Topic: ⚽UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Qualifying - page 47. (Read 12053 times)

There was plenty of upsets today, probably only Qarabag and Ludogorets wins is something expected. Ludogorets in next round almost, while Zurich after loss 3:2 still in the fight.
Zalgiris 1:0 win against Malmo was nice surprise for me. Seems that Malmo struggle against Vikingur wasn't coincidence, today they failed to create something dangerous. It's bad that Zalgiris managed to score only once, it will be big factor in 2nd leg. Especially it's sad to waste such moments, you won't see such crazy misses often like this one:
https://youtu.be/vPIQN5tWVg8?t=53
Pyunik lost 0:1 at home against Dudelange in game of more or less equal level teams, Linfield won against Mourinho nightmare Bodo/Glimt, despite that Bodo dominated game. Midtjylland and Dinamo Zagreb failed to beat complete underdogs at home, odds for their wins were something like 1.10-1.20

In general, I would give little advantage to Fenerbahche, but not in 1st leg. In Poland Dynamo will play like at home, maybe in full stadium. As you said, they lost foreign players, but core of their team is Ukrainian players who remains in the team, so, these losses don't affect them that much.

Is there anyone who has any thoughts about the Dynamo Kiev - Fenerbahçe matchup that is going to be played in Poland tomorrow? Dynamo Kiev have lost their foreign players because of the war in Ukraine. On the other hand Fenerbahce have entered a renovation process with their new manager Jorge Jesus. And they haven't been able to build the squad completely yet. The favourite of this matchup would be definitely Fenerbahce if this was played 2-3 months later. However Turkish teams can't show the wanted performance from them at the beginning of a season.

2nd qualifying round of Champions league starts today and we have 7 games today. My main bet for today is combo of Ludogorets and Bod/Glimt wins @2.18. Both teams level is way above their opponents, but odds for single bets isn't very attractive. What else, maybe Midtjylland - AEK Larnaca over 2.5 @1.70. And I'll risk with Qarabag win against Zurich @2.10
Today's gamesdoesn't looks very attractive and it's difficult to find good bets. Tomorrow things looks a bit more interesting.

∆ GNK Dinamo Zagreb (-2/-2.5) @1.60 ∆  X

Dinamo Zagreb has already played a number of matches this season, including a win over Hajduk in the Croatian Super Cup and a comeback win against Loko Zagreb over the weekend, as well as a few friendlies...they have scored three goals in three of those four matches. Shkupi almost blew a 3-0 lead against a very weak opponent from Gibraltar in the previous round. I'll be shocked if they don't concede three or more goals today. According to transfermarkt, Dinamo's squad is worth more than €100mln, while the team from North Macedonia is worth roughly €6 mln...

∆ PFC Ludogorets 1945 Razgrad (-1)@1.99 ∆  won

Even though Shamrock did not concede in their visit to Hibernians in Malta, they were thoroughly outclassed. If they give up that many chances against Ludogorets, a team with European experience, it will be over in the first leg. I expect the team from Bulgaria to take a comfortable lead before the reverse fixture next week.

∆ FC Midtjylland (-1)@1.72 ∆  X

I don't trust Danish teams in general, but Midtjylland has so much more experience in those tournaments than AEK Larnaca that they should be the favorites to advance, which surely implies a comfortable win at home hence the -1.

∆ Bodo/Glimt (-1)@1.84 ∆  X

Bodo/Glimt had a difficult visit against Klaksvik, i expect them to take note from that game and win today, they did rest some of their starters over the weekend in preparation for this match.

edit;

Rough day!

Needless to say, only two out of seven betting favorites won their matches, while everyone else shit the bed pretty hard.

Barcelona's performances stabilized after Xavi took charge of Barcelona. And this season they are getting stronger with the addition of players like Raphinha and Lewandowski to the squad. Barcelona are in a financial crisis, yet they are spending a lot of money. Because next season their target is La Liga and Champions League titles. Xavi is building his squad to win these two titles.

That's right, now that Lewandowski and Raphinha have arrived in attack and some really supportive players in defense it's clear this will give them a chance at the moment.
But indeed they still have to think about the current conditions so that it will indeed be difficult when the achievements that he can achieve next season are inversely proportional to their financial condition.
The conditions are almost the same until now, even though in terms of gameplay, Barcelona will definitely be scarier.

Despite all the problems at the club, they managed to keep key players and they strengthened the team well. Xavi is a good coach, he improved the discipline in the team and in the last matches it was clear that this is not the same Barcelona that it was at the beginning of the year. They have a pretty good line-up to perform decently in the Champions League and compete with Real Madrid in La Liga.

For next season it looks like they will still be a bit fumbling, they have to make a lot of adjustments first. But I believe, if Xavi is trusted to stay in charge of Barcelona for a long time, they will again become a scary club and ready to compete especially in the Champions League.
It will be better of course than last season, all they have to do is be consistent first to achieve something extraordinary in the future.

Since his arrival at the club, Xavi has attempted to restore Barcelona's standard. He has made numerous changes to the squad in order to strengthen it and return it to its former glory. There is no doubt that they will be a very competitive team in the upcoming Champions League competition because they have world-class strikers and competitive midfielders who are ready to compete in all competitions and bring Barcelona back to its former glory.

Yes I will be waiting for something from them, for what they have spent in this summer transfer window. They have spent a lot of money to bring in some players to strengthen the team. It should be paid for by their good performances next season. If seen is quite promising for them in the next season. But I'm still waiting for their actual appearance.

I like them a lot, always respected their style of play and admired the football, but not sure I can really respect what goes on behind the scenes right now. Their squad -- past and present -- should have been among the best anyway, arguably overperformed in fact last season with the youngsters. No complaints about Xavi too, but they're not quite doing enough I think to step away from their current financial mess.

Lewie seems like a shrewd bit of business so I do hope he brings it -- and to reflect my faith I even have an outright on them over 16/1 to win this contest

I can say I say Barcelona are very lucky in this transfer window, some great players have a strong desire to play in Barcelona. In fact, if Frenkie de Jong really will stay then surely it will be a perfect squad for Barcelona for next season. There are still two rumors that still exist between Frenkie de Jong staying and also possibly going to Manchester United, but I hope Frenkie de Jong to stay. Barcelona for La Liga being a team for me would be a strong candidate for the title next season, but for the Champions League I'm still curious because the Premier League teams are also making really great deals. With this great squad, I'm still curious how Xavi will manage it, hopefully Xavi will be like Zidane when he coached Real Madrid at that time.

One team I would respect so much in the Champions League is Barcelona. They're among the best currently in the La Liga base on their latest squad. Xavi's doing a very good job for the team, despite managing the team late last season and took the club from scratch to some admire position on the table. Barcelona are in debts but they signed most valuable players in the transfer window and some of the players only wanted barça move, nothing else would they wish for. Let's wait to see the ultimate performance from the team next season.

Nice bets! In fact, all the outcomes had the same meaning (the big advantage of CFR Cluj from the first minutes), so it is not surprising that all your bets played. At the same time, a rather ridiculous final result, I think those who chose a simple CFR Cluj victory (as if a "reliable" bet, given the difference in the class of teams) were very upset by the final result.
Out of the corner of my eye I follow this competition, but I'm afraid to place bets, because in my opinion at this level everything is too random and no odds of either 1.2 or 1.1 inspires any confidence.

That Manchester City team looking unstoppable, undisputable, unplayable. Don't know if I'm the only one Envisaging and seeing what Pep Guardiola is cooking for the Champions League at Manchester City.
Both the first team players and back up player's are all up top notched standard player's. Whoever adviced Haaland too choose Manchester City did him or has given him thr best gift in he's live

In conclusion, all I'm saying is that Manchester City will win the Champions League according to the question asked on the Pole. They did come very close but failed. Pep Guardiola's team will face Paris Saint Germans in the finals, my own prediction for the champions league.
Hoping for Manchester City to finally win.

Although I follow from far qualifying rounds but Cluj defeat was quite strange. There is also Bodo that risked to play extra time and penalties maybe but they managed to proceed although losing with 3 goals. Malmo passed with 1 goal difference, HJK was close to defeat.. Lincoln Red lost and kicked. Overall these teams were expected to win which they did apart from Lincoln.

CFR Cluj just lost to Pyunik on pens and the Romanian champions are out of the competition, without a doubt the biggest upset of those early qualifying rounds so far.

Cluj missed quite a lot of scoring chances yet again and gave up the lead twice in the final minutes of regular and extra time to force the penalties.

I kinda feel lucky to have all of my bets hit, as you can see, i was heavy on them in the first half. Cluj with almost 6x the squad market value more than the Armenians, but lost.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Interesting things in qualifiers today. Mighty Klaksvik from Faroe Islands were close from eliminating Bodo/Glimt. They lost 1st leg 3:0, but now managed to win 3:1.
Late drama in Dinamo Batumi - Slovan game. When it looked that game will go to penalties, on 123rd minute Vladimir Weiss scored a goal directly from corner kick. Amazing stuff, but it was big goalkeeper mistake, see video:
https://youtu.be/XbagF8Sn__c

I disagree. In previous years I was making more money betting on such qualifiers than on final rounds of Champions league. In last stages there is top teams playing, where difference of level between them is minimal. In early stages there is many different level teams, also big factor that for some teams it's middle of season, others just start it. And IMO, it's easier to find good value bets there because bookmakers don't always give appropriate odds, when on top level it rarely happens.

It is very normal that people would lose bets during these qualifiers stage. I mean let's be honest, last year during the semi-finals or the finals, how many people lost money? I mean I believed City would win and wagered on them, and I lost too.

This is why if we are losing on finals, the most obvious ones, then the ones we do not even properly watch, the games of regular season these teams have are watched by few thousand at most compared to City or Madrid or Liverpool etc which gets tens of millions. If we are wrong there, then it's normal that we would be even more wrong here, and that's the main reason why we are getting these kinds of results.

Haaland is now in England,but I am still confident that he will not be able to deliver the way we feel he would,because I know this is England where defenders are very tough and are ready to do anything to block your goal.There is always every time in premier league where an attacker will face goal drought for some period of time.So definitely,players like Kane,Salah will still top him,and I'm also seeing Gabriel Jesus prove himself at Arsenal this season.