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PSG is loaded with Ney Ney, Cavani, Mbappe, but also Julian Draxler, Rabiot, Pastore, and some vets in the middle. It is disgusting.
Ligue 1 is so messed up. They need more parity.
I said at the beginning of the season with some of my friends that we already know who won ligue 1. I thought we would have already known who won la liga by now but....
F:
Hoffenheim (GER)
Lyon (FRA)
Manchester City (ENG)
Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
G:
CSKA Moscow (RUS)
Plzen (CZE)
Real Madrid (ESP)
Roma (ITA)
H:
Juventus (ITA)
Manchester City (ENG)
Valencia (ESP)
Young Boys (SUI)
Now, here are my predicted group winners:
A: Atletico, Dortmund, with Club Brugge dropping down to the Europa playoffs. Monaco is having a terrible season so far, I wouldn't be surprised if they lost in Belgium which drops them to last. Already lost at home to Madrid, and can't see them beating Dortmund.
B: Barcelona, Inter, Tottenham dropping down to Europa playoffs. After Spurs lose to Barcelona, that will make 2 losses in 2 games after giving up the game-winning goal in the 90th minute to Inter, but I think they can rebound to finish 3rd.
C: PSG, Liverpool, Napoli dropping down to Europa playoffs. Very well could be the toughest group, the PSG/Liverpool match from day 1 was terrific!
D: Porto, Galatasaray, Schalke to Europa playoffs. Quite possibly the worst group. Swap Lokomotiv Moscow out with either Tottenham or Napoli and they'd win this group easily.
E: Bayern, Benfica, Ajax to Europa playoffs. Gonna be tough for Ajax to grab points out of Amsterdam.
F: Lyon, Man City, Shakhtar to Europa playoffs. Not the toughest, but probably the most competitive of the groups, and really could see any of the 4 teams advancing to the CL playoffs.
G: Real, Roma, CSKA to Europa playoffs. Pretty easy at the top as both Real and Roma should take care of home and road matches against Plzen & CSKA. CSKA's opening match saw them come back from a 2-0 2nd half deficit to get the draw @ Plzen, so they have a leg up for the 3rd spot.
H: Juventus, Manchester United, Valencia to Europa league playoffs. Another group where it's fairly easy to predict at the top. United hasn't gotten off to the greatest start, but they shouldn't lose to Valencia or Young Boys.
Semifinals and finals, obviously this could change based on draw (and I think my predicted final [PSG over Real] last year got played out in the knockout round, but I'll pick Juventus beating Atletico in 1 semifinal, Bayern beating Man City in the other semifinal, and than City beating Juventus in Madrid.
Real is certainly missing a certain player who wore a number 7 at the moment. Shut out for 4 straight matches against all competition. Barca has started slow in league as well along with Bayern, though both took care of business in the Champs League this past week. International break coming at a good time.
PSG in basically "must win" territory at a dangerous Napoli side this week. They do get Liverpool at the Parc des Princes Thanksgiving week, and even playing @ Crvena Zvezda shouldn't pose much of a problem but giving up the late goal @ Anfield match day 1 has really left them in a bind. If not for the stoppage time equalizer 2 weeks ago by di Maria they'd be in Monaco territory of "bad shape."
Tottenham has to play the final match day at Camp Nou, so if they don't get the full 3 points at Wembley against Eindhoven they are probably done.
So Ajax and Barcelona are 2 of the first 4 semifinalists through. Ajax knocked off the 3 time defending champions (Real Madrid) and Cristiano Ronaldo & Juventus. Manchester City (down 0-1 aggregate) hosting Spurs and Porto (down 0-2) hosting Liverpool tomorrow in the final 2 games to sort out the semifinalists. I'd expect Liverpool to hang onto the advantage and get through while I think Man City, at home, will overcome the 0-1 aggregate.
Ajax will play whoever advances out of City/Spurs while Porto/Liverpool will play Barcelona in the semifinals.
A little less than 2 months after Liverpool beat Spurs in the 2019 Champs League final, qualifying rounds for the 2019-20 tournament are in full effect. I saw a post a couple years ago that said qualifying rounds were better than group stage matches. I don't believe that, but I'd like to see how many, if any, of these teams from the qualifying rounds make it into the group stages.
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2017-18 champions league
