2023-24 Season - Discussion Thread

YayNJ · 07-11-2023, 12:50 PM

It's that time again (already)!

First qualifying round of this seasons Champions League is this evening!

bjho852 · 07-11-2023, 01:05 PM

Some of these UCL qualifying matches are already underway.
Any past champion starting from this round? Curious.

YayNJ · 07-11-2023, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjho852

Any past champion starting from this round? Curious.

No, not this low down - this is for the real minnows, teams from Gibraltar etc.

However - the Romanian side Steaua Bucharest, who won the old European Cup before it changed to the Champions League, in 1985-86 have started from the second qualifying round before.

cardbuster · 07-12-2023, 12:50 AM

The Romanian champions are starting from scratch this season, from the low-tier playoffs, in order to get to the group stage. Fun-fact, Gheorghe Hagi is the manager & coach, but nevertheless, they will most likely not make it, as we haven't had a team in the groups for a while now.

If there's anything you'd like to know about Romanian or European football for that matter, ask away. I'm located here and I'm up-to-date with all the news and the things the media might not tell you.

CiaranGQ · 07-12-2023, 03:09 AM

Dinamo Tbilisi are also in the first preliminary round this week. Although never European Cup / Champions League winners, they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1981 and had some great scalps in European competition around that time (including a 3-0 victory over a great Liverpool side).

Unfortunately, post the collapse of the USSR, Georgian football has really struggled and, whereas Dinamo would have previously got crowds of 70,000 plus for their home European matches, it’s now a fraction of that (I was there in 1997 for their Champions League preliminary round match versus Crusaders of Northern Ireland and, even by then, their crowds had decreased materially).

Another team in this round is Ferencvaros of Hungary who’ve had quite a lot of European success over the years, albeit again a long time ago and far from being a European power house these days.

I appreciate these preliminary rounds don’t generate much interest but I find them fascinating. As a follower of Northern Irish club football, these games are important - both in terms of profile but also revenue as winning through a few rounds generate very significant funds for small clubs. That Northern Irish club view is shared across many of the other small European nations.

Overall it’s unfortunate as smaller clubs are rarely going to draw the big clubs in the random way they could until the early 1990s and the cash is something of a pay-off by UEFA. However, still interesting and there’s always hope of a giant killing.

tupacgr13 · 07-12-2023, 03:53 AM

That Balkani vs Ludogorets was a big upset to be honest. We have to wait for the second leg as well but for me being based in Greece I absolutely love the games between balkan teams. The rivalries are crazy

YayNJ · 07-12-2023, 05:11 AM

It's a shame that the Champions League is no longer for Champions. You can argue that it's more exciting and whatever, but true beauty for me, is long road trips to the back end of nowhere playing teams you have never heard of and having adventures. Giant killings.

Alas, we can never go back to that - the gulf in quality is now so absurdly large it would be a massacre. All for money.

tupacgr13 · 07-12-2023, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YayNJ

It's a shame that the Champions League is no longer for Champions. You can argue that it's more exciting and whatever, but true beauty for me, is long road trips to the back end of nowhere playing teams you have never heard of and having adventures. Giant killings.

Alas, we can never go back to that - the gulf in quality is now so absurdly large it would be a massacre. All for money.

I think its from the reasons I find Conference league fascinating. Some big names but not in their best form usually, some teams with glimpses of success in the past and always space for small teams to have their run. The first year I really enjoyed seeing my hometown team Paok Thessaloniki playing in Conference league quarter finals against Marseille despite all the incidents that did happen in France.

mfw13 · 07-12-2023, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YayNJ

It's a shame that the Champions League is no longer for Champions. You can argue that it's more exciting and whatever, but true beauty for me, is long road trips to the back end of nowhere playing teams you have never heard of and having adventures. Giant killings.

Alas, we can never go back to that - the gulf in quality is now so absurdly large it would be a massacre. All for money.

I would like to see the Champion's League move to being Champions and Cup-Winners only, with 2nd/3rd/4th place teams in the Europa League.

That would boost the importance of domestic cups, and put the Europa League on more equal footing with the Champion's League in terms of team quality and therefore financial attractiveness.

chiefs · 07-12-2023, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjho852

Some of these UCL qualifying matches are already underway.
Any past champion starting from this round? Curious.

The last team to go deep from this round that comes too mind was 18-19 Ajax which lost to Tottenham in the semifinals. Ajax up 2-0 at half gave up a second half hat trick to Lucas Moura and lost on aggregate 3-3. Pretty stacked Ajax team with Frankie De Jong, Mathias De Ligt, Donny Van Der Beek, Hakim Zivech, Dusan Tadic, Andre Onana in goal.

chiefs · 07-12-2023, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tupacgr13

I think its from the reasons I find Conference league fascinating. Some big names but not in their best form usually, some teams with glimpses of success in the past and always space for small teams to have their run. The first year I really enjoyed seeing my hometown team Paok Thessaloniki playing in Conference league quarter finals against Marseille despite all the incidents that did happen in France.

Have you been to many matches at PAOK and is the atmosphere as good as everyone says?

tupacgr13 · 07-13-2023, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiefs

Have you been to many matches at PAOK and is the atmosphere as good as everyone says?

I am not a PAOK fan but I have been a season ticket holder the last 15 years. My opinion is there are some games that it can be one of the best atmospheres in the soccer world. Last match I remember was against Marseille before 2 years in the conference league quarter final which you could see the fans go mental. Last year the best experience was probably AEK Athens with their new stadium but was extremely hard if not impossible to get tickets to their venue. This year they will be playing in Champions League preliminaries so expect good atmospheres as well. If anyone needs some information about the greek teams I will be more than happy to help and especially in case you visit Thessaloniki for PAOK or Aris I am a season ticket holder in both teams so I can always arrange something. Sorry for the big message and the irrelevant infos but it is a rare occasion someone asks something for greek football

mikee1186 · 07-13-2023, 08:08 AM

Henderson looks to be set for Saudi now as well if the clubs agree a fee. As a Liverpool fan I say fair play to him, quadrupling his wages at that age and he will play under Stevie G with a lot of minutes.

He knows he would be a bit part player now at LFC. Good for him to move on and find an important role that may well keep him in the England setup longer too.

kellmuff · 07-13-2023, 08:27 AM

lol he isnt going to be in the England team playing in Saudi Arabia

YayNJ · 07-13-2023, 09:36 AM

Yeah, no chance he keeps a place with England.

It's stacked there now, Rice, Phillips, Gallagher, Bellingham, Prowse... and there's also Eze and Maddison that can play there.

Tack on Ramsay & Skipp from the U21's and Willock at Newcastle...

mikee1186 · 07-13-2023, 11:17 AM

We’ll see. I doubt we’ve seen the last of hendo in the England kit, even if it’s a bit longer.

YayNJ · 07-13-2023, 11:40 AM

Realistically, he will get phased out the squad to be never seen again.

jmcca170 · 07-13-2023, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiefs

The last team to go deep from this round that comes too mind was 18-19 Ajax which lost to Tottenham in the semifinals. Ajax up 2-0 at half gave up a second half hat trick to Lucas Moura and lost on aggregate 3-3. Pretty stacked Ajax team with Frankie De Jong, Mathias De Ligt, Donny Van Der Beek, Hakim Zivech, Dusan Tadic, Andre Onana in goal.

One of the most fun teams I’ve ever seen. Absolutely hated they didn’t get to the final

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CiaranGQ · 07-14-2023, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tupacgr13

I am not a PAOK fan but I have been a season ticket holder the last 15 years.

I have always had a soft spot for Panathinaikos as one of my first ever games was Linfield (Northern Ireland) vs Panathinaikos in the second round of the 1984/85 European Cup. Linfield ran them close but lost 5-4 on aggregate and, ultimately, Panathinaikos would lose in the semi-final to Liverpool.

I have never seen a Panathinaikos home match but attended their Leoforos (?) stadium for the Northern Ireland away match to Greece in 2003 (which Greece won to qualify for the 2004 Euros and rest is history …). It’s one of the best stadia I’ve ever attended. A proper stadium right in the city, with steep terracing that’s close to the pitch. Enables a brilliant atmosphere which there was that night.

The first leg preliminary round results were fairly good for the Northern Irish sides. Larne lost 1-0 away to Helsinki in the Champions League which was above expectations. Linfield beat Albanian opposition in their home leg while Crusaders and Glentoran both had away draws to Finnish and Maltese opposition respectively.

All 4 teams have at least a reasonable chance of progressing to the second preliminary round which is great to see.

tupacgr13 · 07-14-2023, 05:17 AM

Panathinaikos seems to be stuck to mediocrity these days. They had a good spell last year when they were on the top of the table until last matchday. I do not like them personally but they are a massive club(fanwise) even for european standards. They are trying to get a new stadium nowadays because Leoforos is very small for their needs.

Northern Ireland had a good spell last years but now they seem to settle back in the days where the national team didn't have a lot of success. Hope you enjoyed Euro 2016. Will Griggs on fire was a big hit that days.

Domzale losing 1-4 to Balzan was the biggest upset of the night I think. Most of the others matches are relatively open still.

CiaranGQ · 07-14-2023, 07:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tupacgr13

Northern Ireland had a good spell last years but now they seem to settle back in the days where the national team didn't have a lot of success. Hope you enjoyed Euro 2016. Will Griggs on fire was a big hit that days.

Yes, Euro 2016 was good. I was in France for approx two weeks for the Northern Ireland games with at least half the time spent in Lyon. My last Northern Ireland game was away to Switzerland @ Basle in late 2017; a World Cup 2018 play-off in which we came close but narrowly missed out.

It’s great to have some European focused, vintage & modern, football / soccer / calcio / futbol dialogue on the forum.

I’m an Internazionale (“Inter”) season ticket holder and, after the additional cost of the unexpected Champions League run late last season, it was horrible to be met with an almost 30% increase in season ticket prices … despite Inter’s additional income from their Champions League run.

As bad as that is, it could be worse. I understand Fiorentina season ticket prices increased by 40% plus. Added to the increasing costs of flights and hotels, I will need to pick & choose my games more this season.

The focus for Inter this season is very definitely on winning the Scudetto which would be #20. With the squad now weakened since last season, I’m not overly optimistic but hope I’m proved wrong. The one thing that leaves me hope is I am not seeing an Italian side that is considerably stronger.

YayNJ · 07-14-2023, 08:10 AM

Yes, this has been most refreshing today.

Proper football talk

kellmuff · 07-14-2023, 08:55 AM

already seen Arsenal fans complaining about Havertz' first performance lol.

I still think there's a very great player there, but I think the puzzle is figuring out what his best position is.

Gin&Juice · 07-14-2023, 09:28 AM

If you guys keep talking about games b/n Northern Ireland and Greek teams that occurred 40 years ago, I am going to have to start talking about MLS Next games.

In all seriousness, though, very cool to see the diversity of backgrounds in this forum.

YayNJ · 07-14-2023, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kellmuff

already seen Arsenal fans complaining about Havertz' first performance lol.

07-11-2023, 12:50 PM	#1
YayNJ Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: London / Oahu Posts: 8,264 hanelcocards	2023-24 Season - Discussion Thread It's that time again (already)! First qualifying round of this seasons Champions League is this evening!

07-12-2023, 12:50 AM	#4
cardbuster Member Join Date: Jul 2023 Location: Bucharest Posts: 69 cardbuster	The Romanian champions are starting from scratch this season, from the low-tier playoffs, in order to get to the group stage. Fun-fact, Gheorghe Hagi is the manager & coach, but nevertheless, they will most likely not make it, as we haven't had a team in the groups for a while now. If there's anything you'd like to know about Romanian or European football for that matter, ask away. I'm located here and I'm up-to-date with all the news and the things the media might not tell you. __________________ Odds do not predict who will win. They predict who the public thinks will win.

07-11-2023, 01:05 PM	#2
bjho852 Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 4,140	Some of these UCL qualifying matches are already underway. Any past champion starting from this round? Curious. __________________ Instagram (IG): bjho852

07-12-2023, 03:09 AM	#5
CiaranGQ Member Join Date: Jul 2021 Posts: 142	Dinamo Tbilisi are also in the first preliminary round this week. Although never European Cup / Champions League winners, they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1981 and had some great scalps in European competition around that time (including a 3-0 victory over a great Liverpool side). Unfortunately, post the collapse of the USSR, Georgian football has really struggled and, whereas Dinamo would have previously got crowds of 70,000 plus for their home European matches, it’s now a fraction of that (I was there in 1997 for their Champions League preliminary round match versus Crusaders of Northern Ireland and, even by then, their crowds had decreased materially). Another team in this round is Ferencvaros of Hungary who’ve had quite a lot of European success over the years, albeit again a long time ago and far from being a European power house these days. I appreciate these preliminary rounds don’t generate much interest but I find them fascinating. As a follower of Northern Irish club football, these games are important - both in terms of profile but also revenue as winning through a few rounds generate very significant funds for small clubs. That Northern Irish club view is shared across many of the other small European nations. Overall it’s unfortunate as smaller clubs are rarely going to draw the big clubs in the random way they could until the early 1990s and the cash is something of a pay-off by UEFA. However, still interesting and there’s always hope of a giant killing.

07-12-2023, 03:53 AM	#6
tupacgr13 Member Join Date: Nov 2022 Location: Greece Posts: 131	That Balkani vs Ludogorets was a big upset to be honest. We have to wait for the second leg as well but for me being based in Greece I absolutely love the games between balkan teams. The rivalries are crazy

07-12-2023, 05:11 AM	#7
YayNJ Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: London / Oahu Posts: 8,264 hanelcocards	It's a shame that the Champions League is no longer for Champions. You can argue that it's more exciting and whatever, but true beauty for me, is long road trips to the back end of nowhere playing teams you have never heard of and having adventures. Giant killings. Alas, we can never go back to that - the gulf in quality is now so absurdly large it would be a massacre. All for money.

07-13-2023, 08:08 AM	#13
mikee1186 Member Join Date: Aug 2021 Location: TN Posts: 2,119 mikee1186	Henderson looks to be set for Saudi now as well if the clubs agree a fee. As a Liverpool fan I say fair play to him, quadrupling his wages at that age and he will play under Stevie G with a lot of minutes. He knows he would be a bit part player now at LFC. Good for him to move on and find an important role that may well keep him in the England setup longer too.

07-13-2023, 08:27 AM	#14
kellmuff Member Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 1,348	lol he isnt going to be in the England team playing in Saudi Arabia

07-13-2023, 09:36 AM	#15
YayNJ Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: London / Oahu Posts: 8,264 hanelcocards	Yeah, no chance he keeps a place with England. It's stacked there now, Rice, Phillips, Gallagher, Bellingham, Prowse... and there's also Eze and Maddison that can play there. Tack on Ramsay & Skipp from the U21's and Willock at Newcastle...

07-13-2023, 11:17 AM	#16
mikee1186 Member Join Date: Aug 2021 Location: TN Posts: 2,119 mikee1186	We’ll see. I doubt we’ve seen the last of hendo in the England kit, even if it’s a bit longer.

07-13-2023, 11:40 AM	#17
YayNJ Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: London / Oahu Posts: 8,264 hanelcocards	Realistically, he will get phased out the squad to be never seen again.

07-14-2023, 05:17 AM	#20
tupacgr13 Member Join Date: Nov 2022 Location: Greece Posts: 131	Panathinaikos seems to be stuck to mediocrity these days. They had a good spell last year when they were on the top of the table until last matchday. I do not like them personally but they are a massive club(fanwise) even for european standards. They are trying to get a new stadium nowadays because Leoforos is very small for their needs. Northern Ireland had a good spell last years but now they seem to settle back in the days where the national team didn't have a lot of success. Hope you enjoyed Euro 2016. Will Griggs on fire was a big hit that days. Domzale losing 1-4 to Balzan was the biggest upset of the night I think. Most of the others matches are relatively open still.

07-14-2023, 08:10 AM	#22
YayNJ Member Join Date: May 2020 Location: London / Oahu Posts: 8,264 hanelcocards	Yes, this has been most refreshing today. Proper football talk

07-14-2023, 08:55 AM	#23
kellmuff Member Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 1,348	already seen Arsenal fans complaining about Havertz' first performance lol. I still think there's a very great player there, but I think the puzzle is figuring out what his best position is.

07-14-2023, 09:28 AM	#24
Gin&Juice Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Yardley, PA Posts: 1,162 edelsteind	If you guys keep talking about games b/n Northern Ireland and Greek teams that occurred 40 years ago, I am going to have to start talking about MLS Next games. In all seriousness, though, very cool to see the diversity of backgrounds in this forum.