The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods you’d totally treat to a cinema night: Valyrian Steel, NeRObutBlanco, Kung_Fu_Zizou (AKA KFZ), Juninho and, of course… yours truly.
Scouting City
Interesting article by Mehedi. A small quote:
Manchester City are going through a historic dip in their non-penalty goals scored and their non-penalty expected (npxG) goals when a comparison is drawn all the way back to the start of the 2022-23 season in the premier league.
Suspension risk
Players who will miss the potential UCL Ro16 1st leg if they get a yellow card tonight.
- Rüdiger
- Bellingham
- Modrić
- Tchouameni
- Camavinga
- Endrick
The good new is that, from the R16 1st leg on, the card count starts over – Those not suspended on R16 would be clean, with 0 cards.
Expected lineup
As expected, Valverde is ready and starts today at RB.
Jude is suspended in LL for 2 games
As I expected, Jude got a 2 match suspension. He will miss games against Girona (at home) and Real Betis (away)
The competition committee’s explanation on Bellingham’s decision:
Real Madrid, based on the images & the expert opinion sent, weren’t able to prove that he says ‘f*ck off’ instead of ‘f*ck you’. The referee report is presumed to be true & therefore the appeal fails.
JUST IN–The competition committee’s explanation on Bellingham’s decision:
“Real Madrid, based on the images & the expert opinion sent, weren’t able to prove that he says ‘f*ck off’ instead of ‘f*ck you’. The referee report is presumed to be true & therefore the appeal fails” pic.twitter.com/edVobUEBcx
— Madrid Xtra (@MadridXtra) February 19, 2025
