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

[joker_josue]

Xavi's obsession with Spanish players will be his downfall. I don’t understand the favoritism. Just because they build a Spanish national at Barcelona and succeeded doesn’t mean he can replicate that. I think it's all over for Barcelona, Xavi is bias in his selections and that costs him yesterday.

The problem is not just him looking to have Spanish players. The problem is that he continues to insist on a tactical scheme that no longer works, as it used to and was designed for a specific set of players. Then, due to a set of bad management, Barcelona does not have the capital it should have to make good investments, so it ends up having to resort a lot to the players of the formation. These players may even become great players, but they are not yet.

[borovichok]

Xavi's obsession with Spanish players will be his downfall. I don’t understand the favoritism. Just because they build a Spanish national at Barcelona and succeeded doesn’t mean he can replicate that. I think it's all over for Barcelona, Xavi is bias in his selections and that costs him yesterday.
You have players like De Jong and Kessie who are more experienced but yet chooses to play Gavi and Pedri all the time, even in decisive games that winning is important.

I find it hard to believe what xavi risk in playing those two ahead of well established internationals, I was asking my younger bro if kessie and De Jong were injured before they came on in the second half, if it was not a decisive game in the champions League I would understand but you can't keep players with more experience and can deliver you on the bench and try your luck with kids, I pray is not going to be the reason for his downfall, because such thing happened at Chelsea few years back when Frank lampard never give a little boy mason mount break in the starting xi ahead of better senior colleagues and we all knows how that turns out.

[Pulsar77]

Dembele's selfishness is just killing me. Maybe he scored a goal anyway but wasted many chances also. Especially one of them was unbelievable. If I'm not wrong he had Raphinha on his right side while they were on a counter-attack. If he passed the ball to Raphinha it was going to be an easy goal but he used the chance himself instead and failed. Barcelona must be just grateful for Inter players to waste critical opportunities in the final moments of stoppage time. They could have even lost this match.

The ending of the Napoli - Ajax match was a little dramatic actually. Because Ajax still had a chance to find the equalizer while it was 3-2. But Blind's shocking defensive mistake helped Osimhen score the 4th goal very easily. Ajax are just a desperate team defensively now.

[tokeweed]

^  It's not 'selfishness', it's judgement during the heat of the moment.

^  Mou does that...  That guy could find a way to outfox the better squad.  It won't pass the eye test because it def will not look good but it's effective to get the W.  Lol.

Anyway, I'm watching City vs FC Copenhagen and bored out of my wits as I got no bet in the match.  And Haaland isn't even playing.  Some of the other match ups are pretty much so so too except for maybe Dormund and Sevilla which could be interesting.  But AC Milan vs Chelsea could be a good one.  What do you guys think of BTTS at 1.85?  

If you bet on both teams to score then this match is very unlucky for you. To tell the truth, I also thought of betting on that because of being quite logical. I thought that Milan would be much more effective in San Siro. This was one of their very important and tough matches in the group at the same time.

However look at the current condition of the match now. Tomori got a red card due to holding very early in the match. This was enough to push them into a difficult situation. Chelsea have been able to benefit from this chance great so far as they are in the lead by 2-0. Milan have only one shot in the second half which wasn't even on target. Milan are having another nightmare. If the matches in the group end up with current scores then Milan will be in third position being 2 points behind Salzburg. It'd be a big waste if Milan don't manage to qualify for last 16.

Yeah..  I was hopeful I'd hit it until the end but no.  It seemed like an easy bet to make before the match started as in the league, at home AC Milan's opponents has never had a clean sheet against them.  I thought it would be the same vs Chelsea.

And AC Milan's league record isn't all that bad too even though there are some pundits who are calling them a fraud.  Just three points behind the leader Napoli and they have just one loss so far.  Goal differential is at decent -9.  Overall not bad.

[KTChampions]

The problem is not just him looking to have Spanish players. The problem is that he continues to insist on a tactical scheme that no longer works, as it used to and was designed for a specific set of players. Then, due to a set of bad management, Barcelona does not have the capital it should have to make good investments, so it ends up having to resort a lot to the players of the formation. These players may even become great players, but they are not yet.

This. I have been writing about this since Xavi came to Barcelona and was even able to start well at first. I immediately wrote that such a Barcelona has no future and as a Real Madrid fan I am calm with such a competitor  But apparently Barcelona decided to go to the very bottom - their financial results are already terrible, and sports resalts will gradually become so (the first stage in the form of the Champions League can be said to have already been completed).

[Yawa2020]

Xavi's obsession with Spanish players will be his downfall. I don’t understand the favoritism. Just because they build a Spanish national at Barcelona and succeeded doesn’t mean he can replicate that. I think it's all over for Barcelona, Xavi is bias in his selections and that costs him yesterday.
You have players like De Jong and Kessie who are more experienced but yet chooses to play Gavi and Pedri all the time, even in decisive games that winning is important.

- Zidane won 3 Champions Leagues in a row
- If Xavi is eliminated this year, he will have 2 consecutive eliminations. Everyone has their record. Barcelona deserve the conference league. Even Europa's intensity is more than them.
Xavi's Spanish favouritism is killing Barcelona. De jong is far better than Bisquet but just because he is not Spanish he is on the bench.

[emrecemsan]

This. I have been writing about this since Xavi came to Barcelona and was even able to start well at first. I immediately wrote that such a Barcelona has no future and as a Real Madrid fan I am calm with such a competitor   But apparently Barcelona decided to go to the very bottom - their financial results are already terrible, and sports resalts will gradually become so (the first stage in the form of the Champions League can be said to have already been completed).

I wouldn't be that much confident about that honestly.  

Because Barcelona are playing different in the La Liga and Champions League. We see them being much more effective when it comes to defending in the La Liga. Besides they are still the leader there as well despite having the same points with Real Madrid. In addition, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 4-0 in Bernabeu while they were under Xavi's management last season. Hence I'd rather wait and see before being sure of anything.

The story is ending for Barcelona in the Champions League I'm afraid. They don't deserve next stage while having serious defensive issues. As this will wound them financially they must focus on winning the La Liga title completely from now on.

[KTChampions]

This. I have been writing about this since Xavi came to Barcelona and was even able to start well at first. I immediately wrote that such a Barcelona has no future and as a Real Madrid fan I am calm with such a competitor   But apparently Barcelona decided to go to the very bottom - their financial results are already terrible, and sports resalts will gradually become so (the first stage in the form of the Champions League can be said to have already been completed).

I wouldn't be that much confident about that honestly.  

Because Barcelona are playing different in the La Liga and Champions League. We see them being much more effective when it comes to defending in the La Liga. Besides they are still the leader there as well despite having the same points with Real Madrid. In addition, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 4-0 in Bernabeu while they were under Xavi's management last season. Hence I'd rather wait and see before being sure of anything.

The story is ending for Barcelona in the Champions League I'm afraid. They don't deserve next stage while having serious defensive issues. As this will wound them financially they must focus on winning the La Liga title completely from now on.

It looks like that victory over Real Madrid will be Barcelona's only trophy for the coming years and I will hear about it 100 times more 
Barcelona have a good record in La Liga only because there have not yet been serious games against strong opponents. Barcelona got all their victories over obvious outsiders. And if you remember last season, then under the leadership of Xavi, something like this happened: a good series of games, then failures, relegation from the Spanish Cup, the Champions League, the Europa League 

[el kaka22]

I honestly believe that Barcelona wasn't ready for continental cups just yet with them being better just for this season alone. I mean it’s understandable that the roster looks like they could beat Inter easily, but the fact is that the roster was built very recently, which means it’s understandable for them to not be great just yet.

I personally think that the better method would be them not understanding how some things works, and that is why they are not doing as well as they could. If Xavi stays for another season, which I think he will, even with the exact same roster they will be much much better next season because the team will have time to get used to each other.

[CLS63]

Xavi would stay at Barcelona for a long time as long as he makes the team champions in the La Liga in the worst case. Barcelona management would expect some success in the Champions League as well but they aren't making this happen this season as it seems. They need some kind of a miracle to qualify from the group now. Inter would definitely finish off Plzen and guarantee advancing to next stage.

It has been all about the choices indeed. Xavi could have made better choices for the midfield indeed. Players like Gavi and Pedri are of course very talented and promising. But if you have more experienced players you should prioritize them in Champions League matches. This makes you get closer to wins in the biggest arena in football.

[lalabotax]

The problem is not just him looking to have Spanish players. The problem is that he continues to insist on a tactical scheme that no longer works, as it used to and was designed for a specific set of players. Then, due to a set of bad management, Barcelona does not have the capital it should have to make good investments, so it ends up having to resort a lot to the players of the formation. These players may even become great players, but they are not yet.

Spanish players or players from other countries are no problem as long as they meet the proper quality. Unfortunately, many Spanish players in Barcelona squad are no longer in their best shape. For example; Pique, Busquets, and Sergi Roberto. Xavi must eliminate them from Barcelona squad. About the tactic used by Xavi, I think it is debatable whether it still works or not. Xavi many times won with his tactic during this season, which means the tactics still work. The problem may be with the player composition or the lineups.

[nurilham]

I won't repeat what I said about Barca game in other thread, but shortly - it hurts. Celtic scored first against Liverpool, but final result 1:7 shows that you shouldn't mess with Liverpool.

Barca have tried hard and optimally, they also played very well, but on the other hand Inter also played very epic. Both showed a strong big club performance. With this draw, Barca will remain at number 3. Moreover, Barca will face Bayern while Inter will face Viktoria Pizen. Statistically, INter is most likely to win. Here, Barca's position is really difficult and threatened not to qualify for the last 16 standings. However, we'll see how it turns out later.

[Pulsar77]

^  It's not 'selfishness', it's judgement during the heat of the moment.

Frankly I don't think that it is about the heat of the moment for Dembele.

Because this isn't the first time he is playing like that. He has always been adopting this playing style since the day he joined Barcelona. If he continues to play this much selfish then Barcelona might be harmed on the road going to successes. He is a skilled player definitely and he has the potential to carry the team in important matches. But he needs to get better with his choices in-game. He shouldn't waste so many goal opportunities this easily. Maybe he could have played an important role in a win against Inter but it didn't happen.

[masulum]

Barca have tried hard and optimally, they also played very well, but on the other hand Inter also played very epic. Both showed a strong big club performance. With this draw, Barca will remain at number 3. Moreover, Barca will face Bayern while Inter will face Viktoria Pizen. Statistically, INter is most likely to win. Here, Barca's position is really difficult and threatened not to qualify for the last 16 standings. However, we'll see how it turns out later.

Barcelona still has a chance in the 2nd leg later. We can't see that Barca will definitely fail to advance to the knock-out stages. Because, their appearance in La Liga has shown a positive trend. With all the problem that Barcelona have, they currently have a solid team. Only 3 points behind Inter, this is not the end considering there are still 2 matches left. There could be a surprise in this week 5 & 6.

[borovichok]

In every past champion's league you can guess the winners from their group stage not all the times though but majority season the winners has started performing exceptionally at the group stages,this season's will have such teams, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Napoli and real Madrid. Manchester City for me this season seems like the season for pep, the players are ready and have a strong competition within them to achieve this, and they have a world class striker thats breaking record upon record everytime he enters the pitch. Napoli and Bayern are doing great too, while real Madrid are always in the mixed.

[RockBell]

In every past champion's league you can guess the winners from their group stage not all the times though but majority season the winners has started performing exceptionally at the group stages,this season's will have such teams, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Napoli and real Madrid. Manchester City for me this season seems like the season for pep, the players are ready and have a strong competition within them to achieve this, and they have a world class striker thats breaking record upon record everytime he enters the pitch. Napoli and Bayern are doing great too, while real Madrid are always in the mixed.

This season is different and from the group, the stage is even becoming difficult to predict who would believe that Napoli would be stopping the table and Liverpool following behind Liverpool's performant is very poor this season compared to last season, with Napoli leading Liverpool with 3 points and Liverpool leading Ajax with 6 points and Liverpool will be playing against ajax on 26 Oct time 20:00 my hands are tight to make a prediction on this one and Napoli vs Rangers the same day the same time and Napoli will use Rangers to count more point, Rangers the last match against Liverpool ended 7:1 and now facing Napoli is not going to be an easy game.

[Joca97]

In every past champion's league you can guess the winners from their group stage not all the times though but majority season the winners has started performing exceptionally at the group stages,this season's will have such teams, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Napoli and real Madrid. Manchester City for me this season seems like the season for pep, the players are ready and have a strong competition within them to achieve this, and they have a world class striker thats breaking record upon record everytime he enters the pitch. Napoli and Bayern are doing great too, while real Madrid are always in the mixed.

Well when it comes to the knockout faze anything can happen. Man City was considered the favorites last year but Real Madrid surprised them in the final minutes and this was a huge shock. Every year we consider other teams as favorites but Real Madrid just swoops in and takes the title. Hopefully PSG and Man City step up this season.

[lalabotax]

Barcelona still has a chance in the 2nd leg later. We can't see that Barca will definitely fail to advance to the knock-out stages. Because, their appearance in La Liga has shown a positive trend. With all the problem that Barcelona have, they currently have a solid team. Only 3 points behind Inter, this is not the end considering there are still 2 matches left. There could be a surprise in this week 5 & 6.

Although Barcelona has a positive trend in La Liga, it doesn't guarantee to win in UCL. In the next match, Barcelona will play against Bayern Munich, it is the strongest club in C. Bayern Munich wants to secure their position at the top table, so they will try all out to get 3 points. So, they won't give a chance for Barcelona to steal points. Even if the match will be held in Barcelona home, Bayern attackers look still too strong for Barcelona defenders. This makes me doubt that Barcelona to win it.

[CLS63]

Juventus are in a really bad condition in the Champions League and the Benfica match up next is going to be their silver lining. If they somehow manage to beat Benfica in Portugal the point gap will be only 2. But there is going to be only one match left at the same time. Let's say Juventus beat PSG in Turin, I don't know if Benfica would lose points against Maccabi Haifa. Benfica's match is going to be away against them but in this case Maccabi Haifa won't have any chance left for the Europa League from a realistic point of view. So they wouldn't make big difficulties for Benfica I mean.

Juventus will even need to get better than Benfica in head-to-heads as well so it is a very difficult job to do. We'll see them in the Europa League most probably. Besides I don't think that there would be such thing like they wouldn't care about the Europa League unless they improve their form in the Serie A and enter top 4.

[Daniel91]

Barcelona still has a chance in the 2nd leg later. We can't see that Barca will definitely fail to advance to the knock-out stages. Because, their appearance in La Liga has shown a positive trend. With all the problem that Barcelona have, they currently have a solid team. Only 3 points behind Inter, this is not the end considering there are still 2 matches left. There could be a surprise in this week 5 & 6.

Although Barcelona has a positive trend in La Liga, it doesn't guarantee to win in UCL. In the next match, Barcelona will play against Bayern Munich, it is the strongest club in C. Bayern Munich wants to secure their position at the top table, so they will try all out to get 3 points. So, they won't give a chance for Barcelona to steal points. Even if the match will be held in Barcelona home, Bayern attackers look still too strong for Barcelona defenders. This makes me doubt that Barcelona to win it.

In fact, Bayern have already secured passage to the knockout stage of the Champions League, and this game does not mean much to them.
On the other hand, Barcelona has almost no chance to make it to the knockout stage of the Champions League, as Inter will not miss the chance to beat Victoria in the next round and secure a place in the knockout stage of the Champions League.
In the matches against the strongest teams of the group (Inter and Bayern), Barcelona won only 1 point in 3 matches and deservedly loses the chance to continue the competition in the Champions League.
Barcelona will once again, like last season, be eliminated from the Champions League already in the group stage of the competition and only qualify for the European League. Another big disappointment for their fans.