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Scotland > Wales >>> Ukraine in terms of my preference. You can scratch Scotland off your list. Wales vs Ukraine next Sunday for the final UEFA spot.

On one hand, it's nice to have huge teams interested in our young guys. On the other, I don't want them buried or loaned out to crappy teams in crappy leagues. I was listening to an episode of the In Soccer We Trust podcast (Jimmy Conrad, Heath Pearce and Charlie Davies) and they had Erik Palmer-Brown on and he talked about what it was like to go to Man City so young and then when he didn't get the "exceptional young player" designation or whatever and couldn't get a work visa for England, he basically just trained with the reserves and loan guys until they could find a loan spot for him and then talked about the difficulties of going on loan to different teams every year. It was a really good look at the way the system works for these guys if they can't catch on. Obviously, the training at top flight clubs is better than your average club, but I value actual playing time more, especially at more mid-tier clubs in those big leagues. Clubs like Brighton, Wolves, Crystal Palace, etc. Basically the equivalent of the USMNT in the world scheme. Not a favorite to win it all, but on the right day can beat anyone and should beat up on the lower level teams. Courtois isn't going anywhere, but West Ham are reported to be interested in Andriy Lunin, so the reserve goalkeeper spot may be open at Real.

Everton come back from 0-2 down to win 3-2 and will be back in the Premiership next season. Pitch invasion to celebrate 8-)

Insane atmosphere in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome before the game against Leicester 8-)

Fun fact before today’s CL semifinal clash: eleven years ago Courtois and De Bruyne both played for Racing Genk and clinched the Belgian championship on 11th May. Both moved to Chelsea later that year ( Courtois in July, KDB in December)

good riddance to those hacks. There needs to be discipline for that crap. ffs [tweet] [/tweet]

The end of that game was disgraceful.

With the exception of the final, I’ll take it. :wink:

The number of teams will expand from 32 to 48 in 2026 - I'm sure FIFA will find a lucrative solution. :wink:

BBC Sports are tracking the implications for Chelsea: https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/60688168 Holy horsefeathers !

Jesse Marsch is the new Leeds manager

While the South-Koreans and Chinese are fighting, this is how the Low Countries do it: [tweet] [/tweet]

Bryan Reynolds to KV Kortrijk on loan from As Roma until the end of the season. Not an ideal destination for a young player but better than not playing in Rome, I suppose.

Direct Eurostar train link to boot - their travelling fans will be very happy.

[tweet] [/tweet] VAR stikes again? :wink:

Sorry to disappoint you. 8-) They haven't lost a qualifyer since 2011, so a draw was acceptable (and Wales simply wasn't good enough)

Could easily happen - looks like we'll be playing an experimental lineup this evening. Hazard and Courtois have gone back to Madrid, and three other regulars haven't traveled to Cardiff either (they even called up an emergency extra goalkeeper for the trip). Hopefully we'll see some of the youngsters in action, especially in defense (Faes and Theate - too bad Vanheusden is injured or they could have played an U23 backline)

Nice home win by Venezia against Mourinho’s Roma. Busio played the entire game, Tessmann came on with 15 mins left.

Chelsea survived the penalty shootout in their league cup (or whatever it's called now) game yesterday - barely. Given that competition is often used to give playing time to players that aren't regulars or to ease back injured players and that Pulisic wasn't even in the selection, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I may have a change of mind about that Bruges group 8-)

So the PSG media circus arrived in Bruges yesterday :roll: Full house tonight (with Covid Safe Ticket required for all) ensuring a warm welcome. 8-)

So basically he gets adjusted after the winter break, has a great 2022-2023 season and then moves to a big league like his predecessors (Perisic, Bacca, Izquierdo, Wesley Moraes, ...)

And three guys who came from the Belgian league (Heymans, Henry and Okereke)

As a Bruges fan, I'm not happy with this draw - about as tough as it could possibly get.

Owen Otasowie to Bruges - he'll get more minutes here than with Wolves. [tweet] [/tweet]