Champions League 2018/19: A Visca Wanda

[Logan Mountstuart]

Bugger. Having recently watched a fantastic, Dutch documentary about Lobanowsky, I'd have liked Kiev to go through.

It also means 6 bloody evenings watching Ajax on the Ziggo fan club channel when I could have been watching some one interesting.

Grumpy from Amersfoort.

[Third rate Leszno]

Well, PSV look like they'll qualify too - if that's any less annoying than wall to wall Ajax?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Of the 29 teams in the group draw so far, the fifth most easterly are Napoli. I know the reasons for that are obvious, but I still think it takes something away from the romance of old competition when CSKA Sofia, Steaua, Red Star etc were all viewed as formidable hurdles.

[Kevin S]

In map form (looks like Napoli are sixth most easterly by the way, as there are two from Moscow):

[Kevin S]

Edited to include the Irelands, Cyprus and Iceland in my big red loop of failure.

Looks like there's room for another tournament here.

[3 Colours Red]

You may want to re-do that again, Kev... unless Oswestry Franchise are in the group stages.

[Third rate Leszno]

Crvena Zvezda could still cause you a re-draft if they dump Franchise Salzburg out tonight.

[Kevin S]

[ursus arctos]

Same with BATE, though they have a more difficult task against PSV

[Third rate Leszno]

Whopper of a banner down one side of the ground at PAOK that reads “Macedonia is one and only and it’s here”. Not helping them though, Benfica are 2-1 up despite going behind initially.

[Third rate Leszno]

Knackers, Benfica 3-1 up and that’s Liverpool getting dumped into pot 3, which from a purely selfish, nice-day-out-and-a-new-ground point of view means no chance of a trip to Schalke or Monaco and instead either a re-visit or a moody trip to Kiev or Naples.

[ursus arctos]

FWIW, Gelsenkirchen isn't really a nice day out kind of place.

Then again, you don't have to spend time there other than for the match.

PSV 2-0 up on BATE in another tie that is over.

[Third rate Leszno]

Goal back for Red Star, just after a fairly lively bit of handbags.

[Third rate Leszno]

Fuck me, 2 all - two in a minute!

[Third rate Leszno]

Well bugger me, Red Star have made the group stages. Amazing.

[Diable Rouge]

Whopper of a banner down one side of the ground at PAOK that reads “Macedonia is one and only and it’s here”. Not helping them though, Benfica are 2-1 up despite going behind initially.

Took against them for that alone, unsurprisingly the four Benfica goals seemed to follow its TV appearance. Surprising that Red Star have never been in the group stages - must have been Partizan who featured in the early 2000s.

[Wouter D]

FWIW, Gelsenkirchen isn't really a nice day out kind of place.

Understatement of the year.

If anyone finds themselves in Eindhoven later this year, perhaps we ought to have us a 'thon. I don't care about PSV, but I do live here.

[ursus arctos]

Here be the pots for tomorrow's draw

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Of the 29 teams in the group draw so far, the fifth most easterly are Napoli. I know the reasons for that are obvious, but I still think it takes something away from the romance of old competition when CSKA Sofia, Steaua, Red Star etc were all viewed as formidable hurdles.

But they were primarily viewed as formidable hurdles because they were fixing the matches, and out of their mind on radioactive steroid amphetamines. while most teams from more enlightened countries only indulged in one of these acivities at a time. Also back in the heyday of those sides, football was technically, tactically and physically not that far removed from sunday league football, but with psychotic violence, and it was really really white.

[Sporting]

I can't find it on youtube yet (the bods have been busy getting any uploads deleted) but did anyone else see the complete mess up which led to the penalty for Benfica's second goal? A misplaced back pass, goalie scrambles to keep it in, succeeds only in rolling it back into play whereapon a Benfica player steals the ball, but still at quite some angle from goal, only for the now panicked goalkeeper to bring him down. A set of mishaps on a par with Madrid's second goal against Bayern last season, if we're looking for other recent goalie mess-ups.

Penalty was nearly missed as well!

[Third rate Leszno]

Yes, saw that particular catastrophe, Sporting. Highly entertaining, if it hadn't turned the game in Benfica's favour.

Awaiting the draw with interest. Flight routes all plotted, dream draw and nightmare draw thought through (for the record, that'll be Bayern, Benfica and Plzen on the dream front, and Juventus, Shakhtar and Galatasaray on the side of the nightmares - although getting Crvena Zvezda out of pot 4 and drawing them as our first away trip would be a different kind of nightmare, as their first home game will be behind closed doors). Now just got to sit anxiously for 4 hours until the fixture order is released and then start hammering the credit card with various airlines.

[Satchmo Distel]

Bit harsh on Liverpool, who beat Man City (Pot 1) just a few months ago. OTOH domestic champions should clearly be in Pot 1.

[Wouter D]

OTOH domestic champions should clearly be in Pot 1.

Agreed. And Pots 2, 3, and 4.

[Satchmo Distel]

Or only have one pot - domestic champions, unseeded

[Wouter D]

Or only have one pot - domestic champions, unseeded

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