Friday 19 December 2008

To February and beyond

Alright folks,


Holy shitballs that’s a good draw. Okay there’s the possibility the quarters onwards may be a damp squib with so many big guns going out next time out but then again we hardly want the same teams in the semi finals each year. Such thoughts drove me to the pub this afternoon, well these thoughts and the fact that no one in Ireland works on the Friday before Christmas (recession resmession et cetera).


Chelsea v Juventus to start with will be a quality match, though obviously the problem with these games being so long away is that we don’t know if (a) the Del Piero renaissance will still be going strong or if (b) Chelsea’s supposedly faction-filled dressing room will have imploded in the mean time. The return of Ranieri makes it tasty enough anyway. Villarreal v Panathinaikos, much like Sporting Lisbon v Bayern Munich and even Atletico Madrid v FC Porto will all be the after thoughts of this round except for those from the clubs involved. That might sound a tad cynical but when the four remaining games are the following…

  • Lyon v Barcelona
  • Real Madrid v Liverpool
  • Arsenal v Roma
  • Inter Milan v Manchester United

… then even the most ardent Panathinaikos fan would have to admit that no one will really give a toss about them come February. It all bodes well for a brilliant end to an already decent season, and while we have the usual shined-turd that is the FA Cup to deal with, this draw pretty much ensures good times ahead.


Now, back to the pub, Happy Christmas folks… we will be podding in a matter of days by the way, hopefully it eases a few hangovers, it will cause us some anyway.


Later, JJ

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You calling us shitballs??!!!

Unknown said...

Course not chief, it's just the choice of a new generation when it comes to sentence openings. I've edited to avoid any further confusion.

Anonymous said...

Ah just messing with you sorry didn't mean to make you edit especially on the Fri/Sat before christmas. Actually felt the same when I saw the draw, quality post as always boss TMc

Anonymous said...

Great draw, All the prem teams to go through though! How fucking dull! I can see the Liverpool game in the Bernabau being a cure for insomnia for a start......and I'm already sick of listening to Mourinho after his first press conference since the draw, what a horrible little cunt he really is!!(I really have to stop sitting on this fence!!!!!)
Have a great Christmas lads, any chance of a festive podcast????? PLEASE!!!!!!G'luck.
LUHG.

Anonymous said...

Any chance you could get the podcast up before tomorrow evening so I've something to listen to on the plane back to Oireland?

Unknown said...

pod is penciled in for Tuesday night, but then again, I am relying on the unreliable JJ, so it could be anytime....

Anonymous said...

Do you mean you're getting pissed on Tuesday night, or it'll be available to download on Tuesday night?

Anonymous said...

Both, depending on when unreliable mark gets out to mine.

Anonymous said...

Snow storm in Montreal means my flight has been delayed until Tuesday. Every cloud....

Anonymous said...

Michael Owen went to Newcastle and basically did nothing but get heavily paid to recuperate from injuries and try to P.R. his way back in to English team and now he's too good to renew his contract there? Wouldn't blame him for wanting to get out of that elephants graveyard but can the man even spell loyalty? New years resolution is not to put every random thought that pops up on ye're blog lads but that bitter little man ..well.. Happy Xmas TMc

Mal said...

There has been lots of talk of the group stages being boring and a fait accompli. This will surely increase if Platini gets his way and we have less teams from the big leagues and more from Albania and Finland. It'll be even easier for the top two seeds in each group to go through and there'll be more dead rubbers at the end of the six game phase.