⚽UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread -- 2023/24 | Prelim Qualifiers

[buwaytress]

Hey everyone reading this thread!

There will soon be a Champions League predictor pool and I'm inviting everyone to play -- the Group Stage proper begins in September so there's still time.

It's a no-brainer: pick scores for every game, the closer your prediction's accuracy, the more points you get, hosted on Superbru. Almost every major pool on this forum uses Superbru, and prizes are going to be pretty special (read that as a lot of BTC).

Small fee to play, so don't want to hear any excuses. I'll share a link when the pool's thread is ready =)

[casperBGD]

qualifications are already under way, and Dinamo is playing tonight against Shkuppi, seems as a no-brainer that Dinamo is going to win, after 2:2 in first match in Zagreb
odds are not that attractive, @1.45, but should work out

there is also Dudelange from Luxembourg, winning first match aside, but should win at home as well, they are playing some solid football in last few seasons, considering being from Luxembourg

[morvillz7z]

qualifications are already under way, and Dinamo is playing tonight against Shkuppi, seems as a no-brainer that Dinamo is going to win, after 2:2 in first match in Zagreb
odds are not that attractive, @1.45, but should work out

I watched the final 20-25 minutes of that game and can say it was much closer than expected. Shkupi did not play bad at all, they looked well-organized in defense and midfield, and somewhat dangerous on counter-attacks. 2/3 of the N. Macedonian team is made up of international players from Africa and Central/South America, therefore plenty of creativity, speed, and athleticism, they almost never play local players. I'm not predicting they'll advance, i'm just saying it won't be an easy match for Dinamo, at least that's how i see it.

PS. If Dinamo is once again forced to play Kevin Theophile-Catherine in the back, i might pull the trigger and put a bigger stake on BTTS, this guy is pure trash, he was responsible for the second goal of Shkupi, and from what i heard it was his fault for the opening goal as well.


∆ Midtjylland DNB + Shamrock/Ludogorets O1.5 @1.84 ^1.34 ∆  won


There is big difference in classes between the Danes and the team from Cyprus. It's truly unbelievable how Midtjylland does not have at least 2-3 goals lead after the first leg. They hit the crossbar/post twice in the first half, had a goal disallowed, 100% pen not given and a bunch of other chances missed. Only to get surprised by a random cross that went all the way in. I know the early start of the match and the expected 30+ Celsius won't be ideal, but Midtjylland are so much better, can't see them flop twice against AEK.

As for Shamrock/Ludogorets, i could see an open match and goals. Despite the convincing win in the first leg, Ludogorets will be looking to get another three points here. These wins against bed teams help with their association/club coefficient so that they are seeded and draw easier future opponents.

I'm also adding these two btts pairs, i watched extended highlights from both matches, and feel confident there will be goals with more than decent odds:

∆ Dudelange - Pyunik BTTS @2.06 ∆  won

∆ Viktoria Plzen - HJK BTTS @2.04 ∆  X

[LTU_btc]

@morvillz7z, I completely agree Midtjylland, they are much better team and it's unbeleavable how they didn't even managed to win first game. But Ihave different opinion about games where you picked BTTS. I think it's more likely that we will see low scoring games where only one team will score.
I rather pick parlay on Plzen and Dinamo Zagreb wins @2.10. Ludogorets win @2.20 also looks very attractive.

[fzkto]

Sheriff managed to surprise everyone last season, but so far can't do anything in the qualifying round. I thought that after last year's triumph they would have no problem getting into this season's Champions League. Also from today's matches, I consider Dinamo Zagreb to be a good contender to win. I think they will beat Shkupi.

[el kaka22]

I don't know, you could make some guesses to make some money but that doesn't mean that we aren't going to be even remotely close, it is going to take a long time before people could understand that these early games are so hard that we wouldn't really be able to predict the winner let alone the score. This means that you could give it a try, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try in the end, and if you want to then you could do it.

But, I wouldn't spend any more time on it than the time I spent on writing this message, this was all the time I spent on it and not a single second more. Hopefully it will be looking to be a lot better in the long run when the group stages starts.

[jostorres]

Sheriff managed to surprise everyone last season, but so far can't do anything in the qualifying round. I thought that after last year's triumph they would have no problem getting into this season's Champions League. Also from today's matches, I consider Dinamo Zagreb to be a good contender to win. I think they will beat Shkupi.

Today we have all matches as expected, and no surprise happened because teams are doing good for having better chances in qualifying rounds D Zagreb and Ludogorets both qualified for next rounds because they were good in quality against their opponents in these matches even in today match Ludogorets lost in their away game against Irish rivals Shamrock Rovers with the score of 2 - 1 but on aggregate they won and now qualify for next round.

Tomorrow, we have few very exciting matches as Swedish side going to play against Zalgiris and Turkish side Fenerbahçe is going to face D Kyiv at home which is going to decide who is going into next round.

[LTU_btc]

So, Midtjylland disappointed us again, they managed to reach next round only after beating AEK in penalties. Shamrock Rovers made big upset by eliminating Ludogorets. Pyunik won big against Dudelange, despite conceding first.
Tomorrow I see good odds for Olympiacos win. Despite that Bodo/Glimt lost 1st leg against Linfield, bookmakers are very confident about their win - 1.08. Probably main game will be between Fenerbahche and Dynamo Kyiv. I would prefer Dynamo to win this game, but common sense tells to bet on Fener.
Slovan - Ferencvaros looks most unpredictable game, late goal of Zurich in 1st leg against Qarabag still keeps them in fight. Malmo - Zalgiris should be interesting too, after Zalgiris made upset by winning 1st leg and dominating game.

Sheriff managed to surprise everyone last season, but so far can't do anything in the qualifying round. I thought that after last year's triumph they would have no problem getting into this season's Champions League. Also from today's matches, I consider Dinamo Zagreb to be a good contender to win. I think they will beat Shkupi.

Sheriff team isn't something special, for such small team reaching Champions League group stage is almost impossible. This season they already passed 2 rounds, what is already great achievement, which already gives them place in Conference League group stage. Europa league groups is more realistic goal for them than Champions League.

[boltz]

Mitdjiland barely qualified last night as penalties kinda saved them from a defeat because if they were another 10 minutes of playing , I guess Larnaka would have scored again. Also ,  I guess we all under estimated Larnaka and how they play but I have big doubts that Mitdjiland will make it further than this round.

Today , I'm curious what Fener will do as they made 0-0 in previous game with Dynamo Kiev.

[Lucius]

PS. If Dinamo is once again forced to play Kevin Theophile-Catherine in the back, i might pull the trigger and put a bigger stake on BTTS, this guy is pure trash, he was responsible for the second goal of Shkupi, and from what i heard it was his fault for the opening goal as well.

To make the tragedy even greater, he was one of Dinamo's highest-paid players with some 840 000 EUR per year 2 years ago, and I really don't understand how that man can survive in the club for so long with his criminally bad performances. Although there is nothing strange in a club whose real owners are convicted of crime, they fled to another country from where they run their business, and they chose (again) one of the biggest football anti-talents in this part of the world as their coach. Kevin Theophile-Catherine should be paying someone to play football, not not getting paid for his anti-talent.

[morvillz7z]

PS. If Dinamo is once again forced to play Kevin Theophile-Catherine in the back, i might pull the trigger and put a bigger stake on BTTS, this guy is pure trash, he was responsible for the second goal of Shkupi, and from what i heard it was his fault for the opening goal as well.

To make the tragedy even greater, he was one of Dinamo's highest-paid players with some 840 000 EUR per year 2 years ago, and I really don't understand how that man can survive in the club for so long with his criminally bad performances. Although there is nothing strange in a club whose real owners are convicted of crime, they fled to another country from where they run their business, and they chose (again) one of the biggest football anti-talents in this part of the world as their coach. Kevin Theophile-Catherine should be paying someone to play football, not not getting paid for his anti-talent.

Nice breakdown!  

I noticed he was not included in the group list for the match yesterday, they will probably say it was an injury or something...

∆ Malmo O1.5 & win @1.50 ∆  X

I like the Swedes in this spot a lot, down one goal to Zalgiris. Up until recently, i thought Gibraltar's national stadium had the worst pitch, but after seeing the highlights from the first leg, Zalgiris has surpassed it with possibly the crappiest artificial turf i've ever seen. It's dangerous to walk on that thing, let alone play football, and it's always at a disadvantage to the visiting team. Malmo has scored three goals in their last three home games (in all competitions), whereas Zalgiris struggled against their previous opponent from Kosovo. I fully expect Malmo to score three or four goals today, no sweat.


∆ Malmo ML + Zurich Clean Sheet No @1.66 ∆  X

Qarabag have a very potent midfield and forwards, that guy Wadji sheesh....Zurich's defense could not check him up all game long. I just can't see them keeping a clean sheet, i'm heavily favoring Qarabag to advance.

edit;

Malmo WYD?

[casperBGD]

Bodo Glimt is destroying at home, last season Roma, and now Linfield was down 8:0, to secure next round

Fenerbahce and Dinamo Kyiv playing 135 minutes so far, without goals at all
Malmo is down at home, and with 0:1 from first match, it is now 0:2 with one half to go, maybe it is good timing to try them to win or qualify

[LTU_btc]

Zalgiris unexpected won against Malmo 0:2 and on aggregate 3:0 they go to next round. It means that club from my country will play in group stage of UEFA tournament (Conference League at least) for the first time. Finally! Malmo had more posession, but they weren't really dangerous.
Fenerbahche - Dynamo Kyiv was great game and I happy that Dynamo goes to next round. 1st half was completely dominated by Fener and it's looked like matter of time when they will score. But 2nd half was more equal and on extra time Dynamo managed to score decisive goal.
Maccabi Haifa very unexpected humiliated Olympiacos 0:4 away. I didn't knew that VAR works at such stage. Oly scored goal, made score 1:1 what looked like big facor, but after VAR it was cancelled.
Bodo/Glimt 8:0 Linfield. These stats tells about game more than thousand words:

Up until recently, i thought Gibraltar's national stadium had the worst pitch, but after seeing the highlights from the first leg, Zalgiris has surpassed it with possibly the crappiest artificial turf i've ever seen. It's dangerous to walk on that thing, let alone play football, and it's always at a disadvantage to the visiting team.

Itdoesn't just looks terrible on screen, it's terrible pitch actually. Maybe such pitch can be considered as advantage for home team, but local players also hate to play on it. BTW, this stadium had good quality artificial turf: but few years ago stadium owners changed it into much worse
https://media.lrytas.lt/images/2018/09/05/105802720-9603530d-2b12-42b4-a787-1b326e24a38d.jpg, but few years ago stadium owners changed it into much worse

[CLS63]

Dynamo Kiev managed to leave Istanbul by winning the round despite the hard conditions they were in. Fenerbahce had a performance that could have brought them the round comfortably if they didn't get that red card and started to play with 10 players. However everything changed suddenly after starting to play with 10 players. Frankly, I went to the stadium as a Fenerbahce fan and I was very disappointed. The reason of this wasn't my team's being eliminated from the tournament. The reason was that some idiot supporters chanted ''Vladimir Putin'' after Dynamo Kiev got ahead. Even though these supporters were in the minority their sound was clearly audible. Therefore I apologise on my behalf from all the Ukraine people.

[Daniel91]

Sheriff managed to surprise everyone last season, but so far can't do anything in the qualifying round. I thought that after last year's triumph they would have no problem getting into this season's Champions League. Also from today's matches, I consider Dinamo Zagreb to be a good contender to win. I think they will beat Shkupi.

Today we have all matches as expected, and no surprise happened because teams are doing good for having better chances in qualifying rounds D Zagreb and Ludogorets both qualified for next rounds because they were good in quality against their opponents in these matches even in today match Ludogorets lost in their away game against Irish rivals Shamrock Rovers with the score of 2 - 1 but on aggregate they won and now qualify for next round.

Tomorrow, we have few very exciting matches as Swedish side going to play against Zalgiris and Turkish side Fenerbahçe is going to face D Kyiv at home which is going to decide who is going into next round.

I don't know if anyone watched the match between Dinamo and Shkupi, but Dinamo, especially in the first half, played a very bad game and won more thanks to the individual quality of the players and their routine than to what they showed on the match.
Dinamo has a lot of new players, but they are not well integrated yet, and the coach has not yet prepared the right strategy and game plan with the new players.
Honestly, with this kind of game, I don't think Dinamo has a chance against Ludogorets in the next round of the competition.
Fortunately, with this victory, they secured at least the group of the conference league 

[boltz]

Bodo Glimt is destroying at home, last season Roma, and now Linfield was down 8:0, to secure next round

Fenerbahce and Dinamo Kyiv playing 135 minutes so far, without goals at all
Malmo is down at home, and with 0:1 from first match, it is now 0:2 with one half to go, maybe it is good timing to try them to win or qualify

Yep , that was insane to watch the highlights. I found out about that game on my  TV when they showed the highlight and as soon as I saw BODO I remembered that even AS.Roma was "destroyed" by them on home pitch so it will be very difficult to take points or even to score on them.

Dynamo Kiev made it and I'm glad for them as Lucescu is our greatest Romanian coach of all time and no wonder why...with a team that was clearly under Fener, he manages to qualify further and don't sleep on Dynamo Kiev guys ...they could reach groups of UCL...

[Balmain]

Dynamo Kyiv left a difficult away game with a 2-1 win. After the matches, a lot of events took place, I don't want to talk about them, it's some stupid crying. As for the match, Fenerbahce was in an advantageous position many times. After conceding an early red, he immediately saw the goal in his goal and fell backwards. Then, towards the end of the match, Fenerbahce had the chance to score a goal from the corner kick and the match went into overtime. Kyiv made the final closing in extra time, I wish Dynamo kiev success in the Champions league.

[Velvet78]

Fenerbahce's performance in the first half especially was incredible. They just dominated the whole half and Dinamo Kiev were really lucky about not conceding a goal. However the red card made things really difficult for Fenerbahce all of a sudden. Dinamo Kiev captured the psychological advantage and scored too. Fenerbahce missed a penalty in this game too by the way so if they got ahead first then things might have been different. Although Szalai scored the equalizer Fenerbahce still lost the game 2-1 by extra time.

The goals Fenerbahce conceded were really annoying as well. It was unexpected for me to see them being eliminated in this round already.

[3meek]

For me, the most interesting match yesterday was Fenerbahce v Dinamo Kyiv, but the win of Kyiv was expected... But I would never have thought that Olympiacos could lose with such a big score to Israel's Haifa... For me this club was often the favourite, I do not understand what happened this time...

[Joca97]

Fenerbahce's performance in the first half especially was incredible. They just dominated the whole half and Dinamo Kiev were really lucky about not conceding a goal. However the red card made things really difficult for Fenerbahce all of a sudden. Dinamo Kiev captured the psychological advantage and scored too. Fenerbahce missed a penalty in this game too by the way so if they got ahead first then things might have been different. Although Szalai scored the equalizer Fenerbahce still lost the game 2-1 by extra time.

The goals Fenerbahce conceded were really annoying as well. It was unexpected for me to see them being eliminated in this round already.

Fenerbahce played amazing and i think their knockout is just sad. Dinamo Kiev wasnt better even after having an extra man on the field. Dinamo Kiev just got lucky and now has a big chance to qualify for champions league but if they play like this they will get knocked out