Champions League Last 16 Draw 12/12, 11am GMT.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Group winners: Arsenal, Napoli, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Monaco, Borussia Dortmund, Leicester City, Juventus.

Group runners-up: Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Manchester City, Bayern München , Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid, Porto, Sevilla.

We can play: Can play: Bayern, Benfica, Leverkusen, Real Madrid, Porto, Sevilla.

:popcorn:

[Niall_Quinn]

We can play: Can play: Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern, Bayern.

:popcorn:

:gp:

[GP]

Madrid pls.

[Niall_Quinn]

Madrid pls.

So we can go head to head with Miguel the "German" Ref in Spain? No thanks.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Wouldn't mind Bayer Leverkusen, haven't played them in years. Last time we played them, the likes of Michael Ballack, Ulf Kirsten, Dmitar Berbatov, Oliver Neuville, Bernd Schneider etc playing for them.

They had the Teutonic Tom Baker in Klaus Toppmoller as their manager.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

I know Madrid would be a glamour tie but I'd much rather save that for the semi's or god hoping, the final. I'm sick and tired of going out of the last 16 and we kind of need to progress far if we want to demonstrate to the likes of Alexis and Ozil that we're going to be serious players in Europe now.

Give me boring any day as long as we progress.

Arsenal vs Benfica, Leverkusen or Porto please with Barca vs Bayern as well would be excellent.

[Marc Overmars]

Real Madrid please.

Bayern. :sick:

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Tuned into SSN for the draw only to remember that they don't have CL rights anymore so they're pretending it doesn't exist. :doh:

It's on BT Sports 2 btw.

Stream - http://sports4u.live/channel/bt-sport-2-live-streaming-online-hd-free-2/

[LDG]

Not sure I'm that bothered.

Would be nice if we got a kind draw.

EDIT: fucked that up.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Ruud Guillit doing the draw. :unsure:

Chelsea scumbag isn't going to do us any favours.

Bayern it is then.

[Kano]

Man City v Monaco

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Monaco vs Man City

Not bad for them.

[Kano]

Real Madrid v Napoli

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Real vs Napoli

Yes we avoid them. Now Bayern pls!

[Kano]

Benfica v Dortmund

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Benfica vs Dortmund.

Damn.

[Kano]

Bayern drawn...

[Kano]

Bayern v Arsenal

:haha:

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Bayern vs ARSENAL


FUCK OFFF!!!!

[The Emirates Gallactico]

:haha::haha::haha:

What a fix.

Fuck off Guillit!

[Niall_Quinn]

The shattering predictability of being an Arsenal fan. There's just no let up. Ever.

[Kano]

Porto v Juventus

[Kano]

Leverkusen v Atletico

[Munchies]

fuck! :haha:

[The Emirates Gallactico]

FFS they're a bit more vulnerable this year .......... but still, fucking hell.

What a joke.

[Niall_Quinn]

So I guess we can post the match report now as well?

[LDG]

:haha:

[Kano]

PSG v Barcelona

[Kano]

Sevilla v Leicester

[The Emirates Gallactico]

PSG vs Barca :lol:


Not that finishing second would have done us any favours either. :lol:

[Niall_Quinn]

PSG vs Barca :lol:


Not that finishing second would have done us any favours either. :lol:

They had us covered all ends up.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

that's our season screwed

[GP]

So who do we want in the quarters?

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Hoping playing at home in the second leg will actually be useful for a change.

Get a score draw there and somehow stumble over the line.

[Power n Glory]

What bullshit.

[Kano]

FFS they're a bit more vulnerable this year .......... but still, fucking hell.

What a joke.

Fourth time in five seasons :doh:

It's more the boredom of it than anything else. At least we did our part of topping our group. But they look more beatable than previous seasons, so I'll go into it with a more positive mindset.

[LDG]

What a shocker eh? Nobody could have guessed it.

[Niall_Quinn]

If, FOR JUST THIS ONCE, we go into the second leg without having totally fucked up the first, you never know.

[Niall_Quinn]

So who do we want in the quarters?

Bayern.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Fourth time in five seasons :doh:

It's more the boredom of it than anything else. At least we did our part of topping our group. But they look more beatable than previous seasons, so I'll go into it with a more positive mindset.

I just remembered that Ancelotti is managing them now. He's like the king of Cup competitions. Does poor in the league (relative) but always does well in the cups. :doh:

Yeah that's us out then.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

If, FOR JUST THIS ONCE, we go into the second leg without having totally fucked up the first, you never know.

Yeah. We have to simply just STAY in the tie after the first game and we have a shot. Can't be losing by more than one goal.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I don't care about the draw in of itself because i don't think we will win the champions league anyway, but an easier draw would have lended itself to better form in the league.

We are the embodiment of a confidence side and for me there is no hint of coincidence that we lost at old Trafford four days after playing Barca.

This time potentially we could end up having to play at Anfield or St Marys after playing Bayern.

[Gooner23]

At least we can now focus on winning the league :woohoo:

[Kano]

I just remembered that Ancelotti is managing them now. He's like the king of Cup competitions. Does poor in the league (relative) but always does well in the cups. :doh:

Yeah that's us out then.

They lost to Rostov in the group stage and Atletico (more expected) and I don't see this as a gimme in the slightest it we are still going well in the league and the team hasn't been decimated by injuries. Going away first helps a lot, so come out of that with a draw and we're in a strong position.

[Munchies]

Winner of arsenal/Bayern plays Barca too

Fuck it :lol:

[The Emirates Gallactico]

i don't think we will win the champions league anyway,

Don't know why people keep saying that.

Poorer Chelsea and Liverpool teams than us have both pubbed to CL wins with favourable draws and lucky results. We can do the same but sadly it seems that we have zero luck in the CL.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Winner of arsenal/Bayern plays Barca too

Fuck it :lol:

ehhh? That's not been decided yet or has it?

[Kano]

There's a draw for the QF.

[AFC Leveller]

Get a draw or a narrow defeat there (must score away goal) and bring them back to our place and do the business.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Don't know why people keep saying that.

Poorer Chelsea and Liverpool teams than us have both pubbed to CL wins with favourable draws and lucky results. We can do the same but sadly it seems that we have zero luck in the CL.

The competition is a pass the parcel affair between Real, Barca and Bayern and that's how it's going to be for some time.

We don't have the guile to fend off such teams we just don't. What we might have though is maybe the ability to get our nose in front of managers who are relatively new to the English premier league and wing our way to the title. But because under Wenger we are a confidence side and there is simply no compartmentalisation between league and European form, this could be a fatal blow to those hopes.

[Munchies]

ehhh? That's not been decided yet or has it?

oh sorry my bad, a mate just told me that (probably as a joke) and I believed him knowing our luck!

[LDG]

There's a draw for the QF.

Yeah.

It's not at all obvious who we'd get if we made it through.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

True. Given our shit luck we would probably get the winner of PSG/Barca in the next round, if we did somehow manage to progress.


Anyway, in a year when:

- Leicester won the league
- Brexit happened
- Donald Trump was elected US President

it's good to know there are some things that will never change ..... Arsenal vs Bayern.

I look forward to going out to them in the last 16 next year as well.

[Kano]

Hopefully Santi has been put back together by then too.

[Niall_Quinn]

Yeah.

It's not at all obvious who we'd get if we made it through.

That's what makes it so much fun, the unpredictability.

[Marc Overmars]

What an absolute joke.

[Özil's Panoramic View]

I know Madrid would be a glamour tie but I'd much rather save that for the semi's or god hoping, the final. I'm sick and tired of going out of the last 16 and we kind of need to progress far if we want to demonstrate to the likes of Alexis and Ozil that we're going to be serious players in Europe now.

Give me boring any day as long as we progress.

Arsenal vs Benfica, Leverkusen or Porto please with Barca vs Bayern as well would be excellent.

I don't get your bit of logic here. Shouldn't it be Alexis and Mesut, along with rest of players, busting balls to prove the team are serious players in whichever comp?

[LDG]

I remember getting laughed at for saying it was all a fix a few years back.

[Letters]

So I guess we can post the match report now as well?

I'll judge the tie after it's finished :sulk:

[Letters]

I remember getting laughed at for saying it was all a fix a few years back.

Was it a fix 2 years ago when we got Monaco? :shrug:
Are you suggesting there's a UEFA-wide scheme to stop Arsenal progressing in this competition? I don't think Wenger needs loads of help in that regard.

[Marc Overmars]

I'm sure PSG and Barca have been drawn together a shit load of times too.

[LDG]

Was it a fix 2 years ago when we got Monaco? :shrug:
Are you suggesting there's a UEFA-wide scheme to stop Arsenal progressing in this competition? I don't think Wenger needs loads of help in that regard.

When you have seen with your own eyes the widespread corruption in football, it's not really a leap is it??

This isn't about Arsenal. It's not set up to stop Arsenal, per say. It's fixed so greedy corrupt people can get there hands on lots of lovely cash.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

It feels like a fix because we know we have an inability to get past these sides when it really matters.

We have been drawn against Bayern in knock-out competition three times before and the nearest we have come to getting past them is the away goal aggregate defeat

Played them 10 times in European competition

Won 3 Drawn 2 Lost 5 times

Goals For: 11
Goals Against: 17

[AFC Leveller]

It feels like a fix because we know we have an inability to get past these sides when it really matters.

We have been drawn against Bayern in knock-out competition three times before and the nearest we have come to getting past them is the away goal aggregate defeat

Played them 10 times in European competition

Won 3 Drawn 2 Lost 5 times

Goals For: 11
Goals Against: 17

Apart from that 5-1 loss last season I don't think the games have been that one sided, esp at our place. We usually do well at home and fuck up away.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Apart from that 5-1 loss last season I don't think the games have been that one sided, esp at our place. We usually do well at home and fuck up away.

They may not have been but ultimately when it comes down to it, they have that bit more than us. They have always comfortably got past us when they need to, the 3-3 away goal defeat was an outlier and really after we scored to make it 2-0 Bayern didn't look under threat of not going through, it was more that they didn't know how to manage the game after winning 3-1 at the Emirates (where the scoreline belied actually how one sided it was).

They are a better side than us to begin with, and they have more character in the side than we do.

[Power n Glory]

We've experienced beating Bayern home and away. We just need to do it over one tie. We can pull this off.

[AFC Leveller]

They may not have been but ultimately when it comes down to it, they have that bit more than us. They have always comfortably got past us when they need to, the 3-3 away goal defeat was an outlier and really after we scored to make it 2-0 Bayern didn't look under threat of not going through, it was more that they didn't know how to manage the game after winning 3-1 at the Emirates (where the scoreline belied actually how one sided it was).

They are a better side than us to begin with, and they have more character in the side than we do.

I agree that they are a better side and have more experience then us but I can't help but feel that individual mistakes have also been a factor in our losses. If we can keep it tight over there and not make silly mistakes then the return leg will be set for us.

[Marc Overmars]

We'll probably get knocked out but hey ho, you have to face these kind of teams at some point if you have any designs of going far.

Lets hope the 2nd leg at home can swing it in our favour this time.

[Letters]

When you have seen with your own eyes the widespread corruption in football, it's not really a leap is it??

This isn't about Arsenal. It's not set up to stop Arsenal, per say. It's fixed so greedy corrupt people can get there hands on lots of lovely cash.

I'm sure there's corruption going on but people only mention it being a fix on here when we get a difficult draw.
I'm not sure how Arsenal drawing Bayern instead of an easier side serves the purposes of those who are fixing the draw.

[Letters]

It feels like a fix because we know we have an inability to get past these sides when it really matters.

We have been drawn against Bayern in knock-out competition three times before and the nearest we have come to getting past them is the away goal aggregate defeat

Played them 10 times in European competition

Won 3 Drawn 2 Lost 5 times

Goals For: 11
Goals Against: 17

So you think it's anti-Arsenal?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

So you think it's anti-Arsenal?

No i don't think it's a fix at all, I said it feels like one.....the same way when bad things happen you can feel that events are conspiring against you, but in actuality it's just the way things go mixed in with your own reaction to it.

[LDG]

I'm sure there's corruption going on but people only mention it being a fix on here when we get a difficult draw.
I'm not sure how Arsenal drawing Bayern instead of an easier side serves the purposes of those who are fixing the draw.

I said it was a fix when the draw didn't include Arsenal. We were already out by that stage.

[Bumble]

at least we avoided Barca. so that's a plus. Bayern aren't as dominant as they once were. And as long as we learn that we don't need to go chasing a win and leave ourselves open then there is a decent chance we can progress. 0-0 at home isn't a bad result.

[Goonermerree]

:haha::haha::haha:

[fakeyank]

I dont think Bayern will be as dominant against us as compared to how they were under Flop Guardiola. I still think we will get beat, and thats a good thing because that means we just have 2 games left in Europe. We can then concentrate on solidifying our top 4 status in the league.

[Kano]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

[Letters]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

Wenger Out!

[The Emirates Gallactico]

I don't get your bit of logic here. Shouldn't it be Alexis and Mesut, along with rest of players, busting balls to prove the team are serious players in whichever comp?

They can bust their balls and the entire team can play at 100% and we can still get beat by Bayern and go crashing out of the competition in the last 16 for yet another year, which is further going to diminish our standing and prestige among the European elite.

At least let us get to the semi's for a change before we crash out to Bayern/Barca/Real.

[GP]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

You're not pretty to look at.

[fakeyank]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

Southampton should be easy...

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Not to really go deeper into the "fix" stuff, but for Kano and the others that watched it live ........ didn't you find it odd that Guilit would have seen which balls went into the bowl? With only 4/5 balls it wouldn't really that hard to track a couple of them either as you could tell which balls for each club from the bowl the other guy was selecting them from.

I'm not saying he definitely deliberately kept a mental note on the Arsenal ball to pick that one but it was pretty interesting that they switched the camera angle away once the other guy was putting the balls into the bowl.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

No not at all, I think the only positive is that we aren't playing either Southampton or Liverpool directly after playing Bayern which would be a massive problem for us.

Even if we get smashed by Bayern the first leg we have the FA cup as a cushion before the Southampton game.

I think we can infer from that, that the Liverpool game will most likely be a Saturday lunchtime fixture.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

Tough but we do have a deeper squad this year round. Would be nice if we also had everyone back (apart from Welbeck) as well.

Hopefully we also have an easy FA Cup game at home to relieve the pressure (assuming we get past Preston).

[Marc Overmars]

Fixtures around the time of these games:

4/2 - Chelsea (A)
11/2 - Hull (H)
15/2 - Bayern (A)
18/2 - FA Cup 5th Round
25/2 - Southampton (A)
4/3 - Liverpool (A)
7/3 - Bayern (H)

That's not pretty to look at.

The fixture list normally gets ugly at that time of year. It's where it normally all goes tits up for us, let's hope that's about to change.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The fixture list normally gets ugly at that time of year. It's where it normally all goes tits up for us, let's hope that's about to change.

I think playing three competitions at once tends to disagree with us.

Wenger will try and go for all of them and end up with either none of them or the least important one (the fa cup)

Now obviously there is no question of playing a weaker side against Bayern Munich but the league has to be the priority, there can be no players being rested for any league game.

[Kano]

The fixture list normally gets ugly at that time of year. It's where it normally all goes tits up for us, let's hope that's about to change.

Although our strength has been away from home which puts a different spin on things. It's at home where we need to be more ruthless.

[The Emirates Gallactico]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzePyw_W8AAefLB.jpg:large

:rolleyes:

Same shit, different year.

No wonder CL viewing figures are declining. They've either got to implement a rule where you can't play the same team you did last time in the last 16 or drop the condition of no teams from the same countries not being allowed to play against one another.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Although our strength has been away from home which puts a different spin on things. It's at home where we need to be more ruthless.

I think we can only really put that premise to the test when we actually play decent sides away from home

The only decent sides we have played away from home this season are PSG and United and we flunked both miserably, we were just let off the hook.

I agree that against mediocre/poor sides we look better away from home because there is more space for us where as they are going to sit with 11 men behind the ball at the Emirates.

[Letters]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzePyw_W8AAefLB.jpg:large

:rolleyes:

Same shit, different year.

No wonder CL viewing figures are declining. They've either got to implement a rule where you can't play the same team you did last time in the last 16 or drop the condition of no teams from the same countries not being allowed to play against one another.

The thing is, the way European football is set up keeps the same teams up there year on year, mostly. Teams like Barca, Bayern and Dortmund will pretty much always qualify and we always do too (Wenger :bow:) so it's not that big a surprise that we keep meeting the same sides.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

UEFA have made it worse somehow for this because all the top non-champions teams end up in Pot 2 at the Group Stage. :lol: