2021/2022 Champions League: Not the Super League

Pesky Pole

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2001
2,465
Phoenixville, PA
Moldovan club Sheriff shocked Shakhtar Donetsk earlier today, 2-0. Sheriff's first goal scorer is named Adama Traore.
You made me learn something:

"Sheriff is the first club from the Moldovan league to qualify but it's based in the breakaway region of Transnistria, a self-proclaimed independent nation which isn't recognized by any United Nations member state."

And they apparently don't have a single Moldovan on the team.
 

teddykgb

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
11,016
Chelmsford, MA
City were gifted a penalty earlier but have a very tight offside go against them. I thought we were done with the toenail offsides but it definitely wasn’t applied here
 

bosox4283

Well-Known Member
Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Mar 2, 2004
4,673
Philadelphia
I'd like to know why Simeone decided to leave Trippier on the bench. The team is so much better offensively with him on the right, which pushes Llorente up the pitch. That said, Porto is a really well coached team and very tough -- hats off to Porto for playing such a tactically sound match.

I'm writing this post with 1:30 left on my TV. I hope I'm wrong in the right way.
 

BelgianSoxFan

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Nov 11, 2003
661
Los Gatos, CA
Club Brugge will have some stinkers away in the CL, but that is an amazing result, and it was deserved. They have a good mix of veterans and youngsters. Noah Lang and Charles De Ketelaere are their young stars to keep an eye on.
 

teddykgb

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
11,016
Chelmsford, MA
I'd like to know why Simeone decided to leave Trippier on the bench. The team is so much better offensively with him on the right, which pushes Llorente up the pitch. That said, Porto is a really well coached team and very tough -- hats off to Porto for playing such a tactically sound match.

I'm writing this post with 1:30 left on my TV. I hope I'm wrong in the right way.
This is very diplomatic. Citys matches with Porto last year were park the bus dive fests that were nearly unwatchable. I am Portuguese so my views on Porto are as unbiased as my views on United but they were a miserable opponent
 

bosox4283

Well-Known Member
Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Mar 2, 2004
4,673
Philadelphia
This is very diplomatic. Citys matches with Porto last year were park the bus dive fests that were nearly unwatchable. I am Portuguese so my views on Porto are as unbiased as my views on United but they were a miserable opponent
Reading the post-match report and seeing some images and videos, I think I was unintentionally diplomatic. Porto had two or maybe three challenges that could have been red but were not called. So, yeah, I agree with the "miserable opponent" bit.
 

Pesky Pole

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2001
2,465
Phoenixville, PA
Only one change for Liverpool which is surprising given the talk of rotation:

#LFC line up v Porto: Alisson, Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Jones, Salah, Jota, Mane.

TAA was left back in England. I'm surprised we didn't have some rotation with maybe Konate or Firmino starting. Good news is that Keita is back on the bench as a substitute.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,730
Only one change for Liverpool which is surprising given the talk of rotation:

#LFC line up v Porto: Alisson, Milner, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Jones, Salah, Jota, Mane.

TAA was left back in England. I'm surprised we didn't have some rotation with maybe Konate or Firmino starting. Good news is that Keita is back on the bench as a substitute.
Very surprised. Maybe Klopp's plan is to have the best XI (or as much of it as is healthy) roll through this week and then sort out the rest against Watford after the break?

Happy to see Jones get consecutive starts.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
Its a tough group and Porto are a good side with a lot of European experience. They got 13 points in their group last year, knocked out Juve, and then were a tough out for Chelsea. But if you can drop the hammer on them in this away fixture then you've got a really good grip on the group.

I've always thought there is a good argument for playing your strongest side in the first couple CL group games, trying to get full points early, and then hopefully having the leeway to rotate later.
 

bosox4283

Well-Known Member
Gold Supporter
SoSH Member
Mar 2, 2004
4,673
Philadelphia
Milan looks much better than Atletico so far.

At this point, I feel as if it playing with Luis Suarez is like playing with 10 men.
 

67YAZ

Member
SoSH Member
Dec 1, 2000
8,730
Its a tough group and Porto are a good side with a lot of European experience. They got 13 points in their group last year, knocked out Juve, and then were a tough out for Chelsea. But if you can drop the hammer on them in this away fixture then you've got a really good grip on the group.

I've always thought there is a good argument for playing your strongest side in the first couple CL group games, trying to get full points early, and then hopefully having the leeway to rotate later.
last weekend I was on about Klopp playing the best XI against Brentford…but hell if Pool didn’t need every once of talent to manage that draw.

City looks this current weekend, but they just played Chelsea and have PSG coming up here. So maybe it’s Klopp figures City will be every bit as tired.

anyway, Salah is in scintillating form, the perfect stuff for leverage in a contract negotiation.
 

SoxFanInCali

has the rich, deep voice of a god
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jun 3, 2005
15,568
California. Duh.
Milan lead 1-0 over Atletico but are now down to 10 men.

The second yellow looked pretty light for one that would send someone off in the first half.
 

nolasoxfan

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 11, 2004
6,930
Displaced
Wow! Gana with a perfectly placed, top RH corner shot to put PSG (and their nice kit) up 1-0.

Edit: and shortly thereafter DeBruyne stomps Gana's ankle for a well-earned yellow card. Ugly foul.
 

Jimy Hendrix

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 15, 2002
5,846
RB Leipzig with their lead against Brugge turned around, down 2 - 1.

Could get grim for Marsch if they lose this one.
 

Morgan's Magic Snowplow

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 2, 2006
22,345
Philadelphia
Club Brugge up 2-1 on RBL and appear to be outplaying them as well.

They've got a couple young players (Lang and De Ketelaere) that I've seen a bunch of buzz about in recent weeks. Might be ones to watch.
 

fletcherpost

sosh's feckin' poet laureate
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
12,139
Glasgow, Scotland
Porto pulled one back, the Bobby gets the fourth for Liverpool with a finely directed shot that just beats the flailing keeper who was stuck in no man's land and couldnae quite chase back to make the save.
 

OCST

Sunny von Bulow
SoSH Member
Jan 10, 2004
24,483
The 718
:unsure:
Probably won't last, but...

Real Madrid 0-1 Sheriff Tiraspol
Tiraspol, Moldova, Sept 27, 2021 (AFP) - This year's Champions League features an improbable upstart: FC Sheriff, a club run by an eponymous company built on murky money in a pro-Russian separatist enclave of Europe's poorest country, Moldova.

The would-be state, which harkens back to its Soviet past with a towering Lenin statue in the centre of its administrative hub, Tiraspol, broke away from Moldova in a short civil war in the early 1990s.

Thirty years later, the little-known Transnistria region with its own border police, army, currency and hammer-and-sickle-emblazoned flag has not been recognised internationally but is propped up by free Russian gas and some 1,500 troops.

The territory, however, is effectively run by the Sheriff holding company that sports a five-pointed sheriff's star as its logo.

Owned by a former Soviet police officer, Viktor Gushan, the conglomerate controls businesses ranging from a cognac distillery and caviar farm to supermarket and gas station chains -- and the football club making waves in Europe.

"Viktor Gushan is the person with the most influence here, both in politics and economics," said Anatoly Dirun, director of the Tiraspol School of Political Studies.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,673
The Sheriff result is outstanding. They now have 6 points and are five points clear of Inter/Shakhtar in the group.