Jimmy_D

1-1 Anyone’s game now!

Coventry far more in the game this half, time must be ticking incredibly slowly for Luton.

What a goal! Deserved lead for Luton.

Luton definitely getting the upper hand in the play-off final so far, not been able to take advantage of it yet though.

Dortmund equalise but it’s not enough, Bayern take the title on goal difference I guess? I don’t know off hand whether they use head to head record in Germany first.

Equaliser against Bayern, title back in Dortmund’s hands as things stand!

Shaping up to be a dramatic last day in Germany, Dortmund 2 points ahead after being 9 points behind Bayern at one point, looking to break a long streak of titles for Bayern, but Bayern currently 1-0 up with Dortmund 2-0 down and 35 mins left to save it.

Still no confirmation of whether that ship was sunk or not, but if it was, that’s one of their most advanced ships gone. Apparently it’s the Ivan Khurs, a spy/intelligence ship that’s got a lot of modern Western designed tech on it, they don’t have the ability to replace it or its capabilities, at all at the moment, let alone in a timeframe that will help them against Ukraine. They only have two ships of its class, and the other is in Russia’s Northern Fleet, unable to access the Black Sea due to Turkey’s control of the Bosporus Strait with the Montreux Convention.

Quite the dilemma for Russia here. Seems the separatists are digging in to extremely defensible positions and giving every indication they’re not going to leave. Occupied Russian territory is something that Putin can’t afford to ignore, it’s utterly toxic to him politically, but considering the time and resources they needed to sink into being able to claim Bakhmut was occupied, it’s likely to require resources that Russia won’t want to divert, considering the threat of Ukraine having intelligence of where that’s being diverted from, and Ukraine having the resources now to take advantage of that. At the same time, while they’re not officially working for or with Ukraine, any air forces that go near there will be within range of Ukraine air defence, and there won’t be any hesitation in taking the opportunity to hit Russian air assets. (Nor can Ukraine afford to ignore armed Russian air assets near their border, considering the devastation they’ve caused to Ukraine’s civilians.) Russia don’t seem to have any good options available to them just at the moment.

That awkward moment when you've been arming people against their will, sending them against an enemy that allows them to surrender, generally creating conditions that make rebellion more likely, and 90% of your military is tied up in a special military operation. Belgorod in Russia, near the border with Ukraine, being attacked by anti-Putin Russian separatist forces today according to reports.

Unusual throw in technique there, almost looks like a cricketer’s bowling action

Some goal that!

West Ham look way off the pace so far

Biggest risk to them is probably that Leeds have a half-decent chance of taking six points off of West Ham that will be concentrating on the cup now, and Spurs that have been really inconsistent away from home. That would take it out of their hands. Everton’s injuries mean that a result against Bournemouth is by no means guaranteed either. Whatever happens it’s going to the last day.

Damn. If we’d managed to get Gakpo over the line, or even if one of our backup options had fired a bit more, would have been hilarious to see Leeds, Leicester and Everton all getting relegated.

Annoying that Everton got the equaliser, especially as it seems like the final whistle should have long gone when they got it, but dropping two points does mean that their fate isn’t in their own hands at the moment, with their position threatened by two different teams. Admittedly in a relegation battle having the points on the board is more valuable, but they’re certainly not in a comfortable position.

Can’t think of any CL semifinals I can remember more one-sided than that was. City a ridiculous team this season.

I’d be amazed if that doesn’t end up being the case at this point. Looks like it’ll only be a win against massive odds that prevents the treble.

Looks like the final will between two teams that we beat the last time we faced them in cup competitions

I’m guessing they had figured out the location of a Patriot system and wanted the PR victory of one being destroyed to be sending that much all at once. They got the opposite of that. I’d imagine there are some pretty nervous people that claimed those ‘impossible to intercept’ capabilities in Russia for the Kinzhal when it was developed.

As far as I can tell, the sea launched version is the non-export version that France developed and it also has a range in excess of 500km. That range would make it restricted from being exported, so it’s unlikely to be that version, especially as Ukraine don’t have a way to sea launch at the moment anyway, so there’s no benefit to sending a retro-restricted version of that missile. The restriction is non-binding, so the extremely small possibility that France have ignored that and are sending the 500km+ range versions will be giving Russia a headache, but it looks likely France are essentially sending identical missiles to the ones the UK have sent.

Seems it actually was Storm Shadow, assuming these pictures are accurate. Also looks like Russian air defence operators are seeing shadows everywhere, reports of two Russian helicopters and two Russian jets hit by friendly fire so far today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Shadow#Operators We’re certainly not deciding targets for all of those. Planning precise missions won’t be any more complicated than planning GPS coordinates to route the missile around known high concentrations of AA defences.

We’re literally sending the export version of the missile. You think we’d be controlling every missile we ever sell?

Just how complicated do you think targeting these things is? There’s absolutely no benefit to either us or to Ukraine for us to be deciding where these things are targeted, or for us not to be providing the capability to target them.