Yorkie

1-0: 2-1:

Just the 18 minutes stoppage time at the end of the first half.

Brilliant call from the lino. VAR need not apply.

We'll see if those shockers for Villa and Palace mean anything in the long run but absolutely mint to see it in isolation. Fuck the Prem.

Bednarek at the heart of the Porto defence eh? What a team they must have.

Tough week for the Knock it the Fuck Down brigade.

Anderson cannot shoot

Wow, amazing result.

Bahhhhhhahahha

Ergh, unlucky as fuck.

Holy shit, go on the Dutch. Sounds like a hell of an atmosphere.

Not sure what aspect of my post you're agreeing or disagreeing with there! Hopefully you're right about this season's Europa, and Villa don't just clean up at the expense of their league form, a la Spurs.

Yeah, that's a good point and Spurs and ManU maybe don't play out that final if they're in the race for Champions League via the league. I've said before that the Europa League would arguably benefit as a spectacle if Premier League clubs became disincentivised (i.e. no Champions League qualification for winning). Last season's competition certainly would have done anyway. For all the domestic cups in this country have had their own existential crises (and arguably resurgences, in the case of the League Cup), at least they're solely about the glory of winning. The Europa League loses that aspect if it's eventual victors are only competing to the fullest because of its ability to provide qualification into a more prestigious competition. There's been a few cases where teams have benefited from that prize, but you'll never convince me that Villarreal and Frankfurt placed that prize higher than the one of just winning a trophy, or indeed placed emphasis on winning the competition solely because of that aspect. Atalanta had already qualified for the CL via the league but still went great guns for the pot. Would definitely get rid of that aspect of it if I was in charge. Which I'm not, for some reason.

Certainly not a top fiver but I always like to chuck Matt Ritchie's name into these conversations. Absolutely crucial to promotion and consolidation under Rafa, and was still chipping in with the odd useful performance in 18/19. Pound-for-pound an absolutely brilliant signing, definitely one of the best value-for-money ones this century, prior to us making a habit of it.

Don't think Barnes even looks at the goal there yet still finds there square inch of space at the foot of the post he needed to. Hell of a finisher on his day, like.

There's definitely examples to the contrary; Galatasaray beating Liverpool for example. Midtjylland beat Forest. But I'm not using one-off games at the centre of my argument; more the general trend. The fact that, last season, two absolutely horrible PL teams got the better of 34 other teams at that level is the ultimate identifier. Not to mention Chelsea winning the Conference League without breaking a sweat. Anyway, I've harped on enough. Would absolutely love to be wrong and hopefully I am.

I hope you're right! I take a fairly pessimistic view on it really. Nice word btw, 'ossified'. Had to look it up.

Yeah, at the very very top of the tree - the competition is still tight, thanks to the existence of the likes of PSG and Madrid. I'm really on about the impact on competition at the level immediately below that.

In the capitalist system that football exists within, yes, and that's where you can't blame the Premier League at all, really. In the competition between domestic leagues, they've won fair and square. It's not the PL's fault that it's won that race. The problem is, it just feels like it's won forever now. There's no starting again, like any other competition. It just feels like a dynasty at this point; the best teams in the PL might change around, but in the European context they'll still be the strongest. The only thing which will halt it would be some sort of limit on signings you can make from abroad, giving everyone else a chance to catch up and putting greater emphasis on homegrown talent, but that will simply never happen.

Sorry for repeating a point I've made loads of times before but with the conversation going on I don't have the willpower to refrain... the undermining of UEFA's second competition, by virtue of the bloating of the CL in order to pander to the richest clubs (as well as the general financial imbalances across the continent) - is probably the thing in football I'm most sad about. I mean, can you look past Aston Villa here? They've already played and beaten two of the other clubs I'd assume would have a reasonable claim, theoretically. Who are we looking at? Braga? Below that naff Benfica side in Portugal. Lille and Lyon? Mixed bag for them in Ligue 1 so far. Stuttgart? Maybe, they're doing okay in Bundesliga, where defending doesn't exist, and from where there's been a recent exodus to the PL. Betis? If last season is anything to go by they haven't got a prayer against a PL side. Porto are top in Portugal, maybe they'd present a meaningful test. The Premier League is an incredible success story if you consider the domestic leagues as entities in competition with one another, but the impact of that in terms of everywhere else is looking so stark. And I'm a hypocrite too because obviously I enjoyed us signing Woltemade, Tonali, Botman, Isak, but fucking hell - this drain of talent from Europe directly into England has really knackered the competition at the level immediately below the very, very top. That Benfica can come and be absolute fodder to a presently mid-table PL team which cannot find it's groove at all domestically just sums it up. I don't know where it ends. No PL team can afford to stop investing because the internal competition is so fierce.

Haven't seen any good close-ups yet... I take it there was lots of little stick-bound flags accompanying the message, each with a player's name and number from the final?

A doormat worth £130million. I think the club did alright really.

Yeah, thought the Bruno one was as clear as day. Thought the Gordon one probably was too, but not seen it again. My recollection is that they were both running at pace and Gordon goes down quite easily after feeling a hand on his back, so maybe would've been soft. Bruno one is clear cut though, not sure how you'd argue otherwise. His arms are all over him and he digs his knee into Bruno's thigh. No idea how the ref let it go, regardless of VAR.

Have to say I was feeling quite ready to retract my statement from yesterday. They really offered absolutely fuck all, like you say. When there's a difference in quality on the pitch you're looking to the dugout for some elevation but there was fuck all.