UEFA Champions League

Malmo made it to the groups!! Im gonna have to go home and watch the replay of that one!!

Some exciting match ups here. 

• Atleti/Juve
• Real/LFC
• Arse/BVB
• Barca/PSG
• Bayern/Citeh/Roma

Groups B, D, E and F seem the toughest

No one has written anything in here for a while, but I'll give it a crack.

I've always had Sky, but since we returned to NZ this year we decided not to get it. So where can I watch Man Utd v Roma this Wednesday at 745am? I used to sometimes watch games at the 4Kingz but on their website it says they open at 11am now.

Any tips?

I think you mean Man City-- I know it is on ESPN.

Yeah sorry Man City!!! I checked the schedule and it's on Sky but I don't know what pub will be open so early to show it

Why are City so awful in Europe?

I don't know but this is what Scholes reckons.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2775474/Paul-Scholes-blasts-Manchester-City-fans-failing-create-Champions-League-atmosphere-says-don-t-realise-lucky.html

Can anyone answer these questions?

• Each team registers 25 players who can play for them in UEFA comps. When a team moves from CL to Europa, can they submit a new list or are they bound by the one they initially provided?
• Are teams able to submit a new list after the transfer window closes in January?
• Are under 21 players able to play if UEFA competitions if they aren't on the list of 25 (I thought I hear that they were exempt from needing to be registered)

Picks for tonight? 2-2 90mins, 3-2 Barca 120mins.

Fancy Juventus in extra time or penalties. Like Klopp said before their second leg against them, one of the toughest challenges in football is to beat an Italian team who only need a draw.

Barca in regular time. Not by much. Fancy 1-0.

Barca deserved it. Best team in Europe by far this season. An unstoppable front three backed up by a deeply impressive midfield. 

RE: Neymar's disallowed goal. Any team defending in that situation would be screaming murder saying it was a handball. I tend to agree with them. Literally definition however, would say it is not a handball as it wasn't deliberate.

"The Millenium Stadium in Cardiff is expected to be chosen to host the 2017 Champions League final when the venue is announced this month. (June 29)"

- UK Telegraph lastest.

confirmed

Champions League: Millennium Stadium to host 2017 final

Champions League: Gareth Bale excited by 2017 Cardiff final

Champions League gone from ESPN in Oceania.

Hopefully Premier League Pass pick it up or Sky comes up with an alternative for showing it here...

http://in-the-back-of-the.net/2015/07/09/rip-the-champions-league-on-espn/

FFS

This is scandalous.

Sky has Phoenix and Warriors. Sick of PLP absolutely hated it. Now a third provider required to watch football?

Sharkenhousen

Fudgeing hell :(

I am happy with that as I get Bein Sports in Oz.

I remember back in the day (maybe 15 years ago) ESPN used to show the UCL as well as La Liga and Serie A, and Sky still had the EPL. Those were the days...

Yep, and they had Dutch Eredivisie in the very good old days too - mid 1990s. AND we used to complain it wasn't enough! You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Cue Joni Mitchell...

They paved paradise and put up a sharkhouse rugby channel.

Speaking of coverage - http://www.worldsoccer.com/news/police-raid-homes-...

These are two very interesting and polarising blokes. Not so much polarising in Croatia, as almost everybody seems to hate them.
Speaks a lot of our global naivety (when it comes to football, but not just when it comes to football) that this hasn't made news. It's a fascinating situation.

Basically, the vast majority of 'big names' out of Croatia are continually and contractually obliged to pay these guys, for the rest of their careers.

'The resistance' against them got to a point where the Maksimir - a 30-35,000 capacity stadium - would see crouds of below 1000, and tickets still at NZ$40-50 with specifically allocated and policed seats. If you're interested, do some Googling into why. 

The Mamic brothers were jailed last week. The opening fixture of the season was 'the Eternal Derby' between Hajduk Split and dinamo Zagreb. I haven't seen official croud figures, but would imagine 20,000+ (conservatively). Tickets were going for as low as NZ$2.

I could go on, if anyone's interested.

With the Nelson boys going to Hajduk on trial, this becomes slightly more relevant/interesting to us. 

And it goes into this thread, because I'm scared of making a new one and nobody replying to it!

(dinamo - for the past 9 seasons, maybe more - take Croatia's spot in the Champions League. That might change now)

As most will know, BeIN Sports have snatched away the UEFA Champions League rights for Oceania from ESPN.

BeIN Sports is carried by Foxtel in Australia. But isn't broadcast of course in NZ.

I suggest that fans contact Sky TV and suggest that they add BeIN Sports to their roster.

BeIN Sports broadcasts heaps of football.

BeIN Sports Australia website for info on what they show: http://www.beinsports.com.au/

Contact Sky here:

https://skytv.custhelp.com/app/contactus/emailus

Sky Sport Facebook - post a message:

https://www.facebook.com/skysportnz

Sky TV Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/SKYnewzealand

This is what I sent to them and posted on their Facebook:

"With the UK & European soccer seasons starting, what I want to know is, now that you have lost the UEFA Champions League (ESPN no longer have the rights), on top of you losing the English Premier League rights a couple of years ago, what are you going to do about it? I suggest that you ditch ESPN and add BeIN Sports which now has the Champions League rights for NZ & Oz (It's carried by Fox in Australia). Plus BeIN Sports has heaps of other top football as well as rugby (Six Nations etc.)
I terminated Sky TV recently because of your lack of soccer coverage and won't subscribe again until it improves."

[I used the word "soccer" so they don't get confused]

You cant actually add BelN Sports as part of a foxtel package though unlike espn,its a separate channel costing $150 a year payable by credit card.So theres probably nothing in it for sky to add it to there channels as the money goes to BelN not them.Plenty of people in Aussie blowing up deluxe about espn losing the ucl rights.

Bein sports in Australia isn't in HD, hope we get HD, or it's a real step backwards.

HD is on good stuff. Seems we've had a commentary change at half time? Could hear these guys talking half the time in the first half when the other commentator wasn't talking

Both Manchester teams on sky on Wednesday morning, Roma v Barca and Arsenal v Dinamo Zagreb on Thursday.

Don't know if it's just me but the commentary volume seems to be very low on the United game, was fine on the City game. Nice to see CL without ESPN commentary though.

How about the Florenzi goal for Roma v Barca?

https://cdn2.streamable.com/video/mp4/mmh9.mp4

The results so far should not be a surprise as English sides are just not good enough.

Tonight PSG (Qatar Investment Authority, assets £120 billion) v Man City (Abu Dhabi Utd, assets £555 billion)

source: today's UK Telegraph.

FTFY

Listened to it on 5Llive. Hilarious. Chaotic. Park footie raised to the max. Zlatan missed a pen, missed clear chance, hit the crossbar with header. £500,000 p/week anyone?

Zlatan was just being kind to the other guys so they didn't feel inadequate being on the pitch with him. Fernando was so grateful that he gave Zlatan a goal to thank him

Hopefully Atletico Madrid can take it this year. They've had to beat the champions of the Netherlands (PSV), Spain (Barcelona) and Germany (Bayern Munich). Very impressive displays against Bayern Munich and Germany, what a great counter-attacking side they are. 

On the other hand Real Madrid have had one of the easiest walks through the park in Champions League history: Roma, who always perform badly in Europe including a 6–1 loss to Barcelona in the group stage; Wolfsburg, who have done poorly in this season's Bundesliga and haven't been the same since selling De Bruyne; and Manchester City, who did awfully in the semi-final, barely wanting to attack at all, being languid and dull with the ball.

If Atletico choke after the 90th minute again like in 2014 I won't be happy. Godin, Griezmann, Torres, etc., they all deserve this. They play in such an organised and cohesive manner, it's amazing the way they can shut down any opponent even if they are the underdogs.

Not sure if they choked - they were exhausted, from what I saw. Once the equaliser went in, their legs were gone. And Simeone should've thumped Varane one.....cant remember who on the RM side told Varane off, but good on him

Well luckily for Atletico Varane is injured this time around adding a bit of defensive instability. Hopefully they can pounce on that.