We're getting the confidence from the fact that we should have scored about five against Feyenoord. We bossed them.
Are you seriously suggesting we'll only win one point from our remaining five matches?
That takes masochism to a whole new level.
Beyond belief.
Feyenoord were really poor on the night and the reality is we never scored the 4 and 5 goals we should have. They will be a completely different team in Holland. As I said, watched Young Boys against a good Red Star Belgrade team and they were impressive to me. Very British style of football and like to cross to two big strikers. Porto are a champions league team and could get 18 points if they want them.
3 weeks ago a piss poor Celtic team with 2 rookie full backs and Biton in centra half strolled up and beat us at Ibrox and people think we are taking 9 points out of 9 at home for the first time in my lifetime. Is that not beyond belief?
As I say hope I’m wrong but I’d rather be realistic then pleasantly surprised if we better it than be optimistic without any substance behind the predictions.
And if you really think 4 then you're off your nut.Honestly I reckon 4 unfortunately. Don’t know where people get the confidence from but I think if you really think 10 then I think you will be disappointed.
They did beat us with a patched up team and us going in as favourites. We were beating them 3-0 80 odd minutes played with a patched up team and our club in administration. They still won the league and would have regardless of the points deduction. You have a very black and white view of things.
Conversely I think a few are over estimating young boys. They have done nothing of note in Europe bar a couple of isolated results. They finished behind basel who lost home and away to an Austrian outfit we would beat in the CL play off. We'll get minimum 4 points off them.
Wrong table I was looking at. You're right of course.Young Boys finished 20 points ahead of Basel to win the league last season.
Correct.Without too much thought, my gut would be:
Young boys
opinion - 3 pts
best case - 4 pts
Porto
opinion - 1 pt
best case - 3 pts
Feyenoord (secured 3)
opinion - 4 pts It's close
best case - 6 pts
Opinion - 8 pts
Potentially - 10 pts
Best best case - 13 pts (I think that's a bridge to far)
realistically though there's probably some bias in the opinions and there's an argument for between 5 and 8 pts.
I think it will be close, I don't think we'll get everything our own way, and I don't think there is a single easy point in the above.
My absolute priority is the league though, so it will be interesting to see how the squads are managed in between times. It's another step in Gerrards management career, tough fixtures to handle whilst making a serious push for the league.
Perhaps, but a lot of people are also underestimating Rangers. We should be looking to qualify from this group, and we are more than capable. None of them will be overly confident coming to Ibrox.I reckon a lot of people are underestimating young boys. They beat Basel to the league title by 20 points last season.
PSV in 199912.
Out of curiosity, have we ever taken 6 points off a team in a group?
I think we will win 3 and draw 3As per title
Think we should maybe have a little history lesson on our record in UEFA Group Stage competitions.
From 92/93 to last season , we have competed in the group stages a total of 13 times. We've progressed twice. Champions League 05/06 and UEFA Cup 06/07.
That's a very poor record in anyones eyes.
The year we qualified for the last 16 of the champions league, we did so on 7 points. I recall at the time it was a record or joint low points tally to get out of the group.
The only time we have achieved double figures in a group stage was the UEFA Cup 06/07 group that included the giants of Auxerre, Livorno, Partizan Belgrade and Maccabbi Haifa. We won 10 points out of 12.
In 92/93 where we registered 2 wins and 4 draws we finished on 8 points. Had the 3 points for a win system been in place at the time, we would have finished on 10.
I've seen us get off to good starts in these groups too many times to get carried away with one win over Feyenoord. For example ;
00/01 CL - Wins over Sturm Graz and Monaco. 6 out of 6 after two games. We then go on to pick up only 2 more. We drop out into the UEFA cup.
03/04 CL - Good win over Stuttgart to open then a draw in Greece against Panathinakos. We then lose the next 4 games. Bottom of the group.
04/05 UC - 2 wins to start with. Away to Polands Amica Wronki and a home win against Grazer AK. We then shit the bed and lose final games at AZ Alkmaar and a home defeat to Auxerre. We do not qualify.
07/08 CL - Best start of the lot. 7 points from 9. Wins against Stuttgart and Lyon, a point at home to Barcelona. We follow that up with 1 point from the final games and it's not good enoough to get us to the last 16.
18/19 EL - 5 points from the first 9. Again out later half form is poor and only take a further point.
And those are our better seasons in the groups. We've had some horror stories for sure.
We've had a very encouraging first half against Feyenoord and despite a shakier second half deserved the win. Some of the posts on here predicting double figure point hauls are hopeful at best. I'm not saying we can't do it, I think this squad on top of their game are capable. We just need to buck history that tells us we rarely get out of group stage competition.
Let's just take it a game at a time starting in Switzerland next week.
Would it shock people to find out that we were actually the 2nd highest spenders in our group over the Summer window? Of course this doesn't mean we have the 2nd best squad, especially as Feyenoord & Young Boys were starting from a stronger position than us, but it does point to a trend of downsizing for those 2 clubs, while we have almost certainly strengthened.
Feyenoord
Estimated spend - £6.57m
Estimated departures - £16.56m
Young Boys
Estimated spend - £5.63m
Estimated departures - £16.38m
Rangers
Estimated spend - £10.70m
Estimated departures - 250k
Porto
Estimated spend - £54.00m
Estimated departures - £80.10m
Could have no actual baring on how the group turns out but interesting to see nonetheless.