Rope A Doper: Champions League Group Stage 2020-21

[Toby Gymshorts]

.....aaaaaand they go 1 up thanks to a decent cross and some dozy defending.

Firmino, Jota and Fabinho replace Origi, Salah and Wijnaldum.

[Jon]

0-2, rodrygo scores with his first touch.

[Patrick Thistle]

Not seen 4 subs at the same time before.

2-0

[Patrick Thistle]

Gomes looks a more than decent player

[Toby Gymshorts]

More utterly useless defending.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Oh, hang on, Robertson came on as well.

[Patrick Thistle]

Mrs Thistle woke up on the sofa, asked who was playing and thought I said Liverpool versus Atlantis. "What, the under the sea people?"

[Satchmo Distel]

Webbed fingers are good for goalkeeping.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Liverpool have played like shite, and that scoreline is exactly what they deserve out of it.

[Patrick Thistle]

Klopp looked utterly deflated at the end.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Well, it means he has to put a side out to do a job against Ajax in the middle of a pretty hectic run of games. Not sure that was what he had in mind.

[Patrick Thistle]

I liked the Atalanta shirts tonight. Forgot to mention it earlier.

[Satchmo Distel]

I'm starting to wonder if Klopp's complaining about injuries is affecting the players who are still fit, who must still have cost a lot more money than Atalanta's XI. Atalanta also have a congested programme, not just Liverpool.

[imp]

A pretty dominant first half for Madrid, despite many players out. It's 0-1, a hazard penalty, but the main talking point of the half has been Vidal completely losing his shit after getting a yellow card only to receive a second yellow. Even then it took him some three minutes or so to finally leave the pitch. Earlier on, BMG thrashed shakhtar Donetsk and top the group.

I can't find a single match report that engages with the question about whether or not Vidal was actually fouled. To me it looked like he definitely was, and this was the sort of penalty that VAR should have given after close examination. But when Vidal screamed at Taylor, and then got (correctly) sent off after continuing to scream, despite a yellow card already having been thrust in his face, did VAR bottle the call? That is, it would look pretty bad for the officiating team if a player gets sent off for protesting a decision, and then that decision is overturned.

[ursus arctos]

Repubblica's match report says the contact was very similar to that given earlier as a penalty to Madrid.

La Gazzetta is more equivocal.

[imp]

It's odd that some reporters are so opinionated about certain penalty calls, but go all quiet when something doesn't appear to be so clear-cut, like they don't want to be in the minority. The kicker play-by-play commentary on Tuesday described the penalty given for Manchester United as "a very, very hard decision", even though Rashford was clearly charged at from the side - 100% nailed-on penalty call (though I needed the behind-the-goal camera to confirm it after the first look). Their match report later, though, described the call in neutral terms. It does emphasise how tough penalty calls are for referees, and why in such cases VAR is a worthwhile thing - provided it's consistent, which in Vidal's case it clearly wasn't.

Also interesting was the Salzburg goal at Bayern. VAR took an age to give it, even though the scorer looked slightly offside when they stilled the replay. They've stopped drawing the lines across the screen, which I think is a good thing. If they've also stopped cancelling out goals like this that may have been offside by a toe-nail, then that's also a good thing.

[Patrick Thistle]

I didn't realise VAR was in use in Champions league games. I think I'm lucky because I don't recall it being used in the (few) games I've watched.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's odd that some reporters are so opinionated about certain penalty calls, but go all quiet when something doesn't appear to be so clear-cut, like they don't want to be in the minority. The kicker play-by-play commentary on Tuesday described the penalty given for Manchester United as "a very, very hard decision", even though Rashford was clearly charged at from the side - 100% nailed-on penalty call (though I needed the behind-the-goal camera to confirm it after the first look). Their match report later, though, described the call in neutral terms. It does emphasise how tough penalty calls are for referees, and why in such cases VAR is a worthwhile thing - provided it's consistent, which in Vidal's case it clearly wasn't.

Also interesting was the Salzburg goal at Bayern. VAR took an age to give it, even though the scorer looked slightly offside when they stilled the replay. They've stopped drawing the lines across the screen, which I think is a good thing. If they've also stopped cancelling out goals like this that may have been offside by a toe-nail, then that's also a good thing.

They still use the lines on the screen. They used them in the lead up to the rashford penalty. What's wrong with them? The camera usually isn't looking straight down the line of play, and that can be seriously misleading

[imp]

They should look at the picture for no more than five seconds, without lines, and if it's not clearly offside to the naked eye then the goal should stand, because the linesman will not have made "a clear and obvious error". Cancelling out goals for millimetre-marginal infringements is against the sprit of the game and the purpose of the offside law, as well as contradicting the stated purpose of VAR (see previous sentence). And it depresses/infuriates me every time I see it happen, which is the main reason they should stop it.

[Diable Rouge]

Every likelihood now of a first-ever Real group stage crashout.

[ursus arctos]

Don't jinx it, please

[Third rate Leszno]

Liverpool giving Caoimhin Kelleher a debut* in goal tonight as Alisson is out with a 'tight muscle' (there'd been a rumour doing the rounds locally that he had Covid). Big vote of confidence in the lad to put him in ahead of Adrian.

(*debut in a proper game, he's had a couple of starts in weakened teams in the domestic cups)

[Diable Rouge]

And boosts his case in terms of future Irish caps, to boot.

[EIM]

Liverpool giving Caoimhin Kelleher a debut* in goal tonight as Alisson is out with a 'tight muscle' (there'd been a rumour doing the rounds locally that he had Covid). Big vote of confidence in the lad to put him in ahead of Adrian.

(*debut in a proper game, he's had a couple of starts in weakened teams in the domestic cups)

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/s...159842304?s=19

Queev!

[Toby Gymshorts]

I mean, my half-Irish Mrs pronounced it that way, so...

Anyway. For my birthday Real Madrid got dumped out of the competition. So that's nice.