The Evo-Web Football Thoughts Blog

Stan said:
To be completely honest, i was dog tired yesterday evening and went to bed just after Mahrez' goal, so i haven't seen the whole match.
This was a match full of big mistakes.
The most obvious one is the fact that Guardiola substituted his best player after 72 minutes (KDB). Why? I read that later on he substituted both Mahrez and Jesus. Both are players that can score goals (albeit that for me Jesus is not good enough to play for City).
The ref was also piss poor. After 2 or 3 minutes Casemiro should have got a yellow card (foul on KDB) and later in the first half he should have got a yellow for his foul on Foden. Both cards could have changed the match completely.
He could also have given Laporte a red card for what he did to Modric immediately after the first Casemiro foul on KDB. And then there was the foul from Walker. Was it a foul, i think it was. And if he gives a foul, he also should have given a red card to Walker...

Once again Madrid goes through after having been the second best team for large parts of both matches...strange. This team has 3 world class players: Courtois, Modric and Benzema. Rodrygo and Vinicius both are big prospects, and so is Camavinga. The rest of the team is very average. This is not a CL winning team, yet they are in the final...very strange.
Click to expand...

Football is only about scoring goals Real did that in every game.

They were absolutely 2nd best against PSG and Man City, but Grealish missed an absolute sitter when he went round Courtous.

Then they buckled after conceding the 1st goal, they should of just passed the ball back and kept possession, they only needed to do it for 4 minutes.

I always normally support English teams in Europe, but I absolutely hate Man City and PSG.
They have taken football and fair play to whole new level, when they lose and can't buy the biggest trophy in Europe it brings a smile to my face.

With their comebacks, Real absolutely deserve to be in the Champions League final.
They have been a joy to watch in the knockout stages and have been truly brilliant for 35 minutes in 270 minutes of football.

However, I hope Liverpool win the final.
 
Last edited:
I just hope it will be a good final. I think Liverpool will make mincemeat of Real Madrid, but i also thought that about PSG, Chelsea and City.

I have more sympathy for City than for PSG, because City usually don't buy big stars. They play good football with players who become great playing for them.

Of course what they did is financial doping, but that can be said about every English club if you compare the television money they get with 'smaller market clubs' like Ajax (for me still the biggest club in the world), Benfica, Anderlecht (and as a Belgian i don't like Anderlecht), Celtic and other clubs who used to be European big clubs or even giants but are now dwarves because of the financial doping in European and world football.

I want clubs like Atalanta, Villareal and other small teams win the CL, of course this will never happen again.

I also want a CL with only the champions in it.

As for Real Madrid, they are as big cheaters as Juventus. The way they cleared their enormous debts is scandalous, both them and Barcelona also got a special treatment from Spanish banks for years (it ended because EU was against it).

Clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus should have had severe punishments, but UEFA and FIFA are as corrupt as all those clubs.

I'm sorry for this rant.
 
It isn't a rant, when it is how most fans feel about football in general at the moment.

Everything is about money, the fans are forgotten about and even UEFA and FIFA only care about how it benefits them financially.

There is no need to change the format of the WC or Champions League.
But they are increasing the amount of games, as more games means more TV money.

Which is sad as UEFA/FIFA should be working as non-profit charities for the good of the game - But they only themselves care only about money.
The WC did need to be stretched to 32 teams, as it made sense. But why 48 and weird numbers of teams in each group.
It would of made much more sense to have 64 teams and have games played at the same time and then moving into an extra knockout at the end.

But the worse thing about football now is what you stated with the same group of 6 teams getting to the CL semi finals every year, yes it is exciting but also boring at the same time.
There is never going to be a Forest or Red Star Belgrade winning the Champions League ever again.

Football is only going to get less competitive as time goes on.
Even the likes of Arsenal will never return to the top of the English game, as Man City have the spending power to win the league for the next 50 years.
Their dominance will only end when their owner dies, and the person who takes over doesn't give a shit about the team.
Liverpool are where they are through excellent recruitment (The best in Europe), but they can't compete with Man City financially.
Man Utd have money, but they don't have a clue about recruitment and just spend money on players they don't need or spend mega money on players that just aren't good enough for the level they play.
 
I largely agree with your post, but both LIverpool and Arsenal (and my favourite team Spurs) also have a huge unfair advantage on teams like Ajax, Benfica, Panathinaikos and others...

I'm Belgian. Our national has been number 1 in the world for 4 years. Yet players like Hazard, Mertens, Vertonghen and others never played a single minute in our national competition.

KDB and Courtois did play for my favourite team, Genk. When it became clear that KDB might become a special player, Chelsea immediately wanted to buy him and loan him out to Vitesse. KDB refused because he considered Vitesse an inferior club to Genk. So for once a player was loaned out for the club where he was formed. But that was because the player had the personality to refuse. That is imo the best illustration how wrong things are in football nowadays. I'm sure the players could change this, but they don't. IMO they have a big responsability. Sooner or later, football will suffer because of all this.
 
Yes the Premiership Teams do have a massive unfair advantage over any other time in Europe.
The average placed team in the Premier League earn £120m in prize money and TV rights - Ajax got 9M EUROS for winning the Dutch League.

The difference is absolutely massive, but until the invention of the Premier League TV money throughout most of Europe was pretty much the same.

I don't know the money for the rest of Europe, but PSG probably don't earn anything except the over-inflated sponsorship deals they have with Qatar.

I didn't know that about Belgium, but that is an incredibly sad state of affairs, you have the best team in the world but not a single player has ever played in your top flight and likely never will.
So, I take it teams just scout the youth teams and if good enough steal them at a very young age for absolute peanuts.
 
bsmaff said:
Yes the Premiership Teams do have a massive unfair advantage over any other time in Europe.
The average placed team in the Premier League earn £120m in prize money and TV rights - Ajax got 9M EUROS for winning the Dutch League.

The difference is absolutely massive, but until the invention of the Premier League TV money throughout most of Europe was pretty much the same.

I don't know the money for the rest of Europe, but PSG probably don't earn anything except the over-inflated sponsorship deals they have with Qatar.

I didn't know that about Belgium, but that is an incredibly sad state of affairs, you have the best team in the world but not a single player has ever played in your top flight and likely never will.
So, I take it teams just scout the youth teams and if good enough steal them at a very young age for absolute peanuts.
Click to expand...
Players like Lukaku, KDB, Courtois, Tielemans and Castagne did play in the Jupiler League. But Eden Hazard, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Dembele, Mertens, Carrasco, Origi and others never played in our league... imo that is absurd.

It also proves that this team is a one-off, soon Belgian football will be in absolute anonymity...
 
Ironically I think I was a Belgian (Bosman) who handed a massive advantage to the bigger leagues. It was right that he won his case, but meant that clubs had to sell early. That Ajax team that won the CL just months before the ruling - it would've been over before it had even begun for a Dutch team now with such a gifted generation.

Glad Man City are out as the greater of two evils last night. If Leipzig were playing literally any other team in the world tonight I'd want them dumped out too as they're of the same ilk.
 
Fuck Red Bull.
A soft drink company with very lose interpretation of democracy and the 51% rule ,plus taking over an old club like Austria kicking the fans to the curb , changing its colours etc.
They can burn in hell.

One thing's for sure ,how the hell can they fit 50-100k Rangers plus 50-100k Eintracht fans in Sevilla?
 
rockstrongo said:
Fuck Red Bull.
A soft drink company with very lose interpretation of democracy and the 51% rule ,plus taking over an old club like Austria kicking the fans to the curb , changing its colours etc.
They can burn in hell.

One thing's for sure ,how the hell can they fit 50-100k Rangers plus 50-100k Eintracht fans in Sevilla?
Click to expand...

EDITED: I was being a bitter cunt.
 
Last edited:
Flipper the Priest said:
I agree. But with Rangers it transcends football. Never mind ownership and sporting integrity, this is a club that is bigoted by design and damages society in parts of Scotland. I'm dead against everything RB Leipzig stand for as a football club, but Rangers is an institution with an uglier charge sheet.
Click to expand...
I get it buddy ,id probably exactly the same if aik/djurgarden would have played Leipzig ,I know your heart is in the right place
 
Flipper the Priest said:
I agree. But with Rangers it transcends football. Never mind ownership and sporting integrity, this is a club that is bigoted by design and damages society in parts of Scotland. I'm dead against everything RB Leipzig stand for as a football club, but Rangers is an institution with an uglier charge sheet.
Click to expand...
dry your eyes mate
 
DMIII said:
dry your eyes mate
Click to expand...

That's fair play to be honest, I was talking shite. Heat of the moment and reached Celtic-level sanctimony. I've climbed down now. :COAT:

-----

Absolutely fucking love the balance of the three finals. Six different countries represented (no sign of 'major league' France though) and not a project in sight.

Incredible gesture by Roma:

 
For The Union fans.
Union-Club Brugge 0-2
Union lost it's home match against Brugge after (again) being for the largest part of the match being the better team.
The turning point was a missed penalty by Union's striker Dante Van Zeir (to be fair, that was not a penalty).
Suddenly Brugge and all their experience took over.

Brugge an Union are on equal points but Brugge leads now (Union was top of the table since october 2021) because they won more matches than Union.
This is the third match Union played against Brugge and foor large parts of the three matches Union were by far the better team, but they never even scored a goal against (two losses and one draw).

This evening they play each other in Brugge. If Brugge wins then they will be champions (not mathematically, but i'm convinced it's over then for Union).

What a shame. Let's hope Union gets a result this evening. I doubt it strongly, because both their strikers are out of form. Undav and Van Zeir have been fantastic all season, but now they are out of form when it's money time.
 
Follow-up on previous post: Brugge - Union 1-0.
A red card for Union and a disallowed equaliser sealed Union's faith.
All non Brugge fans wanted Union to become champions, but the referee department preferred Brugge.
Union played four time against Brugge, was four times the better team for very large parts of those matches, but never even was able to score....

There will be no Belgian Leicester.

Brugge has the strongest squad, but they will be very poor champions.

Mathematically Union can still win it, but everybody knows it's done and dusted.
 
The previous player who came out, committed suicide afterwards. I hope he fares much better. He's also so young (17?). Very courageous act. Respect!
 
In one way it's a shame that Rangers didn't win. I have nothing against Frankfurt, but it would haver been great if a Scottish club won a European Cup and if no English would win one (i know, Liverpool is better than Real Madrid). A couple of weeks ago, i listened to Mike Calvin's podcast. I love his books, but the podcast is way too chauvinistic imo. That time they were saying that English clubs would win the 3 European clubs...

And to be honest with the enormous financial advantages English clubs have, they should win each and every European Cup almost every year...so it is fair to say that they are underachieving massively.

Do i have something against English football? No, on the contrary, i am a massive fan, but i don't like the chauvinism around football.
 
Stan said:
In one way it's a shame that Rangers didn't win. I have nothing against Frankfurt, but it would haver been great if a Scottish club won a European Cup and if no English would win one (i know, Liverpool is better than Real Madrid). A couple of weeks ago, i listened to Mike Calvin's podcast. I love his books, but the podcast is way too chauvinistic imo. That time they were saying that English clubs would win the 3 European clubs...

And to be honest with the enormous financial advantages English clubs have, they should win each and every European Cup almost every year...so it is fair to say that they are underachieving massively.

Do i have something against English football? No, on the contrary, i am a massive fan, but i don't like the chauvinism around football.
Click to expand...

I'm glad Eintracht won it (and Rangers didn't) because any German victory champions the 50+1. It's sad that some clubs in Germany regret the ruling, citing the success of English clubs. But where will that oil money and those American billionaires be when the going gets tough? Fans are the only constant, and it's right that a club is in their hands and that of the local community.
 
Flipper the Priest said:
I'm glad Eintracht won it (and Rangers didn't) because any German victory champions the 50+1. It's sad that some clubs in Germany regret the ruling, citing the success of English clubs. But where will that oil money and those American billionaires be when the going gets tough? Fans are the only constant, and it's right that a club is in their hands and that of the local community.
Click to expand...
I totally understand that reasoning and i agree.
Football is becoming the victim of it's own success.
It's a good metaphor for our planet and the human kind. Football is slowly destroying itself.
 
Shiting it about tonight. Whole world will be cheering Ukraine on (well, not the whole world but you know what I mean) and they'll be pumped up. I still fancy us to win though (and then be knocked out by Wales, nay, Bale).
 
I sincerely hope Scotland can play the World Cup. Nothing against Ukraine, but i have a soft spot for Scotland.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom