Champions League 2017-2018 play-off round

[Lyonnais]

I unfortunately have been unable to watch the Napoli-Nice game but as per media reports the gap was too high for Nice. As expected.
The RMC consultants (Eric di Meco, Jérôme Rothen for those who remember them) who said that they would eat a rat if Nice got their qualification for the Champions League can be relieved

With the 2 red cards, I don't know what kind of team Nice will be able to display for the second leg. Remember that this team lost important players this summer (Belhanda, Ricardo Pereira, their captain Paul Baysse, Esseyric) whereas their stars Balotelli and Sneijder not ready for the first leg may not be fit enough for the second. With the suspension of Koziello and Plea (who both have become important in the squad because of the departures and injuries) itwill be a very young team for the second leg but I presume that one of Balotelli or Sneijder, if not the two, will be able at least part of the game. Hope that Seri their best player who will certainly leave the club before the end of the transfer period will still be there to help them for this second leg. Not sure!

[aekFC4ever]

It will be a crime if Olympiacos doesn't qualify to the group stage. Rijeka's defense was poor last night and there is a big gap between the two teams. After all, Olympiacos is having some good years in the Champions League achieving at least 3 wins in the group stage since 2007 so they do deserve this place.

[retroactive2]

I am Steaua fan, I am not agree at all saying FCSB is more powerfull comparing with Hoffenheim and Nice (the only advantage for us is we played 8 official games in this season excluding the game vs Sporting in time the other teams are not really fit), but I must give our collegue 5UCLGSteams all the credit.

I said something similar, not agreeing with his optimism before Sporting - FCSB and FCSB really surprised everyone ). The results are everytime giving us the thruth, not the theory . And FCSB winning 4-1 in Plzen and drawing 0-0 in Lisbon is really a performance. Lets see if they are capable of making to the end, and reaching totally unexpected the groups.

First of ... i'm am not @5UCLGSteams ... I agree with him for the most part ... except the part about the 'Teams from Romania are surprising' ... that was true when there were still few clubs that invested in football (that was decade ago) ... now it is just Steaua ... nobody else invest in romanian football anymore ... not serious cash, so they can't do jack in euro cups ... even against modest teams ... see Astra against Oleksandria or Viitorul against Apoel Nicosia. Actually the Sugar Daddy for 2/3 of the romanian teams is the Romanian State (based on electoral periods). And you don't really have to invest / waste ... the vast amounts of money the western clubs do ... in order to create a competitive teams ... but you have to spent a decent amount of money ... otherwise you cannot sign some quality players. As always ... you have to find the proper balance. If let's say that we can invest ... 60 mil like Sporting did ... this season ... i'm sure that will make a lot of Steaua's fans ... happy ... but will bring us bankruptcy in 2 season max ... because the romanian football market is not monetized like the Portugal football market ... even if we would perform alike ... we wouldn't be selling players, t-shirts or tv rights at the same market value.

Over the part ... where you are constantly surprised by Steaua's results in qualifiers ... i don't know what else to say ... until Ludogorets 2 years ago (a CLPO deathmatch lost at penalties by a fluke) ... we didn't lost a qualifier since Steaua - Rosenborg (2004-2005) ... that was a 11 years track records ... of 100% qualifying for group stages ... despite the 3-4 years ... performance cycle of fully changing squads. And obviously we cannot eliminate a Top Tier team at this level ... like Manchester City (if not for another fluke). Steaua does well in qualifiers (against low and middle tier teams) ... that's the THEORY ... a theory is based on facts and stats ... not on imagination and perception.

And are you seriously considering (or i don't know some guy ... named malko) ... that Nice or Hoffenheim are more competitive than Steaua at this moment? Based on what? Default League of Origins? We proved our competitivity level in 2 decades of yearly qualifications both as seeded or unseeded with 7 CLGS and 7 ELGS... what did they prove? That they can skip rounds with the country coeff ... or play in CL with their 4th place? I see ... this is not about merit ... and performance ... it is about money! It is about money ... but not in the way you think ... those money have to be first spent and bring some performance to your team ... it is not enough ... just showing them off. The downside of being a team in the western leagues it is that you have to set your budget accordingly ... follow the market financial rules ... and that usually mean setting a level of salary that is not always reflected by the players' value. There is a finite quantity of high quality players at one time ... and the Top Tier will snatch them.

I don't know if Sporting wanted Steaua ... the best unseeded at the draw ... that's their own business ... and the team may have a plan ... the fans another based on perception ... I know that i would had prefer Steaua to be seeded and rather get any of the unseeded teams in the League Path ... including Nice or Hoffenheim ... because that would had make us favorites to win the CLPO ... rather than starting with the 2nd chance.

[SimonB]

I unfortunately have been unable to watch the Napoli-Nice game but as per media reports the gap was too high for Nice. As expected.
The RMC consultants (Eric di Meco, Jérôme Rothen for those who remember them) who said that they would eat a rat if Nice got their qualification for the Champions League can be relieved

With the 2 red cards, I don't know what kind of team Nice will be able to display for the second leg. Remember that this team lost important players this summer (Belhanda, Ricardo Pereira, their captain Paul Baysse, Esseyric) whereas their stars Balotelli and Sneijder not ready for the first leg may not be fit enough for the second. With the suspension of Koziello and Plea (who both have become important in the squad because of the departures and injuries) itwill be a very young team for the second leg but I presume that one of Balotelli or Sneijder, if not the two, will be able at least part of the game. Hope that Seri their best player who will certainly leave the club before the end of the transfer period will still be there to help them for this second leg. Not sure!

I chose to watch this game live yesterday evening, Napoli started very quickly and deserved the early lead and missed one or two other opportunities.

The penalty was unfortunate, a foul but the replay showed that it was just outside of the box on first contact, but the fall was well inside so could understand why the referee could have made the error. This would be a good situation for VAR as the game had to stop in any event for either a free kick or penalty. Nice had a few good counter-attacks but couldn't manage a good shot on goal from them.

The second half in general the game slowed a little with Napoli still having slightly the better of things. The double sending off was correct but unfortunate, the replay showed the foul to be above the ball which is normally deemed to be dangerous play and of course dissent at a decision is always a yellow card, and it was a 2nd yellow of course. Nice then played exceptionally well with 9-men to keep the deficit at 2 goals for the remainder of the match.

[EarlofBug]

I will put the percentages to qualify IMO, like Patty_Schnyder does:

Qarabag 1-0 Kobenhavn 50-50
APOEL 2-0 Slavia Praha 75-25
Olympiacos 2-1 Rijeka 70-30
Celtic 5-0 Astana 99-1
Hapoel Beer Sheva 2-1 Maribor 55-45

Istanbul Basaksehir 1-2 Sevilla 10-90
Young Boys 0-1 CSKA Moskva 20-80
Napoli 2-0 Nice 75-25
Hoffenheim 1-2 Liverpool 20-80
Sporting - FCSB 0-0 50-50

[bossake]

A bad news for the game FCSB - Sporting. The owners of the National Arena decided to change the pitch. The pitch looked very bad because of the very hot summer in here, the last games home for FCSB was a disaster pitch.

Firstly they announced the start of the changing will begin 15 August and will finish Friday,17 August. But from unknown reasons the reality is they will finish putting the new pitch Sunday or even Monday. Now I dont know how a pitch who is bringed only from 2-3 days will resist to the Wednesday game, but the danger of having a problem with the pitch I think is real.

On other way, the request of tickets is incredible and for sure we will have a 45-50.000 attendence at the game.

[Thunder_PT]

That's bad news for Sporting. They're a technical, ball on the ground team. This decision may have been tactical.

[Verde e Branco]

After what I saw in the 1st leg (terrible game by Sporting) I am now 100% convinced that Sporting will be Sporting and will not go into group stage. This club always chokes at crucial moments and if the path to reach success looks "easy" Sporting will make it like a herculean task, it is always the same story. Enough of excuses, if we fail to get into group stage it's because we dont deserve to be there.

PS: I hope this lunatic coach that gets 6MILLION€/year gets fired after the 2nd leg.

[SteffenM]

That's bad news for Sporting. They're a technical, ball on the ground team. This decision may have been tactical.

But if you are a ball team, as flat pitch with grass, I guess would be favored for a more unstable dirt pitch?

If players slip though, it is possible bad news regarding injuires or possible injuires.

[retroactive2]

Are you guys on crack or something?

First the owner of the Stadium (which is not Steaua) will change the bad, burned out pitch with a new green pitch, befitting a CLPO match (and the huge rent that we pay to play on the stadium) ... how is this a bad news or a tactical move? A pitch can be installed with success 24 hours before the match (allowing a full day-night cycle) ... 2-3 days before the game will be just fine ... I see Dinamo plays ACS Sepsi on monday ... if they rented the stadium ... they have the right to play on it ... and they can install the pitch right after the game.

Second both Steaua and Sporting are technical teams ... and they both need to score in order to qualify for CLGS, a bad pitch will not favor any team either way. And ... can you just stop ... with 'how vastly superior Sporting is' rant? It is not ... now move on! If was not for the linesman ... stopping Alibec on his 1 vs 1 with the GK ... on a fake offside ... we would had probably won the game in Portugal ... deserved ... even if overall we lost the middle ... because we didn't had Constantin Budescu there. In Bucharest ... we will have Budescu and we will have the crowd ... normally Sporting will lose the PO ... but you never know!

[Club-Mate]

Steaua (we can use this name here without getting penelized from Rom. army). would need also N. Stanciu he impressed me so much against Sparta last year his 2 goals were magnificient.

[bossake]

To be honest the games vs Sparta were by FAR the most impressive for Stanciu at Steaua. The club benefited from his very good form in those 2 games and sold the player for the very big amount of ~8-9 mil Euros to Anderlecht(I dont believe Stanciu is so valuable and also his form ,without those 2 games, dont recomend him being sold for more than 5-6 Mil Euro). But who knows what are the real prices in European football in those days? ).
People in Belgium seems are dissapointed by his Anderlecht form, but I think he maded a good season: in 40 appearences he scored 8 goals and 8 asissts.
Almost same yearly numbers he had on Steaua in his 3 year period there. But of course the abig mount of money paid(biggest player buyed by a Belgian team) put a big pressure on him.

@retro, Dinamo is playing with Sepsi in Stefan Cel Mare stadium(I dont think they will play more games in National Arena, maybe only with Steaua - because for them the financial effort of renting the National Arena is too big).
I hope you are right and a new pitch needs only 24 hours after installing to be in the full condition. I admit I dont know nothing about pitches, the situation just looked me tricky and I decided to post it here .

[matt]

Napoli - Nice 2-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leMxr5sZdD4

Hoffenheim - Liverpool 1-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_idUnnTKms

Young Boys - CSKA Moscow 0-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbcLogF7Oog

Olympiakos - Rijeka 2-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zwWt40wLU8

Celtic - Astana 5-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1B8rACwEaM

Basaksehir - Sevilla 1-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylr7nMSyJ6A

APOEL - Slavia Praha 2-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCDlcMxYMk

Sporting - FCSB 0-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94q65sRp9ys

Qarabag - Copenhagen 1-0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJORhZ7_PYM

Hapoel Beer Sheva - Maribor 2-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfpNW_H0YOA

[seso]

Rijeka vs Olympiacos and Steaua București vs Sporting CP the most interesting matches for me!! Let's see!!

[Verde e Branco]

With so many refs to choose from, corrupt uefa chooses the turkish ref that stole Sporting 2 years ago against CSKA in the 1st leg. Add that to the fact that president of Steaua is paying in prizes around 3M to the staff and players, might aswell give some to the yellow pig, so the party can be complete. Why am I not surprised?