Champions League knockout stage draw

[ezln1]

Originally Posted by Jerome in the House

Originally Posted by NIMFH


I just love how everyone cracking on Barça's win against Chelsea conveniently forgets the two penalties that went uncalled in Barça's favor in the first leg, or the fact that Abidal was sent off for "fouling" Anelka where there was no contact on the play.

I enjoy all the hate people are spewing. Just shows that we are still the best in the world.


Lets be real here. Barcelona is still the strongest side no matter the outcome here.


For my thoughts on our season.

1. SELL IBRA!!!!!!!!
2. BUY VILLA
3. WIN THE TREBLE!

the hate runs strong in this thread. Iniesta was missed in both legs, but players like Lucio and Zanetti just played great and left little to no room for anything to pass thru the cracks of Inters line. They risked nothing in this game, but with a discipline like the one they possess, it was enough to advance. The loss hurts because there's no doubt barca is the best in the world and more than deserving to advance to the final, but it doesnt always go your way. The cut is deeper because my man Eto'o did exactly what was asked of him today, and his hustle and defensive ability on the right flank was felt stronger than Ibra's presence in both legs. By no means did Ibra cost us this exit, but his lack of hustle is just

. Even when Eto'o had off days, he still ran down balls and made his presence felt if for anything just to pressure the defense into making mistakes.

Villa is a must....with the exit of Henry, and the unreliability of Ibra (yeah, just sell him off), they need someone who can be relied upon to score and make chances for others.

 

[rafabio]

Originally Posted by Jerome in the House

Originally Posted by NIMFH


I just love how everyone cracking on Barça's win against Chelsea conveniently forgets the two penalties that went uncalled in Barça's favor in the first leg, or the fact that Abidal was sent off for "fouling" Anelka where there was no contact on the play.

I enjoy all the hate people are spewing. Just shows that we are still the best in the world.

Lets be real here. Barcelona is still the strongest side no matter the outcome here.

For my thoughts on our season.

1. SELL IBRA!!!!!!!!
2. BUY VILLA
3. WIN THE TREBLE!

Team most hated on == best team? I like that reasoning. Perhaps it's because when they win it's put down to how great they are but if they lose, it's someone else's fault...give me a break. Xavi and Valdes

If you were the best in the world you would be defending your crown, at the very least...

 

[rafabio]

Originally Posted by NIMFH

Rafabio, what exactly do you know about Catalans to call us disgusting?

If that comment was made about Mexicans or Africans, the forum would go nuts.

I see the Barcelona players' habits extend to their supporters...blow everything out of proportion.

I now have to explicitly state that I'm using the term in the context of football i.e. Catalans == Barcelona FC players? The turning on of the sprinklers only in the area where Inter were celebrating was very classy. Very humble in defeat it seems...

So what if you had made the comment about Mexicans or Africans; no one has the right not to be offended...

 

[erascism]

 

THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD AND THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD...... ENJOY YOUR COCA COLA FIFA CLUB WORLD TROPHY!!!!! LOS MERENGUES ARE ON THAT ### NOW! NOT IN OUR HOUSE, PUTOS.

LEO MOUSEY.... ANOTHER GOOSE EGG? ANOTHER ONE?!!! SIMPLY THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD WHEN JOSE ISN'T COACHING.

@ SERGI BISCUITS..... HIS SURNAME SUMS IT UP. STRAIGHT B-MADE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY.

ZLATAN WITH ANOTHER IBRACADABRA PERFORMANCE. *POOF*

AHHHH, WHAT A DAY. I WISH THERE WERE SOME MILAN FANS TO RANK ON. FORZA INTER!

 

[jjgrt5]

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

 

[persiafly]

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

You can call it hate, but at least in my case it's just a reality check to Barca fans. When Barca beat Stuttgart, people were saying they were the best team of all time, with the best player of all time, and the best goalie in Europe. It was funny then and it's funny now. 

 

[xblaze23]

Pop Champagne, oh.

 

[marionthebarberian]

Originally Posted by ERASCISM

 

THE BEST CLUB IN THE WORLD AND THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD...... ENJOY YOUR COCA COLA FIFA CLUB WORLD TROPHY!!!!! LOS MERENGUES ARE ON THAT ### NOW! NOT IN OUR HOUSE, PUTOS.

LEO MOUSEY.... ANOTHER GOOSE EGG? ANOTHER ONE?!!! SIMPLY THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD WHEN JOSE ISN'T COACHING.

@ SERGI BISCUITS..... HIS SURNAME SUMS IT UP. STRAIGHT B-MADE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY.

ZLATAN WITH ANOTHER IBRACADABRA PERFORMANCE. *POOF*

AHHHH, WHAT A DAY. I WISH THERE WERE SOME MILAN FANS TO RANK ON. FORZA INTER!

your teams real madrid though.

 

[marionthebarberian]

Originally Posted by PersiaFly

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

You can call it hate, but at least in my case it's just a reality check to Barca fans. When Barca beat Stuttgart, people were saying they were the best team of all time, with the best player of all time, and the best goalie in Europe. It was funny then and it's funny now. 

are you saying that Lionel isnt on the path to become the greatest player ever?

 

[erascism]

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

@ BARCA FAN COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK WHEN THEY STARTED WINNING TITLES AGAIN. CAMP NOU WAS A GHOST TOWN AFTER FIGO LEFT.

BTW..... WHERE IS THAT GLORY HUNTER CARLOS TEVEZ? ALL SLURPED OUT?

ANYONE SEEN HIM AROUND?
















































ANYONE?

 

[aplx2]

 

[persiafly]

Originally Posted by marionthebarberian

Originally Posted by PersiaFly

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

You can call it hate, but at least in my case it's just a reality check to Barca fans. When Barca beat Stuttgart, people were saying they were the best team of all time, with the best player of all time, and the best goalie in Europe. It was funny then and it's funny now. 

are you saying that Lionel isnt on the path to become the greatest player ever?

The Cavs are on the path to winning the championship, but that's not the same as having the ring on the finger, is it? 

 

[jjgrt5]

Originally Posted by ERASCISM

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

all the haters coming out of the woods... its okay let it all out, you've been choking on it for a while now

Madrid celebrating our loss shows just how pathetic they are

they finally have a reason to burn the stockpile of fireworks they've accumulated since may 2008

@ BARCA FAN COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK WHEN THEY STARTED WINNING TITLES AGAIN. CAMP NOU WAS A GHOST TOWN AFTER FIGO LEFT.

 I "came out of the woodwork" when I discovered NT had a soccer interest. My sig was created to honor my favorite team's accomplishments, Now it is gone since all we can pull now is La Liga. Before stumbling upon the Euro 08 I had never seen a soccer thread on NT that didn't involve bashing the sport. Just because you never saw me post in these type of threads doesn't mean I wasn't a fan already. 

 

[blaxoid]

Wow its getting fiesty in here

Inter are deserved Winners, Barca just couldn't break them down. The Red was BS thou.

I can't wait for the final - I dont know if its been mentioned but Ribery got a 3 match ban for the Red Card, but Bayern are appealing.

 

[carlos tevez]

Inter's performance was disgraceful. Motta's unjust red card was not an excuse for Inter's anti-football...Mourinho had his mind set on parking the bus from the first minute.

Today marked the death of football. You had one team play the right way, completely dominate and try to win with integrity (except for Busquets' despicable behavior) while the other team kept 9-10 men behind the ball, wasted time, had defenders diving in order to win FKs that'd allow them to toe-punt the ball down field and get some rest, and a team that did not even ATTEMPT one single shot on net.

Inter are a great team and outplayed Barca last week but they got completely dominated today and their pathetic showing has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Anyways...

This match illustrated the vulnerability of high possession teams. The problem is that when they go down a goal, their opponents can just shut up shop and clog up the middle making all that possession meaningless. We saw it with how the U.S. beat Spain (that was NOT a lucky win by the U.S.), we see it on a weekly basis with Arsenal and we saw it again today. High possession footie is great but it's not perfect and it can be the cause of a team's downfall. Barca had a bunch of midgets running around trying to string passes together while Inter had a bunch of brutes who had no trouble pushing Barca out of the way and clearing loose balls. I never thought it was impossible to beat Barca, the problem most teams have is they dont have the discipline to defend like that and its obviously difficult to score against Barca when they have 70% possession most nights. I think today's match is foreshadowing how Spain will bow out in the WC...you score first against Spain and defend in numbers and they'll be heading home early.

I said the minute Eto'o was swapped for Ibra that it was a terrible decision. Eto'o is more than just a goal scorer, the guy is versatile, plays with courage and heart, will do whatever it takes to win and can make adjustments in match. What Eto'o did today and last week were nothing new...he did the same thing against AC Milan in the 2006 semis...the guy was playing as a right-back 4-years ago trying to preserve Barca's lead with minutes to go in the 2nd leg. Can Ibra do that for you? No, Ibrahimovic is a Center Forward, nothing more. Give him the ball on a platter inside the box and he'll score. Otherwise, despite all his talent and fancy flicks, he can be invisible. What surprises me the most is that this guy has been with the team since August and he still isnt synchronized at all with Barca's offense. You had Bojan come on and have more scoring chances in 30-minutes than 70 million Euro Ibrahimovic did in 120+ minutes (1st and 2nd legs).

One more thing...we're starting to see Guardiola's weaknesses as a manager. They've actually been pretty apparent for a few months now. The guy favors certain players and will play them even if it does not make sense to do so. Pedro is a talented young player but with little poise...there was no reason for him to be starting ahead of Henry today. As poorly as Ibrahimovic played, it made little sense to sub him out and bring out Bojan and Jeffren in a match where Barca had no size other than Ibrahimovic and Inter's defenders where not hesitating to push (and foul) Barca's frail attackers off the ball. Guardiola's tactics in this match were crap...his players looked lost and most of his decisions were ineffective.

 

[blaxoid]

Pretty spot on analysis Carlos Tevez. On a side note, I thought Piques goal(although just offside) was awesome, how he had the nerve to juke left and then turn, faking out both goallie and defender. Not bad for your CB.

 

[persiafly]

Originally Posted by Carlos Tevez

Inter's performance was disgraceful. Motta's unjust red card was not an excuse for Inter's anti-football...Mourinho had his mind set on parking the bus from the first minute.

Today marked the death of football. You had one team play the right way, completely dominate and try to win with integrity (except for Busquets' despicable behavior) while the other team kept 9-10 men behind the ball, wasted time, had defenders diving in order to win FKs that'd allow them to toe-punt the ball down field and get some rest, and a team that did not even ATTEMPT one single shot on net.

Inter are a great team and outplayed Barca last week but they got completely dominated today and their pathetic showing has left a sour taste in my mouth.

I agree with most of the rest of your post, but this part just seems like sour grapes. Once Motta got ejected, what were Inter supposed to do? Try to play an open 10 v 11 game against Barca? Sometimes theatrics backfire against you, and Barca forced Inter to play a basically impregnable style. Barca would have done THE EXACT SAME THING if they were down a man up 3-1 aggregate in the second leg. If you say otherwise you're blind. 
Everyone said they'd park the bus against Chelsea and they didn't. Everyone said they'd park against Barca at San Siro and they didn't. Today, they were forced to, and they'd earned the right to do so because of their performance last week. This was much different than what Greece did in 2004. That was despicable and pre-meditated. This was a team forced into a corner with no choice but to defend. This whole "death of football" talk is just hyperbole/nonsense. Inter played beautifully against Barca last week, and even if they parked the bus today, it was a decision they were forced to make. Blame it on Busquets and his play-acting. If anything was despicable, it was that. 

 

[carlos tevez]

Re-read what I wrote...I said that Mourinho's strategy was to park the bus from the start of the match.

In hindsight, Motta's ejection did not change anything in the match because Inter chose to defend in numbers from the very start.

Dont get me wrong, Inter have a great manager, great team, a ton of depth and are undoubtedly one of the best clubs in the world but the way they 'won' today was disappointing to say the least.

We all watch this sport to be entertained. There was nothing entertaining about Inter's performance.

Anyways, it'll be VERY interesting to see what happens if Inter win Serie A and the UCL next month. If they get the job done then I think Mourinho goes to Real Madrid.

Inter vs. Bayern has some interesting storylines. Lucio against his former club. Luis van Gaal coaching against his former assistant Jose Mourinho.

Robben vs. Sneijder (take that Real Madrid).

 

[blaxoid]

Just to throw more fuel onto the Anti-Football fire: Video from postgame interview Chelsea vs Tottenham 0-0 2007

 

[persiafly]

It's true that we watch to be entertained, but they play to win, and in certain situations parking the bus is the best strategy. I hate to see it as much as you do, but I see a huge difference in what happened today and other examples of parking, like Italy/Spain in Euro 2008. Jose was definitely playing defensively from the start, but I think his plan was to surround Messi in the midfield and to force Xavi to play closer to the midfield circle. It all changed with the red card. I don't think he wanted to advance by parking the bus, just like he showed against Chelsea.

I also think that Barca made a monumental mistake signing Ibra. They added another "flair" player when it's the last thing they needed. They desperately needed the brute force of Eto'o today. Also, I don't understand Pep's insistence on bringing in rugrats in crucial points of the game. Henry may be past his prime, but would he have missed the header that Bojan put wide? Would he have done more than what Jeffers (sp?) did on the right-wing? I think so.

 

[persiafly]

Originally Posted by blaxoid

Just to throw more fuel onto the Anti-Football fire: Video from postgame interview Chelsea vs Tottenham 0-0 2007

It might seem like he's being hypocritical, but I think it's really simple-minded to not see the difference in the two situations. What he's talking about (as far as I can tell), is the simple park the bus strategy used by weaker teams that Greece made infamous in 2004. Teams use it when they have no chance to play a "fair match" against a stronger team, and they basically try to rope-a-dope their way to a shock victory. 
This was different. Inter had smashed Barca last week, at least on the score card. They were playing away from home, and were reduced to 10 men early in the first half. To not park the bus would have been extremely foolish. Mourinho would've basically been handing the victory to Barcelona. He didn't park the bus because he was afraid of Barca and didn't think he could play with them, he parked the bus because he didn't need to score any goals today, he just needed to prevent the other side from scoring two goals. This is quite different than teams that try to kill a game from the first whistle hoping to come away with a point from a draw or a PK shootout.

 

[carlos tevez]

He didn't park the bus because he was afraid of Barca and didn't thinkhe could play with them, he parked the bus because he didn't need toscore any goals today, he just needed to prevent the other side fromscoring two goals.
This simply is NOT true.

Persia, we're talking about Jose Mourinho here. The king of Anti-Football. The same guy that couldnt get Chelsea to the finals because he was afraid to open up against Liverpool and against Barca (in 06).

The same guy who parked the bus against Barca earlier in the season at the San Siro and the same guy who tried to park the bus at the Nou Camp back in the fall but lost 2-0.

Today he was up to his same old tricks but this is the first time it worked for him in the UCL since leaving Porto.

Mourinho's main flaw is his defensive stubborness...fortunately for him, Inter's D held up today. Mourinho is called a tactical genius but there was nothing genius about Inter's performance today. I'll even go far as arguing that if Inter went into todays match with a 2-1 lead or both teams were level after the first leg, Mourinho still would've parked the bus at the Nou Camp. His history indicates that he does not attack much against elite teams on the road.

I'm not a fan of Mourinho at all because of his uber defensive approach but I guess you cant say much bad about his results. I think the greatest indication of his tactical genius was in the 2nd leg at Stamford Bridge. No, Inter did not dominate but I felt that they were in full control of that match and their 1-0 win was fairly comfortable.

 

[smedroc]

That Bojan goal should have stood smh.

 

[brownin187]

Say what you want, Mourinho played Barca perfectly..They're the best team in the world and he did what he had to do to advance. That's why he's referred to as a tactical genius.

 

[jerome in the house]

Originally Posted by BrOwNiN187

Say what you want, Mourinho played Barca perfectly..They're the best team in the world and he did what he had to do to advance. That's why he's referred to as a tactical genius.

I'm sorry Brown but it doesn't take a tactical genius to park 8 players near the 18 yard box. I'm not making excuses because inter won, but they aren't better than Barcelona.


If you watched the game and any other Jose Mourinho desperation game, you can see he isn't tactically gifted at all, he just plays stubborn ball. All he does is push left on the dpad to all out defense and lets his team suck the life out of the game. I would never want him coaching my team.