[Tiste Simeon]

Morgoth, on 20 August 2017 - 01:53 PM, said:

At least my gamble on Pogba being better this season paid off.

Him, Bailly, Matic & Lukaku are going to be an epic team up this season.

[WinterPhoenix]

Loving the fact that Martial, Pogba and Lukaku have scored in both matches so far! Actually looking forward to United playing the Chelsea's and the City's for the first time in a long time. Manchester United 4-0 Vs Leicester next week

[Macros]

 IMG-20170824-WA0007.jpg (86.42K)
Number of downloads: 0

Tight enough for Spurs, but there's a solid enough chance of all 5 English teams progressing.
Celtic will be lucky to scrape Europa spot

[WinterPhoenix]

Tottenham will have to be alot better in Europe than they have been to escape that group I think, even with home and away wins over APOEL it will be tough. City and Chelsea should qualify in those groups for sure, as should United if the opening to the season is any indication - though with United in the post-Fergie years, who the fuck knows - and Liverpool have a very good shot I would say.

Celtic literally always get a 'group of death' scenario, of course it doesn't help that their seeding is always so low, genuinely believe that playing in Scotland with the relative lack of money, prestige and pulling power in terms of attracting players their ceiling is 3rd place Europa league spot or scraping though to the first knockout round in any given year. The SPL is pretty much a joke at this point, Rangers shouldn't even exist and they along with the rest of the teams - without meaning to be overly demeaning - are basically pub teams compared to Celtic now; Celtic will get nowhere playing for a pittance in a dead league unfortunately, with all their best players being poached by the premier league at some point or another, Wanyama, Van Dijk etc. I'm actually surprised they kept Dembele this season.

This post has been edited by WinterPhoenix: 25 August 2017 - 12:35 AM

[Tiste Simeon]

^umm what about the mighty Partick Thistle??

I agree about the CL draw. Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool shouldn't (theoretically) struggle too much and Spurs, well I think they *can* get through but it will be very tough.

Celtic have no chance.

But then again it's the CL and who knows? Liverpool could get thrashed 4-0 by Maribor. Here's hoping!

[Morgoth]

Goddamnit Kane!

[WinterPhoenix]

Tiste Simeon, on 27 August 2017 - 09:07 AM, said:

^umm what about the mighty Partick Thistle??

I agree about the CL draw. Chelsea, United, City and Liverpool shouldn't (theoretically) struggle too much and Spurs, well I think they *can* get through but it will be very tough.

Celtic have no chance.

But then again it's the CL and who knows? Liverpool could get thrashed 4-0 by Maribor. Here's hoping!

Lol, mighty indeed

Last season they not only went unbeaten (which interestingly enough means that Kolo Toure has been part of two invincible sides) but scored 106 goals and 106 points, records on both fronts I believe. They won every domestic tournament, making them truly unbeaten, and apart from them only 4 other teams actually scored more goals than they conceded. Aberdeen are about as close as they get to actual competition, I'm not sure exactly how you truly prepare for Bayern or Paris when you're weekly competition is just so far below. There's a reason that Swansea/Cardiff etc don't play in the Welsh leagues.

I'm with you on the Liverpool front though, nothing funnier than a Liverpool capitulation, well except maybe a Chelsea one but yeah. They did pretty well against Arsenal at the weekend though. Gotta see how this Coutinho saga goes I guess.

[Macros]

Didn't really miss him on Sunday though did they?

[WinterPhoenix]

No they did not that's for sure. They could do pretty well this season if they can keep teams on the back foot, their defence is pretty naff though in reality. Actually if they have a good run in the Champions League, it'll be interesting to see how it affects their league performance. Definitely think they need to get a defender in though.

[Morgoth]

Being an Arsenal fan was a lot of fun on sunday.

[Morgoth]

Chosing a captain for this round is proving to be a real challenge.

[Tiste Simeon]

Iceland might be going to their first ever World Cup! That makes me so happy!

[Tsundoku]

And Australia keeps finding ever more creative ways to shoot ourselves in the feet.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 08 October 2017 - 01:02 AM

[Mentalist]

Tiste Simeon, on 07 October 2017 - 09:58 PM, said:

Iceland might be going to their first ever World Cup! That makes me so happy!

Yeah, they're basically a shoe-in, barring Kosovo pulling a miracle. Even then, they've pretty much cemented second spot and get a playoff ticket.

Much more likely is that UA and Croatia will be fighting for that playoff spot. And Croatia is a clear favourite in that race: they may be out of form (they lost to Turkey at home, and then they allowed Finland a 90th minute equalizer, which is how they lost their 1st place), but Ukraine has a chronic lack of proper striker problem. Home-grown strikers get next to 0 playing time in Uki clubs, and this really ends up hurting the national team. We have solid D, decent midfield, and God-like wingers, but the lack of an accomplished striker means we are not actually good at scoring goals.

[Gorefest]

And the Netherlands is out again. Dutch football is in an abysmal state at the moment. After finishing 3rd in the last world cup we have managed to miss out on Euro 2016 and have now flunked out on WC 2018 as well (unless we beat the Swedes 8-0 in the next qualifyer.....yeah right). And it is no better on club level either. RIP Dutch football.

[Mentalist]

That was an absolutely phenomenal first half. But our failure to convert that amazing pressure into goals pretty much cost us the game.

Good luck to Croatia, b/c the playoff pairings are gonna be pretty brutal.

[Tiste Simeon]

Iceland are through! 😀

[Macros]

Hoping for a rematch in Russia Tiste?

[Tsundoku]

Australia beat Syria 2-1 at home to progress to the Intercontinental playoff round. Probably no further based on that performance, talk about "skin of your teeth".

Tim Cahill scored both goals from headers. Without him we'd be so much worse.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 10 October 2017 - 11:37 AM

[Mentalist]

Wow, goddamn Portugal sneaking into 1st place like that, lol

And it looks like Slovakia is gonna be the 2nd place missing out on playoffs from Europe.

So Sweden, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland (derby playoff, anyone?), Denmark, Italy, Greece, Croatia.

Very few potential match-ups here i'd be willing to call "one-sided"