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Champions League - 2017/18

St José Dominguez

Well-Known Member
Jul 15, 2014
3,592
11,648
Whilst we talk about our fixtures also worth remembering Juve are in a genuine title race this year and have tricky away games against Fiorentina and Lazio before the two legs vs us. They'll be just as jaded as us.
 

BSJ93

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
465
670
Gunna be tough. I think we need to get ahead out there as I think we'll struggled to break them down if they get themselves ahead and sit in deep at Wembley.
 

SUIYHA

Well-Known Member
Jan 15, 2017
1,723
8,579
In all seriousness, it's the second toughest draw we could have got (Bayern would have been worse) but that's life. No easy games left at this point in the competition. I know that we can beat them if we're on our game, we've just finished ahead of a team that royally arse fucked them in the Champions League final last year and they've lost Bonucci and Alves since then. They're only in third place this year in Serie A and they failed to win their group for a reason (not only because they lost to Barca, also because they drew with Sporting). Point is - they are beatable.

Where this could really help us is in terms of making a reputation for the club. So far both Spanish and German TV audiences will have had reasons to stand up and take notice of us, if we win this an Italian one will too which will be all three of the major European leagues. We are a far lesser known quantity in Europe compared to our PL rivals, people from the major European leagues watching us beat their biggest clubs will boost our profile and stature at the top table.

I think there's now a good chance we'll be seeing two English clubs playing each other in this year's competition, probably in the next round...
 

Hazardousman

Audere est Facere
Jul 24, 2013
4,619
8,944
Probably the worst side we could have drawn, they will defend deep and in numbers and make it really difficult for us to get space and they will hit us on the counter, unlike Madrid who played open against us and we exploited it.

Really tough game, toughest we have faced yet imo.
 

StanSpur

Ronny Rosenthal
Jul 15, 2004
2,436
2,042
So we have United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Juve in the space of about 2 weeks. Couldn't ask for much worse tbh

10-15 years ago maybe, that would be 4 games on the bounce with little to no chance of getting any results. Now however, I say couldn't ask for much better as a fan. We may not win every game but we are likely to be competitive in each of those games and as a supporter what better than to see your team go up against and compete with the best? Besides what better way to motivate the players than against the Italian champions and a potential place in the clubs history vs someone like shakhtar where we may think we should win anyway?
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,770
99,331
Would expect the NLD to be the 12.30 game on the Saturday before. In fact it most certainly will be.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,770
99,331
Probably the worst side we could have drawn, they will defend deep and in numbers and make it really difficult for us to get space and they will hit us on the counter, unlike Madrid who played open against us and we exploited it.

Really tough game, toughest we have faced yet imo.

But they are at home the first leg which is so crucial. The onus will be on them to.win the first leg, so we can sit back, stay compact and hit them on the counter.

Had the first leg been at Wembley I would of said we were in trouble in that respect.
 

degoose

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2004
2,832
3,012
well happy with Juventus, i can see the players really hyped for this and will give it all. I just think if we had Basel we might have had issues like last season and the team just not trying enough. Hopefully we will have Lamela up to speed and a fit Toby and Wanyama to really help out. Can't wait for this game.
 

aliyid

Well-Known Member
Dec 28, 2004
6,944
19,928
Where this could really help us is in terms of making a reputation for the club. So far both Spanish and German TV audiences will have had reasons to stand up and take notice of us, if we win this an Italian one will too which will be all three of the major European leagues.
Love this, game is about glory so lets go out there and show the Italian champions what we're made of :woot:
 

Hazardousman

Audere est Facere
Jul 24, 2013
4,619
8,944
But they are at home the first leg which is so crucial. The onus will be on them to.win the first leg, so we can sit back, stay compact and hit them on the counter.

Had the first leg been at Wembley I would of said we were in trouble in that respect.

I do agree that being away first leg is advantagous to us, however, I think sometimes we really struggle to play on the counter against teams that want us to have the ball, whenever a team plays like that it's like we cannot resist passing the ball sidewards and backwards and trying to play it through the middle until we eventually run out of steam and ideas, at which point our heads drop and that's when the problems start.

I just hope we can somehow manage to get an early goal against them, if we can come away from there with a 2 goal advantage I would be confident we will go through.

We really need Toby back for this game though, 100%.
 

thefierycamel

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2014
2,015
5,128
10-15 years ago maybe, that would be 4 games on the bounce with little to no chance of getting any results. Now however, I say couldn't ask for much better as a fan. We may not win every game but we are likely to be competitive in each of those games and as a supporter what better than to see your team go up against and compete with the best? Besides what better way to motivate the players than against the Italian champions and a potential place in the clubs history vs someone like shakhtar where we may think we should win anyway?
Whilst I agree with that sentiment it doesn't allow for much rotation and could bring about burn out and/or injuries to key players. We need our best available team on the park for all of those matches.
 
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