Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 1121. (Read 141749 times)

I don't feel Pep Guardiola need to sign a new player for the role of Kevin DeBruyne to be filled, Manchester city have alot of midfielder that can take over the role until he recovers. They have Bernardo Silva that just signed a new contract recently that can take over from where Kevin DeBruyne left and he'll do a perfect job because he has similar characteristics as Kevin DeBruyne as they're good passer of the ball but nobody can replace Kevin DeBruyne because of his quality on the ball. The Manchester city midfield also have Mateo Kovacic would is also a good midfielder and can hold possession of the ball and control the midfield with Phil foden also been in the picture so the Manchester city midfield has a lot of players to fill in the shoe of Kevin DeBruyne and now Pep Guardiola just have to trust one of them to do the job appropriately.


Manchester city and Real Madrid had something that Barcelona didn't have and that's the financial backing to sign all this top players that are making waves recently and not because Barcelona is no longer a top club. They still have a history and player would want to sign for them instead of other clubs and this came to display last season when they had transfer window war with Chelsea on some top players that both club wanted and they choose Barcelona over Chelsea on all occasions and that's to show that Barcelona still got what it takes but they're lacking the finance backing to actually chase after this players as they can't offer them the same wages as those these other two clubs will offer them and players are going where the money is this days.

Normally it's hard to predict results when two different league teams play. But today there was no surprise and all three games finished as what we expected.
Just as I pointed out in my last message here, three favorite teams won their games and advanced to group stage. Galatasaray, Sporting Braga and Young Boys were better teams. They didn't make any mistakes.
I prefer better teams to participate in Champions League because we see the biggest competition there. When there is a weak team in the group stage that affects whole group. Everybody try to score a lot to that team and that somehow kill the fun and competition.

Indeed.
Champions League results are more tricky than domestic leagues, sometimes they are just random.
Three games were played tonight and as expected Galatasaray, Young Boys and Braga all qualified. We will see if the rest will qualify or not by tomorrow.

Galatasaray have made it to the group stage maybe but their game wasn't convincing at all at the same time. They had problems on more things in the second leg. They couldn't be productive at scoring goals and they gave unnecessarily much chances to their opponent. Molde were nearly getting 2-1 ahead which would have made things really difficult.

Galatasaray need to improve this performance immediately before group matches start. Otherwise they can struggle much more there.

I don't think Julian Alvarez plays in the same position as De Bruyne. When he played together with Haaland, he will play as a second striker (SS). While De Bruyne always plays as attacking midfield (AMF). Actually, Man City have Bernardo Silva and Cole Palmer who play in the same position as De Bruyne. So, Pep Guardiola doesn't need to force Julian Alvarez playing as attacking midfield (AMF). Ideally, if Bernardo Silva is available, he is the right person to change the role of De Bruyne. He plays in the same position and has almost the same level as De Bruyne, too.

Julián Álvarez will never play comfortable as attacking midfielder, he is a striker. I'm sure Guardiola won't force him to play as attacking midfielder if Bernardo Silva and Cole Palmer are available in the squad. Unless these players got injured, so Guardiola must have an alternative to change the formation or try to put Alvarez as an attacking midfielder.

Close results are not always evidence of equal strength of the teams. For example, PSV made no sense to strain against the Rangers, given the fact that they had a return game at home where they could comfortably resolve the issue. It's like City vs Leipzig - 0-0 away and 7-0 at home. Here the balance of power is different, but I think that the situation is similar. And by the way, I think that betting on PSV with odds of 1.52 is a good choice.

I believe that the times have changed a lot for Barcelona because for some time they have been a really unique club and were the first address in European soccer for most of the world's best talents. Many of their top players came from their own youth and have all been among the very best. But this is different now and since all those players from this huge era are gone (like Iniesta and Messi), the success also stopped kind of. They are now not this club that everybody wants to go to and they have a harder time to convince the top players to come to them instead of Real Madrid or Manchester City.

Playing at home in the second leg this time Galatasaray played without burden because of the possession they had and with the support of their supporters, they played quite well, but their finishing was still weak which resulted in wasted opportunities.
Icardi managed to widen the goal deficit with a penalty kick and now the aggregate is 4-2
Looking at the time that has shown the 70th minute, it looks like Galatasaray will still feel comfortable because they only need to play the ball or apply a defensive scheme to survive the last 20 minutes. However, they must not let their guard down to ensure that the two-goal deficit lasts until the end of the game and they can advance to the next round of the group phase.

I agree with you. The hot headed supporters of Panathinaikos will push Braga tonight.



As well you, I want Panathinaikos to eliminate Braga and go to the group stage. But I know this is a difficult possibility.

Galatasaray's starting XI against Molde: Muslera, Boey, Nelsson, Abdülkerim Bardakcı, Angelino, Torreira, Kerem Demirbay, Tete, Mertens, Kerem Aktürkoğlu, Icardi. NK Molde's starting XI against Galatasaray: Karlstrom, Haugan, Bjornbak, Ellingsen, Knudtzon, Kaasa, Mannsverk, Breivik, Haugen, Eikrem, Brynhildsen.

I have always said it and I think it's true right now as well, Manchester City is built like a full squad and one player missing doesn't make them bad. Obviously missing De Bruyne for four months is not that good for them and it will hurt them and that's a very very long period of time, that is true.

However, they will do fine enough at the league if you ask me, they just need to not lose too many games, even if they have to fight for a draw, that's fine most of the time. We are at the start of the season, they could go on a winning rampage when he comes back if they want to, so they could just stay close to top for the time being. UCL is easier because they will be in group stages, in 4 months would we be out of the group stages? Not sure but even if we do, he will be back by quarter finals or so right?

Even though basically Pep Guardiola can rotate his players to be in De Bruyne's position, I think he really hopes there is a suitable De Bruyne replacement this season. De Bruyne is likely to be out for a very long time this season with several rumors suggesting he will return in 2024, obviously this is not good news for him so Pep Guardiola needs a replacement rather than using another player in the squad.

Although Julián Álvarez can contribute well as an attacking midfielder, I don't think he is comfortable in that role. Julián Álvarez has a high desire to score goals instead of helping other strikers score goals, so I don't think he is right for the role of an attacking midfielder. I tend to believe that Phil Foden is much better for that position than Alvarez, but Pep Guardiola could have thought of something else to adjust his strategy.

I also think that Panathinaikos will score a goal, but if Braga score, it will probably be difficult to win. I think Braga is stronger and should win today, although Panathinaikos is not a weak club either. There is no doubt that Galatasaray will win at home.

This is a really important day for Galatasaray. After a long break they are finally so close to qualifying for the group stage. They have had to play 3 qualification rounds due to country coefficient. But they still managed to make it until now. They are highly favourite against Molde home at the same time. The only problem is with their defending. The first leg was a great example of it. But thanks to their attacking power they can still manage to beat their opponents like they did in the first leg.

I hope to see a more dominant Galatasaray this time. As long as they are in control of the most of the match I don't think Molde can be a serious threat.

I don't think it's hard for Galatasaray. Not conceding a goal is enough for them to pass the round. There's no need to exaggerate the power of Molde. There is a huge weight difference between them.
The same applies for Braga. As long as they don't concede a goal, Braga is safe. The atmosphere will be different in Athens, but Braga is an experienced team for these type of matches.
Young Boys also should win at home. I think there will be no surprises today.

I think you had to be joking no?, Man its clearly ahead Galtasaray they have a WAY BETTER team, they play pretty bad the first game and still win in Molde home, so you only can expect Galatasaray winning in the 90% of the cases.

Panathinaikos Braga its the most difficult to predict.

After all, whoever fills Bruyne position in reality Manchester City are still consistently getting good results in the Premier League, because Manchester City are the only team there who have won consecutive wins so far. With these good results, then of course Pep Guardiola has an experiment to play in the Champion League later. Because yes, the injury that Bruyne experienced certainly forced Pep Guardiola to be able to develop every potential player in order to be able to play well for the Champions League too, of course.

Not sure because Galatasaray is only 1 goal ahead in the first leg so I don't think they are in the safe zone, however Galatasaray will try to stay away with a few more goals. In other matches Sporting Braga will need more efforts to qualify because this time they are playing away while in the first leg Panathinaikos was able to score one goal despite playing away and this time they are playing at home of course there is the potential to win. I suspect both teams will score each other like in the last match so that's an interesting bet.

There is no comparison between Joselu and Karim Benzema because we have big difference in quality and experience as well but still Real Madrid bring him because they were looking for the experience campaigner on suitable terms with there were most chances Mbappé could be here, but now things are looking not good but still Real Madrid doing impressive job in early games with this most chances now they will be not done any change until Winter transfer window, so we have to accept reality now he is part of this club Jude Bellingham is really fascinating player which make his mark from first game and have bright future here hopefully after watching this all Carlos Ancelotti will do some changes but their current strategy and performance is also no bad at all.

Manchester City is surely currently best with Bayern Munich and few other clubs can create challenges for them but in Champions League nothing is last we have to wait for the start of main round as things will be clear who is going to stay at the top.

Manchester City team is expected to do well this time as well. Because Pep Guardiola is an amazing coach, I expect him to do great things by building the Manchester City team again this time.

I agree especially when you see the first leg result with whether a draw and a single goal difference. In this case, everything could occur.
In my opinion, Galatasaray, Young Boys, Copenhagen, PSV Eindhoven, Antwerp and Braga will pass.
Some matches might be influenced by the location since several less favourite teams will play home.