Champions League 2014/15

[Guest Jayfunk]

Congrats to Celtic, hopefully they can get it together for the next round.

 

Congrats for what? getting beaten, what away to go through, saying that i kind of hope Arsneal, Spurs, Everton are all band also

[King 277]

Rock or Pop band?....

[Evil Gringo 279]

For staggering onto a loophole and surviving thats what i'm congrautlating them on, mainly in part that I like to see them well because of my family ties to Glasgow and that club.

 

Now would you care to wind you're neck in.

[Guest Inno]

Oscar Pistorious is firing his lawyers and hiring Peter Lawwell - he heard he lost both legs and still managed to win...

[Guest Inno]

Double post, sorry

 

Legia are really making themselves look daft. First they say they couldn't get in touch with Celtic to convince them to reject UEFA's reinstatement and uphold their traditions, like men (!) and now they're challenging Celtic to a one off playoff game!

[BRM 220]

They ballsed up, swallow your pride Warsaw.

[Guest Inno]

UEFA kick out Legia's appeal after 2 days considering it. They now say they're going to the court of arbitration for sport. It's all getting a bit ridiculous now.

 

They seem to think they were kicked out of the competition by the ruling - they weren't - they were awarded a 3-0 defeat which took the scores to 4-4 on aggregate, and Celtic qualified on away goals. Legia missed TWO penalties in the first leg, if either of those had gone in, they'd be through.

 

Idiots.

[Guest Jayfunk]

didn't they only award them a 3-0 wins so they could go through? if they had been 5 behind it would be mostly likely a 5-0 win it was to kick them out

[BRM 220]

Yeah suspect UEFA would of clamped down harder had Legia held a bigger lead going into the 2nd leg. Just awarding a 3-0 victory leaves it open to abuse in the future.

 

It's harsh on Legia for what does just seem a genuine Admin error but rules be rules and we have to uphold sporting intergrity.

[Shaun2J 127]

I would of thought that 3-0 is the default for ruling a match the other way? Celtic just had that luck.

[BRM 220]

Had Legia held a 4-0 lead they would of just been excluded from the competition. The 1st leg had absolutely no bearing on the outcome once the ineligible came on to the pitch. UEFA can hide behind the 3-0 all they want, but they would of had little choice other than to exclude Legia from the competition once a ineligible player featured in the tie.

[Shaun2J 127]

Surely they could have gone the easy way, providing the rule book allows it, and just anulled the two legs all together? So Celtic would have got a bye through to the next round on paper.

[BRM 220]

My point exactly .

[Guest Inno]

Yeah, 3-0 is the default forfeit score. If they were ahead more than that from the first leg, they would have been through. I'd have bet money on Celtic appealing then :D

 

It was UEFA delegates that noticed it, apparently. The Legia goalkeeper asked management about before the game started, from what I've seen reported...

[Guest Boyo]

Arsenal travel to Turkey with somewhat of a defensive crisis, and a very nervous Boyo watching from home. I'm not nervous about the result; I think we should be fine to go through over two legs although we may be a bit pooey at the back, but I'm not exactly over the moon at Koscielny "being passed fit" for the match when, if my eyes aren't deceiving me, he has an achilles injury.

 

No Mertesacker, no Gibbs, and we've just sold Vermaelen. I understand the need to play Koscielny, and I appreciate that we're going to sign Kostas Manolas this week, but you simply cannot - must not - risk Koscielny's achilles.

 

"Likely" Arsenal team for tonight:

 

Szczesny

 

Debuchy -- Chambers -- Koscielny -- Monreal

 

Arteta -- Wilshere

 

Sanchez -- Ramsey -- Cazorla

 

Giroud

 

Boyo's Arsenal XI if given half a chance!

Szczesny

 

Debuchy -- Chambers -- Monreal -- Flamini

 

Arteta

 

Sanchez -- Ramsey -- Rosicky -- Chamberlain

 

Giroud

 

Cheers!