Ballo-Toure cost us 4.2M.

Tonali cost us 20M, Bennacer 16M. Kjaer we all know was a particular case, at 30 years old.

So yes, a 24 year old player that costs you 4M, from a team like Monaco that is well known to overcharge for their players, cannot be anything else but a fucking dud.

Football is made of episodes and luck. You've been watching it for over 20 years, it shouldn't be me to tell you that.

And I do accept the limitations of our roster, but it would be narrow-minded to ignore all other factors.

Everyone blaming the ref today for not giving foul on Bennacer during the goal.

I honestly didn't see it live mostly because I didn't really care at that point due to how horrible we were, but re-watching the images, yes, there is a clear foul of Taremi on Bennacer. An identical foul I hear was given by the ref in Atletico-Liverpool.

Oh well, it's just not our year in the CL...

I think the referee yesterday was horrible. Irritating and unbalanced, but almost every decision was in our favor. We danced near a second yellow for a few times as well.

Look, I don't think we have a chance in CL. It's different for Sheriff who have absolutely zero pressure and can go down 0-6 easily at home and nothing happens. On the other hand Milan are still a fragile and young team and the mental balance is necessary if we want to achieve something more then last season. Look at Conte and Inter who managed to get eliminated in the group stage and concentrated on the scudetto instead.

Football also changed. In our times once a team from Italy, Spain, Germany or England was in the quarter-finals everything was possible. Every year you had a new champion. Defending the title was virtually impossible.

Now the gaps between say Real Madrid or Liverpool and say Milan or Inter are enormous. You have teams like Real or Liverpool dominating and crushing opposition in quarters or semis even with a big margin. While in the 90's and in the 00's it was still possible to win the CL or go out in style for teams like Ajax, Porto, Deportivo or PSV, nowadays it is almost impossible if you ask me. And the new regulations, like the 5 subs rule go also in favor of the big clubs.

As much as it is fun watching Milan play every Tuesday and Wednesday Euro-football again, it's just a nuisance. We have a good team for Serie A, but we're inexperienced as hell in CL and this will only serve as a nice experience for the young players and Pioli. But we had no chance. No referee is at fault, no hard group was drawn, it just come down to experience. We showed in 3 games exactly 3 different shades of inexperience and inadequacy.

I completely agree with you, but you cannot say no hard group was drawn or no referee is to blame, because it's simply not true.

You think we wouldn't have had it much easier if we were drawn with Lille, Sevilla and Salzburg in Group G? And do you honestly think we deserved to lose against Atletico had not Cakir fucked us over?

Let's just take this season in Europe as a learning lesson, win the league, strengthen the squad with a few real quality signings, and then aim to go as far ahead as possible next season.

It was a bit soft imo the push on Benna. He was also looking for it. Ifelt like the players didn't really push as hard as they would have tbh. Those last 30 minutes were a real drag. The players know that it's practically impossible to go through now. They know we have a golden opportunity in the league. And while no pro player ever goes into a game with the mindset of not wanting to win. The body language was very clear yesterday

As I said before this game was even played. The CL atm is feeling like a huge nuisance. 'm much more excited by the league games right now, and given our injury situation these extra games are going to cost us points in the league.


I agree totally until you go to your last point.

The facts are there. Against Atletico we were totally screwed over. Once that happened I started to think this CL endeavor was going to become a chore for us. Not because I don't think we have the quality. We showed against Atletico that we're good enough to compete with our first 11 side (didn't even have that against Atletico, but that's probably as close as we've been to having a full squad this season). Circumstances have just conspired against us. Against Liverpool we were outplayed but managed to go into HT leading, that shows we have character a resiliency. Against Atletico we should have won that game hands down had the ref not decided to tip the scales. Yesterday we were bad but look at our squad. That's our biggest weakness, we don't have quality in the rotation. I think for Serie A it's good and will do the job most days, in the CL it's another level, and we struggle when we lose the first string

The CL group we couldn't have gotten a worse one, let's be honest here. Look at Man U, always getting sh!tty groups and still they struggle to get out of them. Had we had a similar group to United we would go through imo as we've shown we have the quality, just not of a super team like Liverpool or the strength in depth to compete when half our starters are out


As you said, this year's CL is a good chance to gain experience. Of course there are going to be growing pains and moments when our lack of experience will show. But going out in the groups will be good for our bid for the title imo. Especially with our medical team (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I'm pretty sure the team entered the pitch with the mentality and objective to win the game and pass the group. I'm certain. Look at things. If we had won, we'd be 1 point behind 2nd place Atletico.

What really made the difference last night, and what made the players give up was simply the gap in quality between both sides. It became quite clear after the first half that Porto was the far superior side.

As you said, we simply don't have the bench to compete on these levels. Lose a couple of starters who don't have good substitutes, and our whole game plan goes to shits. Especially if those two players are Theo and Brahim, both of whom are vital for the way we play. Ballo-Toure and Krunic are pathetic replacements.

Oh no, I didn't say we set out not to win, but in the 2nd half it was clear that we didn't put in the usual effort.

Even our press was half hearted

Bruh, the same Atalanta side we dominated two weeks ago are demolishing ManUtd 2-0 at Old Trafford at half time. And I know ManUtd are not exactly a superb side right now, but it's not like Porto are Bayern themselves either.

Man, why couldn't we get Man U and Barca instead of their respective counterparts??

Our luck this season has been non-existent.

Porto game aside due to many different factors I think we can compete with many CL teams (aside from the super teams like Livepool, Bayern and City). We ran all over United last season with a demolished squad. We didn't go through because we were once again f@cked over by the ref on that non-existent handball.

Ah, yes,... referees practically took that away from us as well...

Well, if you watched the games, they sorta did. ManUtd had nothing on us, and their shitty goal at San Siro came from a Dollarumma blunder.

We can compete only with our best starting XI available.

Speaking of which, say what you want, but right now Rebic > Giroud and Zlatan as CF.

Last 7 goals conceded by us:

Nonexistent penalty in favour of Atletico
Nonexistent penalty in favour of Atalanta
Invalid goal of Atalanta due to foul
Legitimate goal from Verona
Nonexistent penalty in favour of Verona
Invalid goal of Porto due to foul

6/7 shouldn't have stood. Just putting it out there...