bababoom

Witsel-Matic reminds me so much of the Petit-Viera partnership, could be just as devastating.

The Liverpool love-in already in full force.

People on twitter already saying we have the easiest route to the final... it's like they only go on names without actually watching teams play. Atletico knocked out Barcelona, who let us not forget knocked out Man city with ease in the previous round. They are also top of La liga for gods sake. These same people probably thought City will win the CL...

IF our game plan is spot on and the players play well we shouldn't have to rely on whether a GK plays or not. I know it's in the contract, but maybe we can use this as leverage for Costa?

Bruce Buck: "Of course we will let Courtois play. To deny him the opportunity would be paranoid and unpleasant, behaviour we are above."

No, that's just absurd. You may get the odd fan spouting that kind of nonsense, but most people wouldn't be that stupid. If we make sure Courtois doesn't play and we go through, people will always think 'what if'. I'd rather play a full strength Atletico.

^ agree completely with that United fan, at least one talks sense, eh? I'm 100 percent sure we'll get a Striker and a Left back, i'm not so sure about the midfielder, though i hope we do. You only have to watch the Palace game to see how our midfield struggle to create when teams sit deep, we need a creative midfielder who has the vision to spot the likes of Hazard, Oscar and Willian in tight areas. Right now our attackers have to come deep to get the ball.

Maybe we're not City-esque going forward, but what do you expect? we have no striker. The fact is on the break we're good, so few teams go out all attack against us in the league apart from City and Arsenal, but look how dangerous we looked in those matches. PSG never went full out attack either, at home they were playing rather safe and at the bridge they were poor. Real Madrid will attack, look at the game against Barcelona, they didn't play on the counter like last year under Mourinho, they went for it and should of won. Barcelona won mainly from Real' poor defending. At the back they take risks, Ramos for me isn't a center back, he's the biggest liability and it's a joke he's in the world eleven. We need to defend deep and counter with pace against Bayern and Real, they have obvious weaknesses we can exploit. They are made for us and especially Jose Mourinho. Atletico are different, they're not expected to go out all attack like Real or Bayern, even at home. If Real drop deep and defend at home the fans will be on their backs, it's not the same for Atleti. IMO they will get to the final, they are so well balanced it's unreal.

Hazard has been our player of the season imo. He's been vital for us this season and his form around Nov to Feb was amazing. He's our top scorer and created the most assists. Apzi had been great for us, but i cant look past Hazard.

I loved the last minutes of the Barcelona match, you can see the players panicking trying to get the ball up the pitch while the Atletico players were just wasting time. Love it. Messi hasn't looked the same since coming back from his injury, he seems reluctant to take on players, before you would always see him dribbling with the ball, he doesn't do that now. He still scores, but he gets tackled with such ease nowadays. Neymar had one good moment where he put the ball through one of the Atleti players legs, great skill, but apart from that he was poor again. He seems too lightweight for even Spanish football... he needs to bulk up. End of an era for Barcelona, at their peak they were one of the best teams, ever.

I know Bayern won yesterday but United had chances, Rooney should of scored. Obviously Bayern was the better side, but Man city, Arsenal and now United have caused trouble and exploited their weaknesses. Yesterday a simple goal kick set Valencia through on goal, obviously he messed it up because he's shit. We need to play the same way we did against City, Matic will be a huge miss, but i think Ramires and Luiz can do the job. Also notice how the Bayern center backs get caught so easily on the ball, they keep it for far too long. Yesterday their midfield was significantly weaker because of injuries but even with everyone fit, i believe we can do it. Jose Mourinho will have our tactics spot on.

Lets be honest with ourselves, do we need him? no. He's a top players, he's saved Dortmund many times this year with his goals/assists. But we have too many attacking midfielders. Once we buy a world class Striker, Midfielder, Left back and maybe Center back (depending if Zouma goes out on loan again), then we can do a Madrid/Barca and just buy a player for the sake of it.

I was just thinking, maybe it wasn't a blessing in disguise afterall that Ibra was injured... on paper Lucas-Cavani-Levezzi looks so threatening on the counter, but really they only have a few chances. Ibra is one of those special players like Drogba who could get a goal out of nothing.

This is a good point, even in the 85th minute we never started to panic, we always had enough men back to deal with PSG' the counter. On the tactics, once BA came on we became more direct, this was planned and it worked. PSG retreated once they subbed off Lavezzi and Lucas, obviously with three strikers on we literally had no midfield so we couldn't really pass our way through their defense, it meant we had to go direct and it worked.

Jose was very unlucky at Real Madrid, in his first season he was against one of the best teams ever in Barcelona, very unlucky to lose to Bayern on penalties and against Dortmund i'll say the dressing room was already gone, but Dortmund was excellent, especially Lewandowski. Hopefully this time he can take us into the final, he'll be more determined then ever.

You sure? :blue scalf:

I mean compared to Lloris and the rest of the PL gks, De gea is the best shot stopper in the league.

What a player who cannot defend? he's good at going forward but poor at the back... no thanks.

What a 33 year old who cant score away from home? if that's our plan B god help Chelsea. Eto'o has been good in the big matches at home this season, but lets not pretend he's been amazing, we're only depending on him because we have no one else.

I personally think De Gea's a better shot stopper than Lloris.

You originally said he's the better striker. We will sign Costa (Or another world class striker) who will fit into Moruinho's system, but you always need a plan B, Lukaku offers something different. Also is this the same Eto'o who cant score away from home?

Bullshit. Lukaku has played in big games this season and has shown he's ready to be at least our second striker. Sturridge was only scoring goals for Bolton, was he ready for Chelsea? Yes, but we didn't give him the chance... now look at him. Suarez was only scoring goals at Ajax, the dutch league is pretty poor, was he ready for the Liverpool? Of course. Rooney was at Everton 12 years ago, was he ready for United?

The crowd will be up for it tonight, i have a feeling it's going to be another special CL moment at the Bridge.