14 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Just chatting with a couple of City fans at work and they very much believe that we faced much weakened City sides in the last two games and that they have much too good a side that will be better rested by the final and that it is their destiny to win it.

That seems to be a common opinion not only amongst the city fans but also a lot of "neutrals". The term "destiny" is brought up often, as is the feeling City will be rested and will be drilling themselves from now until the final on how to dominate TT and our system, while we are under pressure each game and have a heavy workload.

Very few actually given us a chance in this game, more seems many feel we are just there so City have someone to beat and beat comfortably.

Tbh that's exactly how I see it - that first paragraph. Pep would have never fielded this player-combination if it were the CL final. But they played to win and Pep certainly had his plan(s) set up yet they didn't work and they fully deserved their losses.

 

Not sure about the "very few", but I'd see us as slightly being underdogs. If everybody stays fit and we're not talking shenengian-pens and reds I'd say it's about 60/40 in favor for City, which is not much better than a toin coss. Since they don't score much on a regular basis nowadays and our emphasise on "defensive" and collective approach I don't think this will be a remake of the Liverpool - Spurs final (probably the worst final I've ever witnessed) and coud just as well go into OT and shoot-out.

Edited May 12, 20215 yr by weetee

Uefa have confirmed that Spanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateou Lahoz has been appointed to oversee the UCL Final.

Back in 2018. Lahoz sent Guordiola off at halftime of city's  quaterfinal second leg tie with liverpool. Speaking after the game , Guordiola said of Lahoz: " He likes to be different, he likes to be special"

I just hope this guy is invisible and lets both teams play the beautiful game

Lahoz is a strange dude - but there are far worse. We've got a pretty tame team so we should be ok...Rüdiger needs to stay chilled though

 

Edited May 12, 20215 yr by weetee

A Jolly to Portugal, if you're going then....

4 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

A Jolly to Portugal, if you're going then....

I’ll get my puffa puffa jacket...

Final confirmed to be played in Porto. tickets allocated to us + those lucky enough to get a ticket in UEFA's draw for general sale tickets.

 

 

20 minutes ago, Sindre said:

 

Dark blue seats, excellent. Home away from home... 

 

 

...which isn't necessarily always a good thing 

38 minutes ago, Sindre said:

 

There's been rumours surfacing today that Portugal won't let Brits in even after May 17th.

Hopefully it's bs.

54 minutes ago, Argo said:

There's been rumours surfacing today that Portugal won't let Brits in even after May 17th.

Hopefully it's bs.

What is being said here in portuguese media is that the Man City and Chelsea supporters are expected. Isn't that one of the reasons why Uefa chose Portugal?

 

 

17 minutes ago, seveN said:

What is being said here in portuguese media is that the Man City and Chelsea supporters are expected. Isn't that one of the reasons why Uefa chose Portugal?

 

 

Apparently it's because the UK aren't making sporting excemptions for people in Amber/red zones.

20 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Uefa have confirmed that Spanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateou Lahoz has been appointed to oversee the UCL Final.

Back in 2018. Lahoz sent Guordiola off at halftime of city's  quaterfinal second leg tie with liverpool. Speaking after the game , Guordiola said of Lahoz: " He likes to be different, he likes to be special"

I just hope this guy is invisible and lets both teams play the beautiful game

I hope that our wins against Sevilla, Atletico and Real Madrid won't matter to him.

At the moment any person coming from a third country (outside the EU) has to have an essential reason to enter Portugal. I expect that this has been discussed with UEFA and that this is going to change once the country is in the UK's green list. The Portuguese journals are talking about brits being able to travel to the country from next week onward, but the official websites information has not been changed yet.

Last night could inadvertently help us for this final.

We have got atleast two do or die games coming up whereas City have been playing glorified friendly's since the semi's, that should give us the match sharpness advantage.

27 minutes ago, Argo said:

Last night could inadvertently help us for this final.

We have got atleast two do or die games coming up whereas City have been playing glorified friendly's since the semi's, that should give us the match sharpness advantage.

So long as we dont lose key players to injury.

Does anyone know the logistics of going to the final? I’ve heard on the radio it may have to be chartered flights and fans only have 48 hours to fly in and out of the country. 

Confirmed Brits allowed into Portugal.

Let's park the bus and hope to nip a 1-0.  Our only chance really.  We don't create enough and all they do is create. 

If we lose here it’s all in @sonic90 for going back on his word. 
 

If we win though I’ll have to go full kit w**ker for future finals. 

5 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

If we lose here it’s all in @sonic90 for going back on his word. 
 

If we win though I’ll have to go full kit w**ker for future finals. 

Only if we play in the pink for the final which is not oging to be the case. If we win this final I buy this horrid kit and that is a promise on my life

10 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

Only if we play in the pink for the final which is not oging to be the case. If we win this final I buy this horrid kit and that is a promise on my life

So now that TT has made 47 changes to the lineup for the last few games and we no longer have an in form best 11, do we just pick names out of a hat for this final?

I know many on here will post all sorts of confident things to maintain a face of being an Uber fan, but I can’t believe that anyone can hand on heart really believe we’ve a snowball in Hells chance against City. I’ve lost all hope of an upset. When you can’t score and can barely even manage an attempt on goal and you have no chance against anyone, let alone Man City.

It was always going to be a huge ask to beat them, but we could have at least given ourselves some chance by selecting our best in-form 11 for the last five games and giving it everything. This bizarre resting and changing thing isn’t giving us refreshed players, it’s just losing any sense of a team we might have had.

I feel utter despondency about this now. There is more chance of me waking up tomorrow morning to find out coronavirus has gone than us wining the CL.

The small hope I might have had on the back of the Madrid performances has evaporated in 6 or 7 changes per match.  Winging it looks to be our strategy. Or are we trying to trick City into resting most of their players for their preseason fixtures?

 

We lost to a poor Arsenal side and a good Leicester side.

We are going to get a caining from an amazing City team I fear. Such a shame our two wins over them recently are now meaningless.

On 10/05/2021 at 15:44, acidicleo said:

 

Ok Pastor, clearly your prayers are not needed anymore for this one. Maybe you can focus them on something more important now.