UCL Campaign 2019/2020

We finished above the team that finished third in Bundesliga and got put out by the team that just won the Copa Del Rey and finished 4th in La Liga. I want to be doing better but a bit of perspective wouldn’t go amiss either ffs.

 

This gets overlooked. Admittedly Leipzig weren't at full strength and didn't press us like Salzburg did, but it's an achievement. People act like Rodgers did * all in Europe.

 

I don’t doubt it we’ve regressed, we’ve defo taken some sore defeats, but it’s not as bad as many let on. I was at the 2-1 Leipzig game and it was a performance to be proud of against a very decent side - the away leg to Valencia was another standout, had certain things fallen for us and had we signed a competent RB we might’ve even stood a chance of getting a result. I don’t really see us spending too much either tbh, but the 9m we did spend for Edouard didn’t come from winning the SPL. Budgeted or not, we need European money and exposure to progress.

 

Lennon proved himself in Europe by beating Barcelona and more tellingly getting us to the last 16 of the CL something the Rodgers was no where near achieving. If Lennon is given the opportunity to bring in some quality players then Im more optimistic about Europe than if Rodgers had still be in charge.

 

People hang their hat on that Barcelona win but there were many other notable wins that under Rodgers we didn’t look like emulating, beating Spartak Moscow home and away to qualify, beating Ajax at home, you can also say losing in the Nou Camp to a late in injury time goal was a great performance.

I’m upbeat about Europe under Lenny, whether that’s misplaced or not we will wait and see

 

Want Sutjeska Niksic purely because I'll be in Montenegro at the time.

The downer on the Lennon appointment has kind of lifted with me a bit today, he knows these qualifiers and wont * about, will set us up better aswell no doubt.

 

If all of the top seeds qualify, these will be the seeding pots for the group stage:

Pot 1

Tottenham Hotspur/Liverpool
Chelsea
Barcelona
Manchester City
Juventus
Bayern München
Paris Saint-Germain
Zenit

Pot 2

Real Madrid
Atlético Madrid
Porto
Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Tottenham Hotspur/Liverpool
Ajax

Pot 3

Benfica
Dynamo Kyiv
Lyon
Bayer Leverkusen
Red Bull Salzburg
Valencia
Internazionale
Celtic

Pot 4

København
Dinamo Zagreb
Lokomotiv Moskva
Genk
Galatasaray
RB Leipzig
Atalanta
Lille

Another incentive to qualify!

 

So your looking at

PSG
Real Madrid
Galatasary

 

Knowing our luck, aye.

 

So if that is based on all of the top seeds going through, then I take it this means we are guaranteed to be in pot 3 if we make it?

 

Aye

 

Wow. That could be potentially massive. Another reason that we need to invest correctly this summer.

 

Sort out the defense and we should get through these ties, always difficult going away from home in the later rounds but Lennon can set the team up a bit more defensive than Rodgers could and then counter attack,
Ideally we would have Benkovic again on loan,And 1 or 2 new fullbacks.

 

Zenit porto and genk plz

 

Let's get by Pinkafeld first.

 

Man City
Real Madrid
Celtic
RB Leipzig

 

6 games watched from behind the couch.

 

So let’s have this right...if we get through 8 qualifying games in the summer we will be deemed a better team than some teams that have been put straight into the groups without having to play 1 qualifying game?

Surely in a “fair” competition the higher seeded national Champion teams should be going straight in to the group and the pot 4 teams like Atalanta, Lille and Leipzig should be doing the qualifying rounds....that would be logic but sadly UEFA is dictated by corruption rather than logic

 

in the context of modern football it's probably not fair that we would have qualified for the champions league 8 years in a row, while Leicester wouldn't have winning the English league, using that logic.

 

Well if you are going to subscribe to the same mindset as UEFA and dress it up as “modern football” then you are clearly not going to agree with me are you, it’s exactly the structure of “modern football” that I’m moaning about,

The logic you are pointing out is completely twisting my point or maybe you didn’t read it properly, I was clearly referring to clubs who were NOT national champions and quoted examples