2 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

I don't know which one is which.

Saka, is the one in the red shirt.

Very difficult to take much away from this game tbh. That's the weakest opposition I've seen in a while.
Goalie is way too frail and let everything in without reaction; their DM (Ogbelu) had a real problem with the football, and the rest of the team wasn't much better. The icing on the cake was their manager body language during the match: it's difficult to make people feel unsympathetic for the underdog, but he managed to do just that.

Glad to rest some tired legs, so that was the best thing about this match. Perhaps let Sanchez "rest" a bit longer?

Thoroughly enjoyed watching Acheampong. Reminded me of RLC in the way he's so athletic and elegant on the ball, just brilliant to watch.

Josh is better than Gusto.

KDH & Essugo getting more minutes than Santos is telling.

Their goalie made Sanchez look like prime Oliver Kahn.

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

Thoroughly enjoyed watching Acheampong. Reminded me of RLC in the way he's so athletic and elegant on the ball, just brilliant to watch.

Boy must have hit the gym real hard.... vaguely remember that frail guy getting bullied in the PL. He looks ready for minutes now.

Finding any decent highlights has been quite a mission this morning LOL.

Best I could find was via Italian DAZN : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxEjCaGpWnY

First goal - good freekick from Enzo and great header from Tosin past a static GK (quality of the header for me rather than bad keeping)

Second goal: nice pass from Enzo to Delap who made an opportunity for himself to shoot and scored with a shot that was more placement than power LOL and that the keeper managed to make no move towards again (wrong footed himself). Great to see Liam off the mark !

Third goal : Shot from distance from Tyrique George which the keeper made a real mess of. Lateral pass from Santos for the assist.

Sofascore had Enzo as MoTM so well done to him. He does like a game against weak opposition LOL

Well done to Maresca for resting all the key players and giving a run out to some others that would have been chomping at the bit. Anselmino the only one not to feature so far I think ?

If anyone is interested, this is the Sofascore data for the 4 midfielders used in this game :

Most tackles from Andrey Santos, who played the fewest minutes ! This was also something he was very good on at Strasbourg if I recall correctly.

Edited June 25, 20251 yr by Sexyfootball

2 hours ago, evissy said:

So we face Benfica then? Would have preferred Bayern from the two but it should be a good game.

Ok I'll bite ... why would you have preferred playing Bayern to Benfica ?

16 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Ok I'll bite ... why would you have preferred playing Bayern to Benfica ?

When people started talking we'll face Bayern I started to like the idea of it. Not really a logical answer to it more if a feeling side.

Winning Bayern will give fans and the squad much more than Benfica I feel as a solitary game. And if we lose to Benfica this place will be a cesspit until the next game. 😅

Anyway I like our path to SF naturally after all the results.

Heard Acheampong did very well as a ball progressing CB.

Saw Delap's goal. Nice close control. Jackson would've tripped himself.

Doesn't sound like I missed much. Disappointment in Santos' minutes, great goal from Delap and a good performance from Josh by all accounts. On to the knockout stage which will give us a decent down payment for Garnacho.

6 hours ago, abramovich said:

Thoroughly enjoyed watching Acheampong. Reminded me of RLC in the way he's so athletic and elegant on the ball, just brilliant to watch.

I really like him as well. I said during the game that he needs to improve his decision making and some of his passing accuracy, but I do genuinely think that will improve with game time. Also, I know it was only a cameo when the opposition were already on the canvas but I did like the look of Sarr as well.

6 hours ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Josh is better than Gusto.

KDH & Essugo getting more minutes than Santos is telling.

Especially as Santos, in his br8ef spell had the shot that led to the, eventually overturned, penalty as well as the assist for the third goal.

5 hours ago, acaeus said:

Boy must have hit the gym real hard.... vaguely remember that frail guy getting bullied in the PL. He looks ready for minutes now.

Much as I confess to having a mission against Badiashille it also looked like he'd been on the weights as well

9 hours ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Josh is better than Gusto.

KDH & Essugo getting more minutes than Santos is telling.

With hindsight I’m not so sure. Maresca said pre match that he needs more time to get up to speed with the way we play.

I can’t see us selling him this window at least and I think he’ll be given a decent chance until January at least

Just now, The Rising Sun said:

Spot on

On 25/06/2025 at 06:46, Bebe1980 said:

Saka, is the one in the red shirt.

Cheers mate, I can only tell them apart by the shirts they are wearing.

😂

On 25/06/2025 at 15:05, WhiteWall said:

Much as I confess to having a mission against Badiashille it also looked like he'd been on the weights as well