He was indeed out of this world. The dribbles, the ball control, the passes, the faints. The other thing is that Man city really weren't a decent opponent yesterday and they left him just enough space for his maneuvers.

I know that this debate gets tiring after a while, though I believe he's the most complex player ever to set foot on a football pitch. While CR7 is a brilliant striker, he's a striker only. Messi, though, has been showing more and more playmaking skills recently and when he gets older and his speeds decreases, he can just about become the new Xavi.

I disagree that Ronaldo is just a striker. He's an awesome winger, too, and able to play on either side. Like Messi, he increasingly plays quite a free role, making it hard to pinpoint really what his position is. And while his stats for assists aren't quite as good as Messi's, they're still excellent. He's definitely not an out and out striker like say Diego Costa or Lewandowski or the original Ronaldo.

Decent player from the mid 90s early 00s but amazed he became a pundit.

i found out today he's merely a year older than alexi lalas but he looks like his grampa-- wtf does that man drink-- i want none of it

haha!

Anyway, Everton thrashed tonight means no more English clubs in any European tournament.

against dynamo kiev? damn! that's a war zone team...

wolfsburg beat inter milan which is the revenge for juve in a way...

i'm going to end up getting into the europa league and it's going to end up being all your faults. (thanks?)

Watching the latter stages of it is probably OK but the whole thing just goes on too long for me.

there's an idea!

thanks

so we have the QF draws:

CHAMPIONS

PSG / Barcelona - should be epic! with Zlatan banned I'll go with Barcelona-- still PSG beat Chelsea without Zlatan though...

Madrid / Madrid - bananas! ATM has beat them regularly this year hasn't?

Juve / Monaco - i haven't seen monaco play this year but now i will. juve has been pretty great though dortmund was shit & therefore easy.

Porto / Bayern - another easy draw for bayern who are yet to be tested. good for advancing though-- unless pep goes too baroque.


EUROPA

Sevilla/FC Zenith -- don't know

Brugge / Dnipro D..... how are these war zone teams pulling it off?? 2 ukranians!

Dynamo Kiev / Fiorentina -- don't know. is gomez still playing? haven't seen fiorentina since early in the season when they played rome & lost

Wolfsburg / Napoli -- gtg w/ wolfsburg -- bundesliga rah rah rah

....

Has to be Barca, has to.


Real are in a bit of a dip so I'm going AM. [EDIT] But the more I think about it, I bet Real scrape through.


Haven't seen either. Want Juve to go through but I've no idea.


Over two legs hard to see anything but Bayern.



No shits given

how did everton get ballsacked by a ukranian team though? is that not a story?

Martinez fucked up big time with the tactics. It sounds wanky but it's true. More later.

i believe you-- and i'm starting to give a shit, so rant away when you have a chance and i'll hear you out

The main talking point in the press right now is English teams falling short tactically. The Prem sells itself on excitement and intensity (which it does deliver on) but that evidently only takes you so far in these bigger competitions.

It is a story but for whatever reason former Eastern Bloc sides are notoriously strong at home. They just travel really badly.

the ancient mariner--i mean dortmund!--plays in less than 10'

tomorrow wolfsbug/mainz followed by bayern/monchengladbach

wolfsburg is highly watchable-- de bruyne + bas dost are the real batman & robin ha ha ha. seriously a great duo. and monchengladbach is 3rd on the bundesliga-- they should be able to put up a fight.

--

looks like the "daylight savings time" bullshit threw me off the schedule

==

dortmund 3 hannover 1!

some great goals, and hummels saved a ball from the goal line with a header

kagawa back on fire-- a bit late in the season but fingers crossed for the next one

Oh maaan i can't wait for Sunday. Classico and liverpool vs man u! Should be a good one

^^ sweeeeet! i might be able to catch the clásico on beinsport

what's interesting about liverpool these days?

Liverpool, along with Arsenal, are probably the in form team in the Prem right now. And the Liverpool Man U derby is pretty big - bigger than Man U v Man C or Liverpool v Everton.