Champions League Group Stage - Group C

Discuss. Opinions? Predictions?

Roma should qualify for Europa League.

Those trips to Azerbaijan though

Atletik and Chelsea Fight IT out for top spot.
Roma to Fight for 2nd spot.

Potentially a 12 point Group of Death, if atleti/Chelsea/roma Win all home games and Beat qAirbag away.

1. Atletico
2. Chelsea
3. Roma
4. Qarabag

Getting the away trip to Qarabag out of the way early is a good advantage we have. Getting 6 points from that tie is a must though I won't be surprised if we have more trouble with them than we do the other clubs.

We need to take points from everyone at home. Beating Atleti and Chelsea at home is asking too much though. We've been tough to beat at the Olimpico for a couple of seasons now, but it's never been a fortress in Europe unfortunately so I expect a loss against one of those sides, but if we draw the other, do the double over Qarabag, and perhaps take a point either from Stamford Bridge or the Wanda Metro, I think we'll have a shout at 2nd.

Still, I think the EL beckons for us.....because Roma happens. One can dream though.

Lol at Conte celebrating the 5th goal in a home match against Qarabag like he won the Champions League.

Alisson saving our asses today. What an immense performance.

Our fitness levels are absolutely shocking. Just dropped off a cliff 60 minutes in and then Atleti stepped up the pace, just like Inter did. If not for Alisson and the post, this would've been a hiding, not kidding myself. That said, a point is as much as I could've hoped for.

The time off definitely hurt us. Playing week in, week out is the only way to fix this fitness issue.

I am heartened that EDF had the awareness to change our formation to a 3-man backline. He's not as tactically stubborn as I feared he would be. Dzeko is super isolated. Needs someone playing closer to him. Radja and Strootman feel wasted in this 4-3-3 as well. Very worried about them.

Vlad the Impaler wrote:Lol at Conte celebrating the 5th goal in a home match against Qarabag like he won the Champions League.

He was celebrating because Michy hasn't been in the best form and needed a goal, aint nothing wrong with that.

I get the feeling that Qarabag and going to lose all their games, so it's basically a group of three teams, and Chelsea have the advantage because Roma and Atleti drew.

Kick wrote:

Vlad the Impaler wrote:Lol at Conte celebrating the 5th goal in a home match against Qarabag like he won the Champions League.

He was celebrating because Michy hasn't been in the best form and needed a goal, aint nothing wrong with that.

I get the feeling that Qarabag and going to lose all their games, so it's basically a group of three teams, and Chelsea have the advantage because Roma and Atleti drew.

For me it is just very funny. That's all.

Expected goals in the Roma-Atletico game

Atleti should win the group and Qarabag should lose all their matches. The draw in Roma should make things more exciting for the 2nd spot.

Early match because of Azerbaijan.

Roma's lineup, rested some players:

Alisson; Kolarov, Jesus, Manolas, Peres; Nainggolan, Gonalons, Pellegrini; El Shaarawy, Dzeko, Deffrel

Feel bad for Qarabag, its just too one-sided.

what kind of yellow card is that lol ?

Qarabag are not as bad as i expected, about uptable Serie B level maybe more ?

Roma are walking around. It looks like a training match with no intensity.

With these 3 yellows back to back, i found the last 5 minutes quite intense

Not gonna lie i start watching the game just before that tackle on El Sha.

The start when Roma went 2-0 seemed like the most casual match I've ever seen. So I havent been paying much attention since then.

So I was wondering, why yesterday both Moscow games started at the time of the other matches... Local Moscow time is GMT+3, so they would have started at 22.45 local time.

I realize Azerbaidjan is even one more hour later, but didn't Moscow games used to be earlier too?
Has this changed in general, and why?

Or did the English TV lobby get UEFA to postpone the match times at the expense of local fans?

Yeah Moscow games used to be earlier. I didn't realize they were at the same time now.

rincon wrote:Yeah Moscow games used to be earlier. I didn't realize they were at the same time now.

Funnily enough, the next Moscow home games will be at 18:00 CET again.

I bet you, those two yesterday were specifically changed for English TV audiences, those spoilt and entitled *bleep* who can't be expected to accomodate other time zones.

Maybe they want to prevent fights English vs Russians around the stadium.

is this hazard's first game back this season?

Maybe as a starter but he has been playing lately.

Here we go again with Atleti PTB their way to wins. All these years and no team knows how to beat them.

Sigh, it will be up to us again it seems