timeEd32

Liverpool and Arsenal were the only ones who had scored against us until we lost both fullbacks.

To me the extensive delays signal a desire to move pending the logistics and cost / revenue projections, plus wanting to message what could be an unpopular choice for some with more details.

Seems too fortunate that we could have Wissa, Tino, and Hall all back in a few weeks. What a team we’d have.

He ended the article by quoting himself.

They play the winners of the playoffs (i.e. not each other) and yes, second leg at home. 9-16 get playoff second leg at home.

I really think all of your complaints are more about the competitive unfairness of football rather than the format. There are at best a handful of examples of big clubs not getting out of the old group stage when they weren't having a generally poor season anyway. Was there much jeopardy when Man City won all six of their games against Leipzig, Young Boys, and Red Star Belgrade or Madrid did likewise against Napoli, Braga, and Union Berlin? The real problem is 24 clubs get through and there are only 18 clubs in Europe with revenues over €300m in revenue (and half of them are English, so they aren't all in it anyway). There are a further 11 clubs with revenues over €200m and 5 of them are English. 14 of the 29 richest clubs in Europe are from one country. Pafos has revenues similar to Sheffield Wednesday. Kairait Almaty has the wage bill of a bottom half League One side. It is impossible to create a format full of jeopardy when clubs are making and spending hundreds of millions more than their competitors. I'm not sure why this is suddenly a negative when this was constantly complained about as an annoying and unfair part of the old system.

This is great news, but as others have said we are still going to need to give him a raise. Hopefully will be fairly straightforward given the loyalty on both sides.

Jose likes our wingers more than this forum does.

Laughing with Pope at full time (probably about the throw). Ear to ear grin in the team picture. Shout out to him for accepting his role and also Eddie for creating this kind of environment.

Put his arm around Gordon as they walked off together. He's just the best.

Well, selfishly I think it's far better for a quality pot 4 club like ourselves. But that's not a fair reason. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but my guess is that had we failed to win one of these last two we'd be somewhere in the 15-20 range so I'm not really sharing the wins aren't meaningful bit. In the old format I think us and Barcelona would be almost nailed on to go through at this point. Finishing in the top 8 to bypass the playoff round is a massive advantage (not to mention a guaranteed financial windfall), so I think the jeopardy is still there and the Europa League consolation is gone if you fail to be one of the last 16. I think the league format is pretty chaotic in a fun way and it's really just the financial advantages some have that stops it from being an absolute free for all. If they announced that as of next season the old format was coming back I wouldn't be sad or anything, but I think it's pretty good.

Eh, I think it's pretty good honestly. The bigger issue is the ridiculous financial disparity between about 5 clubs + all English teams and everyone else.

Won't be many words said about him tonight, but he's so good.

Some ridiculous scorelines tonight Barcelona 6-1 Arsenal 4-0 PSG 7-2 (10 v 10) PV 6-2 Inter 4-0 Still a long way to go, but starting to look like it may be harder to finish in the top 8 than last season, but maybe more comfortable to be in the top 24.

He hasn't scored in the league since January. These two CL games he's been so dominant. Awesome to see.

If I wanted to be really cynical I'd say it's not a coincidence that Gordon is able to shine against the likes of USG, Benfica, Latvia, and Wales. I'm not sure he's quite good enough to put in a performance like this against the best teams. That said, absolutely outstanding tonight. Some of his decision making for when to come central both with and without the ball was top notch. Really great to see and will do so much for his confidence, which is clearly critical for him.

That was unreal. Ahead of Barcelona and Madrid on GD.

Like I said

We need more corners and free kicks.

Pope would have been the greatest keeper in the world in 1957.

I was ready to sign him until I was reminded that he played for Watford like 6 years ago

In his heyday of 2022/23 he would have had at least a few goals if he ever showed any interest in just having a go.

Man, scoring immediately after Jose walked down the tunnel would have been hilarious.

Top CL scorers currently looks like this: 1. Mbappe - 5 2. Kane - 4 Gordon - 4

Woltemade furious he didn't get the ball there.