2023-24 UEFA Champions League

My only issue, is the quality of picture is so poor on RTE News that I switched to TNT

We have become awful soft and pampered as a nation. Can't even handle TV now if it ain't HD

Okay

As soon as I hear someone use woke as a pejorative the argument loses all credibility. It’s the national broadcaster showing a national team in a qualifier against one of the best teams in the world.

Anyway as far as the CL goes, both ties set up well for next week. Would expect City to win theirs but Bayern/Arsenal could go either way.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Real Madrid v City game. I never switched over to the other game because I was watching fantastic football all night.

I think it's very close to certain that the winner of this tie wins the Champions league.

Some great goals but Valverde's was the best of the night, incredible strike.

Poor lad had to push the buttons on the remote away from channel no 2 as well.... Imagine!

TNT are shocking, thought is was watching Arsenal TV in the after game. Pushing the agenda thay Saka was fouled and had a definite penalty late on, when he had Neuer beaten if he didn't purposely kick him to simulate a foul and look for a penalty. RTE news with their bad sound out of time was better.

There is a obvious agenda to lisj women's sport, buy that's not a bad thing. Women and girls have a lot to benefit from participation in sport, and the old 'of they can't see it the can't be it' has some truth. If you don't want to watch it, use the remote.

I do agree on one point, technically RTE News is not really suitable for live sport nowadays, but if you think that's bad, wait until you're trying to watch Virgin tomorrow night.

Yeah think the referee got the Saka peno decision correct. Sure Neuers leg moves but really he doesn’t impede Saka who could have gone around but instead seems to look for contact.

The Saka one could have gone either way tbh. Can see both arguments. Usually benefit goes with the attacker.

Surprised there isn't more being made of the handball by Gabriel picking the ball up from a goal kick. Apparently the referee said it was a child's mistake so couldn't give a penalty for it.

I dont know. The Bayern ref had a few funny ones.

The Kane elbow was definitely questionable, but moreso a thing they're discussing over on Kicker.de.

At some point Bayern players were arguing with the ref over something and I had no idea what the problem was. Neither did the commentators apparently. There was no obvious foul or something.

It was that Raya had placed the ball on the ground for a goal kick. Next the ref blew the whistle for the goal kick and then Raya passed it over to Gabriel. Who then picked up the ball in his hands and placed it again and this time took the goal kick himself (passing it back to Raya).

When the Bayern players challenged the ref over this clear handball they were quoted saying the ref answered - 'Its a kids mistake, I'm not giving a pen for that in a CL quarter final'.

“The referee made a huge mistake,” said Tuchel.

“I know it was a crazy situation. They put the ball down, he whistles and the defender takes the ball with his hands.

“What makes us really angry is the explanation on the pitch. He told our players it was a ‘kid’s mistake’ and he won’t give a penalty for that in a Champions League quarter-final.

I mean yes it is and it would be tough, but I would have thought at the highest level is exactly where you have to give this.

The thing about it though, because they lost, just like when the women's rugby lose in the six nations, it'll be swept under the carpet and there'll be no further post-game breakdown or criticism. It doesn't dominate the airwaves like it think it does- will be a fleeting mention of it on the news (and probably ahead of the CL results in the running order).

Thought the ref in the Arsenal v Munich game was overall pretty decent, thought he got the Kane elbow wrong, that was a clear red all day long as he definitely meant it, and whilst I thought at the time it was a peno on Saka at the end I can see why he didn't give it (suspect if it was a PL game it would have been given & not overturned by VAR though), the incident re: Gabriel was a nothing incident at the time & there was no way any ref worth his salt would ever give a penalty for that so he was spot on with that also IMO.

Other than a few soft frees for Kane (thru his standard cheating - what a horrible chancer he really is) he pretty much called a good game, far better than the standard that comes with the PL referees that's for sure.

Well I agree that the ref got it right but I do think that if Saka had just kept close to Meuer he would have made contact and got the penalty. Very stupid move by Saka and it's unlike him, always put him down as a smart footballer up until that.

Probably. I'd be interested to see how many stayed watching the womens game after the CL started. Very few, I suspect. Real v City was a cracker.