The Wizard of AZ Posted August 24, 2011 Share Posted August 24, 2011 So, the European and World champions, Spain, are now the second best team in the world rankings, behind Holland. This and the fact they have England ranked #4 in the world confirms what we football fans have known for a while, FIFA know f**k all about football That's what happens when you have a points based system focusing around all games played. The Netherlands beat 4th ranking Uruguay while Spain lost to 7th(really 8th at the time) place Italy. They'll be back to first in 2 months time. Sorry for getting all doctor science on the matter. Anyways, Wolves are doing awesome. Starting off the season winning their first three games (the beat Northampton Town 4 nil on Tuesday). Magic Mick working his magic again. I really hope to see Jarvis back on England soon. He's determined to. Stephen Ward is turning into a lock for the Ireland squad too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 That's what happens when you have a points based system focusing around all games played. The Netherlands beat 4th ranking Uruguay while Spain lost to 7th(really 8th at the time) place Italy. They'll be back to first in 2 months time. Sorry for getting all doctor science on the matter. Anyways, Wolves are doing awesome. Starting off the season winning their first three games (the beat Northampton Town 4 nil on Tuesday). Magic Mick working his magic again. I really hope to see Jarvis back on England soon. He's determined to. Stephen Ward is turning into a lock for the Ireland squad too. he may just have pulled of the bargain of the summer too in signing Johnson from Birmingham, £5m I believe? A steal!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 Come on Celtic! Save me and the good half of Glasgow the embarrassment. Kayal should be back tonight, which is a major boost. Hooper is still an uncertainty, but I'm praying he'll be fit because without him Stokes is useless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Come on Celtic! Save me and the good half of Glasgow the embarrassment. Stokes is useless. fixed that up for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeafsBlowPouch Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Agreed there should be one thread... but I can't see the re-birth being as successful as the original was. Those other threads need to be deleted for there to even be a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 Worst night for Scottish football....well... ever really. Thank you Daniel Majstorovic. And thank you to the Celtic board for not spending any money. After all, we've only got a multi-billionaire majority shareholder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 Worst night for Scottish football....well... ever really. Thank you Daniel Majstorovic. And thank you to the Celtic board for not spending any money. After all, we've only got a multi-billionaire majority shareholder. at least Shamrock Rovers got through..........seriosly though, as much as I hate Celtic, Hearts and Rangers, yet another nail in Scottish footballs coffin. Not 1 team in ANY European competition............shocking!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 (edited) at least Shamrock Rovers got through..........seriosly though, as much as I hate Celtic, Hearts and Rangers, yet another nail in Scottish footballs coffin. Not 1 team in ANY European competition............shocking!!! I can't actually believe it. The fact that it was a player that was supposed to be banned that scored two goals makes it slightly worse. Still, no excuses. I can't help but think had we kept 11 men (Maj you idiot) we would have comfortably won. We're better than this. I guess we'll just have to concentrate on the league now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwUwKm9czeM Edited August 25, 2011 by Sc♂ttish⑦Canuck™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck_4_Life Posted August 25, 2011 Share Posted August 25, 2011 2010 Champions League Group Stage: GROUP A: Bayern Munich Villarreal Manchester City Napoli GROUP B Inter Milan CSKA Moscow Lille Trabzonspor GROUP C Manchester United Benfica Basle Otelul Galati GROUP D Real Madrid Lyon Ajax Dinamo Zagreb GROUP E Chelsea Valencia Bayer Leverkusen Genk GROUP F Arsenal Marseille Olympiakos Borussia Dortmund GROUP G Porto Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St Petersburg APOEL GROUP H Barcelona AC Milan BATE Viktoria Plzen Man City got screwed while United gets off pretty easy. Barca and Milan grouped together but they should go through rather easily, paired with Euro doormats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 Group A is unbelievable. There are going to be some good games in that group. My money is on Bayern and Man City progressing. Although it'll be close. Napoli and Villareal are great teams. Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 25, 2011 Author Share Posted August 25, 2011 Update on the Sion situation: There's a hearing on Tuesday to determine whether Sion are thrown out of the competition and Celtic take their place. Of course, it would mean that Celtic are put in a more challenging group than they would be had they won, but that's the price for not getting the job done. Honestly, I'm just thankful for the chance of this lifeline. It's an embarassing way to progress, but with the state of Scottish football being the way it is I'd happily take it with no questions asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 Update on the Sion situation: There's a hearing on Tuesday to determine whether Sion are thrown out of the competition and Celtic take their place. Of course, it would mean that Celtic are put in a more challenging group than they would be had they won, but that's the price for not getting the job done. Honestly, I'm just thankful for the chance of this lifeline. It's an embarassing way to progress, but with the state of Scottish football being the way it is I'd happily take it with no questions asked. If you cant beat Sion, you dont deserve to be in the competition and to be honest, is it really worth it? There is not that much money to be earned because there is no way they will progress out of any group. Scottish football is an absolute joke and Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 (edited) If you cant beat Sion, you dont deserve to be in the competition and to be honest, is it really worth it? There is not that much money to be earned because there is no way they will progress out of any group. Scottish football is an absolute joke and I agree that we don't deserve it. But if we do end up in it I'm not going to complain. As for money, what you've got to remember is that for each home game (assuming there is an average attendance of 55,000 - which is realistic) at an average of £25 a ticket the club will be making about £1.3 million in ticket sales, which is a lot of money in Scottish football. So whilst we don't deserve it, we kind of need it. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/26/celtic-europa-league-sion Edited August 26, 2011 by Sc♂ttish⑦Canuck™ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 26, 2011 Author Share Posted August 26, 2011 Group A TOTTENHAM Rubin Kazan PAOK Shamrock Rovers Group B FC Copenhagen Standard Liege Hannover 96 Vorskla Poltava Group C PSV Hapoel Tel-Aviv Rapid Bucuresti Legia Warsaw Group D Sporting Lazio FC Zurich FC Vaslui Group E Dynamo Kiev Besiktas STOKE Maccabi Tel-Aviv Group F PSG Athletic Bilbao SV Red Bull Salzburg Slovan Bratislava Group G AZ Metalist Kharkiv FK Austria Vienna Malmo FF Group H Braga Club Brugge BIRMINGHAM Maribor Group I Atletico Madrid Udinese Rennes Sion or CELTIC Group J Schalke 04 Steaua Bucuresti Maccabi Haifa AEK Group K FC Twente FULHAM Odense Wisla Krakow Group L Anderlecht AEK Athens Lokomotiv Moscow SK Sturm Graz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeafsBlowPouch Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 (edited) Wow, so the two best teams in the SPL can't even qualify for the Europa Cup? Yikes. My Everton buddy was making fun of my Rangers buddy saying the SPL is like Div 3 in England. Although a huge exaggeration it doesn't seem that far off now. My scottish friend was convinced Rangers could be competitive in the Champions League, yet they somehow can't even qualify for Europa against some Slovenian team I've never heard of. And I like City's draw for the CL. Prove yourselves now cause you haven't proven anything yet, other than you have money and buy every good player available to weaken your competition. Edited August 26, 2011 by LeafsBlowPouch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
»ғʀᴇsϟᴘʀıɴcᴇ« Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 Barca wins another cup!! Nice to see fabregas score Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 27, 2011 Share Posted August 27, 2011 Just seen the Chelsea/Norwich highlights............the rent boys are awful and will get buried @ Old Trafford (as long as Martin Atkinson is not the ref) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottish⑦Canuck Posted August 28, 2011 Author Share Posted August 28, 2011 Interesting history should Celtic be reinstated. Unfinished business. Bayern Munich were drawn to play Ujpest Dosza and so, as fate would have it, Celtic were drawn against Atletico Madrid. At the time not a great deal was known about Atletico. They had been living in the shadow if city rivals Real for years. However, alarm bells started ringing when it was revealed that their coach was the infamous Juan Carlos Lorenzo. He had been in charge of the Argentinian national squad at the 1966 World Cup who had been branded 'animals' by Alf Ramsey after their quarter-final match against England at Wembley. Atletico's arrival in Glasgow for the first leg of the European Cup tie did little to dispel growing unease that we were in for a similar kind Donnybrook. The Madrid players had been limbering up for the Wednesday night's game by kicking the seven shades of crap out of each other during a training session. Things got so out of hand that two of their Argentinian contingent had a square go in the middle of the pitch, pictures of which appeared in the Tuesday night's evening paper. In front of 70,000 at Parkhead the teams lined up on Wednesday 10th April 1974 as follows: CELTIC: Connaghan, Hay, Brogan; Murray, McNeill, McCluskey; Johnstone, Hood, Deans, Callaghan, Dalglish. ATLETICO MADRID: Thug; Psycho, Punch; Spit, Hatchet, Bludgeon; Hammer, Thump, Wallop, Gouge, Axe-Murderer The unlikely - and downright unlucky - referee chosen to officiate that evening was a hapless Turkish gentleman by the name of Dogan Babacan. He looked a bit like Arthur Lowe's officious bumbling bank manager character, Mr. Mainwaring, from Dad's Army. He probably felt greatly honoured being entrusted with such a major football spectacle. Little did he know, he stood as much chance of controlling this game as the last referee at the Rome final of 46 BC, Christians FC versus Lions United. The first name was in Mr. Babacan's notebook after only seven minutes following a vicious assault on Johnstone. It set the tone for the rest of the evening's football extravaganza. Babacan got a chance to practice more Spanish a minute later. Jinky's bruises from the game against Racing in Montivideo seven years before had just cleared up the previous week when a lump nut by the name of Ruben Diaz - who had actually played in that match - decided to renew his acquaintance with the Celtic winger. It was merely the first of his many assaults that night. With the crowd already worked up into a frenzy at the sight of the atrocities being committed by the Atletico players, Celtic had a goal disallowed after ten minutes. It did little to dampen an atmosphere which had taken a decided turn towards the volatile. Neither did the antics of Atletico Madrid. It became clear very quickly that the remaining eighty minutes of the match was simply going to be replay of the first ten. Name followed name into the ref's notebook, which he was forced to swap at half-time for a 200 page ring-binder. Eventually, having flashed the yellow ten times, he sent off the first Atletico player midway through the second half. By this time Dixie Deans had been substituted and was soaking his bruises in the bath. Hearing the roar of the crowd which greeted the dismissal of the Spanish player and thinking it might be a goal, he decided to get out of the bath to investigate. Wearing nothing but a towel he was met in the corridor by an irate Argentinian - who proceeded to give him a kick on the way past! Meanwhile, back on the pitch things were degenerating quickly. Jinky was being kicked around like a discarded lager can as well as being treated by his opponents like a red-haired punchbag. Dalglish and Hay were also being singled out for special attention. It was all too much for poor Mr. Babacan who must have wished he was somewhere on the Russian Front rather than at Parkhead. By the end of the game Madrid had been reduced to eight players, five of whom, including the 'keeper, had been booked. They had achieved their 0:0 draw but they weren't finished yet. On the way up the tunnel Jimmy Johnstone was brutally assaulted yet again. It was the final provocation for the Celtic players. A punch-up ensued which had to be sorted out by Strathclyde's Finest. Next morning a picture appeared on the back pages of the papers. It featured Jimmy Johnstone semi-naked showing off his bruises. He looked as if he'd been battered for a fortnight with a hammer then given a good rub down with sandpaper. Although the first leg had been shown live on Spanish TV, Atletico quickly got to work after the match with their propaganda campaign. They claimed that they were the victims of a concerted and orchestrated campaign of abuse at the hands of Celtic, the referee and, of all people, the Glasgow Police. They alleged that the Feds had come into their dressing room and beat up their players. It was preposterous, as anyone who has ever had any contact with the Glasgow Police will know. As was the assertion that Celtic had bribed the referee. If only the Spanish people had realised how difficult it was to prize open Desmond White's Biscuit Tin to pay our own players never mind find extra money to give backhanders to the ref. Despite public clamour for Celtic not to play the second leg, the spineless board decided in their infinite wisdom that they risked retribution from FIFA should they fail to fulfil the fixture, so they travelled to Madrid to play out the remainder of the farce. Training for the players in the Spanish capital was carried out under the watchful gaze of heavily armed police, while a death threat to Jimmy Johnstone added to the friendly reception. It was the ideal preparation for such an important match. On April 24th 1974 the Celtic team which took the field for the second leg was: Connaghan; McGrain, Brogan; Hay, McNeill, McCluskey; Johnstone, Murray, Dalglish, Hood, Lennox Celtic duly lost two late goals and the Atletico team, which bore little resemblance to the one which played in Glasgow - due to the fact that the hatchet men had all been restored to their shebeens in the back streets of Marseille - went through to the final in Brussels. What was to be done? Rangers had been banned from Europe a mere two years previous to this following the performance of their lunatic fringe in Barcelona when they won the Cup Winners Cup, events over which the club itself had no control. Atletico had actually sanctioned the atrocities which they passed off in the name of football which themselves could have started a riot. Surely UEFA would have to take drastic action? Not a bit of it. Atletico were fined £14,000 - little more than the average bribe for a match official in those days - and six of their cloggers were banned for a couple of games. Only if Babacan had been forced to abandon the match at Parkhead by sending off another of their players, and God knows he wasn't short of candidates, could the football authorities have been expected to take stronger action. An article in World Soccer provided as good a summary of events as any: What a shame it is a team from Madrid who have to leave the fans with such cruel feelings and agonising memories. Up until the Parkhead first leg fiasco Madrid had always thrown up visions of the legendary Real with di Stefano gliding through the centre, Gento sweeping magnificently down the wing, Puskas and his lethal shooting power, the towering defensive work of Santamaria. One giant, ugly, clumsy foot has trodden these cherished memories well and truly into the dirt. Postscript Atletico went to Brussels to play Bayern and for a while it looked as if they were going to win the trophy. 0:0 at the end of 90 minutes, the Spaniards scored with six minutes of extra time to play. But, mercifully, the Germans scored in the final minute to take the game to a replay, which Bayern won by 4:0. Ten years after the Parkhead fiasco we eventually got our chance for revenge against Atletico, this time in the Cup Winners Cup. However, thanks to another shower of cheating bastards - in this case Rapid Vienna - the match was ordered to be played behind closed doors. We'll have to nurse our wrath for a few more years yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baercheese Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Anyone saw the Drogba knockout? Damn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topbananas Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Anyone saw the Drogba knockout? Damn... yeah, ouch. he is ok though, thankfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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