Updated at 13.00
1. Contrasting fortunes in Eastlands
MANCHESTER CITY AND Juventus are in very different form heading into tonight’s Champions League Group D curtain-raiser at the Etihad.
The home side have shot to the top of the Premier League with five wins from as many games, while the Serie A champions and last year’s finalists remain winless in their first three thanks to two defeats and a draw.
Although they are without first choice striker Sergio Aguero, who has been ruled out with a knee injury picked up over the weekend, attacking duo David Silva and Raheem Sterling are likely to return.
Yet again, City have been handed a difficult draw and, with Sevilla and Borussia Mönchengladbach to come, they may see this as a good opportunity to pick up points against the out-of-sorts Italians.
2. Man United back in the big time
They may have had to qualify via a play-off, but after a season without European football, Manchester United return to the Champions League proper this evening.
Arguably one of the weakest top seeds in the draw, some will have seen the inclusion of the Eredivisie title holders in Group B as a favourable result for United. Two of their best players departed in the summer — captain Georginio Wijnaldum joined Newcastle while top scorer Memphis Depay left for tonight’s opponents.
The Dutchman is likely to receive a warm welcome at his old club, but he revealed there will no muted celebration if he scores at the Philips Stadion. And with captain Wayne Rooney out injured, Louis van Gaal will be hoping Memphis can produce a performance similar to the one which saw him score twice against Club Brugge.
3. Champions begin their defence in Rome
It is 101 days since Barcelona lifted the Champions League at Munich’s Olympiastadion after seeing off Juventus. The Catalan giants against face Italian opposition as Barca boss Luis Enrique returns to his old club. Enrique spent 2011/12 in charge of Roma but decided to leave after they failed to qualify for Europe.
Both sides are unbeaten in their respective domestic leagues after three matches — Barcelona with nine points and Roma have seven.
The game will also mark Lionel Messi’s 100th Champions League appearance if, as expected, he plays.
4. There’s only two Tal Ben Haims
Wednesday’s visit of Maccabi Tel-Aviv could prove to be a welcome distraction for Jose Mourinho and the Chelsea players after their disastrous start to the league campaign.
One win, one draw and three defeats have left the champions at the wrong end of the table and a long way off where they want to be.
Maccabi, managed by former Chelsea midfielder Slavisa Jokanovic, qualified with a play-off win over Basel but are only in the group stages for the second time. The Israeli champions also have another former Blue in their ranks — 33-year-old defender Tal Ben Haim (not to be confused with his 26-year-old team-mate of the very same name).
5. Gunners head to Zagreb
Arsenal begin an 18th consecutive campaign in the Champions League group stages with a trip to the Croatian capital.
The Gunners picked up their first home win of the season on Saturday with Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud on target against Stoke. England forward Walcott will have fond memories of the Stadion Maksimir as he scored a hat-trick there against Croatia in a 2010 World Cup qualifier.
With Bayern Munich and Olympiacos making up Group F, Arsene Wenger will want a winning start against Dinamo, who qualified with a 6-2 aggregate victory over KF Skënderbeu of Albania.
Originally published at 06.00 on 15 April
Amen!
He is spot on. This years six nations has been so dull and dour. Forget the wins so far – has anyone actually enjoyed watching Ireland so far? One try scored from a pass in this years campaign so far – says it all.
2 point penalties and 1 point drop goals would be a start, making scoring tries even more valuable and dissuading teams from milking the penalty as reward is low. It may also result in more instances of teams going for high risk plays/true attempts on penalty advantage, like Henshaw v England, with a droppy not equal to the successful penalty goal if not advantage comes from playing on. Making the English and French top tier closed leagues have strong arguements. ATM winning at all costs is everything. Makes for usually dull games despite quality of players. Get rid of fear of relegation and it might open up more like the closed Super Rugby
Even better to penalise conceding deliberate penalties even more….
Yeah reducing the points for a penalty just promotes the defence to play more cynically as there is less of a punishment.
I’ve always thought that 6 points for a try and 3 for a conversion would be enough to entice more attacking play.
More liberal use of the yellow card would be good – there shouldn’t need to be a warning or much of a precedent to dish one out. Kill the ball 2m out from your own line 30 seconds in? Off you march.
I’ll e the first to admit my logic isn’t completely sound. I thought about the defending team being cynical after my OP, that’s a good point. I suppose there is an onus on attitude change. In my second point about closing off the two biggest European club leagues, unlikely as that is to happen right now, maybe it would help with the overall style of rugby played in NH. It’s interesting after Hansen made these comments last week or whatever, I watched Highlanders Tahs in Super Rugby. The endeavour to score tries is always there, regardless of kickable penalties. I don’t love SR, but it’s interesting to see the attitude difference after watching so much 6N the past month or so
The scrum still requires serious work. More often than not a penalty is given and many of us (the refs included) are none the wiser as to what really happened. Its all down to perception and thats really not ideal as is the ridiculous play time which is lost with scrum resets. At the very least the timer should be paused (similar to when injuries occur) and resumed once the ball has been cleared from the scrum. Fans get bored and feel somewhat cheated when over an eighth of the game has been held up in a confusing huddle.
Secondly i firmly believe rucking should be brought back. Take the responsibility out of the official’s hands and give it to the players. Want to deliberately loiter or slow the ball? Heres a few boot scrapes to encourage you to move on. Any over-zealous rucking (attacking of the head) obviously can’t be tolerated however players will quickly learn and adapt. Let the officials focus on ensuring the defensive team are onside.
Watch how much quicker the game will speed up from the lack of penalties and slowing down of the ball.
As a prop I enjoy the scrums but like everyone else I get frustrated when the ref keeps resetting and then gives penalties for little things.
Ways to make it better:
Make the scrumhalf feed it straight. First time he doesnt its a free, second time penalty, third time its the bin.
Dont wait for the perfect scrum. If it is some-way steady get the ball in. Its 16 big men trying to get the physical advantage, its rarely going to be perfect.
Dont penalise a prop if he is trying to keep the scrum up. If he puts his hand on the ground he is trying to stay up. Warn him you’ve seen it and give him a few seconds to rebind instead of immediately pinging him.
Have retired props watch each game with the TMO. Have them communicate with the ref at scrums, e.g. 3 green is boring; 1 red is dropping, etc.
Yeah, the use of the TMO at scrum time would be good. Perhaps they could use those location trackers the players have in their jerseys to determine what actually happened?
As a retired prop I think the scrum could be sorted by the referee bringing together both front rows first then the second rows introduced and lastly the back rows. The ref then gives the instruction to the 9 to ‘feed’ & then to the packs, ‘compete’. Where by the packs can then shove.
Trouble is these days most refs I’ve seen never played the game least of all were in a competitive scrum.
no more penalties at the scrum either or at least not for going backwards like it is now. free kick or play on. scrums shouldn’t decide the outcome of games.
To be fair, Wayne Barnes hasn’t even read the updated version of the Rule Book not to mind ripping it up!!
All the refs are struggling with the interpretation of what’s legal or not at the breakdown. As for the scrums, it’s a lucky dip with whatever ref is on duty that day!!! No consistency whatsoever!
I think Barnes actually reads it at half time and adds some new updates – how else do you explain how he manages to ref differently is each half
An English ref shouldn’t have been used IMO!! Is there an Irish ref doing England v France by any chance????!!!! It’s bad enough our TMO this weekend is English too!!! In the interest of fairness at the business end of the tournament Southern Hemisphere refs are a must!!
Reduce penalties to 2 points. Increase try to 6 points. After 4 tries scored in a game by a team every other try scored after by that team in the game, the conversion points given automatically.
At breakdown bring in 5 second challenge, if the team defending the breakdown haven’t had an attempt at getting their hands on the ball or counter rucking within 5 seconds of the ball going to ground then the ref calls no challenge and team defending players all have to get 1 metre back from ruck.
Reducing points from a penalty encourages defences to break the laws even more.
He’s asking for simplicity not complexity
What’s complex about it? Ball goes to ground, 1,2,3,4,5. No turn over, no counter ruck, so Defending team out, back 1 metre.
thats rugby league mate