Well, they just lost against VfL Osnabrück (3rd league) in the German Cup. Awesome game. Osnabrück was leading by 2:0 until 15 minutes from time, then got the 2:1. In the 92nd minute, one of their players (who had been in the game for just a minute) caused a completely unnecessary penalty, leading to 2:2. In the 100th minute, HSV scored the 2:3. But in the 117th minute, Osnabrück equalized. HSV then lost the resulting penalty shootout.
Interesting game against Fulham, who are quickly turning into Arsenal's boogie-team. I have to say I'm impressed with van Persie, not just his scoring, but the way he's taken on the role of a leader at the club. I know a lot of non-Gooners who still see him as the petulant, ill-tempered rough diamond of five years ago, but being a father and husband seems to have done him a lot of good. He's still prone to the odd spot of madness, but by and large he seems to have matured into a pretty decent fellow.
Has Birmingham really caused us trouble in the past 2-3 years? Not to be offensive, but I tend to forget they even exist. I don't think I've seen them play in ages. Tonights match should be interesting, I'm impressed with how the team has dealt with the lack of Nasri, Walcott, Arshavin, Almunia, Denilson at various points so far. I think we should really steamroll Olympiacos, as much as I'd like to see Ramsey get a roll out instead of Diaby, Wenger tends to be pretty loyal, so I doubt that's going to happen. Still, Diaby has a habit of shining against mediocre opposition, so I guess things even out in the end.
From what I've seen of their games, neither have their fans. I'm not sure really. I just remember a paper that matched up the twenty PL teams with their bogey teams and I swear Birmingham were Arsenal's. This was a while ago though, so it may have even preceded the Bolton/Allardyce days. Brum did take two draws from Arsenal the season before last though! If anything they're Liverpool's bogey team more recently, though I think that's more down to Rafa being somehow unable to ever beat a Steve Bruce team. I only had half an eye on each game last night, but Arsenal looked pretty good. Liverpool on the other hand... wow. They had a very poor first half and paid the price. I just wish one of our teams losing in the CL meant something - they'll still progress I'm sure. They'll progress even quicker when Rafa realises, along with pretty much anyone else, that Lucas is not good enough.
^There was football on last night? I hadn't noticed One of my friends consoled me by explaining the Cardiff victory was likely down to something Torchwood was up too...
Funny you say that, because until I checked the half-time CL scores, I didn't even know we were playing! I couldn't have gone anyway as I have evening classes on Tuesdays, but I hear it was a pretty good game. One-sided though, I'd imagine.
One sided yes, although we had 51% of possesion at least! I'm hoping that will be our worst defeat of the season. Almost like being back in the Prem!
Lucas was fine. He does the same thing Masch does but with more composure and less running around like a headless chicken. He wins the ball and plays it simple. He's not quite as good a tackler, but then few players are. Aurelio shouldn't have been in midfield. I can understand why he was - to play the Alonso role in order to free up Gerrard to move forward in support of Torres - but he was overrun. Fiorentina played well. They pinned back our fullbacks and exposed the centre halves. It still took two individual errors for them to score, and we dominated in the second half. There's not a great deal you can read into the result.
3:1 against Bilbao with ten men over the last 30 minutes. It was close near the end. Our first half was almost perfect, then Bilbao decided that solely defending isn't such a good idea and one of our players decided to get two yellow card within five minutes after being in the game. Oh well, 6 points. Bilbao has three, and Austria Wien and Funchal drew 1-1. Overall a nice step towards advancing from the group stage.
^ For some reason ITV chose to show the Bremen game. I enjoyed it. Hunt's goal in particular was superb, and once Bilbao got going forward more it was pretty good. Their goal was nicely worked as well.
Oh well, I guess the Celtic bastards didn't get their revenge for their stupid fucking imagined betrayal in '85. I wish I could have gone there, but I was too lazy renewing my passport... 1:1 is ok, we'll beat them at home and get our tickets for the 1/16 finals. Fuck Celtic!
You also missed that 24 teams will advance and eight come from the CL, so the next round is 32 teams. (I suppose that's clearer for someone who has to scroll down to group L to find his team. ) PS: You seem to cuss a lot when you're drunk.
Well well well old Billy D has won 3 games in a row and probably he thinks hes all that . Its no coinedence that hes settled down with similar lineups for recently matches and we are winning again so hope he remembers that little nugget. 10th Place 3 points of the playoff, na we won't get near top 6 come May but still nice to be close at some point in the season . Top 15 will do me fine oh and Cardiff for that thrashing of the DERBY the other week... you may get a christmas card off me
^ I'd wait until after November 1st before you start sending cards my way. Let's see how Billy D likes Fortress Cardiff City Stadium (oh how I wish we had a proper name!). 10 goals in 2 games thank you very much. I'm sure young Gunter will get a good welcome... And Matthews' goal yesterday, halfway line, free, kick, straight in. Beautiful. Comedy goal of the season. We're back on track!
Is it worse to lose 6-1 away at least or 4-0 at home I wonder? I've consoled myself with home wins, and home clean sheets, either side of the Cardiff massacre. Seriously Chopra must be the most lethal Championship striker ever. It will be funny when Billy eventually throws his toys out of the pram and does the dirty on Forest same as he did Derby and Preston...
It's weird how everyone has written off Liverpool's title challenge because they're 6 points adrift, yet when they were 6 points behind with about 8 games to last season, people thought they could win it. I don't necessarily believe that Liverpool will (or even can) win the Premier League but writing them off at this stage of the season is nonce-sense.