Paullow

Ajax vs Marseille is a cracker, PEA just equalised for the latter, 2-2 after 40 mins. Classic European match, you'd think it should be a CL match.

Yeah and Man Utd were circa 5/1 to beat Bayern yesterday, so it's not just mainly down to UK bookies. I do take a lot of stock in odds. If we just take the respective names, experience, history, profile, social media followers etc. of the two clubs, you would think we should have been around 6/1, but player for player it's nowhere near that, or shouldn't be, hence the close odds, but the the match did feel like we were major outsiders the way it panned out. We beat Brentford (who were 5/1 to win) and drew Milan, two great outcomes, and that's what ultimately matters most, but the way both matches panned out you would have thought we were 6/4 vs 7/4 vs Brentford, and Milan were 4/9 vs 5/1 against us, not the other way round.

I assume PPs '2 up' thing must only mean 2-0 and not 3-1, 4-2 etc.?

Rovers level.

Sunderland a goal up. I did think they looked good value pre match at 2/1, but they went out to 3/1 in play following Blackburns decent start.

2-2 now and Copenhagen down to 10, so they may end up winning, but Gala did look very poor vs Molde in qualifying.

Man Utd's group could be over before they've even kicked a ball given the current score in the Gala vs Copenhagen match. Kind of spoils the 8pm match from a neutral perspective.

Just watching some of the YouTuber videos and the chant is hilarious if done in a big group because nobody seems to know if 'eats spaghetti' or 'drinks Moretti' comes first, so it comes across one big mess

Last kick of the game as well

I don't think there's much in it personally, but yeah, fair point about Liverpool, and we clearly overachieved (in terms of quality) last season. Milan started Loftus Cheek, brought on Pulisic, and I know he still plays for France, but Giroud is 37 next week and didn't exactly light up the Premier League in his last 4 years here, scoring 7, 2, 8. and 4, and I wouldn't actively want to sign him for Newcastle at this stage. Thiaw signed from a German 2nd division team for £5m last year. I don't know enough about the likes of Pobega, Krunic etc. but it's definitely not a star studded side, and they are not as daunting as their name would suggest. We were, and suspect still are after that result, odds on to get out of the group with PSG, albeit via UK bookies, but the money in the PL these last few years has been obscene and it's hard for these brilliant historic clubs to keep up. We took Tonali from them, Isak, Bruno, Botman etc. One literally did get in their team last year, they wanted, but couldn't afford another, and they would probably find a way to get the other 2 in as well. Our captain Trippier will likely be as good as their RB captain. You'd probably have 5 or 6 of each team if you did a combined XI, and I was expecting a fairly even match, but there did look a big difference between the sides, despite the match odds being very similar. Anyway, I've said more than enough. It is a very good point, one I would have definitely taken a draw at 5.45pm.

Ok.

But they are nothing like as good as their iconic name. Player for player there's very little in it. If we had signed Loftus Cheek and Pulisic this summer they'd have been a lot of disappointment both on here and in general. 25 shots to 6, 9 on target to 1, 6 corners to 2. Battered. Obviously the end result (in terms of points) would have been the same if we went there, went toe for toe and ended up with a thrilling 3-3 draw, but if any one of those 25 chances go in then the outlook on here would have been so much different, and it wasn't mainly down to heroic, well orgsnised defending, it was mainly down to poor Milan finishing that we came away with a very good draw, but it doesn't really inspire confidence, especially when we have been pretty off it in the league the last few weeks.

Great point, certainly would have taken that at the start of the game, but the performance was concerning. They are an iconic club, with a brilliant stadium and vast Champions League experience, but player for player, the difference shouldn't have been like that. They were around 6/4 pre match, we were 7/4, so almost 50/50, but the way the game panned out youd think we were some 6/1 no mark making up the numbers like a Plzen or Antwerp. Liverpool would have been much more in the game there and wouldn't hsve been dominated, but we do look well off it at the moment. Still, good point though. 7 points at home and maybe nick another away point on the road and we should be in and around 2nd, but we'll hsve to be much better than that, and I would expect us to improve at home.

There's Ben Parkinson who did OK in pre season and Charlie McArthur who signed from Kilmarnock and was fairly highly rated, but I don't know of any of the others (not mentioned by you). Had it have been Lewis Miley then I may have recorded it and caught up at some point, but since he's in the main squad, I'll probably give it a miss.

Was just about to ask if MNF kick offs are changing to 7.45pm going forward, or just specific for this match?

It's weird. Anyone under 30 and Champions League football for Newcastle will feel surreal, but at the same time, if you said to those over 30 that when Aaron Hughes missed that decisive penalty against Partizan that there would be no Champions League football for another 20 years, despite finishing 3rd, 6th, 2nd, 2nd, 4th and 3rd in 6 of the previous 10 seasons at the time, they'd have thought you were mad, but a lot has obviously happened in the meantime.

Mistakes galore in this Southampton Leicester match. 1-2, Saints back in it.

Watching Netherlands vs Greece on the free Viaplay channel and the Dutch national anthem sounds so much like a typical Christmas carol.

Sam Johnstone is actually 30 and less than a year younger than Pope.

Newcastle, Sunderland, Carlisle, Gateshead, Sheff Wed, Man Utd, Spennymoor, Gretna, Barcelona, Sparta Prague, LA Galaxy, Nice, Lyon, St Etienne, PSG

I used to quite like the international breaks during the Ashley era, and especially when Sky had all the other games. Shite how they are all on Viaplay now and usually have the least anticipated match on their free channel Xtra. I did sign up for ut around the Nations League time, bit it was so hard to cancel so won't be signing up to it again.

Dr Blue Pop.

Joined 3 months ago, 8 posts, 7 of them today, pretty much all negative...

Na, if you go back to my longer post a couple of posts up, Chelsea did get 2 early matches last year and Zagreb and Salzburg are on the same time zone as Dortmund and Milan, but can't really see many neutrals opting for those matches when you have 5 alternatives. I'd fully expect us to have been 5.45pm if we got Copenhagen in Pot 3.