What are the thoughts on how these ties will pan out. There seems to be some very close games in here with a couple of surprises (or not perhaps), on the cards.

Arsenal v Udinese
BATE Borisov v SK Sturm Graz,
FC Copenhagen v Plzen,
FC Twente v Benfica,
Lyon v Rubin Kazan,
Bayern Munich v FC Zurich,
Dinamo Zagreb v Malmo,
Maccabi Haifa v Genk,
Odense BK v Villarreal,
Wisla Krakow v Apoel Nicosia,

I’m more than a bit nervous about the Arsenal tie, I think Ruben Kazan may well surprise Lyon, B.Munich & Villareal should coast thru, Benfica should have too much for Twente. some of the others a flat out guess work.

Wisla will beat Apoel.

Can see Twente causing Benfica a few probs, and I’d say Lyon over Kazan, Zagreb over Malmo and Genk over Haifa.

Always hard to predict these as some teams are halfway through their season, be nice to see some new faces in the CL though.

Think Kazan may beat Lyon, all depends whether Lyon can get the away goal as they don’t tend to ship many goals do Kazan.

I’m heading to The Emirates tonight. Shitting bricks.

Dastrola - 16 August 2011 04:49 PM

I’m heading to The Emirates tonight. Shitting bricks.

Me too. Pretty apprehensive not just about the game, but what the atmosphere will be like. It was pretty horrendous towards the back end of last season, especially in the North Bank lower where I sit, and I can’t imagine it’ll be much better tonight unless things start going well early on.

Am hoping something happens that will really galvanize the fans together & a siege mentality is created. As LadyArse tweeted, we need to be the 12th man for Arsenal, not for Udinese.

C’MON GOOOOOOOOOONNERS!

I can see myself getting rather annoyed at a lot of ‘fans’ tonight.

Team need our backing more than ever.

Juan Flo Evra The Cocu’s Nesta - 16 August 2011 05:00 PM

Am hoping something happens that will really galvanize the fans together & a siege mentality is created. As LadyArse tweeted, we need to be the 12th man for Arsenal, not for Udinese.

C’MON GOOOOOOOOOONNERS!

Who is in midfield for Arsenal tonight? Song (Nasri out), Ramsey (Wilshere not fit), and then ???? Diaby?

I think that this could be a very tough game tonight (and tie overall). We need to be taking an advantage to Italy, and hopefully a clean sheet.

It will probably be 4-0 now.

I hope Malmo get fucked *he says bitterly*

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 06:38 PM

Juan Flo Evra The Cocu’s Nesta - 16 August 2011 05:00 PM

Am hoping something happens that will really galvanize the fans together & a siege mentality is created. As LadyArse tweeted, we need to be the 12th man for Arsenal, not for Udinese.

C’MON GOOOOOOOOOONNERS!

Who is in midfield for Arsenal tonight? Song (Nasri out), Ramsey (Wilshere not fit), and then ???? Diaby?

rosicky no?

Also, I know it’s been mentioned on the ramble before: Who are UEFA advertising to? Collina: ‘Now we see more. RESPECT’
Thanks, I’ll remember to go UEFA next time.

Can’t see this match being much trouble for Arsenal.

Blue&WhiteWizards; - 16 August 2011 07:53 PM

Can’t see this match being much trouble for Arsenal.

I think udinese look decent on the ball. could be troublesome. I’m gunning for an arsenal win, but might not be straight forward.

Watching Arsenal on TV3 in Ireland and Larow just said nothing stops Pat Rice from going up to talk to Wenger. TV3 is the shit Irish channel and only has Tuesday games which means we get good punditry for Wednesday night games on free to air tv.

Maxim, Wernham Hogg FC - 16 August 2011 07:24 PM

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 06:38 PM

Juan Flo Evra The Cocu’s Nesta - 16 August 2011 05:00 PM

Am hoping something happens that will really galvanize the fans together & a siege mentality is created. As LadyArse tweeted, we need to be the 12th man for Arsenal, not for Udinese.

C’MON GOOOOOOOOOONNERS!

Who is in midfield for Arsenal tonight? Song (Nasri out), Ramsey (Wilshere not fit), and then ???? Diaby?

rosicky no?

Also, I know it’s been mentioned on the ramble before: Who are UEFA advertising to? Collina: ‘Now we see more. RESPECT’
Thanks, I’ll remember to go UEFA next time.

Thought he had failed his fitness test—guess that was not the case. Could use a goal from him; it’s the least he could do after going 3 yrs without one.

UEFA just needs a way to spend their millions.

Halftime injuries—Gibbs (of-fucking-course)

___________________________________
[Edit]

NOW DJOUROU! 10 minutes after coming on. What happened to Miquel?

That’s 8 players we’ve lost in the last two days to injuries/ transfers/suspensions Traore, Afobe, Cesc, Eboue, Djourou, Gibbs, Song and Gervinho.

Daniel - 16 August 2011 09:03 PM

That’s 8 players we’ve lost in the last to days to injuries/ transfers/suspensions Traore, Afobe, Cesc, Eboue, Djourou, Gibbs, Song and Gervinho.

And don’t forget RvP, Wilshere and Nasri for today.

Isn’t that weird? It’s almost like we should have signed someone in the summer! How did no one see that coming?

Don’t forget Vela.

Joshua - 16 August 2011 09:16 PM

Don’t forget Vela.

Lulz. I already have, good riddence.

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 09:34 PM

Joshua - 16 August 2011 09:16 PM

Don’t forget Vela.

Lulz. I already have, good riddence.

What you on about? chelsea?

Edit: as I’ve said before on many threads, lulz and luiz look too similar. He will be forever david lulz to me

Maxim, Wernham Hogg FC - 16 August 2011 09:35 PM

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 09:34 PM

Joshua - 16 August 2011 09:16 PM

Don’t forget Vela.

Lulz. I already have, good riddence.

What you on about? chelsea?

Edit: as I’ve said before on many threads, lulz and luiz look too similar. He will be forever david lulz to me

Sorry, new here—but I can see the resemblence. I’ll restrain my “lulz” from now on.

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 09:41 PM

Maxim, Wernham Hogg FC - 16 August 2011 09:35 PM

DeathByEboue - 16 August 2011 09:34 PM

Joshua - 16 August 2011 09:16 PM

Don’t forget Vela.

Lulz. I already have, good riddence.

What you on about? chelsea?

Edit: as I’ve said before on many threads, lulz and luiz look too similar. He will be forever david lulz to me

Sorry, new here—but I can see the resemblence. I’ll restrain my “lulz” from now on.

Wasn’t having a go. use it, it’s funny. lulz

Something happen with Walcott and Geoff Shreeves? I’ve seen things mentioned on twitter but as i was playing football I have no idea what actually was said etc

Walcott gave him the evil eye for mentioning his book, that’s all.

I’m glad (mostly relieved) we got the win, but it was hardy a convincing performance. *Trying to stay positive* *Trying to stay positive* *Trying to stay positive*

I thought Walcott & Vermelen were excellent today. Walcott seemed to be playing with some real hunger in his belly. More of that please Theo. Vermelen was just his usual self, assured, strong & consistent. I really like the look of Frimpong too, he is massive.

I don’t really understand the tactical discipline of this current midfield set-up. There were some massive gaps in there this evening that Udinese really should have exploited better. The pressing game just looks random & Udinese bypassed it easily. Song really needs to stop committing himself going forward & needs to keep it simple, a number of times his silly little flicks resulted in turnover of possession.

Chamakh offered nothing. His hold up play was non-existent & didn’t offer anything going forwards, what’s happened to him?!

Renford Reject - 16 August 2011 10:28 PM

Walcott gave him the evil eye for mentioning his book, that’s all.

Oh okay, I’m glad nothing else has brought bad attention to us tbh.

Quite happy with this result.

We were absolutely dominated for about an hour, but a 1-0 home win is a top result in europe, though I still reckon we’ll probably go out.

Thats 2 clean sheets in 2 games, and while Udinese had some great chances in the first half, these were largely counter-attacks, which they’re very good at, after we had given the ball away. 2nd half we seemed fairly happy to drop deeper. Considering we dominate possession in almost every game we play, I expected us to succumb and concede, but the were largely restricted to shots from outside the box.

I think both vermaelen and koscielny had excellent games, aside from koscielny’s calamitous ventures forward.

Frimpong is an absolute beast. Looks like he could be really useful. I thought Chamakh had a great 1st half, but an absolutely diabolical 2nd.

There was some top banter while all the subs were warming up. Jenkinson revealed he really is a geezer, responding to cheers with a cheeky wink and thumbs up. Frimpong was asked to say Deeeeench, and obliged, twice.

So, Liverpool at home with no wilshere, nasri, song, gervinho, gibbs, djourou, possibly rosicky. Ay karamba.

but for sczczczceny you’d be struggling in the away leg. He made some very important saves.

Was listening to last night’s Arsenal match on 5Live and holy hell, were they playing that at the Emirates or the London Library? After Theo scored it sounded like about 50 people were there.

Anyone watching Odense vs Villarreal?  Cristian Zapata will want the ground to open up now…

Maxim, Wernham Hogg FC - 17 August 2011 09:10 AM

but for sczczczceny you’d be struggling in the away leg. He made some very important saves.

Goddamn what is with the Poles and their use of the Roman alphabet? It’s like reconstructing a trainwreck trying to figure out the names. Did you know that Fabianski’s first name is pronounced “Woo-kash”?

DeathByEboue - 17 August 2011 11:12 PM

Maxim, Wernham Hogg FC - 17 August 2011 09:10 AM

but for sczczczceny you’d be struggling in the away leg. He made some very important saves.

Goddamn what is with the Poles and their use of the Roman alphabet? It’s like reconstructing a trainwreck trying to figure out the names. Did you know that Fabianski’s first name is pronounced “Woo-kash”?

There’s been a vocal shortage since the German invasion. Fabianski comes from a rich family, hence the name.

@rckd - 17 August 2011 09:27 PM

Anyone watching Odense vs Villarreal?  Cristian Zapata will want the ground to open up now…

Just clocked this result in the paper. Interesting.

I hope Odense go through, I’m a bastard for Danish teams in the latter stages.

Jonny Gabriel Ngo Baheng - 16 August 2011 03:57 PM

Wisla will beat Apoel.

Only 1-0 up from their home leg, I’m hopeful the mighty Wisla will still go through.

Krakow <3

Would also be good to get an Israeli team in there, and I’ve never been entirely happy with the name ‘Genk’.

You all know the tune;

There may be trouble ahead,
But while there’s CL,
and Frimpong
and draws to attend
lets take the money and spend

Wooooooooooo hooooooooooooo!!!!!

Now buy some players so we can win the thing!

Barca
AC
City
Dortmund

PLEASE OH MIGHTY GOD LET THIS GROUP HAPPEN

Verigoat - 24 August 2011 10:55 PM

Barca
AC
City
Dortmund

PLEASE OH MIGHTY GOD LET THIS GROUP HAPPEN

What you’ve got yourself there, my friend, is the proverbial group of death. Orgasmic group.

As well as the group of death, ideally with City finishing bottom with no points, I’d be happy with United being drawn with Benfica, BATE and Otelul Galati. Mostly as I can’t remember us playing Benfica for a long time, we never played BATE and I was seeing a Romanian girl from Galati earlier in the summer.