[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Real Madrid have secured their 15th European Cup and they've never had it so easy.

No club has ever won the Champions League having lost their opening match, and BVB lost theirs to PSG.

Real Madrid are unbeaten in Champions League finals.

Real Madrid always won the tournament after knocking the previous winners out.

Since Valencia lost their Champions League final to Bayern in 2001, all European finals played by Spanish clubs were only lost when the other finalist was Spanish as well.

For over the past 30 years all Champions League winners have had at least one South American player, and BVB have none.

Finally, the previous two times Real Madrid faced a German club in the final they won.

You guys have no idea of how badly I want to be proven wrong.

This post has been edited by ContrarianMalazanReader: 09 May 2024 - 04:01 PM

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Congratutlations Atalanta on winning your first Europa League!

[Tsundoku]

Yeah ... we know you didn't want to come here so soon after the EPL season (as the coach stated in his press obligations), but if you're going to send your under-12 side out we'd rather you just said "No" in the first place and we'd all save time and money.

https://www.news.com...857cb5ad73ccf7b

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 24 May 2024 - 09:05 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

YEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!! Great end to a terrible season.

[Tsundoku]

Tiste Simeon, on 25 May 2024 - 04:06 PM, said:

YEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!! Great end to a terrible season.

And the double bonus is sticking it to Citeh.

Never thought I'd say I wish Arsenhole could have gone a bit better and won the PL, but there you go ...

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 25 May 2024 - 09:28 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

Yes I was rooting for Arsenal at the end there haha. Not saying it's a conspiracy or anything but like City's last 6 games or something were all London teams and it has been suggested that there was no way any of them would want to see Arsenal win.

I doubt it personally but it's interesting if nothing else.

[ContrarianMalazanReader]

Marco Reus has sealed his place in history as a perennial loser.

[Tiste Simeon]

Euros start next week! Of course the mood is one of "This is definitely England's year" and of course there will be a disappointment in that regard. That being said, Southgate has made some bold choices of who he is taking to the tournament so it shall be interesting to see how it goes...

[Mentalist]

oof

brutal opener. Ukraine has some decent talent, but the Romanian backline basically bowled over us. Defensive errors giving away easy goals didn't help.

Interesting tourney so far.

[Tiste Simeon]

That second Romanian goal was fantastic though!

[Mentalist]

Tiste Simeon, on 17 June 2024 - 04:12 PM, said:

That second Romanian goal was fantastic though!

Yeah, they played very strong.

Belgium continues to underperform, but I didn't see the whole game (will need to catch the replay).
The France game was a comedy of errors, and the ref made some terrible calls.

[Mentalist]

The 2 most entertaining mgames so far are Turkey- Georgia and Croatia - Albania. Just non-stop rollercoasters.

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm seeing a lot of commentary online about how this just feels like a much more quality tournament altogether and this is massively down to it being from an actual footballing country rather than, well, Qatar or Russia (you could argue the latter at least was a footballing country but in reality Russia got that tournament because of corruption).

I think there's merit to this argument! The atmosphere within the stadiums and just in general seems better and the football is perhaps generally better as a result.

Will England beat Denmark? They should but it's England so you never know!

[Macros]

I have money on a draw so one team will definitely win

[Mentalist]

Tiste Simeon, on 20 June 2024 - 04:16 PM, said:

I'm seeing a lot of commentary online about how this just feels like a much more quality tournament altogether and this is massively down to it being from an actual footballing country rather than, well, Qatar or Russia (you could argue the latter at least was a footballing country but in reality Russia got that tournament because of corruption).

I think there's merit to this argument! The atmosphere within the stadiums and just in general seems better and the football is perhaps generally better as a result.

Will England beat Denmark? They should but it's England so you never know!

After the Serbia-Slovenia game and seeing Slovenia's box covered with crap Serbian fans were tossing at the field, I'm not so sure about that atmosphere argument.

The quality of football is higher, b/c it's the Euros, and much higher percentage of players all play club football in the most expensive leagues.

[Tiste Simeon]

Macros, on 20 June 2024 - 04:42 PM, said:

I have money on a draw so one team will definitely win

Willing to share your new found wealth?

[Mentalist]

Of course we had to make another comeback to stay in the running. It can never be a simple game, has to be nerve-wracking, gut-wrenching affair, or it wouldn't be a Ukrainian national team's game.

Pleasantly surprised that Shaparenko can apparently run now. Dovbyk really isn't cut out for this type of competition, he needs loads of space, and no defensive squad here will give it to him.

Significantly less turnovers in front of our net, though I almost had a heart attack right before we stole it back for that 1st goal counter.

If Belgium manages to bounce back against Romania tomorrow, we will have a very dramatic group showdown.

At least I can say we are no longer tied for the worst performing team with Croatia.

[Mentalist]

Wow, the Magyars manage to squeek into 3rd place on the 100th minute. Condolences, Scotland.


If they make it through and we don't, I'll be slightly upset.

Speaking of which, Belgium beat Romania. Which means (apparently for the 1st time EVER in the Euros), after 2 games, each team has 3 points. Setting us up for a shit-show of Round 3 on Wed, as it's "do or die" for literally everyone.

[Tiste Simeon]

Yes I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the Ukraine group. It would be funny if Belgium went out and I have ties to Romania so I'd like to see them go through but hopefully it'll be some good exciting games.

[Tiste Simeon]

So weirdly England have qualified tonight despite no one in their group playing, due to the third place in the group thing. As in because Albania lost the England will definitely be one of the best placed 3rd position teams.

It's strange to me that out of 24 teams in the competition, 16 qualify to the knockout stages. It's harder not to get through!

I hope this means Southgate will put on a different team and try to change it up a bit.