Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 358. (Read 141787 times)

To be honest, I also don't expect Porto to perform this way because I underrated them to the extent that I think Arsenal will score more than what they did. I was expecting to beat Porto until I see Porto making it tough for Arsenal. However, Arsenal nearly gave in that game because there was a goal that one guy from the Porto squad nearly scored. I think if to say that game enters, Arsenal will not win the game. However, in these games, I can say Arsenal were lucky to win. If not, in my opinion, Porto scored more than what Arsenal did. I think Arsenal just got the motivation of being at home to score if it was not easy for them, the game was tough for them.


Yeah, sure, either Real Madrid are not in their best performance, or they are not performing well in these competitions. As you said, you are actually right, although they have experienced players that will do better, but I have not seen some consistency in them that will convince me. However, it is not all about the coach knowing what is good for the squad, the result matters. Also, their game against Leipzig made me feel that their performance is declining, but I won't conclude on that yet. I have to wait and see their next match. 

obviously I had bet on Barcelona, obviously
I'm sorry to bet against Italian teams, but Napoli's decline is not a decline, it's a really strong crisis
they are also starting to go outside the cup zone in my opinion and they risk a lot
I don't know if they will be able to recover, certainly in my opinion they will lose their top striker

For a moment , I actually believed that Arsenal UCL curse will continue and Porto will find a way to win on penalties and qualify further but , how can 3 players shot in the exact target 3 times in a row ? it's normal that the keeper will save at least 1 and Porto wasn't inspired at all when they chose the players for penalties. Anyway, I have massive respect for Pepe and how he played last night and not only and hopefully he will give us another magical year. 

I expected anything I saw in this match because of the consistency of the both teams, checking their previous matches the both are engaged in accumulation of goals in every match they played, Porto performance was so incredible to even play the extra time. Arsenal really show how strong they are this season and the show that they are ready for this competition after failing to make it to this stage for a long period of time, I strongly believe they can make it to final if they can even improve in their consistency sky will be their limit.

To be honest, even one match from last night's match didn't live up to my expectations. but as a supporter I am quite happy, in the end Arsenal was able to move on to the next phase. one of these teams is my favorite team that competed last night. no different from Barcelona, ​​one of my favorite teams in La Liga. Barcelona was lucky against Napoli, because if they played against another team their probability would be very low. that doesn't mean Napoli is a bad team, but their performance is more unstable than Barcelona. last night's match, only Barcelona matched my predictions. for Arsenal, I initially thought there would be at least three goals in the normal 90 minutes. however, this is football.

Talking about Real Madrid, I actually don't want to say what you said. although, I also feel that Madrid did not show their best performance in this competition. but what is certain is that I am absolutely sure that Don Carlo really knows and is aware of his squad, both in terms of weaknesses and weaknesses. well, because Real Madrid didn't play a good game against Leipzig, that doesn't mean they will play the same when they meet their opponents in the next phase. at least as a seasoned coach with a wealth of experience, Ancelotti will do what is best for his squad. moreover, Real Madrid has a winning mentality as an elite team in this competition. Let's see how Don Carlo takes his team when they play in this competition.

Correct. I don't think they understand what good defense looks like. Porto played fantastic defence, that doesn't mean Arsenal played badly. In this second leg we have to give credit to Porto, they are an experienced European team who are well trained and able to defend well but Arsenal showed mental strength and continued to win.

It must be admitted that in this match Porto played good defense. Arsenal did not play an attacking game with high intensity because Porto were good at stopping it. Porto did everything they could to disrupt Arsenal's game. In the first leg, Porto limited Arsenal from taking shots on target, but this team was free to score goals in the away game. Give credit where it is due. For me, both teams played well so that a penalty shootout was the last choice they took which gave Arsenal the right to advance to the next round.

This is a tough match for the hosts as Atletico must win by at least two goals to turn things around and progress to the quarter-finals.
But Atletico's performance in their last five matches has been less impressive, with only one win.
Meanwhile, Inter has always won 13 matches in all competitions throughout 2024. This year, Simone Inzaghi's troops are still perfect.
Statistically, Inter will be able to win this match but the match is played on the field of play, a team that is brave, full of determination, and prepared for anything will win the match.
And whatever the result, this match will be exciting and interesting
I will enjoy this game...

As long as the opportunity is still there, during that time a team should be able to continue to be motivated to get the best in the competition. Arsenal still have a chance in the Champions League and in the English League, their job is only to finish one match at a time very well, they don't need to think about whether they will succeed in becoming champions or not, because if they think about that, it will actually be a burden for them. they. What they have to do is focus on each of their closest matches, whether in the English League or in the Champions League. A strong mentality is a mentality that will always try to make the opportunity as small as possible to get something very good.

Inter Milan are strong and they can go next but their opponent are not weak. Atletico Madrid are very experienced in Champions League but their form is not good and Inter Milan with excellent form recently and through the season, can exploit it and beat Atletico Madrid.

I am not certain that Dortmund will be able to beat PSV in another pair. They are same in quality but Dortmund recently don't have good performances.

Real Madrid are experienced in Champions League and this season, they shown their strength too so they are still one of best teams and most favorite to win Champions League.

They are not far from the final match but we will have to wait for results from Inter Milan - Atletico Madrid, Dortmund - PSV and the draw of quarter finals to know Real Madrid opponent in quarter final and a next one in semi final. Then given odds for champion in Champions League from sportsbooks will be out, we also will have better view on their chance to win Champions League.

I think having a mentality like this is not good. I can understand if they are way out of touch with the PL table, or if they always face tougher match-ups in the Champions League, but both are not necessarily true right now. They have a decent chance at both and they should try to win them both. Especially when their closest competitors are riddled with injuries which may or may not happen again next season. Who knows, maybe the players will struggle next year because they have a different atmosphere just like how Liverpool had a terrible season after they won some silverware. A club that spent hundreds of millions to compete with City should have the same target as City or other top clubs instead of focusing on one cup over the other.

Real Madrid is one of the big favorites to win the Champions League this season, but their performance has declined a little recently, which is what makes you worry about Real Madrid in this quarter-final round. However, usually Real Madrid has its own way of finding its best performance again, especially this is the Champions League which we know here is very strong with the club mentality and Real Madrid has it all. So I believe they will soon be able to return to their best game in the Champions League.

Yes, in the quarter-finals, the 8 best clubs managed to qualify, which means that each match will not be easy for anyone who is here. I'm sure they will realize things like this, but sometimes they experience something bad so they can't be optimal in their game. Maybe that's something they should pay attention to so that they can prepare for the match as best as possible, so that undesirable things can be minimized even though sometimes there are things that cannot be predicted, such as luck for example.

Not a single team will give up the Champions League in favor of the domestic championship, all teams will strive to win the Champions League. As I assumed, the match was difficult for Arsenal, and the penalty shootout is a lottery, and they were lucky that they were able to score a goal in the first half. Of course, the most important thing is that they were able to beat Porto, and the game was expectedly difficult, against a team with good defense it couldn’t have been any other way.

Although Arsenal is playing at home, I assumed they might have an advantage in beating Porto with a lot of goals. I never expected Arsenal to go to a penalty shootout before eliminating Porto. I was mistaken, though, since Porto is still a squad that should not be taken lightly at this point because their defense are strong both home and away. Instead of getting the penalty to eliminate Porto, Arsenal did everything in their power to score another goals in the second half. Because they controlled the game from start to finish, Arsenal truly deserves to go to the next round.

When Arsenal were unable to scored more goal in the second halfl, i thought that as well, If qualifying for the Champions League round of 16 has become difficult, Arsenal should give up in their Champions League games to concentrate on winning Premier League games in order maintain their first position. Because winning the Champions League will be tough for Arsenal this season, they should sacrifice one trophy and concentrate on winning another. They should also avoid losing any of their key players while they still have Premier League games left to play because goal differential is not safe with Liverpool.

Even before the match, I predicted Arsenal to win but I know FC Porto will perform excellently and they actually did. The game was very intense and one may think it was a UCL final. Porto put up a good fight till the end but it wasn't their day. It will definitely be a memorable day for Arsenals as they break the curse after 14 years of their inability to make it to that stage. An achievement for them to celebrate indeed. It was their collective efforts but Raya made it possible with the incredible saves. However, Arsenal advances to quarter final but there's a long way to go seeing the way Porto made to suffer, imagine them playing against Madrid, Barcelona or PSG.

However, I hope Real Madrid will return with their best performance in the quarter-finals. Because if Real Madrid can't improve their performance then I think their progress will stop in the quarter-finals and won't be able to progress further to the semi-finals. Well, all the teams or 8 teams that made it through to the quarter-finals are strong teams. And actually in the quarterfinals all matches will be even more difficult to predict. So anything can happen. Even the favorite team could be stopped in this round. But I still believe Man City will go further without a doubt.

Yes it seems very clear that the Champions League atmosphere is very different from EPL. Arsenal who were able to show his greatness by collecting so many goals failed to be realized at UCL. I have to admit that Porto does have DNA in the Champions League even though they have to submit through a penalty shootout. While Arsenal may only be lucky because overall their players still have not shown mentality in the tournament. I feel pessimistic about the pace of the Gunners in the quarterfinals but they must enjoy the success to the final quarterfinals after all this time never set foot there.

You can quickly see that the Champions League is a different competition. I think if these two teams played 10 times against each other in a normal game that is not as valuable as the Champions League, Arsenal would probably win 7 out of 10 games or something like that. But as you said mentality can turn into a beast when players are considered the underdog in a match. I have mentioned in another thread that Pepe played an amazing game despite his age of 41 years. That's pure mentality and of course experience. Arsenal had a hard time getting into the box and create chances. Porto's plan was to either get the lucky punch or to make it into the penalties.

I totally agree, I also thought the same about this game. I believed Arsenal would finish the job in regular time if they get ahead in the first half. But they had huge difficulties here. Despite even playing 7 minutes of stoppage time that second goal still didn't come. I think they played even worse in the second half which I didn't understand at all.

If they are barely able to eliminate Porto then I don't know what they will do against probably more challenging opponents next time.    Maybe and hopefully it was due to the fatigue after the Brentford game they played three days before this game.

It was an extremely difficult match between Arsenal and Porto; if Arsenal had lost, they would have been eliminated from the Champions League for this season. Fortunately, Arsenal scored a goal to make the match appear even more difficult. However, I'm starting to wonder what makes Porto so strong. This season, Porto's performance has been so strong that they didn't want Arsenal, who is playing well, to win the champion league. However, I must admit that I really enjoy the intensity with which Arsenal played the game because they made sure to execute the penalty kick.

And as for Barcelona, I wouldn't believe it if I were told that they would easily defeat Napoli. After all, they scored twice in the first 17 minutes of the game, and they can play with this level of intensity. However, I'm starting to believe that Barcelona's problems extend beyond the coach; Pedri, De Jong, and Torres aren't in the starting lineup, and given how Barcelona is playing with young players yesterday, you might assume that Barcelona decided to acquire a new player. Congratulations to Barcelona for making it to the Champions League quarterfinals. It hasn't happened since 2020 that Barcelona has reached this stage.

In terms of quality, Arsenal is much stronger than Porto, but in the Champions League, mentality is really needed and Porto proved that, even though they had to lose through a penalty shootout, Porto did their best in this second leg match.

Basically, Arsenal is very favored because they saw Arsenal's performance and quality which was quite good in the last few matches, but no one thought that the match would be this difficult, but I don't take this too seriously because in the Champions League every match will be difficult, especially when it's a top team. from different leagues have different characters, as happened in this match.