Bless him

Tricky situation for Chelsea of they draw Atleti today.

If they refuse Courtois permission to play/demand the €6M stipulated in his contract, wouldn't they risk seriously píssing the player off and his refusing to extend his contract with them?

sevilla v valencia

juve v benfica

UEFA have issued a statement on the Courtois situation. Cleared to play regardless of who they draw:
http://www.uefa.org/about-uefa/administration/news/newsid=2088774.html

r madrid v bayern

atleti v chelsea

Sevilla-Valencia and Benfica-Juve

At least we'll have one Spanish finalist in this year's European comps.

Both Atleti and Madrid play the first leg at home. Wonder how important that might be.

I did say a Spanish team will get to the final, ioag.

In the EL Darren? You were right, I really thought both were goners after the QF first leg.

Si.

I must admit, I didn't expect Valencia to overturn that first leg defeat.

I see that Tevez failed to score in Europe again. He's not scored in Europe since April 09 when he scored against Porto for us in the quarters of the CL.

I can't believe a poster asked this question:

has any team in history won 3 European trophys in a row. If not his chelsea team will go down in history


OMFG.

It's happened three times in the European Cup alone.

Morning everyone. Interesting article (I thought):

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/apr/11/premier-league-homegrown-players

Been saying something similar for years about Madrid. It just doesn't feel the same to get behind a bunch of int'l stars recruited from every corner of the globe. Some signings do take the club's identity on board and even grow to love the shirt, but they're a minority. And I think that most of the time that shows in
the spirit the team displays on the pitch.

good article IOAG

most overlooked thing about modern football....is that its a TEAM sport, not individual ..


so many ppl get obsessed with this or that star player

so many ppl get obsessed with this or that star player
----
Yeah, Perez.

It is a good article. I really fear for the future of English football because of this. There's so much money in the premier league that promoting homegrown players isn't really encouraged.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the upturn in Spanish talent has come at a time when there's been a big financial crisis for many Spanish clubs.

I predict that Italy might end up doing a similar thing due to the lack of money in that league now.

yer...looking inwards and making your own players better rather than just spashing the cash, is v often a good thing in football

just look at atleti and lpool for example

Yes that's true.

Saying that, I can see Atleti and Liverpool spending big in the summer.

I think only Gerrard and Flanagan came from the Liverpool academy off the top of my head

comment by pekster11 (U6618)
posted 49 minutes ago
yer...looking inwards and making your own players better rather than just spashing the cash, is v often a good thing in football

just look at atleti and lpool for example
----------------------------------------------------------------------
spazzing the cash, good expression

Daz, I can't see Atleti spending big just yet. Haven't seen any figures for some time, but I think they've still got a lot of debt to clear. If Simeone could keep them at a similar if not quite so high level for a couple of years - i.e. at least making the CL k.o. rounds - then perhaps they could kick on from there.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

For Wigan.

And joy for Henrik. Villarreal grabbed a last-minute winner vs Levante.

Who hit the winning penalty Pinky?

Barça are 1-0 down in Granada at HT.

comment by itsonlyagame - red cards are unfair (U6426)
posted 3 minutes ago
And joy for Henrik. Villarreal grabbed a last-minute winner vs Levante.

Who hit the winning penalty Pinky?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Your son.

couldnt believe the order of wigan's peno takers

why didnt gomez take the first one !

Farza

Just noticed that Dortmund beat Munich, this day just gets better and better.