2014-15 UEFA Champions League Qualification

:smiley-laughing002:

Johansen didn't play poor in the first leg either. Actually quite a lot had him as their MOTM after that game.

Fact is Biton has done * all so far to suggest he's a better option to us over Mulgrew and Ronny is more than clued up enough to know he can't be messing about for one of our most important games of the season and dropping arguably his top performer so far for a guy who's hardly played.

 

I don't really know, because Biton looks a real prospect but is still unproven in Europe (brief cameo against Ajax aside). Mulgrew has played well for us at CL level for two seasons now, in addition to being pretty much a fixture in the side domestically. There's just no way I'd leave him out for Biton in a game of this importance.

Edit; Biton's one for the future, though. Little doubt about that.

 

Right, about Legia...

I have been watching Legia since 1990/91 season, and I am completely and utterly appalled with their performance this season; the last season wasn't much better, for that matter, despite winning the Polish league (probably one of the weakest, if not THE weakest professional league in Europe). It is probably the worst Legia side in the last 24 years (since I remember):

- there's no quality striker in the team;
- the left and right backs are absolutely atrocious
- the coach is clueless (playing his men out of positions, making nonsensical substitutions, making a mess of squad rotation system) and has no international experience whatsoever
- there is no player in the current Legia squad even remotely resembling a playmaker
- Legia lost the SuperCup 2-3 to * Zawisza at their own stadium, they also lost 0-1 against the newly promoted GKS Bełchatów at home, and drew against half-* team from Dublin (sure, they won the rematch, but the score was much better than their actual performance)
- the transfers they made this season are a joke (Piech from relegated Lubin, Lewczuk from Zawisza and young Szwoch from 2nd division Arka), especially if they want to avoid embarassement in Europe.

Positive sides? Well, they have a good keeper, and Radović is a decent player on his day, but that's pretty much it.

If I were to compare Legia to an English team, I'd say Huddersfield Town are their closest equivalent.

So, to sum things up--Legia is the weakest Polish Champion since 2007, when Zagłębie Lubin won it, and it would be a major shock if Celtic failed to win both legs comfortably.

My prediction: Legia-Celtic 0-2; Celtic-Legia 4-0.

 

Seen a few things on Legia forums, using translations it seems to involve hanging and killing 'Us' as we are 'Communist Antifa scum' this should be fun.

 

Any links, mate? This sounds stupid even by the Polish internet trolls standards.

It is true that fans of most Polish football clubs are rather of a right-wing affiliation (with the possible exception of Polonia Warsaw), but that's just sad legacy of 45 years of communist rule in our country.

 

I've been watching the Ekstraklasa fairly regularly for a few years now and I have to say I disagree with almost all of what you said.

The Polish League is much better than you are giving it credit for and is top to bottom a much better league than Scotland. There is a reason the league is ranked ahead of Scotland in the Uefa rankings even when Scotland has a team the caliber of Celtic boosting the ratings. Obviously Poland doesn't have a team that is as good as Celtic but it generally has many teams better than the second placed Scottish team.

-I agree with you that Legia don't have a good out and out striker but Radovic has filled in there and played pretty well.

-I also agree with you that the rb Broz is a liability. The lb Brzyski on the other hand is decent imo, not a world beater but he is sound defensively.

-From his limited time with Legia I would say Berg has done very well so far, he got them playing very well in the second half of last year and progressed through the European tie where Legia were favorites.

-I completely disagree about the lack of a playmaker. Duda has always really impressed me and I think he is destined for the absolute top of the game. Radovic is also a very good playmaker but as I said earlier he will probably play striker.

-The two poor results you mentioned came while Legia were fielding what amounted to reserve sides.

-while I would love your predicted score to come to fruition I can't see it. Look at our results in Europe the last few years, we haven't hammered any of the halfway decent sides we have played, all of whom are worse than Legia imo.

 

The polish league cant be anything special if players like Marco Paixao can score 21 goals & even Brozek got 17 & he was awful.

 

Good! That's what internet fora are all about--agreeing, disagreeing and discussing stuff. A foreigner watching Polish league regularly! How the times change!

Well, Mike, it is awfully nice of you to say so, but even if Polish league is marginally better than Scottish (and that's a big IF), it is still one of the weakest professional leagues in Europe, and you only have to look at Polish clubs' results in Europe to see it. For crying out loud, it's been 18 years since we've had a Polish team in CL!

Radović is not a natural striker, and Legia can't rely on him to fill in all their multitudinous gaps.

The problem is that, apart from the lack of skill in defence, they also seem very weak physically this season. Maybe it's a case of bad pre-season preparations--yesterday they didn't look that much better physically than the Irish half-* side.

Last year he took over the team prepared by Jan Urban. This year he was doing the preparations himself and, by the look of it, he must have done something wrong there.

I wouldn't call Duda a playmaker; a good, fast offensive midfielder but still inexperienced and looks out of form at the beginning of the season. As for Radović--his natural position is AM behind the striker, but he's not a classical playmaker either.

Well, the Legia board and coaching staff are trying to convince everyone in Poland that Legia has two equally strong first 11s, and the worst thing is they are probably right--both first team and rotation players look equally "strong".

One way or another, thank you for your kind words about Legia and Polish League, but my inner realist can't help but dismiss your compliments as mere courtesy.

 

The first major test for Deila and Collins.

Really excited for these games

 

Cheers guy for the positive reception

@blizzard bhoy
We do but it's in Polish with no English sub-forum.
Actually, it's a bit of an old-school design and I hope it stays this way
http://www.cracovia.krakow.pl/

@Torq, Walking By
I believe both you are Polish so... "Dzień Dobry"

I am honestly wondering why you are saying this is one of the worst or even THE worst Legia side in decades.
If you have been following Ekstraklasa for years, you must remember Wisła's domination. Excluding 1 or 2 years when Wisła had a really good squad they were pretty much mediocre. Flops like the one with Levadia or Qarabaq clearly show how powerful they were at those times. And still Legia could not cope with Wisła during those days.
To add to that - Legia's defeats with Vetra Vilnius and clubs from that sort...
Cmon - you will never ever convince me that this side is the worst or even one of the worst in their contemporary history.
About weak Ekstraklasa champions - don't you remember Śląsk? They were truly appalling.
All in all - yes, Legia is not a strong team, maybe not even solid in general terms but they can't be considered as utter crap as it simply would not be fair and realistic.

Cheers

 

@Cracovia:

Dzień dobry! Miło spotkać rodaka na zagranicznym forum

Natomiast jeżeli chodzi o Legię...

well, as I said, I have been following Ekstraklasa in general and Legia in particular for about 25 years, and the current Legia team is to the best of my judgement most utterly and emphatically sh*te. I doubt if even 2 or 3 players of the current team would make it to the Legia's match squad in the early or mid 90s, and, yes, in terms of squad quality I do think they are weaker even than they were when Wisła dominated the Polish league.

Oh, well... I suppose we can go on like that ad infinitum, trying to establish if Legia is: a) truly crap, b) appalingly weak or maybe c) only moderately sh*te, but the bottom line is: Celtic are dead cert to qualify to the next round and people who think differently are only deluding themselves.

 

We have the same debate about the Newco :icon_mrgreen:

I like the sound of that

 

If we do make through this round who will we be drawn against? The winners of the league route?

 

Probably end up playing a Swedish team again, Malmö FF this time that is:smiley-laughing002:They are leading the Swedish league tbh, but only managed to win 1-0 agg against Ventspills.

 

@Torq
You think Celtic are a dead cert to go through, while I believe they are favourites but not definite ones
As a prophet would state:
"We will say what time will tell" :icon_mrgreen:

For all you guys who are like "*???" - please check this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQa7Setip_o

It's quite long but worth the while
The questions and the adorable answer comes at 0:50

Cheers

 

Hey guys,

I'm Legia Warsaw fan living in the Isle Of Man! Can't wait for the first match between our teams! Looking forward for a good show from our team and ultras!

Here is what you can expect in Warsaw:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54twKp8k_SY"]Ultras World in Warsaw - Legia vs Lech Poznan (01.06.2014) - YouTube[/ame]

T.

 

He is in the opinion of many Celtic supporters. There's that conversation put to bed.

 

The atmosphere over the two legs should be outstanding.

 

Anyone know when we last played a Polish side (competitively), and what is our record against Polish teams like?

 

How many times does the interpreter say "molto bravo"? :smiley-laughing002: