The Official Football Thread

[ACertainStark]

http://www.fifa.com/world-match-cent...sid/232/601/8/

Too funny.

[LoveYouSaber]

Thank you Atletico Madrid for dumping Chelsea.

Now, Arsenal please get the FA Cup. I want to see our "specialist in failure" getting more trophies than that big mouth Mourinho.

I think I'll be rooting for Atletico in the finals too. Kind of like a under-dog and has spent less than Real, and as such is attractive to a neutral like me. Not to mention the team constantly has to sell their best players, similar to *cough* *cough* Arsenal.

[ACertainStark]

Disappointed Chelsea couldn't seal a final. Oh well, next season always a chance! good representation of England in CL at least.

I hope ATM can do a double. So close to it.

[Bri]

All that stands between Real and La Decima is their cross town rivals Atletico, who could not dream of a sweeter revenge than to trample that dream while winning their first CL title.

Insane amount of pressure on both teams, could easily turn in to one of the most brutal European Cup finals in decades.

[germanturkey]

to be fair, i think real will have a hard time against atletico. but with real's form right now, they should win.

[ACertainStark]

The same can be said for Atletico. They might be underdogs, but they're the in-form team right now.

And they have been good against Real lately.

[Blaat]

I believe Atleti has a beter head-to-head this season compared to Real (a win and a draw) which is the reason why Atleti has to drop points twice before Real can win La Liga as in La Liga when teams have equal points the head-to-head determines who takes the higher position (and a lot of local pundits don't seem to be aware of this fact).

[Pellissier]

Originally Posted by Blaat

I believe Atleti has a beter head-to-head this season compared to Real (a win and a draw)

In spanish championship yes, Real-Atletic 0-1 and Atletic-Real 1-1.

However they also played in National Cup, and Real won twice, 3-0 and 2-0.

With this said, it should be a pretty close final, and imho Atletic will be for Real a higher hurdle than Chelsea could have been.

[oompa loompa]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

In spanish championship yes, Real-Atletic 0-1 and Atletic-Real 1-1.

However they also played in National Cup, and Real won twice, 3-0 and 2-0.

With this said, it should be a pretty close final, and imho Atletic will be for Real a higher hurdle than Chelsea could have been.

Yeah, this. Most of the pundits agree that atletico are the real deal, they might very well be the last team real would want to face in a final, especially because they're expected to win, if only slightly; atletico would have had an incredible season either way.

[germanturkey]

i may be wrong, because i know nothing about atletico, but their play style is narrow and powering through the middle? this is in stark contrast to real's winger system. add into consideration that Alonso is out for the finals, and Real has a weakness there.

[Blaat]

Unbelievable matches in the EL, Valencia made a comeback only for Sevilla to score a crucial away goal in dying minutes of injury times and Juventus in spite of all the domination lacked cutting edge to score and finish the game.

[ACertainStark]

So is Juventus out?

Also, http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/27248257

Rui Faria banned for 6 matches. He really should have held back no matter how frustrating it was.

[Blaat]

Yeah Juventus is out and the final will be between Sevilla and Benfica.

[ACertainStark]

Europa league will be just as entertaining as CL it seems

Last years was really fun.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Yeah Juventus is out and the final will be between Sevilla and Benfica.

Sadly I'm not very hopeful. Benfica has about half the team either injured or unable to play due to yellow/red cards. Today's match however felt extremely gratifying in the end. Winning against such odds (we were down to 10 after a red card midway through the second half), having one player leave the pitch covered in blood, seeing the game finish 2 minutes after the announced extra time (down to 9 then) and having the bitter disappointment of loosing every competition in the space of a month last year made this feel amazing (Benfica is already the Portuguese champion for a few weeks now so one title's already won). It was also funny to see the opposing coach being a complete scumbag complaining about the referee and lack of fair play of the opposing team. Absolutely hilarious coming from someone with his past.

Benfica hasn't won an European title since the sixties. Some blame it on a curse put by the coach of the time ("It'll be 100 years before Benfica wins another European title" he is supposed to have said). Silly superstition or not it has proven quite effective and I hope to see it broken in my lifetime. It's just a shame we couldn't do it on our home stadium where the Champions league final is being held this year.

[RapidPotential]

Last year was an all-German final. This year will be an all-Spanish final. How coincidental.

All-English final next year please. We need to keep this trend up.

[Irenicus]

^It's going to be Arsenal vs...uh, Liverpool? Man City?

[ACertainStark]

Chelsea vs Liverpool pls.

Maybe Man City, too.

[RapidPotential]

Arsenal vs. Chelsea pls. We want that chance to show Mourinho who's a specialist in failure.

[justavisitor]

Don't think EPL is good enough to have two teams in the final...and platini won't let it happen anyway

A much more realistic (and horrible) match up could be bayern munich vs barcelona with both sides fighting for 70% possession...XD I don't even want to imagine it....