Liverpool FC Forum

[bigmick]

Playing up the opposition, I'm worried by that more than by them. I bet fergie sees groups as three home games, three games they should win and doesn't worry about the groups at all.

they all do it - platitudes, respect etc for the opposition. all standard stuff for fat spanish waiters, myopic frenchies, drunken scots or even legendary italian good fellas

e.g.

Ferguson said: "These are difficult ties, especially the trips to Russia and Turkey. CSKA have developed strongly in the last few years and games in Turkey are always difficult.

"We also know the quality that we're up against with Wolfsburg with what they achieved in the Bundesliga last season."

Mourinho doesn't go in for all that, he just says "they are all sh!t and we will kick their erses".

[Judge]

watch out for grafite  the wolfsburg player - quality

[stmichael]

Could have been better, could have been worse. Whatever the case we should qualify without too many problems.

Infact looking at the groups all the English sides will be relatively happy. Arsenal have an ideal draw imo.

Anyway, here's our fixtures:

16/09/09 Debreceni (H)
29/09/09 Fiorentina (A)
20/10/09 Lyon (H)
04/11/09 Lyon (A)
24/11/09 Debreceni (A)
9/12/09 Fiorentina (H)

[JC_81]

I don't think the draw is as easy as some are making out.  Might as well forget about Debrecen, they'll probably lose every game.  It will come down to the games against Lyon and Fiorentina.  Both are teams we should beat, but could be tricky especially on their own patch.  Still expect us to progress though.

[Sabre]

I don't think the draw is as easy as some are making out.  Might as well forget about Debrecen, they'll probably lose every game.  It will come down to the games against Lyon and Fiorentina.  Both are teams we should beat, but could be tricky especially on their own patch.  Still expect us to progress though.

Yeh, I agree, there's a school of thought around here that thinks that reaching semifinal is a walk in a garden unless you have Real Madrid, Milan (Mourinho's Milan that is, the other is shíte ) and Bayern in the same group, thus, if we get through it's a normal thing and if we struggle it's not good enough.

But I don't quite agree that view regardless I think we'll go through. Chelsea and Liverpool have stronger groups than Manchester.

[stmichael]

We also seem to have some kind of fetish for French teams in the group stage. In the past few years that's Monaco, Bordeaux, Maseille and now Lyon we've drawn.

[GYBS]

Is Rafa really getting stick for showing other teams respect in press ? jesus what will he get stick for next ? swine flu ?

Its a pretty good draw for us - couple of tricky teams but we should beat them and qualify into knockout stages .

Other Brit teams have pretty favourable draws as well -

Man Utd - couple of tricky away ties and Wolfsburg are a big danger

Arsenal - prob the easiest of the draw

Chelsea - Atl Madrid is a very tough game for them and Porto could cause them probs

Rangers - Can see them getting through that group

The other big teams in the draws got some very tough groups - Inter and Barce and Madrid and AC Milan are two tough groups and Bayern Juve should be interesting - can see one or maybe a couple of the big guns not going through

[Effes]

I thought Lyon were very good in their first qualifying game.

They were 4 nil up by half time and looked like they've got a load of pace.
Apparently they've spent a lot of money in the Summer.

Believe me, they will give us 2 very tough games.

[SouthCoastShankly]

I thought Lyon were very good in their first qualifying game.

They were 4 nil up by half time and looked like they've got a load of pace.
Apparently they've spent a lot of money in the Summer.

Believe me, they will give us 2 very tough games.

They said that about Bayer Leverkusen in the 2005 Quarter Finals. 

[Effes]

I thought Lyon were very good in their first qualifying game.

They were 4 nil up by half time and looked like they've got a load of pace.
Apparently they've spent a lot of money in the Summer.

Believe me, they will give us 2 very tough games.

They said that about Bayer Leverkusen in the 2005 Quarter Finals. 

"They" may have, but did I? 

[GYBS]

I thought Lyon were very good in their first qualifying game.

They were 4 nil up by half time and looked like they've got a load of pace.
Apparently they've spent a lot of money in the Summer.

Believe me, they will give us 2 very tough games.

Very much so mate - not sure who they got into replace benzema or Juninho as they were their two main players

[Owzat]

Lyon had a decent run from 03/04 to 05/06, reaching the QFs three seasons in a row, but the dominance of England, Spain and Italy makes it very difficult for a club like Lyon to flourish. If you rate the top teams in Europe in the past six seasons (to accommodate Lyon's peak), using a reasonable points system to reflect success, then they would be 8th but way off the pace of the top European sides

Points : Winners=25, Runners-Up=11, SF=6, QF=4, L16=2, L32=1

Champions League 03/04-08/09

01. Barcelona 60 (Wonx2, SFx1, L16x2)
=02. AC Milan 48 (Wonx1, RUx1, SFx1, QFx1, L16x1)
=02. Liverpool 48 (Wonx1, RUx1, SFx1, QFx1, L16x1)
04. Man Utd 47 (Wonx1, RUx1, SFx1, L16x2, L32x1)
05. Chelsea 37 (RUx1, SFx4, L16x1)
06. Porto 36 (Wonx1, QFx1, L16x3, L32x1)
07. Arsenal 29 (RUx1, SFx1, QFx2, L16x2)
08. LYON 18 (QFx3, L16x3)
09. Bayern Munich 16 (QFx3, L16x2)
=10. PSV Eindhoven 15 (SFx1, QFx1, L16x1, L32x1)
=10. Inter Milan 15 (QFx2, L16x3, L32x1)
12. Real Madrid 14 (QFx1, L16x5)

English clubs occupying five of the top seven in that rough ready reckoner, Barcelona topping it and AC Milan sharing joint second with Liverpool by a narrow margin over Man Utd. The top four, two English, one Spanish and one Italian club, have won the last FIVE European Cups between them. With the kind of money and players these clubs have, and others, Lyon are unlikely to make it into the semis that often if at all. More likely is the better they do, the more the big clubs notice their players and poach them.

Lyon lost all three of their QFs in that peak period, not humiliated in any of the ties though :

03/04 Porto 2-0 Lyon, Lyon 2-2 Porto (agg, 4-2 to Porto)
04/05 Lyon 1-1 PSV, PSV 1-1 Lyon (agg 1-1, PSV won on pens)
05/06 Lyon 0-0 Milan, Milan 3-1 Lyon (agg 3-1 to Milan)

[JoeTerp]

I thought Lyon were very good in their first qualifying game.

They were 4 nil up by half time and looked like they've got a load of pace.
Apparently they've spent a lot of money in the Summer.

Believe me, they will give us 2 very tough games.

Very much so mate - not sure who they got into replace benzema or Juninho as they were their two main players

Gomis and Lisandro lopez

[DrPepe]

CL Squad

Goalkeepers
No. Name
1 Diego Cavalieri
25 Pepe Reina
44 David Martin

Defenders
No. Name
2 Glen Johnson
5 Daniel Agger
12 Fábio Aurélio
16 Sotiris Kyrgiakos
22 Emiliano Insua Zapata *
23 Jamie Carragher
32 Stephen Darby *
34 Martin Kelly
37 Martin Škrtel
38 Andrea Dossena

Midfielders
No. Name
4 Alberto Aquilani
8 Steven Gerrard
15 Yossi Benayoun
20 Javier Mascherano
21 Lucas
26 Jay Spearing
28 Damien Plessis *
39 Nathan Eccleston *

Forwards
No. Name
9 Fernando Torres
10 Andriy Voronin
11 Albert Riera
18 Dirk Kuyt
19 Ryan Babel
24 David N'Gog
46 David Amoo *

Key: * Player list B

Last updated: 04/09/2009 10:14 CET

http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/club=78...on=1/index.html

[bigmick]

Might be a bit risky having Insua on player list B mightn't it (I must confess I don't actually know what it is but I presume it means he can't play till later on or something). Mind you, at least the Doss is on there, and I wouldn't diss him so we're OK : .