Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 356. (Read 141787 times)

I knew that Arsenal was never going to get it easy because they didn't have it easy in the first leg moreover champions league is quiet different from premier league and so is the performance aswell, you can't be expecting that champions league team wouldn't challenge much more than the premier league teams did challenged Arsenal, it's more competitive and has got Moser st stake .

The champions league is like the peak league amongst elite leagues across Europe so most team there puts in only their best because any thing short of that will means they will be crashing out of the league of which they wouldn't want to knowing how much the champions league means to them. Arsenal did put in their very best in last night encounter and so did Porto too but then it happened that Arsenal got to qualify after the penalty shoot out, it's even enough for Porto to have held on thst long.

Personally I would say Porto did fight a good fight even if they weren't able to win the match and qualify for the next stage of the game, congratulations to Arsenal, topping the premier league table and t the same time having qualified for the quarter finals of the champions league, could it be the gunners have got something up their sleeves for us this season, lets see what they have got after now.

These are the names of strong teams that deserve to get a 1/4 final ticket. If the names of this team don't exist, maybe 1/4 Final is not so interesting for this season.

Two teams from England. Two from Spain and one from Germany.

One more team from Spain still has the opportunity to follow Real Madrid and Barcelona for the 1/4 final.
Another team from Germany, Dortmund also still has the opportunity to escape because the results of Leg 1 are not so difficult for them.

IMO, this is quite a difficult battle for Diego Simeone's squad when they host the match against Inter Milan. Apart from Inter being in a positive trend phase, Atletico is currently in unstable performance, especially in its Domestic League competition. In this match, Atletico will be faced with winning the match with an aggregate of more than 2 goals. at least 1 goal to have a chance until extra time or until the penalty shootout. in essence, this match has no choice for Simeone to bring his squad to win the match. even though it is a crucial match, what is certain is that Atletito Madrid will work hard to play as well as possible. But don't be surprised if this match presents a high-tension atmosphere. there will be lots of violations, especially if Inter are provoked by the atmosphere of the game. then there is an opportunity for Atletico to beat Inter at the Civitas metropolitano. well, because they are playing at home, Atletico will take advantage of the momentum to overthrow their opposing team in front of their own supporters.

If I refer to the predicted line-up for the two teams, it seems that nothing will change regarding the pattern that will be applied in the next match. however, of course, regarding strategy, the two coaches will deal with it differently. Likewise with the betting market, even though this match was held at Civitas Metropolitano, Inter Milan is more favored by the bookies. Atletico with odds @3.00, while Inter with @2.38. But don't be surprised if Atletico suddenly plays with a very good performance.
My estimate is that this match will be tough. however, if Atletico is able to score a goal early in the match. I mean in the first half, there will be a lot of goals scored. in this match, the ideal option for me is to choose the handicap option with Asian odds of 0:0. Inter with @1.70, while the home team with @2.12. well, because the match is being played at ATM's home ground, the ideal choice is Atletico Madrid.

Yes, maybe there won't be many goals scored because of the tight match between Atl Madrid vs Inter Milan, but I see the opportunity to win the match is in the hands of Inter Milan because I see Inter's performance continues to improve, but I think Inter can maintain their lead in the first leg and can score a goal to ensure passage to the next round.
or it could even be that Atl Madrid equalizes and the final result is determined through a penalty shootout like last night's match between Arsenal and Porto.

I consider the strength of a team base on the previous matches, if you take a look with Atletico Madrid's results, they have a terrible record. It's completely different with Inter, they perform very well recently.

In terms of quality, both of them are similar, but their recent performance are the key to evaluate which one is good and which one is bad.

So, it's really hard to imagine Atletico Madrid will pull an upsets.

The two clubs that I think will join next are Inter Milan and Dortmund, both teams have the complete attributes to qualify for the quarter finals. Inter Milan have an aggregate advantage of 1 goal, their performance is still very consistent so Inzaghi squad chances are higher, even though Atletico is acting as host. Dortmund has strengths that are not much different from PSV, but they are lucky because the match will be held at Signal Iduna Park, of course they will get support from their own fans. These two matches are very interesting, and of course will be played with high intensity, especially the Inter Milan versus Atletico match.

Atletico is in an unstable period, they suffered a surprising defeat in the last match against a weak team in La Liga. However, it is possible that the match will continue until the penalty shootout, meaning that Atletico can catch up with the goal deficit in the two normal rounds. Regarding PSV, the Eredivisie representative is unbeaten there, but it is not an easy job to overthrow Dortmund at home. We remember that Dortmund managed to escape from the Hell group to reach the round of 16, their strength and mentality are certainly better than PSV.

The performance of Napoli yesterday against Barcelona was very poor if you ask me and that was not what  I expected from a top  team like Napoli. After the 1:1 draw at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in the first leg of this particular tie, I was of the opinion that Barcelona will beat Napoli in the second half but I didn't expect the win to be as easy as it was yesterday night at Camp Nou.
Barcelona were simply the better team through out the whole 90 minutes even when they were facing the reigning champions of Italy. That being said, I think Xavi Hernandez deserves more praises than he's getting at the moment for what he's been able to achieve with the current Barcelona team because considering the injury crises that's hit the club since the start if the season and the fact that they've been suffering serious financial issues that's made them not to sign top quality players in the last three transfer windows, I never expected Barcelona to reach the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League competition. The young Spanish manager have already said that he's going to leave the club at the end of the season even if they end up winning the UEFA Champions League trophy this season

Im also mentioning the odds for the upcoming games in UCL.

These matches have their own advantages.

Dortmund - Eindhoven

This match is interesting to predict. Dortmund scored 1 goal against PSV in the previous leg, which also made this match start with 0-0 since these clubs drew in the first leg. I'm likely betting on Dortmund instead of PSV. I'm also concerned about the performance from PSV in the first leg, which was not perfect.
PSV lost aggregate against dortmund and this is another disaster for PSV. The club may able to do revenge against PSV in the upcoming game. Dortmund 's odds is pretty gamn good caused by it has gotten more than 2 when the next game is gonna happen in signal iduna park which is dortmund's home.

It will be a disaster for PSV because it must be playing at Dortmund's home, which Dortmund could easily explore.

Atletico madrid - Intermilan

It's obvious that I'm picking Intermilan to win this game. Interimlan is a perfect club in everything This reason is enough to explain my choice even though Atletico will be going to play at home.
2.37 for intermilan when it's playing away. It's pretty good consider the game is happening away for intermilan soon. my pick was intermilan to win this game.

Playing away probably gives intermilan a bigger pressure but im fine with my choice.

It is difficult to guess the final result of the second leg match between Atletico and Inter, because the two teams are currently still not safe to qualify for the next round, Inter Milan who won 1 goal on aggregate in the first leg certainly deserves to be aware of all the surprises that may be presented by Atletico who play at home, and of course if Inter Milan underestimates Atletico it is Certainly not impossible that their fate will be the same as Porto who lost against Arsenal yesterday in the second leg.

So far the two teams have different Performances in the league, Intermilan who are most likely to get the Scudetto this season continue to get positive results in league matches with Unbeaten, while Atletico Madrid is in bad condition after only getting 2 wins from their last 6 matches in the league, but even so, we cannot underestimate Atletico Madrid who play at home because they could have great motivation after They failed in the league and made the Champions League trophy the only target they are eyeing at the moment.

Another close contest up next with Atl Madrid hosts Inter Milan in the 2nd leg of the Champions league, Knockout stage match. Inter Milan led 1-0 during the first leg with a goal from Marko Arnautovic which came at the 79th min of the match. Inter were threatening during the first leg and had many chances to increase the lead but couldn't capitalise on the occasion. Now, Inter have to defend their shallow lead away from home. Could be a challenging task but not impossible as it might be another low scoring affair.

Dortmund vs PSV

We all know in the first leg Dortmund and PSV were playing draw so i assume both teams have equal chances to qualified to the quarterfinal because it is only required to win with narrow scores to eliminate their opponent and if we compare the performance between these teams obviously PSV is much better than Dortmund because during this season PSV was very strong at their domestic league and PSV even only lost twice in all competitions and for Dortmund i know their performance is not stable even in Bundesliga Dortmund was out from race title with Bayern Munich and Leverkusen but their performance in Champion League was very impressive because Dortmund can finish at first place on group stages

At that time Dortmund was into hell group and i didn't expect them to qualified but they were successfully to fliped people prediction and qualified to round of 16 and actually this match is hard to predicted because i considers both teams is equally strong but indeed considering Dortmund impressive performance and host factor i think Dortmund have good chance to beat PSV and about squad conditions Dortmund will lost Nico Schlotterbeck because of suspension but besides him all of Dortmund players will be available today and for PSV i didn't see any players who got injured or suspension and my prediction is this match will be so tight but just like i said above Dortmund has good chance to win this match and Dortmund win has odds @2.12

Barcelona did what they had to do yesterday, in fact Napoli are not as strong now as they were before, and the odds 1.75 for Barcelona to win were a little confusing. I will even say that Napoli was a little lucky that with just one shot at the goal, they were able to score a goal, and play a draw, thereby avoiding a loss in the home match. But after the first match it was clear that the return match would be much more difficult for them.

It's best for Barcelona, but it's not for Napoli. Partinopei performed so badly in this game because it was unable to capitalize on these chances. Barcelona consistently pressured Napoli until it was unable to move freely. Many problems remain unsolved in Napoli. Kvarat and Osimhen did nothing in this game.
It's another bad result for calzona after he had been chosen to be a new appointment for the club. Barcelona has some players performed exceptional performance in this game. Yamal with his amazing dribbling and pedri with his amazing performance. There are some things that needs to be noted from this game.
Napoli lost against a club that used many young stars. Yamal was showing an amazing performance, and it was surprising to me how Cubarsi, a young star defender from Barcelona, was able to kill Osimhen's movement. Cubarsi has amazing interceptions and was also able to make many clean tackles.

Barcelona has not yet faced the strong club. You can imagine that if barcelona will rematch against intermilan which is a very balanced club in la liga. It will put barcelona into the big trouble since intermilan on its prime now.
Raphinha, pedri and all of players of barcelona perfomed so amazingly this season. No doubnt that if barcelona was owning the gme against napoli. Napoli can do nothing as barcelona was isolating it. Several chances benig made by napoli but the quality of club said a lot here.
that's amazing performances from some young talented players of barcelona. Barcelona needs to consider use their young players as backups for the main squad.

So far qualified for the 1/4 finals -

Man City
Arsenal
Barcelona
Bayern
Real Madrid
PSG

Tonight two will join them -

Atleti vs Inter
Dortmund vs PSV

Atletico Madrid remaining one goal and difficult for second leg match exactly Inter Milan had impressive current performance in domestic league, Simone Inzaghi want to make new record back to back bring Inter lead to final round in UEFA Champion League. But Atletico Madrid has more motivate when playing in front of their fans and won't loss opportunity to make come back for winning above two goals and get quarter final ticket.
Atletico Madrid must playing full offensive and must score goal in the early minutes, its help more to qualify next round if can lead before first half ended and get large opportunity for winning the match, but not easy how impressive and solid defensive with Inter Milan performance and success winning last several matches in domestic league.

Why didn't you think so? I think it's normal for Barcelona to win at Camp Nou, especially since this match isn't a domestic match which has lower prestige than the UCL. This is the Barcelona I know, not Barcelona who could only win with 1 goal like in their previous match when they met Mallorca or could only get a draw with 0 goals when they met Athletic Bilbao.

Regarding their next opponent, has their opponent been confirmed? I'm a little confused looking at the current UCL bracket, AFAIK we immediately know which teams will be the opponents, but this time it's a little confusing.

It is indeed very difficult to predict which club will perform with excellent quality of play this season, because there are many clubs whose quality of play looks much better and are able to beat it. Everyone definitely prefers Inter Milan to Atletico Madrid, because the quality of Inter Milan's performance is much better this season. In fact, Atletico Madrid is not too bad in its game, it's just that Atletico Madrid's performance still doesn't look consistent in its matches so it hasn't been able to show its abilities when facing its opponents. For Dortmund and PSV predictions, I will definitely choose Dortmund, because in the first leg the score was 1-1. And I am sure that in this second leg Dortmund will definitely win this match, because Dortmund really benefits from playing at home, and Dortmund must really be able to take advantage of this to win this match.

Porto are just getting things done base on luck to me and if Arsenal had lost the game or being kicked out of the Champions League I would blame it on the Gunners because they let the Porto side to have a free time to hang on the ball for long, if the Gunners made it hard for Porto I believe that encounter would have ended at 90'mins, that's the difference between Arsenal and Manchester City, if it was Pep and his boys they'd have made life a living hell in that encounter. Arteta need to learn how to make the Emirates Stadium a fortress for any club coming to visit them.

Yes, it was a ''battle'' hehe

I couldn't find the statistics for the total playing time, but it was very bad, to tell you the truth it's quite boring to watch this kind of match, with lots of interruptions
There were 38 fouls in total, but the game had a lot more in my opinion, the referee missed several fouls trying to get the game running

About football or soccer, my english school teached me the US english hehe, this is the reason, and I remember in 1994 I watched the World Cup in US and it's in my head the word ''soccer''
Hard to change the habit  

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One curiosity is that Arsenal have already scored 70 goals in the Premier League, scored 16 in the group stage of UCL but had a VERY hard time against Porto. The Portuguese team managed to nullify Arsenal's attack well, which could be useful for Arsenal's next opponents.

Arsenal did not have an attempt on targets in the first leg of their game but mainly as the second leg started at the Emirates Stadium, they made sure that their immediate intentions were clear from the beginning of the game. It would have not been easy for Porto to defend for the entire 90 minutes of the game like they did successfully at their home without Arsenal finding a way through especially in Arsenal's goal scoring form currently. Trossard's early goal made sure that Porto could not keep defending in the second half.

It is a huge success for Arsenal because the team has not gotten to this stage of the competition before in a very long time, they deserve it.