Hamburg v Man City

Hamburg away

Tough one - hard to see City getting through unless they drastically improve their form, particularly away.

Unlucky, French.

Hamburg v Man City

I know one of those 8 that still won't be winning it

Hamburg is not the easiest draw by any stretch but we are more than capable of getting through.

If it's United v Villereal in the semis they should save everyone the hassle of 2 0-0 borefests and go straight to penalties

Absolutely true. When you perform they are a match for most teams. It just doesn't happen often enough......and when they are bad, they are very very bad

To be fair, I can't see Citeh ultimately triumphing against all that opposition while I've got an aperture in my rectum.

The one thing Hamburg are short of is a geniunely creative playmaker type, e.g. Diego at Werder Bremen so that could work to your advantage. If Robinho and Ireland come to the party then you've got a great chance of progressing.

This is probably a distraction Hamburg don't need as they're really in the mix for the Bundesliga title and therefore a CL spot.

Inconsistency is inevitable when you have an inexperienced, small squad missing key players.

We are at home for the second leg so I regard that as an advantage. With our lack of experience, I think it's better that we don't play away in the second leg - this was clear from last nights game.

They're a functional team. They will be difficult to breakdown. I can see them being very defensive in the second leg, with them pumping it long to Ollic to chase.

We should have Bellamy and Sturridge available for that game as well as a fit Ireland and SWP. We could also have Petrov and Johnson available. I doubt the latter will play for the club again but you never know. Just a shame that De Jong and Bojinov are not registered. They would be big plusses. Benjani could be a big player against Hamburg. We may well need a striker with the ability to head the ball when we play at home.

We also have two ex-Hamburg players in our squad who could provide some inside knowledge.

FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm

FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" Is this ambulance chasers on their day off? Anyone lose a bet that could in some small way have been affected by 'the Tevez affair' and want to claim compensation??? Can I claim back the Euros I spent in a bar in Lloret watching the game because 'I only watched it thinking United would muller West Ham and they would have done if it were not for Tevez' ???

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" Is this ambulance chasers on their day off? Anyone lose a bet that could in some small way have been affected by 'the Tevez affair' and want to claim compensation??? Can I claim back the Euros I spent in a bar in Lloret watching the game because 'I only watched it thinking United would muller West Ham and they would have done if it were not for Tevez' ???

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" No sympathy. The guy has been more trouble than he is worth. Having said that, everyone seems to forget that Mascherano was in the same boat. He just didn't score any goals like Tevez did.

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" No sympathy. The guy has been more trouble than he is worth. Having said that, everyone seems to forget that Mascherano was in the same boat. He just didn't score any goals like Tevez did.

chelsea AGAIN



FIXED

he has always played for us

Factoid 2 - Hamburg are managed by Martin Jol.

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" And if the FA had done their jobs properly and docked points like they've done with every other team that's played an ineligible player all this would have been done and dusted at the time. Instead they thought it would be 'unfair on the fans' something they never do with any other teams that been docked points. London bias? Quote ="Billy Banter"Having said that, everyone seems to forget that Mascherano was in the same boat. He just didn't score any goals like Tevez did.'" Didn't he only play about 16 minutes in total for them though?

Quote ="Ian [77"FFS news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 954881.stm'" And if the FA had done their jobs properly and docked points like they've done with every other team that's played an ineligible player all this would have been done and dusted at the time. Instead they thought it would be 'unfair on the fans' something they never do with any other teams that been docked points. London bias? Quote ="Billy Banter"Having said that, everyone seems to forget that Mascherano was in the same boat. He just didn't score any goals like Tevez did.'" Didn't he only play about 16 minutes in total for them though?

IIRC the problems only came to light after Mascherano's transfer to Liverpool unearthed the issue with the ownership rights of the players.

The Mascherano issue was resolved (IIRC causing a long delay before his move was confirmed) and, subsequently, the Premier League also announced that Tevez was eligible to continue to play for West Ham after being asked to clarify.

The furore only came about because it was subsequently revealed that the Tevez ownership problems had never been sorted out, and he was ineligible, despite the PL previously stating otherwise.

[urlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1163579/Buy-buy-Rafa-Sir-Alex-says-Benitez-just-chequebook-boss.html[/url

FERGIES CRACKING UP!

I've read a lot of comparisons between money spent and so on, and I think when it was all calculated, obviously it's quite a rough estimate, but I think it shown Rafa had spent more in both money and net, but United's squad now cost a lot more than ours.

I think from now on we'll see Rafa prioritizing quality over quantity, as the bulk of our squad is decent and settled, it's just a matter of adding a bit of extra quality to the first XI, and having stronger competition for places.

By stating facts????



And Hiddink say's that Liverpool v Chelsea games are exciting...I take it he hasn't seen any of them recently then???



Hiddink told Chelsea's official website: 'They know each other so well, in detail. I have not seen all the games but they are always exciting, very close victories or draws, so exciting because both teams like to play football and they have players in the team to play an attacking way of football, and that's a guarantee for big clashes.

It's his opinion, to be fair. People have different opinions of what quality football is, some people prefer flamboyant attacking football like Arsenal, and others prefer tactical football like Liverpool's. I'm quite mixed on the matter really. Depending on what you feel is 'exciting', I felt the past 2/3 games against Chelsea have been pretty exciting, for me anyway.

Portsmouth 1 Everton 1 - after 25 mins in the lunchtime game.

Good free kick, the first.