Champions League 2017/18

[roman_bairn]

Lampard and Rio, fwiw, both saying it’s a dive.

[xj2011]

3 minutes ago, roman_bairn said:

Lampard and Rio, fwiw, both saying it’s a dive.

Yeah I think that puts it to bed really

Lineker saying they have been given for less, but that is about it

[Rab B Nesbit]

4 hours ago, Bishop Briggs said:

So only the minority of Lolverpool fans want to win trophies? If so, they should switch their support to Arsenal . 

Me too. 

Not at all. The majority are happy - and it’s fair to say they’ve seen a trophy or 2 over the years - with the progress being made under Klopp. 

1 hour ago, Grangemouth Bairn said:

Can you imagine Rab ? He might explode.

Not at all. Just delighted to be in the draw, 2 cracking ties to come in April let’s see what happens got nothing to lose  

[Rab B Nesbit]

I’ve been at Dalbeattie ... what were the Champions League scores tonight? 

[Bairnardo]

2 minutes ago, ali_91 said:

 

No, but 80% of them are. What a bizarre attempt at point scoring that is, your 'be everyone's friend,' persona is to be admired though.

 

LOL, fwiw I have now seen the incident and it's never a penalty. 

[Cerberus]

No way was that a penalty.

English people can't take getting gubbed.

[LinkinFighter]

Never a penalty and hoddle was embarrassing last night. The English champions lost 4-1 and he's saying they were the better team [emoji23]

[nsr]

So the quarter finals will feature the usual nonsense plus a couple of wild cards in Sevilla and Roma. And also Lolverpool, who really have no business being there.

[jagfox]

Just when you think Messi has ran out of records to topple he scores his quickest ever senior goal.

[Dullard Bluteau]

Chelsea is not an English team, it is a Harlem Globetrotters-esque outfit playing in London. Doubt if there are any English players there.

[Rab B Nesbit]

1 hour ago, nsr said:

So the quarter finals will feature the usual nonsense plus a couple of wild cards in Sevilla and Roma. And also Lolverpool, who really have no business being there.

The Imposters  

[lanky_ffc]

It's actually incredible the way these pundits manage to convince themselves (and probably a decent chunk of the English viewership) that their teams have played well and have been unfortunate. It's happened twice with Spurs against Juve and again last night with Chelsea. Having a lot of possession against sides who are in the lead for a large portion of the match and happy to defend or, in the case of Barca, playing in 2nd gear does not constitute a good performance.

Also had a good laugh at Hoddle being surprised at the way Barca were happy to concede possession and play on the break. They're a pragmatic side under Valverde and haven't played Pep's tiki-taka for a good few years. But of course he'd have known that if he watched them on a semi-regular basis...

[Rab B Nesbit]

1 minute ago, lanky_ffc said:

It's actually incredible the way these pundits manage to convince themselves (and probably a decent chunk of the English viewership) that their teams have played well and have been unfortunate. It's happened twice with Spurs against Juve and again last night with Chelsea. Having a lot of possession against sides who are in the lead for a large portion of the match and happy to defend or, in the case of Barca, playing in 2nd gear does not constitute a good performance.

To be fair to Spurs it was a close thing. I really don’t think we can claim up here to be any less sucked in by the pundits than they are down South. 

[lanky_ffc]

1 minute ago, Rab B Nesbit said:

To be fair to Spurs it was a close thing. I really don’t think we can claim up here to be any less sucked in by the pundits than they are down South. 

It was a tight second leg, but the hyperbolic nature of the punditry made it sound as if Spurs had been by far the better side over both legs.

[Peppino Impastato]

And juve genuinely should have been at least 4 or 5 up in the first leg before spurs scored their first.

[Guest DAVIDB69]

ESPN is always good watch with their panel show, burley laid into them despite being an ex player of theirs

[Herman Hessian]

1 hour ago, DAVIDB69 said:

ESPN is always good watch with their panel show, burley laid into them despite being an ex player of theirs

the analysis on the US channels - and BEIN for that matter - is miles ahead of the same tired old figures and their mindless tropes in the UK, as long as you can put up with the phraseology (mind - that Sunderland-supporting girl on BEIN can say whatever she likes...)

I think the whole "pundit" thing, especially on the BBC, is just so jaded - at least Sky and BT to a lesser extent have some different faces as studio guests to mix it up a bit - but the key to the US/BEIN delivery is enthusiasm - they seem genuinely pleased to see a decent game, or a piece of skill or a great save, and they talk about it like you would down the pub after the game (accents notwithstanding) rather than old men desperately trying to still appear relevant or, even worse, controversial; new broom required at broadcasting house - world cup should be the last hurrah for the current old guard, then put them all out to grass - or just shoot them, in hoddle's case; i couldn't give a f**k if martin keown thinks that harry kane could "probably do a job at any club in the world", or hear about the number of times that Roy Keane threatened to pull Robbie Savage's head off and shit in the hole ; old news - needs reworking from the ground up...

Couple of the AFTV blokes on MOTD would be great, maybe alongside Keane and Souness, as long as they had free rein to swear - and the BEIN sunderland girl, of course, maybe presenting from a bubble-filled bath in a luxury hotel suite, sipping champagne and getting increasingly risque as the programme wears on - would even make it worth while hanging around for West Brom's goalless draw with Palace just before the end credits if there was the chance of a nip-slip or cheeky side boob....

edit - here's the young lady in question - kay murray (my bad - she's a Boro' fan...)

[MEADOWXI]

1 hour ago, Herman Hessian said:

the analysis on the US channels - and BEIN for that matter - is miles ahead of the same tired old figures and their mindless tropes in the UK, as long as you can put up with the phraseology (mind - that Sunderland-supporting girl on BEIN can say whatever she likes...)

I think the whole "pundit" thing, especially on the BBC, is just so jaded - at least Sky and BT to a lesser extent have some different faces as studio guests to mix it up a bit - but the key to the US/BEIN delivery is enthusiasm - they seem genuinely pleased to see a decent game, or a piece of skill or a great save, and they talk about it like you would down the pub after the game (accents notwithstanding) rather than old men desperately trying to still appear relevant or, even worse, controversial; new broom required at broadcasting house - world cup should be the last hurrah for the current old guard, then put them all out to grass - or just shoot them, in hoddle's case; i couldn't give a f**k if martin keown thinks that harry kane could "probably do a job at any club in the world", or hear about the number of times that Roy Keane threatened to pull Robbie Savage's head off and shit in the hole ; old news - needs reworking from the ground up...

Couple of the AFTV blokes on MOTD would be great, maybe alongside Keane and Souness, as long as they had free rein to swear - and the BEIN sunderland girl, of course, maybe presenting from a bubble-filled bath in a luxury hotel suite, sipping champagne and getting increasingly risque as the programme wears on - would even make it worth while hanging around for West Brom's goalless draw with Palace just before the end credits if there was the chance of a nip-slip or cheeky side boob....

Hoping the current political tensions and diplomat expulsions sees a much cheaper and slimmed down coverage from a studio in London/Salford rather than what would probably be a custom made studio overlooking Red Sq with hundreds of BBC TV & Radio presenters, editors, commentators, co-commentators and flunkeys living it up at 5 Star license fee expense,

 

Let's see how excited Theirry Henry is about analysing Australia v France from Salford  at 11am on a Saturday morning rather than all expenses from Moscow.

[Herman Hessian]

14 minutes ago, MEADOWXI said:

Let's see how excited Theirry Henry is about analysing Australia v France from Salford  at 11am on a Saturday morning rather than all expenses from Moscow.

i hope they still go, but are housed in some sort of abandoned cold-war bunker - all bare concrete and lightbulbs hanging from a single cord, run from a battery that shearer has to power by constantly peddling a stationary bike in the background; no windows, all the on-line stuff is via a dial-up modem connection and put together like teletext with most of the content redacted, the intro is and old photo of an empty stadium held up to the camera with varying degrees of stability, in and out of focus, with some sort of military dirge as the music and the "telestrator" is a blackboard, awkwardly balanced on an upturned crate with rudimentary diagrams scribbled in different coloured chalk; Lineker scrawls "help us" on the board the end of the coverage of Peru v Denmark at which point the picture blacks out, leaving only the sound of scuffling, strident Soviet shouting, barking dogs - and two gunshots....

[MEADOWXI]

3 minutes ago, Herman Hessian said:

i hope they still go, but are housed in some sort of abandoned cold-war bunker - all bare concrete and lightbulbs hanging from a single cord, run from a battery that shearer has to power by constantly peddling a stationary bike in the background; no windows, all the on-line stuff is via a dial-up modem connection and put together like teletext with most of the content redacted, the intro is and old photo of an empty stadium held up to the camera with varying degrees of stability, in and out of focus, with some sort of military dirge as the music and the "telestrator" is a blackboard, awkwardly balanced on an upturned crate with rudimentary diagrams scribbled in different coloured chalk; Lineker scrawls "help us" on the board the end of the coverage of Peru v Denmark at which point the picture blacks out, leaving only the sound of scuffling, strident Soviet shouting, barking dogs - and two gunshots....

If they want that standard of coverage should just move the studio to Atlantic Quay and get the BBC Sport Scotland staff to run it.

Mind the Sport Scotland staff probably would struggle to be that good based on the current coverage of SPFL