Interested to see if Conte can finally crack the CL, it's really the only blight on his record, not being able to do better in the CL throughout his coaching career.

 

Atalanta 3-0 up already

 

Solid defensive work by Lazio, they especially tightened up after their third goal. This is what its about. Hopefully we'll see more of this in the future, where teams actually know how to defend, and not silly free flow of goals in one or both ends. Mickey mouse scorelines between top teams are not my cup of tea.

Good away win for Atalanta, but Inter unfortunately continues to be a team without much cohesion. Some "big" names that don't bring much to the table. Rather they are a liability, thinking of my scandinavian compatriot Eriksen here first and foremost.

Lukaku might miss sitters every now and then, but credit must be given where credit is due, guy has been immense at times for Inter. 40 goals in 56 matches, and probably a few "assists" too. The flick to Darmian which lead to the cross that resulted in Lautaro hitting the post was exquisite.

 

I really don't know what Inter was thinking and who is to blame for their mercato but the mismanagement is a horrendous and inexcusable mistake for a coach, DS and owner with so much money and prestige. Godin gone, wasn't perfect, but I'll take him over Kolarov at CB any day. Did Inter think Bastoni would build a fortress by himself? How did Roma outfox Inter for Kumbulla?

 

Yeah, I don't get the idea behind playing Kolarov as a CB too. Conte isn't stupid, he knows Kolarov has some serious defensive limitations. So the idea is perhaps that Kolarov with his good passing ability can be an important asset in playing out from the back, despite his flaws. But if you measure his pros against his defensive limitations, surely its too much of a risk to play him as a centre-back.

Kolarov had a sweet long ball from deep to Hakimi against kamikaze Benevento, that lead to Inter's first goal against them. Against Milan he contributed with a good pass to Perisic before Lukaku's goal. Against Gladbach his cross won the corner that resulted in Inter's second goal. Corner was swung in by Kolarov too.

But again, he is not convincing as a centre-back at all. Do you risk a shaky defence just so Kolarov might contribute offensively through set pieces or passes every once in a while? Italian teams used to be built on solid defences.

 

Ciao Roberto, They still have Skriniar and de Vrij, but flirted with also getting rid of Skriniar in the off-season and are now dealing with COVID and injuries and fuckin with players like Darmian. Eriksen is the type of player whose skills do not translate well in Serie A and seems like a soft, overpaid player occupying such an important spot.

 

Napoli 0 - 1 AZ Alkmaar

AZ decimated with Corona so this is such a poor result for Napoli. They fielded a strong side too...

 

Darmian was quite good actually

Can't judge Conte when 6-7 players are out with covid. Pre covid he had 7/9 in the league which by all means is good.

 

True about covid.

Poor result for Napoli indeed, they have Sociedad away next.
So you have five wins, one draw and one loss in round 1 for the Italian teams.

 

Sociedad away will probably be a loss for Napoli. Even Barca and Madrid have problems at Sociedad.

 

Matches this week, since matches are being played each week instead of biweekly,

Shakhtar - Inter (prediction: Draw)
Inter finally scored a win again in the weekend, unsure if Hakimi will play or not, Uefa preventing him from doing so. He is Inter's best wingback option.
Shakhtar are actually group leaders since they beat Real. Due to loss of points against Gladbach, Inter are in need of points. An away win is probably needed to secure progression to next phase, and that win is not coming against Real, so must be Gladbach or Shakhtar.

Atalanta - Ajax (prediction: Atalanta Win)
Atalanta really don't have the squad depth to be competitive in more than one competition, especially with weekly midweek matches.
Lost to Sampdoria in the weekend. Ajax won 13-0 in the weekend, and were unlucky to loose against Liverpool due to an own goal. Still, Atalanta should be able to get a result in Bergamo.

Club Brugge - Lazio (prediction: Draw)
Lazio on the right track, defeated Dortmund in the opening match and won against Bologna in the weekend. Brugge won away against Zenit in their opening match, but lost in Jupiler League during the weekend. Match is probably going to be tougher for Lazio than it looks on paper. Must get at least 1 point to keep the momentum going.

Juvenuts - Barcelona (prediction: Draw)
The big one. Juve with 1-1 against Crotone, 2-0 against Kiev away and then 1-1 against Verona. Erratic performances under Pirlo in other words, but Barca aren't in great form either. Lost 1-3 against Real in the weekend, and so far not been convincing in La Liga. Hard to predict, since Barca is Barca.

Kiev did not look good against Juve, so even with a loss here, Juve can still finish 2nd. But should go for a win, Messi is uninspired and Greaseman been shown to bench in favour of 17 year old wonderkids. Cristiano Ronaldo unlikely to feature in this match. Federico Chiesa should be back in starting line-up. Dybala got his first start of the season against Verona. Hard to say if he'll start her as well.

 

It has been reported that Lazio will have 11 players unavailable for the match against Club Brugge.

 

Bad news for Lazio.

Wasteful Inter had to settle with a single point, despite having enough chances to score. Should have gotten a penalty too, Lukaku clearly wrestled to ground inside the box, but ref did not even bother to check VAR. Its totally random when VAR is consulted it seems. I only saw the match in bits and pieces.

Gladbach drew 2-2 against Real, despite being up with two goals (Lillian Thuram's son scored both). This was a good result for Inter.

Only saw highlights from Atalanta - Ajax. Atalanta came back from being two down to grab a point. Ilicic with a huge chance he should have scored on, before Ajax' penalty (which was unnecessarily caused). Ajax' second goal was due to Sportiello fumbling a low cross. So two bullshit goals for Ajax.

Sportiello did some weird stuff during the match. Atalanta fought back through two goals by Zapata. First he headed in a short floating cross by Gomez, then smashed the ball into the net with his right foot. 3 goals in 2 CL matches makes him the top goalscorer of the tournament so far.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo itching to play against Barca, but denied

 

Moise Kean with two goals for PSG. First on a header. Mbappe corner found him in the box. The turkish team left Kean unmarked. Easy job to head the ball into the net.

Mbappe found him in the box on the secong goal too, Kean with a quick turn and slotted home the second.

Florenzi started for PSG too.

 

juve looking awful against Barca. Lucky to be only 1 down at HT. They will improve though surely, and Barca could regret not scoring a second when they had the chances to. Barca look better without Pique and Busquets.

Both will qualify from this group in any case but first place matters mainly to avoid a possible last 16 tie with Bayern.

 

Well they were still awful in the second half as well.

Don't think Neto had a save to make all match.

Dybala a ghost.

Morata Mr offside

0-2 flatters juve, Barca could have won 6-0 had they taken their chances.

 

Decent point for Lazio in Belgium considering the absentees. Lazio now need home wins against Zenit and Club Brugge and they will be in the last 16. Doable.

 

Honestly must be the worst Juve performance I seen in near decade? I cant put my finger on it to do it truly justice, but it was horrendous from start to finish.


We really need a real coach.

 

Also I dont think it was possible to truly hate a football player, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate Bernadeschi with every fiber of my being:

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Watch "vlc-record-2020-10-28-22h47m45s-rtmp___185.233.185.37_stream_1312-" on Streamable.

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He was quite good at Fiorentina though.

 

the key is "at Fiorentina".

Bernardeschi would me my hero (for being a player Juventus is eager to sell but nobody wants) if he wasn't the annoying player he is.

 

I doubt nobody wants him, he would start for most Serie A teams. I believe Lyon wanted him but be rejected them.

Melo was quite good for Fiorentina and a disaster at juve and Inter so I see your point..

 

Yep, im sure some clubs will take him, but the question is - why is he so useless? Its often a hyperbole to call someone a serie b level, but in Berna case he literally looks like someone who doesnt belong to Serie A. Maybe he does some things ok in practice, but for more than an year he has been lacking any impact on the pitch.
Melo was psychotic/ dumb,but you can see some talent in him. Berna is meh at best, lolworthy at worst

 

Berna is the archetypical generational talent in Italy - soft, low impact, sleepy.
Pirlo is not making Berna or anyone else better, he's making them worse. Gattuso>Pirlo by a country mile at this point. Has Pirlo ever in his life raised his voice above a whisper? What experience in coaching did he bring to the champions of Italy? It has the makings of a major failure.

 

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] You blaming the coach for Bernardeschi inept performances? He has been awful for 2 years and has had 3 different coaches (Pirlo has coached him for 2 healthy weeks), all given him chances. Heck Pirlo has alot of faults so far (defenitely screams major failure so far), and one of them is why is he playing Bernardeschi even for a second.

The shocking mistake to gift Verona their only goal, the most retarded pk foul of all time last night, he losses the ball at 95% range in other appearances. He simply needs to be ostracised until is gotten rid of in January. This level of ineptitude is unacceptable for a professional player.



Maybe convince your Roma to sign him if he is so nice? They turned him down in trade talks.