Football Season 2023/24

[Julius]

Well freaking done Dortmund! What a team performance tonight from them, even if fortune clearly favoured them after the number of times PSG hit the woodwork tonight. 

Mbappe's last chance to bring the Champions League to PSG seemingly slipped through his fingers without having much of a say about it, but I think that was less down to him and much more down to the elite performance Dortmund put in. 

Would love to see Dortmund win it all this season. So, who's it going to be? A grudge match against their biggest domestic rivals and the team to knock them out at the death in the final at Wembley in 12/13, or a match against one of their former stars playing in the best club to grace the competition?

Going to be fun to see how it all plays out  looking forward to tomorrow night's match! 

[bob]

Anyone but Real Madrid. Their plot armour in the Champions League is just infuriating. Re-match of the 12/13 final, and then Bayern losing out to the Harry Kane curse would be perfect I reckon.

[Julius]

What a save by Neuer 

[Julius]

Screamer by Davies after Real were seemingly set to run rampant but couldn't stick it in the back of the net

Bit over 20 minutes to go. Time for Real to score, I guess. 

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Julius said:

Time for Real to score, I guess.

Lol

There it is

[Julius]

Chalked off, and rightly so

Nacho what were you thinking

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, Julius said:

Lol

There it is

I'm blaming you for this.

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Julius said:

Chalked off, and rightly so

Nacho what were you thinking

You are forgiven...for now...

[drahkon]

Should be a red card

I gotta say: it's been a lot of fun watching football since I'm neutral now.

[Julius]

And there it is (again, for real this time)

[Hero-of-Time]

Bah!

[Julius]

Lol this is going to be a looooooooong 9 minutes for Bayern

Very lucky that "fine wine" Joselu looked VERY marginally offside, but they're checking...

[Julius]

OH. MY. WORDDDDDDD.

Who could've seen this coming? (me, I saw this coming )

So anyway...Kylian who? 

Edited May 8 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

13 hours ago, bob said:

Anyone but Real Madrid. Their plot armour in the Champions League is just infuriating. Re-match of the 12/13 final, and then Bayern losing out to the Harry Kane curse would be perfect I reckon.

[Julius]

La decimoquinta is so on. 

It's like watching Fergie Time but it doesn't matter who is in charge or who's playin, it's wild. A scattering of superstars but no crazy second bench like the likes of City, just experience and people ready to bleed for the badge and who knows how to manage the game late on. Vazquez's penalty last time out is a perfect example of this. Going to be a lot of pressure on Mbappé now no matter what happens, as if there wouldn't have been anyways. 

Tuchel did the smart, coaching thing to shut up shop with little time left. But you're against Real, and suddenly needing a goal, and Kane and Sane are off. Feel for him. 

Good luck to Dortmund. They're going to need it, because as much as I want to see Reus lift it in his final season with them, it's hard to see anyone but Real coming out on top. It's their sixth UCL final in eleven seasons for crying out loud, and they've won all five previous. 

Edited May 8 by Julius

[Julius]

Interesting first half in Leverkusen where Roma were getting pushed back against the wall and Leverkusen were unleashing shot after shit, and then a penalty gives Roma some hope. 

Really fun to watch this Leverkusen side, they're just unrelenting and really solid at shutting down counters through the middle. 

[Julius]

Roma 2-0 up on the night and level on aggregate against Leverkusen. 

25 minutes for their plot armour to kick in, then...

[Julius]

Here we go 

[Julius]

Pretty sure the commentator just called Bayer Leverkusen "Bayern Munich"

Oh dear

[Julius]

OH MY GODDDDDDDD

[killthenet]

Fucking ridiculous, how many late goals is that now? 

Gutted that Villa couldn't do it, we're stretched so thin at the moment so it's a couple of games too far really. 

[Julius]

Bayer Leverkusen are now 49 games unbeaten in all competitions after turning that back around, a record in the era of regular European competition and overtaking the 48 by Eusebio's Benfica over half a century ago. 

Incredible. Indescribable. Inevitable. 

[Julius]

1 minute ago, killthenet said:

Fucking ridiculous, how many late goals is that now? 

17 after the 90th minute now this season. 

Absolutely insane stuff 

Edited May 9 by Julius

[Julius]

I think between Leverkusen and Real, what becomes apparent is just how comfortable they are once stoppage time arrives. The mental fortitude those teams have and the way that has to play on the minds of their opposition must be insane. 

Leverkusen were 3½ minutes into stoppage time and not taking it to the corner to take the safe route to the final - which pitted against Roma's need for another to make it through meant it was serious end-to-end stuff - but instead just passing it around on the edge of the final third. They looked so calm and composed, whereas as a viewer you're so used to normally seeing teams get very cagey and rush things through at that late stage, hook it into the box from any and every angle. 

Got to be the best non-UCL team in Europe since Simeone's Atletico for me. Sure, Sevilla have the trophies to back them up in this particular competition, but they've never shown this level of confidence and quality before. Just totally in control. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Went to bed when it was 1-2 thinking to myself "At least they have won over 2 legs". Woke up to find they scored again and kept their unbeaten run going. Incredible.