General Football Thread

by **Cotton** Thu Jul 10, 2014 8:13 pm

Because there isn't one. So there.
Does this even go here?

by **Zexiness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 7:42 am

After all, you, Pal and Al will need some other footbally thing to discuss after the WC is over xD

by **Bitterness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:42 am

Now watch resident Americans comically miss the point and talk Super Bowl or whatever it is they have over there :D

by **Zexiness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:43 am

I petition the renaming of the thread to "The European General Football Thread" xP

by **Princess Alexandra** Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:00 pm

I petition renaming it to the General Soccer thread. XD

by **Zexiness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 12:08 pm

ΝΑW. EUROPE. FTW.
let's keep it football. for now. xD

by **Cotton** Fri Jul 11, 2014 3:55 pm

No. Forever.

by **Bitterness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:20 pm

Agreed.
I also want to translate and post an article about "Why Russian football sucks ass"
But I'm only gonna do it if anyone'll read it

by **Zexiness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:21 pm

Agreed too.
I would read it.

by **Bitterness** Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:24 pm

That's settled, then.

by **Bitterness** Sun Jul 13, 2014 6:19 pm

You know what?
Just for the heck of it, I'll try and predict the Euro 2016 qualification results :D
Gimme 10 minutes

by **Bitterness** Sun Jul 13, 2014 6:34 pm

There
Now that the World Cup is gone, European competitions are the only relevant thing here
As the UCL 3rd qualification round draw is only to be concluded on Friday, and in wake of the World Cup final I feel an urge to predict shit, I will predict the only thing that can be predicted atm: the Euro 2016 qualification

Group A
Netherlands
Turkey
Latvia

Group B
Belgium
Bosnia
Israel

Group C
Spain
Slovakia
Ukraine

Group D
Germany
Ireland
Poland

Group E
Switzerland
England
Lithuania

Group F
Greece
Romania
Finland

Group G
Montenegro
Sweden
Russia

Group H
Croatia
Italy
Bulgaria

Group I
Denmark
Portugal
Armenia

by **Cotton** Wed Jul 16, 2014 6:47 pm

Legia Warsaw (Poland) 1-1 St. Patrick's Athletic (Republic of Ireland)

The LoI teams all doing well in Europe so far. The three teams in the Europa League all into Round 2 and St. Pat's taking an away goal into the second leg which is good.

Also I'm on holiday on the other side of the country atm

by **Bitterness** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:10 pm

FC Krasnodar successfully defeated the mighty Estonian opposition in their debut European match
Nothing really to add there
All other Russian teams begin the Europe with third qualifying rounds or group stages

by **Cotton** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:13 pm

UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round (29/30 July and 5/6 August)

Spoiler:

UEFA Europa League third qualifying round (31 July & 7 August)

Spoiler:

~~and that's why I love copy pasting~~

by **Paleo** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:17 pm

Alexey wrote:
I have seen the draw itself (they always stream them on the UEFA site)
Zenit plays against AEL Limassol (although the match will be in Larnaka for some reason, idgaf why)
The draw sucks
Because our record against teams from Cyprus is APOEL in 2009/2010
And you know what APOEL did back then
Also, you're bound to have fun in Turkey :D
I think that your objective is to win at home by a bigger margin than you lose in Istanbul

Besiktas just bought Demba Ba
We just sold our best striker (Pellè) and two of our defenders (Martins Indi and Janmaat) while a third defender (De Vrij) will probably be sold in this transfer window

I have little hope for us to advance to the next round

by **Bitterness** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:20 pm

Never overestimate Turkish teams
Everybody always overestimates them just because they were good 5 years ago and buy some aging used-to-bes

by **Cotton** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:27 pm

Interesting to note that St. Patrick's Athletic play Celtic in the third qualifying round of the CL if both teams go through

by **Bitterness** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:36 pm

Celtic barely went past a Kazakh team last year
I wouldn't expect much
And whichever will go through will be eliminated in the play-offs

by **Cotton** Sat Jul 19, 2014 7:37 pm

Celtic will probably get to the third round. Don't know if St. Pat's will

by **Bitterness** Wed Jul 23, 2014 6:43 pm

More predictions, this time for the UCL qualification

UEFA Champions League 3rd qualifying round:

by **Bitterness** Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:57 am

As expected, Russian pay channels are no longer allowed to show any kind of advertisement.
Yes, this is absurd as it sounds.
And yes, it means no European football on Russian pay channels.
Which means no European football at all, because public channels will only show one match a week at best.

by **Cotton** Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:35 pm

37m: Shakhtyor Salihorsk 2-1 Derry City (3-1 agg)

Thank fuck for livestreams

by **Cotton** Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:50 pm

FT: Shakhtyor Salihorsk 5-1 Derry City (6-1 agg)
HT: Sligo Rovers 1-1 Rosenborg (3-2 agg)
34m: Hajduk Split 1-0 Dundalk (3-0 agg)

by **Bitterness** Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:09 am

Europa League predictions!

Europa League:

by **Cotton** Fri Jul 25, 2014 7:35 am

And yet again the Irish teams fuck up.

by **Bitterness** Wed Jul 30, 2014 12:59 pm

Half time at AEL v Zenit
How the fuck we haven't scored is beyond me
AEL have had one attack during the whole 45 minute preiod

by **Bitterness** Wed Jul 30, 2014 1:59 pm

Full time at AEL v Zenit. 1:0.
Here's a quick lifehack for all bad teams: just hit the opponents instead of the ball, hold your face whenever you jump, and the referee will eventually send one of them off.
Also, I must reiterate that whoever is against a Russian team has a fighting chance.
I expect us to smash these simulants in Saint Petersburg, and I will be attending the match

Now off to watch Feyenoord v Besiktas

by **Bitterness** Wed Jul 30, 2014 2:14 pm

Never mind, I'm not watching Feyenoord v Besiktas, as my Internet decided to bork on me
As if a lack of legal broadcasts wasn't enough ><

by **Cotton** Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:21 pm

Richard Dunne announced his retirement from international football earlier.

Fuck sake.

Think he'll always be remembered for his performance in Moscow in 2011.

by **Bitterness** Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:16 pm

That was way too fucking close for comfort, but we nevertheless managed to get past the mighty Cypriots. Fuck.

Paleo, too bad, although you should do well in the UEL.

Now we can encounter Lille, Standard, Copenhagen, Besiktas, and Atletic. Copenhagen or Lille would be great

by **Bitterness** Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:01 pm

Celtic out to Legia, lol

by **Bitterness** Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:04 pm

6 correct predictions (out of 10) for the Champions Route and 3 correct predictions (out of 5) for the League Route

Not too shabby

by **Bitterness** Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:18 pm

I know that at most 2 people barring me actually give any kind of shit about this, but I will still write it, for that is within my capabilities.

The final results for the League Route (let's be realistic, it's the only relevant part of the qualification for the UCL :D) are as follows:

AEL 1-3 Zenit
Dnipro 0-2 Copenhagen
Feyenoord 2-5 Besiktas
Grasshoppers 1-3 Lille
Standard 2-1 Panathinaikos

Dutch and Greek teams are relegated to the Europa League, and Zenit is in the next stage of the Champions League.

The draw for the League Route will take place on August, 8th. The seedings are as follows:

Seeded:
Arsenal (ENG)
Porto (POR)
Zenit (RUS)
Bayer (GER)
Napoli (ITA)

Unseeded
Athletic Bilbao (ESP)
Lille (FRA)
Copehnagen (DEN)
Standard (BEL)
Besiktas (TUR)

The matches involving Athletic and Lille will be the big matches, regardless of which seeded teams they will be drawn against

by **Bitterness** Wed Aug 06, 2014 5:22 pm

Also, good thing we can't be drawn against Porto. Because if we could, that would've happened.
Really, Zenit always plays one of Porto or Anderlecht, wherever we play

by **Cotton** Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:07 pm

Celtic don't deserve to be back in the CL.

by **Bitterness** Fri Aug 08, 2014 3:16 pm

Absolutely
(neither does Malmö tho)

Let's see if we manage to get past Standard

by **Bitterness** Sat Aug 09, 2014 7:11 pm

Weird shit is happening in the Russian league
People are actually scoring goals there
Zenit, for example, won its first 2 matches 0-4 and 8-1

by **Paleo** Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:45 am

I also saw a 7-3 match in Russia some time ago and I was like waaaat

by **Bitterness** Mon Aug 25, 2014 6:59 am

Dinamo 7 - 3 Rostov, matchday 1

Now Dinamo drew with Omonia at home (and they were lucky to do that) and Rostov lost to Trabzonspor in an away match in the UEL, a true testament to their level, especially Dinamo's. They spend about as much money as Zenit does, but they are going nowhere so far XD

Also, holy shit, we scored 17 goals in 5 matches
That's a lot

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