Topic: UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Season - page 133. (Read 50500 times)

The coach of Atalanta is actually a gem and I wonder how good of results he could actually bring if he was given a better squad!  I am pretty sure everyone realized that he is a great coach when he was able to beat Leverkusen in the last season when any other team or coach was unable to do so. And yes I absolutely agree that Atalanta players were just playing as per the instructions that the coach had given them. That is why sometimes it is very important to actually listen to the words of the coach. I don't think anybody expected Arsenal to not score in this match. But Atalanta has been able to pull that off.

Arsenal was not that bad in this match. Arsenal was just trying to do the things that worked for them in the past. It's just that Atalanta was just better prepared for that. I bet Arsenal didn't even think that Atalanta would play so well.

Last year Dortmund (who finished 5th in the Bundesliga lol) reached the Champions League final and they had a few good chances to open the scoring before Real coocked them.
It's not every year that we see a clear underdog in the final, but it does happen sometimes and sooner or later someone will repeat Porto's feat (by the way, there were two underdogs in the final then, haha).
And by the way, it seems to me that Atalanta in the playoff format is not that much weaker than other contenders.

It's the vulnerability of their internal relationships that makes this a bit of a worry for Atalanta.
They can be unpredictable in terms of performance and we can't underestimate them under Gasperini because although the majority of their players are mediocre, their teamwork is very good and worthy of appreciation.

It's just that when their internals don't have a good ending then this will forever interfere with their performance. The start of the season was rocked by Scamacca's injury which must have taken some time to heal considering ACL is a major enemy for athletes. In addition, they also had some other problems where some of their players even went on strike because they wanted to leave Atalanta which made the situation even more complicated.
Although the rumors have now died down as the transfer window has also closed but still the internals of players wanting to leave and not being allowed to will cause friction that hampers their performance. This is precisely what Atalanta is worried about when they are in many competitions when one competition they are destroyed then other competitions also follow and that has happened in the past few seasons. If in the end the situation remains the same then this season they will repeat the same mistakes as before.

It might be a problem for Leverkusen to win Milan because Italian teams are used to playing defensive games since that is their game pattern. Imagine Atalanta was able to win Leverkusen very easy and that might be the game plan in which Milan might want to use in order foe them to defeat Leverkusen.

Leverkusen does not have a good defense which will be an advantage for Milan but Leverkusen might still be able to win Milan if their game strategy outsmarts that of Milan.

I also think that it would be difficult for Arsenal to excel in the champions league this season because at the champions league level, Arsenal still have some boxes to tick and one of those boxes includes getting a proper number 9 in the team. As for Atalanta, I don’t expect them to pass the knockout stages. I expect to see the usual suspects in the final stages of the season.

It'll be almost impossible for Atalanta to win the UEFA Champions League and that's because of there are over seven teams in the competition that have better quality players as well as players with more experience of the competition than Atalanta but drawing their first match of the season in the competition doesn't necessarily mean that Atalanta will not be able to have a good European campaign. Arsenal who also couldn't beat Atalanta in their first game of the season in the competition also stands a chance of reaching at least the semi finals of the competition despite not winning in the first game. It's too early to predict which team will do well or not in the UEFA Champions League competition this season if you ask me because of how difficult and complicating the new format is

So far, I don't see something special with Atalanta. What makes people to expect Atalanta be the champion in UCL? If people assume winning the Europa league last season to be the reason of Atalanta reaching the final UCL, it is something nonsense. Sure, the level of Champions League and Europa League are different. Champions League is much harder, we have too many strong teams here. Even some teams become the favorite to reach the final (Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich). These favorite teams is surely stronger than Atalanta.

However, I don't underestimate Atalanta. It doesn't mean Atalanta will have 0 chance to survive. However, if we consider its current performance and the squad quality, it is unlikely to see Atalanta in the semi-final or final UCL. I personally assume the realistic target is to reach the quarter final. If Atalanta can qualify the next round, they will have a chance to go to quarter final.

Still can't figure out AC Milan's game... In UCL they lost at home... In Serie A they won away to Inter Milan... And in the coming week facing away against Leverkusen then this is a difficult point for Milan because we know how Liverkusen in their domestic league they win goals in large numbers... A little carelessness in Milan's defense then Leverkusen can break more goals.

It doesn't really matter too much about playing at home or away, because at this moment every team playing away can also win easily if the home team doesn't have a good performance. So, for me the draw that occurred for Atalanta against Arsenal I can still say is a good result because afterall, Arsenal in the Arteta era has good quality. So, with a goalless draw it is at least a good result for Atalanta because after all, Atalanta in my view is also not a consistent team, they very often experience a decline in performance at any time.

But indeed, there is still a chance for Atalanta to be able to play and qualify for the last 16 later,  and in the next match Atalanta will also play against Shakhtar Donetsk. In fact, in the previous match also Shakhtar Donetsk only played a goalless draw against Bologna. I think it is clear,that Atalanta has better quality than Bologna but Bologna can also hold Shakhtar Donetsk to a draw, so there will be a very good chance Atalanta to win in the  next match against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Bayer can take advantage of the fact that Milan has not yet found its game, I think that Alonso will want to use the same tactics that Liverpool used, but I don’t know if they have enough strength for such pressure and Bayer’s defense is not as reliable as Liverpool’s, so it may not work. And Milan can gain confidence from yesterday’s victory over Inter, but I’m not rushing to such conclusions yet, Milan is weaker than I expected.

Every team in the Champions League has just started their journey, so every team still has many opportunities, but Barcelona should not be compared with other teams. Barcelona should have won against the team they lost against. Maybe I will skip the discussion about the match that has gone but there is no guarantee that Barcelona will not repeat this performance in their future matches. Barcelona will have to change tactics. La Liga and Champions League tournaments are not the same, the opponents here are different strengths, so Barcelona has to play with different strategies for different tournaments. If Barcelona can plan and play according to the plan before each match, they can do well.

To become a champion I think Atalanta is very difficult to expect, here is not the Europa league that he can master like last season, here is the champions league where not a few teams are very extraordinary in making their way in the much stronger champions league, seeing Atalanta's performance from the draw match against Arsenal it is not worth counting in my opinion, we also know how Arsenal's performance is always inconsistencies in the champions league, we will see that view when Atalanta can reach the semi-finals, I really doubt it will be like what happened to Dortmund last season, can it have the same fate? I really doubt it.

Maybe there is still time for Barcelona to do well in the Champions League but it is true that they have not started the Champions League well. We saw a few months ago how messy the Barcelona team was then but with the addition of a new coach in their team, the whole team has changed. The evidence of which has been found in a few matches of La Liga, it must be accepted by everyone.

Barcelona's 2024-25 UEFA Champions League opener defeat to the team was unexpected as a Barcelona player received a red card in the first 10 minutes of the match. Sometimes in exciting matches if one of the players in a strong team receives a red card, the morale of the team is weakened and as a result, they play poorly on the field even though they are strong. Maybe that was the problem in the Barcelona team when one of their players left the field after receiving a red card early in the game. You might have enjoyed yesterday's match between Barcelona and Villarreal in La Liga. Barcelona's performance in this match does not in any way suggest that they have lost their Champions League first match.

Leverkusen is doing what it can to actually to still get people to trust them because they were able to win the Bundesliga last season despite coming out of nowhere nobody saw Leverkusen winning last season and this is one of the reasons that you don't underestimate any club because they were underestimated last season, them losing is not bad because no matter how good you are you can not always win, who would have thought about them bagging the Bundesliga, were their other clubs that their is enough faith that people have about them. their is still enough time for them to decide how they want their performance to go, and the top four in the Champions League is just too sudden because how are they going to be able to make such a dream come true they need more just winning the Bundesliga to play the champions league look at clubs like Dortmund that the not win the Bundesliga but they still made it to finals in the champions league last season. the group stage is nothing until they can be able to make it to round sixteen then that way they might have little chance but for Leverkusen winning the title will only be in their dreams.

If in the next 5 matches they still can't do much, then until when do we consider this season still too early. Is it until the first half is over.
With the new format of the Champions League which is like a league, of course it drains a lot of energy. I see that Atalanta has several players who are injured, so this is not a happy situation for Gasperini.
Only drawing against Arsenal in the first round of the Champions League, Atalanta were lucky in my opinion because they should have been able to get full points because Arsenal visited the Atalanta stadium without a main player like Odegaard.

IMO, Leverkusen's progress in the Champions League will not be easy. This season is the toughest challenge for Xabi Alonso. In addition to trying to defend their domestic league title, they also definitely want to shine in this competition. At least, qualifying from the group stage. Unfortunately, Alonso has a difficult job, starting the season in the Bundesliga so far, they have conceded 9 goals. Something that the coach must fix, because their defense does not seem so solid. In the Champions League, the next test is against Milan, besides visiting Liverpool's headquarters. The team in the same league is RB Leipzig, of course Leipzig will not give up easily, besides there is Inter Milan that Leverkusen must face. Well, to achieve the expected target, that means that in order for them to qualify safely, Leverkusen must beat the teams that I mentioned in this post. Unfortunately, it takes hard work and struggle to make it happen. Can they, interesting for us to follow.

So much happiness, right? Yeah nothing could be more pleasing than starting the UCL with a win.

The Catalan Giants lost their European debut on the road, a bad start for Hansi Flick at Stade Louis II Stadium.

Actually, Barcelona should have won the match against Monaco. The only mistake from Hansi Flick side was getting that red card in so early. If I recall correctly in the 10th minute, Eric Garcia got that red card. You know, it is very hard for any team to play and win in a UCL match with only 10 players in the field.

I also understand why Eric Garcia slapped Takumi Minamino in that situation. Because otherwise, Monaco would have been able to score an easy goal. But the misplaced pass from Marc-Andre ter Stegen was their own mistake, in the end, Barcelona was unable to prevent the loss. Barca should make sure that they don't make these kinds of defensive mistakes anyhow.

Now maybe Barcelona will be able to make better results in future UCL matches and qualify.
But a club like European Giants can't actually make these kinds of mistakes in the biggest league competition in the world.

Not only did they get our attention but the attention of even teams around were brought to the fact that they were able to get such victory and even set an unusual record across Europa that season, they were so close to setting an almost one time record in the history of the club football across Europe and thst was enough attention brought in them from across teams and even fans, so playing against them this time is definitely going to be much different from their approach in previous season especially last season. In The champions League it's really going to be a different game actually as they aren't experienced with the champions League and considering the level of competition there isn't such that they have been exposed to much before now, they may just make it pas the round of 16 and for me it's not a bad one although I don't think there's going to be such in this new format.

Last season Atlanta was able to perform surprisingly in the European league and they are trying to repeat it again this season in the Champions League, but as we know if the Champions League is the most competitive league so far in Europe and it will be difficult for Atlanta to try to do what they did last season, Atlanta performance this season is quite poor in the league with two wins and also two losses from 4 matches, in addition, lost Scamacca, Teun Koopmeiners, Caleb Okoli actually made the condition of their squad unbalanced at the moment, in the last Champions League match, we can say that their are  very lucky to be able to hold a draw against Arsenal who are indeed limping, but I am sure it will be difficult for them to be able to get points from their next opponent in the Champions League later.  

In the first match between Atalanta and Arsenal, both teams were very competitive, playing very tightly and disciplined. Even Atalanta's penalty did not result in a goal, even though the penalty should have opened up new hope in the Champions League. However, even so, a draw is also good considering Arsenal also played very well. For Arsenal, I only saw the goalkeeper and defender playing well, Arsenal in this match seemed to have no midfielders or attackers.

In my opinion, it is still too early to judge Atalanta as bad this season both in Serie A and in the Champions League. Serie A has only been running for five matches, their chances of finishing in the top four are still open because Serie A is still very long, Atalanta still has a lot of time to continue to improve and add depth to the team. Likewise in the Champions League they can still steal a lot of points before facing Real Madrid, especially since Atalanta will face Real Madrid in the 6th match. That way, they can get points in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th matches. The hope of qualifying for the last 16 is still wide open for Atalanta.