Stottie

Clear yellow for Cancelo not given.

Opta reckon Barca are only 56% to do it in normal time. Given their home record, that's pretty fucking low. Please note that I am not a gambler and this is not intended to encourage it. All I want is for us to not step on the pitch expecting defeat. They're going to play a high line against Anthony Gordon and are a team of midgets likely against BDB, Thiaw, and Joelinton. Of course we have a chance. https://theanalyst.com/articles/barcelona-vs-newcastle-prediction-champions-league-03-2026

Big question is whether he plays Tino or Trippier. I think the rest picks itself. I would pick Tino who is defensively stronger We'll be under the kosh more in this one given how strong they are at home. As for winning the tie, we do have weapons of our own. We have two in this 25/26 CL list. Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man City have zero, but noone would say they lack threat.

I blame shit refereeing which allows all kind of fouling and obstruction at set pieces, making them the easiest way to score. This also biases defending toward orcs useful at attacking and defending set pieces. Open field defending can be done by pressing with your forwards and cutting out passing lanes. Refereeing is also insufficiently harsh on tactical fouling and has been for at least 10 years. A much harsher punishment is needed, something creative like a 10 minute sinbin and/or a direct free kick at chosen location 30 yards out for all tactical fouls, regardless of location on the pitch. I would also draw a line halfway inside the penalty area and make any fouls between it and the edge of the area penalties according to referee discretion only for DOGSO etc. Diving just inside the edge of the conventional box would then only win you a free kick. This scant reward would stop lots of simulation. Keep penalties for fouls very close to the goal only. I fear our overlords just want more branding and pazzaz and don't actually care about the sport and gameplay being entertaining for the neutral.

Shit transfer business R Us, 2025/26 edition Second highest transfer fee of all time, after the Rat.

That's a given though, isn't it. Its Arsenal vs. City. Gemini AI was surprisingly informative, but Villa winning the Europa and finishing sixth creates the potential for a Europa place being pushed down the league, on top of the one that will be pushed down from a big team FA Cup win. Gemini seems to think though that there is a hard to explain UEFA rule saying only teams in the top 7 can qualify for CL and Europa through league position. The best reward an eighth place finish can get is Conference League. In the situation I've described, the FA Cup Europa place (or Villa's for sixth) would simply vanish. I would imagine the league fighting UEFA to keep this place if it were to go to Man U or Liverpool, but they won't give a monkeys if it is Brentford or Everton or NUFC losing out. Another scenario where the above might happen is Liverpool finish sixth but fluke a CL win.

They have to play Villa and Man U away, Chelsea and Brentford at home. The Merseyside derby against a resurgent Everton. It could easily be on. Chelsea have hard fixtures too, both Manchester clubs plus Liverpool, but Villa don't. If Villa beat Liverpool, that would put them five points ahead with only 7 other games for Liverpool to make it up. Villa's GD is garbage, so Liverpool merely have to catch them, which they couldn't today. The media have gone as silent on it as they are about VVD howlers, but this would be Slot failing to get CL after spending HALF A BILLION.

We should have had them at Anfield but made too many defensive errors. We were ahead after forty minutes, but then Trippier fell over, Thiaw didn't put in a challenge, and Pope let in a soft one for the go-ahead goal. Even then, we were a great save away from 2-2.

Haha, Liverpool drop two points to a Route One goal. Nearly as bad as Chelsea yesterday. Fucking useless.

Perfect comparison. VAR is just a badge checking exercise. Also no surprise that Chris Kavanagh cannot get it right the first time after that shitshow against Villa.

That's DOGSO every day of the week by VVD. Complete corruption.

Gemini AI seems to think there is a UEFA rule that eighth cannot inherit a Europa place from someone else. It said Conference League only. Its AI, so this might be bollocks.

If Villa win Europa and finish sixth (looking increasingly likely), and a top five team win the FA Cup, wouldn't eighth get Europa? I'm assuming that we do not win the Champions League, in which case it would not matter.

Typical for the Villa outside-the-box worldies tap to turn off only after their match at SJP.

Emery is the man in that competition.

Swaps rarely happen so I'm skeptical, but that sounds okay regardless of the direction the money would be going in. Its good to see Willock back to form. I suppose if he's only got a year to go, its time to move him on. Most of what he does is covered by Joelinton, who I presume we'll be keeping. We also need to be developing Miley to reach his potential.

Strange how the most league proven of the summer signings has had the biggest struggle. Gordon and Osula have hit a level where it doesn't look like Wissa will get the game time needed to get back to form and integrated with how we play. There was a window of opportunity for him earlier in the season, but he got injured and missed it. League-proven Elanga, bazillions of assists last year, has also struggled, but has looked much better recently.

Sixteen goals in all comps now. Hope he gets to twenty, with two in each of our next two games! For context, Callum Wilson got eighteen in his best season for us. Unless you have crazy expectations, I think its fair to say the "Gordon as a striker" experiment has clearly worked, and has worked for the way we play with a rampant nuisance haring about up front to stretch the play and cause opponent errors. Chalk another one up for Eddie, and to Gordon himself who wanted this.

Brilliant! First win there in years, and did it without Bruno and Sandro. Great assist for Willock.

That's the biggest ball into a gap I've seen all season. Way worse than us.

Does this Chelsea lineup mean they've sacked off the Champions League? Trust our luck to be playing them now.

We've seen a goalscorer not score for us and generally look pretty bad before with Chris Wood. Sometimes transfers just don't work out. Wood was excellent the following season for Forest.

Just saying after this week's action, but if we're going into the summer looking for a keeper signing, Chelsea and Tottenham will likely be looking for one too. Our last two summer windows started with Chelsea snatching Tosin, leading to the Guehi debacle, and them getting Pedro (and Delap) and leading to our striker recruitment runaround. I sincerely hope this does not happen again. It should not be assumed that we can just cherry pick who we want, especially in a thread entitled "realistic".

I thought we played really well. Incredible for us to hit that level with Gordon and Bruno missing. ,We were essentially 20 seconds off shutting out Barca, who according to a stat on the international feed commentary have scored in 21 in their last 23 CL matches. If they play that high line again, we'll get chances in the second leg. We had the three best chances last night. in 94 minutes and 25 seconds the closest they came to scoring was through BDB.

That looked bent as hell.