OT: Biggest UEFA Champions League Upset Ever?

[mike412]

Real Madrid 2, Shaktar Donetsk 3 in Madrid.

Shaktar Donetsk had 10 first team players and 9 staff members miss the match because of COVID19. They had to call up 10 players from their B team, and 2 of the 3 goals were scored by B team players, including the game winner.

Shaktar Donetsk has not played a home game since 2014, when Putin’s little green men invaded the Donbas area of SE Ukraine and seized more than half of the oblasts (states) of Luhansk and Donetsk. They play their “home” matches in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv, each of which is more than 1,000 miles away from Donetsk.

The team is owned by a guy who used to be the richest oligarch in Ukraine. Among other things, he owned all of the steel mills and iron and coal mines in the Donbas. He had spent a lot of money bringing in South American players to make them the powerhouse of the Ukrainian League and a player in Europe. But, when the pro-Russians took over, most of the workers in the mills and mines supported Ukraine. Putin took over most of them, depriving Akmehtov of more than half of his net worth. He lives, I believe, in London. He no longer buys expensive players.

They were by far the longest long shot in this week’s matches. A dollar bet on them to win would have returned $72.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

They were by far the longest long shot in this week’s matches. A dollar bet on them to win would have returned $72.

I'm not sure where you are seeing those sorts of odds, but they are way, way off. It looks like the consensus odds on the Vegas Insider site ended up wth Shakhtar at +1300 to win (and that's actually overstating it, because there was only one place at greater than 1300). That means bet $100 to win $1300. Or in other words, bet $1 to win $13.

By way of comparison, the Shakhtar win odds ranged from +1170 to +1385. Porto's win odds against Man City ranged from +800 to +1200.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Real Madrid 2, Shaktar Donetsk 3 in Madrid.

Shaktar Donetsk had 10 first team players and 9 staff members miss the match because of COVID19. They had to call up 10 players from their B team, and 2 of the 3 goals were scored by B team players, including the game winner.

Shaktar Donetsk has not played a home game since 2014, when Putin’s little green men invaded the Donbas area of SE Ukraine and seized more than half of the oblasts (states) of Luhansk and Donetsk. They play their “home” matches in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv, each of which is more than 1,000 miles away from Donetsk.

The team is owned by a guy who used to be the richest oligarch in Ukraine. Among other things, he owned all of the steel mills and iron and coal mines in the Donbas. He had spent a lot of money bringing in South American players to make them the powerhouse of the Ukrainian League and a player in Europe. But, when the pro-Russians took over, most of the workers in the mills and mines supported Ukraine. Putin took over most of them, depriving Akmehtov of more than half of his net worth. He lives, I believe, in London. He no longer buys expensive players.

They were by far the longest long shot in this week’s matches. A dollar bet on them to win would have returned $72.

Somewhere there’s a Joe and Hunter Biden joke in there. Lol. All kidding aside, I saw it was 3-0 at the half. That’s crazy. Did Real play a strong lineup? I saw a highlight that looked like Courtois was in goal. It’s always good to see that snake get his.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Somewhere there’s a Joe and Hunter Biden joke in there. Lol. All kidding aside, I saw it was 3-0 at the half. That’s crazy. Did Real play a strong lineup? I saw a highlight that looked like Courtois was in goal. It’s always good to see that snake get his.

I was going to ask the same thing about RM's lineup.

 

[mike412]

Ramos was out with an injury. So was Hazard, but he is always injured. Benzema didn’t start but came on at halftime. The only regular who didn’t play and was healthy was Kroos.

They were just really lazy on defense. On the third Shaktar goal, a 19 year old Israeli midfielder from the B team won the ball just over the midfield line on the left side. He was being marked by the right back and Modric. He made a nice pass to a forward who made a run down the left. The Israeli followed the play. Both Mendy, the right back, and Modric let him go. They halfheartedly trotted after him. He took the pass from the forward right at the top of the box, totally unmarked, and drilled it past Courtois. Both CBs for Real Madrid were marking the forward who passed him the ball and Marcelo, the left back, was trying to get into the play but was late arriving.

The commentators called it “lazy and deplorable defense” and they were right. Shaktar should have had 2 more goals in the first half. One player missed an easy chip over Courtois and another hit the post with the goal wide open.

Both sides had goals waived off in the second half for offsides. Shaktar’s was by inches. Real’s was in the final 30 seconds of extra time. The forward was 5 meters offside. He didn’t touch the ball but he stood right in front of the goalie a foot away from him totally blocking his view of the play. When the goalie tried to move, he moved with him. It was infantile. The announcer looked at the replay and said he was 150% sure the goal would be disallowed. The review was about 10 seconds and it was disallowed. after the match, Gary Liniker, a former striker and now a commentator in Britain, said “On behalf of all of the strikers in the world, I would like to apologize for that play. It embarrassed everyone who ever laced up a boot.”

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Ramos was out with an injury. So was Hazard, but he is always injured. Benzema didn’t start but came on at halftime. The only regular who didn’t play and was healthy was Kroos.

They were just really lazy on defense. On the third Shaktar goal, a 19 year old Israeli midfielder from the B team won the ball just over the midfield line on the left side. He was being marked by the right back and Modric. He made a nice pass to a forward who made a run down the left. The Israeli followed the play. Both Mendy, the right back, and Modric let him go. They halfheartedly trotted after him. He took the pass from the forward right at the top of the box, totally unmarked, and drilled it past Courtois. Both CBs for Real Madrid were marking the forward who passed him the ball and Marcelo, the left back, was trying to get into the play but was late arriving.

The commentators called it “lazy and deplorable defense” and they were right. Shaktar should have had 2 more goals in the first half. One player missed an easy chip over Courtois and another hit the post with the goal wide open.

Both sides had goals waived off in the second half for offsides. Shaktar’s was by inches. Real’s was in the final 30 seconds of extra time. The forward was 5 meters offside. He didn’t touch the ball but he stood right in front of the goalie a foot away from him totally blocking his view of the play. When the goalie tried to move, he moved with him. It was infantile. The announcer looked at the replay and said he was 150% sure the goal would be disallowed. The review was about 10 seconds and it was disallowed. after the match, Gary Liniker, a former striker and now a commentator in Britain, said “On behalf of all of the strikers in the world, I would like to apologize for that play. It embarrassed everyone who ever laced up a boot.”

Hazard just can’t get going at RM. Its blasphemy as a Chelsea fan to say we are better off without him. But I think we are. The injuries are unfortunate and maybe if he’s at Chelsea he remains healthy, but it’s tough to say.

When Pulisic came to Chelsea, people were unfairly comparing him to Hazard and labeling him as Hazard’s replacement. That obviously wasn’t the case but it didn’t stop people from saying it. It’s pretty tough for any one player to replace Eden Hazard. Yet Pulisic, when healthy, has been excellent. He’s made everyone forget about Hazard, and the money raised by Chelsea in the selling of Hazard helped them bring in 3 world class attackers (Werner, Havertz and Ziyech) and the ridiculous amount of money they made off Alvaro Morata has their net spend this window nearly at a break even. Combine those 3 with Pulisic and chelsea could have one of the best attacks in the world once all get going.

I’m not sure why Chelsea spent all that money in the attack and neglected to address the centerback position...but I guess they’ll address that in the next window. They added Ben Chillwell at left back which I wasn’t thrilled about because I preferred they address their centerback position, but he’s looking great on both ends of the pitch.

I think chelsea could be a Liverpool in 2 years and compete for a European Championship. Which is worth the wait for me because it’s hard to imagine anyone beating Bayern Munich right now.

 

[mike412]

How does Bayern Munich keep doing it? One excellent young player after another. I had never seen Kingsley Coman until Tuesday, and he just shredded Atletico Madrid like he was playing against a second division team.

They started Kimmich out as a left back and now he is the fulcrum of their midfield. Just like Phillip Lamm was. He is like a stockier version of Lamm. I’m not sure how good their central defenders are because they are hardly tested. That was their weakness a few years back. I never was sold on Boateng as being elite, and he was their best CB.