Message to Rafa

[big screen satellite]

Originally Posted by sanblaster

Funny.... in Spain everybody would agree that winning the Champions League would be far more difficult, if only for the level of the other competitors.... If you ask any Barça/Madrid fan they'd choose winning the European Cup over the League any day (at least I would!).

It is kinda more unpredictable, because its a cup, (well in the final stages it is)...

I mean, the Champions League is a money making exercise first... because you play 6 games and only really need to win 3/4 of them to qualify for the knock outs... almost always the best teams get through... then they get to play a 'lesser' side by being top seeded... its all so that the best teams get to the final - and yes its harder to beat the best teams... but you get two chances, home and away... its too random really to have fans get passionate about it as they do over 'home' league football.

League football has always been the 'bread and butter' of all clubs in England, and the 'home' league is a harder longer fought out campaign and during it you get to play several teams that you just never want to lose to...

LFC had never played Real Madrid at Anfield before - so there was no rivalry, yes they were upset when they lost 4-0 but it won't have hurt so much as losing to say Athletico Madrid or Barca in the league... surely?

Last years final when Man United beat Chelsea was truly exciting, but I still think that if that game was to determine who would win the Premier League it'd have more passion and more riding on it...

Everyone hates Man United (mainly because of success and popularity), but they have 5 big rivals that MUFC fans 'hate', but none are European beacuse we don't play them often enough and most of the time when we do its just in the Champions League, League stages...i.e. unimportant games...

United in my opinion want to beat these teams in this order (mainly in the League): Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Leeds

no one else comes close...

I'd take winning the Premiership each season over anything else... (provided Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea don't win the European Cup!) I might be in the minority, but i think the League is still No. 1 for most United fans...

[stimpee]

Originally Posted by matt

That's an absolutely ridiculous thing to say (and I've seen Liverpool fans offer similar sentiments that they'd rather have lost to Madrid if it meant they could win at Old Trafford). Why would you rather win a more or less meaningless league game than progress to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League? So you lost a game at home to one of your rivals, so what? In the big scheme of things you're still going to win the league and you're still very much in the mix for the FA Cup & Champions League and could end this season with an unprecedented Quintuple.

Sheffield Wednesday have done the double over Sheff Utd for the first time since 1914 but i'd swap that for promotion to the premier league any day. It meant a lot to beat them but theyre still the ones in the playoff positions and we're stuck in midtable. I know its not quite the same...

Liverpool have to enjoy that theyre the most successfull european team of the last 5 years and that theyve done the double over United. But United will win the league, which is something Liverpool havent done since 1990, evn though theyve managed to win everything else in the years since then.