⚽UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread -- 2023/24 | Prelim Qualifiers

[beerlover]

The game is over and Lille won the game. It was a game in which Lille's players put a lot of pressure on Fenerbahce's defense. Throughout the half, they didn't let Fenerbahce's players rest, they didn't let Fenerbahce's players have space to attack or even counterattack. It seemed that Lille was willing to settle the game in the first leg. Unfortunately, Fenerbahce's defense made some mistakes that resulted in the first goal. Recovering the disadvantage was not an easy task for Fenerbahce. They only managed to score one goal in the 79th minute and it seemed that the game would end in a draw, which would be a very good scenario for Mourinho. But once again, Fenerbahce's defense made another mistake that allowed Lille to score a goal in the 90th minute +1 minute. In this type of high-level competition, there are mistakes that a team's defense cannot make. and now with this disadvantage it will be very difficult for Mourinho's team to reverse the result at home in the second leg.

I keep telling everyone, the Mourinho style of "park the bus" isn't as good as it used to be, hence why he sucked at United if you ask me (some say he was fine) and his roma period looked great on European competitions but they were secondary and third level competitions. This is champions league, teams that wants to go to UCL group stages will be quite high level and I think it's easy to predict that we are not going to get anything big from Mourinho if he keeps playing the same method, Roma time had trouble with league games too, just because of this reason.

I understand that he has this idea of lay back and only attack and preserve energy which makes other teams tired by the end and his teams more active during second half, but it may not work against better teams. This isn't to mean that Lille will win, second game could be a win for Fenerbahce, just saying it is not that easy to handle this.

[LTU_btc]

Didn't saw Lille - Fenerbahche game, so can't comment about it. Losing away to club from Top 5 league isn't tragedy, especially when you have 2nd leg at home. It will be very hot in Istanbul.
Rangers scoring goal on last minute and making score 1:1 is huge hit for Dynamo Kyiv. Sparta failing to win against FCSB is little upset. I don't know why bookmakers so clearly favoured Qarabag, but I wouldn't say that Ludogorets win is surprise.
From today's games expected plenty of goals in Jagiellonia - Bodo/Glimt game, but so far there was just 1.

[CLS63]

Shit I didn't know you were supporting Turkish team I always support French teams in European competitions so I was definitely thinking for Lille here but because of you, I will not bet on them Lugano scoring 1 gave me a very precious BSFL point

Mourinho is a blessing for all football, just don't let him have too much power after he wins something. You will progress don't worry!

Yes, I'm a Fenerbahçe fan.    However we couldn't get an advantageous result in the first leg yesterday. But I can't say we didn't deserve it either. Because I didn't like our performance especially in defense. We had these issues from the start against Lugano. Mourinho's presence still makes me believe more. I hope we can turn things around in Istanbul. We will need to be more precise with finishing at the same time because we also wasted big chances.

[Josefjix]

Yes, I'm a Fenerbahçe fan.    However we couldn't get an advantageous result in the first leg yesterday. But I can't say we didn't deserve it either. Because I didn't like our performance especially in defense. We had these issues from the start against Lugano. Mourinho's presence still makes me believe more. I hope we can turn things around in Istanbul. We will need to be more precise with finishing at the same time because we also wasted big chances.

This season, it's will be rough for Fenerbahçe because they will encounter fierce oppositions that wouldn't take it easy on them. They will have the to mount pressure if they're to stand on their ground. I'm not a fan of Turkish clubs because I'm not concerned regarding the status of the clubs performance and I based more on the european clubs. José Mourinho have done his best to his capabilities and ensuring the stability of Fenerbahçe.

[Slow death]

The game is over and Lille won the game. It was a game in which Lille's players put a lot of pressure on Fenerbahce's defense. Throughout the half, they didn't let Fenerbahce's players rest, they didn't let Fenerbahce's players have space to attack or even counterattack. It seemed that Lille was willing to settle the game in the first leg. Unfortunately, Fenerbahce's defense made some mistakes that resulted in the first goal. Recovering the disadvantage was not an easy task for Fenerbahce. They only managed to score one goal in the 79th minute and it seemed that the game would end in a draw, which would be a very good scenario for Mourinho. But once again, Fenerbahce's defense made another mistake that allowed Lille to score a goal in the 90th minute +1 minute. In this type of high-level competition, there are mistakes that a team's defense cannot make. and now with this disadvantage it will be very difficult for Mourinho's team to reverse the result at home in the second leg.

I keep telling everyone, the Mourinho style of "park the bus" isn't as good as it used to be, hence why he sucked at United if you ask me (some say he was fine) and his roma period looked great on European competitions but they were secondary and third level competitions. This is champions league, teams that wants to go to UCL group stages will be quite high level and I think it's easy to predict that we are not going to get anything big from Mourinho if he keeps playing the same method, Roma time had trouble with league games too, just because of this reason.

I understand that he has this idea of lay back and only attack and preserve energy which makes other teams tired by the end and his teams more active during second half, but it may not work against better teams. This isn't to mean that Lille will win, second game could be a win for Fenerbahce, just saying it is not that easy to handle this.

I also agree with you, Mourinho needs to change his playing style, he needs to focus much more on attack than on defense. If he had invested more in Fenerbahce's attack then in this first leg game he wouldn't just be playing defense and being under a lot of pressure. He would have been playing in attack and would have forced the opponent to play in defense and Fenerbahce would probably be able to come out of that game with victory. but unfortunately he played more in defense, allowing the opponent to dominate the game and score 2 goals. I very much doubt that in the second leg Fenerbahce will be able to come out with a victory that reverses the entire tie and allows Fenerbahce to move on to another phase of this competition. in my opinion fenerbahce will be eliminated

Yes, I'm a Fenerbahçe fan.    However we couldn't get an advantageous result in the first leg yesterday. But I can't say we didn't deserve it either. Because I didn't like our performance especially in defense. We had these issues from the start against Lugano. Mourinho's presence still makes me believe more. I hope we can turn things around in Istanbul. We will need to be more precise with finishing at the same time because we also wasted big chances.

This season, it's will be rough for Fenerbahçe because they will encounter fierce oppositions that wouldn't take it easy on them. They will have the to mount pressure if they're to stand on their ground. I'm not a fan of Turkish clubs because I'm not concerned regarding the status of the clubs performance and I based more on the european clubs. José Mourinho have done his best to his capabilities and ensuring the stability of Fenerbahçe.

These Fenerbhace defense players have made a lot of mistakes during the games in this competition, I thought they would do better after the serious mistakes they made in the first leg game against Lugano, but unfortunately they didn't improve at all. And the Champions League games are games in which teams cannot make the types of mistakes that Fenerbhace's defenders make

[slaman29]

Mourinho is a blessing for all football, just don't let him have too much power after he wins something. You will progress don't worry!

Yes, I'm a Fenerbahçe fan.    However we couldn't get an advantageous result in the first leg yesterday. But I can't say we didn't deserve it either. Because I didn't like our performance especially in defense. We had these issues from the start against Lugano. Mourinho's presence still makes me believe more. I hope we can turn things around in Istanbul. We will need to be more precise with finishing at the same time because we also wasted big chances.

Qualifiers I think is usually where teams have a weird performance. Smaller teams fight with everything, have full squad, have no other priority. Bigger teams are still half strength because their best players are at internationals or Olympics, and managers want to take care of league priority. I think Mourinho knows what he's doing. Home advantage is the biggest factor for Turkish teams, as Manchester United know very well

[beerlover]

Qualifiers I think is usually where teams have a weird performance. Smaller teams fight with everything, have full squad, have no other priority. Bigger teams are still half strength because their best players are at internationals or Olympics, and managers want to take care of league priority. I think Mourinho knows what he's doing. Home advantage is the biggest factor for Turkish teams, as Manchester United know very well

I would guess that both teams not having all the transfers done yet, and some teams starting their season is the difference. Fenerbahce could be at advantage here, their season is starting, and had 5+ friendlies and even 2 games before this against Lugano as well, so they look a lot better.

However, the reality is that Lille is simply just a better team, and that's why they look like they are not that great and I believe that we are going to see Fenerbache will win the second game, but it will definitely be a strong situation for Lille as well. Just because they lost doesn't mean they will lose again, but this time Fenerbahce may win. Early games are usually shocking results because teams are not ready for the season yet. This is why we are seeing these results and I believe that we are going to face some issues with it and could be the fact that in a few months every team will be where they want to be, they are just getting back into the season right now.

[CLS63]

Qualifiers I think is usually where teams have a weird performance. Smaller teams fight with everything, have full squad, have no other priority. Bigger teams are still half strength because their best players are at internationals or Olympics, and managers want to take care of league priority. I think Mourinho knows what he's doing. Home advantage is the biggest factor for Turkish teams, as Manchester United know very well

If we manage to eliminate Lille, I think we are going to qualify for the league phase as we are going to have a much easier opponent. I think that it is still very early for Mourinho to make an impact on the team. Most of the players have returned from Euro 2024 new and they aren't ready.Turkish teams can't be very successful in pre-qualifiers unfortunately. For example 2 months after Fenerbahçe got eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League pre-qualifiers 2 years ago, they were in the same group in the UEFA Europa League. While Fenerbahçe were finishing the group in the first position, Dynamo Kyiv finished as the last.

[adultcrypto]

Mourinho is a blessing for all football, just don't let him have too much power after he wins something. You will progress don't worry!

Yes, I'm a Fenerbahçe fan.    However we couldn't get an advantageous result in the first leg yesterday. But I can't say we didn't deserve it either. Because I didn't like our performance especially in defense. We had these issues from the start against Lugano. Mourinho's presence still makes me believe more. I hope we can turn things around in Istanbul. We will need to be more precise with finishing at the same time because we also wasted big chances.

Qualifiers I think is usually where teams have a weird performance. Smaller teams fight with everything, have full squad, have no other priority. Bigger teams are still half strength because their best players are at internationals or Olympics, and managers want to take care of league priority. I think Mourinho knows what he's doing. Home advantage is the biggest factor for Turkish teams, as Manchester United know very well

Sincerely, qualifiers are highly unpredictable because there is really no reference such as previous meetings that one can use to arrive at a decision. Furthermore, the best of a team in one league might just be average in another league and when teams from both leagues meets, it becomes difficult to predict. This is the reason I lost all my bets tonight. I never saw Rapid Wien winning Trabzonspor for instance as this is a case of two teams from different leagues. Between Lille and Fenerbahçe, it would actually be difficult knowing who will win because the best of Turkey might be the average of the French League, this is where the confusion is.

[slaman29]

If we manage to eliminate Lille, I think we are going to qualify for the league phase as we are going to have a much easier opponent. I think that it is still very early for Mourinho to make an impact on the team. Most of the players have returned from Euro 2024 new and they aren't ready.Turkish teams can't be very successful in pre-qualifiers unfortunately. For example 2 months after Fenerbahçe got eliminated by Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League pre-qualifiers 2 years ago, they were in the same group in the UEFA Europa League. While Fenerbahçe were finishing the group in the first position, Dynamo Kyiv finished as the last.

I saw his recent interview, it looks like he really got affected by what happened at Roma and he LOVES stadiums where supporters are crazy, so he'll love Turkish teams

I agree with you, Turkish teams have a weird history. Super amazing players but as teams, they can't seem to get full potential.

However, the reality is that Lille is simply just a better team, and that's why they look like they are not that great and I believe that we are going to see Fenerbache will win the second game,

Better team in terms of price and history but Mourinho has a special way of making a $5m player look like $50m. That's his true ability, we saw it again and again even in Roma. I think he'll do the same here.

[CLS63]

Better team in terms of price and history but Mourinho has a special way of making a $5m player look like $50m. That's his true ability, we saw it again and again even in Roma. I think he'll do the same here.

I agree with you on the Mourinho topic. I still can't believe that I see him managing the team I'm supporting. I know that he doesn't have his old performance. However it is a fascinating thing that the special one is managing your team.

slaman29, mate I'm curious about your opinion on the round. Do you think that we will be able to get past this round after a 2-1 loss? What is your opinion exactly?

[bitgolden]

Better team in terms of price and history but Mourinho has a special way of making a $5m player look like $50m. That's his true ability, we saw it again and again even in Roma. I think he'll do the same here.

I agree with you on the Mourinho topic. I still can't believe that I see him managing the team I'm supporting. I know that he doesn't have his old performance. However it is a fascinating thing that the special one is managing your team.

slaman29, mate I'm curious about your opinion on the round. Do you think that we will be able to get past this round after a 2-1 loss? What is your opinion exactly?

I personally have to say that no matter what you think about Mourinho, his teams always have a chance to win, so on the second round we could see Fenerbahce definitely could win, not saying that they will, but I can say that they will never give up. They got a little unlucky with that last goal anyway, otherwise the game looked quite equal, and a lot of oddmakers showed Lille to be superior, so the fact that the game went quite equal means that Fenerbahce played better than they were expected to.

The only question mark is that Mourinho talked about how he would rather be in Europa, not really said that exactly but he said they won't win anything at UCL but could win Europa, so he probably desires to be there instead.

Meaning that if they lose this, there will be some hate towards him for missing out on UCL for a short while, but then if he does well at the league and then wins the Europa? That would be insane, first European cup ever for that Turkish club, hence he would be considered a very good manager once again. He may even leave for a better club again, because right now not that many teams wanted him at bigger levels, that's why he was capable of going to Fenerbahce.

[slaman29]

Better team in terms of price and history but Mourinho has a special way of making a $5m player look like $50m. That's his true ability, we saw it again and again even in Roma. I think he'll do the same here.

I agree with you on the Mourinho topic. I still can't believe that I see him managing the team I'm supporting. I know that he doesn't have his old performance. However it is a fascinating thing that the special one is managing your team.

slaman29, mate I'm curious about your opinion on the round. Do you think that we will be able to get past this round after a 2-1 loss? What is your opinion exactly?

If I didn't support Barca, I would love Mourinho at my team any day. Yes I will hate his style, yes I will not see so much flair, but any club other than Barca I think I want to see trophies and spirit and this is what Mou can do. I have a lot of respect even what he did with United and then after that Roma. And his style is "last trophy is always the best". That's a true football mentality.

If I bet, it's your team man. They have the ability, they have Mou history, and they now have good odds They played away and had respectable stats, now they must show Lille what the atmosphere is possible in Turkey. Add Mourinho and you have nightmare

[boltz]

Better team in terms of price and history but Mourinho has a special way of making a $5m player look like $50m. That's his true ability, we saw it again and again even in Roma. I think he'll do the same here.

I agree with you on the Mourinho topic. I still can't believe that I see him managing the team I'm supporting. I know that he doesn't have his old performance. However it is a fascinating thing that the special one is managing your team.

slaman29, mate I'm curious about your opinion on the round. Do you think that we will be able to get past this round after a 2-1 loss? What is your opinion exactly?

If I didn't support Barca, I would love Mourinho at my team any day. Yes I will hate his style, yes I will not see so much flair, but any club other than Barca I think I want to see trophies and spirit and this is what Mou can do. I have a lot of respect even what he did with United and then after that Roma. And his style is "last trophy is always the best". That's a true football mentality.

If I bet, it's your team man. They have the ability, they have Mou history, and they now have good odds They played away and had respectable stats, now they must show Lille what the atmosphere is possible in Turkey. Add Mourinho and you have nightmare

I would say Fenerbahce still has great chances to qualify further because on paper , they have a better squad than Lille and this should be the decided factor of who is going to qualify further. Sure , Lille is having a great run in the last couple of years in Europe competitions but also in Ligue 1 but Fener with Mourinho is a team that can achieve great performances in European competitions as well. However , if they won't qualify , I suppose playing in Europe League is not so bad after all right ? 

[Adiljutt156]

Didn't saw Lille - Fenerbahche game, so can't comment about it. Losing away to club from Top 5 league isn't tragedy, especially when you have 2nd leg at home. It will be very hot in Istanbul.
Rangers scoring goal on last minute and making score 1:1 is huge hit for Dynamo Kyiv. Sparta failing to win against FCSB is little upset. I don't know why bookmakers so clearly favoured Qarabag, but I wouldn't say that Ludogorets win is surprise.
From today's games expected plenty of goals in Jagiellonia - Bodo/Glimt game, but so far there was just 1.

I expected that Fenerbahçe SK team players wil win this match because I like that team and I support that team but that team disappointed me and millions of fans who like that team. The overall performance of LOSC Lille team was perfect and LOSC Lille team won the match by 2-1 goals.  The shots of LOSC Lille team were more in number and their shots were also on target and that was, deserving team for win this match.  The possession percentage was also excellent of LOSC Lille
 Players and  and passes were more and perfect. Many fans excepted they will go to their home with happy mode when their team will win  but that was not possible because players didn't prepare well.

[SirLancelot]

If I didn't support Barca, I would love Mourinho at my team any day. Yes I will hate his style, yes I will not see so much flair, but any club other than Barca I think I want to see trophies and spirit and this is what Mou can do. I have a lot of respect even what he did with United and then after that Roma. And his style is "last trophy is always the best". That's a true football mentality.

If I bet, it's your team man. They have the ability, they have Mou history, and they now have good odds They played away and had respectable stats, now they must show Lille what the atmosphere is possible in Turkey. Add Mourinho and you have nightmare

I would guess that Mourinho is liked by many people because he comes across as a guy who does this knowing that he doesn't "belong", while being one of the best ever to do it. What we are looking at during managers are people who used to be either good players, or at least played a bit, and people who are proper managers, whereas Mourinho comes across as someone who is normal like us, who happen to just get lucky finding a job and then did a great job, he gives every regular day guy a chance to think that he could have done well too.

I know that's not his story, I mean I know that he worked really hard to get there and he jokes about being special one and all that, but he is definitely looking like a normal regular dude. That is also true for Klopp as well, he had that aura to him as well, those two feel like they are just normal people who happen to be in the football world, which makes us love them even more.

Mourinho has that charm to him, he looks like approachable person, like if I saw him on the road then I would go ask to take a picture, if I saw Pep Guardiola for example, I would stay away from him and not ask any photos at all lol. That's why we like Mourinho, that's what makes him fun.

[MK-74]

The second matches of the qualifiers will be played tonight. Fenerbahçe lost their first match 2-1 to Lille. Fenerbahçe needs to win by at least 2 goals tonight to continue in the Champions League. I think Fenerbahçe will win but they need to make no mistakes.

[LTU_btc]

Very strange to see such high odds for Ludogorets against Qarabag. They won first game away and now playing at home. Difficult to call them underdogs. I go with BTTS here. Rangers - Dynamo Kyiv is going to be very interesting game. My picks here is BTTS and over 2.5 goals here.
Twente - Salzburg is another interesting game, Twente lost 1st game away 1:2. I put over 2.5 goals on this game.
Bodo/Glimt is playing with Jagiellonia at home.. Bodo/Glimt is big favorite here, but I can't find good value bets on this game.

The second matches of the qualifiers will be played tonight. Fenerbahçe lost their first match 2-1 to Lille. Fenerbahçe needs to win by at least 2 goals tonight to continue in the Champions League. I think Fenerbahçe will win but they need to make no mistakes.

I put some money on Fenerbahche. Not really sure that they will qualify to next round, but I expect that game will go to extra time at least.

[MK-74]

It didn't work, they couldn't win the match. The Champions League is over for Fenerbahçe, they will continue in the UEFA Europa League. I can't say they played very well, they didn't have a chance, if you can't score you're eliminated, it's that simple. I hope they play better in the EUFA Europa League and come out as leaders in the groups.

[el kaka22]

Factually speaking we are not going to see big teams just yet, all of these teams are not good at all and that is why I think it could not be that easy to handle at all. We are going to see these games be undecided, so that is why we can't make it work any other way, we can't make it change at all. We are going to see this stage to be quite hard to bet, so it is not possible at the moment. I do believe that we are going to see the group stages be much much better because when that happens we are going to end up with

Real Madrid's and City's and so forth with big teams and when you bet on them during the group stages they will face much easier teams and that will not be too bad at all. I hope that it can become much better, and with that in mind I will not bet on the situation at the moment. So, I think we can't really consider this stage to be able to bet right now. I know that we are going to see another stage and all that is complicated, we can't just easily bet. I personally stay away.