ThatGinolaVolley

Great to see Tonali and Bruno both have an excellent game, after all those silly suggestions that they can’t play together. Bruno I thought was superbly disciplined last night. Played one over ambitious pass near the start but was flawless from then on.

Have it! He defends, he scores goals, a team of 11 Schars would be unstoppable!

Reward for being brave with the high press

Miggy miggy miggy!!!!

Brilliant result. Didn’t give that starting 11 any chance of keeping a clean sheet. Shows what I know. Kept them at arm’s length for most of the match. Livramento defended Grealish perfectly. Get close to him in the final third, don’t get greedy and give away the foul, and he’ll just stop and pass it sideways. At least the draw means it should be on TV again!

Last time Howe made this many changes we lost to Wednesday in the cup. Squad is a lot better now, but against Man City? I’ll watch this til their first goal goes in

Must be our new motto for this season. ”NUFC: occasionally smashing teams is our identity” I can live with that.

Three games in six days coming up. Would like to see a bit of Hall & Livramento in the league games, rather than them just getting thrown in against Man City in the cup.

A draw away against any of the teams in this group is a good result. Too many players had an off day today, but a point is a point. Milan are going to be dangerous in the return game though, their whole team is set up to counterattack.

Best thing about the win against Brentford was that I can now relax and enjoy all the build up for this game. I know nothing about this AC Milan team. Assume they are decent based on last year’s Champions League. Although the BBC had a stat that the outfield player with the most minutes in last year’s competition was Tonali. Which makes me a bit more confident!

What a load of shite. Howe now has 2 weeks to get some confidence and intensity back into the side, and grow balls big enough to drop Bruno.

No Botman 🙁. Targett in.

It’s been so long since I cared much about the champions league, I assumed all the games would be 7:45 kick offs uk time. Next you’ll be telling me it isn’t on ITV with Des Lynam hosting, and it doesn’t clash with the X-Files

Should be one of the hardest games of the season. Would be nice to keep a clean sheet for once and nick a winner. If Botman is out I think Targett will start and Burn will move into the centre. I also think Wilson might get his first start of the season, with Isak on the bench. If Botman is fit I'd be tempted to make another change or two. Maybe start with Longstaff - there were times last season when Bruno seemed to play better with Longstaff in the side. Or maybe try someone other than Miggy on the right - Livramento seemed to end up there at the end of the Man City game, so maybe that's a possibility. Or move Gordon across and bring in Barnes.

Oof, that’s a tough looking group

Joe Cole hasn’t concentrated this hard in his whole life

Urgh, this coverage is going to drag on isn’t it… started with a piano/ jazz sax number, that’s a bad sign…

Looks like the draw is live on YouTube. I’ll be getting my BT/TNT subscription in time for the first round of fixtures…

That’s some weird ranking system that puts Real Madrid in pot 2. Based on the league cup draw, we’re guaranteed to get them, Bayern/PSG, and AC Milan. Would love to get Barcelona, purely to relive that Asprilla hatrick!

When we do finally beat these I’ll be so happy. Hopefully at anfield later this season, in a shit game, with a soft penalty.

FFS. Fucking liverpool. Nunez as well, he can’t hit a barn door except against us. Howe is too predictable, everyone knows what the starting lineup is going to be, and knows gordon will come off for barnes and isak will come off for wilson, no matter what the state of the game. Still the best manager since Robson, but don’t feel like giving him the benefit of the doubt atm! Need a solution for that right hand side when almiron is off form, not sure if it’s murphy but it needs to be something.

I think Livramento said being able to learn from Trippier was a big factor, Hall probably thinks the same. If you’re a young fullback who wants to improve your game, this is the place to be.

He looked lethal on the counterattack on that left hand side. Crossed one for Wilson to score; crossed one for Wilson to miss; and cut inside and scored one himself. He’s going to help us kill off a few games this season, can’t wait to see it!

It’s a gamble, given his injury. But I guess it’s one we can afford to take considering we only need him initially as backup to Trippier.

Those 2 games against Man U and Spurs were the most impressive of the whole campaign. All that pressure of playing against top 4 rivals near the business end of the season, and yet to look so confident, and dominate the games - I can’t think of anything like it in the last 20 years.