Froggy

I get that, but there's a lot of big/rich teams in the Premier League now. There's always going to be a couple of English teams in the Europa League every season that are Champions League level clubs, at least in terms of revenue. Say Chelsea are the ones to miss out of CL via the league this year, people will say the same thing about them next year as they are about us and Spurs now. There's also the insinuation that it's an easy competition to win, which just isn't true IMO.

Our team seems to struggle with the physicality of the Premier League. Dorgu, Garnacho, Hojlund etc. get pushed off the ball easier in England but not so much when playing a European side. I just wanted to avoid a Premier League side completely, especially one that has already beaten us three times this season.

I will correct you on this one. We look back on our Europa League win with Mourinho very fondly, and the loss against Villarreal still hurts. The prestige and financial gain from playing in the CL is just so huge that it becomes the #1 priority, but it's not like we don't care about the trophy. It was the same when we won the league cup. People think we approach these competitions like we're still the dominant side under Fergie and it's not the case. All silverware these days is hard to come by and we want to win things, especially given the season has been so poor. I don't think we'll beat Spurs, but I really fucking want to. I really wish it was Bodo/Glimt instead and I'd be looking to the final with huge confidence.

Tgarve is right though. Nobody cared when it was Frankfurt or Sevilla getting a spot in the Champions League via the Europa. It's only an issue now because of who the finalists are. I do find it funny that some people think the 5th place finishers in the league have a right to be in the Champions League, yet the Europa League champions somehow aren't worthy.

Just remember JT, if we win it's always because the other team aren't good, or refs, or witchcraft or something.

Can we stop this please.

Sure three of our starting back five are out too. Balances out? We've this bad habit of conceding four goals lately. An early goal and I'll settle.

Glad everyone seems confident we'll sail through. The tie is not over.

Sure thing Ben.

Money please.

Think I'd be happy to go if that happens.

Average player. Can be hard to play against when he's on a good day due to his pace. But no work ethic and a bad attitude on and off the pitch. All of the leaks have stopped since he's left and all. It was clearly him and his brother all along. Horrible influence. I'd be shocked if he ever played for us again. I was devastated by his injury simply because it's going to make it harder to sell him.

I never said we played well though did I? I said we deserved to win. 10 man Lyon, 5 man Lyon, it doesn't matter. We won, and deserved to win. Lyon didn't do enough to beat us. I think the team has a lot of good players, but some poor ones. Money has been spent horrifically over the last few years, but I don't agree at all that it was spent poorly in the summer, which is an opinion a lot of people seem to have. De Ligt, Ugarte, Mazraoui and Zirkzee will play a big part in improving this team. The windows before that though? Absolute disaster. I'm reserving judgement on Amorim. He came in November, and did not want to come mid-season but was given an ultimatum. He was open and honest right away, and has continued to be, and said that we would face an extremely difficult season. "The storm will come. We will be found out." That has ended up being the case, but he has said over time we will improve and get back to where we want to be. We'll give him the time that he deserves. There won't be expectation on him to start being a CL contender next season, but a huge improvement is the absolute minimum. Let's give him a chance instead of writing him off within 6 months. We all know this club was/is a shit show, so it's going to take time. I understand this, but I don't see why the anger has to be directed towards a manager. Amorim didn't hand £1.2m a week to Casemiro, Sancho, Rashford and Mount. Amorim didn't sign Antony for £80m. I personally love Amorim's approach. Refreshingly honest, but extremely high standards for players. I believe at the very least, he can give us a side that dies for the badge. For the fans, removing the toxicity from the club is 100x more important than a trophy.

Your first sentence suggests the level of expectation at us is low as we're happy with beating Lyon, then your last sentence suggests the fans always expect to be challenging for UCL places. So which is it? The unrealistic expectations come from opposition fans, not us.

The only reason Lyon were even in the game was because of two Onana errors. They were deservedly beaten.

You're missing the point. I said we haven't deserved to lose since the Everton game with the exception of the game against Newcastle. I'm aware the results haven't been good. I'm not having a go at you either. Not sure where you've picked that up from. Just saying I am well aware the season has been poor, but there's no need to downplay competitions and very good opponents just because we've beaten them.

Orgasmic for me if we get past Bilbao and play Bodo/Glimt instead of Spurs.

We're unbeaten in Europe and performing miles better than people realise, even in the league. I can't think of a game we've deserved to lose for a while, with the exception of the game at SJP, where we were easily beaten. Probably have to go back to the Everton game, where we were lucky to get a draw. I see a lot of people having a go at the quality of the Europa League as well, trying to now act like teams like Bilbao aren't good sides. They have the best defence in Spain. Lazio and Roma are above Milan in the league, yet last season nobody on here was questioning the quality of Milan.

Far too open, which was surprisingly for one of the best defensive sides in Europe. That header was a great chance and should have been buried mind. No idea what they were thinking with those fouls either. If Vivian wanted to take Hojlund out to prevent a goal, doing it by dragging him down was so silly. If it's a foul it's an automatic red. They did the exact same thing on Garnacho later in the game. It was another penalty and clear red, but they were lenient on them this time.

Why? It was a great night for Newcastle.