Qarabağ FK 1-6 Newcastle United [CLPO 1st Leg] (18/02/26) | post-match from pg. 53

[Mole]

47 minutes ago, r0cafella said:

This isn't a criticism of our performance as we can only beat what's put in front of us but my good the champions league is such a shan competition like. championship level teams playing in the CL knockouts is pretty poor for me. 

I said this in the match thread during the game, but I'm pretty convinced Championship teams would limit space to pass into way better  It's been a while since I saw a team be so open. Like I'm sure they do some things well enough at this level to actually qualify for this stage of the competition, but their awareness of space and how to limit it was outrageously bad.

 

 

Edited February 19 by Mole

[r0cafella]

7 minutes ago, Mole said:

I said this in the match thread during the game, but I'm pretty convinced Championship teams would limit space to pass into way better  It's been a while since I saw a team be so open. Like I'm sure they do some things well enough at this level to actually qualify for this stage of the competition, but their awareness of space and how to limit it was outrageously bad.

 

 

 

I think they felt they had to absolutely go for it to stand any sort of change (obviously the chance will always be absolutely tiny) and from what I gather they are an attacking side so it's not like they can just flip a switch. 

 

Ultimately the fact such a team can make it so far is probably something worthy of praise. 

 

I think I need to adjust my thinking the old format is long gone and not coming back so might as well enjoy these little stories instead of bemoaning what once was. 

[James]

Do away goals count?

[alexf]

If they set up like they did second half they they would have given themselves a far better chance. 

 

Any team that does their research on us l, it should be plain to see that if you defend in a low block and make us have to break you down we have proven incapable time and again. We are also vulnerable to counter attack pace of you get at our back 4. 

 

But they played exactly into our hands and just allowed our front 4, even 5 with Willock regularly crashing the box aswell, to exploit their lack of pace and we could have been up 9-10 nil at halftime easily if we finished all our chances. 

 

Credit to Howe aswell. Would have been easy to go somewhat cautious away from home in a banana skin situation, you know for a fact the likes of Bruce or Pardew would have set up far more defensive and worrying about the opponents. But Howe just threw as many forward players on and left Tonali as the only one sitting because Willock was bombing forward as much as anyone else. 

[Fak]

35 minutes ago, James said:

Do away goals count?

 

Hope so otherwise we've lost 1-0.

[ponsaelius]

1 hour ago, r0cafella said:

This isn't a criticism of our performance as we can only beat what's put in front of us but my good the champions league is such a shan competition like. championship level teams playing in the CL knockouts is pretty poor for me. 

 

Think it wouldn't be as bad if they approached games as if they were an underdog and made it tight and difficult. When you have a team that is used to winning domestically it's probably hard to approach a game like today. It's like if a lower champ or high League One side came flying out against us. It would just never happen.

 

Think you have to give them credit for getting the results they've got this season all things being told. And it's still for the betterment of the CL to have such a geographical spread of representation IMO, regardless of quality.

 

 

Edited February 19 by ponsaelius

[ponsaelius]

Also I think you have to credit us with playing really well. We've had a lot to complain about this season at times but we were genuinely really good yesterday and fully punished the difference in class.

[Geordie Ahmed]

46 minutes ago, James said:

Do away goals count?

Nope

 

Got rid of it a while ago

[Abacus]

It's hard to know what to make of that, except to be delighted with the win and we came out ready to blow them away from the off.

 

But reading the sports reports (Martin Hardy for instance) a lot of it focused on the penalty spat, which is a nothing in my book given they hugged at the end.

[r0cafella]

8 minutes ago, ponsaelius said:

Also I think you have to credit us with playing really well. We've had a lot to complain about this season at times but we were genuinely really good yesterday and fully punished the difference in class.

We were great, it was really refreshing to watch us play that way. We looked really sharp and blew them away. I really hope it's the corner turnt now, it really feels like we have a bit of momentum now. 

[Fenham Mag]

 

Prefer this commentary over TNT.

[ponsaelius]

Just now, r0cafella said:

We were great, it was really refreshing to watch us play that way. We looked really sharp and blew them away. I really hope it's the corner turnt now, it really feels like we have a bit of momentum now. 

 

Previously playing Gordon through the middle has blunted us, because we were trying to play as if he was replacing Isak directly. Now it seems to have actually helped lift some of the pressure on relying on a out right CF and made us more flexible and dynamic. At least as a temporary fix it has helped.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 hours ago, r0cafella said:

This isn't a criticism of our performance as we can only beat what's put in front of us but my good the champions league is such a shan competition like. championship level teams playing in the CL knockouts is pretty poor for me. 

Carrier Bag would struggle in the second division in all honesty.  Comfortably the worst side we’ve played in years.  Decades of lopsided finances has led to this in European football. 

[TheBrownBottle]

58 minutes ago, alexf said:

If they set up like they did second half they they would have given themselves a far better chance. 

 

Any team that does their research on us l, it should be plain to see that if you defend in a low block and make us have to break you down we have proven incapable time and again. We are also vulnerable to counter attack pace of you get at our back 4. 

 

But they played exactly into our hands and just allowed our front 4, even 5 with Willock regularly crashing the box aswell, to exploit their lack of pace and we could have been up 9-10 nil at halftime easily if we finished all our chances. 

 

Credit to Howe aswell. Would have been easy to go somewhat cautious away from home in a banana skin situation, you know for a fact the likes of Bruce or Pardew would have set up far more defensive and worrying about the opponents. But Howe just threw as many forward players on and left Tonali as the only one sitting because Willock was bombing forward as much as anyone else. 

Nah, we took our foot off the pedal like Man City did against us recently

[Nucasol]

26 minutes ago, Fenham Mag said:

 

Prefer this commentary over TNT.

“Fletch” and McMoist were insufferable last night.

[Lush Vlad]

22 minutes ago, Nucasol said:

“Fletch” and McMoist were insufferable last night.

I admire how passionate they both are TBH. Fletch gets excited by EVERYTHING and always shouts for goals. McCoist just loves the game and everything is tremendous, it really is. 
 

But they do waffle on at times. Fletch must be paid by the word. 

[Holloway]

McCoist was subdued by his standards, I think he was bewildered by the level of opposition 

[Mole]

2 hours ago, r0cafella said:

I think they felt they had to absolutely go for it to stand any sort of change (obviously the chance will always be absolutely tiny) and from what I gather they are an attacking side so it's not like they can just flip a switch. 

 

Ultimately the fact such a team can make it so far is probably something worthy of praise. 

 

I think I need to adjust my thinking the old format is long gone and not coming back so might as well enjoy these little stories instead of bemoaning what once was. 

Yeah that's my thoughts too, like obviously just qualifying is enough to say they have something about them. I don't think they are complete mugs and they've got results against genuinely good teams.

 

But there were moments in the first half where I would see gigantic space for our midfielders to pass into that just cannot happen. I'm pretty sure even if set up more passively there would have been issues because how they positioned themselves as a unit was pretty bad.

 

I think when you come from a much smaller country with limited resources you're going to have limitations you can't really account for, it just so happens we were tailor made to abuse those limitations.

[FabiFan]

What a game honestly. Even if it’s against that kind of opponent, you still have to show up and do the job — and the lads did it properly tonight. The intensity was there, confidence looked back, and you could see the team enjoying themselves again.

Biggest thing now is not getting carried away and staying focused. Momentum is great but consistency is what we really need if we want to keep pushing forward. On to the next one ⚫⚪

[Stottie]

Just for fun, but Opta now sees us as having a 10% chance of reaching the CL final and 4.47% chance, about a 23/1 shot, of winning it. We're eighth favourites. They see us as more likely to win it than Real Madrid (!) They have Arsenal as favourites on 26%. Hit "predicted" on the table for the probabilities. We're 99.77% likely to get past Qarabag.

 

https://theanalyst.com/competition/uefa-champions-league/table

 

Looking at the bracket, I suppose the hope is that Liverpool, Barca, and Man City all end up on the other side of the draw. We'll get one of Arsenal and Bayern on our side for certain.

[healthyaddiction]

2 minutes ago, Stottie said:

Just for fun, but Opta now sees us as having a 10% chance of reaching the CL final and 4.47% chance, about a 23/1 shot, of winning it. We're eighth favourites. They see us as more likely to win it than Real Madrid (!) They have Arsenal as favourites on 26%. Hit "predicted" on the table for the probabilities. We're 99.77% likely to get past Qarabag.

 

https://theanalyst.com/competition/uefa-champions-league/table

 

Looking at the bracket, I suppose the hope is that Liverpool, Barca, and Man City all end up on the other side of the draw. We'll get one of Arsenal and Bayern on our side for certain.

We're more likely than Real Madrid because we're 6-1 up and they're 1-0 up. Once we both qualify for the round of 16 they'll be shorter odds again.

[geordiesteve710]

5 minutes ago, Stottie said:

Just for fun, but Opta now sees us as having a 10% chance of reaching the CL final and 4.47% chance, about a 23/1 shot, of winning it. We're eighth favourites. They see us as more likely to win it than Real Madrid (!) They have Arsenal as favourites on 26%. Hit "predicted" on the table for the probabilities. We're 99.77% likely to get past Qarabag.

 

https://theanalyst.com/competition/uefa-champions-league/table

 

Looking at the bracket, I suppose the hope is that Liverpool, Barca, and Man City all end up on the other side of the draw. We'll get one of Arsenal and Bayern on our side for certain.

 

Wouldn't go holding your breath on that one

[RodneyCisse]

2 hours ago, Fenham Mag said:

 

Prefer this commentary over TNT.

Dunno if I’m just overly enjoying it, but was the atmosphere captured better on that recording?

[Ginola14]

only reigning champions PSG (24) have scored more goals than NUFC (23) in the CL this season 

 

let's set that right on Tuesday

[Miercoles]

1 hour ago, FabiFan said:

What a game honestly. Even if it’s against that kind of opponent, you still have to show up and do the job — and the lads did it properly tonight.

 

 

Exactly, plenty of good sides go and play shit teams and don't score 6 goals. It's very easy to come out of a game like this 1-0 or 2-0 and still have work to do.

 

One thing we've always had with Eddie is the potential to put a wild score past you in the first half if you lose concentration, like we've done to Spurs a couple of times.