UEFA Champions league 2014/15

[Crazyshot]

• 17 to 25 Feb/2015

 

Paris SG - Chelsea

Shakhtar - Bayern

Schalke - R. Madrid

Basilea - Oporto

Man. City - Barcelona

Juventus - Dortmund

Arsenal - Mónaco

B.Leverkusen - At. Madrid

[Warning.]

My expectations for the winning teams:

 

 

• 17 to 25 Feb/2015
•  
• Paris SG - Chelsea (I really dont know what to expect, but i hope PSG will win, so my vote goes to them)
• Shakhtar - Bayern
• Schalke - R. Madrid
• Basilea - Oporto
• Man. City - Barcelona
• Juventus - Dortmund
• Arsenal - Mónaco
• B.Leverkusen - At. Madrid

Just realise most of the teams i got on winning also went through last year.

[ShadowFax]

I think...Barca will win the whole Tourney this year...Messi is on fire atm, and with Suarez and Neymar either side...MSN > BBC (lol)

[Aniky]

I think...Barca will win the whole Tourney this year...Messi is on fire atm, and with Suarez and Neymar either side...MSN > BBC (lol)

 

This is kind of stupid to say, the trio of Barca is only currently better due to the fact that Messi has found his old form again and is performing most of the work on the pitch, considering any decent defence can stop instantly Neymar as he has no body strenght and cant go for those duels (great case was vs Atletico Madrid), Suarez is just now getting into the teamplay of Barca and that will still take some time before it effects it on full scale.

 

Considering Real Madrid, since nearly half the season till now, most of the important players were out due to injuries, Modrič (main organizator of game with Kroos together), Ramos, James and so on. Basically u cant really consider comparing those two duos when most important ppl from Real were out of the pitch during this period of crysis at Real.

 

We clearly saw at the beginning after first couple of games, when Real's team got some teamwork on, that they were unbeatable and even defeating Barca at first el classico 3-1, with Ronaldo scoring amazing amount of goals and Messi not being anywhere near it. At this point, yeh, the trio of Barca is better, as Bale is horrible, Benz is somehow not doing anything proper and Ronaldo simply needs to start putting effort into the game thats expected from him. I would say after James comes back and Real will have complete first lineup again, after couple of games u can start realizing who has got better forward, but not currently imo.

[ShadowFax]

This is kind of stupid to say, the trio of Barca is only currently better due to the fact that Messi has found his old form again and is performing most of the work on the pitch, considering any decent defence can stop instantly Neymar as he has no body strenght and cant go for those duels (great case was vs Atletico Madrid), Suarez is just now getting into the teamplay of Barca and that will still take some time before it effects it on full scale.

 

Considering Real Madrid, since nearly half the season till now, most of the important players were out due to injuries, Modrič (main organizator of game with Kroos together), Ramos, James and so on. Basically u cant really consider comparing those two duos when most important ppl from Real were out of the pitch during this period of crysis at Real.

 

We clearly saw at the beginning after first couple of games, when Real's team got some teamwork on, that they were unbeatable and even defeating Barca at first el classico 3-1, with Ronaldo scoring amazing amount of goals and Messi not being anywhere near it. At this point, yeh, the trio of Barca is better, as Bale is horrible, Benz is somehow not doing anything proper and Ronaldo simply needs to start putting effort into the game thats expected from him. I would say after James comes back and Real will have complete first lineup again, after couple of games u can start realizing who has got better forward, but not currently imo.

 

Yeah but that's why I think Barcelona will win it. You look at the form of all the players, and Barca's trio is running riot compared to Madrid's. I'm a Ronaldo fan, so I wish/hope Im  wrong, but I think Barca will win the tourney. During the first el classico, Suarez had never played for Barca before, and it was his first ever Spanish League game, so he was inevitably going to struggle with the change in environment. Neymar has the skills and trickery to outplay the defence, therefore not always requiring the body strength of someone like Benzema. Just look at Messi, he barely has any body strength and is arguably the best player in the world. I also don't believe that the BBC trio are working together as a unit. Ronaldo's reaction when Bale scored (major talking point over the internet) proves that. They aren't linking up together, unlike MSN are.

 

I don't believe Madrid have a decent defence either, Varane is still young and learning, Ramos isn't bad but still a bit shaky at times, and Pepe...is well, Pepe. Prime example was the second leg against Schalke. A fairly mediocre-decent team basically tore them apart, and if it hadn't of been for Ronaldo, then Madrid would be out. 

 

I think they major threats for Barca are going to be Bayern Munich. Pep knows Barca inside out pretty much, knows how Messi plays, and Bayern have a decent defense. I think the final will be Barca vs Bayern, but with the likes of MSN going forward, I don't think even the Bayern defence will be able to hold out for 90mins. 

[Aniky]

Yeah but that's why I think Barcelona will win it. You look at the form of all the players, and Barca's trio is running riot compared to Madrid's. I'm a Ronaldo fan, so I wish/hope Im  wrong, but I think Barca will win the tourney. During the first el classico, Suarez had never played for Barca before, and it was his first ever Spanish League game, so he was inevitably going to struggle with the change in environment. Neymar has the skills and trickery to outplay the defence, therefore not always requiring the body strength of someone like Benzema. Just look at Messi, he barely has any body strength and is arguably the best player in the world. I also don't believe that the BBC trio are working together as a unit. Ronaldo's reaction when Bale scored (major talking point over the internet) proves that. They aren't linking up together, unlike MSN are.

 

I don't believe Madrid have a decent defence either, Varane is still young and learning, Ramos isn't bad but still a bit shaky at times, and Pepe...is well, Pepe. Prime example was the second leg against Schalke. A fairly mediocre-decent team basically tore them apart, and if it hadn't of been for Ronaldo, then Madrid would be out. 

 

I think they major threats for Barca are going to be Bayern Munich. Pep knows Barca inside out pretty much, knows how Messi plays, and Bayern have a decent defense. I think the final will be Barca vs Bayern, but with the likes of MSN going forward, I don't think even the Bayern defence will be able to hold out for 90mins. 

Yeh and yet they were foolish enough to put Suarez from starting lineup, regardless of not having any teamplay at all generated before, thinking he could actually show off something. It true that Neymar is technically skilled, but here u are wrong, in order to actually gain any kind of advantage over the skills he has, u require body strenght to keep up to ball afterwards, which was clearly shown during Atletico Madrid game where Neymar was near to none-existant in entire game, as a decent strong defence can quickly shut him down. Hum Messi might not be shown as some bulked player such as Benz and Ronaldo, but he has a lot of body strenght to keep the ball in his posesission compared to Neymar in the other side, specially knowing how to keep the ball long enough to gain faul out of it afterwards.

I agree upon the fact that BBC is not really in harmony of celebrating the goals, simply put, watched the last game against Levante where Ronaldo got mad due to the fact that his shot got defended by defender on goal line and afterwards Bale putting that ball into back of the net, making Ronaldo pissed and rest can be seen on the video. They still need to work on teamwork, or more likely, Ancelotti has to work on it, due to the fact he has to lower the ego of Ronaldo, which honestly annoys me, and im a fan of Real for over 15 years, but damn, have i never seen more egositic player than him.

Biggest mistake of Real is forcing too many balls onto Ronaldo, consdering that they completly shut down Bale from even trying to shoot onto goal or giving him any kind of free kicks from right side, which i am 100% sure, he can execute them better than Ronaldo, knowing his efficiency is bad as f*** when it comes to free kicks, while on the other side Bale has an amazing left foot which he has already proven many times. If they would play less on Ronaldo and let Benzema/Bale more freedom on pitch, Real would be 10x better and more dangerous and not being predictable as it is now that every ball has to end at Ronaldo.

 

Considering defence, u honestly cant even compare those two, Real's main defence, talking about Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe, Carvajal, cant honestly be compared to Barca's as they will beat them anyday anytime anywhere in all honestly and thats a fact that everyone knows, they have better agility, better strenght, even wingers, both Marcelo and Carvajal are much more efficient than Barca's and i wont even start at head control, specially corners and passes from side, where Real always dominate, considering Ramos is one of the best head player on the world, u add there Pepe, who is also great with head and then at top of it Ronaldo, who we all know, is by far one of the best predictable head kicker u cant really be comparing defences of those two clubs. Barcelona has always struggeled by having a decent defence, been proven so many times, just the last Copa del Ray, where Bale made fool out of their defence by that sprint, not to mention any kind of head situation where they always struggle.

Varane is young and that last injury at the era of Mourinho laid him back a bit with form he was performing, now he needs to get more chances to gain experiences, due to the fact he does way too much rookie mistakes that costed Real sometimes even goals.

 

I dont really think i have to start for Schalke game, as Real had only Pepe from main defence, the rest was just bad imo, considering what the hell were Coentrão

and Arbeloa doing there at first place and well Khedira is just bad nowadays, couldnt really expect much from that, giving the fact if Real was playing with main defence and Modrič from beginning of the game instead of Khedira the game would be completely opposite.

 

I doubt that Barca would have any chances against nowadays Bayern, due to the fact that Bayern plays on strenght and we saw last time what happened when they meet each other, Pep like u said knows Barca better than anyone else, as he designed the sistem of the game they re playing now and simply knows how to stop Messi as it has been shown many times before. Barca mostly operates good when Messi has decent performances, if Messi is nowhere to be seen, Barca will either lose, or play poor tie thats bout it.

[AnG3L]

Let's go, give your opinions

 

 

Paris(FRA)-Barcelona(ESP)

 

Atlético(ESP)-Real Madrid(ESP)

 

Porto(POR)-Bayern(GER)

 

Juventus(ITA)-Monaco(FRA)

[10Tacle]

I think Juventus can be flattered, altho Monaco can put out serious trouble too!

 

I'm most excited for PSG - FCBarcelona, lots of drama incoming (+Zlatan is a former player there )

 

Not a fan of either, but I like good matches

[Aniky]

 

Let's go, give your opinions

 

 

Paris(FRA)-Barcelona(ESP)

 

Atlético(ESP)-Real Madrid(ESP)

 

Porto(POR)-Bayern(GER)

 

Juventus(ITA)-Monaco(FRA)

 

 

Paris(FRA)-Barcelona(ESP)

Most likely Barca, due to the fact that at home Paris will be playing without Zlatan and couple of other crucial players for their squad.

 

Atlético(ESP)-Real Madrid(ESP)

Will depend on the first lineup of real, if modric and Ramos are both 100% (which they can be by the time of first game) and taking into consideration that noone else gets any injury, real should have the edge over atletico, tho i think they are the most annoyed team for Real currently on the scene to play against.

 

Porto(POR)-Bayern(GER)

Expecting another similiar game like against Shaktar, might even be tie at Porto, but at home they will destory them.

 

Juventus(ITA)-Monaco(FRA)

If Juventus can actually pick up the phase a bit better, considering Borussia was horrible and nonewhere near CL level of skills, this game could be nice to watch, might go for Juventus here as they have a bit more experiences over Monaco.

[ShadowFax]

Yeh and yet they were foolish enough to put Suarez from starting lineup, regardless of not having any teamplay at all generated before, thinking he could actually show off something. It true that Neymar is technically skilled, but here u are wrong, in order to actually gain any kind of advantage over the skills he has, u require body strenght to keep up to ball afterwards, which was clearly shown during Atletico Madrid game where Neymar was near to none-existant in entire game, as a decent strong defence can quickly shut him down. Hum Messi might not be shown as some bulked player such as Benz and Ronaldo, but he has a lot of body strenght to keep the ball in his posesission compared to Neymar in the other side, specially knowing how to keep the ball long enough to gain faul out of it afterwards.

I agree upon the fact that BBC is not really in harmony of celebrating the goals, simply put, watched the last game against Levante where Ronaldo got mad due to the fact that his shot got defended by defender on goal line and afterwards Bale putting that ball into back of the net, making Ronaldo pissed and rest can be seen on the video. They still need to work on teamwork, or more likely, Ancelotti has to work on it, due to the fact he has to lower the ego of Ronaldo, which honestly annoys me, and im a fan of Real for over 15 years, but damn, have i never seen more egositic player than him.

Biggest mistake of Real is forcing too many balls onto Ronaldo, consdering that they completly shut down Bale from even trying to shoot onto goal or giving him any kind of free kicks from right side, which i am 100% sure, he can execute them better than Ronaldo, knowing his efficiency is bad as f*** when it comes to free kicks, while on the other side Bale has an amazing left foot which he has already proven many times. If they would play less on Ronaldo and let Benzema/Bale more freedom on pitch, Real would be 10x better and more dangerous and not being predictable as it is now that every ball has to end at Ronaldo.

 

Considering defence, u honestly cant even compare those two, Real's main defence, talking about Marcelo, Ramos, Pepe, Carvajal, cant honestly be compared to Barca's as they will beat them anyday anytime anywhere in all honestly and thats a fact that everyone knows, they have better agility, better strenght, even wingers, both Marcelo and Carvajal are much more efficient than Barca's and i wont even start at head control, specially corners and passes from side, where Real always dominate, considering Ramos is one of the best head player on the world, u add there Pepe, who is also great with head and then at top of it Ronaldo, who we all know, is by far one of the best predictable head kicker u cant really be comparing defences of those two clubs. Barcelona has always struggeled by having a decent defence, been proven so many times, just the last Copa del Ray, where Bale made fool out of their defence by that sprint, not to mention any kind of head situation where they always struggle.

Varane is young and that last injury at the era of Mourinho laid him back a bit with form he was performing, now he needs to get more chances to gain experiences, due to the fact he does way too much rookie mistakes that costed Real sometimes even goals.

 

I dont really think i have to start for Schalke game, as Real had only Pepe from main defence, the rest was just bad imo, considering what the hell were Coentrão

and Arbeloa doing there at first place and well Khedira is just bad nowadays, couldnt really expect much from that, giving the fact if Real was playing with main defence and Modrič from beginning of the game instead of Khedira the game would be completely opposite.

 

I doubt that Barca would have any chances against nowadays Bayern, due to the fact that Bayern plays on strenght and we saw last time what happened when they meet each other, Pep like u said knows Barca better than anyone else, as he designed the sistem of the game they re playing now and simply knows how to stop Messi as it has been shown many times before. Barca mostly operates good when Messi has decent performances, if Messi is nowhere to be seen, Barca will either lose, or play poor tie thats bout it.

 

Suarez had to start at some point, and putting him against R Madrid was a risk for his first game was a risk, but considering his form last season in the BPL, it could have payed off. Just because he was "non existent" during one game doesn't mean he will be throughout the whole season...that's why Barcelona paid what they did for him. I prefer Madrid to Barcelona too, but this year, I think Barcelona will win the Champs league. As you said, they need the harmony of being able to work well together, which MSN are doing better than BBC right now. 

 

I never compared the two defences though. I never even mentioned Barca's defence. I only talked about Madrid's which I believe isn't as strong as some other teams, such as Man City, or Bayern's. I agree, at this moment in time, Madrid's defence is stronger than Barca's. Pique is not too bad, but other than that, not as strong as Madrids. But Madrid don't have a decent keeper atm, and even though Barca don't have a "world class" keeper such as De Gea, Neuer or Lloris, I think Ter Stegen and Bravo are better than Casillas is now. But in the El Clasico tomorrow, I think Barca will win. Despite Madrid have the stronger defence, I think Barca can out play and out score Madrid.

[ShadowFax]

 

Let's go, give your opinions

 

 

Paris(FRA)-Barcelona(ESP)

 

Atlético(ESP)-Real Madrid(ESP)

 

Porto(POR)-Bayern(GER)

 

Juventus(ITA)-Monaco(FRA)

 

 

Barca should win vs Paris

 

R Madrid I think will edge it, but depends how they play on the day tbh. Gonna be a close one that.

 

Bayern I think will just outplay Porto.

 

And I think Juventus should win that. 

[Aniky]

Suarez had to start at some point, and putting him against R Madrid was a risk for his first game was a risk, but considering his form last season in the BPL, it could have payed off. Just because he was "non existent" during one game doesn't mean he will be throughout the whole season...that's why Barcelona paid what they did for him. I prefer Madrid to Barcelona too, but this year, I think Barcelona will win the Champs league. As you said, they need the harmony of being able to work well together, which MSN are doing better than BBC right now. 

 

I never compared the two defences though. I never even mentioned Barca's defence. I only talked about Madrid's which I believe isn't as strong as some other teams, such as Man City, or Bayern's. I agree, at this moment in time, Madrid's defence is stronger than Barca's. Pique is not too bad, but other than that, not as strong as Madrids. But Madrid don't have a decent keeper atm, and even though Barca don't have a "world class" keeper such as De Gea, Neuer or Lloris, I think Ter Stegen and Bravo are better than Casillas is now. But in the El Clasico tomorrow, I think Barca will win. Despite Madrid have the stronger defence, I think Barca can out play and out score Madrid.

 

Been with same forgein strikers and players, look at Ozil and Di Maria, with Falcao, none existant, while both ozil and di maria played perfectly at Real. There's plenty more of cases like that and i think they should of left Suarez for the 2nd half at least, but well, he tried and didnt work out.

Real's defence is great this year, if they have ofcourse all the first 4 players in field, Marcelo, Pepe, Ramos, Carvajal, they combine speed, and jump skill that are extremely good at defence or offence. I agree upon that Casillias is lacking the skills since couple of years for being first goalie of Real, tho, his status allows him to keep it over Navas at first lineup, otherwise i doubt he would be defending anymore, as speculations are that Real is aiming for De Gea to buy him out during next transfer window and if that happens i think Casillias might retire afterwards as i doubt he has any place among the Real after that.

El classico will mostly depend on how Real can stop Messi, thats about it, if Messi is stopped properly, Real has done 70% of their homework and making Barca much less dangerous, while if duo with Kroos and Modrič can perform on top level together again, with Bale fixing his form and start playing a lot better, i doubt that Real will lose and can easily go for tie or even win, but that it all depends on how good Ancelloti has prepared his squad for keeping Messi off the track.

[ShadowFax]

Been with same forgein strikers and players, look at Ozil and Di Maria, with Falcao, none existant, while both ozil and di maria played perfectly at Real. There's plenty more of cases like that and i think they should of left Suarez for the 2nd half at least, but well, he tried and didnt work out.

Real's defence is great this year, if they have ofcourse all the first 4 players in field, Marcelo, Pepe, Ramos, Carvajal, they combine speed, and jump skill that are extremely good at defence or offence. I agree upon that Casillias is lacking the skills since couple of years for being first goalie of Real, tho, his status allows him to keep it over Navas at first lineup, otherwise i doubt he would be defending anymore, as speculations are that Real is aiming for De Gea to buy him out during next transfer window and if that happens i think Casillias might retire afterwards as i doubt he has any place among the Real after that.

El classico will mostly depend on how Real can stop Messi, thats about it, if Messi is stopped properly, Real has done 70% of their homework and making Barca much less dangerous, while if duo with Kroos and Modrič can perform on top level together again, with Bale fixing his form and start playing a lot better, i doubt that Real will lose and can easily go for tie or even win, but that it all depends on how good Ancelloti has prepared his squad for keeping Messi off the track.

It will definitely be an interesting game today, but my money is still on Barca. It's worked out that strikers moving FROM the Spanish league to others, have been poor but not TO the league, players that have moved there in the past, have performed well! Ronaldo, Pique, Modric, James...even Bale is still doing pretty well. Suarez has been and is doing pretty well, especially after starting late in the season, and it still being his first adapting to it. 

 

I'm not convinced by their defence, I just don't think they can handle the technicality of Barca's forwards. And I seriously hope they don't go for De Gea, cuz I'm a United fan at heart, and he's been a rock for us this season. He's been saving us from defeats on more than one occasion and I just hope they don't buy him, and have to look elsewhere.

[Aniky]

Real taking this to the semis, regardless of having 4 crucial players out. gg

[Aft3rmath]

Gonna be Real and Bayern as previously suggested.  Although I wouldn't mind if Juve pulled off the upset