Who will win this year? Candidats are:
ManUtd,Real,Milan and Inter!


I say that ManUtd will win. What to you say?

[ 09-23-2003, 08:57 AM: Message edited by: Xen ]

Real Madrid. I believe their galaxy of stars will bring them the cup.

Yeah... altough i do not like Real very much(too many stars) i think they will win...


With the passes of Beckaham,Zizou`s passing and dribbling,Carlos`s defense and free kicks(curving the ball),Ronaldos` skills....

Pointless...

Real Madrid weakness is in their defense. I believe they have conceeded many goals so far. Why on earth did they let go of Fernando Hierro is beyond me.

Agree! Carlos is not enough! Many of my friedns are saying the same words as you!
Weird ha...

Real Madrid their defense is so weak because the president doesn't want to spend money on defenders, they are not exciting enough for him. :D Only midfielders and attackers will do for him.

I believe Hierro was getting too old for Madrid and that's why he's not playing any more, but I could be wrong here.

As to who will win the Champions League, I think that nobody can discard Chelsea. If they can get through the group stage, their stars will find a place within the team and I think they will become stronger as the season progresses. After the group stages it becomes a little bit of a lottery as one bad match could mean that you are out of the competition.

After a bit of searching on the web I found this story about Hierro and why he had to leave Madrid:

http://www.soccerage.com/en/13/o3206.html

So it wasn't old age after all that did it. :(

I don't know why you count Manchester among the title contenders. Last year it became very obvious that they are no more than European subtop. I regard teams as Bayern Munich, Deportivo la Coruna, Barcelona, and even Galatasaray, at least equal, if not, better than Man U.

I don't think they'll go a long way.

barcelona? Correct me if I am wrong but AFAIK Barca doesn`t play in the Champions League this year!

Oh well, then any other Spanish team. Whoever it is, they'll outsmart them.

Dream on... :D


ManUtd will win! Let`s make a bet:
if i loose i send you Six pack of Hainiken :D
if I win,I come to Netherlands and you take me to Edgar Davids` Square...


Sounds like a fair bet to me. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

So are we on?

Xen make up your mind! In your first post it's Man United that'll win, then in the second post you say Real Madrid, and then you switch back to Man United [img]smile.gif[/img] Now what will it be ;)

[irony]Ajax will definitely win the Champions League[/irony]

Aah you misunderstood me wrong. I was thinkhing something but typed in the other way... :confused:

I misunderstood you, or I understood you wrongly [img]smile.gif[/img] Not both of them [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Xen, you're welcome to come over, but i'll never take you to a place that has anything to do with davids. He S*U*C*K*S big time. Take him with you to Slovenia, and don't ever let him return to the Netherlands please.

And while you're at it, you just teach Kluivert how to drive, and all of the Dutch players how to take penalties :D [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

And don't organize orgies with hookers when there's reporters around. :rolleyes:

True true [img]smile.gif[/img] Maybe he could also teach all the wannabe football analysts to shut up?

True true [img]smile.gif[/img] Maybe he could also teach all the wannabe football analysts to shut up? </font>[/QUOTE]In Holland that would mean shutting up about 16 million people. Good luck. :D

Man United won't win it. And this comes from a Man United fan! Man United are good but not quite good enough to go all the way. I fancy Juventus this year. And Johnny I don't see how you can say those teams you mentioned are better or equal than Man United.

Barcelona - Finished 6th in Spain last year. So there not even in the Champions League. Man United also beat them comfortably in a pre season friendly.
Bayern Munich - The only team you mentioned that as a Utd fan actually worries me. Had a poor tournement last year but have many good players like Makaay, Ze Roberto, Ballack, Pizarro.
Deportivo - Good team but who knocked them out of the tournement 2 years ago, that's right Man United! Although admittedly Depor did beat Man United earlier in the tournament thanks largely to Fabian Barthez and a poor performence in Spain.
Galatasary - This must be some kind of sick joke. They finished 2nd in the Turkish League, your saying there better than the English Champions! Galastasary have been in the tournement for years and have reached the quarter finals only once. Man United have reached at least the quarter finals 7 years in a row!

You then go on to say that another Spanish team will "outsmart them". A bold statement. Do you even know what other Spanish teams are in the tournement?

Real Sociedad - Finished second in La Liga last year. Decent team but the previous two seasons in La Liga they finished 13th. It remains to be seen wether there second place finish was a flash in the pan. Also very inexperienced at this level(have never played in the champions league before).

Celta Vigo - Finished 4th in La Liga last year. Again very inexperienced at this level have never played in the champions league before. For goodness sake Celtic beat them in the Uefa Cup last year!

So I disagree with your opinions [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 09-24-2003, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Zarr ]

Yeah... altough i do not like Real very much(too many stars) i think they will win...


With the passes of Beckaham,Zizou`s passing and dribbling,Carlos`s defense and free kicks(curving the ball),Ronaldos` skills....

Pointless... </font>[/QUOTE]quite true, its all but over.

No offence intended Zarr, i just think that the Spanish competition is of a higher quality than the British Premier league, higher than any other competition in Europe. But that's just my opinion.

And i didn't say that those teams are better than Man U, i said that they are at least equal to them. Galatasaray may have finished second last year, but they have made quite an impression the last few years. No other team is really eager to play against them.

That's because of their supporters I think. I wouldn't wanna be there as well.

I'm hoping a less known team will win. It's always Manchester United this and Real Madrid that. Sure, they're both quality teams, but it would be nice to an underdog win the cup this time around.

FC Porto
Deportivo La Coruña

[img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

That's because of their supporters I think. I wouldn't wanna be there as well. </font>[/QUOTE]It's true that the crowd can be a factor in Istanbul, but no more than in several other European stadiums. If the hometeam is crap, the crowd can't help them into the finals. I was talking about the team. They are not to underestimate, just like the Turkish national team. We used to laugh at them, but things have changed in their favour.

Besides, what can be worse than FC Den Haag ? :D

Very good analysis, Zarr. As a dedicated football fan I share most of your judgements. I also agree that the Italian contenders will do good this year, especially Juventus. The Italian teams did poorly in the last years, but they can do better. I've seen a bit of Juventus on TV by now, and I think they are strong.
Also ManU is not on my list, though they started well in CL. But their Premier League appearances were rather crappy so far. Arsenal seems stronger, but what a disaster against Inter!
Real is certainly candidate number one again (by the way: Hierro was old, slow and stiff already when I was born - no, just kidding, but his time is over).
Deportivo will miss Makaay a lot this season, so I don't think they can make it.
Of course, from the German point of view Bayern München has quite an outsider chance. Last year's CL was not representative, they will be more focused this year.
Galatasaray is indeed a rather exotic tip. Spontaniously (spelling?) I know of no quality that would qualify them as a favourite.
Porto or Lyon may also have minor chances, at least bigger ones than Galatasaray.
We will see....

Thank you Azaghal! [img]smile.gif[/img]

I agree Porto could do well this year. Had a very sucessful season last year and I especially like there little Brazilan born Portugese internatinal Deco. He's a fantastic player!

Lyon are in a tough group Celtic/Bayern/Anderlechlt(sp?) but if they qualify they will be dangerous they certainly have a very creative midfield with Eric Carriere and Juninho and new signing Elber has always scored goals in Germany with Stuttgart and then Bayern.

Johnny: I actually agree with you about the Spanish League. I watch two Spanish league games I week and it's a better league than England. To many long balls in England for my liking :D

As my brother would tell you I constantly prattle on about the Spanish League being the best in the world, the level of technique is much higher than in England. I'm just not sure about Celta's and Sociedad's challenge in the Champions league this year but I'm sure Depor and Real Madrid will do well. ;)

ADD]This is fun more football threads please! :D

[ 09-24-2003, 08:28 AM: Message edited by: Zarr ]

I might differ, I prefer watching Italian League instead. I still think Italian league is the best in the world. I like the watch their passing style, their crunching tackle, their emotion when they foul somebody ( ever see how they seem to beg with the referee when the referee give them a yellow card? )and especially their " art of diving " . People might call it a boring league. but not to me. Sure, Italy team play very defensively. but as they say " the best defense is the best offense".

Also, last year champions league saw a very big improvement on Italy teams. Juventus, Ac Milan, Inter all go to Semi Final. with Ac Milan wining the cup thanks to penalty. I hope Italy team perform good on this season.

but alas deep in my feeling I still think Real Madrid will win the cup.

Any talk about "which is the best league?" is purely subjective any way. There all different. I agree though the Italian league is a very good league. I however prefer to watch the Spanish League as it's more offensive. In Northern Ireland the Spanish and Italian league games are on TV at roughly the same time so unfortunately I can't watch both :(

<font color=white>
Go Arsenal.... go arsenal... go arsenal... go... umm... nevermind..
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Still people out there who think Man U will win it this year ? :D

Hooray for VfB Stuttgart. Great victory last night. What a disappointing appearance by ManU. They will not make it this year, but I said so before (see above...)
Real Madrid is going their way, I think only the Italians will be able to stop them.

Chelsea 0 | 2 Besiktas

VfB Stuttgart 2 | 1 Man Utd

What - van Nistelrooy scored a penalty! :eek: :D

Porto lost :(

FC Porto 1 | 3 Real Madrid

<font color=lightgreen>
'Polderboys' Maybe? :D
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Nooo...it be this way...now we have to score at least 4 damn goals away from home!!

Damn Besiktas damn them all to hell -_-

is that so? LOL, looks like english teams had a bad day on match day 2.

<font color=lightgreen>
'Polderboys' Maybe? :D
</font> </font>[/QUOTE]Perhaps.. I still think the Urker National (!) Team is worse than any club ;)

as ot should be! And im not a real madrid fan although they are pretty sweet. Twas a shame they went out last year but i must admit they were far to complacent last year against juventus the first time they played them in the semis. They coulda scored more than they did but they thought they had it in the bag

<font color=lightgreen>
'Polderboys' Maybe? :D
</font> </font>[/QUOTE]Perhaps.. I still think the Urker National (!) Team is worse than any club ;) </font>[/QUOTE]<font color=lightgreen>
LoL! But thats only because they cant practise that much, because they get excluded from so many tournaments because of the smell!! :D
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