[Archived] Champions League

[Rovermatt]

I was at both of the recent Old Firms and Rangers looked hugely ordinary. They are however a very solid side and they did well to resist a superior Fiorentina team. Once it came down to penalties they were always going to go through. I can see them triumphing in the final with ease.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Well done to Rangers on getting to the final.

Its going to be a difficult game against Zenit who hammered a very decent Bayern Munich side and that was without Arshavin!

[waggy]

how i laughed when wee barry missed his penny,and my 12/1 on zenit is as good as in the pocket

[frosty]

I think Zenit will win it, I have been impressed with them all the way through. Last night's demolition of Bayern was without Arshavin, but top scorer in the competiton Pogrebnyak will be suspended for the final.

[1864roverite]

Anyhow back to the Champions League topic, on that night I wont bother watching I am washing my hair (or whats left of it)

[blue phil]

  frosty said:

I think Zenit will win it, I have been impressed with them all the way through.

So have I .

(Oh all right I admit it .......I'd never heard of them until yesterday )

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I'll be roaring the Rangers to victory......Jan will be cutting her throat !

[Jan]

  SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

I'll be roaring the Rangers to victory......Jan will be cutting her throat !

No. They won't win (she crosses everything)

But they will win the league (thinks jinx,jinx,jinx)

[T4E]

I'd take a defeat in the final if it means winning the league.

Got a bad feeling about this afternoons game.

[Ronin]

The new Liverpool team photo

http://i29.tinypic.com/2relf0y.jpg

[Ronin]

Also, nice to see Dick Advocaat mention Rovers in high regard

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle3897963.ece

[T4E]

That wont have done big Dick any favours with Rovers fans. Although, given the way he treated two Rovers legends in Colin Hendry and Tugay, he was never likely to be a hero at Ewood Park.

Good manager, could've been a great manager if he didn't let his personal feelings rule over logic and common sense. The Dutch Souness in my opinion.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

"Barry Ferguson should be at Arsenal or Manchester United. He has far too much talent for Blackburn," says Advocaat. What a load of rubbish. The Dutch Souness indeed.

Dick sounds like Souness when he said "Barry's going to be a top top player for us in the mould of Roy Keane and Vieira."

Ferguson is overrated as a player and couldn't hack it for us, after previously promising Rovers fans that he was going to stay at Blackburn "for the long-term".

On a different note, from the old "Target Christiano Ronaldo" thread in Messageboard Gold:

  Bryan said:

He will be hounded out of England, without a shadow of a doubt.

  blue phil said:

Thankfully he'll be away from UTD after this . Good riddance .

Unfortunately it hasn't worked out like that....

The talented but petulant Portugese brat will be coming up against Didier Dive-Ba in the Champions League Final in Moscow - the pair of them having both disgraced themselves at times with their diving antics.

I dislike quite a few Chelsea players like Drogba and Ashley Cole, but my loathing for Fergie's United is even greater and personally I'd like to see Chelsea win the match.

  cletus said:

I personally cannot stand the whinging, diving little scrote-sack & hope he effs off back abroad.

That's what I was hoping for too. I wanted Ronaldo to bugger off to Real Madrid or Barcelona, but sadly it hasn't happened. Bern Schuster, the Real Madrid manager, said recently that it's "impossible" to buy Ronaldo at the moment, but Schuster said that at a later point in the future he hoped that one day Ronaldo would wear the white shirt of Madrid.

In terms of his ability, I rate Ronaldo as being one of the top 3 best players in the world, but in terms of his attitude and behaviour, I still find him repugnant at times.

For such a highly talented footballer - the PFA player of the year for the second year running - to still be throwing himself to the ground so easily, waving his arms in the air and being a general pain in the backside, it's a great pity that he still behaves like that at times.

I don't think his diving is as bad as it was a few years ago, but there are still matches when he goes to ground too easily in his desire for penalties and free-kicks.

With 40 goals so far this season, Ronaldo has overtaken George Best as United's highest-scoring winger - Best having scored 32 in the 1967/68 season. But with Ronaldo, a significant number of his goals come from penalties, whereas Bobby Charlton took the penalties for United in the 1960s.

Ronaldo is four goals short of Ruud Van Nistelrooy's 44 goals in the 2002/03 season, and six goals short of Denis Law's club record of 46 goals in the 1963/64 season. But 40 goals for a winger is still a huge total. I accept that Ronaldo is one of the most talented players in the world, but I find it difficult to accept some of his other antics.

After Man United's semi-final 1st leg match against Barcelona, there was a wonderful rant from Eamon Dunphy on the Irish TV station RTE. Dunphy called Ronaldo a "disgrace to professional football". John Giles agreed with him and Liam Brady also described Ronaldo as "flawed".

The rant from Dunphy made me smile. It's worth watching - the video takes a few seconds to get started.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Just listening to the legends phone in and Man Utd fans are moaning about having to pay £15 to have their Champions League tickets posted to them by recorded delivery to ensure they get them as their ticket is also their visa into Russia and duplicates will not be issued if the original goes missing.

[philipl]

Not Champions League but Advocaat comes a very poor second to Souness

First time I will be shouting for Rangers since their supporters laid into Franco's police in 1971- and won!

[Eddie]

Interesting article, although he lost the plot a bit with the music video part.

[alexanders]

  Eddie said:

Interesting article, although he lost the plot a bit with the music video part.

Didn't know where to post this. Who will tonight.. Hull or Watford?

[Rover4ever]

In all honesty, its the first time in a number of years that the CL final is being contested by the 2 best sides in Europe...... somehow feel Chelsea will edge it, but its sure to be a bore-fest unless United get an early goal...

[b12_simon]

  Rover4ever said:

In all honesty, its the first time in a number of years that the CL final is being contested by the 2 best sides in Europe...... somehow feel Chelsea will edge it, but its sure to be a bore-fest unless United get an early goal...

I hope they both lose

[Eddie]

I just hope it's a good game. Good finals are pretty rare and Chelsea v United games generally aren't the best, so it looks unlikely.

[LeChuck]

I don't know where else to put this, but it doesn't really deserve a thread of it's own.

I assume a lot of people here will have seen Makelele's 'tackle' on Cole. It left me wondering one thing; why do players not wear shin-pads for training? Admittedly, you don't expect your team-mate to go in like that on you, and training ground collisions do seem to be rare, but surely it's better to be safe than sorry?

[RibbleValleyRover]

9 times out of 10, games between the "big four" are boring, turgid affairs.

I won't be watching.

[LeftWinger]

I can see it being a very cagey affair. I've put money on no goalscorer, but also put scorecast bets on United to win 1-0 (Vidic 125-1, Tevez 35-1 and Rooney 33/1) and Chelsea to win 1-0 with Ballack scoring at 45-1.

[philipl]

Sms received from Moscow- great atmosphere, no signs of drunkenness. Wierd feeling hearing all the London voices on the Moscow underground- like Piccadilly Circus transferred 1500 miles east.

Going price for a ticket is GBP150.

Russians siding with the Mancs. Abramovich sticking Chelsea in Moscow's most expensive hotel just off Red Square has gone down badly- they feel he stole their money.

[Ronin]

Will get more entertainment from Soccer Special on SSN than by watching the game itself. I can see a repeat of last year's FA Cup Final; a tight boring game by two teams that cancel each other out tactically.