Football (Soccer) Thread

[The Larch]

Final CL Groups:

- Group A

Man City
PSG
RB Leipzig
Brugge

- Group B

Atlético Madrid
Liverpool
Oporto
Milan

- Group C

Sporting Portugal
Borussia Dortmund
Ajax
Besiktas

- Group D

Inter
R. Madrid
Shakhtar Donetsk
Sheriff Tiraspol

- Group E

Bayern
Barcelona
Benfica
Dinamo Kiev

- Group F

Villarreal
Man Utd
Atalanta
Young Boys

- Group G

Lille
Sevilla
RB Salzburg
Wolfsburg

- Group H

Chelsea
Juventus
Zenit St. Petersburg
Malmoe

[celedhring]

Really though grup for us, particularly given our sorry state.

As usual, Real Madrid get a joke.

[The Larch]

Really though grup for us, particularly given our sorry state.

Come on, you should still have more than enough to get over Benfica and Dinamo Kiev.

As usual, Real Madrid get a joke.

That is true, their figurative flower in the ass is evergreen.

[Duque de Bragança]

Just said that in the previous page but it's nice to have people not primarily interested by the Primeira Liga repeating it. 

I remember reading your post about the game and the CL qualifiers, but don't remember the part about the UEFA rankings, did you edit that later? 

That means among other things the UEFA rating of Portugal for clubs (coefficients) is now higher than France. All hail the new 5th top league in Europe! 

I added the detailed rankings later.

[Duque de Bragança]

Group of Death for Porto?  The only one with no CL titles is Franco FC n°2 Atlético Madrid, the third biggest in Spain, with plenty of other European cups to compensate.
It's true Milan is only a shadow of what it was but they are back to the top. Liverpool needs no introduction.

Well, I guess Ligue des Tas lents gets to be the Fifth Top League again, possibly even before the round of 16. Given Porto has been the heavy lifter for Portugal in the CL for the past years.
Benfica even managed to get no points in 6 games some years ago, equalling the feat of the Olympitre of Marseille. 
Sporting has not played the CL for a while, and I can't remember them qualifying for the round of 16. Not even getting relegated to Europa League would be still a disappointment.

Lille got an easy draw but I would not be surprised if they got thrashed given the coach and many key players left. Still, PSG will blast his way through quarters at the very least. Short of semi-finals it would be a disappointment with Neymar and Messi.

[Duque de Bragança]

As usual, Real Madrid get a joke.

That is true, their figurative flower in the ass is evergreen.

Shaktar Donetsk beat them twice last year however during the group phase, but yeah Sheriff Tiraspol...

[The Larch]

As usual, Real Madrid get a joke.

That is true, their figurative flower in the ass is evergreen.

Shaktar Donetsk beat them twice last year however during the group phase, but yeah Sheriff Tiraspol...

For me the true luck for them was getting Inter as their A cup team, as it's much weaker than the team that won Serie A last year.

[Admiral Yi]

Young Boys?

[The Larch]

Young Boys?

Swiss team, from Bern. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSC_Young_Boys

Ground:   Wankdorf Stadium

[Sheilbh]

Needless to say they always cause much hilarity here

[Duque de Bragança]

Needless to say they always cause much hilarity here

Still eager to prove Edith Cresson was right about Anglo-Saxon people or what? 

She also said, discussing the sexual activities of Anglo-Saxon males, "Homosexuality seems strange to me. It's different and marginal. It exists more in the Anglo-Saxon tradition than the Latin one."[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Édith_Cresson

[Sheilbh]

I mean "Wankdorf" sounds like the Queen swearing

[Duque de Bragança]

As usual, Real Madrid get a joke.

That is true, their figurative flower in the ass is evergreen.

Shaktar Donetsk beat them twice last year however during the group phase, but yeah Sheriff Tiraspol...

For me the true luck for them was getting Inter as their A cup team, as it's much weaker than the team that won Serie A last year.

Real luck (no pun intended) would have be drawing Lille. Much weaker than the team that won the much weaker Ligue des Tas Lents last year.

[Duque de Bragança]

On that Scotland's model of only two good teams and two teams in Europe sort of works.

Which more or less is the same model that Portugal and the Netherlands uses, but with three teams in those cases.

Portugal is not just the big three since one or two of the big three (*cough* Benfica *cough or Sporting) would fail spectacularly. It's true Braga does what it can in the Europa League and I can't blame Vitoria Guimarães for not going farther, at least they are trying and still caused problems to Arsenal last year.
France with only the PSG performing very strongly regularly, whereas in previous years Monaco, Lyon or even Marseille would join the fun once in a while, is not enough. Smaller clubs just seem to don't care about European cups such as Europa League and I'm not too optimistic for the new Conference League, of even lower standing.

[clandestino]

Sporting has not played the CL for a while, and I can't remember them qualifying for the round of 16. Not even getting relegated to Europa League would be still a disappointment.

I believe they did it once before being trashed 12-1 aggregate by Bayern. Moutinho was still at Sporting. It seems it was in 2009.

Not a bad draw I believe, got one of the best possible draws from pot 2, a reasonable one from 3 (at least it's not Atalanta or Leipzig) and one of the worst from 4, but hey at least it's from the last pot.

I believe it will be an even group and Sporting has around 30% chance to pass the group and maybe 50% to finish in 3rd. Not bad.

On the other end, both Porto and Benfica groups seem terrible.