Champions League 2017/18

[El Gato]

I wouldn't say it's a lot easier. Madrid failed to win the La Liga in 8 of the last 10 years.

Useless fact governed by a fact of having a rival who prefers La Liga over cup ties.

 

[Cule For Life]

Something is very off about this Bayern team when a 35 year old Ribery easily looks the most fit, agile and technically inclined on the team.

BM board is retarded. They spent 40m on Rento and 50m on Tolissio or whatever, but when Pep asked them to sign KdB for 55m they said no.

 

[thefa]

La Liga = Objective validation of the best Spanish club in that season. I am an objective guy and that is why I value La Liga over the CL anyday

CL = a trophy for the ego. It doesn't make you the strongest team in Europe unless that has been established already. If Liverpool wins it this year, no one will dare saying that they are the best team in Europe in 2018 except bais Liverpool fans

Whatever helps you cope with Madrid's European domination I guess.

 

[hellsangel1]

True. Liverpool will give it their best shot but the quality is not there. Ronaldo will destroy their defense and Real Madrid will dominate the midfield.

I think the most important thing Zidane has done is improve Real Madrid mentally and physically. His tactics are ordinary but he has instilled the right mentality.

Injury problems might be a concern for Liverpool as well but they definitely have the forward line to score goals.

 

[Hamzah]

Useless fact governed by a fact of having a rival who prefers La Liga over cup ties.

Madrid were definitely trying very hard to win liga for a few years and finally won last season. The only year you can say they didn’t give full effort was this season.

 

[hellsangel1]

Whatever helps you cope with Madrid's European domination I guess.

If Real win this year, they will win 3 in a row. So many great teams in the past never even managed to win back to back. They will deservedly get their accolades. They’ve had better starting 11 during the Galacticos era but they were an older side that wasn’t guaranteed to last long, whereas this Madrid side is a bit younger and has greater bench strength and commitment when their team doesn’t have the ball

 

[serghei]

Useless fact governed by a fact of having a rival who prefers La Liga over cup ties.

Preference has nothing to do with it. It's about strenghts and weaknesses. Madrid have problems with motivation and consistency in the long run (they do eventually regroup, but it's already difficult for La Liga once that happens), Barca have problems matching their peaks with the period in which CL top games are played.

 

[kattanib]

If Real Madrid win the Champions league ( which they are the clear favorites for), anybody who rates them below Barca needs to seriously assess their ‘objectivity’.

Very true.

If Barcelona beats Madrid on aggregate this year in La Liga, then Barca is better (not objective, check your logic)

If Barcelona and Madrid play against the same exact teams, but overall Barcelona performs better, then Barcelona is the better team (not objective, check your logic)

If Barcelona play a set of teams and Madrid plays another set of teams that are completely different and Madrid end up going further in the compition, then Madrid is the better team (very objective statement, don't dare to say otherwise or else you are delusional)

 

[jairzinho]

If Real win this year, they will win 3 in a row. So many great teams in the past never even managed to win back to back.

Puts them in contention for being one of the greatest European teams ever.

 

[KingLeo10]

madrid got a great result, but their performance didn't match the result. let's hope it comes crashing down like it did for valverde.

 

[El Gato]

Madrid were definitely trying very hard to win liga for a few years and finally won last season. The only year you can say they didn’t give full effort was this season.

I don't even know if it's about effort. Since Pintus took over fitness coaching we look like shit in early autumn with checkered results and we look really good in spring from February onwards. Add the fact our #9 had a nightmare and the actual guy wearing the #9 shirt is kind of a waste of space in a situation that doesn't revolve around creating space for partners. Put Firmino in that spot and we'd probably have a much better spring.

But yeah, there is something about La Liga that for even me as a supporter is like "aaah, we can afford to pick and choose when we want to win it, so long as it doesn't seem like we don't care about home trophies". There's no obsession as much as there is about CL. CL results and prestige go global. If you embarrass yourself in the CL the whole world sees it, not so much with the league. Less consequential to have no regularity.

 

[KingLeo10]

I don't even know if it's about effort. Since Pintus took over fitness coaching we look like shit in early autumn with checkered results and we look really good in spring from February onwards. Add the fact our #9 had a nightmare and the actual guy wearing the #9 shirt is kind of a waste of space in a situation that doesn't revolve around creating space for partners. Put Firmino in that spot and we'd probably have a much better spring.

But yeah, there is something about La Liga that for even me as a supporter is like "aaah, we can afford to pick and choose when we want to win it, so long as it doesn't seem like we don't care about home trophies". There's no obsession as much as there is about CL. CL results and prestige go global. If you embarrass yourself in the CL the whole world sees it, not so much with the league. Less consequential to have no regularity.

not sure you (not you) held the same zeal for CL as a fanbase and team when you guys were struggling between 02-12. or for 30 some years between 60s and 90s. you guys have had your peaks and lows, like every other elite club the problem is you're at a peak now, hence the "CL is in our DNA" talk and everything else is meh.

 

[hellsangel1]

Puts them in contention for being one of the greatest European teams ever.

I told my brother last year this was probably the greatest squad that Real have ever had. Only on one or two occasions have they had a better starting XI, but in terms of overall bench strength in variety of position, I don’t think they’ve ever had it better. And their squad is still strong this year despite Morata and the RB leaving. I mean they dominated Juventus is the Cl final last year and Bale barely played a part in the match.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Everyone. La Liga is probably the no1 league in Europe. Everybody who's interested in football watches Premier League and La Liga. Don't tell me being a football fan is waiting weeks to watch CL games and nothing matters in between.

Let's not go overboard.

The sense I get from browsing multiple forums is that general football fans watch much less La Liga than some had expected, I think it wouldn't be far off base to claim very few outside Spain watch any La Liga game without one of the big three playing. And seriously, nobody really cares about how many league titles we won (still less than Real Madrid by the way). CL is where the eyes are.

 

[clemente]

They score 2 goals when they didn't even have 2 chances, and Bayern was choking their finishes as expected... Only Kimmich seemed there to have a big game mentality there, its always like that against Madrid, teams choke instead of getting outperformed.