Champions League 2012/13

-Panos- said:
Nothing surprising here, 1-2 (could have been 1-3, but Huntelaar missed the penalty). Moving on to claim our 4th position :D
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Besides, I am really disappointed about Montpellier we could have won this game but still Arsenal played smoothly.
I just hope we finish 3rd.
 
I watched Milan-Anderlecht.
Anderlecht totally dominated Milanin the first half. In the second half Milan should have won it. But considering that Belgian teams are minnows in the CL, how bad are this Milan team?
Before El Sharawy came on the pitch, this was a very, very ordinary team.

And once again the ref choose Milan's side whenever there was the slightest doubt. After barely a minute a Milan player (Bonnera?) should have got at least a yellow card for fouling Massimo Bruno.

Did it change the outcome of the match? I don't think so, but nevertheless, it was there...
Can somebody explain me why Allegri put El Sharawy on the bench and not in the starting eleven?
Both Pazzini and Boateng had a very bad match.

And the fact that only 27.000 people showed is rather ominous too...Milan fans don't like this team. Kind of a waste, and to know that Udinese missed a CL place in a penalty shoot out...
 
gerd said:
I watched Milan-Anderlecht.
Anderlecht totally dominated Milanin the first half. In the second half Milan should have won it. But considering that Belgian teams are minnows in the CL, how bad are this Milan team?
Before El Sharawy came on the pitch, this was a very, very ordinary team.

And once again the ref choose Milan's side whenever there was the slightest doubt. After barely a minute a Milan player (Bonnera?) should have got at least a yellow card for fouling Massimo Bruno.

Did it change the outcome of the match? I don't think so, but nevertheless, it was there...
Can somebody explain me why Allegri put El Sharawy on the bench and not in the starting eleven?
Both Pazzini and Boateng had a very bad match.

And the fact that only 27.000 people showed is rather ominous too...Milan fans don't like this team. Kind of a waste, and to know that Udinese missed a CL place in a penalty shoot out...
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I've read that Milan havent scored at home ground for three games in a row.. WOW! Anti record of all times for Milan?

This way Zenit and Malaga are going into playoffs!

Isco is freaking BEAST!
 
gerd said:
I watched Milan-Anderlecht.
Anderlecht totally dominated Milanin the first half. In the second half Milan should have won it. But considering that Belgian teams are minnows in the CL, how bad are this Milan team?
Before El Sharawy came on the pitch, this was a very, very ordinary team.

And once again the ref choose Milan's side whenever there was the slightest doubt. After barely a minute a Milan player (Bonnera?) should have got at least a yellow card for fouling Massimo Bruno.

Did it change the outcome of the match? I don't think so, but nevertheless, it was there...
Can somebody explain me why Allegri put El Sharawy on the bench and not in the starting eleven?
Both Pazzini and Boateng had a very bad match.

And the fact that only 27.000 people showed is rather ominous too...Milan fans don't like this team. Kind of a waste, and to know that Udinese missed a CL place in a penalty shoot out...
Click to expand...

Gerd - this is why there's so much pessimism around Milan. There's no game plan, no willingness to try a new formation to suit our players, injuries and the sale of our star players... people are fed up. They were booing Milan for the whole first half because the players have been playing so poorly and don't look like they're trying very hard.

Bojan or El Sharawwy out wide to cross the ball to Pazzini... just something that uses a bit of speed. Instead we play with 3 muscle men and an overrated midfielder called Boateng. We lack creativity and speed, and the manager doesn't do a good job of preparing his players mentally. We will come 3rd or 4th in the group.
 
Yeah this is the worst Milan in Berlusconi's era and people don't like this team. The management did some desperate stuff in the summer.

They agreed a contract extension with Silva to then sell him a week later and in that period didn't even deposit his new contract. They tricked the fans by putting Thiago and Ibra's pictures on the season tickets which got them really angry. This 27,000 at the San Siro is usually a Coppa Italia number. And after all the sales, Galliani signs De Jong and says he is the best signing in Serie A. Then tells Allegri he has no excuses not to win the league. Seriously?!

The group is mentally weak and the locker room is a mess according to Gattuso, the team has no creative or technical player whatsoever, players who were 4-5'th picks are now undoubted starters, lot of weak players like Antonini and Bonera are getting exposed a lot, and Boateng's sudden fame has finally got to his head after we stupidly gave him the number 10.

Allegri never had brilliant tactics. He mostly relied on Ibra in attack and Silva in defence and that's the problem with Milan.
 
-Panos- said:
Nothing surprising here, 1-2 (could have been 1-3, but Huntelaar missed the penalty). Moving on to claim our 4th position :D
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or the goal by papadopoulos in first half could have been given... ;)
before the match i was hoping for a draw - in the end i was surprised that it was a deserved victory at karaiskakis.
 
Zeem said:
This 27,000 at the San Siro is usually a Coppa Italia number.
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yes but thats Italia football in general now...we have very low crowds for a long time, all of us clubs.

I would love us to win hosting a world club again and get all of our stadia up to date with other countries like Germany and England. Even the beautiful San Siro looks so dated now and the atmosphere is poor.
 
Yup that's what Italy needs. A World Cup or Euro to renovate and build new stadiums. All other European leagues are ahead of Italy with their stadiums.
 
Three German clubs, three wins, good start so far. But every German club failed to score from the penalty spot, must be a mistake in the matrix...
 
the biggest surprise to me today was Giovinco's performance i expected bigger things out of him but he couldn't pass the defense & was a bit man handled but every one of them & once he came out and Quagliarella the difference was really clearer, too bad we missed out on the win though :(
 
Juve never dserved that point, but Chelsea (Mikel) threw it away.
Despite all the money they have spent, i see weaknesses in their squad.

They need a decent DMF (Mikel isn't good enough) and a top class striker (Torres is better than last season, but he still is a shadow of the player he was at Liverpool and Atletico). Besides that they have too much similar players: Mata, Hazard, Oscar even Marin (what about Marin? Does he ever play?). And why not play Hazard as an AMF (which is his favourite position) and let play both Oscar and Mata. It's a shame to put Mata on the bench. And what about Meireles and Essien. Why let them go if you have to rely on Mikel? I'm far from convinced about Di Matteo.
 
Juve never deserved that point?! Juve was easily the better team! If not for two fluke Oscar goals... And despite those juve still managed to almost completely turn it around.
 
@ Dominic

Agree lol, apart from the two pieces of absolute magic from Oscar, Juve were by far the better team on the night. If the game had gone on another ten minutes, I feel Juve would have won.

PS - I'm sure Pirlo lost possession once last night....or did I dream it??
 
You saw an entirely different match dominic.
I know that Quagliarella could have scored the winner and i'm pretty sure you would call it a fantastic goal, whereas you call Oscar's second goal a fluke. That never was a fluke, that was pure genius.
IMO Chelsea should have gad a penalty for a foul on Hazard. And that wasn't the only time Juve can't complain about the ref.
Mind you, i'm not saying Juventus were bad. They were good and yes they dominated the second half, but they had to since Chelsea had the lead. The turning point was Matta's miss after Hazard's run. Less than a minute later, Mikel gave a bad pass and Quagliarella equalized (a question, if that would have been a Chelsea goaln would you have called it a fluke too?).

It's pretty obvious that this Juve team is a very strong team. But concerning yesterday's match, my personal impression is that Chelsea threw it away rather than that Juve grabbed a draw...but of course that's only my opinion.

What is certain is that this point might be very important for Juve and the points loss may haunt Cheslea, because IMO Shakhtar have a very strong team and both giants are not guaranteed to go through in this group...

Ps: i just see cshopland's post. Was i high yesterday? IMO Juve and particularly Pirlo were very sloppy in their passing game and the commentator and pundits of the television chain i watched the game said exactly the same. IMO Juve is capable of being much stronger than what they showed yesterday.
 
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Well i also think Juve absolutely deserved a point yesterday. Not their best perfomance (sloppy passing, defense was not as solid as usual) but not bad either. Oscars 2nd goal was breathtaking. What a beauty, but it was a 1 out of 10 or even 100 shot. First goal was lucky cause Buffon would have saved Oscars shot wasnt it for Bonuccis deflection. I think the ref made a very good game too. The penalty would have been a soft one, but there would sure be referees who would have whistled. All in all a deserved draw. Looking forward to Chelsea vs Shakhtar and Juve vs Shakhtar.

Greez
John
 
Yeah there was nothing fluke about Oscar's second.

I can't stop watching it, mesmerisingly brilliant.

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Someone at work had a spare ticket so I was at the game and tend to agree with Gerd, albeit not as strongly. I think Chelsea were comfortably the better team for the first hour or so, but after some substitutions and injuries by around the 70th min Juventus were getting as strong as them and in the last 10 mins Juventus were the stronger team and the momentum was with them at the end.

While I was impressed by one or two players (Oscar, Ramires, Vidal until he seemed to get a bit injured) both teams displayed some major problems. John Obi Mikel was very underwhelming, he would sometimes win the ball off a Juventus player, but he was consistantly giving the ball away. He couldnt even make simple passes and in the last 15-20 mins Chelsea players (like Ivanovic) were avoiding passing to him and the teams shape became very distorted. When Ramires and Oscar were along side him it wasnt such an issue since both of the Brazilians tracked backed - while both are physically not that big they were excellent at closing down Juventus, running at them and pressuring them. These two players allow older less mobile players (Lampard) and poorer players (Mikel) to be played without messing up Chelseas midfield. I was definatley impressed by Oscar, obviously his goals were good but his all round play, stamina and closing down really took the pressure off the other Chelsea midfielders. Having Oscar and Ramires in the there means that Hazard can also just concentrate on attacking and it also means the full backs (Cole and Ivanovic) have more licence to overlap and attack.

To me the game really changed for Chelsea once Ramires and Oscar were taken off. He actually took off Ramires just as Oscar took a heavy knock, I'm not sure why he took off Ramires (maybe he was slightly injured or Di Matteo was worried about the yellow card) but I would have kept him on, especially when Oscar was down and potentially injured. Oscar tried to play on for a few mins but he was too injured and he too was subbed off. Both replacements, Bertrand and Mata, were good replacements but neither are classic closing-down midfielders (which Ramires and Oscar had been all night). The replacements made Chelsea a bit soft in the center of the park and an exhausted Lampard, who isnt really known for being that good defensivly, was left with the inept Mikel in the center of midfield. I think he would have been better bringing on Cahill instead of Bertrand or Mata and getting Cahill to play as a DM, or moving Cahill to CB and pushing David Luis to DM. Even having brought on Bertrand I would have put him at full back, switched Ivanovic to CB and moved David Luis up to DM. They also had that Oreliu Romelu guy on the bench, here is supposedly a player who can play DM or CB, and Ramires coming off (with Mikel looking poor) would have been the perfect chance for him but he was left on the bench as perhaps there are worries about his ability and experience at this stage, one player who would have been ideal was Raul Mireles.

Juventus's attackers were pretty poor in the first half in my opinion. Giovinco was muscled off the ball very easily and Vucinic dropped deep a lot to pick up the ball as a consequence. Vidal and Asamoah looked reasonably good for them, but I think Vidal picked up a knock as he faded a bit. It seemed for much of the game their tactics revloved around getting the ball to Giovinco, trying to get him to run at Chelseas defenders and hoping he could create something. I was suprised that they didnt try and use Asamoah and Lichtstiener more to try and get behind the Chelsea full backs and put in crosses, but having said that they didnt really have many attackers running into the box in the first half. Chelsea did a good job of shutting down Pirlo's space so he didnt have a lot of oppertunities in the first 60 mins or so to play key balls, I think a lot of teams in Europe might try and do this so Juventus would be wise to develop a better plan B in case it happens again.
 
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That is a splendid post and i agree with it. That is the way i also assess the match. It's true that at the end Juventus were the better team and could have won the match. I also agree about the substitution of Ramirez that changed the match. Di Matteo should have waited the verdict on Oscar. At that moment to me it could have been logical to take Hazard out instead of Ramirez (but after that substitution Hazard had another very good run which could have resulted in a third goal, but Mata missed).

I don't understand why Di Matteo prefers Mikel to Oriol Romeu. And i have the impression that he relies too much on Terry and Lampard. To me Terry is past it and Lampard should be used the way Ferguson used Giggs two seasons ago: as a super sub and less as a starter. But i suppose that that is the "lesson" Di Matteo has learned after what happened to AVB.

Concerning Juventus: i was impressed by Vidal, Lichtsteiner and Asamoah. Hazard had a tough match against both Lichtsteiner and Asamoah. Giovinco is one of my favourite players, but yesterday was not his day. I'm quite convinced that Juventus can perform much better than what they showed yesterday. IMO they are dark hrses to win the CL (which i would like since i want 3 Italian clubs and this Milan are lacklustre).
 
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