Ryan Giggs will be catching up on Corrie: 2014/5 Champion's League

we weren't ready

p decent game so far btwn LFC and LUD, who may well be worth watching as a preference if their players retain the commitment shown to lollipops and silky first touches.

wtf can a mod fix this

deems I normally wdnt but ur standards I mean

it was a quick fix and I'm in bits from jet lag

BTW that modric pass

no the title's fine but my man the apostrophe

gah bloody phone

coutinho looks quite bad?

here's best version I've seen of that spurs alumni goal

https://vine.co/v/OWWWvDZlVTB

Just reading about Luka's pass made me want to weep.

ikr

being a foster home for gifted boys is all well and good but the current bunch make it feel more like an orphanage for broken transfer plans

both teams playing well and finishing/defending badly here obv as a neutral I'm enjoyin

man Balotelli is just such a red herring. he is perhaps the most self-centred and indolent player I've ever seen in my life, including a 34 year old David Ginola when he was put out to pasture at Villa. i find this very disappointing bcuz like a good disciple of the English footballing press I've always harboured hopes that he would kick on and become an unstoppable goal-machine centre forward, but that chances of that at this point seem to be minimal

lol stand by it

I think he's played the v misunderstood berbatovian focal point tonight, the movement hasn't quite clicked around him but he's occupied both centre halves and his touch and use of space is making things happen imo

o sterling sterling

have to say that's a deserved goal tho tbh

lol what a finish

Wouldn't deny that Balo has been useful tonight, but would argue (without wishing to sound like your common-or-garden "he should try harder!" English footy fan) that he could do a hell of a lot more for the team than he does as standard

also lol this game has gone crazy in the last 90 secs

nuts

team could do a lot more for him, looking at lallana and coutinho wasting pass and run opportunities around him all night tbh.

wait isn't there another CL thread?

Ludogorets have a very decent side.

Lol. Mitroglu got the decisive goal vs Atletico.

if so gbx I couldn't find it

Basle and Madrid highlights were fuckin crazy

Liverpool were ver ver lucky. I'm not sure if there was even contact for that peno. Ludogorets much better than I expected.

"Three at the back? Early in the sack." Van Gaal won't be on these '14-'15 UEFA Champions League nights thread

do what you will

mea culpa can a mod copy and paste and delete pls

no offence like but that other title sux

Could just edit the title of this one to say 'Europa'. Does Coronation Street go out on a Thursday these days?

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/09/17/article-2759104-216D53D000000578-326_636x427.jpg

So you guys just pushed aside the thread I already opened eh?

I must be killfiled by the entirety of ILF. Smdh

Boateng's scored a cracker 1-0 to Bayern and only a minute left. It's been a good game this.

Townsend you fucking child

Jesus this is a real low

nobody looks like a professional footballer its incredible

can't just can't believe paulinho and bentaleb are my midfield let me off this motherfucker

good game this

that marcelo goal

fitba

Weidenfeller

Oh man you can't beat a comedy slip from a centre back. This has been Quite Good so far.

Dortmund looking pretty waspish in possession and working hard but you can definitely see Juve getting more

Just too good.

career curtains performance from kompany tonight

Man City getting a right spanking here

Vidal is looking so shit tonight, gonna get himself sent off if he doesn't watch it, he just put in a vicious studs up tackle. Pirlo already gone off injured, things are looking grim for Juve. They seem to be trying to sit deep to prevent the lightning counters but dortmund are finding gaps everywhere

But then Juve take it up the other end and walk it in!!! Great low cross from pogba and morata scores! Lol so that's why they've been losing. One dude in the area, four to mark him and he gets an unchallenged tap-in

i couldve sworn bony's arse wasnt this mesmerising at swansea

2-0, Berbatov.

this is humiliating. peak Wenger.

Yep, nothing worse than getting beaten by a rubbish version of your own team.

woof they never deserve that but woof

nah literally the moment carrasco dicked that breakaway up u knew the comeback was on

yeah the prick

I think the only piece of inefficiency all night from Monaco that

ok

slightly redeemed

looool

commentators eye

you won't be seeing didi hamann on rte obv but when did he become a john cleese character

the strained seriousness of darragh whateverhisnameis on rte is bugging me. i miss the breezy affability of bill.

he's establishing himself. that said we'll never find another billo. sadlier is good tho.

jesus i hadn't realized o'herlihy had retired

trust that giles and dunphy are still there

yeah sadlier is good. i always liked him and hes stopped that thing he does where he pauses for breath as if hes about to deliver a truth bomb

Theatre of Dreams ‏@1986price 26m26 minutes ago

@ColinMurray @talkSPORT Berbatov's cigar will taste that little bit sweeter tonight. Thanks @Arsenal

jo brown ‏@joanneb68 22m22 minutes ago

@old_man_milford @piersmorgan @Madonna meanwhile Berbatov is in a soho bar puffing on his cigar

James ‏@JamesyMc10 2h2 hours ago

Berbatov such a stroller, he's class. Onto that subs bench with his smoking jacket, cigar & fine cognac waiting

Could conceivably see Jardim as a future Arsenal manager. Has been very impressive under difficult circumstances everywhere he has been.

nah - in the French league, Jardim has made ASM an extremely defensive side grinding out 0-0 and 1-0s week in, week out.

Back to old ways for us then.

chaos in madrid

how good was that tho

sané,his eighth first team appearance. oof.

my god these porto gols

omg these portogolllllllssssss

zlated

pulled out of the tackle

what happened

zlatan straight red in the 33rd min

oscar was the one moving at speed and ibra pulled out of the tackle but it looked spectacular and chelsea made a big deal of it, they are the worst scum

why is ibes going for oscar when there are big beasts like ivanovic to be taken down

oscar should fight verratti instead

Pointless for Zlatan to throw himself into a 60-40 ball so deep in the Chelsea half. Fuck Chelsea forever obviously but it was 30% idiocy from Zlatan and 70% overexcited & stupid refereeing. He's made this a likely nasty game for the remainder and there will be plenty more cards as a result.

ffs cavani

harsh imo

clean through = had to score, in 100% of cases

nonsense obv

and I'm the ilx scoring goals ffs expert

ahahaha david luiz

take the boy out of chelsea

ref hasn't a notion here saw Oliver fancied some praise has no idea of the job tho

Lawrenson and Green are loving this, they can barely pontificate quickly enough

ya I can see george hamilton and ray houghton moving in together in a likely lads meets odd couple meets loose women after this the cunts

:)

drogbaesque

wtf silva

aw no not thiago

ref clearly favouring Chelsea all night tbh Cahill challenge there not much better than zlatans and no card

trying to listen to this on 5live, whoever commentator is can't seem to speak properly.

hamilton just shouted what a shot! in a very high pitched sing song and it got right in my ear and annoyed me until I recognised it as a carbon copy of a bad paul daniels impersonator

yesssssss

yaaaaay

what spawny winner will chelsea net

Fantastic

Michael Cox ‏@Zonal_Marking 2h2 hours ago

Ivanovic, Matic, Cahill, Terry, Costa v Silva, Marquinhos, Luiz, Motta, Ibra, Cavani. Set-pieces are big tonight.

Michael Cox ‏@Zonal_Marking 3m3 minutes ago

@Zonal_Marking claiming an assist here

http://media.giphy.com/media/cUBoADJQANuiQ/giphy.gif

this won't end well

to be fair, away goals shouldn't count a.e.t.

:)

preach yohan preach

i believe the word is lol

dunphys eye euw

rte lads boring now tbh

i know how they feel can't even be arsed to do a lazy blitw zing any more

He's made this a likely nasty game for the remainder and there will be plenty more cards as a result.

― Blandford Forum, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 3:26 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Good God, Lawro & Greeny on Radio 5 last night, wish they'd punch someone (each other preferably) and get suspended. You forget how awful Alan Green is till you have to listen to him, for a start 'we' all don't want Chelsea to win because we're not all Loyalist cunts.

Only just got round to watching the match. Matuidi was just immense.

Have to mute some of the highlights when watching MOTD now that they've let Alan Green on. He is utterly intolerable.

This needs saying over and over till the end of time.

I caught him once or twice and yknow thank god no more than that, must a been the odd c5 uefa cup game or something?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_5tJPQWUAAmv_T.jpg

hahahaha

please tell me a) that is real and b) it's the one they scored from

Yeah that's silva's goal.

he's hiding behind luiz about to score

Monaco: Subasic; Fabinho, Wallace Santos, Abdennour, Kurzawa; Toulalan, Kondogbia, Joao Moutinho; Dirar, Martial; Berbatov. Subs: Stekelenburg, Carvalho, Matheus Carvalho, Bernardo Silva, Carrasco, Echiejile, Toure.

Arsenal: Ospina; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Cazorla; Welbeck, Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud. Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Walcott, Ramsey, Flamini, Chambers.

so in addition to two midfielders who ran the show last time around, monaco add one of the best hyper-defensive midfielders around, while arsenal play mertesacker vs team with plenty of quick players who will be playing on the counterattack

this is a shit title by the way deems la, did you copy it off f365 mailbox

is anything occurring here

no

A lot of heavy touches from various footballers.

And giroud just scored.

nothing has happened

townsend addressed tyldes as sir at one point

Dermot O'Leary is a top guy and a good performer, but he is not royalty

lol

ha, yeah that happened too

and dara o b'riain or whatever the cunt is called

Yeah I made a start on 'Dara' but thought nah fuck it

bullshit call ref

dara merk

arsenal passing through monaco with peculiar ease

they mostly have schengen area passports though

'Manu' Petit embracing Mourinho's made up word 'aggressivity' there

This year's normcore?

It's a bit sad how pointless Ozil is now

Ramsay 2-0

frustrating as fuck

they could have gone 2 up in the first ten mins they'd still have done that idiotic pass to fullback, pass back to Ramsay, pass to fullback nothingness. its as pure a form of cowardice as there is in sport, this abject lack of will to impose any change on the match.

Arsenal players were certainly lining up to not be a hero in the last 10 minutes

Griezmann's haircut the highlight of my football viewing this evening

He looks like an adolescent seabird

ive not seen ah well another day

some shameful penalties btw atleti and bayer. Calhanoglu in particular was ridic and Toprak even worse.

talk of arsenal's bad old ways seems a bit of a received opinion in this case. they fucked up at the emirates but i don't see what was to fault last night, is the few inches between the post and the goal for walcott's shot, or the giroud / alexis muddle subašić just about batted away, really the line between cowardice and heroism?

They scored 2 seconds after the Walcott post hit u dolt lol

gosh, i knew my perception of the passing of time has been off of late but still that's some seriously wonky memory i've got going on

http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-700/h--/q-95/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/3/18/1426711007034/c8b866a9-cc19-407d-9cd2-7c1e33169dd2-1020x612.jpeg

just not meant to be

joe hart

90 min: There will be two added minutes of this. “I keep waiting for a QPR 2012 moment so that the Premier League will have some representation in the Champions League,” sighs Lilian Cooper, “but I’m starting to accept its not gonna happen.”

someone on mastercard's account had reasonable foresight

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAaSFBOUQAAPjTe.jpg

Last 16 elimination ties between Spanish and English clubs: 15 Spanish clubs advanced (94%) 1 English club advanced (Chelsea-Barça '12)

Heard several fans/ pundits put that down to the fact the top teams in the EPL have to play tough games every week unlike in Spain, Germany, Italy etc. Wish I had to hand some stats on the various tonkings handed out by Chelsea & Man City in the past few seasons... as someone once said, do these fucks never learn?

The way its going Eng should lose a CL place.

Last 16 elimination ties between Spanish and English clubs: 15 Spanish clubs advanced (94%) 1 English club advanced (Chelsea-Barça '12)

is this only true for last 16 itself?

The way its going Eng should lose a CL place.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:35 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

arsenal's

Would take 5 years of these results for France or Italy to overtake England in the co-efficients. Even then Italy would have to do a lot better than just Juventus getting to the last 16. Arsenal will start getting harder group draws now that they'll be relegated from pot 1 status.

Think last nights game may be a contender for most nutmegs I've witnessed in 90 mins.

The way its going Eng should lose a CL place.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, March 19, 2015 10:35 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

arsenal's

― to pump a bit of lye (imago), Thursday, 19 March 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

We're going to be 3rd or 2nd this year.

it'll be like when u finished fifth in the second division and got promoted

oh that's rich coming from a palace fan

We're going to be 3rd or 2nd this year.

Beat that, Jose Mourinho.

xp heh, pretty sure we will also become longest serving members of top flight in time

Shame Pogba is out for 2 months after how good Juve looked over the 2 legs vs Dortmund.

doesn't matter where arsenal finish - it will never be top - if anyone else finishes fourth it'll be like they've moved into a house haunted by arsenal's ghost - they'll quickly exit again.

xp idk if Pogba's injury precludes any possibility that Juve could continue to play well in the quarters, i don't think he's been looking all that recently. last night the two Juve fans I was watching with got into a pretty heated debate over whether Tevez or Marchisio were more essential to the team right now with Pirlo and Pogba out. Tevez clearly carried it on the night but there was that Marchisio chip over the top, wowzers.

I was mostly impressed with how professional they were over the two legs. I gather that Dortmund are playing like shit at the moment (only really been able to follow Serie A and Europe this year), but even so, the only sniff they got across the 180 minutes was when Chiellini fell over in the first leg. Juve could really do with Vidal getting back into his groove given these midfield injuries, but if the draw is kind to them then I certainly wouldn't write them off against Porto, Monaco or even Atleti or PSG. Would agree that one of the real big teams would probably be a stretch for them at this point tho.

nice to see lfc still involved in CL draw.

psg - barca
atleti - real (lol)

real hate them soo much

porto - bayern
juve - monaco

think porto will get at least 2 goals over the 2 legs. will still lose though.

atleti have been ropey lately but real probably not looking forward to the attritional battle to come

so tired of playing barca... especially since they will certainly beat paris...

Interested to see the no wingers Bayern tonight. Alonso-Lahm-Thiago middle 3.

pen porto after neuer makes a tackle after alonso caught in possession

alonso revisting his chile world cup form there

1-0 queresma

lol now dante gets tackled as last man. queresma 2-0.

think porto will get at least 2 goals over the 2 legs. will still lose though.

― pandemic, Friday, March 20, 2015 11:14 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not so sure about the end of that prediction now. shambles

bayern so panicked in possession. Robben/Schweini/Alaba/Ribery should ask for bumps in their salaries after this horror show from the remainder of the squad.

dante hoofs a cross field pass straight out of play about 15 yards behind his intended target.

bayern work a short corner back from left over to right, boateng drills in a low cross, thiago applies the finish at the far post. 2-1

neuer flaps at a cross, nowhere near, header missed. lucky that wasn't 3-1.

not seen the porto #8 Brahimi play before. He's been terrific.

neuer has been terrible but he just made a magnificent reaction save.

great finish jackson martinez 3-1

shocking defending from boateng.

Bayern will probably do the double AGAIN this year and yet I still kinda feel like Pep has ruined them compared to the Heynkes season.

2-0 Barca

Alonso hooked for Badstuber, Boateng moved into midfield?

Join the debate at #bbcfootball

Paris St-Germain 0-2 Barcelona

PSG missing Zlatan?

James Bornstein: If big Ibrahimovic was leading the line instead of Cavanu I think we would be in a different situation now.

how has oliver torres played

find his twitter xp

he's been good xp what has stood out though is the selected pressing, only at certain points and when it's on they all go. The rare time Bayern successfully cope with the press porto still regroup properly without being exposed. Bayern have made mistakes sure but they've been p comprehensively outplayed and out thought. Lot of long balls towards muller for some reason instead of the more able lewandowski, gotze anonymous, lahm lost in midfield, alonso overwhelmed. Thiago the only one to emerge with any credit tbh, even Bernat has had his worst game in a Bayern shirt.

I've seen a surprising amount of Portuguese football this season and Brahimi has been consistently superb. Think he was being linked with City a few weeks ago.

the bookies have bayern as very narrow favourites to qualify

kinda odd there hasnt been much rumour mongering about lopetegui to city

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/15/22/279B8A5300000578-0-image-a-8_1429133175287.jpg

Cavani is an overpaid donkey. I don't know how seriously people take Grantland on ILF but there was an interesting article on Porto's chances of winning the CL a couple of months back.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/portuguese-promise-could-fc-porto-be-this-years-champions-league-dark-horse/

I'm laughing my head off thats just joyous stuff

Beautiful, so easy.

O, porto

3rd goal was sublime

wtf is going on in Germany

3rd Bayern goal was just so so beautiful. Iniesta for barca's first made me laugh out loud.

barca vs bayern
juve vs real

was kinda rooting for a barca - bayern final tbh, oh well should be 2 good legs at least.

we'll end up with a Barca-Real final won't we?

Would have slightly favoured Bayern but Badstuber injured again and out for the season which leaves....Dante..gulp..

Bayern haven't two good legs left between em according to pep

was kinda rooting for a barca - bayern final tbh

Ditto. Anyone but Real.

Fancy Juve to win that semi.

Juve lead!

not seen much juve recently but they look pretty good atm

That was way too easy. Had looked very good to that point though.

James heads into the cross bar!

i hope it cheered up

tevez snaking run up for the penalty

and I bet tevez would have been there to put that in

chiellini's excellent foul v deserving of the cheers

v enjoyable game, and pogba for second leg?

haven't seen much of Real this season, have they been playing Ramos in midfield much? He shotgunned the ball out of play on about a half dozen occasions tonight

just the last couple of weeks since Modric got injured

yeah Ramos was terrible tonight

that was a v enjoyable game, though mostly for the first half

Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Pique, Rakitic, Busquets, Iniesta, Suárez, Messi, Neymar, Mascherano, Alba, Alves.

Bayern: Neuer, Rafinha, Boateng, Benatia, Bernat, Lahm, Alonso, Schweinsteiger, Alcantara, Muller, Lewandowski

So no Gotze, hardly surprising as he's had a poor 2nd half of the season.
Dani Alves's outfit well worth checking out laying down the gauntlet to Russell Westbrook to up his Timmy Mallet game.

pep setting up to out bielsa bielsa here. 3 at the back with rafinha as left sided CB? Man to man all over the pitch?

thiago right wing back?

this is so cray

benatia vs neymar boateng vs suarez rafinha vs messi with no help. wow.

can't quite believe what I'm watching tbh Like marseille vs PSG the other week

think pep just signaled to go to a back 4

yup, rafinha back to RB and Bernat LB.

lewandowski misses a sitter

jonathon wilson could probably get a book out of this game and we're only 18 mins in lol

beautiful from barca, majestic from neuer

schweinsteiger has been poor tonight

Thiago's been worse

yeah strange cos he's been superb since he's been back from injury

diagnosis: shook

yeah utd dodged a bullet there ;

We do have our own lovely Spaniards tbf. If we could just keep Rooney away from them

messi wow. bernat poor

thought bayern had looked p comfortable this half

p great finish

ooooooh fuck what a finish

boateng left in a heap, neuer chipped

lol Boateng tho

lol past it

messi magicking boateng off his feet was beautiful

game p terrific but loved to have seen it with robben etc playing

making a defender fall over is better than a goal imo

game over

that was fun

neymar's flash of a feint to throw neuer off https://vine.co/v/eZFHDeME1qp

This may be fun.

Never mind.

thing is Bayern ought to have five by now

I'd have booked rode twice for that

Bullshit peno

glad at this result. i hate fascism.

comments that force you to check what the actual result was

lol, same

lol lj

the day andy burnham announces his candidacy, his youth tsar duly arrives

tiki taka little tsar

properly progressive 'ter

"its a game of thrones"

No Chiellini :-(

woof

This is going to be a walkover.

Awesome 1-0

Great run Morata

vidal's hair particularly ornate today

vidal fucking this up for juve all on his own tonight

Buffon makes his first good save tonight.

Vidal is on some Gazza-in-91 ish atm

Alba walking in there.

Juve doing more in the last 5-10

aargh Morata

apparently all 10 outfield players had a touch in the build up to the goal

Barca looking to finish this before HT

HT: Messi laughing at the end.

awful match. passing standard awful. Vidal a clown. opening ceremony by cunts for cunts.

Barca still not killing this off.

and now its 1-1

ten man juve to throw this away

this is so much fun

yeah its good now

Messi makes it for Suarez: 2-1

aargh @ Buffon.

Buffon has had a strange old game so far huh

Clearly not deliberate.

is that relevant?

ra y houghton just will not shut his stupid fucking mouth shut up ray houghton

assuming they see the ball hit the arm you could have 50 diff't refs look at that and they'd all disallow the goal

It is if you want to have referees enforce rules xp

Rules say it should have counted, but it was such a shit header that I can't disagree with the refs incorrect call

It wasn't hand to ball and his hands were not in an unnatural position.

agree with blandford, victory for football imo, glorious alba play deserved better

disallowed on aesthetics. xp

Jan Aage Fjortoft ‏@JanAageFjortoft 3 minutes ago
My dad, a referee, says: Neymar decision correct.
I respect my dad

no right foot messi they call him

Has he always had that sleeve tattoo? Awful look for him

that rakitic ball tho

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BzJCZEgCAAAyCSD.jpg

my man

on comes sexi feeb llorente

everyone stumblin'

That touch from pogba to llorente the first sign in this game that he is capable of being in full control of a football

otm, carlton pogba more like

another feeble shot from outside the area

Suarez will be steamed at not having a Champs League winning goal to his name

it was the winning goal

hating the denim. tarts.

y'know what I mean

did the ref actually even blow the final whistle?

I think the ref ducked out of it tbh.

juve will not have been happy with him tonight

"no-one's yet found a way to work Barcelona out"

poor old Chelsea don't get no respect

just felt like a good time to end this. xxp

the fuck is Depardieu doing there

this is awful

most tinkerish cl champions league winners ever

apropos of not much I get irrationally annoyed by the lowercase t in ter Stegen

Oof Vidal going for the hug from platini there and getting firmly friendzoned

allegri ambling up to get his losers medal is getting me hyped for attack on titan series 2

attack on titan very quickly devolves into boring, convoluted, political nonsense fyi

lol "100% JESUS"

100% RALPH MACCHIO

Michael Hann ‏@MichaelAHann 45 mins45 minutes ago

By invading the pitch, Bacelona have forced the abandonment of the game. It must be replayed. Justice for Juve.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CG2gunhWcAAv5LF.png

^ people who have figured out how to live

zlatan's let himself go

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CG4WeTlUIAAZqXZ.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/06/07/10/296B1B9D00000578-3114112-image-m-32_1433667921623.jpg

would watch this reality show

alves is such a horrible creep.

Does the new BT deal mean there'll be no free-to-air CL coverage next season?

Oh, apparently there'll be 12 matches on a new free channel.

the EU have really sorted this whole competition thing

Sky: not bitter

So we’ve just come to the end of another football season. But while the Premier League’s finest talent take a well-earned break, we at Sky Sports are moving straight into the drama of an Ashes summer. And we’re hard at work preparing for a new season where TV sport itself will be in the spotlight as the UEFA Champions League moves to BT after many years on Sky Sports and ITV.

We’re proud of the high standards that our production teams have set in the Champions League. While we have enjoyed bringing the competition to customers, there is no doubt that Sky Sports remains the unrivalled choice for sports fans. Not just next year, but for years to come.

In football, it’s the intense rivalry of our domestic competitions that matters most to customers. You only have to look at the viewing figures to see the evidence.

Over the last five seasons we have seen Champions League audiences fall 36%. Last season, we saw our lowest ever average match audience and not a single European game appeared in our top 40 football matches. Overall, Champions League accounts for just 2.5% of Sky Sports viewing, while the Premier League is seven times bigger.

Meanwhile, football fans continue to show an overwhelming preference for our Premier League coverage. Once again, 49 of the top 50 most watched Premier League matches were on Sky Sports last season.

The most I took that is that Sky have been really shit at marketing Champions League football these past 5 years.

the decline in viewing figures correlating neatly with the lack of english teams in the later stages of the champions league, also at its lowest ebb last year, because their core epl product is not very good in the grand scheme of things