Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

@JohnnyShoulder I agree Poch made the right changes but you have to admit, for the 135 (+injury times), Spurs looked like they had no answers to Ajax. Ajax should probably won at least 2-0 in the first leg and at half time, Ajax had looked most likely to score the next goal.

Fair play to Poch (who I have always said is a great manager who always gets more from his squad than other managers could) and congrats to Spurs too...

@BAMozzy That maybe the case but is not always the team that has control for the majority of the match that actually ends up winning. The Barca - Liverpool match last week is another example, like you said if we were more clinical with our finishing it would have been a different story. But we weren't and we lost the match. The Ajax players looked a bit nervous after spurs scored, almost if something had been taken away from them.

Well, guess that's one way (and probably the only way) for an Eng club to win the UCL. When's the last time we had two Eng clubs in a UCL final? Pretty sure no one predicted this. lol

@WanderingBullet Its happened twice before where 2 English clubs have contested a European final - 1972 UEFA Cup final (Spurs vs Wolves) and 2008 Champions League final (Man Utd vs Chelsea). Just 11 years ago, Man Utd beat Chelsea on Penalties in the 'first' and only previous occasion that 2 English clubs have contested the Champions League final.

Its the first Champion's League Final for Spurs but they did win the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) final against Wolves - the only previous occasion that 2 English sides have met in a European Cup Final.

I was just looking at the UEFA (Now Europa) Cup and see that Spurs are ranked 2nd (7th overall) as far as English Clubs (behind Liverpool who are 2nd overall) in terms of success with 2 wins and 1 runners up. In terms of 'success', Liverpool are joint 4th with Barcelona and regardless of the result, will move into 4th on their own. Both Liverpool and Barcelona have 5 wins and 3 runners up results - I hope it ends with 6 wins and 3 runners up of course for Liverpool...

@WanderingBullet Not quite sure what you mean this is the only way for an English team to win the CL? If you are implying english teams can't beat other big European teams, did you not see the game on Tuesday?

I know English Clubs haven't won the Champions League (and its Predecessor) as much as Spain - mostly because of Real Madrid's 13 wins (which is more than ANY other country's total) 5 of which were the first 5yrs of the competition. They account for the bulk of Spain's 18 wins - the other 5 coming from Barcelona. However England have 12 wins - soon to be 13 and rank joint 2nd overall with Italy (also on 12 wins) and that's after a lengthy ban from European football too.

Of course Spain again tops the Europa tables too with Sevilla winning 5 of Spains 11 wins - only 3 more than England on 8 - Liverpool and Spurs have 5 of those 8 (3 for Liverpool and 2 for Spurs) - If Arsenal and Chelsea both reach the Final, England will be 2nd to Spain overall in European Cup Final wins - They are going to be joint 2nd as Italy has 1 more Europa league wins with 9 and the same number (at least until June 1st) of Champions League wins. If an English club wins Europa too, they will move ahead of Italy as the 2nd most successful country in European cup final wins.

To me that says English clubs are quite successful on the European big stage and as stated above, only met twice before in either European competition - once in each (until June 1st). Of the 20 cup wins by English teams in European competition, 18 of them came against clubs for other nations. That's not including any UEFA Super Cup or Fifa Club World Cups...

Yes, I did but how often does that happen, though? For the past 11 years English clubs have only won it twice (one of them was an all English final which @BAMozzy said) but Spanish clubs have mainly been the winners of this competition. Some of the big European clubs are on a decline. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are going through a rebuilding phase.

Just to claify the rules of qualification:

No country can have more than five sides qualifying for the Champions League.

The Top Four would qualify, unless the Champions League winners were positioned outside the top four, this would mean the fourth placed side would be in the Europa League instead and the Champions League place would not be passed on.

The Europa League winner does not technically affect the top four in England, so if a side from the Top four won the Europa League, that Champions League place would also not be passed down in any way.

So, basically if the current top four of Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham was to stay the same, only Arsenal winning the Europa League would add a fifth team from England to the Champions League.

PS - Cant believe my Spurs are in the final, considering how much of a shambles we have been..

@dellyrascal @Kyroki Regarding their league form, Spurs have been saving themselves for the Champions League.

@Kyroki - Ha, yes for my sins, 40 years or there abouts, going by my earliest memories (aged about 3). Still remember my dad getting rather annoyed at being held by non-league Altrincham in the FA Cup!

@WanderingBullet I wish they wouldn't, the ticker cant take it after all these years of struggle

COYS!!!!! What an amazing night! I'm still shaking from it

@Kyroki or spurs to lose by more than 4 goals and Arsenal to win by 4 goals. Job done!

Chelsea making hard work of this.

I once heard Higuain was a good player. He's played 5 or 6 passes to no one and is slower than the movement speed in Everybodys gone to the rapture.

@themcnoisy Haha.

Lacazette and Aubameyang were ruthless in Spain tonight. Great result for the Arsenal.

So an all English Europa Cup Final and an all English Champions League final...

If both teams played like they did tonight in the final, Arsenal will wipe the floor with Chelsea. But it's a one off game so all that goes out the window normally.

@BAMozzy 4 English teams going through but the bigger point - 3 teams from one City in both the European finals. I don't think we will ever see that again.

@themcnoisy i think Tranmere fans might have something to say about that.

@themcnoisy I don't think we will see 4 teams from one nation competing in the final let alone 3 from one city. I can't think of any nation that has more than 2 'big' clubs that could qualify for Europe other than London so I don't think it would be possible unless 3 London clubs are in the finals again.

We will move further ahead of Italy in terms of successes in European wins...

@JohnnyShoulder Tranmere is in Birkenhead.