Football: Forever blowing bubbles...or more?

[ljkeane]

Milan have been a bit disappointing against a mostly second string Liverpool side after being pretty good in the game at Anfield. You’d think they’d give it a bit more of a go with qualifying for the last 16 still a possibility.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

That's it then, I suppose.

Atletico 3-0 up, and Milan 1-2 down.

Somebody should've told Origi that it's not an important must-win game for Liverpool.

[Iskaral Pust]

A pity that Burnley Madrid went through, but they won’t be Liverpool’s problem unless they can foul, dive, time-waste and complain to the referee all the way to the final.  They can shithouse someone else for a while.  Perhaps they’ll get City next.

Hard to believe that Milan team is top of Serie A.  They were massively outplayed by Liverpool in the first game, despite Milan sneaking a couple of goals out of absolutely nowhere, and then they were beaten at home by Liverpool Reserves despite the greatest disparity in motivation you’ll see anywhere in the competition this year.

When Nat Phillips can take the piss out of your two star players with the same cheeky drag-back in his own penalty area! then you’ve been put in your place.

Great to rest the players and give minutes to the back-ups.  Great to see Ox, Konate and even Origi take their chance with a strong showing, but there were good performances all around.  Salah and Mane must have an agreement with Klopp that they have to play when fit.  Salah has 20 goals already this season.  That’s nuts.

[Soylent Brown]

I doubt there's an agreement, but given how well they seem to recover, Klopp probably decided the extra few £m for a win was worth the risk.

Milan were missing a few players last night I believe, but it was surprising how unmotivated they looked until the last fifteen minutes.

[Mark Antony]

Yeah kinda overrating the disparity a bit. We still had a solid lineup and they were missing some of their better players (rebic, leao, Kjaer, calabria) 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

More like Mane and Salah are off to the AFCON in a few weeks anyway. 

[baxus]

They are not likely to be rested in any of AFCON matches, are they? They will be wrecked after AFCON, especially if they stick around for Chelsea match before leaving for national team duty.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Final Group game maybe. That's like the best you can hope for.

Senegal (Mane) and Egypt (Salah) are among the favorites after Algeria (Mahrez).

Personally, I hope that Ghana exits early and so we can get our player back ASAP and uninjured.

[Consigliere]

54 minutes ago, baxus said:

especially if they stick around for Chelsea match before leaving for national team duty.

Looks like they might not be available for the Chelsea game. Reports are that CAF is bringing the tournament forward to start on 3 Jan and end on 1 Feb in order to avoid clash with club world cup and an official announcement is imminent. Per FIFA rules, a 3 Jan start date means clubs would have to release players by 27 Dec so the game against Leicester could be affected as well unless Liverpool reach an agreement with the respective FAs for a late release.

[baxus]

@Consigliere Moving the whole tournament at this stage would just be taking a piss, wouldn't it? Especially if they would do it for a competition no one outside of FIFA headquarters really cares about. Not that I would be that surprised, mind you.

From what I understood, players need to leave their clubs before New Years but there was some talk about Liverpool (maybe some other clubs as well, but I wouldn't know) maybe being able to come to an agreement with national teams to keep players for the match against Chelsea. I'm not sure it was ever likely to actually happen, but I mentioned it as a best case scenario for the club.

[The Sunland Lord]

Chelsea on a good way to finish second in their group.

[Iskaral Pust]

Mbappe and Pogba are just a few weeks from being able to sign pre-contracts with other clubs.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

RedBull have found a new headcoach for their Leipzig branch.

Tedesco will take over. So they have not promoted Jaissle.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

31 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Mbappe and Pogba are just a few weeks from being able to sign pre-contracts with other clubs.

Mbappe is just a few weeks from finally signing a pre-contract with Real and Pogba with whatever club offers him the best deal.

Also Chelsea's CBs will be able to do the same. Not just Rüdiger, but also Christensen.

To add a bit to the rumor mill.

Rüdiger is rumoredly also off to Real. Christensen atm more likely to stay than to leave. But Milan and Barca are watching with no small degree of interest.

Bayern have started talks with Süle about extending his contract. My guess is, he would be the preferred replacement for Rüdiger, should he really bugger of to Madrid. The talks with Süle are not easy, as in corona has left a mark on Bayern's finances and Süle was not too impressed by their first offer. 

[polishgenius]

Our line-up against Young Boys is quite something. Matic at CB, Mata and VDB as the midfielders.

[Consigliere]

Benfica go 2-0 up. Pressure on Barca now. Normally I'd say Bayern would thump them but Barca look to have a decent chance of winning this game because thus far Bayern have been playing with the intensity of an early preseason friendly.

eta. Barca have looked really vulnerable to counters though.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Bayern are playing with a reduced squad, tho.

[Consigliere]

Still pretty close to a first choice lineup though. Bayern 1-0 up anyway so Barca in some trouble.

eta. haha. A banger from Sane to put Bayern 2-0 up. Barca in deep shit.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Yeah, but that's what Nagelsmann promised. They won't distort the competition and field the best team available atm.

Either way, if I am not mistaken Barca counted on the k.o. stages with their season budget, EL is signifcantly less money than CL. So that's gonna be fun.

[The Sunland Lord]

That's Barca to the Europa League.