The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Fulham Broadway 16,972]

Funnily enough they didnt play 'One Step beyond' (that they nicked from us) last night.......

[chelseathebest 150]

David Silva was a fucking beast. Just brilliant.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Taking their ball and going home.

http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=297762

And their 'outside the box penalty' was nowhere near as bad as the one Ellery gave in the 94 cup final, so sshhh.

[Jase 43,479]

I couldn't understand how pple thought mancity will beat barca.

Only bayern style pressing, parking the bus or holding possession better than them can beat barca. Mancity don't use any of those styles and can't beat barca at keeping possession.

If this was the Barcelona 3-4 years ago, would have agreed 100% but since it's not, then not so much. Barcelona are still a good side but not as good as the one years ago and far less intense. Even an average side in Milan and Ajax managed to get a positive result against Barcelona (the former - draw - and latter - a win) earlier in the competition. They are not all THAT great like you're trying to make them out to be really. Everything only happened for them yesterday after the sending off and yet in the first half, for all their chances, they created nothing and only seem to bother to keep the ball without doing anything for the sake of it.

[bushman 2,043]

Barca was not better last night, until Demichellis got caught. No matter how Barca plays these days, they are still good enough to beat 10 men team, any team.

[Shane 2,275]

City can have no complaints in my opinion. Penalty was given, get over it. I thought it was a penalty at the time and i've seen nothing to change my mind. Tough call for the ref to make.

Red card was crazy by Demichelis, no need to bring Messi down. Let him score or have a shot, at least its only 1-0.

City were poor all night in truth. Negredo put in a decent shift up front on his own but he was isolated. Thought Kolorav did well on the left. Barca didn't even have to get out of second gear to beat them.

Onto tonight, I don't give Arsenal a hope. In terms of starting eleven, the bench and manager Bayern are better. City and better then Arsenal, and Bayern are better then Barca so I fear for Arsenal here. Think this could be 3 or 4 nil.

By the way, How impressive were PSG last night? My tip for the Champions League this year. Zlatan needs to win it to go down as one of the greats.

[communicate 2,703]

Bayern is simply the best team I can ever think of, they have no weakness. They have world class players at every position , and a bench so strong I'm pretty sure a Bayern B team could make it semis of the UCL. It's fun to watch the decimate the Spanish giants, but I hate how they have a monopoly on all german talent. I really like Dortmund for whatever reason.

But I still think barca at their peak is better. With Abidal, pique, puyol, n alves defensively they were actually pretty good.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

02

If this was the Barcelona 3-4 years ago, would have agreed 100% but since it's not, then not so much. Barcelona are still a good side but not as good as the one years ago and far less intense. Even an average side in Milan and Ajax managed to get a positive result against Barcelona (the former - draw - and latter - a win) earlier in the competition. They are not all THAT great like you're trying to make them out to be really. Everything only happened for them yesterday after the sending off and yet in the first half, for all their chances, they created nothing and only seem to bother to keep the ball without doing anything for the sake of it.

I agree they are not great as before. Messi was football god in their peak but injuries have slowed him down so far, when he gets back to form people will fear them again. They've changed their all out high pressing to more of a zonal pressing where they come back a bit deeper. Before they don't let opponents make more than 7 passes becos of the constant high pressure on you, so they were like dortmund with perfect possession play.

But their possession still tires out opponents especially when they make the CM run around all game. Its more like how spain NT do, they hold aimless possession waiting for you to come out but tiring you out and ending up going all out in the 2nd half when opposition can't run as fast or cover as much space.

Point I'm trying to make is their not the same level as before, (which was arguably the top 3 best ever footballing side and best in that 2009-2012 era) but they still end up being the 2nd best club in the world right now.

[Fulham Broadway 16,972]

Taking their ball and going home.

http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=297762

And their 'outside the box penalty' was nowhere near as bad as the one Ellery gave in the 94 cup final, so sshhh.

....or the ones we should have had against the cheating catalan cunts in 2009. Piques handball, alves on malouda, two by yaya toure on Drogs and Anelka. Ovrebo you cunt.

[bababoom 4,478]

Barcelona these days are so boring to watch, under Pep they were great mainly because they had the end product, whenever they were in the box a few 1-2s and they'll be in... but this Barca suck the life out of the game, constanly passing at a slow tempo with no end product at all.

[Special Juan 27,529]

Barcelona these days are so boring to watch, under Pep they were great mainly because they had the end product, whenever they were in the box a few 1-2s and they'll be in... but this Barca suck the life out of the game, constanly passing at a slow tempo with no end product at all.

I don't agree. I think they are an absolute joy to watch.

[edetarod 2,155]

City

Arsenal (loading)

Utd

Chelsea

[Weckerz 3,781]

Reading this thread you'd think City got crushed, thought it was a pretty close game up until the red card...

Was rooting for City, ah well.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Barca have been more direct this season tbf, but Martino played 4 CM's against City and that obviously affected their attack.

Next game when they use Neymar alongside Messi and Pedro, I can see City put to the sword.

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

I hope Bayern destroy Arsenal

[Fernando 6,502]

Pellers is an idiot for those comments. Yeah it wasn't a penalty but to say that Barcelona won because the referee was on their side is bogus. Barca created enough to score at least 3.

Hardly, he is just following the Mourinho guideline of blaming everyone else.

But if that's an idiot thing to do then I assume that also makes Mourinho an idiot.....

[Jase 43,479]

But their possession still tires out opponents especially when they make the CM run around all game. Its more like how spain NT do, they hold aimless possession waiting for you to come out but tiring you out and ending up going all out in the 2nd half when opposition can't run as fast or cover as much space.

Point I'm trying to make is their not the same level as before, (which was arguably the top 3 best ever footballing side and best in that 2009-2012 era) but they still end up being the 2nd best club in the world right now.

Get your point about such teams holding possession to tire teams out etc but not sure that can be applied at all to yesterday's game when what eventually tired City, if anything, was because they had to chase the game with 10 men for nearly 40 minutes. You're right in saying City are not necessarily used to playing on the counter, pressing and all that but despite that, they did pretty well till Demichelis's brainfart moment early in the second half which obviously changed the game. They only pressed once the one ball reached certain areas and it's not like Barcelona were relentlessly passing the ball around to really tire City out. Watching Barcelona at times, you do wonder if that is actually their purpose or are they just afraid of losing possession (given their obsession) and passing it around for the sake it (sterile possession) or doing so because there no space allowed by opposition for them to create (which was the case yesterday at 11 v 11).

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Reading this thread you'd think City got crushed, thought it was a pretty close game up until the red card...

Was rooting for City, ah well.

In fact, after the red card, City had about as many chances as Barca did too. One horrible decision cost them badly. It' be better for us if City and Arsenal go through but they got brutal draws so it was always unlikely.