We were doing ok until Arteta got injured, imo.

[Ashberto]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

where one would expect to see a midfield.

I think we just got a bit over excited and thought they could be steamrolled, but they were slightly better than that, sadly.

[zimgunner]

[Jake]

[redgunamo]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

['Neg]

['Neg]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Very good I must say.

['Neg]

[Berni]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxbNwlxjlcM

[Berni]

:-( I wish I could do that.

['Neg]

He must do a lot of meth :cloud9:

[Berni]

It's like the Balkan national* pastime isn't it? The serbs, in particular, are tremenjous rapists as I understand it.

*Obviously not 'national' per se, but you know what I mean.

[redgunamo]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

My dinner would not be until 8pm at the very earliest by which point one would be more than ready.

[Berni]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

I take a dim view of the fellow.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Had a packet of fruit pastilles and a 2 of the wee chocolates they hand out with the morning coffee.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Last night was clearly suboptimal, but the Balkaner can't really claim to have owned anyone.

['Neg]

[7evens]

Look, I've heard a zillion times since last night.

After we went 3-0 up, we should have set up two banks of 4 and closed the game out.. Because, everyone knows that.. and .. well... that's what Jose would have done anyway..

[Berni]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

[Berni]

I can't imagine it's a pretty sight. What there is of it. :-(

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

The trouble is, there are 11 other blokes on the pitch who also haves team and a set up. Interfering *******s.

[Berni]

[Classic Jorge]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

The manner in which we let the win go was shocking.

However we deserved little or nothing in Belgium so these things balance out.

We'll still qualify of course, then we'll go out.

[redgunamo]

This kebab-man is clearly a fraud, only managing a score-draw against that defence.

And they also have the cheek to call themselves Belgian champions.

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

[7evens]

[redgunamo]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Very good chance I was somewhere in the vicinity of the Queens Head pub in Turnpike Lane as I spent a lot of that period in that vicinity.

[Berni]

to be.

[CrossGun]

That's if we qualify.

['Neg]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

With just a meagre 500 million.

[The Tony]

IE the offside goal....the penalty which The ref probably gave them to balance things up.

But at the end of the day....we should be seeing games like that out....even at 3-2...I know we don't have a right to win games and this the champions league so you're not playing against sides like Spurs and burnley but still....we should be seeing games like this out.

[The Tony]

Like liverpool sending out a reserve team with them main aim to not get beat by too many....Lord how that would've sucked if it was us....

[The Tony]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

We're in a poor group.

Anderlecht for example are not a good team at this level, we've simply allowed them to be more or less our equal over the two games yet we have come away with 4 points.

Unlike Crossmaglen on Sunday.

[7evens]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Pat Vegas]

He looked alright when he first come back.

He doesn't do anything apart from his token booking.

[Classic Jorge]

And he also has a lot of part owned Jorge Mendes players which magically joined chelsea for massive fees soon afterwards.

Paolo Ferreira for 18.25m anyone?

[7evens]

[Classic Jorge]

I can't say I agree, as I hate Jose and George is like a footballing dad to me.

Albeit a stern Victorian one

[7evens]

The Ox is your man for central midfield, been saying it for a while now.
With Theo back on the wing, AW could do worse than move Ox to the thick of the fray

[CrossGun]

[Classic Jorge]

[Luis Anaconda]

Vitor Baia - free
Paulo Ferreira - 2million euro
Jorge Costa - free
Ricardo Carvahlo - youth product
Nuno Valente - 0.5m euro
Costinha - free
Pedro Mendes – Nominal fee
Maniche - free transfer
Deco - 8 million euro
Carlos Alberto - 2.5m euro
Derlei - 0.45m euro



Leaving aside the ridiculous notion that having a big budget by Portuguese standards has any real bearing on winning the Champions League are you seriously trying to suggest that Benfica (who could afford to hire Trappatoni at around this time and Sporting Lisbon didn't have similar or greater budgets (I'll give you a helping hand with this Benfica went out and bought Simao the summer following Porto's win for pretty much what Mourinho's team cost) .

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

[Classic Jorge]

Crucially though, Mendes didn't pay their wages

[Luis Anaconda]

You are not really making an argument here - that is not a team of superstars bought for huge amounts of money, so not really relevant who owned the players. The Mendes thing is a smokescreen - he was equally involved in Benfica (Coentrao for 30 million, anyone? Anyone?) and Sporting

[LadyG -keeping the spirit of the unbeatables alive]

And a lot about the attitude and ability of the players he left on the pitch.

Doesn't place Flamini in a good position either.