Champions League Phase II

[vicman]

looks like pretty good games. finally, a great deal of useless teams have been eliminated and we get great games....and real madrid didnt get a bunch of second a third teir teams like previous years

GROUP A: Barcelona. Inter. Leverkusen. Newcastle.

GROUP B: Valencia. Arsenal. Roma. Ajax.

GROUP C: Real Madrid. Milan. Borussia Dortmund. Lokomotiv.

GROUP D: Man U. Juventus. Deportivo. Basle.

[dnice35]

PREDICTIONS ANYONE?

[sutogame]

hey i posted some predictions of the draw

and the one that i really wanted happened

acmilan and real madrid in the same group....

if AEK scored 5 goals on real cant wait to see what milan will do

ill post my prediciton in a day or two

otherwise good groups but imagine liverpool being in instead of basel..

[vicman]

fucking morons of liverpool...and bayern

[vicman]

my pics r:

GROUP A:

Inter.

Barcelona.

Newcastle.

Leverkusen.

GROUP B:

Valencia.

Arsenal.

Roma.

Ajax.

GROUP C:

Milan.

Real Madrid.

Borussia Dortmund.

Lokomotiv.

GROUP D:

Man U.

Deportivo.

Juventus.

Basle.

some of these are just to close to call. i think deportivo will get past juve by the slimmest of margins, maybe goal difference, and man u. is a hospital, so i wouldnt be surprised if they ended up 2nd, but the final is in old trafford, so they will put that extra into each game.

i think milan is playing better than real now. real still struggling to find the right form, and their defence is always whack. dortmund is a solid team, any slip ups by real or milan and dortmund will go through.

i think that ajax will be the ugly duckling in group B. valencia and arsenal have been playing together as units for such a long time and arsenal is finally getting some sort of positive results on the road now. roma needs to find the back of the net with more consistency if they expect to go through.

group A is the easiest to predict of the 4. inter should win it. this team is starting to come together nicely. scoring goals and playing as a good overall unit. the hand of cuper clearly shows. ronaldo is not missed at all. barcelona got a lucky draw, leverkusen is practically another team from the team that lost the CL final last year and still struggling to find itself. newcastel is to inexperienced playing at this level.

[sutogame]

The last 4 games are in FEB/MARCH so this will be difficult considering future injuries

GROUP A:

Barcelona.

Inter.

Newcastle.

Leverkusen.

GROUP B:

Valencia.

Arsenal.

Roma.

Ajax.

GROUP C:

Milan.

Real Madrid.

Borussia Dortmund.

Lokomotiv.

GROUP D:

Man U.

Juventus.

Deportivo.

Basle.

the only upset i see might happen is real madrid getting knocked out and borrusia dortmund going on....

perhaps inter fuck up as usual and newcastle can go on.......

deportivo will not come out of groupD im sure of that

[sutogame]

The last 4 games are in FEB/MARCH so this will be difficult considering future injuries

GROUP A:

Barcelona.

Inter.

Newcastle.

Leverkusen.

GROUP B:

Valencia.

Arsenal.

Roma.

Ajax.

GROUP C:

Milan.

Real Madrid.

Borussia Dortmund.

Lokomotiv.

GROUP D:

Man U.

Juventus.

Deportivo.

Basle.

the only upset i see might happen is real madrid getting knocked out and borrusia dortmund going on....

perhaps inter fuck up as usual and newcastle can go on.......

deportivo will not come out of groupD im sure of that

[crosspatrick]

Here are mine

GROUP A:

Barcelona.

Inter.

Newcastle.

Leverkusen.

GROUP B:

Valencia.

Arsenal.

Roma.

Ajax.

GROUP C:

Milan.

borussia Dortmund

Real Madrid.

Lokomotiv.

GROUP D:

Juventus

Man Utd

Deportivo.

Basle.

Agree with most of what ye think but i feel Real are going to be knocked out and Man U are only going to qualify by the skin of there teeth. I know that they have Keane coming back but anytime i have seen them this season they looked poor.

They were lucky with the group they got so u never know

[dnice35]

A :

Inter

Barcelona

Leverkusen

Newcastle

B:

Arsenal

Valencia

Ajax

Roma

C:

Real Madrid

Milan

Borussia Dortmund

Lokomotiv

D:

Man U.

Basle

Juventus

Deportivo

Real is passing on to the next round, dont count out Basle

[vicman]

fuck it, here my prediction for the final:

vs.

[milano]

A. Barcelona

Inter

Newcastle United

Bayer Leverkusen

B. Arsenal

Valencia

Roma

Ajax

C. AC Milan

Real Madrid

Borussia Dortmund

Locomotiv

D. Manchester United

Juventus

Deportivo

Basel

Barcelona will be solid by next March. And regardless if it can be ahead or not in March in La Liga, the team will be even better assembled than now for Europe. There is so much talent and hunger...

Inter second (if AC Milan would be in this group, Inter would be 3rd)

Newcastle will be third but far from the the first two. Leverkusen won't have the strength it had last year...

Group B. Toughest group, but Arsenal are playing way too much. Simple, practical, fast, pretty...a real pleasure...and efficient...

Valencia is a well structured team...years together...solid defense (best from Spain still) and a very creative and movil midfield...Aymar is the undisputed 10...and that has gained him confidence...

Roma are very strong, but not as practical as Arsenal and Valencia, they are not in form, but as Barza will be much stronger in March...and Ajax...they are in their way back, once again, but before their team can mature enough, their best players are bought by the biggest soccer markets...Italy, England, Spain...

Milan. Milan. Milan The best team this year. Rivaldo, Seedorf, Rui Costa, Shevshenko, Inzagui...the best defense in the world...Costacurta, Nesta, Maldini...Creativity, goals, lock in the back...It is a pleasure to see a team form Italy try to play offensive calcio...Sacchi and Capello???

Real Madrid, the champs. Plus Ronaldo. I think still this year...minus Morientes. Because instead of adding to the power of the team...Ronaldo will hurt them this year. I would have bought Vieri for less and get more.

Borussia Dortmund are a good and difficult team. But has a much lesser squad.

Locomotiv...

Manchester will have all their men back in March. Locally, I think this is the year of arsenal, maybe Liverpool. So for Ferguson and his players Europe will be the focus. At Old trafford.

Juve are a stronger side this year with Di Viaio. Not quite the Juve of Lippi, but anyhow stronger than Deportivo in the long stretch. Even if by a tight margin...

Basel...would have been more enchanting for their fans a knock-out phase like the one in the UEFA, than being part of this group. or of any group:confused:

Final four:

Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona and Milan.

Final ManU - Milan

Have fun tomorrow.

[vipnerd]

Inter / Barza / Bayer / Newcastle

Arsenal / Valencia / Roma / Ajax

Milan / Real Madrid / Dortmund / Locomotiv

Juve / Man U / Deportivo / Basel

Analysis of my picks after the game

Final four:

Arsenal, Juventus, Milan, Valencia

Final: Juventus - Arsenal

Juve takes it home once a gain:tongue:

[vipnerd]

Milan deserved to win for a bigger margin, but missing soooooo many chances......what a pass for Shevchenko's goal!!! And the offside was offside!!

BTW, what a beauty of goal Juve's first goal. Down 2-0 in the first minutes, came back. Sorry for Depor that started solid but...Juve will go all the way to Old Trafford this year.

Dortmund's win away puts pressure on Real. But they should still go thru. Milan should take points away from Dortmund...Real has the easy one against Locomotiv.

Man U suffered for an hour but Van Nilsterooy is an animal. Good away win againt the unexpected swiss. The next game is live or die for Depor at Old Trafford. They already got a tie there...but perhaps the pressure this time will be on them after dropping two points at home.

For tomorrow:

Bayer - Barza 1-2

Newcastle - Inter 1-2

Roma- Arsenal 1-1

Valencia - Ajax 3-1

Isn't it a shame that ESPN doesn't broadcast the Wednesday game of the day as well??

[milano]

Originally posted by vipnerd

Milan deserved to win for a bigger margin, but missing soooooo many chances......what a pass for Shevchenko's goal!!! And the offside was offside!!

BTW, what a beauty of goal Juve's first goal. Down 2-0 in the first minutes, came back. Sorry for Depor that started solid but...Juve will go all the way to Old Trafford this year.

We proved today what we can do this year. Believe me, with Pippo Inzaghi we would had won by two or three. Tonite we were unlucky in the definition.

I'm excited about the team, now that finally Rui Costa is playing like he used to do back in Fiorentina and w/Portugal's national team. Having seedorf and Rivaldo around him distracts the rivals defense zone. And neither Rui nor Rivaldo nor Seedorf need much space to create something out of nothing.

Shevchenko was isolated upfront, but still played vertically, which is when he best performs. Rui's pass to Andrei, well you can see that only at the Giuseppe Meazza:D

The defense was solid as usual. And Dida should be grateful of still being able to see daylight tomorrow after he f***ed up bad. But it was offside. Raul had only one man upfront.

IMO, Serginho and Inzaghi should be in the first team. The brazilian gives the team speed and explosion on the left. And Pippo is nowadays the cappo canonieri in Italy.

I could write for hours. I am so happy we beat Real. We are now 5 out of 5 w/them in Milan. As to Vipnerd's prediction of Juventus reaching the final...we are ready for them.

For tomorrow:

Bayer 0 - Barcelona 1

Newcastle 1 - Inter 0:D

Roma 1 - Arsenal 2

Valencia 2 - Ajax 0

And in two weeks will beat Dortmund away.

[crosspatrick]

Wednedays games

Bayer 0 Barca 2

Newcastle 0 Inter 0

Roma 1 Arsenal 0 I think this will be the result if Batastuita starts

Valencia 2 Ajax o

Why dont espn show a game today

[vipnerd]

Originally posted by crosspatrick

Wednedays games

Bayer 0 Barca 2

Newcastle 0 Inter 0

Roma 1 Arsenal 0 I think this will be the result if Batastuita starts

Valencia 2 Ajax o

Why dont espn show a game today

ESPN sucks for Football...when we still had the Cup Winner's Cup they would broadcast the Champions game Wednesday.

When the new CCCchampions formatt was estAblished and the CWC eliminated they broadcasted a game Tuesday and a game Wednesday.

But it's been a while now that they only show us one game...on tuesdays...it sux big time:(

[milano]

Wednesday's Champions Results

Newcastle 1 - Inter 4

Morfeo (I), Almeyda(I), Crespo (I), Solano (N), Recoba (I)

Check out Almeyda's goal from outside the penalty area and Recoba's beauty, outstanding goal

Leverkusen 1 - Barcelona 2

Berbatov (L), Saviola (, Overmars (

Saviola and Riquelme came in the second half. Two minutes later, Saviola to Riquelme, Riquelme to Saviola and goal. Riquelme missed a penalty kick. With two minutes left Overmars saved Riquelme.

Valencia 1 - Ajax 1

Ibrahimovic in the 88th, Angulo in the 90th. Valencia saved his undefeated run at home in the Champions.

Roma 1 - Arsenal 3

Cassano put Roma up. Henry's hat-trick destroyed Roma. Check the third goal from a free-kick.

Forza Milan!!!

[vipnerd]

Originally posted by milano

Wednesday's Champions Results

Newcastle 1 - Inter 4

Morfeo (I), Almeyda(I), Crespo (I), Solano (N), Recoba (I)

Check out Almeyda's goal from outside the penalty area and Recoba's beauty, outstanding goal

Leverkusen 1 - Barcelona 2

Berbatov (L), Saviola (, Overmars (

Saviola and Riquelme came in the second half. Two minutes later, Saviola to Riquelme, Riquelme to Saviola and goal. Riquelme missed a penalty kick. With two minutes left Overmars saved Riquelme.

Valencia 1 - Ajax 1

Ibrahimovic in the 88th, Angulo in the 90th. Valencia saved his undefeated run at home in the Champions.

Roma 1 - Arsenal 3

Cassano put Roma up. Henry's hat-trick destroyed Roma. Check the third goal from a free-kick.

Forza Milan!!!

The only surprise I see is Valencia dropping two points at home...now they will need to get something when they visit Arsenal before the break. Angulo saved their @$$, because when Ajax scored I thought it was all over for them.

Riquleme and Saviola demonstrated today they have to play together since the start. But Romy missed the penalty kick...He had come in for Mendieta, who is the one in charge... I agree that Overmars saved Romy, cause had they tied, all the Catalan media would had blamed Romy for the result...now Barza are 7 of 7

Arsenal beat Roma 3-1...Real Madrid won at the Olimpico 4-0 in the previous round ...no surprise, Roma are really out of shape this year. But in March they will make things tuff for Valencia...

As to Inter... they are a solid team, Cuper's style. And some great talent to control a game and find the net with Crespo, Vieri and Recoba. BTW Recoba's goal was fabulous!!!!!

[milano]

Originally posted by vipnerd

As to Inter... they are a solid team, Cuper's style. And some great talent to control a game and find the net with Crespo, Vieri and Recoba. BTW Recoba's goal was fabulous!!!!!

We beat them last weekend 1-0.

They beat Newcatle in great part because Bellamy was a total fool and got red carded in the first five minutes. Inter was winning already by 1-0, but Newcastle had an uphill task with ten men.

When they were getting back into the game came Almeyda's goal. Out of a lose ball after a corner:blank:

Cuper is a conservative coach. And he will pay for that. Put my signature on this.

Forza Milan!!!!!