Topic: UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Season - page 195. (Read 58825 times)

This year, they are really fighting for this. Both Xabi Alonso and the players are fighting to make them forget what they were told last year, that it was only a one-season success. The first match in the Champions League was amazing. They also had only one defeat in the league and were ahead in that match and then lost. Now they have the Bayern Munich match ahead of them and they should focus on it completely because the match is in Munich. You should always be in control in the matches you play away. I am sure the Spanish coach will implement this next week.

Are we forgetting the main cause of Barcelona's loss match to Monaco? It's like we have forgotten that it was Garcia's red card at 10 minutes of play disorganized the whole formation of the Barcelona team to hold Monaco to a draw or even win them. However, there is always a second leg, which I know, for a team to correct their mistake and win their opponent. We will see what happens next, whether Monaco will stand up tall when they face Barcelona in an away match. Towards then, we would see how mentally and physically fit the Barcelona teams are, under Hans Flick, to take Barcelona to great heights in the Champions League and Laliga League

I won't say Leverkusen don't have a good defence as if they didn't have one then how did they go last season unbeaten and won their league. It might just be that they haven't gotten their rhythm this season but when they get it, they'll be strong again. Well the champions league is a different game altogether. Leverkusen didn't concede any goal in their last game but they scored four. They played against Feyenoord and were dominant in the whole game. Their next game is against Milan and there's every possibility that they're still going to win but it won't be by many goals as the last game. Leverkusen has alot to prove that they're not a one season wonder.

If Barcelona lost against Monaco, the red card had a big impact on this. Barcelona lost team discipline because they received a red card. Since they played shorthanded and were away, they probably had deficits and could not respond to the positions. Frankly, even a draw is good when there is a red card away, but Barcelona could not do this. Barcelona, ​​who won 5-1 against Villarreal yesterday, would definitely have beaten Monaco with the same number of players, in my opinion. But this is football, a red card can disrupt the balance of the entire team.

If there is a year we will see an underdog in the Champions League, I think this year will be one. As it stands mow, it is not yet clear who will be reaching the semi finals. Barcelona is at the verge of being eliminated by Monaco and if this happens,  then Manaco will be a team to watch. Their style of play is great and with what they played Barcelona,  they can challenge any team including Manchester City and the dreaded Real Madrid. Although we will be talking about Champions league experience when we get to that stage.

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.