Herrera is a great pr1ck.
#FutureCaptain
Totally agree, but I don't think that will stop them this summer. They seem to be after some combination of De Gea, Mbappe, Hazard and pretty much any other big name player going.
I could understand a new keeper, maybe a striker as Benzema looks like he might leave.
Yeah, that's Real, only going for the best players. Mbappe replacing Benzema would be epic, that kid has crazy potential. Personally I'd like De Gea and Hazard to stay, they are one of the biggest EPL stars and now that league needs more of them, not less. It just wouldn't be good if all the best quality is in only 3-4 clubs in Europe. Biggest competitions could become monotonous in the future for that reason and nobody wants that.
I see similarities between Juve's run and the one of Arsenal back in 2005-06. The Gunners only conceded two goals in the competition going into the final and none in the knockout stages. Juventus so far have conceded only two goals and still none in the knockout stages. Juve's run without conceding is shorter but maybe more impressive since they held MSN and Barcelona in both games and Monaco, the team who has over 100 goals this season, more than anyone else, at Monaco's ground. It would be the ultimate test to deny Madrid, the team that nobody kept a clean sheet against this season. I am sure Juve won't bend over or anything but past history of the clubs doesn't make me optimistic.
Plus offside rules don't apply for Real so that's another thing Juve has to worry about.
Don't jinx it, I am having ideas about it since Skopje isn't too far from my city.
When you think about it, Pogba (and Manchester United) will be trolled pretty hard if Juventus win the Champions League less than a year after he left, and winning Europa League wouldn't make it any easier. Some of his Facebook posts have trolling pics from Juve supporters in the comments. The EL logo dabbing made me laugh when I first saw it.
I don't rate mid-table Spanish teams as indicator of a strong line up for a European Semi-Final. Nor do I think a team of kids from what is now a pretty poor league no matter how technically good some of the players are, are strong finalists. Frankly a team in fourth place in another fairly poor quality of League being another one.
Everyone but Man Utd fans can see that this is not a great standard of semi-finals. You got lucky, just accept it and enjoy it.
It's not the Champions League, it's the Europa League. You have to lower the standards. Fourth in France is the highest place for EL qualification, any higher and you're going to CL. After all, Lyon descended from CL group stages to here, while the French league leaders played a CL semifinal tonight. Better continental contribution this year than Germany, as well as Italy and England (unless Juve and Man United respectively go all the way, then it's not). I do think it would have looked better if there was Bilbao instead of Celta and Roma/Tottenham instead of Ajax (even though there are some compliments I can give to Celta and Ajax
) so in that sense the draw turned out easier than it could have been. But this is a second tier competition. Second tier teams from best leagues and best teams from second tier leagues are here, sometimes combined with some huge team that underachieved and ended up playing on Thursdays as a punishment. More variety, more unpredictability. Can you answer this, would you have called the draw weak if there were teams like Benfica, Porto, Sporting, Shakhtar, PSV, Basel or Fener in these last few stages (semi/quarter) instead of the ones that have been there this season (Schalke, Anderlecht, Besiktas, Ajax, Lyon, Celta, Genk)?
I totally admit there is a part of me that might be trying to make it sound like Manchester have a tougher task than they really do and that there is easily an excuse for not winning it, but it's not a formality either. This is 90% Manchester United's fault for hardly ever giving confidence though. A trophy and a half and a long unbeaten run in the league are probably the only positives. Comical wastefulness and now injury issues means it's getting quite complicated. Do you have a prediction for the 1st leg played in Celta since we've been talking about EL many times now?