Champions League 2014–15

Liverpool qualify for the Champions League and they suddenly start crawling out the woodwork again. Here we go eh? :smiley-laughing002:

 

Seen that Porto beat Lille tonight, which means there is a good chance of the big three in Portugal all being in the group stage of the champions league. Portuguese teams really have performed incredibly in the last decade or so in Europe considering it's never considered one of the "big" leagues.

 

I fancied Lille to beat them as well.

I think if Porto and Arsenal get eliminated we will move up into Pot 3, should we advance of course.

Quite unlikely given the 1st legs, although it wouldn't have gave us that much of an advantage anyway as Pot 4 is just about as strong as Pot 3 this year.

 

We still wont be pot 3 even if they get knocked out and we go through we would need atleast 3 more teams that have a higher co-efficient to get knocked out

 

Pots, should the teams in the driving seat advance.

 

This is the likely seedings for the Champions League providing the teams that are in this still having to qualify actually qualify.

POT 1 - REAL MADRID / BARCELONA / BAYERN MUNICH / CHELSEA / BENFICA / ATLETICO MADRID / ARSENAL / FC PORTO

POT 2 - SCHALKE 04 / DORTMUND / JUVENTUS / PSG / SHAKHTAR / FC BASEL / ZENIT / MAN CITY

POT 3 - LEVERKUSEN / OLYMPIAKOS / CSKA MOSCOW / AJAX / NAPOLI / LIVERPOOL / SPORTING LISBON / GALATASARAY

POT 4 - ANDERLECHT / SALZBURG / AS ROMA / STEAUA / APOEL / CELTIC / BATE BORISOV / AS MONACO

Let's just say this ended up like it is. Best and worst draw for Celtic?

 

Benfica basel Lisbon/Ajax /bilbao would be the "easiest"

 

IMO my best and worst possible draws for Celtic & Liverpool.

Celtic....

BEST - FC PORTO / FC BASEL / SPORTING LISBON / CELTIC

WORST - REAL MADRID / DORTMUND / LIVERPOOL / CELTIC

Liverpool...

BEST - FC PORTO / FC BASEL / LIVERPOOL / BATE BORISOV

WORST - REAL MADRID / DORTMUND / LIVERPOOL / AS ROMA

That's in my opinion. Obviously others will think differently about Celtic's.

 

I'd want
Bayern Munich , Shaktar Donetsk (fancy a warzone), CSKA Moscow.

If they are drawn together (think UEFA are going to block that) it would be brilliant to watch

 

Cant have sporting Lisbon and porto in the same group

 

I want

Porto, Zenit, Galatasaray, and Celtic

 

Chelsea, Zenit, Ajax, Celtic for me. * off making friends.


:smiley-laughing002:. In all seriousness though, easiest would be Porto, Zenit/Basel, CSKA/Olympiakos, Celtic.

Can't have 2 Russian sides in the same group so yous can pick either Zenit/Basel then CSKA/Olympiakos. In reality, all 4 of those sides are probably at a very similar level anyway.

 

Zenit are a good team, think theyve scored about 18 goals in their first 4 League games this season, also won away to a decent team in their Qualifier. Have players like Garay, Witsel, Kerzakhov, Hulk and Rondon.

 

Think our easiets Group would be Porto, Basel and Olympiacos, Olympiacos I think have one of if not the worst European away records.

Olympiacos have only won 5 out of 63 away games in the European Cup/CL. In comparison we had won 5 away games in it by 1970.

 

They have good players, but they never seem to fully click. They should be miles ahead of us and the other teams I mentioned, but if we got them in a 2 legged tie in say the last 16, I would be relatively confident.

Also, they beat Torpedo Moscow 8-1, then scored 7 in 3 matches after, against weak teams still. They've beaten Ural, Torpedo Moscow, Ufa and Arsenal Tula. In 4 games, only Torpedo have won a game out of those sides and their win was against Ural :smiley-laughing002:.

They beat AEL in the qualifiers in the last round then won 1-0 away to Liege in the play-offs, but you'd expect that from Zenit anyway. They're a good side, just should be a lot better in my opinion. They'll get to the groups and do * as usual likely, weren't they the * who qualified with 6pts like the huns too? :smiley-laughing002:

 

Russian teams always play * at home in Europe for some reason, ive noticed it for years. Their home games always seem to look like friendlies(may be the cold weather) but the games always seem to be wide open with little to no atmosphere and played at snails pace.

No matter what Russian team it is all the games seem to look the same.

We even have a good record in Russia winning 2-0 against Dynamo Moscow, drawing 1-1 and winning 3-2 against Spartak there, so maybe it would be a good thing to draw one. The slow paced open games Russian teams always seem to have at home suit us.

 

Benfica
Basel
Olympiakos
Celtic.

 

Aye they really can be dreary games to watch. Zenit should've killed AEL though, they missed so many chances before scoring 2 late on I think to win 3-0. Watched it too but can't really remember :smiley-laughing002:. That's another thing about Zenit, they don't seem to be that clinical any time I watch them, create enough but even with their attacking players, they don't score as often as you'd expect.

Their stadium is * * too, just a small, open bowl with a * pitch. Petrovsky Stadium it's called if you've not looked at it before, brutal. There were plans to build a 68,000 seater or something called the Gazprom Arena but I'm pretty sure they pulled out so I don't know if they're going to go ahead with building it. Hope for their sake they do.

Just think that with some of the teams we could face, Zenit would be one of the "easier" ties, with all things considered, although on paper they should brush us aside.

 

Surely we're due a Battle of Britain?

we've played 7 CL teams in the last 2 years and none of them were English, despite them having I think the most teams in the groups (does any other country have 4 spots?)

Would love any English team but to get Chelsea and pump them would be delicious.

I'm with DerryBhoy, though I think he was joking, don't want all this happiness any more - * off Barca you nice *, give us some facking tasty nasty atmospheres!

Chelsea's headhunters with 10000 delirious *-sucking drunk huns running around the Gallowgate?

 

At least if we get there we wont get AC or Man U and can only get one of Benfica or Barca