The Football Thread 2023/24: Derby promoted, Brian Clough Trophy up for grabs in 24/25?

Figured it was worth sharing the highlights of the CL QFs, amazing football all round :wub:

A Dortmund vs Arsenal final would be the first I'd enjoy watching since Liverpool vs Spurs.
And that wasn't very enjoyable to watch.

Hope you're instead prepared for Man City vs PSG.

Cuttooth wrote:Hope you're instead prepared for Man City vs PSG.

Not sure which plucky underdog gulf state to back in that instance.

Good to see Pompey get promoted at long last. :toot:

Cuttooth wrote:Hope you're instead prepared for Man City vs PSG.

I have tested my television's off button and it works! :toot:

Herdanos wrote:
Cuttooth wrote:Hope you're instead prepared for Man City vs PSG.

I have tested my television's off button and it works!

Madrid doing their best to ruin The People’s Final.

It takes ~~billions of pounds~~ a truly special club to turn the 13-time winners into the underdogs. :wub:

What a gooseberry fool week this has been.

would love to know why we only got 4 minutes of added time that second half, Tomiyasu doing his contact was 2 - 3 minutes on its own i'm sure. But at any rate, only lost 1-0 on the night, 3-2 overall, a far cry from the 10-2 we suffered last time. Went toe to toe with them, didn't look out of place, quarter finals, not to bad for our first season back in the champions league, showing good improvement.

This Dier kid is immense, has to be a shoe in for an England call up. In all seriousness, best defender on the pitch tonight. He’s been getting major plaudits in Germany since signing for Bayern.

Also this week may be the nail in the coffin for the 5th champions league spot coming to the prem. especially if City don’t beat Real.

I really want to see a coefficient As It Stands for the semi-final matches.

Would be hilarious if we had a Bayern v Dortmund final after them being whipped so badly in their domestic leagues.

City really didn’t deserve to lose that, they were far better than Real but you’ve got to take your chances.

Return_of_the_STAR wrote:Would be hilarious if we had a Bayern v Dortmund final after them being whipped so badly in their domestic leagues.

City really didn’t deserve to lose that, they were far better than Real but you’ve got to take your chances.

Totally.

No matter if Real Madrid play well or not yet they always find a way to win. 14 times Champions League winner.

Potential finals from most to least interesting.

Bayern v Dortmund - Dortmund looking for revenge for 2013, Kane looking for a single winner's medal
Madrid v Dortmund - The Jude Bellingham Final
Bayern v PSG - The Thomas Tuchel Final I guess?
Madrid v PSG - Can they both lose?

BBC Football wrote:FA Cup replays will be scrapped from the first round onwards in the 2024-25 competition.

All rounds of the Emirates FA Cup will also be played on weekends, including the fifth round which has been played in midweek for the past five seasons.

The changes come as part of a new six-year agreement between the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League.

The Premier League has also removed its mid-season break from the calendar.

Matches will start in mid-August following a consecutive three-week summer break instead of a shorter spell of rest in the winter, with the decision coming from "expert advice from medical and technical departments".

In its current format, the FA Cup has no replays from the fifth round onwards, but the FA says the move to eliminate them from an earlier stage has been made "in light of changes to the calendar driven by the expanded Uefa competitions".

Uefa launched the Europa Conference League in 2021 and the number of teams in the Champions League group stage will rise from 32 to 36 next season. Fifa has announced an expanded 32-team Club World Cup for 2025.

The FA Cup qualifying rounds - where teams from the fifth to the 10th tiers of English football compete for 32 spots in the first round - will still have replays.

The first round of the FA Cup sees professional teams from League One and League Two enter, with Championship and Premier League teams joining from the third round.

Other changes will see the fourth and fifth rounds, and the quarter-finals, played without clashing with any Premier League fixtures for the first time.

The fourth round will be played in an extended window from Friday to Wednesday.

The FA Cup final has also been moved to the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season.

It will be played on a Saturday, and will also be independent of any Premier League matches, as will the Friday before the final "to allow focus on the build-up to the showpiece event".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68844583

Don't like the FA Cup final being held before the end of the Premier League, is nothing sacred?

strawberry floating pathetic. Once again another move to help the big clubs at the expense of the domestic game.

As for moving the weekend :dread:

"We keep strawberry floating around with the FA Cup and people seem to care about it less and less....maybe if we strawberry float with it some more then people will love it again?"

So we'll have a Real Madrid - PSG final most likely. Oh god, can no-team win and they get stuck in a constant penalty shootout limbo for all eternity?

Could be worse though, could be Man Shitty.

Shame about Arsenal, but that result was written in the stars wasn't it.

The dream would be the Bayern - Dortmund final but I feel that's less likely.

It was awful when they did the cup final before the seasons ended last time. But they'll be hedging bets on English teams getting to European finals.

No replays should mean that any lower ranked side should pick where they play. So long money spinning replays that keep a club in financial order for a year.

More midweek Premier League games as well. Though if that's known in advance that will help a bit.

The Football Thread 2023/24: Derby promoted, Brian Clough Trophy up for grabs in 24/25?

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