With us and Chelsea likely to struggle, the English coefficient is going to really take a hit.
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With us and Chelsea likely to struggle, the English coefficient is going to really take a hit.
Benfica v Zenit.
How boring!
FUCKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
Dynamo Kiev v Man City.
And Benfica get Zenit. Sigh ......
Alexis to knock them out. :cloud9:
:haha:
The thing is no one actually thinks we will win this competition and if we did we'd have to beat Bayern, Real or Barca to do so.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
Apart from fixture congestion which we don't need what difference is losing to teams like Barca in the last sixteen or the semi final.
We got the easy draw last season and couldn't be bothered to take the first leg seriously so there you go.
The thing is no one actually thinks we will win this competition and if we did we'd have to beat Bayern, Real or Barca to do so.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
Apart from fixture congestion which we don't need what difference is losing to teams like Barca in the last sixteen or the semi final.
We got the easy draw last season and couldn't be bothered to take the first leg seriously so there you go.
Predictable draw, there's always next year!
I don't know why you (and everyone else) are so pessimistic about our chances in the CL. It's not necessarily the best team in Europe that win the thing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
A poor Chelsea side won it a few years ago, Liverpool won it, Juve got to the final last year, we got to the final .......... at the very least we should be doing better than getting constantly knocked out in the last 16. With some luck avoiding the big teams (and not choking like last year when that happens) we have the quality to make the semi's at least and from there anything can happen.
Fuck those pricks.
Who we got in the Quarters?
Yeah this, assuming we got an easier draw and progressed we'd have to face one of the big boys anyway. To be honest...I didn't really fancy our chances against any of the potential draws with the exception of Wolfsburg and Zenit and we were not certain of beating those two anyway. Barca is the hardest draw we could of got though, it won't be pretty watching us go to the Nou Camp and get torn a new one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
Anyway, I'll start the preparations for putting a curse on Neymar, Suarez and Messi. :pray::pray:
Hmmm...I think CL isn't as balanced as it use to be, Bayern & Barca are streets ahead of everyone else IMO, offensively they are both just too good, in fact both teams have amazing balance all over their squads.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
I'd love to be proven wrong but I see this draw playing out very similar to how we fared against Bayern in the group, I think we can beat Barca at home...but I think we'll get a real beating over in the Nou Camp.
P.S. FWIW, As it stands I think Bayern are the only team in CL that could live with Barca...so it's not like I am downplaying us.
It won't quite be the suffocation against Guardiola sides but it's going to be close.
Messi. :(
Bound to happen. Stepping up for that game wasn't the challenge. This is the one. Just annoyed that it's another Barca tie. Would have preferred Madrid. But saying that, we have nothing to fear.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
Oh don't get me wrong, I completely agree with you here; Barca and Bayern are streets ahead of everyone and we'll do well not to get massacred.Quote:
Originally Posted by selassie
However that's exactly why getting drawn to Barca right now is so depressing. Avoiding them and hoping that they faced each other in the Quarters or Semi's meant that you could have potentially only had to face them in a one off game where anything could have happened (see Chelsea in 2011).
Shall try and get a ticket hoping for another Arrrrrrrrrsssshavin! moment :cloud9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv2mxzmVvdg
I'd rather we get the big games early so we set the standard early for ourselves. But saying that....this is Arsenal. The springboard effect just doesn't work for us. We could beat Barca but go out in the next round to Zenit. :lol: But I hope we put on a show this year. We raised our game against Bayern and we can do it against Barca as long as we have the right team selection.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
When we have faced Barcelona in the past, i always looked forward to their games and gave us a chance, esp at home. This season however, we are facing a simply outstanding team, their attackm and midfield are so good and create so much that it will be tough for us to keep them quiet. I know we kept Bayern at bay at home this season but for me Barcelona are a better side, esp upfront.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
its the taking part that matters. it could have been worse, we could have been in the Europa league with a chance of winning it and think of all those extra games that players can get injured in. at least now we know we only have 2 more matches left.
Think Cech might need to play pretty well for us to come out of this with anything.
But the point is we have Cech. He's got experience of actually winning the thing and he's several steps up on what we've been going into these bigger CL games with in the recent past. I assume we'll actually play him.
You clearly haven't thought of the negative impact that will have on poor diminutive David Ospina have you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsene Wenger
For Shame
And what happened when Dortmund, Atletico and Juve got to the final?Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
We can say what we like about Chelsea being a "minnow" when they won it, a team that had splashed out on Torres and Mata...just because they pubbed their way to victory.
The point i am making is that if we want to win the competition we are going to have to play a team like Barcelona anyway, i don't think we have a good enough squad (in terms of depth) to be able to go for both that and the premier league....and i've got to the point where i think winning the premier league is a must....man city are inconsistent, chelsea are no where.....there is no hiding place, no excuse for us this time....
Bye bye Champions league, it's been nice knowing you. We're going to get thumped by this lot.
Neymar, Messi and Suarez against our lot will have a field day.
Simple answer, we're dogshite in Europe, we'll never beat one of the top teams in this competition with Wenger in charge because quite frankly we have a manager unable to upset the odds when it matters, everything is so predictable with us, there's just no "if" it's always when. Can't think of many other sides where you can predict the outcome and be so right so often, yes some weaker teams have won the CL, but they'll all had an air of unpredictability about them, we just don't and haven't for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Emirates Gallactico
Last 16 is our limit and it'll remain that way until Wenger finally moves on....in a decade.
With everyone expecting us to get mopped, I think the players will play out of their skins for this tie as they usually do when counted out in such a way.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
No chance of going through of course but it should be a fun tie.
No offcence but the standard of the league this season has been shocking it really has, one of the poorest PL seasons ever in terms of quality. Man City should be coasting but Pellegrini is really making a mess of it and Mourinho is having a mare this year. It's the best chance we'll ever have but in terms of competition there's not a lot which explains our position right now.....I still expect us to mess it up mind, I'm just explaining our false position if you like.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters To Santa
Looking at our performances this season we're nowhere near the quality that should be required to win a league, neither is anyone else fortunately, I don't think I've ever seen such a poor level of competition, Man U won it a few years back with a dogshite team too, but they had Ferguson who managed to raise the level of the players by 200% and performed miracles.
Wenger isn't even in the same universe as Fergie, but I still think that the team that wins the title should perform like champions and by all intents and purposes we're performing more like chumps.
I still see Man City winning this thing though as they have Aguero and we have Giroud, a world class forward vs a one dimensional average joe and that's a big advantage they have.
Should be good to watch Neymar is a brilliant player and Suarez despite being a bag o shite is top player, they're better to watch then before as they have better attackers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc Overmars
We'll do ok at home I reckon, Barca will dominate but we'll get a goal or two against the run of play and then people will suddenly believe we're the best thing since sliced bread, we'll then get thumped away however and come back to earth with a bump.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory
Then we'll falter in the league if we're still in with a chance.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. All that matters now is that we have a real go. I'm guessing the first leg is at the Emirates. Would be great if we got a win or draw before going to the Camp Nou. If we lose the first leg might as well send the kids to have a fun day in Spain for the return.
COYG`s
I'm going to look at this as karma for ballsing up the plum draw last year. You can't get that lucky twice.
Wasn't that much fun to be fair, we made a right pig's ear of the group stage and managed to turn it around but it should have been much more comfortable that it was.Quote:
Originally Posted by Globalgunner
Yeah best thing we can do is give it a go, but we all know that we're out of this, we can just watch this for entertainment value and a possible hard luck story at the end if we're lucky.
The heroic exit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Özim
:lol: Textbook. Ah well, it'll be fun watching it...possibly.Quote:
Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...
I'd rather face someone like Barca tbh. We'll almost certainly get knocked out but there's no disgrace there. We could do without the extra games and it will be 2 interesting games.Quote:
Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
At our best we can give them a game.
No disgrace no, but the fact we can predict that we're out whenever this happens IS a disgrace, teams like Liverpool, Chelsea etc have upset the odds in the past and yet we never seem to be able to.Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters To Santa
No team is unbeatable, it kinda depends how much you want something as teams have shown in the past and we use to as well (under George Graham as an example), we never want it enough or play like a team that really believes they can upset the odds, so naturally we can knocked out.
As is the norm, even against teams like Monaco.Quote:
Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory