Mr_President

Any of Utd, Dortmund, Barca and PSG would be a decent draw IMO. That said, I'd actually quite like to play Bayern. If we lose, so be it - it is a good experience for the team and we get to see where they really are. We would also then be out of the CL at an earlyish stage and can just focus on the league from then until the end of the season. If we win, it's a huge upset (as far as most football fans are concerned) and would be fantastic for this team. The team I'd least like to draw would be Real...

Has to be: Cech Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpilicueta Matic Luiz Schurrle Oscar Hazard Eto'o We won't miss Ramires or Willian much IMO, as long as DL is fit (can anyone confirm?). Expect to beat them, there is absolutely no reason to be defensive against this lot. They have injuries to several key players and we need to and should win.

Good defensively but poor final product.

I'd be confident of winning against any except Bayern and Real. They will all be tough games (bar United/Oly) but I have confidence in this team and Jose - not expecting anything though.

Good stuff - Azpi is the man.

A Titan.

Agree with TOPTB's position on this. He is a great athlete but that's what he is, he gets knocked off the ball a lot, messes up attacks, has poor passing and puts in dogshit challenges like that. He fully deserves the suspension he'll get with the card. Said it back in Dec/Jan (and had been thinking it for a while), but if we persist with 4-2-3-1, Ramires is not good enough to be a partner for Matic in the 2. He simply doesn't have the composure on the ball that is required. I know this is all rather heat of the moment, but he is an incredibly frustrating player. Off to drown my sorrows in Scotch now..meh.

Mourinho wasn't to know Foy would send Willian off for a nothing incident, that can't be put on him at all. This result has been coming for a while; I feel we have papered over the cracks of our problems in recent weeks with our wins/draws. Also, this is in no way good bye to the title. City will drop points from now until the end of the season. They are favourites and nothing has changed in that respect since the start of the season. All we can ask this season is that we push them hard, and then re-group after the summer and fix our problems.

Foy is a pisswit. Several poor decisions cost us, we were also at fault though and Ramires is a muppet. Onwards and upwards.

Good team for an away game. Let's get the 3 pts

Anyone see Kompany's challenge? was it a deserved red & will he be banned?

^ Luiz has been injured, no?

All of this is very interesting. If we really do have an option to get him here and we're serious about it in the future (and he's agreeable to it) then I think this is better than what we could have done in buying him young and loaning him out to some obscure club and shifting him around for a few seasons. At Benfica he is a proper Benfica player, not some temporary stop-gap for them; meaning the coach and team will invest time and coaching in him, kind of like with Matic. Surely it will help him too, feeling like he's part of Benfica rather than just waiting to come back to his parent club. For anyone that watches him, is he a proper CM or another AM? Thanks.

London, England.

This. Let's forget the crap we've had with referees and Barcelona for a sec. No doubt the English media will paint the picture of the little Man City who have never played in CL knockouts before (despite their squad being 2nd or 3rd most expensive in Europe) being toppled by the Goliath that is Barcelona...with the referee firmly against them. The ref was crap tonight but he didn't cost City the game, nor did the ref in the first leg. People will forget Barca's unfairly ruled out goals and look to City's penalty appeal, despite Barca having just as good a claim in the first half. The red was fully deserved too, maybe other City players deserved 2nd yellows also.. ____________ Shame if Aguero is injured again, he is a top player and hopefully he can get himself fit for the world cup; this will undoubtedly aid our title aspirations, though. Now we just have to do our Job against Gala (which won't be too easy) and attempt to salvage at least some degree of pride for the English league...again.

I haven't ever timed a player's recovery from an ACL but this has to be one of the fastest? _____ Hope he is brought in slowly and given a lot of time and patience. The one thing that stood out for me when I saw him play was his tackling, hope he has still got that! I don't remember much about his overall play, though. I hope people don't expect too much from him, when a player is injured they seem to suddenly become much better in some peoples' minds than they were before they were injured!!

He's hardly overtaken them - quite often Bayern will play with most of the midfielders you mentioned together bar maybe one. + they have had injuries to Martinez and Shweinsteiger this season which has opened the door. Not as simple as Kroos "overtaking" them all lol.

Oscar is still insanely young to be playing so many games at this level, he has potential to develop massively. I think people forget just how young he is because of how many games he has played for us and how good he already is (which is funny given how he looks about 15).

Top right corner - even he uses streams?

Thought he was good when he came on, but he was gifted a lot of space and the game was really made easy by Spurs. Hoping he'll be able to rekindle his early season form against tougher opposition who won't defend so ridiculously.

Agree - said it in the Jan transfer thread that if we want to bridge the gap between being a good team and a great team not only do we need a striker but also a midfielder capable of setting the tempo/being composed on the ball. I love Rami and he is fantastic in certain situations and is a good player for the club, but to go to the next level we would need a Modric or similar type player next to Matic IMO. (especially if we persist with 4-2-3-1

Surprising comments from Sherwood, whilst as a football/opposition fan I respect and feel for him immensely after that and it is refreshing to see such honesty, if I was a Spurs fan I wouldn't be happy about the public insult to some of his players (even though he didn't single them out).

Fuck.you.international.friendlies. If he is even slightly injured he should be rested for Spurs.

Said it a while ago and I'll say it again, he would be great for us. Ignore the fact he is a twat. I bet if he wasn't there wouldn't be half the debate there is now. I haven't seen stories about racism/biting opponents (maybe he has done this but I haven't noticed...) so he is nothing we cannot tolerate as fans, especially if he brings goals/victories. As - I think it was - ProudLyon said in a very good post, we don't need a 30+ goal a season striker. We need a guy that can be an 'all round' CF, finish the chances that we do create and bully/harass defenders. Now, from watching the Madrid derby, where he wasn't at his best this season (but still should have had a peno or two), one can quite easily tell what a royal pain in the arse he will be for defences. This is just what we need, with more dangerous players upfront the defending team's defenders are focused on more people, creating more space for the likes of Hazard to work their magic. And then the question is, if not Costa, who? Falcao is older, injured, owned by cash rich Monaco and has only recently moved. Cavani is the same minus the injury and age. Lewandowski has gone to Bayern. Rooney is staying at United. Do we trust Lukaku to lead the line? I'm sure the club will explore all possible avenues before signing Costa, but it strikes me that he is the best we can get and would be bloody good for us.

Decent result but by god was that a lethargic game. Looked like we were playing in sand.