19 minutes ago, General said:

2 bob draw, no luck at all just like with the domestic cups, I doubt that not even the most optimistic among us can see making it to Istanbul now ??

Make it to the final? All depends on our top players staying fit, in form and free of suspensions.

Meaning Enzo, Kante, James and Chilwell at the minimum need to be pulling up trees and Kepa needs to be at the top of his game. An early return from injury from Silva would help too.

6 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

I'm not sure I understand this ?

This should help.
The full path to the final is shown in the picture. I have shown Path A in blue and Path B in red.
In the final there will be a single "blue" team and a single "red" team.

In theory both paths to the final should be equally strong, but if you look at the teams things are quite curious. In my opinion every major favorite to win the whole tournament is in the blue path.

4 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I actually think we can win this tie especially if Kante returns

Kante was the reason we lost against them last season though 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Kante needs a good run of games for match fitness as well.

Edited March 17, 20233 yr by Malcolm9

22 minutes ago, Preap said:

This should help.
The full path to the final is shown in the picture. I have shown Path A in blue and Path B in red.
In the final there will be a single "blue" team and a single "red" team.

In theory both paths to the final should be equally strong, but if you look at the teams things are quite curious. In my opinion every major favorite to win the whole tournament is in the blue path.

I see it now, and you're right !

Thanks for the explanation.

7 hours ago, Mário César said:

bayern in bundesliga are a little bit inconsistent and I think the won against psg was a little overhyped

lets see but I dont know wether they can beat city 

real madrid is not so good than last year which I think is good for us and I think that their lack of deep can hurt them 

Pep against his old team...he's bound to be "too clever" again 😝

8 hours ago, El regreso said:

Looking at Madrid against Liverpool they can be got at and we have the pace and skill to do so !!

We can't do it in league games though.  

We would have to transform ourselves beyond belief.

 But you never know ,,,,

If we are serious about winning the CL, may as well beat the best team before the final, so I'm happy with the draw.

2 minutes ago, mojo said:

Silva won't be back for rhe first leg apparently. Losing any of the others would be a blow, James and Enzo would be a dire loss.

When Di Matteo took over at Chelsea we were 3 0 down in the first leg vs Napoli ….. Roberto had done ok at Mk dons and WBA …… the rest is history 

this can be done 😊

ofc is can be done 

benzema will not play agains barcelona 

how many injuries he already had this season?

I don't know whether it's the optimism or the St Patrick's day pints but I'm happy we've got Real Madrid. We should have beaten them last year so we've fit the chance to avenge it this year.

Out of the 3 teams (+ Napoli) I wanted us to avoid, Madrid our probably the most beatable across two games imo. I think Bayern and City have the better squads and are better sides currently, despite Real being the reigning world champions. 

This is the conclusion of the triology for us after never drawing each other in KO football in the UCL, we get each other 3 seasons straight. Funny how football works. As others have mentioned before the big players have to be up for it and these are games we cannot afford to be missing chances. We must be ruthless in front of goal. 

So important now to build up form in the league, we need to be playing at our highest optimal level for the rest of the season to have any chance of doing the unthinkable for the 3rd time. 

Personally I don't think Real will win again this season, I think were they to get past us, Bayern have too much for them. I also think if City make it past Bayern they will win the UCL it just feels like this may finally be there season with how much weaker the other side of the bracket is, even if they get Napoli providing Pep doesn't Pep it up they should be favourites. 

Drawing City for the third time in a KO will be rough though if both English sides do progress. I hope Mount recovers form too, we need the bulk of our UCL winning side back to their best to overcome a Madrid side that can struggle with fast, physical football which we can play.

Right now I suppose we can't look past Madrid, I think they're favourites especially considering the context of our season and tbf there's they won't win the league so this is their season and ours. Think Anceolotti probably outfoxes Potter over two games, yet strangely Potter seems to cope well in the UCL. I'm curious more than optimistic or pessimistic of our chances, if Potter takes us to the semis I think that will give him more credit in the bank I suppose.

32 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I hope Mount recovers form too, we need the bulk of our UCL winning side back to their best to overcome a Madrid side that can struggle with fast, physical football which we can play.

Realistically, I can only see 3, maybe 4 max, of the CL winning team playing in this QF tie :

Mendy - probably not going to replace Kepa after so long out of the team, even if recovered from injury

Azpilicueta - no way he'd be picked ahead of Fofana at RCB, or James at RWB/RB

Thiago Silva - probably still going to be unavailable due to injury ?

Rudiger - left club

James - YES

Jorginho - left club

Kante - a big risk due to lack of match fitness/sharpness. Not sure either that he even gets in the team in a double pivot ahead of Enzo and Kovacic.

Chilwell - YES

Mount - question marks over injury status and loss of form ... 

Havertz - YES

Werner - left club

Enzo, Silva, and James on yellow cards. 

Question must be asked if we should leave them out of the 1st leg in favor of going all out in the 2nd? Where cards reset in the semi-finals?

44 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Enzo, Silva, and James on yellow cards. 

Question must be asked if we should leave them out of the 1st leg in favor of going all out in the 2nd? Where cards reset in the semi-finals?

Too big a gamble for me.

Even with them Real have the potential to take the tie away from us in a half, imagine if they do it via Vini JR destroying Azpi and/or pressing the crap out of whoever the hell we put in Enzo's place to great sucess. Potter would get crucified.

On 17/03/2023 at 20:15, The Rising Sun said:

Suddenly lots of optimism with Potter's abilities to get us thru !

😀😀😀

If the players can't get up for the CL, then they don't deserve to be here

16 minutes ago, Deino said:

If the players can't get up for the CL, then they don't deserve to be here

Absolutely right.

Personally I reckon players should be up for every game.

But some games are very special and bring out something in a team that wasn't evident before.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Enzo, Silva, and James on yellow cards. 

Question must be asked if we should leave them out of the 1st leg in favor of going all out in the 2nd? Where cards reset in the semi-finals?

Silva likely won't be back from his injury. 

Have to play our best players. If Real do to us what they did to Pool in the first leg then we would have zip all chance in the return leg, with or without Enzo and Reece.

We need a result in Spain, we need out best team to shut down Vini Jnr and cut off Benzemas supply line.

We also need to defend a lot, lot better than yesterday.

Reals team after watching our defending vs Everton:

9 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

We also need to defend a lot, lot better than yesterday.

Reals team after watching our defending vs Everton:

Could be use against real and in our favour 

be a underdog sometimes its a good thing and in this way we won 2 ucls

Edited March 19, 20233 yr by Mário César

if Liverpool were demolished at home in the 1st leg 5:2 just imagine us at Bernabeu on the 12th of April

painfull reality check yesterday

47 minutes ago, mojo said:

if Liverpool were demolished at home in the 1st leg 5:2 just imagine us at Bernabeu on the 12th of April

painfull reality check yesterday

two different competitions 

lets wait and see

yesterday was a decent performance until potter make the subs

17 minutes ago, Mário César said:

two different competitions 

lets wait and see

yesterday was a decent performance until potter make the subs

I am afraid Potter will park the bus from minute one in Madrid which would be our demise.