[Keano!]

So we confirmed winning the group last night...yay! And all that, but was it all as good as thought?


I know most will say, we're through, stop moaning, but I just think we need better peformances if we are to progress and do as well as last year.

Take a look at this, the teams won their groups and their points tally...


Bayern Munich - 14
Liverpool - 14
Barcelona - 13
Juventus - 12
Porto - 12
Roma - 12
Man Utd - 10
Panathanikos - 10


We've the lowest tally, joint lowest of all the gropu winners. And the second placed teams...


Athletico - 12
Sporting - 12
Real Madrid - 12
Arsenal - 11
Chelsea - 11
Lyon - 11
Villareal - 9
Inter Milan - 8

...and 6 of the SECOND placed teams have scored a higher points tally.

Our results...


Aalborg BK

• Home - 2-2
• Away - 3-0

Celtic

• Home - 3-0
• Away - 1-1

Villareal

• Home - 0-0
• Away - 0-0

Hardly the most impressive set of scores now are they....


.....I don't mean to sund like a moan........I'm delighted that we're
through and the performances have been good, but some below par ones have
cost us, most notably Villaral at home.

So how do you feel?

Annoyed?
Not fussed?
Confused?
Were we just in a tougher group? (Plausable)



....

 

[versa]

It was a group qualifying round after all so some lethargy is not totally unexpected. The most important task then was to qualify for the knockout stages. So yeah, count me as "not fussed".

But things should be geared up from here or we will be shipped out. And the knockout stages will ony then begin to foretell who's hot who's not. Exciting times...

 

[Jay007]

I don't mind too much tbh.

We always draw with Villarreal () and the draw with Aalborg was after we qualified. And we've never been under any pressure to get through, so we haven't had to step up a gear.

We will need to step it up for the last 16, but I expect that we will. I'll only become worried if we don't.

 

[Jazz 16]

Not fussed really. We won the group with little effort without really playing well.
We have the experience of winning it last year which will hold us in good stead.
Its a long race and we need to grind out results and not get knocked out in
the Q-final stages like we have done many a time.
So I wouldnt look into it too much. Cant ask for more than winning the group really.

 

[Sownak27]

But the sad thing is the 2 draws at hime...we were what 11 wins in a row before the villareal game, and then followed that up with a draw at home to aalborg. celtic away was a good result though we cant afford to drop wins at home

 

[WilfredFerguson]

well weve been **** poor all season, dluking results, that shows the not so good results

 

[martinutd]

If we continue to win at home and draw away in later phase it will be great

 

[Nemanjaaa]

Tbh it doesn't matter but I've been really disappointed this year with United in the Champions League last year we dominated our group, but you have to remember our group was pretty tough, plus we strolled the game last night with little effort, and tbh we should of won the game at Celtic.

 

[spellbound]

There's always two sides of the coin.

In Europe its always important to not concede goals and thats what we've been doing the this autumn. 66% of the goals came in the last game when the ticket to the next round was already booked and a few starters were rested. Just one goal came when it matters.

On the other hand we had a fairly poor group as it turned out. I was pleased with the group we got. Villarreal as prediced qualified with us for next round but they like us havent really hit the form in the domestic league.
Celtic have been weaker then expected. A draw away showed what Celtic can do when they have their night but as it looks the rivalry was what got them going towards us at home soil.
Aalborg isnt a team who could win the title but if you're not giving you best they are good enough to trouble you.

I hope we get a good opponent so the squad will be focused over the winter to stay in shape. Anyway thats how I hope the players would react if we get teams like Inter or Real Madrid. To be at the best when it matters.

So I dont feel worried since we have the right ingrediences for Europe nights but the question is if our group have been a test without real value for us?!

 

[sweet fa]

4 draws from 6 games is really pathetic in all honesty , luckily the competition starts at the knockout stage but from here we must perform or we will fail at the first game.

 

[red dave]

Lets all calm down 4 draws yes but we were in cruise control we never moved into top gear . Come next year we will be flying so Im not worried at all .

Like Jazz said bring em on because we can beat the lot . But its always nice to get a few easy tie's along the way .

 

[gibby17]

When we drew with Celtic and Aal we had our reserve keepers and much of our reserve team out for a run. We conceded daft goals last night having played some good football. When watching the game last night even when we went 2-1 down I wasnt worried, because if we wanted to raise it up a gear we could have I reckon.

Im not phased at all by our group stage tally. We played some great football up at parkhead, celtic are consistantly grinding out results there too, its not just us that struggled to put the ball in the net.

So nah, not worried, in fact really excited to have topped the group and cant wait for the knockout stages, we'll do great

 

[Rooneys_Temper]

Id rather be top on 10pts than 2nd with 11........

 

[cleavers11]

Lets just hope we get our act together and win against difficult teams!
Are fixtures drawn already for the next stages?

 

[antdevil78]

one of the easiest groups we have had in years so its very worrying that cant kill teams off, a problem we had three seasons back when we came bottom of our group.

performances need to pick up dramatically if we are going to be first team to defend a Champions League trophy successfully