EURO FOOTY COMPS 2015/16

[BobHelm]

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Not a good night for either of the London clubs last night.

The Gunners sank to their second loss in Group F & are bottom of the table already. Last night they looked pretty clueless in defence against a pretty average opponents, Munich were always the most likely to win the group but it is starting to look a hard task for even second place already having lost already to the other 2 sides in the group.

Not a sparkling performance from Chelsea either. Mourinho made changes, leaving out last years' man of the season, Eden Hazard, but it made little difference to the side. They are now in third place in the group, 1 point behind the joint leaders, so there is no reason to panic. Other than Jose seems at a bit of a loss as to how to get the same players playing as they did last season..

[Zidane]

English clubs....5 defeats out of 6,so far.......doesnt make good reading.
I think Arsenal could be gone already....2 defeats and the next 2 matches against Bayern Munich....they will have to get 3 points from one of those matches somehow.
And the two Manchester teams could be in a similar mess if they both lose again tonight.....but thats not going to happen is it ? [-o<

[socksy]

And the Arsenal keeper scored an own goal fumbling the ball into the net. Why was Cech on the bench?

[Zidane]

Manchester United 2 VfL Wolfsburg 1
Relief all round as United held on to beat the Germans but they were hanging on for the last 20 minutes after Schweinsteiger was taken off.
United made a shocking start conceding a goal after just 4 minutes after the defence was carved open and Valencia played Caligiuri onside with the striker making a clinical finish.
After that United played some decent stuff,particularily Martial,Mata and Memphis and were rewarded with a somewhat fortuitous penalty that Mata stroked home in the 34th minute.
If the referee favoured United with the handball penalty decision some of his later decisions were harsh on the home side resulting in bookings for Schneiderlin,Schweinsteiger and Memphis.
United took the lead just after half time through Smalling after a lovely flick through by Mata.
But United rather lost their way in the last quarter of the game and were lucky the Germans didnt offer too much threat upfront despite having plenty of possession.
Man of the match for me was Darmian at left back who snuffed out any Wolfsburg threat down the right and still found time to assist in attacks down the left wing.
With CSKA Moscow beating PSV Eindhoven 3-2 all 4 teams in the group are level on 3 points.

Manchester City made it a double over Germany beating Borussia Moenchangladbach 2-1 through a late Sergio Aguero penalty after recovering from being a goal down.

Other results......
Malmo FF 0 Real Madrid 2
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Paris St Germain 3
FC Astana 2 Galatasaray 2
Atletico Madrid 1 Benfica 2
Juventus 2 Sevilla 0

Those results much as expected apart from an excellent win for Benfica in Madrid.

[BobHelm]

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[socksy]

Europa League
EL AZ Alkmaar 2 - 1 Athletic Bilbao
EL Basel 2 - 0 Lech Poznan FT
EL Belenenses 0 - 4 Fiorentina FT
EL Besiktas 1 - 1 Sporting Lisbon FT
EL FC Augsburg 1 - 3 Partizan Belgrade FT
EL Lazio 3 - 2 St Etienne FT
EL Lokomotiv Moscow 2 - 0 Skenderbeu FT
EL Monaco 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur FT
EL Qarabag FK 1 - 0 Anderlecht FT
EL Rosenborg 0 - 1 Dnipro FT
EL Schalke 4 - 0 Asteras Tripoli FT
EL Sparta Prague 2 - 0 Apoel Nicosia FT
EL Braga 1 - 0 Groningen FT
EL Celtic 2 - 2 Fenerbahce FT
EL Club Brugge 1 - 3 FC Midtjylland FT
EL Dinamo Minsk 0 - 1 Rapid Vienna FT
EL Krasnodar 2 - 1 FK Qabala FT
EL Legia Warsaw 0 - 2 Napoli FT
EL Liverpool 1 - 1 FC Sion FT
EL Marseille 0 - 1 Slovan Liberec FT
EL Molde 1 - 1 Ajax FT
EL PAOK Salonika 1 - 1 Borussia Dortmund FT
EL Rubin Kazan 0 - 0 Bordeaux FT
EL Villarreal 1 - 0 FC Viktoria Plzen FT

Tottenham will be the happier of the three British teams with Celtic the opposite after surrendering a two goal lead to Fenerbahce. Off for my Kebab now.

[Zidane]

Well done to little Qarabag from Ajerbaijan,in Europe for the first time,who beat the once mighty Anderlecht 1-0.
The Spuds and Monaco will not be relishing an away trip there.
Celtic blew a 2 goal lead......The Spuds outplayed Monaco but conceded a late equaliser.....Liverpool were held at home 1-1 by those giants of European football,FC Sion of Switzerland.....defeat at Everton this weekend and the pressure will build on Rodgers again.

[BobHelm]

Vital game for the Gunners in Europe tonight & an important away game for Chelsea.
Arsenal need to take 4 points from Bayern in the next two games so you have to figure that anything less than a win will be a disappointing result.

[BobHelm]

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Barcelona rumble along untroubled at the head of Group E. Bayer Levkn are still in second place but stumble a little as they can only manage a 4 all draw at home against bottom side Roma. It is mighty close for the minor placements though.

Amazing home win for the Gunners against Bayern. Such was their previous form in the competition it still leaves them in bottom place. It still remains a real task for them to qualify out of this group but it now is a task that is in their hands. Need another huge performance in the away match in Germany now, followed up by better performances against the other two sides..

A better performance away in the Ukraine by Chelsea as well. Again, there still remains considerable work to do in order to qualify but, like their London neighbours, it is going in the right direction.

Zenit St Petersburg continued with their perfect record start in Group H. Valencia open up a 5 point lead over the bottom two as the qualifiers are almost decided by the half way stage!! The only question, already, looks like who will manage to grab 3rd. spot...

[Zidane]

CSKA Moscow 1 Manchester United 1
Anthony Martial gained a point for United with a headed equalizer in the 65th minute but it was a far from convincing performance from United.
In the first half United were poor and created absolutely nothing in front of goal.Star man was keeper,de Gea,who saved a penalty only to see the rebound go straight to a Moscow forward who slammed it in the net.de Gea also made a stunning save later,clawing the ball over the bar,or else it could have been worse than 1-0 at half time.
Second half United improved.Fellaini was brought on for Schweinsteiger at half time and his physical presence gave United a toe hold in midfield with Herrera more effective in his favoured box to box role.
Daley Blind was brought on for Rojo which also seemed to improve the balance of the team.Moscow seemed to be wilting a bit in the last 15 minutes but,overall,United will be satisfied with a draw despite having 72% possession.

At the Etihad stadium in Manchester,Kevin de Bruyne scored an injury time winner for City as they came from behind to beat Sevilla 2-1.

Other results last night.....
Wed 21 Oct 2015 - Champions League
Paris St G 0 - 0 Real Madrid; Malmö FF 1 - 0 Shakt Donsk ; VfL Wolfsburg 2 - 0 PSV ;
Atl Madrid 4 - 0 FC Astana ;Galatasaray 2 - 1 Benfica ; Juventus 0 - 0 Borussia Mönchengladbach;

[BobHelm]

United rather lucky in their group with the other results.
vanG seems incapable of playing the correct players in their best position.
This was another case of Ander Herrera being played too far forward to influence the game in the first half.
Most of the time the side showed very little idea how to threaten the opposition goal when they had the ball.

[Macca]

United rather lucky in their group with the other results.
vanG seems incapable of playing the correct players in their best position.

Martial out wide and being made to track there full back just didn't work and led to him giving away the penalty that yet again meant United had to chase the game.
LvG tactics and team selection are very very poor.

I usually watch 3 or 4 EPL games each weekend and without doubt Uniteds games are by far the most uneventful.
Huge fan of Rooney over the years but yet again he was a waste of a shirt.

Thank goodness Silva and Aguero are unfit, but City still have enough class to embarrass us at the weekend.
Just got my ticket so hope I'm wrong.

[BobHelm]

Not an especially good night for the British sides in the competition.

Celtic traveled to Norwegian champions' Molde. ManU favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had returned to manage the side (after a pretty horrific time in charge of Cardiff) earlier this week. Celtic looked poor in defence & Celtic trail the Group with only 2 points after 3 games.

I think it must be dawning on Jurgen Klopp just what a task he has at Pool. The visitors went into a fairly early lead but then, almost immediately, had their captain sent off. Despite having a man advantage for a large part of the match & dominating possession, the best Pool could manage was a draw. They have 3 points from 3 games, but that is enough to give them second spot, 4 points behind leaders FC Sion .

Spurs had a wonderful start, going into a very early lead away. They couldn't keep it going though & slip to 3rd, spot in a very tight Group. After 3 games only 2 points separate all 4 sides.

[BobHelm]

[BobHelm]

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Well, somewhat of a surprise as victories plus other results in their favour means that both Manchester sides sit at the top of their respective tables after 4 games.

Citi's result means that they have now qualified for the next stage with 2 games still to go. It was, by all accounts, a very good attacking performance indeed away from home at Sevilla. A great first half display saw them score 3 times to secure the win. Given that they are missing probably their two best attacking players in Silva & Agüero the manager sprung an extra surprise by putting Kevin de Bruyne on the bench. Given that the Belgian has probably been their best attacking player in recent weeks it almost looked like Pellegrini was playing it safe. That just might have lulled the opponents into a false sense of security as Citi launched wave after wave of attacks right from the start.

If it was an European night to remember from Citi it wasn't especially so from their neighbours. Yes, they won with Wayne scoring, but that was about the only thing to rejoice about. vanG finally conceded that Anthony Martial is wasted on the wing & played him as a centre forward but the 3 points owe more to the defence than the attack. When things were not working out vanG's solution was to put on Fellaini in place of Martial to lump balls up to the big man. Not exactly the type of football that the United faithful have much wish to see & the crowd were well prepared to let the manager know.

In Group A Real do just enough against their main rivals to progress into the last 16. PSG still look like firm favourites (4 points ahead of 3rd. placed Shakt Donsk with 6 points to play for) to qualify in second place. They will be serious opposition to one of the other group winners.

Benfica take a 2 point lead in Group C as their main rivals, Atlético Madrid, can only manage a scoreless draw away against group whipping boys, FC Astana. Galatasaray are a further 3 points back from Madrid in 3rd. spot.

[BobHelm]

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Barcelona are not yet qualified but it is probably only a matter of time as they easily dismiss BATE Borisov. Roma give themselves the edge for the second spot over Bayer with the home win, but there is only a point between them.

After the magnificent home victory against Bayern Munich last time out, The Gunners are brought back to reality by the same side. Qualification is now out of their hands & is starting to look unlikely that they will end up in the latter stages of either European competition - which could end up as an advantage in their search for the Premiership title!!!

Important win for Chelsea against their rivals for second spot. They are far from being qualified & it was anything but a convincing performance but I doubt that matters a jot to Jose..

Zenit remain the only 100% record side in the competition as they run away with group H. Valencia's lead in second spot is cut to 2 points by Gent as at least the race for second spot heats up..

[Zidane]

Really,Arsenal blew it when they lost at home to Olympiacos and didnt play Cech in goal.Already out of the League Cup,it looks as if the FA Cup,once again,remains their most realistic chance of a trophy this season.
Manchester City already qualified after a surprisingly comfortable win in Sevilla.
Manchester United and Chelsea should qualify for the knockout stages but Uniteds lack of goals and Chelseas inconsistency dont make it a foregone conclusion.

For United,Smalling was once again outstanding in defence and his block,along with de Geas superb save,ensured United didnt suffer embarrasment from CSKA Moscows only chance.Good to see the beleagured Rooney on the scoresheet but man of the match for me was Lingard.However,he is much more effective on the right and I thought,maybe,Mata would have switched to the left but possibly not part of the "master plan ?"

[BobHelm]

Good night for the English entrants, not so good for the Scots.

Celtic were beaten at home by runaway group A leaders & qualifiers, Molde. Celtic lie bottom of the group with just 2 points from 4 games. Theoretically they could still qualify - with 2 wins & other results going their way - but it hardly looks worthwhile while they perform like this in the European games.

Pool, on the other hand, improve their chances of qualifying greatly as they win away & the other 2 sides can only draw. They are now in second place, 2 points behind leaders FC Sion but 3 points ahead of 3rd. placed Bordeaux. So everything is within their hands as they are at home to Bordeaux next up & their final group game is away to Sion.

Spurs now top Group J by a point as they beat Anderlecht at home while former leaders, Monaco can only draw away.
This is a mighty tight group though. With 6 points to play for only 3 points separate the 4 sides. Spurs have to travel to FK Qarabag in Azerbaijan next & then face a final game at home against Monaco.

[socksy]

Celtic in the Merde, and undone by Molde at the 'Midden', but depending on other future results they could still go through but a big task.

[BobHelm]