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

[buwaytress]

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.

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.

===

Neither Juventus nor Chelsea are credible absolutely. E

Yeah, it's just a typical type of bet for me, it's actually not even brave as I already had, as explained a ticket riding on BVB for over 14/1. "Sacrificing" part of that to lay a bet on City at over 3/1 was just a beautiful hedge. Of course, the smarter bet was DNB or Double Chance, but I do tend to put myself in loss-loss situations over draws!

Don't trust Old Lady and Chelski for the rest of the season. There's a huge amount of psychology at play here now and too many individuals to fix. Can't be done with WC coming up.

[emrecemsan]

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.

Actually there was a season that Tottenham were really incredible in the Champions League. In the 2018/19 season they reached the finale but Liverpool beat them 2-0 I'm afraid. They eliminated Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax respectively after the group stage. It would be really lovely to see them more competitive now even if they don't become as successful as that season.



But for now, they are even struggling against Sporting which started the season in their league badly in fact. Tottenham even had a serious difficulty against Marseille despite their opponent got a red card very earlier in the match. They have a really good lineup now but they can't reflect their EPL performance on the CL for now. This is a group that they should be able to finish at top. Hopefully Conte creates a solution for the rest of the matches to play a more reliable game. The expectation from the team must be to qualify for 1/8-finals at least.

[borovichok]

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.

People are saying now that Manchester city are too reliant on haaland,what if he got injured, they wont do well again, am surprised why in football people has short memories, this same city has won the premier League three times in four years, they last reach the champions just last year and they have been scoring goals for fun before now,is shocking when people say bad words about this wonderful club under pep gaudiola, I just believe haaland will improve them even more.

[zuzie]

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.

Although some things show that the previous coach Thomas Tuchel was more experienced than Graham Potter who is currently the new Chelsea coach, we still haven't seen how Potter's strategy with Chelsea will be and it's not impossible in the remaining 4 match we can see something new from Chelsea.
At least Chelsea have 4 match left before deciding where they will go, so there is still a chance. After all, of the several clubs competing in group E, only Milan looks tougher than the others. So maybe it won't be too difficult for Chelsea

[keyscore44]

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)

Manchester city rose in the last minute. are now 2-1 up. Dortmund must be upset. because they can lead initially for a long time. but at the last minute now manchester city can even overtake him with 2 goals. what an amazing Drama that Manchester city is showing. as a Manchester city fan I am happy to see this score. and Real madrid also showed what he was capable of in the dying minutes and now they are 2-0 up. but i also bet for sevilla. but still 0-0.

I was also quite surprised by the Dortmund game. They played very well against Manchester City. Their defense was quite strong, preventing Manchester City from attacking. Despite leading by one goal, they were beaten by Haaland in the last minute.

[Distraction]

All of the title contenders can have some struggles in the Champions League of course. The difficulty Manchester City had against Dortmund was exactly like that. Manchester City didn't have an impressive performance most of the time in this match. But they are such a powerful team that they still found a way to turn the match around. These two spectacular goals are still discussed among many people now. Haaland is still a goal machine and no team are able to stop him in any tournament.

The goal record in the Champions League is still secured by Ronaldo (17 goals in the 2013/14 season at Real Madrid). I wonder if Haaland might manage to break this record in this season. He has only 3 goals after leaving 2 matches behind maybe. But there are still many matches ahead of him. If they reach the finale then he will have a huge opportunity to go for it. It isn't impossible for him to break this record for a beast like Haaland. He's already reached 10 goals after 6 matches in the Premier League for example.

[ilovealtcoins]

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)

Manchester city rose in the last minute. are now 2-1 up. Dortmund must be upset. because they can lead initially for a long time. but at the last minute now manchester city can even overtake him with 2 goals. what an amazing Drama that Manchester city is showing. as a Manchester city fan I am happy to see this score. and Real madrid also showed what he was capable of in the dying minutes and now they are 2-0 up. but i also bet for sevilla. but still 0-0.

I was also quite surprised by the Dortmund game. They played very well against Manchester City. Their defense was quite strong, preventing Manchester City from attacking. Despite leading by one goal, they were beaten by Haaland in the last minute.

Dortmund understood very well that they could not win against a strong opponent like Manchester City. So they wanted to share points by playing defensive strategy with this mat. They made only 5 shots in the full 90 minutes. But unfortunately, they were defeated. After 80 minutes, Dortmund conceded two goals in a surprise attack by Manchester City. Dortmund's former star player Haaland scored against Dortmund.

[skarais]

All of the title contenders can have some struggles in the Champions League of course. The difficulty Manchester City had against Dortmund was exactly like that. Manchester City didn't have an impressive performance most of the time in this match.

I don't know how you came to that conclusion, I totally disagree about your statement.
I want you to review the match stats before coming to a conclusion. I also hope you can judge from a technical point of view how Manchester City's players attack. In fact Manchester City have a good advantage in a number of statistics, for example on ball possession, number of shots, number of passes.

Manchester City's goal productivity has also been good so far. They consistently score goals, those are the things that impress them. Until matchday 2, Manchester City only conceded 1 goal and has scored 6 goals. It's a good statistic to have no doubts about the ability and strength of this favourite.

[RealMalatesta]

Actually there was a season that Tottenham were really incredible in the Champions League. In the 2018/19 season they reached the finale but Liverpool beat them 2-0 I'm afraid. They eliminated Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax respectively after the group stage. It would be really lovely to see them more competitive now even if they don't become as successful as that season.



But for now, they are even struggling against Sporting which started the season in their league badly in fact. Tottenham even had a serious difficulty against Marseille despite their opponent got a red card very earlier in the match. They have a really good lineup now but they can't reflect their EPL performance on the CL for now. This is a group that they should be able to finish at top. Hopefully Conte creates a solution for the rest of the matches to play a more reliable game. The expectation from the team must be to qualify for 1/8-finals at least.

That's the year I am talking about, they had one good year and everyone expected them to be a good team after that, but in reality they weren't that great in EPL during that year neither, and ever since that day they haven't won a league title, an fa cup title, or even went to quarter finals of a champions league run. That was one season and nothing prior or after that which shows them as a good team.

It is normal for them to be facing Sporting and having trouble because if you remove that one single year they got lucky out of your mind, then you will realize that rest of each season was basically like this for them, barely mattering and not considered any good at all.

[Lordhermes]

All of the title contenders can have some struggles in the Champions League of course. The difficulty Manchester City had against Dortmund was exactly like that. Manchester City didn't have an impressive performance most of the time in this match.

I don't know how you came to that conclusion, I totally disagree about your statement.
I want you to review the match stats before coming to a conclusion. I also hope you can judge from a technical point of view how Manchester City's players attack. In fact Manchester City have a good advantage in a number of statistics, for example on ball possession, number of shots, number of passes.

Manchester City's goal productivity has also been good so far. They consistently score goals, those are the things that impress them. Until matchday 2, Manchester City only conceded 1 goal and has scored 6 goals. It's a good statistic to have no doubts about the ability and strength of this favourite.

There is no doubt that Manchester City will progress to the next stage of the UEFA champions league with this kind of form and performance they are displaying in every match they play.It is easy to predict about Manchester City,that they will be in the finals again this season,after they lost to Real Madrid last season,but it seems they have settled the issue they had at the club,which is a prolific attackers,they have a striker that delivers in almost all their games,and scores regular goals for city.

[MatthewLM]

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.

I don't think he can apply for dismissal but I think you're complicated here I don't know if that's true or not but I can't think why that might be but anyway I think it's between them soon  It is assumed that everything will be fine

[Strongkored]

It is easy to predict about Manchester City,that they will be in the finals again this season,after they lost to Real Madrid last season

Indeed they are still in great shape especially with Haaland's presence but for me it is too early to say that City will repeat the previous season by reaching the final position, anything can happen especially when have passed the group stage one mistake will make them eliminated, the journey still too long to reach the final and City are not only focused on UCL but also other competitions that could bring them down performance for many reasons

[crunck]

It is easy to predict about Manchester City,that they will be in the finals again this season,after they lost to Real Madrid last season

Indeed they are still in great shape especially with Haaland's presence but for me it is too early to say that City will repeat the previous season by reaching the final position, anything can happen especially when have passed the group stage one mistake will make them eliminated, the journey still too long to reach the final and City are not only focused on UCL but also other competitions that could bring them down performance for many reasons

The city has been playing very well this season. But their main opponents for the title Chelsea or Liverpool are not able to play well. No other team in the Premier League is performing as consistently as Manchester City. And so everyone thinks City will easily win the title this season. But Liverpool and Manchester United are slowly stabilizing and strengthening themselves. And so winning the title will become more difficult for Manchester City.

[uswa56]

It is easy to predict about Manchester City,that they will be in the finals again this season,after they lost to Real Madrid last season

Indeed they are still in great shape especially with Haaland's presence but for me it is too early to say that City will repeat the previous season by reaching the final position, anything can happen especially when have passed the group stage one mistake will make them eliminated, the journey still too long to reach the final and City are not only focused on UCL but also other competitions that could bring them down performance for many reasons

The city has been playing very well this season. But their main opponents for the title Chelsea or Liverpool are not able to play well. No other team in the Premier League is performing as consistently as Manchester City. And so everyone thinks City will easily win the title this season. But Liverpool and Manchester United are slowly stabilizing and strengthening themselves. And so winning the title will become more difficult for Manchester City.

It's too early to say that but it's true that Manchester City's performance this season is much better than last season, they are much stronger in all areas and Haaland's presence certainly has a positive impact on Manchester City's attacking line.
but in UCL Manchester City have always failed in the previous few seasons because the team's mentality factor also has a big influence on this UCL stage so I think even though the quality of Manchester City is very good, everything is still possible to happen.

[püsür]

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.

Haaland, who scored the Bundesliga logo goal against his former team... This man has a supernatural physique and finishing touch. If Haaland continues like this, he can easily win Ballon Dor next year. This is an incredible player. Despite such a large physique, he is very athletic and agile. His last hits are beyond legendary. Position tracking is excellent. A near-perfect football player. This boy will be the greatest striker in history. The goals he scored with taekwondo movements especially in high balls remind me of Zlatan. He was also physically and agile in his 20s

Niklas Süle and Matts Hummels made a great couple in Dortmund, but I think they still need a finishing striker. Stones' goal was stunning, real Champions League goal. Terzič made his team play the ball very well, Dortmund's defense played great, Dortmund played a great game in general compared to their strength, but if the goalkeeper had been a little better, he would have at least saved one of the two goals. Bellingham and Salih Ozcan were so good, it's safe to say they locked down Grelish and De Buryne. On top of that, they did a great job when Dortmund has the ball. It was an unfortunate defeat for Dortmund.

[Pulsar77]

Group B is in a really interesting condition. Club Brugge are the leader and Leverkusen are following them right behind. Atletico Madrid and Porto are in a pretty bad shape recently. It is really difficult to understand what's going on with Porto especially. They did a really great job against Atletico Madrid in Spain despite losing the match by the goals came in the stoppage time. But there was a completely different team against Club Brugge. They played like a farmers league team I mean.    Losing 4-0 home was too heavy and I wonder if they will be able to make up for this horrible start.

Before the group stage started I was thinking like Atletico Madrid would finish as leader and Porto would be right behind them. But the current look is completely the opposite. I don't think that Atletico Madrid would fail in qualifying from the group. But I doubt Porto about that. They need to collect as many points as possible against Leverkusen in the two matches ahead.

[laurenB7742]

Before the group stage started I was thinking like Atletico Madrid would finish as leader and Porto would be right behind them. But the current look is completely the opposite. I don't think that Atletico Madrid would fail in qualifying from the group. But I doubt Porto about that. They need to collect as many points as possible against Leverkusen in the two matches ahead.

I thought we'd see Porto and Atletico Madrid at the top of Group B. But Porto have lost both matches, while Atletico Madrid, who are third in the table, have lost one. Leverkusen and Club Brugge played well enough. I think Club Brugge will be able to qualify for the next round. Their performance in the first two matches bought was excellent. Also won the away match against Porto 4-0. I guess we'll see Club Brugge and Atletico Madrid in the round of 16.

[Daniel91]

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.

Personally, it seems to me that Milan has shown the most in this group so far and that they are deservedly first in the group.
Chelsea expect two very tough games with them and the winner of those two games will be the winner of the group, and the loser will fight to the end for the second place in the group.
Chelsea is still not playing at the top level, that's why I give a slight advantage to Milan.
This will be a very uncertain group until the end.

[Pokapoka124]

People are saying now that Manchester city are too reliant on haaland,what if he got injured, they wont do well again, am surprised why in football people has short memories, this same city has won the premier League three times in four years, they last reach the champions just last year and they have been scoring goals for fun before now,is shocking when people say bad words about this wonderful club under pep gaudiola, I just believe haaland will improve them even more.

I also believe Manchester City have been reliant on Haaland, he is a natural goal scorer, and has been outstanding this season. He comes to the rescue every time they face a tough opponent and it seems now that without Haaland Manchester City could lose some games they have come back to win because of the exceptional strikes from Haaland. Manchester City have really improved since Haaland's arrival.

[Pokapoka124]

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.

I think the team is just struggling at the main time and it happens to every team once in a while so let us not be so quick to write them off already. They need a little more time, they have a new manager now who hopefully will help improve the squad and bring in new ideas and new strategies to winning games, I believe we will see the impact of these changes in the team very soon. They will come back stronger.