With Arsenal and Man.City going out, and Liverpool & West Ham looking likely to follow, England will have no teams in the semis in the top 2 European tournaments.
Strangely enough, although I am fairly pro-Britain, I do not feel any sympathy for any of these teams. All 4 of these clubs have been our foes in the Premier League, often receiving favourable refereeing to defeat us. In the "old" days I supported the British in Europe, but the animosity and corruption in football today means there is little comradery with our fellow Brits today.
Aston Villa still fly the flag in a lesser European cup, again I couldn't care less either way, but I would complement them if they won it.
Arsenal always bottle it in European competitions and in recent years in the league as well. I'm not at all surprised they were beaten by Bayern.
Man City outplayed Real Madrid completely and I thought they deserved to win, but as soon as the final whistle in the extra time was blown, I knew Man City would lose. Ancelotti made defensive subs throughout the match and even in extra time as well and that for me was a signal that he wants penalties and that they have prepared for them extremely well.
Looks like even city can't break down a well organised low block so not just us then. Complete anti football from Madrid but Ancelotti certainly knows how to win. No idea why they got rid of away goals as Madrid couldn't of put 11 men behind the ball at 1 all if they hadn't and would have been more nervous at 1 0 to be so negative.
I think the English clubs are still extremely strong, just had a rough run of
the green this year.
I am happy City have gone out, but, To be fair, City were all over Real the whole match,(67% possession,16 corners, 33 shots, 9 shots on target) but just had no cutting edge Infront of goal.
Makes the recent criticism.of Haaland make some sense, Madrid just basically blocked him out of the game and he had nothing else to offer
Real had a brilliant defensive display after getting that early goal, and somehow squeezed through against the far superior team over the 2 legs.
About 90% of the time City would now be in the Semis, and odds on to win the thing. They are still the best team in the world, by some distance, to me (sad to say, I can't stand them).
In the other Quarter final, Arsenal were just squeezed out by one goal against the German giants who only have this completion to go for now.
I think Liverpool may well have an epic comeback in the Europa, would not surprise me one bit.
Last year 2 English Clubs won European trophies.
The English clubs are still extremely strong.
Quote from: Nick Bateman on April 17, 2024, 11:03:01 PMWith Arsenal and Man.City going out, and Liverpool & West Ham looking likely to follow, England will have no teams in the semis in the top 2 European tournaments.
Strangely enough, although I am fairly pro-Britain, I do not feel any sympathy for any of these teams. All 4 of these clubs have been our foes in the Premier League, often receiving favourable refereeing to defeat us. In the "old" days I supported the British in Europe, but the animosity and corruption in football today means there is little comradery with our fellow Brits today.
Aston Villa still fly the flag in a lesser European cup, again I couldn't care less either way, but I would complement them if they won it.
I will always want English teams to win no matter who they are, but not British teams.
It depends on what you consider a failure. To reach a quarter final in Champions League is quite an achievement. The teams at this level are so close that one incident/lapse can cost you the game. DeBruyne miss was uncharacteristically bad. If that goes in????
The remaining teams are all strong going forward. Goals will not be the problem. In the past, Defence has decided the overall winner & for that it's hard to go past Real Madrid.
Ancollotti master technician ,the low block is a conundrum all right and when man city and pep get stung buy it then every team is going to struggle.
I don't care about the Champions league, it's a fake contest for also rans and not just CHAMPIONS🙄
