Judging from the players' reactions we have just seen the final.

11 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Judging from the players' reactions we have just seen the final.

I love the way the south american clubs are taking this tournament.

16 minutes ago, charierre said:

Probably as he ran on the pitch when they scored?

Ah thanks, I missed that.

Edited June 28, 20251 yr by WeatherMan

2 hours ago, evissy said:

I love the way the south american clubs are taking this tournament.

Well it means a lot for them esp money wise. It’s actually fairly unfair in the Brazilian league as the richer clubs are making even more money at this tourney.

Fluminense being the exception—no idea how they’ve made it this far.

Edited June 28, 20251 yr by acaeus

Anyone know why Brazil were allowed to have 4 teams in the competition, whereas all the UEFA nations were guillotined at 2 each (and hence Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal all missed out in spite of being well placed in the overall rankings) ?

38 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Anyone know why Brazil were allowed to have 4 teams in the competition, whereas all the UEFA nations were guillotined at 2 each (and hence Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal all missed out in spite of being well placed in the overall rankings) ?

I wondered the same thing. Turns out qualification was capped at 2 per country plus clubs that qualify as continental champions. Botafogo, Flamengo and Fluminense won the last three CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores.

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Anyone know why Brazil were allowed to have 4 teams in the competition, whereas all the UEFA nations were guillotined at 2 each (and hence Barcelona, Liverpool, Arsenal all missed out in spite of being well placed in the overall rankings)

WHY WOULD ARSENAL BE ALLOWED IN IT, HAVENT WON THE PL FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND NEVER WON THE CL

Good to see Messi and co being put in their place, HT 4-0

Luis Enrique has PSG playing like peak Barcelona.

This PSG side plays the best football I’ve seen in a decade. No tippy tappy possession bo**ocks, just high intensity fast paced football. It’s a joy to watch.

27 minutes ago, Scott said:

Luis Enrique has PSG playing like peak Barcelona.

Peak Barcelona bored me to death to be honest. Messi was the only one I enjoyed watching. PSG play much quicker and are much more entertaining to watch.

Gonna be crazy when we beat PSG in the final.

Am I right in saying the winners of this automatically qualify for the Zenith Data Systems Cup?

No it's the Full Members Cup.

The Intertoto Cup

3 hours ago, Scott said:

No it's the Full Members Cup.

Ah I see. That's why so many of the managers have bald heads. Clearly our member is still hooded

14 hours ago, Scott said:

No it's the Full Members Cup.

My first ever trip to Wembley the full members cup final, I think Colin Lee got a hat trick, loved it.

Anyway back to today, if we got to play PSG in the final it would be like 2 ends of the spectrum meeting. One plays fast, energetic, attacking football…. Then there’s us!

Edited June 30, 20251 yr by C3blue

In 1996, FIFA proposed the controversial idea of increasing the size of football goals to boost the number of goals scored in matches. It was panned across the board as a poor idea, despite the plan having Sepp Blatter’s backing. 

You may also scoff at the notion, but it was genuinely a possibility following the World Cup in America. Maybe they just wanted to ensure an incident like Diane Ross’ miss in the opening ceremony never happened again, but Blatter and many American backers were keen to push the proposal through.

7 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

In 1996, FIFA proposed the controversial idea of increasing the size of football goals to boost the number of goals scored in matches. It was panned across the board as a poor idea, despite the plan having Sepp Blatter’s backing. 

You may also scoff at the notion, but it was genuinely a possibility following the World Cup in America. Maybe they just wanted to ensure an incident like Diane Ross’ miss in the opening ceremony never happened again, but Blatter and many American backers were keen to push the proposal through.

Bit of a visionary old Blatter you know.

I particularly liked his thoughts about improving the women's game!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/16/football.gender

16 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Bit of a visionary old Blatter you know.

I particularly liked his thoughts about improving the women's game!!!

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/16/football.gender

f**king hell, what a dirty old sod !

55 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

f**king hell, what a dirty old sod !

True. But JRK in a volleyball style Chelsea kit....errm.

5 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

True. But JRK in a volleyball style Chelsea kit....errm.

You should be ashamed of yourself! 👀

Thiago Silva still got it.

Fluminense Just sent Inter Milan home.

9 minutes ago, TokyoBlue said:

Thiago Silva still got it.

Fluminense Just sent Inter Milan home.

I do think that the commentators, pundits and DAZN presenters need to have a bit of a reality check.

I am not decrying the achievements of the Brazilian clubs and the fans do bring colour and excitement to a tournament that has massively overestimated the interest it has generated in the stands. But come on. Inter were completely bolloxed from about 30 mins. Despite how knackered they were they still hit the woodwork twice, missed some absolute sitters and came up against an inspired goalkeeper.

Despite how heavy the Brazilian schedule is, they are still in the middle of their season. Inter have had a full season, pushing hard in their league. They went all the way to a CL final. most, if not all, of their players have had a full Internatonal schedule and then they have flown to the States to be forced to play in humid, top 30 degree temperatures in a tournament that has great financial value to the clubs but fck all to the players who just want a break before going again in the new season.

The tournament has been a good diversion but let's not go overboard. David and Goliath it isn’t

Edited June 30, 20251 yr by WhiteWall

30 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I do think that the commentators, pundits and DAZN presenters need to have a bit of a reality check.

I am not decrying the achievements of the Brazilian clubs and the fans do bring colour and excitement to a tournament that has massively overestimated the interest it has generated in the stands. But come on. Inter were completely bolloxed from about 30 mins. Despite how knackered they were they still hit the woodwork twice, missed some absolute sitters and came up against an inspired goalkeeper.

Despite how heavy the Brazilian schedule is, they are still in the middle of their season. Inter have had a full season, pushing hard in their league. They went all the way to a CL final. most, if not all, of their players have had a full Internatonal schedule and then they have flown to the States to be forced to play in humid, top 30 degree temperatures in a tournament that has great financial value to the clubs but fck all to the players who just want a break before going again in the new season.

The tournament has been a good diversion but let's not go overboard. David and Goliath it isn’t

I'm going to disagree with you there. I thought Fluminense was the better side today, even if Inter, like you said, could have scored. They just turned up way too late esp in the second half -- did nothing for the first 30 min.

The problem here is that Fluminense isn't the top team in south america. It's not even the top 5 in Brazil! It's really a mid table team with ageing players in several positions. They are nothing like Flamengo or Palmeiras.

My take is that Inter is really not a very good team. They managed to be competitive during the CL run, got lucky being on the right side of the bracket and playing a talented but naive young side (Barca), but were found out when played PSG. I honestly don't see a whole lot of quality in that team: their best player is Lautaro who goes missing often. They just play way too slow for me.