Daaaaaaaaamn… talk about squeaking your way to the next round.
Mikel Arteta scraped through against Benfica in a fine margins classic for the bin.
I don’t really know where to start. I spent most of the 90 minutes messaging with pals expecting the worst. The luck doesn’t follow us. When you look at the two legs on the face of it, Benfica offered nothing. They scored from a penalty, a freekick, and a beautiful final ball from Dani Ceballos.
We missed a bundle of chances. We controlled the game for the most part. But the whole thing felt very much like the sort of tactical masterclass we’d lose in the early Wenger years.
‘Clever Italian team shithouses Arsenal again’
You have to thread this game through the lens of the load on the players. The rotation policy at Arsenal is bad. It’s bad because there’s not a lot of depth to choose from. Also, the game was so important, Arteta didn’t want to take a risk on players that are liable to give you a total stinker. The result? Everyone looked gassed. The two games either side of the Benfica match-ups were Leeds and Manchester City. Two of the hardest games physically in the most physical league in Europe.
It’s still tough to watch a performance like that. I feel like we get destroyed to the absolute max everytime there’s an error… there were a few yesterday. Gabriel and David Luiz were a bit of a mess. I think the young Brazilian is a bit erratic at the moment and the older one always leaves my heart in my mouth. Covid brain might have something to do with it for Gabriel. The Benfica coach, who has dealt with 17 cases of it, went ballistic at the fans after because of their lack of sympathy. Footballers aren’t machines and we should remember that in a moment like now.
It also seems like there’s a lack of chemistry when Odegaard is on the pitch with ESR. Neither pulled up trees last night in a game that needed their incisive passing and impact ability.
You can’t call it a bad performance, Benfica were not great, but at the same time, it wasn’t exactly the breezy last 32 game we hoped was in store. The important thing for me is that we didn’t panic, the players kept at it, and Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney saved the day again.
Kieran Tierney calls his shooting leg ‘The Gun’ which I love.
The subs are still a problem. Arteta reckoned his addiction to Willian was acceptable because the game was about tight spaces, he’s a tight spaces merchant… and he landed an assist. I can’t agree with that (even though I am wrong here). Movement, energy and speed was the move. 1 assist in 24 is a fluke. The real insight was Bukayo Saka driving the team forward with power and a bold pass. That was a proper assist. Willian found Tierney, no doubt, but it was hardly top drawer assisting, the left back had a lot of work to do.
The crazy thing is it’s hard to fathom the gamble. I read fans saying ‘amazing that he could potentially throw his job over Willian’ and I totally agreed. The other thing I hate about the assist is that it has permitted Arteta to start him. He’s been desperate to give him a run for months. I’d rather see Martinelli coming off the bench in a game like that. Terrorise their back four.
But, on paper, Arteta got it right. So we have to hold the moaing. We’re through. That’s the most important thing.
It’s also worth noting that Leicester City didn’t go through last night. They limped out against Slavia Prague. They played most of their big names as well. They only made 4 changes from the weekend. They are in no position to be binning off the Europa, especially after last year. That makes winning a trophy we won’t win feel a lot sexier on paper
Below are the teams we could face.
Ajax (NED)- Arsenal (ENG)
- Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
- Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
- Granada (ESP)
- Man. United (ENG)
- Milan (ITA)
- Molde (NOR)
- Olympiacos (GRE)
- Rangers (SCO)
- Roma (ITA)
- Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
- Slavia Praha (CZE)
- Tottenham (ENG)
- Young Boys (SUI)
- Villarreal (ESP)
I have absolutely no doubt we’ll be drawing Roma, Shaktar, United, or Spurs. No chance we pick off an easy team. It’s just not the Arsenal way.
Still, exciting to still be involved.
RIGHT, listen to the on the whistle podcast with Matt. See you tomorrow! x
Jackpot with Willian?? Eh?
Top4
First?
Trophy yet?
Ah yes i gone and did it
I’m sure ‘not a lot of depth’ Martinelli might disagree about a lack of options to rotate. Saka needs a rest before he gets crocked. Pepe was also an option and we had Laca on the bench so in reality we could have started a complete;y different front three and still have a high quality line up.
What is two faced about the whole Martinelli thing is when he was out and Arteta was under pressure he kept saying how much we needed his energy back, bla bla , now he’s fit he can’t buy a game.
Arteta’s insistence on constantly playing Willian is simply beyond pathetic at this stage. All this talk of an assist, do me a favour!
Anyway, Chasing a goal and brining on a Willian who’s been utter toilet since he’s been here and for some reason dropping a very in form Pepe or not even bothering to give Martinelli any game time is all you need to know that Mikel Arteta won’t make it at Arsenal football club
Sorry RH, posting equivalent of a Xhaka ‘sprint’, too slow old chap!
Very lucky yesterday, very very lucky but I’ll take it. I want us to badly win this competition if we can, would be horrible to play in it again next year
I’m pretty sure too that we can’t face ourselves in the next round Pedro although even Arteta couldn’t fuck that one up if we did.
would be horrible to play in it again next year
————————-
No worry, 11th in the league wont get us in it for next season!
Worst draw for me would be one of the Ukraine clubs. Not a place we do well in and a crappy way to go out of a competition if we fail to win. At least a PL team would mean no Covid complications.
Trouble is, he played ESR left wing, which isn’t his position, to accommodate Ode, and ESR didn’t have a particular good game. So, subbing him, and bringing on Willian, who was “adequate”, kept the shape a bit better, makes it look like he changed the game, especially with his pass – sorry, assist – to Tierney
It shows how individual players are important for the performance and success of a football team. Liverpool with Van Dijk and Fabinho, United with Fernandes, Tottenham with Kane and Son Leicester with Maddison.and Arsenal with Tierney an Partey.. Anytime those players are out for their respective teams, perfomance take a dip. City are the exceptions due to the depth of their squad and the ability of their manager to tweak their style of football, consequently they haven’t missed aguero or Debruyne, in fact they have looked a strònger outfit without those 2 gifted footballers. It shows that pep is head… Read more »
“It shows that pep is head and shoulders above the other managers in the world of football.”
No, it shows that Pep has a huge squad of top class players thanks to spending massively more during his tenure than any other club in the world.
You’d have thought he could have won the CL by now wouldn’t you?
It has to be Villareal!
I dont like Willian, but if that fluke assist helps him find his mojo back I’m all for it. Its clear he won’t be starting games for us. At least I hope its clear to Arteta. But he is the manager’s unicorn and the manager will go to lengths to prove his decision to sign Willian was right. So if he can give us more of Chelsea Willian when he comes on at the 60 minute mark every game I’ll be happy. Arteta took a massive gamble yesterday by bringing Willian on ahead of Gabi, Pepe and Laca. If he… Read more »
So the simple formula is to have technical players around Auba to finish of move like Vardy does?
It took forever to figure this out?
One thing we do agree on Pierre is that ESR should start as CAM and Odegaard only plays there when ESR needs a rest. There’s always the temptation to go with the hype when we sign a big name from a top club (or even a minor player like Ceballos) over our own home grown players. Odegaard may well put in some decent performances for us but so far for me he hasn’t produced a great deal.
We scraped through but showed some character. Heads could have dropped but they didn’t. I agree there is an issue having Odegaard and ESR in the same space. ESR speeds up our game in a way Odegaar. Puzzled about how much time is spent commenting on players who aren’t picked. Martinelli for one. Presumably he isnt doing it in training or has some other issue. I doubt very much its personal.
Morning Pierre “Liverpool with Van Dijk and Fabinho, United with Fernandes, Tottenham with Kane and Son Leicester with Maddison and Arsenal with Tierney an Partey” Absolutely. Tierney and Partey just showed what we have been missing, top quality. Auba was sharp, don’t forget he hasn’t really been playing either, so that’s three players that improve us immediately. Look how a great Manager like Klopp has his team in relegation form. It’s not because he is a poor manager it’s because of the players at his disposal who are unable to function the way Klopp likes to play or have lost… Read more »
Sorry should have added Odegaard doesnt
Pierre: I certainly second what you just said. I just want this two to stay fit, as they change the dynamic of the team. Partey, our star signing, has barely been near the team. Let’s hope we can carry the spirt shown in this game into the weekend!
“It has to be Villareal!”
Whoever called it the Le Grove derby needs a promotion.
Gold!
Hold the moaning? You must be joking, Pedro. Nothing will stop the wailers wailing.
Mikel got it right. Even to the extent of bringing on Willian. It could happen that all of us – and I mean ALL of us – got it wrong. Truth is, I am now expecting a miraculous display from Willian against Leicester.
As for Brendan, he is a balloon begging to be burst.
+
Captain Tierney ‘if he can give us more of Chelsea Willian when he comes on at the 60 minute mark every game I’ll be happy”. I have been one of Willians harshest critics, he has been very poor and a shadow of the talent he was at Chelsea. However, yesterday he showed why you sometimes need experience and calmness in big games or when chasing a result against a team that has a good defensive shape. We can use all the if’s and but’s we like but ultimately that substitution was a good one. I watched a brilliant tactical analysis… Read more »
“Nothing will stop the wailers wailing”
True EB, your wailing about ‘moaners’ never ceases.
Pierre “Arteta needs to settle on a centre back pairing that works. It creates uncertainty with the keeper by chopping and changing the back 4, especially the centre backs.To me Holding and Mari , when playing together , give rhe team balance, calmness and composure and i think the goals against stats since they started playing together since the chelsea game( i think it was) will show this.” ============================================================ THIS. Absolutely spot on. If Arteta is too dumb or blinkered to have noticed this due to his infatuation with David Luiz then he deserves to be sacked. To me this… Read more »
Pierre
“Arteta needs to settle on a centre back pairing that works”.
Agreed that has to be a prtnership. The Holding/Gabriel partnership is my prefered choice but Gabriels Coivid issues & the sending off took him out and Holding was unavailable yesterday due to the concussion rules. Bothe fit, that would be my pairing although I do like Mari too. As you say, we need to decide and keep that partnership as part of our best starting 11. Then rotate to address fatique/injury.
I think it just took forever to have any creative players to pick.
*Apologies, need to set up my new Mac keyboard, this one is faulty.
And I agree with Pierre.
Holding and Mari are the CB pairing for me.
The performance was the same tepid nonsense that we’ve endured under Arteta for the last year.Benfica were a team who play with a high line and at the same time don’t really press the opposition.This being the case a little bit of pace and dynamism in our forward play would have cut them apart time and time again.Instead we reverted to Arteta’s mantra of keeping possession by slowly passing the ball around the team sideways and backwards.The sense of urgency only manifested at a point of no return when Arsenal suddenly found themselves on the verge of going out of… Read more »
Pedro The important thing is we’re through but why bring wenger into it? Firstly, in ‘the early wenger years’ and in fact nearly ‘all the wenger years’ we were playing in a harder competition- the actual champions league, qualification for which was taken for granted by arsenal fans. Now, ‘top four’ has become like the quest for the holy grail, and actually winning it? At arsenal’s current rate of improvement and taking into account the lack of professionalism and basic ambition shown by the club ownership, that might happen when the game has changed to the extent that players have… Read more »
My top 3 choices for the draw:
1. Villarreal
2. Molde
3. Young Boys
Still believe Arteta is the great hope, he’s getting bailed out by individual brilliance from some players. As for the Willian thing I truly believe he will eventually cost Arteta his job, anyone else getting a touch of the Wengers creeping in. You know picking favourites regardless of form, I feel sorry for Gabi how in the name of God is Willian in front of him? Oh wait it’s because Arteta doesn’t truly trust the young players, and the form of shaka and ESR have forced his hand. Saka was already a break out star before Arteta took over, and… Read more »
Re Willian If giving your team an assist in the middle of the season after doing nothing since the opening match is hitting the jackpot… that’s just an indictment of how far we’ve fallen in our standards. Celebrating last night’s performance as a jackpot for Willian is like telling everyone you won the lottery when all you did was win £2.60 in the Euromillions… it’s virtually nothing to call home about. The mere fact Pedro had to mention it just highlights how desperate he is to pain Arteta in a good light. The reality is we barely made it across… Read more »
“Unfortunately Willian’s introduction coincided with a couple of goals although his influence I would add was negligible” This made me laugh. Unfortunate for who, Benfica maybe. Why does everything have to be such an entrenched position, you can praise even if you don’t like someone? Willian has been poor but his substitution impacted the game. Without a crystal ball, none of us knows what bringing on Pepe or Martnelli instead of Willian would have done. However, what we do know is that after Willian came on, we turned around a 1-2 deficit and won 3-2, he played a roll in… Read more »
*paint
We’re one of the teams with a high potential of winning the Europa League, the bookies have us as third favourites
Hopefully the draw is kind to us today
An away tie first against Molde would be ideal, blow them away, then rest players in the return leg
It’s written in the stars that we draw Villarreal at some point though
Hopefully Spurs draw United, before we draw either of them
I think we should devote today’s post to David Luiz and Hector Bellerin and ask the question why are these two players getting so many starts when they contribute nothing. At one stage yesterday I actually thought Bellerin was going to collapse. He could hardly put one foot in front of the other. He used to be fast. Now he has nothing in the tank. Injuries aside, he is a liability. As for Luiz he spends most of his time pointing and gesticulating to teammates and holds onto the ball for an eternity before laying it off slowly and predictably… Read more »
Molde qualify for the last 16.
Maybe they are not a sunday league team after all.
Leeds
“Celebrating last night’s performance as a jackpot for Willian is like telling everyone you won the lottery when all you did was win £2.60 in the Euromillions”
Why do you take Willian’s performance so personally? Yes, Willian has been very poor and nowhere near the player Chelsea had. He deserves to be criticised, absolutely. You are vindicated in that respect. However, he did well last night and you are allowed to acknowledge that. It isn’t a personal slight on you or anyone of us who have been beating on him this season.
Because you should be giving that game time to the likes of Martinelli and Pepe who have everything to prove and not your oldie who’s been wank all season.
I mean yea we won yesterday which was great but on another day that sub is not a game changing sub in the slightest.
Pepe’s been form and boom dropped, Martinelli can’t get a look for whatsoever reason but somehow the Chelsea flop is the one we turn to
Again, its okay to support the manager but cal bullshit too when he’s been weird
Graham62
“Willian did quite well when he came on but let’s not go overboard with the compliments. Let’s see if he can perform against Leicester at the weekend”
This is very fair.
Graham, it’s because people go out of their way to discredit and find some reason not to acknowledge something, that makes people on the other argument go over the top. Nobody really thinks Willian was exceptional but criticism and praise should be fair and even-handed. Not doing so makes people look a bit sad. They don’t know when to put the shovel to one side and stop digging.
Willian did well last night? Professional footballer completes 12 yard pass. He’s earned that contract alright!!!
Graham62 Bellerin starts because our only other natural right back is Soares Who’s also our only back up to Tierney… This is complete mismanagement, we’ve allowed Kolasinac + Niles to leave on loan, but left ourselves 3 players, for two positions I’m not making the argument for the quality of the players, but numerically we’re short, and having a right footer on the left isn’t ideal Someone needs to take Bellerin out for a Mega Mixed Grill, physically he looks shot, he was dropping physically before his injury Hopefully Bill Gates doesn’t get his way, and starts feeding us all… Read more »
If I was a neutral – that is, not an Arsenal obsessive – I would find all this daft stuff from the wailers hilarious. Like ‘if it wasn’t for Saka…’ or ‘if it wasn’t for Tierney…’ etc. How dumb can they get? It’s like saying ‘if it wasn’t fo Messi’ or ‘if it wasn’t for Ronaldo…’
But I’m not a neutral. So I find this mindless incessant criticism of Arteta sad and disappointing. Don’t they have the wit to take into account the mess Arteta inherited, or the judgement to weigh the progess he has made?
Afc
I too noticed that when I was re-watching the game. Willian played a very important part in that goal.
Need more of that from Willian.
At the end of the day we all want Arsenal to succeed and if Willian can contribute to that I’ll happily get behind him.
Sorry AFC but have to strongly disagree – Willian did absolutely nothing. He didn’t run at the defence despite fact we needed 2 goals when he came on. He just passed back timidly and a couple of those went astray. His “assist” was nothing of the sort – he passed back to a more aggressive player who had everything to do. Arteta needs a reality check – he’s doing a reasonable job imo other than this Willian blindness. He needs to admit his monumental mistake in giving him a 3 year pension. It will otherwise cost him his job more… Read more »
Cedric is a better R/B than Bellerin, Bellerin done an interview a few years back when playing with Arteta that he had stayed at his place and was like a big brother to him, MA has his favourites and can’t see the wood from the trees (especially his reluctance to play Martinelli)
Rich
Cedric on the right is a better option than Bellerin.
Bellerin should be back up for Cedric.
Emery has demonstrated that he is learning to be a proper manager.
– He didn’t gambled on Partey’s health and only played him at the 63th mins when we were down 2 – 1
– He saw how ineffective ESR was in his set up and introduced a true winger as LW.
– He subbed out his favorite, Bellerin
Nelson – Emery??
Nothbanker “Sorry AFC but have to strongly disagree – Willian did absolutely nothing”. Okay, we shall have to disagree because that is unfair. The bloke has been abject, no question. Yesterday he did what ESR didn’t do, he created space and an overload by clever play. Not just my opinion but I watched two fifa coaches analysing his role in Tierney’s goal and why that wouldn’t have happened before. Changed the game. He pulled two Benfica players out of position by running 25 yards from a wide position to receive a ball centrally on the centre circle to prevent Partey… Read more »
#Arteta
typo!!!
One of the qualities that I think seperates Partey from other deep lying midfielders is his tendency to always stay in the middle of the park. We often see Xhaka drifting down the left side and dropping as low as the CB line to recieve the ball. Same with Elneny and Ceballos. They often drift to the sidelines to recieve the ball, sometimes even acting as full backs. This leaves no option in to pass to in the middle of the park. They do this because they need time and space, in short they dont possess the ability to recieve… Read more »
Graham62 I think they’re both bang average, there’s not much between them When we’re playing 3 games p/w We need rotation, our only natural competition for Bellerin, is also our only natural competition for Tierney Full back is the most physically demanding role on the pitch It’s one thing to have a lack of quality at full back, which outside of Tierney we do But It’s complete incompetence to loan out Kolasinac, and not bring in another natural left back If anyone is crazy enough to offer us £20-£30 mill for Bellerin? We should snatch their arm off The player… Read more »
Willian assist – hardly worth mentioning it as a jackpot. Tierney did all the hard work for the goal.
englandsbest
I sort of get where you’re coming from but you’ve got to accept that it’s not just the Willian scenario that is making fans criticise Arteta. You must be pretty naive if you can’t see there are numerous other problems that Arteta should be held accountable for.
The progress you talk about is minimal. Yes, he inherited a deflated squad but he’s been at the club now for more than 14 months and we are stuttering far too much for my own liking.
I reiterate, this criticism doesn’t centre only around Willian.
CT
Partey has that calming influence on the whole team. It seems that the commander is now back with the troop.
Agreed Rich I like the cash kid at Villa looks decent
Rich
No, Bellerin is poor.
Cedric is adequate.
It’s a no brainer.
AFC – I hear you but don’t agree – I’ve also re-watched. But I will grant you that this Willian was less appalling than the previous versions. i still don’t want to see him on the pitch and certainly not when we’re chasing a game. Martinelli should be brought on to run at defences.
Arteta massively lucked out with Willian last night. Even Arteta’s biggest fans can’t claim (without hindsight) that there was any justification for bringing Willian on.
What worries me more is that Arteta didn’t see it as the gamble that most people did, which means he is still kidding himself about the role that Willian has to play in this team.
I find that Cash and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are the two best defensive right back in the EPL. Ricardo Pereira and Trent Alexander-Arnold are the two best offensive right back.
Northbanker
Fair enough. I am also a Martinelli fan and Pepe too probably deserves more game time. But I comment on what I see even though I’m not exactly a Willians fan based on previous poor performances.
We won, so let’s see who we get next as the draw is soon.
Pedro, to try to put a gloss on our narrow victory you made a comparison with Leicester who went out of the competition. Why not mention Manure, Rangers and the Spuds who thrashed their opponents with no trouble at all by four goals or more. As for Willian, his performance was a 6 out of 10 at best and to claim an assist for Tierney’s flash of brilliance is stretching credulity.
https://www.twitch.tv/arsenalofficial
Live Europa League draw with Frimpong.
We should have been able to blow Benfica away. I’m glad we are through, but that wasn’t comfortable. We aren’t playing well. We ground a result out. If we keep this up, I don’t see us doing better than finishing on 55 points in the league and not being Europe next season. If that happens I can’t see any way back for Arteta. Are there signs of progress in some regards? Sure, we cleared out a bunch of deadwood. But you don’t need a generational coach to get rid of Ozil and Mustafi. Hell, Steve Kean managed to get £20m… Read more »
Sorry Pedro but the idea that arteta has had no choice but to beast this 11 players because we have no squad depth is so patently not accurate We have acceptable cover for auba in laca who was very in form until he got dropped for auba a couple of weeks ago We have martinelli and Pepe as options on the wings without even touching Willian Ceballos has only started getting games recently so shouldn’t need resting anyway Tierney and Bellerin can both be rotated with Cedric CB we have holding Mari and Gabriel as good options and Luiz is… Read more »
Arteta plays a high pressing game. While the game was still in the balance and Benfica’s defenders were wasting time passing the ball around, we could see that our pressing with Auba, ESR and Ode was very ineffective. Martinelli and Laca are much better doing it. I wish Arteta can finally sees this.
I still prefer my recommended offense lineup:
———————-Laca
Auba—————-ESR——————-Saka
I find this concept of “assist” to be bemusing
When Maradona dribbled past 8 England players at the 1986 WC to score one of rather greatest goals ever, who made that initial pass to him 70 yards from the goal line?
Would you call that pass an “assist”?
Willian passed the ball to Tierney who had to take in three players in a small space to create enough space to shot accurately to score. Tierney assisted his own goal.
That Saka cross…..that’s what an “assist” really looks like.
Pedro
I’m pretty sure we can’t play ourselves in the next round.
Here we go:
https://www.uefa.tv/video/live/172678/
More bad news to look out for on Sunday. If we lose against the foxes, 4 teams will have done the double over us in a single season. A new record. Thanx to the generational one.
Arteta Out.
Ajax vs Young Boys
Dynamo Kiev vs Villarreal
Fuck!!!
Never as an arsenal fan, have I felt before a game against leicester that we could lose. Yes, leicester has been phenomenal for a couple of seasons now, but up to last season, I held the belief that we were the better team. No more. Now I dread facing aston villa or even everton. Blimey, that’s a new low, what next? Fearing stoke and west ham?
Roma vs Shakhtar Donetsk
I have a bad feeling
Olympiakos vs
Arsenal Olympiacos again LOOOOOOOOOOOL
Let’s get revenge for last season!
Olympiakos vs Arsenal
Such a lucky fkin draw. If Arteta manages to fuck up Olympiacos (twice) in the last 16 he must be hailed as the worst Arsenal manager of all time.
Milan vs Manure good game
That game epitomised Arsenal under Arteta. Haphazard, error strewn, dominating the game, almost throwing it away, the whole season condensed into a highlights reel. And once again proving that Tierney and Saka are the motors that drive everything good about the current team. The fascinating thing about this roller coaster style of Arteta’s is where it will go. Every time you think some progress has been made, and a shape and style is being established, they have a fantastic ability to chuck it away, ignore their best qualities and then provide an inspired moment. I guess it will continue this… Read more »
Manure vs Milan!!!
At least we know how to win in that stadium after last night!
Good draw for us. Arteta the jammy cunt!
Good draw and we also have the revenge factor on our side.
Nice reunion with Sokratis and Arsenal Rumor All-Star Yann M’Vila.
At least we didn’t draw Manure, Spuds or Milan.
Good draw, Kiev/Villareal, Roma/Shaktar, Zagreb/Spurs and ManU/Milan – thats 4 really good teams going out. Ajax/YB, Prague/Rangers and Granada/Molde – that’s 3 poorer teams going through. I’ll take take. Just need to win now.
Man U unlucky – had Prague, Rangers, Granada,Molde and Milan in the pot – got Milan. Good.
Good draw, Kiev/Villareal, Roma/Shaktar, Zagreb/Spurs and ManU/Milan – thats 4 really good teams going out. Ajax/YB, Prague/Rangers and Granada/Molde – that’s 3 poorer teams going through. I’ll take take. Just need to win now.
Man U unlucky – had Prague, Rangers, Granada,Molde and Milan in the pot – got Milan. Good.
Since it is a team from Greece, I suppose we are allowed to play our home game at the Emirates Stadium.
Henley – agree should be a good draw. We get revenge on Olympiakos and some tough teams go out. Onwards and upwards. We are stronger than when we played them last year so let’s not make a mess of it (nor play Willian!!)
Nelson – hopefully yes. I think it’s time UEFA realised that the away goals rule has no place in modern football (it was brought in to deal with Italian football in the 60s) and get rid of it. Use extra time and penalties if necessary – anything is better than that ridiculous rule which completely changes hw a home team can attack.
While we’re on changes, bring back the benefit of the doubt rule for offside and penalty exemption for ball to hand. Both of these are absurd too and stifle football.
Dissenter the concept of assists is so 2015. Now it’s all about the pre assists!!