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Officially Official 2016/2017 Champions League Thread (NWT)

Man, put on the Salzburg/Dinamo Zagreb game last night and passed out when it looked like Salzburg might pull it out. They were up 1-0 (2-1 agg.) but I guess they blew it. They have blown a few Champs League qualifiers lately (including with Roger Schmidt). Lots of good young players in that match though on both teams.

Literally no one cried for RB Salzburg though. Fake club with no fans, just a marketing machine for Red Bull (which is HQ'd right outside of Salzburg). They aren't hated quite as much RB Leipzig is in Germany, but it's close.
 
It was kind of cool because they kept referencing the last time a Salzburg team had made the group stages, which was the Casino Salzburg team in the 94/95 season. Casino Salzburg had a training camp in Tucson in '95 and I went and got a cool Casino Salzburg t-shirt which I lost. The only player I remember was Heimo Pfeifenberger, because his name was Heimo Pfeifenberger.
 
It was kind of cool because they kept referencing the last time a Salzburg team had made the group stages, which was the Casino Salzburg team in the 94/95 season. Casino Salzburg had a training camp in Tucson in '95 and I went and got a cool Casino Salzburg t-shirt which I lost. The only player I remember was Heimo Pfeifenberger, because his name was Heimo Pfeifenberger.

That was the club that Red Bull bought and changed the name of. Most of the FC/Casino Salzburg fans left to create and support a new club now called SV Austria Salzburg which keeps the original colors and everything. They consider themselves the true custodians of the FC/Casino Salzburg legacy.
 
Cool, yeah, I'm doing a little reading around now about the whole thing. I will say that RB Salzburg seems to be investing money in the right places team-wise at least. RB Leipzig, too. Though they pay ridiculous wages, they seem to be concentrating on younger talent -- Davie Selke, Naby Keita, Timo Werner; Kimmich before them. A lot of people I read consider them on the cutting edge on the analytics, scouting, and development side of things, so at least the Red Bull machine is trying things in an innovative manner.

Anyway, sidetracking from the Champions League stuff.

Dinamo Zagreb had some good players -- Pjaca has already left, and I think Rog is on his way to Napoli, but Ante Coric could be their next big thing. He came off the bench and looked good before I fell asleep. Also, their right back, some Slovenian kid, Stojanovic, was good, and Benkovic the young center back.

ETA - he didn't play, but they have this kid who Liverpool signed ages ago, but never played an official youth or first team due to work permits, Armin Hodzic, a Bosnian kid who has a pretty good scoring record.
 
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When Akinfeev allows a hilariously soft goal to Spurs, my heart might explode with pure joy. What a way to die.

Your Akinfeev hate is as strong as your Leicester hate. Did he bang out VadToy the way that the Foxes bent over Spurs?
 
Spurs have already sold 80k tickets to home match vs. Monaco at Wembley next week. Most-attended English home UCL game, already eclipsing the 73.7k Arsenal managed at the same grounds in 1999, and with a chance to top the home record for any English team (84.3k set by City at Maine Road in 1934).
 
Spurs have already sold 80k tickets to home match vs. Monaco at Wembley next week. Most-attended English home UCL game, already eclipsing the 73.7k Arsenal managed at the same grounds in 1999, and with a chance to top the home record for any English team (84.3k set by City at Maine Road in 1934).

It's now a complete hard sellout. Not a single seat available. Massive statement by the fans of the club.
 
Very odd lineup the Gunners are trotting out, most noticeably Ospina starting in goal.
 
I'm fine with Ospina back there. He played really well in the Copa I thought and needs the work.

Lineup isn't that unusual. Need to get Ramsey back from injury though.
 
Pretty similar lineup to Saturday's game against Southampton. Same 7 in the back (except GK). Ozil and Ox up high.

Walcott was subbed out for Iwobi against Southampton. Iwobi starts today with Walcott on the bench.

Lucas got his first action for the Gunners on Saturday, was subbed off for Giroud. Alexis starts up top today.

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PSG's keeper's name is Areola.

What does Giroud have to do to get in the lineup? I don't get it.
 
Seeing Gibbs on the bench, and knowing he'll waste yet another year barely playing, maybe Arsene should sell him to Liverpool.
 
The record for home attendance for an English club is Manchester City against Stoke in an FA Cup fixture in 1934 (84,467). Tottenham is going to possibly break that tonight depending on what the exact final count is. That's ludicrous to think - it's possibly going to be the single largest home crowd in the history of English football.
 
And just over 1/2 the attendance at the Battle at Bristol

Yeah, attendance at US sporting events is just so stunningly high when compared to other nations. And the fact we have so many other sports and STILL pack all of them in prodigious numbers is just frankly amazing. Hell, we think of MLS as a kind of backwater league but it's average attendance last year (21,574) is basically closing in on 2/3rds of the Premier League's (36,490).
 
Well, that was fun yesterday. Guess we didn't need the heavy squad rotations that led to a loss to Alaves last weekend anyway.
 
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