The European Football thread!

[Strummer]

The Eleven men have hung on!

3-2 Bochum, a famous victory for Die Blauen.

That is a massive shock, and a huge gift to Bayer Leverkusen.

 

[Strummer]

An interesting top-of-the-table at the moment, with twelve rounds of matches still to play.

 

[Huxley]

For those interested in where our signings that don’t quite work will end up, Monza are playing a depleted Milan this evening.

Their stand out player seems to be their keeper….

 

[BryanRoy22]

One more Bayern loss and Leverkusen win swing and that's going to be very difficult to come back from.

Especially given Leverkusen are still unbeaten.

 

[Strummer]

One more Bayern loss and Leverkusen win swing and that's going to be very difficult to come back from.

Especially given Leverkusen are still unbeaten.

Die Werkself tied the German record this weekend, unbeaten in 32 matches in all competitions.

if they avoid defeat on Friday evening at home to Mainz, that’ll be them taking that record for themselves.

Xabi Alonso really has done a fantastic job there, without the fuss of huge signings, and he’s doing it without the injured Victor Boniface as well. Leverkusen might well struggle to keep hold of him in the summer.

 

[Huxley]

A fairly quiet evening in monza so far. A penalty, a second decent goal. The aforementioned keeper broke and has gone off. Jovic has just got himself sent off for slapping a monza player and pioli has been forced to use plan A,B and C. Namely Leao.

 

[BryanRoy22]

It is not just hype about Xabi Alonso. He is the real deal.

The problem is I have a feeling he will be joining Liverpool end of season. Then we could see Alonso v Guardiola v Arteta for the all Spanish ex-Midfielder master manager wild west gunfight.

Which could last a number of years.

 

[BryanRoy22]

I hope this isn't the wrong place to put this but I've been watching Ronaldo videos this evening.

Those of us who grew up or witnessed the Brazilian Ronaldo will tell you what an exceptionally special player he was.

People seem to mock him nowadays for his size or whatever. His talent should never be forgotten. R9 > R7.

 

[Strummer]

I hope this isn't the wrong place to put this but I've been watching Ronaldo videos this evening.

Those of us who grew up or witnessed the Brazilian Ronaldo will tell you what an exceptionally special player he was.

People seem to mock him nowadays for his size or whatever. His talent should never be forgotten. R9 > R7.

The original Ronaldo is the best Ronaldo.

I saw him play as a teenager for PSV Eindhoven, and you could tell he was something special.

 

[Strummer]

Sad news for Sasa Kalalijdzic, the giant Eintracht Frankfurt centre forward has ruptured a cruciate ligament for the third time, in the weekend‘s matchup against SC Freiburg, which ended in an entertaining 3-3 draw.

The Austrian suffered the same injury whilst at VfB Stuttgart, and again in September 2022, on his debut for Wolverhampton Wanderers, and now, after only joining Eintracht this past January, he’s done it again.

As well as ending his season, it almost certainly rules him out of the Austria squad for Euro 2024 as well.

 

[Huxley]

Walter Mazzarri sacked as Napoli coach. Francesco Calzona becomes their third coach this year.

 

[Strummer]

Steffen Baumgart - formerly of 1. FC Köln and fan of flat caps - is the the new coach of Hamburger SV, and he has one job, and that is to return Der Dinos to the Bundesliga.

He’s an HSV fan, as well.

 

[Any Time Now]

https://x.com/fbawaydays/status/1759881818889654507

 

[Strummer]

Thomas Tuchel to leave FC Bayern at the end of this season, according to Sky DE.

Shocked. Shocked, I tell you.

 

[Strummer]

f***ing YES! THIS is what proper organised fan power does:

The Deutsche Football League (DFL) have just announced that they will stop the process of attracting an external investor, to whom they proposed to sell a proportion of future broadcasting rights, following a massive fan-campaign of protest and disruption, which has seen pretty much every match interrupted recently with tennis balls, sweets, and other fripperies thrown onto the pitch, and most recently, saw playing surfaces attacked by remote-controlled planes and a remote-controlled car (which one player tried to kick, and missed).

This was a majorly bad idea, and immensely unpopular with the matchday support, and now, faced with a situation the DFL was never going to win, they have binned it off:

Investoren-Deal vom Tisch: DFL stoppt Verhandlungen

Die DFL bekommt keinen neuen Investor. Das Präsidium hat auf seiner außerordentlichen Sitzung am Mittwoch beschlossen, den Prozess nicht weiterzuführen.

www.kicker.de

This is what 50+1 can bring you - supporters can actually affect genuine change in the bodies who govern „their“ game.
A brilliant result for proper fans, this.

 

[TrentEndDr]

Dani Alves trial: Ex-Brazil player guilty of nightclub rape

A court in Spain has sentenced Alves, who played for Barcelona and Brazil, to four and a half years.

www.bbc.co.uk

Dani Alves gets 4.5 years in prison after being found guilty of rape

 

[Huxley]

Squeaky bum time in Rennes. Whilst 3-0 would seem an adequate cushion it’s not stopped the second leg from being interesting. Currently 3-2 to the home side with ten minutes to go.


Also, the Rennes supporters laid on some traditional regional food for the travelling Milanese. Which was good of them.

 

[Redemption]

Rennes supporters laid on some traditional regional food for the travelling Milanese

Probably a sausage crepe.

 

[Huxley]

Probably a sausage crepe.

La galete-saucisse apparently. No idea what that is but it does have a ring of sausage crepe about it.

 

[Redemption]

La galete-saucisse apparently. No idea what that is but it does have a ring of sausage crepe about it.

Literally a sausage rolled up in a Galete - a crepe by another name, but made with buck wheat.

 

[Strummer]

Massive news tonight, the next Trainer of FC Bayern will be none other than….

…..Xabi Alonso, currently of Leverkusen. He will join Bayern in the summer.

He is doing a great job with Die Werkself, and its hilarious that the scousers thought he would go there, but they perhaps forgot he also represented Bayern with some distinction.

 

[donny]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1760765688887787754

 

[Thomas]

Massive news tonight, the next Trainer of FC Bayern will be none other than….

…..Xabi Alonso, currently of Leverkusen. He will join Bayern in the summer.

He is doing a great job with Die Werkself, and its hilarious that the scousers thought he would go there, but they perhaps forgot he also represented Bayern with some distinction.

That’s insane!!!!! I did not expect him to stay in ur league!

https://x.com/the_forty_four/status/1760764052840517679?s=46&t=yxPb4hcxrJgPwsVbPQY-Gg

Idk why that section got a ban but this is brilliant from the Warsaw fans


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Thomas]

Massive news tonight, the next Trainer of FC Bayern will be none other than….

…..Xabi Alonso, currently of Leverkusen. He will join Bayern in the summer.

He is doing a great job with Die Werkself, and its hilarious that the scousers thought he would go there, but they perhaps forgot he also represented Bayern with some distinction.

Wait where did you hear this I can’t find it anywhere


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Strummer]

Wait where did you hear this I can’t find it anywhere


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kicker reports an interview, where Alonso does not rule it out:

Xabi Alonso schließt Trainerposten beim FC Bayern im Sommer nicht aus

Einen Tag nachdem die Münchner verkündeten, dass sich der Rekordmeister und Trainer Thomas Tuchel im Sommer trennen, äußerte sich nun der Bayern-Kandidat und Bayer-Coach Xabi Alonso. Und obwohl der 42-Jährige erklärte, er habe "nichts Neues zu sagen", verriet er doch viel.

www.kicker.de

But, reading between the lines…. Yeah, I think he‘s off to Bayern.