Champions League 2011/12

poor man chity, drawn in a group with the Germans, Italians and Spanish. :'(

bit of a pity it wasn't Barce, AC Milan and Dortmund though. that would've been some sweet football to watch.

Pleased with Porto's group, very doable, despite Shaktar being a good team.

how do you think they'll cope without probably the two main reasons why they were so successful last season?

Originally posted by trev33
how do you think they'll cope without probably the two main reasons why they were so successful last season?

The biggest reason is still at Porto.

We'll miss them, of course. I'm hoping AVB's loss has less of an immediate impact as the midfield is mostly unchanged, and our new coach was working with this system so I think will give us more continuity. Falcao's loss is harder to replace in the short term. So far the replacements have done well, but the sharpness is not the same. Falcao and Hulk were a fantastic duo. We definitely won't be putting 5 past mid-level teams like we did Villarreal or Spartak Moscow, but I think we can still do well.

We'll probably get plastered by Barcelona today, though. And why the hell is Cristian Rodriguez starting? 😕

nice assist for the messi goal lol

pity was pretty even before that.

Originally posted by trev33
nice assist for the messi goal lol

pity was pretty even before that.

Guarin is having a brain-freeze. He's a great player, though, but he's not all there today.

Originally posted by Palynka
Guarin is having a brain-freeze. He's a great player, though, but he's not all there today.

i know it's early in the season but other than a few mental errors porto looked pretty good... shame they couldn't keep last years team and coach together for a crack at the cl thou.

so what was the biggest reason for last years success? i presumed you were talking about the system put in place in porto...

Originally posted by trev33
i know it's early in the season but other than a few mental errors porto looked pretty good... shame they couldn't keep last years team and coach together for a crack at the cl thou.

so what was the biggest reason for last years success? i presumed you were talking about the system put in place in porto...

If you had to pick ONE main reason, that would be Hulk. Top scorer and tons of assists. AVB and Falcao were also amazing, honestly, the whole team was impressive. I honestly think that our squad last year was better than Chelsea's this year and AVB knows it, he just can't say it out loud.

Anyhoo, €40M for Falcao (and potentially more depending on performances), €30M for Alvaro (yes, it's coming) €5M for Micael (would have liked him to stay), €19M for AVB and his two assistants... 😀