Miscarriage of Justice if I ever saw one. That 5 yard miss at the end will haunt the chap his whole life.
fook they were unlucky
terrible miss alright
cant affrod to miss two chances like they did though
I hear the OTB lads are trying to line up forfeits for Roddy now.
What a sickening miss. But Dynamo could easily have been 2 or 3 up at that stage either. Yet another gallant failure in Irish sport.
Didn’t see any football tonight but heard the Off The Ball lads talking about it.
Dynamo Kiev won 4-1 away to Spartak Moscow, which makes Drogheda’s efforts against them even more impressive. It looks like there’s going to be a couple of weak enough 4th seeds on paper. Famagusta from Cyprus beat Olympiacos 3-0 and Aalborg beat Kaunas, conquerors of the huns, 2-0. BATE also won 1-0 away to Levski Sofia. So there’s potential to draw one of these sides or someone much stronger like Atletico Madrid, if they can overturn a 1-0 deficit against Schalke.
Liverpool were lucky enough to escape with a 0-0 and Keane’s performance was criticised on the radio. Alonso played and the fact he’s cup-tied now suggests he’s staying with Liverpool. Arsenal won 2-0 in Holland and they were outplayed for large parts of the game apparently.
Would Celtic be a 2nd or 3rd Seed do you know Bandage?
Hanging on as one of the lower 3rd seeds at the moment I think. Not 100% definite on this though.
I looked at that coefficent site and Juventus are currently a 3rd seed and if Schalke or Liverpool were to crash out then they could move into the 2nd pot. I thought Celtic would be a higher seed than Juventus as Celtic have reached the last 16 while Juventus havent played in Europe.
Seedings are based on the last 5 years of European results and even though Juventus missed 2 years of European football (or was it just 1 year?), Celtic missed a full year in 2005 after losing to Artmedia. They must have accumulated more seeding points in the other 3 years than Celtic did in 4 years. Think it would still be counting them getting to the CL final in 2003 and this year would be the last year of that being included.
Cheers for clearing that up. Its a complicated enough system to follow. United were in danger of becoming a 2nd seed after crashing out in the group stages in 05/06 but the last 2 years have saved that happening for a few years anyway.
Saw the last five minutes of the Liverpool match so couldn’t judge much from that. Apparently we never had a chance and Liege pissed on us for the match and were very unlucky not to score.
Lack of an away goal is never good.
Brann played a well organised match against a much more anticipated side from Marseille wednesday night. The fans and press were surprised to find that Brann-manager Mons Ivar Mjelde chose to start the young icelandic national Birkir Svarsson on the right wing. But it was a choice that proved to be prudent. Birkir showed great speed and played fearlessly against a favored french side.
- I used to play right-wing back home in Valur as well, so it was not a new position for me. The manager told me to challenge one on one, and to finish when I could. So I did and it went ok, said Birkir after the match.
And he could have scored on several opportunites created by him in the first half. Several times he cut into the box and had only the goalkeeper to get by. But each time he was beaten by a quick and lucky Marseille goalkeeper.
Towards the end of the first half, Marseille came around from the right and managed to play the ball along the line in order to get in position for a short cross. With the ball inside the box, Benoit Cheyrou showed great technique and a bit of luck to score, making it 0-1 which was also the final score. But Brann also lost at home in the first round of the UEFA-cup, only to come back with a strong win away.
- We created some chances even though the owned the ball alot. But we are not defeated yet. We did it against Brugge last year, and we can do it again, said winger Erik Huseklepp after the match.
MATCH FACTS
Brann - Marseille 0 - 1 ( 0-1 )
Goals: 0-1 Benot Cheyrou (40’)
Yellow cards: Tijan Jaiteh (Brann). Mamadou Niang, Lorik Cana (Olympique Marseille).
Red cards: -
Referee: Alexandru Dan Tudor (Romania)
Attendance: 11 197
Brann (4-4-2): Hkon Opdal - Bjrn Dahl, Kristjan rn Sigurdsson, Olafur rn Bjarnason, Erlend Hanstveit - Birkir Mr Svarsson (Petter Vaagan Moen from 69’), Hassan El Fakiri, Eirik Bakke (Tijan Jaiteh from 52’), Erik Huseklepp - Njogu Demba-Nyrn (Robbie Winters from 76’), Azar Karadas
Brann substitutes: Johan Thorbjrnsen, Cato Guntveit, Armann Bjrnsson, Gylfi Einarsson, Tijan Jaiteh, Robbie Winters, Petter Vaagan Moen.
Marseille: Steve Mamanda, Laurent Bonnart, Vittorino Hilton, Benot Cheyrou, Taye Taiwo, Lorik Cana, Modeste M’Bami, Bakari Kon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Mamadou Niang, Ronald Zubar
Marseille substitutes: Rudy Riou, Boudewijn Zenden, Djibril Ciss, Karim Ziani, Elamin Erbate, Charles Kabor, Elliot Grandin
I’m not sure how to add stuff to TFK tube, but look at this interview with that clown McClaren. It’s gas:
McClaren - what a tit. Speaking in a Dutch twang and really slowly. Don’t most of them speak English over there anyway?
Shaun Maloney was left out of the Villa squad for their UEFA Cup game tonight. If he played he would have been ineligble to play Champions League before Christmas. On the other hand, Gareth Barry has played and scored so if he does join Liverpool then he won’t be able to play in the CL until the knock-out stages in February.
Strachan speaking in the Sunday Mail about the upcoming Champions League draw and his philosophy on football in general. Some good insights and quips:
We did this thing at the end of last season.
I said to Garry Pendrey to set up two five on twos, the age-old possession drill we’ve been doing for years, five guys trying to keep the ball, two trying to get it from them, all in a set space.
Put the Scots in one box, the rest in another. It was like a cartoon in the Scottish box. Think Tasmanian Devil, when all you can see is the odd fist, leg and foot sticking out of a cloud of smoke and dust!
They were all growling and yelling and going at a million miles an hour and fighting over who was in and who wisnae.
Then you look five yards the other way and it’s like a work of art. All the European lads, Massimo, big Jan, it’s beautifully paced, nice and controlled.
But that’s the way it is. That’s the culture we have.
Not just in football - in life too. We do everything in a hurry. Walking down the street, eating, you name it.
You go away to Italy, Spain or France, go out for a meal and it’s an event, something to be savoured. We go out, belt down whatever’s put in front of us, check our watch and think ‘great, get to the pub half an hour quicker’!
It happened at lunch on Thursday with Andy Hinkel. We’re looking around the room and Andy’s sitting himself.
I said, ‘Andy, ye got nae mates?’ and he said "I did have until I remembered I was having lunch with Scotsmen’.
He was sitting back ready for a conversation and they were up and off!
The young guys rush everywhere, even to take a pass. Whoooosh! Where ye gaun? Relaaax!
If you go too quickly to the ball and the ball’s coming quickly to you, there’s less chance you’ll control it. So relax.
A few of the young lads, it’s as if they have electrodes stuck on their bollox.
We try to change the culture a bit but it will never change completely.
When I was out the game for a wee while and playing a bit of golf I went to Taylor Made and said to the guy fitting me for clubs, ‘I know I swing really fast, so I need to slow down.’ And he just laughed at me and said 'I watched you play football for years.
You might tell yourself to slow down but it’ll last two shots and you’ll be back at a million miles an hour again.’ So he gave me clubs that suited what I did. In the same way you have to integrate players into what we do here.
Look at England the other night. They need to find a game that suits their team. You can’t ask them to play like Italians, it’s madness.
You can’t tell me that a Lampard or a Gerrard, who star in the Champions League, can’t play at international level.
They’re top players. You just have to find a system for them.
There are heavyweight teams in the Champions league but no more heavyweight than Milan or Man United or Benfica.
It’s hard, but not as scary as you think.
On a real good day we have a chance of beating most teams. What we have to do, though, is simple.
There will be tactical things you can look at but fundamentally the ability to pass the ball at this level is crucial.
If you give it away it takes a long time to get it back.
Look at Barcelona when they came to Celtic Park. The number of passes we get played against us at home is usually a maximum of 250 - Barcelona completed 700 passes against us.
Tell me, how do you squeeze that many passes into 90 minutes? Seriously?
Look at our Dundee United game last week - they had about 220, we were around 310. So even the two of us put together was nowhere near what they did on their own that night.
So yes it’s an exciting week when the draw comes round and I’ve said it before, you always want someone different to pit yourself against anyway.
I said the same thing last year after we had played AC Milan a couple of times - but I certainly don’t want to see Barcelona again this year!"
Right, some Champions League research below. Obviously, there’s still stuff to be sorted out with the 2nd legs of the final qualifying round taking place this midweek and seedings could be affected but here’s how things are likely to pan out with various permutations included.
I invite members to pick 3 potentials groups for the team they support, if they’re in the draw, under the criteria of 1) easiest draw on paper, 2) most difficult draw on paper and 3) teams or ground you’d fancy seeing or visiting in the flesh irrespective of quality:
Pot 1:
Chelsea,
Manchester United,
Lyon,
Inter,
Real Madrid,
Liverpool (if they beat Standard Liege, after drawing 0-0 away),
Barcelona (4-0 up after the home leg against Wisla Krakow, should be safe),
Arsenal (2-0 up after the away leg against FC Twente, should be safe)
Pot 2:
Bayern (would move up to Pot 1 if Liverpool don’t win),
PSV,
Villarreal,
Roma,
Porto,
Bremen,
Sporting Lisbon,
Schalke (though they face a tough away game against Atletico Madrid, being just one nil up)
Pot 3:
Juventus (would move up to Pot 2 if either Liverpool or Schalke go out, they’re 4-0 up against Artmedia themselves and should be safe),
Marseille (would move up to Pot 2 if both Liverpool AND Schalke go out, they’re 1-0 up from the away leg against Brann Bergen and should be safe),
Zenit St Petersburg,
Steaua Bucharest (drew 2-2 away to Galatasaray, so should go through - not definite though),
Panathinaikos (won 2-1 away to Sparta Prague so should be safe),
Bordeaux,
Celtic,
Basel (drew 0-0 away to Guimaraes, so need to finish if off at home)
Pot 4:
Olympiakos (pumped 3-0 in Cyprus by Famagusta, unlikely to be here, but would move up to Pot 3 if they came through and any of Liverpool, Schalke, Basel go out),
Fenerbahce (drew 2-2 away to Partizan Belgrade, should go through, and would move up to Pot 3 if any 2 of Liverpool, Schalke, Basel and Olympiakos go out),
Shakhtar Donetsk (won 2-0 at home to Dinamo Zagreb, should go through and would move up to Pot 3 if any 3 of Liverpool, Schalke, Basel, Olympiakos go out),
Fiorentina (won 2-0 at home to Slavia Prague, should go through. Would move up to Pot 3 if all of Liverpool, Schalke, Basel and Olympiakos go out),
Spartak Moscow (lost 4-1 at home to Dynamo Kiev. Cheerio),
CFR Cluj
Kaunas (lost 2-0 away to Aalborg. Cheerio),
BATE Borisov (won 1-0 away to Levski Sofia. Should go through)
Possible replacements in order of seeding (would all go into Pot 4):
Atletico Madrid (1-0 down after away leg v Schalke)
Dynamo Kiev (4-1 up after away leg v Spartak)
Guimaraes (0-0 after home leg v Basel)
Standard Liege (0-0 after home leg v Liverpool)
Aalborg (2-0 up after home leg v Kaunas)
Famagusta (3-0 up after home leg v Olympiakos)
The draw’s taking place at approximately 5pm (Wexford Park time) on Thursday evening and I’m off to think about the groupings.
Bandage,
You’re dead to me
Regards
Locke
you should cancel your membership locke and contact the server host…
[quote=“Locke”]Bandage,
You’re dead to me
Regards
Locke[/quote]
Locke,
I’ll give you 5.35 if Brann go to Marseille after losing 1-0 at home and get though.
Regards,
Bandage
First things first is dealing with the qualifiers. Pot 4 could be crazy with Atletico Madrid and Famagusta sharing a pot. Short-termism it may be but from Celtic’s perspective I’d hope Schalke beat Atletico and keep Pot 4 respectable. Schalke getting eliminated could leave you with Chelsea, Juve, Celtic, Atletico Madrid.
Best draw (assuming the likely events) would be:
Lyon
Bremen
Celtic
Famagusta
Worst draw would be
Real Madrid
Bayern
Celtic
Shakhtar
I’d like to see us get one of the German teams, haven’t been there since Stuttgart away and that was a super atmosphere. Really want to avoid Shakhtar - we save our worst performance of every season for the trip to Donestk.
Don’t think Pot 2 is as strong as it has been. Roma and Bayern are the best two sides but very beatable. PSV usually put on a good show in Europe but they’re not worldbeaters.