Two months? Oh God, that's a shame. But he'll be back for the semis, that is, if the pass.

No, no semis either. Only an eventual CL final. His season is almost over.

Goddammit!

You care that much?

I do. I'd like an Italian team to be in a final again.

Great draw for Juve, should be able to go through without much hassle.

Would have liked to see something different in the other ties though. It feels like we're watching the same games over and over again each year


Same, but I simply do not see Juve making it once they face an actual European powerhouse which they've so far avoided

Amazing how easily everyone dismissing Monaco AGAIN after they rather humbled Arsenal in the last round!

Don't you learn?!

They weren't all that humbling in the second leg.

That first leg was just Arsenal being Arsenal. The second leg Arsenal played them off the pitch and were very unlucky not to go through imo

I think Juve have more than enough in their squad to get past them

Losing 0-2 at home is not that humbling. It was similar to how we beat Arsenal 4-0 in 2012 and then got thrashed 3-0 in the return leg.

Yeah, it's usually a sign of weakness and kind of an signal that you're ready to be kicked out.

Agreed


I think Juve shouldn't have a problem, I'm not saying they should stroll it and underestimate them but the 2 squads are incomparable to each other.

Predictions? I'll go with Atletico, Juve, Barça and Bayern.

I'll say Real, Bayern, PSG and Monaco, just out of fun and curiosity.

Looked more complacency to me that they thought the job was done.

As an aside, Monaco had the best defence in the group stages. In six matches only one goal conceded.

They're not the pushovers they're being dismissed as.

Nobody saying they're pushovers, but from all eight clubs qualified, they are the weakest of the bunch. Can't deny that much.

Nah, they set out to defend what they had from the start. They didn't even want to play, just defend for their lives. Luckily for them it worked because if Arsenal had 10 more minutes, they'd have scored the other goal they needed

Bayern's defending...

Guardiola is a charlatan.

Well Juve blew their chance to dispatch them in Turin. 1-0 just isn't enough at home in this tournament.

Who was missing Ribery, Schweinsteiger and Robben.

And Alaba, Benatia and Martinez.

Bit ridiculous to dismiss him as a charlatan when he was missing half his first team.

Nevertheless he is. Trading Kroos for a half-dead Alonso, experimenting with fire, keeping Götze out of the game for questionable tactics and rotations. No, today wasn't just about Robben and Ribery missing. It was about Bayern not having a plan, not doing things correct. It happened this season so many times, always against the potential threads: City, M'Gladbach, Wolfsburg. But no, Guardiola keeps scoring passing records and rotation sheets, he keeps on trashing the poor Hamburgs and Werders. Well guess what, he got humiliated again. Just like last year, when the winning team sipped 7 goals from Madrid.

£20M profit and he gained a player about as good as the one he sold.

This season's ratings:

Alonso: 7.45 average

Kroos: 7.45 average. (whoscored.com)

I think calling Alonso half dead at 33 is a tad OTT. Still got a few seasons of top class football left in him. Or is Pirlo half dead too!?



I don't watch Bayern terribly closely, but your lack of credit to Porto and dismissal of 6 world class players missing from Bayern's team is curious.

PS Atletico, the La Liga champions, also lost by 4 goals to Real last season in UCL - not really fair to chastise someone based on a humbling from Europe's best one-match team last season.

Yep, they should have done a lot better, scraping through on a penalty is hardly convincing, still they should have more than enough to go through. Juve have so far faced the average sides in this competition (please don't mention Dortmund, they've been absolutely awful this season).

Not going through in France would be a huge failure, especially since they're taking a slender lead with them

Much better in UCL than in Bundesliga but yes, not the Dortmund of last season.



Again, you're dismissing Monaco. Everyone's dismissing Monaco!

When they beat Arsenal everyone slagged off Arsenal. And if they beat Juve I'm guessing everyone will slag off Juve.

Suspect if they make the final everyone will just discredit the teams they beat.

What are you talking about? Surely Pirlo is half-dead, he's 35 by God!! And yes, Alonso may have the same average, but whereas Kroos has lots of room to grow and seasons to come, Alonso can give them 1 more or maybe two top seasons. We've seen him yesterday. It's one thing to star against HSV, that's my main point, another to play top consistently.


Sure, Porto deserve credit. Man, did I say they won in an unfair/undeserved matter? No. But I think this match was Guardiola's to throw away, and boy did he do it in his style. Sure, he lacked Ribery and Robben. But he knew that and he had time to integrate world class players he still has in his team. But no, he's much more eager to tamper with Lahm, Bertat, Alcantara etc. Well, here we go...

And don't bring up Atletico. They are no match to the ambitions of Bayern. Bayern were the defending champion. A year ago they humiliated Barcelona, the tika-taka Barcelona; then the Germans went nuts and thought of implying the very same system they demolished to their own team. And it's backfiring.

So a year ago they humiliated Barca but got humiliated by Real?

Your argument both defends and crucifies them.

Both illogically!

The humiliated Barcelona with Heynckens and his tactics. Then all of a sudden, they changed to a German tika-taka, an voila, they lost their first big game with a great margin.

I'm with Fillipo on this one. Guardiola has never convinced me with some of his choices at Bayern. Letting go of Kroos for Alonso, playing Lahm and Alaba as DMs, going with different formations week in and week out, never utilizing a stable line-up etc. Heynckens had a very firm idea about his Bayern and he sticked with it, whereas Guardiola keeps experimenting.

And really, Bayern did have many absences last night, but if you're telling me that a team with Alcantara, Goetze, Muller and Lewandowski isn't good enough to beat Porto (or at least draw) then you're simply trying to find excuses.



And what are you basing your conclusions on? Just one game? That doesn't prove anything. It could have easily been a fluke, and it probably was considering Arsenal nearly KO'd them in the return leg.

Monaco are good, no doubt about it, but it's not like they're dominating the French league or destroyed everyone in their relatively average CL group.

I saw the game against Juve. Monaco were inferior. Defensively they were super, but that's mainly because they cared about defending and counterattacking. They have very good and smart players, but they cannot impose their game against superior teams.

The only reason people are "dismissing" them it's because among the eight quarterfinalists they are the underdogs, simple as.

Then you meant two years/seasons ago. The Barca drubbing was early 2014.

Hence I was confused. Because I didn't remember Pep humiliating Barca with Barca tactics.

Away from home? You actually telling me Real would be equally as good without Modric, Bale and Ronaldo? Oh wait, without only Modric they were half the team they normally are. Take away his two buddies and they're nowhere near as strong.

Bayern are no different. People quick to forget they trashed Donetsk 7-0 on aggregrate but if you take away their three strongest creative players, OF COURSE they will be weaker.

I know there's been questions of Pep, and oddly enough I don't even like him OR Bayern, but you guys discredit Porto like you do Monaco. It's amazingly disrespectful and is the kind of small-mindedness which saw Milan rest on our laurels and teams like Monaco and Porto overtake us totally.



That's the game they play. Like Atletico.



Neither can Atletico. And they won La Liga with it.



Both Monaco and Porto were the underdogs in 2004.

Look what happened there.

This arrogance is why clubs like Bayern and Real struggle at times. A failure to realise that opposition have become a lot better. It's why Real just didn't see Atletico coming last season, and why Dortmund nearly won the CL in 2003.

Robben is the only player that makes a difference. All the others are on the same level. Whether it's Bastian or Alcantara, Goetze or Ribery, Lahm or Alaba. Bayern have an immense roster. But then again, if you look at the goals, it was all on stupid, stupid defensive mistakes. Bayern were the only ones who actually scored a constructive goal.

And I don't discredit Porto, but I rate Bayern much higher and I don't expect them to lose 3-1 in such an unfashionable manner.



Hey, anything can happen. Just because I rate Monaco the least doesn't mean they can't win the CL. I'm strictly speaking on paper here, and from what I've seen. You keep saying that we're dismissing Monaco and Porto, but in reality we're simply comparing them to the opposition. And both Bayern and Juve are undoubtedly superior teams, so why is it so wrong for us to favor them instead of the underdogs?

Porto have absolutely no clue what the f*ck is going on.

PSG are terrible in defence, every time Barca attack they create a chance. Shocking that it's still at 2-0

Yeah, Bayern are finished and Xabi Alonso is done...

Yeah, Bayern have too many injuries and we are discrediting Porto...

You forgot Pep is a terrible manager

I never said Pep is a terrible manager.

I was pretending you were Pippo

What's the point? We all knew he was going to pass through Porto. But Bayern showed weaknesses, and it's mainly because of Pep's tampering. That was and will be my point.

Hopefully Juve and Real pass tonight so we can have some nice semi-finals.

Yep

I'm partial to a Juve-Barca, Real-Bayern set of semis

And still you'll give Allegri no credit whatsoever

If he beats Barca or any of those other teams left over 2 legs I'll bow down to him, until then he hasn't really done anything new or different

Unlike when he was with us, the draws with Juve have been a lot luckier. Yet, he still barely scraped through the group stage and has had 2 of the easiest draws in the KO stages.

He has no chance v Barca, Bayern or Real.

But neither would Conte have had.

Why?

Well that's the point isn't it?

He's so far done nothing that's anything different to what he did at Milan while he had the top team or what Conte did with Juve already. Which is basically walk all over the league and fail at the very first serious hurdle in Europe.

We'll see how he does in the upcoming matches, do we know who they play against or are UEFA drawing it out even more these days and we have to wait for another draw?

But going by what we saw today against Monaco? I don't think there's a chance in hell for them against any of those teams

Bayern, Barça and Real are too much for Juve. Allegri has nothing to do with it.

Last time Juve played marquee teams in the CL, they lost, Bayern in 2013 destroyed them, Atletico this year were too much too albeit that one was closer.

Point is they haven't beaten a truly great team since returning to the UCL post-Jose Inter, period. Best they managed was beating the weird Di Matteo Chelsea the season after THEY won the UCL. He was fired soon after.

Actually Allegri didn't get Milan to the semi nor did Conte with Juve so that's just false.

If we're talking about quality of opponent, I agree. But then, fact is the history books will say Juve semi final, they won't say Juve beat good but not great teams to get there.