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

[joker_josue]

Juve was leading with 1 goal and now they are late 1-2 vs Benfica!

According to Allegri, the reason for the defeat against Benfica was that: "After the 1-2, the game was over for us. It was in our hands, but we had a psychological collapse."

What is certain is that Benfica from the 20th~25th minute controlled the match, and could have scored one or two more goals.
With this victory, Benfica has the same number of points as PSG.

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[Rruchi man]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?

Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

As for Chelsea, I don't want to really discuss their matter, lol...I just think they are not really very serious this season. They should just try to qualify for the next UCL again, so they can try again, because even if they somehow manage to go past the group stages, they will not make it to the finals with the kind of form these other clubs are currently on.

[Lordhermes]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?

Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

As for Chelsea, I don't want to really discuss their matter, lol...I just think they are not really very serious this season. They should just try to qualify for the next UCL again, so they can try again, because even if they somehow manage to go past the group stages, they will not make it to the finals with the kind of form these other clubs are currently on.

Haaland is a beast infront of goal,I confirm it now with what I have seen so far.At first while he was at Dortmund,even when everyone talks about him,I keep mute because I used to feel he can only shine in the Bundesliga,and can't shine in a league like the English premier league,but so far,the player has been the best striker so far,scoring hatrick back to back,making him the leading goal scorer in EPL At the moment.He is so sharp infront if goal,and with his goal this season,I am quite sure that he will help Mancity in lifting something,either the Premier league or the Champions league.

[Mr.right85]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?

Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

You got that right at Haaland and Ibrahimovic in his prime. Both goals from Manchester City today were great. First goal for Manchester City by De Bruyne right from the edge of the box and into the post. Haaland with a high foot, high kick ball to give Guardiola his taste of victory. You could see how delighted he was after struggling with a possible defeat for 80 minutes.

Just like PSG yesterday, when Mbappe lost there first goal by trying to dribble and sent the ball rolling into the goalkeepers hands. It was nice having all 3 PSG forward on the score sheet and Neymar scored the exact chance Mbappe missed.

[CryptocurencyKing]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?

Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

As for Chelsea, I don't want to really discuss their matter, lol...I just think they are not really very serious this season. They should just try to qualify for the next UCL again, so they can try again, because even if they somehow manage to go past the group stages, they will not make it to the finals with the kind of form these other clubs are currently on.

That goal deserved a celebration, from the assist to the finish, to the fact that it was a winning goal, deep down he must've wanted to celebrate. He was in the game very little but made the difference when in counted. It keeps up his stunning record in European football’s premier continent-spanning competition. Haaland now holds the record for the most goals in 21 Champions League games, 26 in 21 games.

[RealMalatesta]

Tottenham Hotspurs seems to be struggling creating chances while the star players aren't performing as expected. With Son and Kane not being as effective as they usually are. They have gotten into one of the easiest group in the Champions League and I was expecting them to be topping the group but with their loss to Sporting, they are 2nd at the moment.

Honestly Spurs was never a good team, they had that one good year and everyone expects them to do the same thing over and over again whereas they are not really good at all. Look at how many cups they won, how many domestic and international ones, look at how many league titles they have. This is a cupless team that never won anything and this puts something your DNA, you get used to not winning anything and that is why they keep on losing all the time and feel okay about it since that is all they know.

Look at most teams, they have a player that won something at least once, and that is how you gain leadership and the more you win, even if players retire or transfer you still have some left in your club.

[ILuckyGuyI]

Manchester City's comeback was really by incredible goals. Haaland's goal was the most impressive one of course as it was a Zlatan-like goal at the same time.    He is such a special striker who can score every kind of a goal. I've heard something like Haaland's next target is to score 5 goals in 5 touches only. I wouldn't be surprised if he does this in a game as well.    Stones' goal was also great by the way. It was such a strong shot that the goalkeeper wasn't even able to react.

After their performance against Sevilla I wasn't expecting Manchester City to struggle this much against Dortmund. Because Dortmund are still far away from their level but they still did a great job by keeping the game at 1-0 until the 80th minute. Manchester City would come back much stronger to the Kopenhag game ahead for sure.

[Daniel91]

A bit late to follow yesterday and today's games but I see weird stuff there..
Juve was leading with 1 goal and now they are late 1-2 vs Benfica!
PSG was late with 1 goal but at least they are leading 2-1..
City 0-1 vs Dortmund.. Chelsea 1-1 Salzburg..
At least Real Madrid and Napoli are leading with 1 goal, 10 minutes before the end of these games!
(OK City scored 1-1 now)

Edit: wow, City 2-1 Dortmund and PSG, Napoli and Real Madrid added 1 goal each!

What matters in football is goals not how beautiful your team played. That's what we see in today's matches. Chelsea played very well but they ended up drawing the game. Leipzig played well in the first half but they lose in the second half against Real Madrid. Playing beautiful football without goals is equal to nothing.

I was expecting Chelsea to win without a draw. Salzburg didn't even bother attacking but they left with a draw, that's to show u that goal is the aim, not fine football.

There's a whole lot of Improvement in Chelsea players, at least every player played is positioned well without a flop. The players played with confidence, a massive attack and were eager to score. A draw match is not a bad one.

After the Champions League groups were determined, I expected this to be a very easy group for Chelsea and that they would easily win the first place in the group, as one of the main favorites of the entire Champions League.
Instead, Chelsea are playing very poorly and are currently last in the Group E.
Will Chelsea suffer the same fate as Barcelona last season, not to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League?
They are playing very badly at the moment and if they don't raise the level of their game and become a more efficient team in attack, and more concentrated in defence, this Champions League season will not end well for them.

[Distraction]

After the Champions League groups were determined, I expected this to be a very easy group for Chelsea and that they would easily win the first place in the group, as one of the main favorites of the entire Champions League.
Instead, Chelsea are playing very poorly and are currently last in the Group E.
Will Chelsea suffer the same fate as Barcelona last season, not to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League?
They are playing very badly at the moment and if they don't raise the level of their game and become a more efficient team in attack, and more concentrated in defence, this Champions League season will not end well for them.

I don't expect Chelsea to share the same fate with Barcelona's past season. I believe that there was an important level of improvement in their performance last night. I think that they were just unlucky about that match. It was Graham Potter's first match in the end and he started directly by a Champions League match. There is going to be a space of more than two weeks until the next group matches. This should be enough time for Chelsea to get better and ready for the rest of the matches.

They have two matches against Milan consecutively first. They can collect at least 4 points from these matches. After that they can defeat Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg both which would carry them easily to a safe point in the group. Maybe I'm being too positive already now but the things I saw last night were promising in my opinion.

[buwaytress]

If you are confident about Borussia vs City, maybe it's your chance to earn some money, the odds are 12.50 but I don't have the courage to bet against City playing in home
Juve x Benfica for me it's the most interesting game to bet, paying 2.30 for Juve, maybe a double with a win on Real Madrid could worth

I actually managed to wrangle 14.50 (courtesy daily football boost at Sportsbet) so of course when Bellingham scored, I booked a live bet on City @3.5 (also a live boost in Sportsbet) as my typical hedge in these kinds of games.

Wish Haaland and Stones of all people didn't get their team back but that's what hedges are for!

Juve can't be trusted... and neither Chelsea!

[S A KHAIR]

They have two matches against Milan consecutively first. They can collect at least 4 points from these matches. After that they can defeat Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg both which would carry them easily to a safe point in the group. Maybe I'm being too positive already now but the things I saw last night were promising in my opinion.

Chelsea still has enough chances to qualify for the next round. But for this, they must perform consistently well. The Chelsea team is not stable yet. So there is no way to say for sure that they can beat Milan or Dinamo. Their performance in the first two matches was very poor. In the next match, they will play against AC Milan. As Milan is in form, it is almost impossible for Chelsea to beat Milan now. But Chelsea has a chance to qualify for the next round if they can get back on track.

[snipie]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?
https://i.imgur.com/6htFbi2.jpg
Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

Yeah saw that goal and I needed to see the reply to see how he managed to do it.
It was an incredible goal that few players will do it but it was a risky one. He risked a red card in case he touched the defender head with his leg imo. Well Haaland position made it safe for him to do that jump and score.
In the next round, I am curious about how goals Bayern will score vs Plzen and the Inter - Barcelona game. Chelsea - Milan is interesting too

[Pulsar77]

I actually managed to wrangle 14.50 (courtesy daily football boost at Sportsbet) so of course when Bellingham scored, I booked a live bet on City @3.5 (also a live boost in Sportsbet) as my typical hedge in these kinds of games.

Wish Haaland and Stones of all people didn't get their team back but that's what hedges are for!

Juve can't be trusted... and neither Chelsea!

It's a really good catch! I wouldn't be this much brave to place a bet on Manchester City live after seeing them desperate to score for a long time period. If it wasn't for Stones' rocket I wonder if they would still be able to make this comeback real. Haaland was literally superb with that very interesting goal. He is spectacular at this age already. He scored this kind of a goal to his old team right after being transferred from them. It should be a nice lesson to Lewandowski as he wasn't good against Bayern Munich.  

Neither Juventus nor Chelsea are credible absolutely. Especially Juventus were even worse by losing 2-1 home. I won't be surprised if Allegri leaves or gets sacked in the near future. It depends on if we see this kind of results continuing in the coming days as well.

[MoonOfLife]

Neither Juventus nor Chelsea are credible absolutely. Especially Juventus were even worse by losing 2-1 home. I won't be surprised if Allegri leaves or gets sacked in the near future. It depends on if we see this kind of results continuing in the coming days as well.

Juventus management may decide to fire Allegri soon. This season Juventus management added new players to the squad to strengthen the team. But Juventus is now weaker than last season. They have lost both matches in the Champions League. Even now they are eighth in the Serie A points table. If you play like this, it is impossible to win the title. And they won't be able to qualify for the Champions League either.

[Coyster]

Chelsea still has enough chances to qualify for the next round.

Of course after two matches every club still has a chance of qualifying , but Chelsea are slowly putting themselves into a precarious situation, their qualification for the RO16 will depend a whole lot on their next two games, both of which are against the Italian Champions AC Milan, Chelsea are definitely strong enough to win both legs, but then again, with their current form it might be pretty difficult.

The Chelsea board i'm sure cannot even imagine a situation were they fail to quality from this 'weak' group, even after sacking their manager, it is going to be comical and disastrous; i don't think it can happen anyway, because the group isn't a strong one, if Chelsea happened to be in a group of at least three strong teams, they would have been punished for their repeated slip ups.

[Piesel]

They have two matches against Milan consecutively first. They can collect at least 4 points from these matches. After that, they can defeat Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg both which would carry them easily to a safe point in the group. Maybe I'm being too positive already now but the things I saw last night were promising in my opinion.

Chelsea still has enough chances to qualify for the next round. But for this, they must perform consistently well. The Chelsea team is not stable yet. So there is no way to say for sure that they can beat Milan or Dinamo. Their performance in the first two matches was very poor. In the next match, they will play against AC Milan. As Milan is in form, it is almost impossible for Chelsea to beat Milan now. But Chelsea has a chance to qualify for the next round if they can get back on track.

I will not want to dive into Chelsea or other clubs who we expected much from, but at the present situation, their performance is below average imagine Chelsea playing a draw with a weaker club that most Chelsea fans are underrated. And if things continue this way Chelsea may end up below top 20 and may not have a positioning they groupthis season.

The major problem Chelsea is facing is management I don't expect Chelsea management to have sacked the old coach just because he lost a match, Tuchel was the best man for the job but Chelsea missed out on that.

[Pokapoka124]

Tottenham Hotspurs seems to be struggling creating chances while the star players aren't performing as expected. With Son and Kane not being as effective as they usually are. They have gotten into one of the easiest group in the Champions League and I was expecting them to be topping the group but with their loss to Sporting, they are 2nd at the moment.

Honestly Spurs was never a good team, they had that one good year and everyone expects them to do the same thing over and over again whereas they are not really good at all. Look at how many cups they won, how many domestic and international ones, look at how many league titles they have. This is a cupless team that never won anything and this puts something your DNA, you get used to not winning anything and that is why they keep on losing all the time and feel okay about it since that is all they know.

Look at most teams, they have a player that won something at least once, and that is how you gain leadership and the more you win, even if players retire or transfer you still have some left in your club.

It will be disappointing that Spurs will not qualify past the group stages of the champions league this season. I expected a win against Sporting to give them a lead and upper hand in their group but they conceded a defeat instead which was very poor. It's no surprise to me though Spurs have had zero trophies in the past years so getting no silverware this year is nothing new.

[Jatiluhung]

Manchester city rose in the last minute.

How can we not talk about this goal and Haalaand?

Many players will use their heads, very few players will opt to use their legs! Very remarkable goal scoring ability... reminds me of Ibrahimovic in his prime. Haalaand will definitely break a lot of football records both in the UCL & EPL with his very sharp goal scoring ability. I think in front of goal currently in this champions League, his competition so far in scoring razor sharp goals has been Mbappe. Manchester City finally have a chance with him to win this UCL.

As for Chelsea, I don't want to really discuss their matter, lol...I just think they are not really very serious this season. They should just try to qualify for the next UCL again, so they can try again, because even if they somehow manage to go past the group stages, they will not make it to the finals with the kind of form these other clubs are currently on.

if you talk about Haaland then it can be said that he has become a hero for manchester city in yesterday's match against Dortmund. He has a unique style of play. Honestly at the beginning he joined Manchester City I still thought that he would not shine too much in the Premier League. but in fact either in the Premier League or in the Champions League. she still looks stunning. even the news media at my place. keep reporting on haaland as a hero for manchester city in yesterday's game. and the way he scored his goals became a lot of attention from netizens and football commentators.

for chelsea i wouldn't expect more either. because in this year chelsea absolutely no progress. their performance goes up and down. inconsistent in game quality. although it is now better than at the beginning of the season.

[Lordhermes]

They have two matches against Milan consecutively first. They can collect at least 4 points from these matches. After that they can defeat Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg both which would carry them easily to a safe point in the group. Maybe I'm being too positive already now but the things I saw last night were promising in my opinion.

Chelsea still has enough chances to qualify for the next round. But for this, they must perform consistently well. The Chelsea team is not stable yet. So there is no way to say for sure that they can beat Milan or Dinamo. Their performance in the first two matches was very poor. In the next match, they will play against AC Milan. As Milan is in form, it is almost impossible for Chelsea to beat Milan now. But Chelsea has a chance to qualify for the next round if they can get back on track.

Chelsea will exit from the group stage without getting to the next round because it looks as if they were not prepared for the Champions league this season,and despite the quality players that they signed,they are still unable to show people that they worth the money,so far,it's only Sterling that has showed that he is worth the money spent on him,because his getting goals.

[Jatiluhung]

Chelsea will exit from the group stage without getting to the next round because it looks as if they were not prepared for the Champions league this season,and despite the quality players that they signed,they are still unable to show people that they worth the money,so far,it's only Sterling that has showed that he is worth the money spent on him,because his getting goals.

there is nothing to expect from Chelsea. because their chances of getting through the group stage are very small. as well as the juventus team who are both in poor form this season.
even though I still remember that before the start of this season many commented that chelsea and juventus were included in the team that was predicted to be easy to get through the group phase. but now the reality says otherwise. I saw the Chelsea players as playing uncomfortable. Is there a pressure in there that makes the players uncomfortable in competing so that they find it difficult to bring out their best abilities.