[kendoo]

The mighty st mirren 3 v Celtic 2
Lol awesome

[Toronto]

Not sure if thread worthy and didn't know where else to put this so striker Wilfried Bony from Vitesse was trolled hard by some guy on a forum. He got him all horny and made him send pics
. There's more pics but it would not be appropriate for this site.

[Henry Hill]

What does speak for the strength of the Spanish league is how well their teams do in the Europa League/UEFA Cup,

English teams are obsessed with fourth place making the Europa League a distraction when it should be a priority. If the Europa League guaranteed a champions league place you wouldn't see the same results.

Also it does make perfect sense to compare Ronaldo and Gomez because one can outscore the other in the champions league quite comfortably yet can't match him in those seasons in league competition. That tells me that one league is a lot easier to play in than the other. You can talk about easy draws but there is no match in the champions league that compares to the mediocrity present in the bottom half of La Liga.

Gomez and Van Persie would comfortably score 30-35 goals in La Liga. I have no doubt about that whatsoever.

[T-C]

Originally Posted by Henry Hill

English teams are obsessed with fourth place making the Europa League a distraction when it should be a priority. If the Europa League guaranteed a champions league place you wouldn't see the same results.

Also it does make perfect sense to compare Ronaldo and Gomez because one can outscore the other in the champions league quite comfortably yet can't match him in those seasons in league competition. That tells me that one league is a lot easier to play in than the other. You can talk about easy draws but there is no match in the champions league that compares to the mediocrity present in the bottom half of La Liga.

Gomez and Van Persie would comfortably score 30-35 goals in La Liga. I have no doubt about that whatsoever.

So you're saying that getting into the Champions League doesn't matter to Spanish clubs? Because that's just silly. Anyway United played a strong side in both legs against Athletic last season and got battered like no other team did all season. So the fourth place thing doesn't hold much weight there.

I was talking about the depth issue with the Ronaldo/Gomez comparison. Basically because Ronaldo was the second top scorer in La Liga last season how many did the second top scorer in the Bundesliga get in the champions league to compare?

Gomez was only 4 off that last season and Huntelaar got 29, who never set La Liga alight funnily. Van Persie is on course to possibly get 30 in the league this season, while he got 30 last season so I'm not really getting your point as to how La Liga defences are so bad.

[Henry Hill]

Of course Spanish sides care about 4th but they can afford to play without fear in the obscenely long Europa League format because their own league is so mediocre.

The battle for 4th in England is much tougher than anywhere else in Europe.

Fact is, if you looked at the champions league stats over the last two seasons there is plenty of argument to suggest that Gomez is a better goalscorer than Ronaldo. The only reason Ronaldo has more goals in that period is because he's playing in an easier league.

[T-C]

How come both finalists in the Europa league last season weren't able to finish in the top 4 of the "mediocre" Spanish league then?

Gomez scored 2 more goals in the last 2 champions league seasons than Ronaldo, yes. But I still don't see how that shows that Spanish is so mediocre, there are a number of variables. Ronaldo is top of the champions league scoring charts this season anyway.

[nazzac]

Originally Posted by Henry Hill

Of course Spanish sides care about 4th but they can afford to play without fear in the obscenely long Europa League format because their own league is so mediocre.

The battle for 4th in England is much tougher than anywhere else in Europe.

Fact is, if you looked at the champions league stats over the last two seasons there is plenty of argument to suggest that Gomez is a better goalscorer than Ronaldo. The only reason Ronaldo has more goals in that period is because he's playing in an easier league.

Not really. The Bundesliga has produced more top 4 members over the years than the Premier League.

I think that you arer under-rating La Liga's depth. Like T-C mentioned Bilbao dominated Man United over 2 legs last season, and they only just got into Europe for this season.

Look at all these Spanish imports that have come to the Prmeier League. Mata, Silva, Michu, Carzola have all come from La Liga and are setting the EPl alight.

[Abk™]

In Mata case, he's obviously surrounded by better players than he was at Valencia. In fact, almost all of those you mentioned with the exception of Michu, who I haven't watched nor can I remember anything that has to do with him during his time in Spain.

[Samoon]

Juventus and Lazio are playing today. The first leg was a 1-1 draw in the Juventus stadium, now Lazio is playing at home. Hard to predict who will go through but I think Juve will go through even though they are playing away from home. My prediction is 2-1 in Juve's favour.

[Samoon]

Clasico is today, expecting Barcelona to win because Madrid are missing a few key players and Barcelona has a good record at the Bernabeu recently.

My prediction is: Madrid 2-3 Barcelona