Europa Conference League 2023/4 | Page 294 | Vital Football

Europa Conference League 2023/4

DeanoVilla said:
Think we need to raise our level if we want to make it to the final. Lets be honest, as much as we all enjoyed the end last night we were bloody awful!

Football is such a wierd game. How can the same players play as they did against Arsenal then a few days later look like they've never seen a football before.
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Not an excuse - but that pitch had a god damm wicked bounce on it - I recall one where the ball looked to be dropping at ollies feet with nominal pace - then the ball hit the floor and just pinged out for a goal kick .

I think that pitch maybe in part while lille have such a good home record. !

That said no doubt lille were the better team over two legs
 
sirdennis said:
I think VAR looked at both so nothing to see there I think.
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Was talking about this the other day. Its actually quite rare now for VAR to overturn the refs decision on field.

It happened all the time early on in VAR where play would go on - then in a break in play a penalty would be awarded. VAR seemed to have (quite rightly ) stepped back from that. Indeed Ive seen it argued that other than offside VAR isn't used for much these days.

The Duran and Rogers bookings were ridiculous last night
 
Langoe66 said:
We all said the way the ref was handling the game and how fussy he was at the start of the shoot out that he could try to make a name for himself by giving EMI another card…..my God we were almost right….we all thought he was off once he brandished the second yellow! Never seen a ref slow things down and interfere so much in a penalty shoot out in all my life. Ollie must have had a 3/4 minute wait before taking his…..! Early trek back home via Paris Beaulais airport this morning, the win will make it easier! A night to remember….’Douglas Luis allez allez……’ Can’t get that out of my head! UTV!
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Ref was also standing closer and closer to each pen, at one point he was 4 yards from ball and pointed at something during Lille player's run up, surely distracting for him and Emi.

First yellow was ridiculous anyway, most of the "time" was incurred in free play with Emi waiting to be closed down.

Hopefully better ref for next stage as less champs league matches.
 
The morning after and I'm kind of drained. This emotional roller coaster isn't going to get any easier on the run-in.

What I will say about last night is that Lille are a very decent team, well set up and it's obvious that we don't like playing against a team set up like they were. We've seen it a couple of times this season, most notable Newcastle, where our style just doesn't suit the opposition, so we dug in and ground out a result. This kind of game we would not have won under any other recent era. Not sure I can go through the wringer again in the next round, so please get control of the tie early and give us a nice comfortable ride to the final - where anything can happen.
 
That was a very difficult watch last night, I must have spent half the game in the garden as I kept having to walk away from the TV. Thought we were way too passive for the first 75 minutes, but got away with it. Extra time, I'd say we had the better chances. Dougie definitely should have put his away. Once it got to penalties, I just had a feeling Emi was going to be the star of the show and silence those whining French fans. Quite pleased it was their gobshite midfielder who's penalty he saved to win it as well. He reminded me of rat face with how often he was in the refs ear all night, questioning every decision against them.

The commentators and media are so hypocritical as well. If that incident had been Villa fans throwing things at a French keeper, it would be return to the dark age stories in the media. As its the other way round, all I'm reading is Emi was winding their fans up and needs to be careful !
 
Merd said:
The morning after and I'm kind of drained. This emotional roller coaster isn't going to get any easier on the run-in.

What I will say about last night is that Lille are a very decent team, well set up and it's obvious that we don't like playing against a team set up like they were. We've seen it a couple of times this season, most notable Newcastle, where our style just doesn't suit the opposition, so we dug in and ground out a result. This kind of game we would not have won under any other recent era. Not sure I can go through the wringer again in the next round, so please get control of the tie early and give us a nice comfortable ride to the final - where anything can happen.
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Surely the drama is done and from here on in its a cake walk to lifting the trophy
 
garygaryshaw said:
That was a very difficult watch last night, I must have spent half the game in the garden as I kept having to walk away from the TV. Thought we were way too passive for the first 75 minutes, but got away with it. Extra time, I'd say we had the better chances. Dougie definitely should have put his away. Once it got to penalties, I just had a feeling Emi was going to be the star of the show and silence those whining French fans. Quite pleased it was their gobshite midfielder who's penalty he saved to win it as well. He reminded me of rat face with how often he was in the refs ear all night, questioning every decision against them.

The commentators and media are so hypocritical as well. If that incident had been Villa fans throwing things at a French keeper, it would be return to the dark age stories in the media. As its the other way round, all I'm reading is Emi was winding their fans up and needs to be careful !
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Yeah the two players who got saved were at the ref all night, Bentaleb and the captain, was sweet for sure. Captain kept calling for cards as well which is bookable offence (not that he needed to with the ref being so trigger happy)
 
I shouldn't still be thinking about the ref's performance but it was so horrendously bad I think it's just going to be how I remember this game. A yellow card everytime the crowd shouted basically. Encroached and moved in the peripheral vision of multiple penalty takers. Booked Emi for asking for a ball. I know the UECL isn't the top-tier competition but to find someone that bad for a quarter final is quite some going.
 
Platypus said:
I shouldn't still be thinking about the ref's performance but it was so horrendously bad I think it's just going to be how I remember this game. A yellow card everytime the crowd shouted basically. Encroached and moved in the peripheral vision of multiple penalty takers. Booked Emi for asking for a ball. I know the UECL isn't the top-tier competition but to find someone that bad for a quarter final is quite some going.
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It was an horrific performance from him.

God knows how he has reached this far in the refereeing hierarchy.

If he is the best ref in Slovakia you shudder to think what the rest are like.
 
Too wired to get off to sleep easily last night. Which didn't help my 5am start . I was awake at 4am.

Like I said last night. Surreal game . One of the weirdest games I have seen involving us. We were awful. Looked like we were playing for pens from the start. Tbh the genius puppet master unai probably foresaw and managed it exactly how he wanted.
 
Melon Donkey said:
Too wired to get off to sleep easily last night. Which didn't help my 5am start . I was awake at 4am.

Like I said last night. Surreal game . One of the weirdest games I have seen involving us. We were awful. Looked like we were playing for pens from the start. Tbh the genius puppet master unai probably foresaw and managed it exactly how he wanted.
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Yes. I had a terrible nights sleep for the same reason. I rarely get them , but I have a headache now
 
DeanoVilla said:
If they are looking at it they'll surely see he was just asking for a ball and should never have been booked in the first place.
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No other player/team would have been booked - shocking bias. As Martinez pointed out aswell their keeper never got booked for doing exactly as Martinez did with alleged time wasting. Stay humble and move on - Olsen is absolutely fine in goal at home in the first leg against a team that will park the bus and look to take anything away for the return leg
 
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