Champions league & Europa League 2022-3

[sussexpob]

For about 25-30 minutes it felt like a contest, Bayern transitioned the ball forward quickly and looked canny to knick a goal on the break....after that, and particularly as the second half went on, City just flattened them. Sommer made a few important saves to keep some glimmer of hope for Bayern, but it's looking like the tie was ended by the 3rd goal.

Jack Grealish is really starting to purr for city. His work off the ball has become something else

[Gingerfinch]

Yes he was very busy last night and showed some flair.

[sussexpob]

Going Leverkusen tomorrow night for the USG match. Going to be a (very drunken) great night, although Leverkusen have sparked into unstoppable form.... so maybe a 3 hour drive back at 23h00 after a 4-0 hammering is not going to be so fun

[mikesiva]

Real Madrid 2-0 Chelsea

Chilwell red card.

[Durhamfootman]

Man Utd concede two late own goals to hand the initiative back to Seville. 2-2 1st leg

You can make nearly as many subs as you can in rugby these days, yet Man Utd had used all of them when Martinez pulled up and hobbled off. That has to be poor management doesn't it? Man Utd were 2-0 up for nearly all the game, so it isn't as if Ten Hag was having to gamble to chase a result

[sussexpob]

Going Leverkusen tomorrow night for the USG match. Going to be a (very drunken) great night, although Leverkusen have sparked into unstoppable form.... so maybe a 3 hour drive back at 23h00 after a 4-0 hammering is not going to be so fun

On the pitch, it was an amazing night. 1-1, and while Leverkusen were the better side and we got lucky, a draw away to a team who has gone to two Champions League finals..... if you told me that would happen when I found this small club a few years back, I'd have told you to see a shrink.

But the night was soured by the unacceptable treatment of the Union fans by the German Police. All fans were directed by the police to rendez-vous at a given place in Leverkusen centre for a mandatory escort to the ground. We were directed to use a specific car park which was 45 minutes away, told there would be a free bus to the rendez-vous point, but the bus ended up taking everyone to the ground where we were refused entry, we had to walk 3 kms back into central Leverkusen only to be escorted back the same way we came in order to be let in.... by heavy handed police dressed up like they were expecting a few battalions of Russian marines in full riot gear, and with the mood to boot. There was no trouble. Not a hint of it, so to be treated like criminals or animals just wasnt necessary.

Arriving 1 hour before the game at Bay Arena, I missed the first 30 minutes trying to get in the ground, as they had 2 people checking tickets for 4,000 people, and then 2 people conducting searches holding the queue up despite there being about 400 police standing in a column next to the entrance doing nothing. I'd have said at kick of there was still at least half the fans outside.... and when I got in, still several hundred left who must have missed the first half altogether. Just a shambles. Totally unacceptable.

Then to cap it all off, the promised bus back to the car park never materialised. Once again we were marched to a train station in a random industrial park 45 minutes away, and then dumped there by the police at 23h45. It was a further 40 minutes walk back to our car park, no public transport, no promised buses. I seen one family with a small child who was in tears - shoddy, shoddy treatment and organisation.

The police on the way back had he audacity to blame us for not arriving at the ground early enough for the fiasco at the gate - well dipsh*ts, I arrived at the ground 3 hours before and was forced to a random shopping centre in the middle of nowhere on your orders, and was only able to arrive at the ground when you ALLOWED ME. If it takes 90 minutes to get a small number of fans through the gate, then maybe you can time your needless escort to arrive more than 60 minutes before.

A miserable experience.

[Durhamfootman]

terrible, SP

eventually football will wonder why fewer and fewer people are going to these big european nights

you'd have thought a lesson might have been learned from the Paris final last year

Is there an active fans group with enough clout to complain and be listened to?

[sussexpob]

The supporters groups are very upset. We drove up, because the guys I went with wanted to drop into Cologne for the day for a bit of sightseeing (beautiful city). But the official club buses with the supporters groups were stopped at the frontier to Germany by the police, where they were escorted to a petrol station near Aachen, and had their buses searched one after another.... apparently they were there for 3 hours by the time all buses were searched. And then the last of the buses to depart only hit Leverkusen after 19h00, which held up the escort departure from Leverkusen centre. And then they have audacity to blame our timing? Is it even legal? Can you subject someone to a 3 hour search with no good reason?

I understand there is sometimes problems. German clubs have had issues in Europe this year (just google Frankfurt v Napoli, some of that behaviour in Naples was shocking).... but at the end of the day, we were treated like criminals for going to a football match. These attitudes breed problems - Union fans never cause trouble, they have a reputation for it in Belgium for being fun and laid back. But after hours subjected to idiocy, you could feel the anger brewing. The situation outside nearly became a major issue as fans lost patience and tried to storm the locked gate and breakthrough, which ended with me and my mate by that stage near the front getting crushed. The police's job is to protect the public's safety, but their measures did the opposite. I think a club with less reasonable fans end up rioting in that situation. Several hundred people getting penned up and pushed forward, while the police watch. The home gate section next to us was empty. You have 100s of police, re-route the away fans into the gate of the home section and open the gate separating them... it could have been done. The woman behind me was clearly in distress being crushed. It was a situation that could have easily ended with injuries.

I have already made a written complaint to Leverkusen this morning, demanding my ticket be refunded for missing a 1/3 of the game.

[mikesiva]

Interesting semi finals

Real Madrid vs Manchester City
Milan derby

[bigfluffylemon]

Interesting semi finals

Real Madrid vs Manchester City
Milan derby

On paper Real Madrid v Man City should have been the final. Most of the predictions I've seen have the winner of that one hot favourite to win the final against either Milan side.

No doubt the English team will find a way to lose to Real yet again.

[sussexpob]

On paper Real Madrid v Man City should have been the final. Most of the predictions I've seen have the winner of that one hot favourite to win the final against either Milan side. No doubt the English team will find a way to lose to Real yet again.

I don't usually credit the role of reputation or historical significance having much impact on the pitch, but there is just something about the way that Real Madrid can be terrible all year in the league, but you put them in the CLs and they just tear it up, or even when playing poor, somehow find a way to beat exceptional teams. Its like all that history and success weighs on their opponents, and plays tricks with their mind..... I have zero idea how Real beat City last time for instance, they scored quite a lot of goals out of nowhere, in two matches they were dominated in... including 2 in the last minute to win the tie.

Its quite unexplainable. City are miles the better team, but you just know Real Madrid will win the tie.... like they always do. And like City always do, finding ways to lose in European knockout games they utterly dominate.

[bigfluffylemon]

My thoughts exactly.

[Durhamfootman]

No.... I think City will beat them this year


there... I've said it.... and you can quote me on that

but I do believe it, albeit safe in the knowledge that I can't jinx anything, because I couldn't care less either way

[sussexpob]

Union v Leverkusen tonight....judgement day

[Durhamfootman]

I saw 'Man Utd gift early goal' and immediately thought Harry Maguire

A quick check down the live reporting and found

'Goal! disaster for Maguire.'

of course