AC Milan (A) - CL, Tue 7th Dec 2021 (8:00pm)

[an tha]

15 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Nice!

 

* scurries off to Facebook to drop that little grenade *

Have fun

 

Get ready to here how Atletico are worse than Norwich

[an tha]

13 minutes ago, Jordy Brouwer said:

Literally the only negative is that the state Milan are in is genuinely sad. 

And this is them on the up compared to recent times...

[gkmacca]

Another win, more money for that than the league cup winners, nice performance.

 

We missed a trick not making Mo captain for the night - Alisson wouldn't have minded, Mo seems to bother about such things, it would've sent out a good signal. 

 

Nat is still improving so much I wish we could hang on to him, but he's a great character.

 

Div does my head in. You just know what will happen the next time he starts a cup game against a weak team - instead of destroying them like he could do he'll wander about looking bored. He's a heck of an enigma but when he's good he's a gem.

[Trumo]

Efficient performance.

 

Milan lacked urgency, perhaps concerned that if we stepped up another gear or two as a result, they simply would not be able to cope physically.

 

Sloppy defending to concede a goal from a corner after Milan had done absolutely nothing up to then,but good recovery to first draw level via Mo, and Div effectively killed the contest with a well-directed header.

 

Moment of the match? Big Nat channelling Baresi and Maradona to completely hoodwink the 2 Milan players looking to close him down. Absolutely brilliant that.

 

6 wins from 6 is an exceptional return, and now it's a domestic schedule until February.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

24 minutes ago, an tha said:

Liverpool - same number of points in our champions league group as the bitters have in the premier league.

 

17 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Nice!

 

* scurries off to Facebook to drop that little grenade *

Within minutes one of my Bluenose mates replied

"Any need?"

 

[A_S]

Hilariously, Liverpool could have donated a 3-0 win to each of the other teams in the group and still qualified for the knockout stages with a + GD!

[an tha]

4 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

 

Within minutes one of my Bluenose mates replied

"Any need?"

 

Should have a bulging net by this time tomorrow

[Strontium]

1 hour ago, Babb'sBurstNad said:

It may have started as a bit of a joke rating Phillips so highly, Balon D'Or and all that, but he's developing into a very good centre back. Better than most PL sides have.

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Are we likely to get into trouble for breaching child labour laws with those two little tiny babies who came on at the end?

[Red_or_Dead]

Is there no gif of the Phillips skill?  Batsignal to @Caramac

[VladimirIlyich]

9 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Are we likely to get into trouble for breaching child labour laws with those two little tiny babies who came on at the end?

We seem to starve them too.

[Gooch]

49 minutes ago, Jordy Brouwer said:

Literally the only negative is that the state Milan are in is genuinely sad. 

More like European football in general at the moment. There’s a real opportunity to rack up a couple of European cups given our quality and the standard across Europe. They are nowhere near the required standard and 99% of them would get hammered by most of the top half of the Prem.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

17 minutes ago, Red_or_Dead said:

Is there no gif of the Phillips skill?  Batsignal to @Caramac

 

1 hour ago, Caramac said:

 

[m0e]

19 minutes ago, Red_or_Dead said:

Is there no gif of the Phillips skill?  Batsignal to @Caramac

He posted it earlier 

[m0e]

Worth the double post

[Jose Jones]

8 minutes ago, Gooch said:

More like European football in general at the moment. There’s a real opportunity to rack up a couple of European cups given our quality and the standard across Europe. They are nowhere near the required standard and 99% of them would get hammered by most of the top half of the Prem.

Tends to go in cycles doesn't it.  Spanish Football has been top dog for the last decade maybe, but with both Madrid clubs a bit below their best and Barcelona fucked completely, it's back to England being the strongest league, like in the mid-late 00s.

Top 4 teams in Europe are probably us, Man City, Chelsea, Bayern.  PSG are an obvious wild card, then the two Madrids.  That's still a pretty tough group of teams.

[Reckoner]

Good comments from the Guardian site-

 

Welcome to the Group of Death. Your executioner will be Liverpool.

 

In a newly discovered episode of The Sopranos set in Italy, Tony hires a hitman known for his stealth, guile and cunning. At the end of the show, Tony receives a call on crackly line from an outside telephone box. In his quietly assuring voice Divock Origi says,

It’s done

Phone, keys, wallet, Zlatan Ibrahimović ... just Nat Phillips emptying his pockets when he gets home later.

Nat Phillips’ Cruyff turn sent Kessie and Ibrahimovic skidding so far, they’ll have to get Covid tests before they’re allowed back into Italy.

 

It was lovely that those two 12 year-old kids were allowed to stay up late in order to run around the San Siro for a couple of minutes, watching the big lads play football.

 

[Ne Moe Imya]

2 hours ago, Jose Jones said:

Tends to go in cycles doesn't it.  Spanish Football has been top dog for the last decade maybe, but with both Madrid clubs a bit below their best and Barcelona fucked completely, it's back to England being the strongest league, like in the mid-late 00s.

Top 4 teams in Europe are probably us, Man City, Chelsea, Bayern.  PSG are an obvious wild card, then the two Madrids.  That's still a pretty tough group of teams.

It does tend to go in cycles but if you look, there are always underlying factors. 

 

The thing is, I'm not sure those underlying factors are likely to change any time soon. Like it or not (and it's debatable whether it's a good thing or bad) the Premier League is essentially morphing into the Super League. There is SO much more money for the English teams it's just a matter of time before West Ham and Leicester are significantly better than Dortmund or Milan, and you can actually argue they're pretty close (on a consistent, year-over-year level) even now. In another 10 years there won't be any question of it.

[3 Stacks]

11 minutes ago, Ne Moe Imya said:

It does tend to go in cycles but if you look, there are always underlying factors. 

 

The thing is, I'm not sure those underlying factors are likely to change any time soon. Like it or not (and it's debatable whether it's a good thing or bad) the Premier League is essentially morphing into the Super League. There is SO much more money for the English teams it's just a matter of time before West Ham and Leicester are significantly better than Dortmund or Milan, and you can actually argue they're pretty close (on a consistent, year-over-year level) even now. In another 10 years there won't be any question of it.

Yeah that's what it is, it's all about the money. Almost no one in Spain has money right now, same in Italy. In Germany and France you have Bayern and PSG and then the rest are basically clubs that develop young players and sell them.

 

And yet, most people will say as well that every team outside the top 3 in England right now is shite too.

[Jose Jones]

48 minutes ago, Ne Moe Imya said:

It does tend to go in cycles but if you look, there are always underlying factors. 

 

The thing is, I'm not sure those underlying factors are likely to change any time soon. Like it or not (and it's debatable whether it's a good thing or bad) the Premier League is essentially morphing into the Super League. There is SO much more money for the English teams it's just a matter of time before West Ham and Leicester are significantly better than Dortmund or Milan, and you can actually argue they're pretty close (on a consistent, year-over-year level) even now. In another 10 years there won't be any question of it.

Yeah I would say that money is the main thing, as @3 Stacks says, also good managers, but they'll tend to follow the money eventually.  A quality generation of homegrown players also helps raise the level, as Spain had back when Barca and Real were winning all the Champions Leagues, and Sevilla all the UEFA cups.  It's easier to make the money count when you don't have to pay much for half your team.

 

Have to say the Premier League has done a great job on the commercial side by promoting itself as the main league in a lot of the rest of the world.

[VladimirIlyich]

4 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

Yeah that's what it is, it's all about the money. Almost no one in Spain has money right now, same in Italy. In Germany and France you have Bayern and PSG and then the rest are basically clubs that develop young players and sell them.

 

And yet, most people will say as well that every team outside the top 3 in England right now is shite too.

It used to be top three in England but I would say the top six in England are financially stronger than all but one or two sports washed teams in Europe.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 04/12/2021 at 20:46, Trumo said:

And so onto the final Champions League group game. We’re already through with a 100% record from the first five games so can afford to take it easy in this one. It’s not quite a dead rubber as Milan could still join us in the knockouts if they beat us and Porto and Atletico cancel one another out. I can only imagine the level of shithousery likely to be on display in that one. Porto, like Wolves, regularly tried to disrupt our rhythm at Anfield with their players hitting the deck and needing treatment for bugger all. And Atletico are Atletico. It’s a bit weird to think that the two coaches Conceicao and Simeone were both key figures in the Lazio team that won Serie A under Eriksson in 2000. Anyway (and I realise it’s odd to ask for these):

 

Tactical know-how. Heart. Effort. Luck. Accuracy. Skill. Tenacity. Supremacy. Urgency. Poise. Purpose. Effervescence. Resolve.

 

I don’t ask for much.

 

We’ve only faced the Italian giants on 3 previous occasions, all in this competition, and 2 of which were in the biggest club game on the planet. The group game at Anfield back in September was, barring a mad last 10 minutes of the first half, a comfortably dominant performance from the Reds. The 3-2 scoreline didn’t reflect the gulf between the sides.

 

A closer game was the Champions League final in Athens in May 2007. Unlike in Istanbul two years earlier, we were the better side for the most part. However, we lacked a cutting edge and Milan’s centre back pairing of Nesta and Maldini coped pretty comfortably whenever we got anywhere near the penalty area. I think Rafa made a mistake starting with Zenden and Pennant as part of the 3 alongside Gerrard in our 4-2-3-1. We needed something more unorthodox to get Gerrard more involved in the final third. Crouchie up top would have been a handful, especially with Dirk’s workrate and knack for getting into goalscoring positions alongside him. Maybe even the pace and ability to drag defenders away that Bellamy possessed could have proved fruitful. Pennant didn’t have a bad game, but he was ultimately ineffective because our set up was totally unsuited to what brought the best out of him back then.

 

Milan seemed to have learned from their Istanbul and were much cagier in both set-up and approach. Instead of 2 strikers (Shevchenko and Crespo in 2005) and 2 attacking midfielders (Seedorf and Kaka), he opted to start with Inzaghi up front with Kaka just behind, and Seedorf playing more of a ‘Gini’ role. The midfield was shored up with the defensive-minded Ambrosini.

 

A first half of very few chances ended with Milan going in at half time a goal to the good. A mistimed challenge by Xabi on Kaka on the edge of the area presented Pirlo with a chance to have a shot at Pepe Reina’s goal. The free kick wasn’t great but it took a hefty deflection off Inzaghi’s arm to wrong-foot the Spaniard.

 

Stevie had a very good chance early in the second half but his low effort was well saved by Dida. As the half wore on and Milan’s defence remained stubborn, Rafa decided to go for broke and replaced Masch who up to then had shackled Kaka pretty well. Soon afterwards, the Brazilian found space and played a pass into Inzaghi’s run. The Italian rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the net from a narrow angle for 2-0. With only minutes to go, Dirk buried a header past Dida and suddenly as the game entered stoppage time, Milan were twitching. Crouchie hammered an effort at goal that Dida did well to save. Any chance of completing the comeback was killed off by the ref who decided not to play the allotted stoppage time and blew early. Twat. Milan had got their revenge. It’s doubly galling because they’d initially been booted out of the competition for their part in the Calciopoli scandal of 2006.

 

Rafa’s post-game frustration spilled over as he went on and on about the need to act quickly and decisively when negotiating transfers. It was obvious that he was frustrated at being unable to bring in his first choice players because we had a habit of faffing about and low-balling. That summer he would grow a goatee and take on a more divisive persona, moving away from the friendlier figure of his first couple of years at Anfield.

 

 

 

May 2007 saw Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow return for the third instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. At World’s End saw the main characters return alongside him for another high seas adventure. A bit like the Austin Powers series, the POTC sequels were heavy on cameos but failed to capture what made the original so brilliant. It’s a trend with loads of films where the original worked brilliantly but everything was overblown when they decided to do sequels. Curse of the Black Pearl had been somewhat of a surprise hit in 2003 but it got everything right and had something for everyone. Depp had always played quirky characters in more low-key fare but that was when he went mainstream. It remains hugely entertaining nearly 20 years on. At World’s End is merely alright like the rest of the series, and not a patch on the first film. It’s not even close.

 

 

I don’t imagine Klopp will want to take the game at the San Siro lightly, but at the same time even he must know that there isn’t much reward for winning millions of pounds after a Champions League group game win when you’ve already topped your group, if there is a distinct possibility that key players will pick up an injury that affects the team’s chances of success. It seems obvious to go with a second string for this one, and give game time to the likes of Keeva, Big Nat, Tsimi, Tyler and Taki. If Bobby is able to take the field, he might be worth a go too. If not, then Div should certainly be involved. Whatever the line-up, use it as an opportunity to show the boss you should be considered for a regular place. Whatever the circumstances, at least try to get the job done.

I've just realised that @Bjornebye forgot to post the number one single from the time of that match and that's why Milan scored first last night.

[Razoray]

12 hours ago, Carvalho Diablo said:

This ref looks like an extra from Falcon's Crest or Knott's Landing.

Falcon Crest and Knots Landing. FFS. Amateur hour

[Razoray]

None of the 3 other teams in the group performed well over the 6 games but when they needed to Atletico went to Porto and shit-housed a win and Milan couldn't beat our 2nd string. Atletico are a bunch of cunts but deserve to go through. Hopefully they get City or Chelsea now and fuck them out

[magicrat]

10 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Are we likely to get into trouble for breaching child labour laws with those two little tiny babies who came on at the end?

It's back up sweeping chimneys for those lads today .