2019/2020 UEFA Champion League Group Draw

[alka...@hotmail.com]

Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.
Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.
Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.
Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.
Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.
Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.
Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.

[alka...@hotmail.com]

On Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 1:01:43 PM UTC-4, alka...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.

1. PSG 2. RM

> Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.

1. BM 2. TH

> Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.

1. MC 2. Atalanta, Georgia

> Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.

1. Juve 2. AM

> Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.

1. LFC 2. Napoli

> Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.

1. Barca 2. BD

> Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.

1. Benfica 2. Leipzig

> Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.

1. Chelsea 2. Valencia

[Futbolmetrix]

On Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 1:01:43 PM UTC-4, alka...@hotmail.com wrote:

you beat me to it...

> Group A Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Club Brugge, Galatasaray.

Easy for PSG and Real

> Group B Bayern Munich, Tottenham Hotspur, Olympiacos, Red Star Belgrade.

Easy for Bayern and Spurs

> Group C Manchester City, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dinamo Zagreb, Atalanta.

Super easy for City. Interesting battle for second place, all three teams have a chance.

> Group D Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lokomotiv Moscow.

Tough group for Juve. But tougher for Atleti and Bayer. Juve and Atleti.

> Group E Liverpool, Napoli, Salzburg, Genk.

Easy for Liverpool and Napoli. Good set of games for Werner

> Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.

Group of death? I'll go for the shocker: Inter and Dortmund

> Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.

Group of life: Benfica and RB Leipzig

> Group H Chelsea, Ajax, Valencia, Lille.

Hmm...A potential banana slip for Chelsea, but they'll still make it through, together with Ajax.

SophCon predictions to follow

[Werner Pichler]

On Thursday, 29 August 2019 19:06:49 UTC+2, Futbolmetrix wrote:
>
>
> > Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.
>
> Group of death? I'll go for the shocker: Inter and Dortmund

Reaction of Slavia club representatives

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/cx3p4a/representatives_from_slavia_praha_cze_laughing_in/


Ciao,
Werner

[alka...@hotmail.com]

Funny, yes. But the truth is that Slavia weren't going to get out of any group, regardless of draw. At least now they host some pretty kickass players from around the world, including the very best. I'd be happy if I was them.

[alka...@hotmail.com]

On Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 1:06:49 PM UTC-4, Futbolmetrix wrote:

> > Group F Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Slavia Prague.
>
> Group of death? I'll go for the shocker: Inter and Dortmund

I was tempted to predict the same. But then I remembered that I saw Barca over the weekend, and how good Greizmann was. In tight games it's these special players that can pull a rabbit out of the hat, even if their team isn't playing well.

Barcelona now has 3-4 of these kind of players, even if they're not so scary anymore. So they should pull through.

Inter is a very interesting proposition with Conte. Very hard to predict how they will do.

[HD(noSpam)Beers@gmail.com]

Group H--for Here come the Yanks.

[Werner Pichler]

On Thursday, 29 August 2019 22:10:58 UTC+2, HD(noSp...@gmail.com wrote:
> Group H--for Here come the Yanks.

But that’s not the group of the first US Champions League manager.

Ciao,
Werner

[Jesper Lauridsen]

On Thursday, 29 August 2019 19:06:49 UTC+2, Futbolmetrix wrote:
>

> SophCon predictions to follow

First games are 9 days away.

Will there be Use the NT?

[Futbolmetrix]

Yes and yes. Stay tuned

[Werner Pichler]

On Thursday, 29 August 2019 19:06:49 UTC+2, Futbolmetrix wrote:

> On Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 1:01:43 PM UTC-4, alka...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>
> > Group G Zenit Saint Petersburg, Benfica, Lyon, RB Leipzig.
>
> Group of life: Benfica and RB Leipzig

...


Ciao,
Werner

[MH]

Back in the Autumn Alkamista was also dismissing Bayern as pretenders,
or something along those lines. Admittedly it did take a few months and
a coaching change, and some strategic injuries and redeployment of
players in new positions for them to get going in earnest.

I remember Benny crapping all over Bayern and the Bundesliga in general
within the last 18 months as well.

>
>
> Ciao,
> Werner
>

[Bruce Scott]

On 2020-08-16, MH <MHno...@ucalgary.ca> wrote:
>
> Back in the Autumn [...]

Yes, it is like that. I'm glad it is this way and not like all those
years where we were utter world beaters in October and then for one
reason or another crapped out in the Spring. We have a decent chance
this year, and even in our case they don't come around like this all
that often. But the same was true for Dortmund in 2013 and it is also
true for Leipzig now.

Covid-19 made a big difference. I don't think anybody reacted like
that with anything like the consequence the Bundesliga did. Of
course there are exceptions (Schalke, Hamburg, Dresden) but for the
most part we and RBL really got it into high gear after the break.
To a somewhat lesser extent, you can probably also say this for the
French teams. But the Spanish and Italians did not do nearly so well.

--
ciao, Bruce

[Futbolmetrix]

On Monday, August 17, 2020 at 4:38:09 AM UTC-4, Bruce Scott wrote:

> Covid-19 made a big difference. I don't think anybody reacted like
> that with anything like the consequence the Bundesliga did. Of
> course there are exceptions (Schalke, Hamburg, Dresden) but for the
> most part we and RBL really got it into high gear after the break.
> To a somewhat lesser extent, you can probably also say this for the
> French teams. But the Spanish and Italians did not do nearly so well.

Or, you know, having a long break between the end of the domestic season and the CL restart allowed French and German teams to recharge and focus, while playing twice a week until the very end drained the physical and mental energies of Italian and Spanish clubs.

(I'm actually loathe to make these arguments: a couple of balls bouncing in a different direction and we'd be talking about the importance of having been able to maintain "match-rhythm" throughout, versus those poor sods from Ligue 1 and BL who didn't have the "full 90" in their legs...)

[Mehdi]

On Sun, 16 Aug 2020 17:35:27 -0600, MH wrote:

> Back in the Autumn Alkamista was also dismissing Bayern as pretenders,
> or something along those lines. Admittedly it did take a few months and
> a coaching change, and some strategic injuries and redeployment of
> players in new positions for them to get going in earnest.
>
> I remember Benny crapping all over Bayern and the Bundesliga in general
> within the last 18 months as well.
>
>
>>
>> Ciao,
>> Werner

My criticisms of Bayern were their reliance on old farts Ribery and Robben.
This is a new look Bayern team, loaded with explosive, young players and
a rejuvenated Muller.

I think Bundesliga teams overreliance on playing a high line is (was) tactically
naive but today's game isn't about playmakers shredding defences with through
balls nor is the average forward intelligent enough to hang on the last defender
and wait for his moment, modern forwards are too busy pressing (apart from
Icardi).

[Mehdi]

I haven't seen the games live (they air at 3am in China) but some pundits
were making the point that French and German teams had more energy
than the teams from Spain, England and Italy. That's not the only reason
of course,

Juve are team of old farts so would have been knocked out in
the next round, Barca are also a team of old farts and, as we have seen in
recent years, prone to getting their shit defence smashed. Atalanta were
punching above their weight and missing Ilicic. The only inexplicable
result (on paper) was Man City losing to Lyon, but then Guardiola
shitting the bed in big European games has been a trend for almost a
decade so how surprising was it?

[Bruce Scott]

On 2020-08-17, Futbolmetrix <daniele....@gmail.com> wrote:
> (I'm actually loathe to make these arguments: a couple of balls
> bouncing in a different direction and we'd be talking about the
> importance of having been able to maintain "match-rhythm" throughout,
> versus those poor sods from Ligue 1 and BL who didn't have the "full
> 90" in their legs...)

Exactly. This is the argument the German press were making _before_
those two matches of Leipzig and Bayern. We might be rusty. Heavens!

--
ciao, Bruce

[Bruce Scott]

On 2020-08-17, Mehdi <v2m...@gmail.com> wrote:
> [...] but then Guardiola shitting the bed in big European games has

> been a trend for almost a decade so how surprising was it?

We can attest, though at the moment we've been quiet about it. People
talk about 2015 but the one we really remember was that Real M tie in
2014... the 0-4 at home after Goetze missed that sitter for the
possible 1-1 in Madrid. Pep changed the team around in panic, and we
know the result.

--
ciao, Bruce

[MH]

On 2020-08-17 07:21, Mehdi wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Aug 2020 17:35:27 -0600, MH wrote:
>
>> Back in the Autumn Alkamista was also dismissing Bayern as pretenders,
>> or something along those lines. Admittedly it did take a few months and
>> a coaching change, and some strategic injuries and redeployment of
>> players in new positions for them to get going in earnest.
>>
>> I remember Benny crapping all over Bayern and the Bundesliga in general
>> within the last 18 months as well.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Ciao,
>>> Werner
>
> My criticisms of Bayern were their reliance on old farts Ribery and Robben.

That, and your suggestion their defence was crap, and that they kept
signing injury prone players. I remember commenting that I kind of
liked what Bayern were doing in their recruitment, with some promising
young players and above all, with versatile players who could fit in in
a number of places. That versatility certainly helped when Sule,
Hernandez, Tolisso, Goretzka among others all went out with injuries.
But I certainly did not anticipate Alaba becoming a regular, and quite
accomplished, central defender.

> This is a new look Bayern team, loaded with explosive, young players and
> a rejuvenated Muller.

I don't know what Flick did or said with Müller, but it sure worked.