Not by Man City but by Roma potential against Barcelona... 3-0 up so going through on away goals. Man City will be ruing a poor offside decision just before half time ... And the fact Mo Salah was fit .
Pleased to see Barcelona out. Very dislikeable club. Real Madrid too for that matter, though I can't see Juventus coming back from 3 goals down.
So pleased to see the despicable Barcelona out. Only problem is it slightly increases Liverpool's chances of winning it.
Fulham is a fantastic story. It is difficult not to see our story reflected in them. Plucky small London outfit, clearly not a serious proposition among the big boys but with some weird, all confounding certainty that this is their time. And both led by lugubrious Serbs, whose baleful presence dominates the technical box like a corpse at a wedding. I’ve never yet been persuaded that our promotion was a shoo in, that all we had to do was present ourselves on match day with our boots on the right feet & all would be fine. The Champo ain’t like that. For Slav to be close to it essentially twice in a row is the stuff of legend. I hardly even care that Fessi scored tonight. Love letter over.
Both Pool & Roma has been selling teams to us in recent times. Heartening that they can still make a go of things in the cup competitions.
Wasn't that Juan Turbo from Roma? The one that was supposed to join us a few seasons ago but went to Muff. Did nothing.
With Michael Oliver in charge the Italians have just to hold on until injury time and they'll get a penalty. He loves the drama
Damn. I was wrong. Real get the injury time penalty. And Buffon sent off in his swansong. Commentator says "you can't write this script". Yeah, you can when Michael Oliver is around.
That's the fella. Fell foul of the QSF interview technique in the Bricket Wood Happy Eater. When he looked deep into your soul to judge you as a man.
What exactly is wrong with Barca? A club owned by its supporters, who PAY UNICEF to advertise on their shirts and are a standard bearer for Catalan liberal democracy in the face of the fascianistas from the Bernabeu?
I read the title of this thread and thought that Stunning must be one of our injured players who is recovering.
I believe Qatar Airways advertise on the Barca shirts now, not UNICEF. There again, Qatar Airways is an excellent airline, even if there doesn't seem to be much else to admire about Qatar.
Actually they are currently being paid EUR55m to advertise Rakuten. The myth that they are somehow better than the rest continues.
I still think they're 'better than the rest'. In a number of ways. So I'll repeat. What's your problem with them?
Barca and Real are nothing but fanboy clubs, where kids from all over Spain (many of whom have no connection to either city or culture in Barcelona's case) support, and neglect their own local clubs. Even the grown ups do it! Spaniards who slate Catalonia and the independence movement, then when you ask them who they support they cry 'Barca!' These two clubs have a monopoly on Spanish football, and take the majority of the TV money, meaning that only once in a blue moon will a club other than these two can hope to win La Liga. If you had ever lived in Spain, you would know.
OK I get that especially with regard to the TV money. But it doesn't sound a whole lot different to the Manure, the Chelski, the Gooners and the Scousers here albeit with a less fair split of TV revenues. But a club owned by its fans as a co-operative and the UNICEF connection are uniquely positive selling points surely.
The monopoly that Real Na Barca have on Spanish football is not comparable to that of English football. Of course there are many fanboys of the big 6, but there are far more fans in England that choose to support their local clubs than there are in Spain. The UNICEF thing is all well and good if true, but I can tell you that after 2 years of living there I am absolutely sick to death of those 2 clubs. I'll leave you with this; some good friends of mine were born and raised in Valencia, and lived their whole lives there. When I asked them who they support, assuming they would say Valencia or Levante, they said Real. When I asked why, their answer was that Valencia are no good. Rubbish! It's an incredible city stunning architecture, on the Spanish coast with amazing weather and a massive stadium. Unfortunately after 2 years of hearing similar stories I was not remotely surprised.
My sister in law is from near Vigo and all her family are Celta fans. The only difficulty they have is in deciding who they dislike most: Real or Barca!
So basically like Man Utd fans in this country. It’s the same in most countries and in fact I was listening to guy who had written a book on Turkish football and he said most people in the country supported one of the big teams like Besiktas or Galatasaray. They’re not fans who are emotionally attached like we are to Watford or Valencia fans are. Half of them probably couldn’t tell you if they had won or not.
Of course the UNICEF connection is true. Barcelona pay the charity €2m per year for the honour to have their name on their shirts, as well as giving free advertising to the charity world wide. You may hate both Barca and Real, which is fair enough, but for me personally, I do have an emotional attachment, as I was born there. I moved to England in my early teens, and started supporting Watford then, as they were the closest team to where I was living. It's easy to support two teams, as they do not conflict. They will never play each other and they operate in different spheres. I love the contrast between the two. I've been to Champions League finals as well as Herts Senior cup finals, and I enjoy both.