zagreb received three goals from the Sheriff and failed to score a single goal in return. This is a very unexpected result. Perhaps the Sheriff has become much stronger than he was once. The team that beats such strong teams as Crvena Zvezda and Dynamo Zagreb, one after another, deserves attention. And the fact that Crvena Zvezda beat Cluj 4-0 shows that it is still a good team, but it looks like Sheriff is stronger now.

[dbc23]

I was surprised to see Monaco lose the game.
I wasn't expecting Dinamo to lose either, on top of that by 3-0. The Sheriff should have his entry into the Champions almost guaranteed.

Soccer comes with surprises even after each prediction I still cross my mind believing what will be will definitely be. It was a big blast for sheriff their game was a bit impressive.

[3meek]

I wasn't too surprised that Shakhtar could beat Monaco! After all, Shakhtar managed to beat Genk in two games... Monaco played poorly in the home league and lost on home field to underdog Nantes... Shakhtar did well!

Now I look forward to the Benfica vs PSV match! Both clubs should score at least one goal!

[Daniel91]

seriously tho, i lost a free bet because of them    at least Bayern winning the super cup will soften the blow (i had a betbuilder at 2.5 odds)...And, I agree, game over for Dinamo

Did not watch any of the games today but really surprised with Dinamo loosing 3:0. Not game over yet, if they managed to turn 2:0 from Spurs they can turn 3:0 from Serif for sure. By the way did you guys knew that Dinamo player couldn't play today because the did not let him in the country? He is from Kososvo and Moldova does not recognize them as sovereign country. I couldn't believe stuff like this is happening, sports and politics should not mix.

Funny how we all see matches differently, I was sure Dortmund is winning today and I was sure S. Donetsk is not loosing today. In the end positive 0 for me.

I'm also surprised with such a high defeat of Dinamo.
So far they have had very good and safe performances in Europe and this is an unexpected result.
However,  in the past Dinamo had big problems with this opponent in European competitions, although they mostly won  in their mutual matches in the past.
Dinamo now needs a miracle in the return match and the match they played against Tottenham happens once in a life time so I'm not optimist.

I don’t know much about that player but UEFA should have tackled this and got the player the permission to play, and I wonder if he played would he have created any major impact on this game. Also 3 goals doesn’t guarantee anything in European football, so their return fixture will be an entertaining one and would be full of goals.

You can read full story here : https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.then24.com/2021/08/13/political-scandal-im-champions-league-playoff/amp/
Personally,  I wouldn't say that Kastrati is such an important player for Dinamo but it's really shame that UEFA allowed such political scandal in their competition.
If it was bigger and more important european club, like PSG or Real,  UEFA would surely do a lot more so that this situation doesn't happen.  
The rules obviously don't apply to everyone equally.

[buwaytress]

Politics in football, UEFA and FIFA  cherry picking? I'm too old to be surprised anymore, but I hope Dinamo push the issue and reach a form of resolution/compensation. It's really not fair how not all clubs play by the same rules.

But yes, I wonder if we might see a surprise contestant for UCL group stages. Shakhtar maybe gaining more experience than I thought from their previous campaign -- improving every time for the past 4 seasons. So time for me not to underestimate them.

Brondby still have a shout... last time they were at Group Stage was in 98/99, before I started watching =)

Sheriff look like the ones though... this is already their highest achievement in UCL so Group Stage will set their fans alight..!