Champions League 2012/13

[PIPA23]

so it´s Bundesliga vs. La Liga, either in semis or final. Great prospect.

hope BVB get Real and Barca to get Bayern.

what a great matches full of emotions awaits us... great!!!

 

[gabe.paul.logan]

Dortmund vs Barcelona will be one of best match in history I believe , just imagine what football it will be !

but I would love to see BVB get Real Madrid on next stage , I think they got more chances than with Bayern or even Barca !

i love the game style of Dortmund but i believe they will be manhandled by Barca


altough i cant guess who would win this year, but im sure it will not be Dortmund...but hey underdogs for the win u know i hope they can pull of a miracle

 

[lukas_rod]

From what i've seen Bayern is the best team so far, and i would like to see them vs Dortmund in the final

 

[gerd]

Hats off to PSG, IMO they were for large stretches the better team in both matches against Barcelona. But wahat a great assist by Villa and that dribble by Iniesta.

Even if Barcelona are average (and they were very average in both matches against PSG) they still can produce some magic.

I don't care who wins the CL, i have onlu one wish: please no classico, i want to see football...

 

[Enzo]

Mancini should be sacked imo. Look at PSG, Dortmund, Malaga, Juventus progress and look at City in CL. Pff..

Messi is exceptional player, he proved it yesterday once again..
FFS even defenders played better after Messi came in.. amazing..

Those who say Messi is product of XavIniesta are so wrong. Messi is actually a combination of Xavi, Iniesta and Villa in one person..

Xavi 100% amazing stuff..

and this from Iniesta, could be epic goal...

 

[cfdh_edmundo]

i love the game style of Dortmund but i believe they will be manhandled by Barca

Yeah Barca have the potential to drag the game down to a very catty level and probably engineer a sending off or cheap penalty. Playes like Alves and Busquets are very good at dragging a game down, earning free kicks and then of course all the Barca players will goad the ref and do the card symbol. Dortmund dont quite have the experience to deal with this, whereas Bayern and Real have a bit more nous. I think if Dortmund avoid Barca then they have a reasonable chance of winning it.

 

[drekkard]

Some people are just blinded by hatred. Go on, dude... Then tell me the last time this happened in a match. You will be surprised when you think of it.

 

[drekkard]

Mancini should be sacked imo. Look at PSG, Dortmund, Malaga, Juventus progress and look at City in CL. Pff..

Messi is exceptional player, he proved it yesterday once again..
FFS even defenders played better after Messi came in.. amazing..

Those who say Messi is product of XavIniesta are so wrong. Messi is actually a combination of Xavi, Iniesta and Villa in one person..

Xavi 100% amazing stuff..

and this from Iniesta, could be epic goal...

Actually in my oppinion xavi's stats show the main problem we have now, no risky passes, horizontal and short possessions, hardly any defense.... Xavi is playing very barly thid season and yesterday he was just terrible, the team plays a lot better without him right now. It might sound heretic to some but it's the truth. A lot of possession to do... Nothing.

As Gerd said, PSG was much better than us and I don't think that we deserved to go through in the overall. Yesterday showed again how average is the team without a stellar messi. Even injured and walking Messi feared the complete PSG defense, which is something I had never seen before at this level. With only 5 minutes he changed the match and qualified the team. Once again, Leo doing things no one else has done before.

 

[cfdh_edmundo]

Some people are just blinded by hatred. Go on, dude... Then tell me the last time this happened in a match. You will be surprised when you think of it.

It pretty much happens at some stage in every CL season. Motta's sending of in the Inter second leg in 2010, Barca players make the card gesture to get Van Persie red carded in the Arsenal match in 2011 (second yellow for playing on when offside), the very dubious pk from Drogba's tackle on Fabregas in the semi last year.

And that's without mentioning any of the nonsense from the classico semi a few years ago. Even last night in the last 10 mins in a game that was far from dirty PSG players picked up 3 yellows as Barca ground the game down, time after time a Barca player went down and ebbed away the mintues. A lot of the big experienced teams do this sort of thing to run the clock down (infact Drogba did it to Barca last year) but Barca are very experienced in it and I think Dortmund might struggle that aspect of the game.

 

[gerd]

OOPS, Alex. Like i already said in the Barcelona thread: i'm not sure it was Messi who changed the game (maybe PSG's fear of Messi did the trick)...we will never know, but i have a feeling Barcelona would have scored anyway without Messi being on the pitch and that even when they were distinctly average...

Edmundo, IMO you are exagerating. I don't deny what you say: Dortmunt could prove to be no match for Barcelona because of a lack of experience. But you could say the same thing about Dortmund compared to both Bayern and Madrid (Di Maria and Ronaldo never dive ? Xabi Alonso never plays like Busquets although he is a genius ?).

You make it sound as if the Barcelona players are the only players who try to influence referees and who are diving...come on...you know better than that.

Come to think of it, after having seen Dortmund against Malaga, i think they are "experieced" enough to stand a chance...

 

[bebo]

Barca are known for this! they play to win and part of that is cunning. I think Barca fans are just use to it.

 

[Enzo]

Actually in my oppinion xavi's stats show the main problem we have now, no risky passes, horizontal and short possessions, hardly any defense.... Xavi is playing very barly thid season and yesterday he was just terrible, the team plays a lot better without him right now. It might sound heretic to some but it's the truth. A lot of possession to do... Nothing.

As Gerd said, PSG was much better than us and I don't think that we deserved to go through in the overall. Yesterday showed again how average is the team without a stellar messi. Even injured and walking Messi feared the complete PSG defense, which is something I had never seen before at this level. With only 5 minutes he changed the match and qualified the team. Once again, Leo doing things no one else has done before.

I have to agree about Xavi passes being useless, I just wanted to illustrate that 100% is possible, which is still a quite an achievement for 1/4 CL.

Messi is invaluable, best part about him - when he turns 30 he will be still very vital for success, maybe he won't score as much but for sure he can deliver a deadly pass. I can't count how many chances Villa, Pedro and Sanchez blew after almost perfect Messi passes this season. Truly a football icon. We badly need a defender and I will pray it can be Hummels(amazing passing)/Company/Silva

 

[drekkard]

As I said, please put clear examples of matches in Chamions League in which this happened in the last 2 seasons. You speak from hatred and with the memories back to those terrible classicos 2 years ago, that no one wants to relive again. Don't say "they usually do it", please refer to me the matches in which Barcelona players have dived, cheated or time wasted more than its opponent. Good luck with it guys.

By the way, I still remember Drogba spending literally 12 minutes on the floor last year (in 6 different instances in which he went to the floor, one of them after body checking with Iniesta...), in a match with the record of less time spent playing in the knockout stages ever, played at Stamford Bridge. Oh, wait, those were the Chelsea players wasting all the time they could, cheating the ref, etc... But this can't be! Premier teams are noble and Barcelona players are the devils!

There are idiots at Barcelona, of course, as in most teams unfortunately for all of us.

It's like the officiating of matches. Barcelona has suffered terrible refs now and then, but barcelona haters will remember only the specific errors that favoured us. It's tiring to hear all that bullshit again and again.

In my oppinion, it's been totally exagerated, and there are some barcelona haters around that will resort to the same old song again and again. But hey, I understand hatred is one of the most powerful passions. I'm sorry for the guys who are driven by it.

 

[drekkard]

OOPS, Alex. Like i already said in the Barcelona thread: i'm not sure it was Messi who changed the game (maybe PSG's fear of Messi did the trick)...

But that's precisely my point! The sole PRESENCE of him in the pitch, albeit injured, made PSG go back 20 meters and instantly created dangerous chances until the goal was scored.

How many players can do that while injured (he couldn't even run at the end) at 1/4 of Champions League against such a powerful defensive team as PSG?

I think that what did Messi yesterday is comparable to the "fever day" of Michael Jordan, no less.

 

[cfdh_edmundo]

Edmundo, IMO you are exagerating. I don't deny what you say: Dortmunt could prove to be no match for Barcelona because of a lack of experience. But you could say the same thing about Dortmund compared to both Bayern and Madrid (Di Maria and Ronaldo never dive ? Xabi Alonso never plays like Busquets although he is a genius ?).

You make it sound as if the Barcelona players are the only players who try to influence referees and who are diving...come on...you know better than that.

The way I see it is like this - against any team there are cunning players, players whom either antagonise the ref or on whom a player cannot afford to commit a risky challenge against as they will engineer a trip over it. Almost every team will have one or two of these latter players, for instance you have the likes of Ronaldo, Di Maria, Robben, you could even say Drogba was one for Chelsea last season. Barca have more of these players Busquets, Fabregas, Dani Alves, Alexes Sanchis, etc than the rest of the other 3 teams left.

I think a team like Dortmund isn't so experienced in playing these sorts of teams. Dortmund defenders might take risks against these Barca players, such as tackling for a 50:50 ball or they might get caught up in a tit-for-tat tussle with a player like Alves and this could be a problem for them. I don't think Dortmund have experienced this sort of football to such a degree (compared with Real and Bayern) so it could be their un-doing. Put simply if Dortmund play Real or Bayern they will be able to focus on 2-3 players (e.g. dont do a sliding tackle on Ronaldo, Di Maria, dont go in on Robben etc) but against Barca it will apply to so many of the attacking players.

 

[Ronaldinho_23]

I think that this champions is for RM or Bayern... In my opinion RM because they have Ronaldo.

Barça no is good in this moment, injuries, low level of alexis, cesc...isn't easy...

Dortmund is a great team but is a young team...

 

[Kanouté]

all hail Ronaldinho_23 you always looked nicer to me than most of the Barcelona fans around

 

[Ronaldinho_23]

hot balls...

bayern-barça
dortmund-madrid

 

[YoungGun_UK]

Perfect draw

 

[gerd]

So far fantastic: no classico. Great.
Would have preferred Bayern-Real, more certain that there will be no classico final.

Real Madrid will play ultra defensively against Dortmund because they suffered in both previous encounters.
This is the match between the best coach and the one who thinks he is the best coach (oh and before hell breaks loose, i always like Mourinho but IMO he's a motivator more than a tactician).

Bayern will win it unless Messi produces some magic...

 

[Enzo]

Its all about Messi vs Bayern. I will remind you all that last time Bayern played against Barcelona for a throphy they lost 2-0 Audi Cup 2011 if I recall.

Real Madrid won only one of the six encounters with Dortmund

 

[jihado86]

Barcelona is the easiest team for Bayern, as RM and BVB are better in defence ..
Barça 2nd power after Messi is the middle who can possess the ball and deprive the opponent from having it, but Bayern's middle is super class and can handle them ..

about RM-BVB, this time Madrid are stronger than group stage .. I think RM - Bayern is the probable final, but who knows, football is always surprising !

 

[Artem]

Great draw. Waiting for each of these games look. I hope for a great struggle in each of them, and of course, Victory at least one of the German teams (please, no Classico in the Final). Good luck, guys, this is Champions League and it is AWESOME!

 

[bebo]

How disrespectful to say Bayern vs Messi...any hoot . RM are mentally stronger and BVB are weaker and away from home in their 2nd leg. They may not get a helping hand from the refs either! Hala Madrid Hala !

 

[Isslander]

I was actually hoping for a Germany semi and a Spain one. Would have made for a Spain-Germany final. It can still happen though.

 

[Kanouté]

I'd like to see Mourinho getting his revenge on Bayern so Go Madrid! Go Bayern!

 

[gabe.paul.logan]

So far fantastic: no classico. Great.
Would have preferred Bayern-Real, more certain that there will be no classico final.

Real Madrid will play ultra defensively against Dortmund because they suffered in both previous encounters.
This is the match between the best coach and the one who thinks he is the best coach (oh and before hell breaks loose, i always like Mourinho but IMO he's a motivator more than a tactician).

Bayern will win it unless Messi produces some magic...

dont worry in the final we will have an el fighto

 

[Ronaldinho_23]

2009 final : Barça- Manu
2010 final : Inter - Bayern
2011 final : Barça- Manu
2012 final : Bayern - Chelsea
2013 final : xxxx - Bayern/barça

 

[jihado86]

if we believe in coincidences, then Barcelona would be champions :

- Final in Wembley : like 92, 2011
- The coincidence in Ronaldinho_23 post
- Last 3 years, the team who buy Valencia's key player, wins it .. (Villa, Mata)
- what else ?

BUT, football isn't about coincidence, neither about luck ..
so, everything is possible, all teams chances are quasi-equals ..


Bayern and Real are very strong this year + Real are really hungry this time and they're more concentrated than last years .. but Bayern and the germans generally aren't good at finals, they seem constant and dominant during the competition, but in finals they lose it all ..
Barça are used to finals last years ..
Dortmund have the chance but they have less probability than the others ..

 

[PLF]

Can't wait for the semi's!

In my opinion, these 4 teams are definitely the best and the 4 many of us considered as true contenders early in the season.

It'll be interesting to see if Real can get revenge from Dortmund. I think BvB will play MUCH better than they did against Malaga and prove a tough test. But like Bebo said, it's always very important where the 2nd leg game is. And if it's in Madrid..... you never know....

Keep in mind, Gotze struggled badly in both legs against Malaga missing 4-5 golden opportunities. Lewandowski scored a beautiful goal and yet over the 2 legs, he was for the most part outplayed by Demichelis and Caballero and just generally had off days. Reus wasn't at this best either. Dortmund were missing Hummels and Santana is nowhere near as classy and a little bit more rash.

My points is Dortmund hardly performed at their best against Malaga but as they've shown us already, they are well capable of outplaying and dominating even the best of teams and the best of players in games against REal Madrid, Man City and Shakhtar.

I expect them to beat Real in Dortmund but they need to do so convincingly so when they travel to Madrid for second leg, they have a chance.

Anyway the beauty of these semi's is that all 4 teams really can win it all! It's not often you say that even at semi-final stage. That has me very excited. Plus htere is the added potential of an All Spanish or All German final where old domestic rivals meet again to be champions of Europe, it's gonna be a classic! I just hope the best teams win and the referees are less of a talking point in the semi's than they were at the quarter final stage.