Nah, I read last night that supposedly it moves to whoever was third place in the French league. Don't quote me on that one though.

Edit: Here's the over complicated system explained
Champions League and Europa League: Who qualifies next season? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48218727

Hopefully that link works. This forum on phones is bloody awful

Link didnt work but I looked it up and yeah. Swines.

Also, what a joke Arsenal and Chelsea getting just 6000 tickets each for the final. The stadium holds 68000. Would love to know how many will end up going to corporate sponsors.

in bundesliga news, today and next week bayern and dortmund fight for first & second place, and dortmund and leipzig fight for second & third place.

everyone else is stuck at 4th or lower.

today bayern v. leipzig looks interesting and is relevant.

then there’s still one more weekend

robben apparently retiring? fuck, robben and ribéry leaving bayern. damn. thanks for the memories!

they’re apparently just leaving the club not retiring altogether. mls maybe?

Haven't heard anything about Ribery but Robben's apparently looking at Japan. He's also connected with a move to Inter but I can't see that happening.

great bayern-leipzig first half! 0-0 still but a lot of back and forth action. bayerns wants to lock the title today.

meanwhile dortmund ahead of dusseldorf 1-0 great pulisic goal. kid is leaving for chelsea after today. not sure why not finishing the season, wtf.

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yeah robben too many injuries these days to reliably play europa. maybe should coach—he used to complain about ancelotti, maybe now he can present an alternative

leon goretzka scores for bayern with an awesome kick but now everyone waiting for var

wtf... offside?

this aint the way to do this shit lmao

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dusseldorf evened the score vs dortmund

..

a minute later dortmund pulls ahead again lol

Simeone on Messi and Ronaldo. Don't think I've ever seen a better summary of the two players.

^^brilliant

Sounds fair. Ronaldo could play in any team and improve them. Messi too, but his impact would be lessened if they don't play in a way that's compatible with his style. For sheer talent I don't think anyone can touch Messi but I can see why a manager would consider Ronaldo the more practical option.

this is how tiny portugal kicked ass at the last euro but mighty argentina can’t even win the copa américa

yesyes. even with cronaldo subbed out early lol

shit, what happened with portugal at the world cup? that group promised so much at the start...

BUT ANYWAY

Come on, even putting aside Ronaldo's no-show in the final, Portugal were the most unconvincing European champions since Greece. 'Kicked ass'? Do you remember their games in that tournament? Meanwhile let's not forget the problems behind the scenes at Argentina which brought a number of their star players to the brink of resigning from the national team altogether.

Either way, it's fair to say both players' huge reputations are based entirely on their performances at club level.

eh, he got subbed out early due to injury. and sure, pepe was the star that day. shutting down griezmann was a feat. but cronaldo delivered all along the way, diva fits and faults and all.

it goes back to simeone’s comments. precisely that. that was my point.

messi needs a well-oiled machine to perform. never gonna be a hand-of-god guy (lol). cronaldo is the guy who will make a difference on his own. he even did it from the bench.



and for this reason he has done more for his country than messi. national squads are generally kludges, save some historical exceptions. and everyone keeps waiting for messi to deliver a trophy, to single-handedly save argentina. but he’s not that kind of player. exactly.

i still hate ronaldo though. fucking supervillain lololol.

A heads up,

all Prem games start today at 3pm (GMT)

Needless to say MC v Brighton will be the one to watch

thanks!

liverpool wolfitos holds the most interest for me. my 2 fave teams of the season against each other.

i’m sure they’ll insert updates from the man city game as it progresses.

Brighton & Hove Albion: Ryan; Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Bernardo; Kayal, Bissouma; Knockaert, Gross, Jahanbakhsh; Murray.
Subs: Button, Burn, Bong, Montoya, Molumby, Locadia, Andone.

Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Kompany, Laporte, Zinchenko; Gundogan; B Silva, D Silva; Mahrez, Aguero, Sterling.
Subs: Muric, Danilo, Stones, Otamendi, De Bruyne, Sane, Jesus.

--

Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Matip, Robertson; Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Henderson; Salah, Origi, Mane.
Subs: Mignolet, Lovren, Milner, Gomez, Sturridge, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaqiri.

Wolves: Patricio; Boly, Bennett, Coady; Doherty, Dendoncker, Moutinho, Neves, Johnny; Jota, Jimenez.
Subs: Ruddy, Cavaleiro, Costa, Gibbs-White, Vinagre, Traore, Kilman.

Mane scores

yep! (was coming in to say that)

been a very caffeinated game so far

man u down vs cardiff? lmao

Brighton score .... game on!

holy shit brighton up?

Aguero equaliser but Liverpool still on

damn that was instantaneous

video feed people going nuts here

City piling on massive pressure now. David Silva so close.

wolves attacking better now. not quite dangerous yet but looking... unbottled

Laporte scores, 2-1 man city

shit...

doherty just hit the goalpost. yikes!

wolfitos doing great this second half i think. look to me more able to play their way.

bunch of fouls both ways

old man milner (lol) getting ready to come in

someone needs to change the tide which currently favors wolves

man city 3? :(

—

hah, ilkay makes it 4

meanwhile wolves been close to equalizing

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and against the run of play supergoal mane. 2-0

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wolves did well. not disappointed. here’s to them carrying on with their plans next year. enjoyable squad.

and may liverpool beef up their reserves

Once Man City got their 3rd I switched to the WH game.

So symbols, you've watched quite a bit of the Prem this season. Any impressions? I know you're largely neutral and mainly watched the Bundesliga the last couple of years so interesting to know how it came across.

yeah this year i watched mostly prem and neglected the bundas (lol)

im not “committed” to any position nor quite feeling it emotionally yet but it’s been a good aesthetic experience.

things i like about the prem is more great international players, more great teams, and more parity among them. no other league can compete right now. it’s like the world cup, every week. circus maximus. and i think other leagues are falling behind.

saw with sadness robben and ribéry still at bayern in their mid 30s, and nobody with the technical ability to replace them. kimmich very promising, goretzka promising... but it’s more of a promising team now than a top one.

pulisic is moving from dortmund to chelsea after 5 great years-- keep an eye on him. all the best “germans” (#notallgermans) have been moving to england, lol. debruyne, klopp, aubameyang... , sane was there already... i wonder how soon till someone scoops up lewandowski, reus, timo werner... even players who were good but not great were scooped up, like sokratis or the disappearing mkhitarian (where did he go?). karius at liverpool. leno at arsenal. ilkay at man city. etc etc.

the prem is absolutely the league to watch right now, otherwise you’re missing out on the center of world football. i think it’s gotten even better than champions league, as a contest. if anything, there is so much to watch i can’t follow it all. i’m very glad to have access to it.

but yeah so far it’s more admiration than love. there are teams i like but i have not yet found a "home" in it. looking forward to next year for sure...

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It is relentless, especially around December/January. That's always been the case but I don't think anyone can question the quality now either. La Liga may have Real and Barca but under them it becomes a bit of a hodge-odge, whereas the established top 6 in the Prem all have serious ambitions to win big trophies every year. That also makes it attractive to top or emerging managers as they have more options than seems to be the case in other leagues.

Anyway, now it's 2 months of transfer madness before the whole thing starts again.

Gonna be interesting to see if Wolves can build on this season. It's not uncommon for a team to surprise everyone one season then collapse in the next one, and I can see them having a hard time keeping hold of players like Jota and Doherty.

Fairly happy with West Ham finishing 10th. A terrible start then the usual inconsistency for the rest of the season. The Arnie debacle in January didn't help but Lanzini coming back was great, and Declan Rice looks like a genuine star for the future. Hopefully the owners will maintain their low key profile next season (it must be killing them) and back Pellegrini to reinforce the team and replace Arnie, assuming he's going. I don't see us ever breaking into the top 6 but I'd be happy if the team can establish itself as an upper-mid-table team, with maybe a big FA Cup run, or Europa place every now and then. And playing decent football.

Team of the Year: Have to say Wolves, and for that reason would have to make NES my manager of the year. Although Poch has been brilliant in a difficult season for Spurs.
Player of the Year: I had said Sterling but can't see past VVD now. Best defender in the Prem and a reasonable shout for best in the world based on this season's performance.
Goal of the Year: Sigurdsson v Leicester for me. As much for the turn as for the shot.
Flop team: Has to be Man U
Flop manager:Gonna say Ole. Gave MU a spike when he replaced Jose and I thought he deserved the full-time job but they're now no better than they were under the special one.
Flop Player: Fred.

Less.of this deep post season analysis. I have what you've all been waiting for. That's right Petr Cech and THE Roger Taylor, nono not the Duran Duran member, ONLY the drummer from Queen have done a song together!!

And yes. It's absolutely as bad as you'd expect it to be.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CRpLExAF-DQ

yeah i heard it the other day lololol. for about 5 seconds :D

i dont know enough to make yearly assessments because i have not watched broadly enough to compare, plus i still don’t know a lot of names

but do i like wolves? hell yeah, from day 1. therefore, i blame nuno, hahaha. yeah. good manager.

they need someone better than traore.

Tonight will be the last round of Dutch competition (it was postponed due to Ajax' Champions League adventures). PSV still has a fair chance to become the winner. They only have to win with a positive goal difference of +14, and Ajax has to loose.

haaahaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

today on bundesliga’s final matchday:

dortmund-gladbach (2 borussias)

and

bayern-frankfurt (manager niko kovsc moved from frankfurt to bayern)

bayern and dortmund racing for the title.

bayern 2 points and +17 goals ahead

robben, ribéry and rafinha moving on

—

lmao bayen scores before 4’

bayern scores again, im switching to the borussias lol

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sancho the wonderboy puts dortmund ahead right before halftime

ended up watching the 2nd half of bayern game and they had had their 2nd goal annuled and it was just 1-0

tldr ended up 5-1 and both robben and ribéry came in and scored :_(

hahaha it was great. but so sad to see those 2 go.