Europa League - Semi Finals

Wow! Another great European night at Anfield. Lets get one thing clear here, Benfica are no mugs and we outplayed them tonight so for that I am very proud.

The atmosphere was fantastic tonight, I was worried people would think Oh It's onlt the Europa League but it felt like a CL game.

Another European semi for Liverpool!

Özil wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Özil wrote:is hsv first game at home or away?

At Hamburg then back to Craven Cotage

fulham is really a good footballing side, with some great individuals, didnt expect wolfsburg to fail, they were in good shape

but they are too reliable on misimovic, hsv has really the will to fight for there final at home, and more steel and and quality through the squad

i dont make the fault again and underestimate fulham, i say its a 50:50, they can hurt you at home

Let this be a lesson to you young man - that there are teams outside the big/top 4 in England who are better than you think.

Have a feeling Hamburg will be a hill too high for Fulham though. The Hamburgers look a very good side, and Fulham have now played a ridiculous number of games this season with a tiny squad (They started their UEFA cup campaign in JULY)

In other words, Fulham will struggle to climb Hamburger hill, and Germany's coefficient will be safe. To Ozil's relief

Predictions

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Antarion wrote:Just realized:
Atletico Madrid are in the semi final of the europa league, and they have won only one international game this season

hilarious



STRATEGICO

That's a terrible statistic, and the most obvious example of the problem with the away goal rule. I do agree with LRD that the English Carling Cup rule of having the away goal rule coming into play only as a last resort(ie after extra time) would be the best method. How a team can get to the semi finals after winning just one game is a joke

Bah away goals rule is excellent. Makes a virtue of of actually trying to play attacking away.

Only gripe I have with it is the away goals counting even if scored in extra time. That just seems unfair as one team has longer to score them.

Khadrim wrote:

Özil wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Özil wrote:is hsv first game at home or away?

At Hamburg then back to Craven Cotage

fulham is really a good footballing side, with some great individuals, didnt expect wolfsburg to fail, they were in good shape

but they are too reliable on misimovic, hsv has really the will to fight for there final at home, and more steel and and quality through the squad

i dont make the fault again and underestimate fulham, i say its a 50:50, they can hurt you at home

Have to say that wolfsburg midfield was shocking. I thought the point of a diamond was to outnumber the middle. Instead Etuhu and Murphy were sat inside it with all the time in the world.

Its odd people having a go at Dzeko given the scraps he had to feed on he at least looked like he could score. Grafite was absolutely rubbish. And why did they keep hoofing balls towards Hangeland?

wolfsburg played indeed really shocking tonight, they created no pressure, ok a goal after 21 sec hasn`t really helped

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Antarion wrote:Just realized:
Atletico Madrid are in the semi final of the europa league, and they have won only one international game this season

hilarious



STRATEGICO

That's a terrible statistic, and the most obvious example of the problem with the away goal rule. I do agree with LRD that the English Carling Cup rule of having the away goal rule coming into play only as a last resort(ie after extra time) would be the best method. How a team can get to the semi finals after winning just one game is a joke

Bah away goals rule is excellent. Makes a virtue of of actullay tying to play attacking away.

Only gripe I have with it is the away goals counting even if scored in extra time. That just seems unfair as one team has longer to score them.

I completely understand the benefit from an attacking sense of having it,

but as a way of settling a contest it's poor because in reality there is no winner, it's a draw. Being the team who scores more away from home is a shite way of settling a contest because of a whole range of factors that can render that home advantage pointless. I hate to bring up yesterday as I don't really care for United (they win enough without feeling sympathy for them yesterday), but their home 'advantage' was immediately over the minute they went down to 10 men. As a result Bayern only had to sit back once the second goal went in knowing they were through. Had it been heading towards a draw and extra time, both sides would had to go for it.

Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

I see Kuytinho MotM scored again! What a legend in Europe eh? Surely Liverpool should go on and win this cup. In cup competitions Rafa is freckin lethal.

Anyway as a massive STATS fan I notice again no Italian team in a final. Which makes it 11 years in a row now, so what you say..well between 1989 and 1999 there was an Italian team in the final every year. What makes them stop caring for this competition??

Fey wrote:I see Kuytinho MotM scored again! What a legend in Europe eh? Surely Liverpool should go on and win this cup. In cup competitions Rafa is freckin lethal.

Kuyt was a monster tonight. Why can't he do that in the frickin League If ever there's a big game player it's Dirk.

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Antarion wrote:Just realized:
Atletico Madrid are in the semi final of the europa league, and they have won only one international game this season

:lol!: :lol!: hilarious



STRATEGICO

That's a terrible statistic, and the most obvious example of the problem with the away goal rule. I do agree with LRD that the English Carling Cup rule of having the away goal rule coming into play only as a last resort(ie after extra time) would be the best method. How a team can get to the semi finals after winning just one game is a joke

Bah away goals rule is excellent. Makes a virtue of of actullay tying to play attacking away.

Only gripe I have with it is the away goals counting even if scored in extra time. That just seems unfair as one team has longer to score them.

I completely understand the benefit from an attacking sense of having it,

but as a way of settling a contest it's poor because in reality there is no winner, it's a draw. Being the team who scores more away from home is a shite way of settling a contest because of a whole range of factors that can render that home advantage pointless. I hate to bring up yesterday as I don't really care for United (they win enough without feeling sympathy for them yesterday), but their home 'advantage' was immediately over the minute they went down to 10 men. As a result Bayern only had to sit back once the second goal went in knowing they were through. Had it been heading towards a draw and extra time, both sides would had to go for it.

Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

Using a player being sent off is a poor reason to validate anything. Losing home advantage because you are man down has nothing to do with the away rule.

Taking your analogy further. The onus was on Bayern to score and they did. No away goals just meant Man U having to play longer with ten men. And Man U most certainly wouldn't go for it. They would have played for penalties.

I don't agree with the Carling Cup rule for the reason mentioned above. Burnley should really have beaten you last season.

Fey wrote:I see Kuytinho MotM scored again! What a legend in Europe eh? Surely Liverpool should go on and win this cup. In cup competitions Rafa is freckin lethal.

Anyway as a massive STATS fan I notice again no Italian team in a final. Which makes it 11 years in a row now, so what you say..well between 1989 and 1999 there was an Italian team in the final every year. What makes them stop caring for this competition??

2000 was when the CL and UEFA Cup system changed format dramatically. The teams that would previously qualify for the UEFA Cup(3rd and 4th) entered the CL. The new UEFA Cup had teams of a lower calibre entering, it made the competition less pretigious. That is probably why.

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Antarion wrote:Just realized:
Atletico Madrid are in the semi final of the europa league, and they have won only one international game this season

hilarious



STRATEGICO

That's a terrible statistic, and the most obvious example of the problem with the away goal rule. I do agree with LRD that the English Carling Cup rule of having the away goal rule coming into play only as a last resort(ie after extra time) would be the best method. How a team can get to the semi finals after winning just one game is a joke

Bah away goals rule is excellent. Makes a virtue of of actullay tying to play attacking away.

Only gripe I have with it is the away goals counting even if scored in extra time. That just seems unfair as one team has longer to score them.

I completely understand the benefit from an attacking sense of having it,

but as a way of settling a contest it's poor because in reality there is no winner, it's a draw. Being the team who scores more away from home is a shite way of settling a contest because of a whole range of factors that can render that home advantage pointless. I hate to bring up yesterday as I don't really care for United (they win enough without feeling sympathy for them yesterday), but their home 'advantage' was immediately over the minute they went down to 10 men. As a result Bayern only had to sit back once the second goal went in knowing they were through. Had it been heading towards a draw and extra time, both sides would had to go for it.

Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

Using a player being sent off is a poor reason to validate anything. Losing home advantage because you are man down has nothing to do with the away rule.

Taking your analogy further. The onus was on Bayern to score and they did. No away goals just meant Man U having to play longer with ten men. And Man U most certainly wouldn't go for it. They would have played for penalties.

I don't agree with the Carling Cup rule for the reason mentioned above. Burnley should really have beaten you last season.

I don't understand your analogy - Bayern would have had to score again at 3-1, with or without away goals to draw the game. At 3-2, both sides would have been drawing, and with away goals rule coming into play after extra time, United couldn't have opted to wait for penalties so would have had more time to get a winner, whilst Bayern would have had longer to sit back and defend their away 'win', and probably opted to go for it as a result.

I'm not suggesting it should be scrapped, it should just be used as a last resot after extra time.

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:
Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

Exactly why we need the away goals rule

Otherwise all you trophy hunting bore fest fetishists would ejaculate so much, you'd all die of dehydration.

So it's really for your own best interest

Axeslammer wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:
Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

Exactly why we need the away goals rule

Otherwise all you trophy hunting bore fest fetishists would ejaculate so much, you'd all die of dehydration.

So it's really for your own best interest

If only Spurs provided me a 'happy ending' to my trophy hunting borefest fetish instead of a permanent case of blue balls

It should be used after extra time, not after 90 minutes

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Khadrim wrote:

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

Antarion wrote:Just realized:
Atletico Madrid are in the semi final of the europa league, and they have won only one international game this season

:lol!: :lol!: hilarious



STRATEGICO

That's a terrible statistic, and the most obvious example of the problem with the away goal rule. I do agree with LRD that the English Carling Cup rule of having the away goal rule coming into play only as a last resort(ie after extra time) would be the best method. How a team can get to the semi finals after winning just one game is a joke

Bah away goals rule is excellent. Makes a virtue of of actullay tying to play attacking away.

Only gripe I have with it is the away goals counting even if scored in extra time. That just seems unfair as one team has longer to score them.

I completely understand the benefit from an attacking sense of having it,

but as a way of settling a contest it's poor because in reality there is no winner, it's a draw. Being the team who scores more away from home is a shite way of settling a contest because of a whole range of factors that can render that home advantage pointless. I hate to bring up yesterday as I don't really care for United (they win enough without feeling sympathy for them yesterday), but their home 'advantage' was immediately over the minute they went down to 10 men. As a result Bayern only had to sit back once the second goal went in knowing they were through. Had it been heading towards a draw and extra time, both sides would had to go for it.

Going through with a 1-0 instead of a 4-4 may not be as exciting, but at least it underlines a clear winner

Using a player being sent off is a poor reason to validate anything. Losing home advantage because you are man down has nothing to do with the away rule.

Taking your analogy further. The onus was on Bayern to score and they did. No away goals just meant Man U having to play longer with ten men. And Man U most certainly wouldn't go for it. They would have played for penalties.

I don't agree with the Carling Cup rule for the reason mentioned above. Burnley should really have beaten you last season.

I don't understand your analogy - Bayern would have had to score again at 3-1, with or without away goals to draw the game. At 3-2, both sides would have been drawing, and with away goals rule coming into play after extra time, United couldn't have opted to wait for penalties so would have had more time to get a winner, whilst Bayern would have had longer to sit back and defend their away 'win', and probably opted to go for it as a result.

I'm not suggesting it should be scrapped, it should just be used as a last resot after extra time.

Well if it is the carling cup version then I disagree with this. They wouldv'e have carried on doing what they were doing (and what we did at wolfsburg). Holding onto the ball and only attacking when there was a clear opening. Apart from Ribery who was runnning into blind alleys and losing the ball.

Home team gets an extra 30 mins on their pitch though. It's not completely fair.

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:Home team gets an extra 30 mins on their pitch though. It's not completely fair.

That's a good point. However it depends on how you look at that extra 30 minutes - as it can advantage or hinderance, because with away goals counting after extra time, it's another 30 minutes to potentially concede and get fucked by the away goals rule anyway, so it evens things out.

Robert F'gerald Earle MBE wrote:

BoBo Vieri 32 wrote:Home team gets an extra 30 mins on their pitch though. It's not completely fair.

That's a good point. However it depends on how you look at that extra 30 minutes - as it can advantage or hinderance, because with away goals counting after extra time, it's another 30 minutes to potentially concede and get fucked by the away goals rule anyway, so it evens things out.

Yep i totally see where you're coming from.

But teams will see it as not being fair. Using the example of last night's game, comparing it to the rule we have already it effectively gives Man Utd an extra 30 minutes to win the game at home. For Bayern, they could kill them off with another away goalin ET, but they don't really gain much from it since they would have gone through anyway at FT under the old rules.

I suppose it would work though if the playing the 2nd leg away ended up with less away goals.

Fulham

What was that about the EPL lacking depth of quality?

I couldn't imagine the current Parma side getting to the semis.

Özil wrote:

fulham is really a good footballing side

Ozil

Compared to other EPL teams their personnel aren't that great but Hodgson is a fucking genius!

He's got an extra 20% out of players that have looked average at other clubs. For instance, Duff looked past it at Newcastle but he's been fantastic this season at Fulham. Likewise, Zoltan Gera, who looked decent when he first moved to West Brom but steadily got worse. Since moving to Fulham, Hodgson has reinvented him. My favourite Fulham player though, is Mark Schwarzer.

COTR #6 wrote:David Luiz is a beast of a player. Benfica are going to get very rich this summer when the bidding starts for him and Di Maria.

By far the Benfica player which impressed me the most, he looked very comfortable on the ball and his decision making was excellent, and as you said I wouldn't be surprised if a top club came in for in over the next few years.

Congrats on getting through.

Am I the only person on here that chose to watch the fulham game last night?

The bar I was in was showing the Liverpool game so I didn't have much choice in the matter.

It would have been better if they split like the kick-off times like they do in the group stages so you get to watch two games that evening.

Tweesus wrote:

Özil wrote:

fulham is really a good footballing side

Ozil

Compared to other EPL teams their personnel aren't that great but Hodgson is a fucking genius!

He's got an extra 20% out of players that have looked average at other clubs. For instance, Duff looked past it at Newcastle but he's been fantastic this season at Fulham. Likewise, Zoltan Gera, who looked decent when he first moved to West Brom but steadily got worse. Since moving to Fulham, Hodgson has reinvented him. My favourite Fulham player though, is Mark Schwarzer.

That's just not true, the same weaknesses are still there. You say you watched last nights game, how many times did Duff recieve the ball in the final 3rd and then pass backwards? He still plays like a coward.

But he has been more productive overall. Scored more this season than he did in his whole spell at Newcastle. Wouldn't be surprised if its similar with assists.

debaser wrote:But he has been more productive overall. Scored more this season than he did in his whole spell at Newcastle. Wouldn't be surprised if its similar with assists.

Proof that a decent system can make average players useful. If you removed Duff and put Brunt or Hunt in there nothing would change for the worse.

Yes I watched the game last night Kimmy. Did you? I thought duff played really well - and he's scored some important goals for Fulham this season. He's been miles better for Fulham than he ever was for your boys.

Newcastle does have a bit of a history with ruining players though.

Tweesus wrote:Yes I watched the game last night Kimmy. Did you? I thought duff played really well - and he's scored some important goals for Fulham this season. He's been miles better for Fulham than he ever was for your boys.

Newcastle does have a bit of a history with ruining players though.

Yes i watched it, which is why i was commenting on it last night, along with several other people. Don't come on here acting like you're some sort of football jesus that will watch even the smaller teams.

I thought Duff was poor and fucked up good positions time and time again. STOP RUNNING BACKWARDS FFS MAN! He gets the ball in the final 3rd, squares up to the fullback, then shits himself and runs backwards looking for someone to take the ball off him. I wouldn't take him back at Newcastle, not a chance.

I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to join you anway. I'm sure he loves living in West London - the place is full of tanned slutty australian girls.

Tweesus wrote:I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to join you anway. I'm sure he loves living in West London - the place is full of tanned slutty australian girls.

Wow, Australians, you really know how to sell a place.

Kimbo wrote:

Tweesus wrote:I'm pretty sure he wouldn't want to join you anway. I'm sure he loves living in West London - the place is full of tanned slutty australian girls.

Wow, Australians, you really know how to sell a place.

Slutty.

Australians are pure filth Kimmy. You'd pull well out of your league with them. They may even have two legs and a fully operational vagina.

Says the man with a wife and child.