FC Barcelona Thread

Congrats to Barcelona. You're still the best team but, as this game showed, the gap isn't that big.

Good to see Eric backing to football. It was the best moment of the match so far (well, at least for me, because... you know :().
 
TO WEMBLEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

ARE YOU READY ??????????????????

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gerd said:
I think this match is a proof that Mourinho is not a top class coach. He has great players in his squad and yet you never see a footballistic routine in this team.
Apart from Xavi Alonso (great pass for Madrid's goal, that from Iniesta was pure genius), Man Utd has much more football intelligence in the team.

Gab, i did not like Barcelona in the second half because they were scarcely able to vary between long and short passes. Short passing gamer is wonderfull if you don't get yourself in trouble with it. In the second half this was frequently the case....a team like United will punish for those mistakes.
I know that Madrid played against one of the best club teams ever, but they were very, very poor throughout both matches.
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I totally agree with you here Gerd. You know I'm quite critical with abussing short passing. It limits the teams, makes it smaller and smaller. In fact, the only chance of Madrid in 180 minutes came from an error for abusing this short passing.

I think Madrid was a little better today, but if they were trying to come back they should have offered a lot more. 1 chance of goal in 180 minutes is a poor stat. We could have scored in the first half but Casillas showed again he's a top 10 history goalkeeper.

The_Special_One said:
Congrats to Barcelona. You're still the best team but, as this game showed, the gap isn't that big.

Good to see Eric backing to football. It was the best moment of the match so far (well, at least for me, because... you know :().
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Thanks, Special, you know you're like ten thousand times more Special than the other one. The gap isn't that big but there's still a big difference in my oppinion. Mainly in the way both teams move the ball. We haven't been very fresh lately. The players are very tired and we're out of shape and with lots of injuries. But Madrid showed they're a competitive and solid team that can beat anyone.

But, in my oppinion, Madrid should have played a lot more offensive. Today Barcelona played with time. If we had to win the match, we would have player very differently in the 2nd half after the goal.

About the disallowed goal: it wasn't because the referee whistled before the goal anyway. And in my oppinion is either a foul of Pique to Ronaldo or a foul of Ronaldo to Mascherano.

When someone falls on your ankle from behind at top speed it hurts, so I don't get people criticizin Mascherano. He was arriving first at the ball and was Ronaldo falling that tripped him down. In my oppinion, it was a foul of Pique to Ronaldo, and the very moment Ronaldo makes Masche fall there can't be any kind of advantage rule.

But Carvalho could have been sent off too, for doing 5 fouls in the 2nd hald with a yellow already. In my oppinion the referee was almost perfect today in a very very hard match. For all the times they are criticized, they must be praised when it's deserved.

Finally, I don't get why Madrid players moan about today's match, as if they were robbed or something. They just did 2 shots on goal in 90 minutes (both in the same play: the goal), nothing else. How were they supposed to win this match? What they expected? To be given the goals? They had 1 shot at goal in the first leg, from 30 yards. Did they really expect to win with only 3 shots?

It was very thight, but in my oppinion the round was lost by Mourinho in the first leg, and the best team won, though it was very thight. Just as I expected.
 
LOLLL fouls in the game?

barca 10 foul - Madrid 30 foul no red card ? If theres conspiracy I think its on madrid side LOLLL

you guys deserve to go trough...

Cant believe a team like Madrid pushing up with those conspiracy talk...ridiculous.
 
To be completely fair, i don't understand why Debleeckere disallowed the first Madrid goal.
If he whistled for the first foul on Ronaldo, he made a mistake because he should have left advantage.
The "foul" on Masscherano was no foul, because Ronaldo "fouled" Masscherano inadvertently while falling form the foul previously on him. On top of that there was clearly no off-side. This could have changed the match. On the other hand (and yes, maybe i'm biased, although i'm not a Barcelona fan) Real Madrid in the final would have been a very big injustice. They showed nothing with perhaps the best squad in the world (Barcelona's first eleven is better, but Madrid's bench and squad has much more quality).
When i compare this Barcelona team with the one that won the last CL, there is clearly something missing: Eto'o. With him in the team Barcelona would have crushed this Madrid team. I don't understand why Villa does not play as a centre forward. He plays well as a winger, but IMO he's much better as a centre forward...

To be honest i think Man Utd have a good chance against Barcelona unless they play like in the third quarter of yesterday's match...that was football from another planet.
 
Agree, they don't really have the possibility to mix it up. What I noticed, and did with the Arsenal matches, is that individually the players aren't good defenders. I say this because what they do is rush the opposition really early, and instead of the opposition just changing directions and wrong footing the barca player (who moving at speed has a limited chance to change direction fast enough) they instead try to "get rid", which obviously leads to possesion going back to Barca. However with the speed the Barca players hound the opposition (especially on a wet pitch) it should have been really easy for a team like Real, and Arsenal, to just keep possesion by turning an on rushing player. Arsenal finally got it in the 2nd half of the 1st leg and were pretty "comfortable" in possesion because of it. Another point is the lack of movement from the Real attackers to give the defenders and midfielders an outlet. It should be basic math, but hardly any teams (that I have seen) have been able to combat this. Ofcourse it needs good technical players (why Arsenal managed it) but it's still surprising that teams don't use it more.

The Abidal moment was the highlight of the tie imo, with Messi's goal the other one.
 
Gerd, there's no possible advantage rule if you make another player fall and don't reach the ball, even if you're falling because of a foul! It was a foul by Pique, but the moment Ronaldo (voluntarily or not) makes Mascherano go to the floor, the advantage rule can't be followed.

Mascherano would have arrived first at the ball, and you can't allow an advantage by denying another player (not the one who committed the foul, Pique) to reach it. The rules are quite clear about it.

OIn the other hand, Carvalho should have been sent off in the first half. Having a yellow already, he tackled Messi without any chance of playing the ball in the 40th minute. That would have changed the match already and was earlier. So I don't think the referee was a factor at all.

It's obvious Barcelona would have played differently if more goals had been needed. And anyway, 18 shots - 3 shots in the overall of the tie, so...

PS: What happens to Adebayor? In the few minutes he's been on the pitch in the 2 matches he deserved at least 2 red cards! Did this man actually play football sometime in the past?
 
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jonneymendoza said:
Whos a better manager.
Wenger or Morinho?
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Mourinho has gone into jobs where there is virtually a bottomless pit of money and his teams are still boring. Would prefer to play under Wenger than Mourinho. Football wise anyway.

Better man manager - Probably Mourinho.
Better football manger - Wenger. Not winning anything in last few years but they are getting there again.
 
YoungGun_UK said:
Mascherano is the worst, he's been at it normal tonight.
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Masch dived but why are you concentrating on that? I missed the first 20 mins of 2nd half so didn't see any of the goals (including disallowed goal) so don't know what happened during that time but why not concentrate on the rest of game where Barca gave Madrid another footballing lesson? Nowhere near as much diving as the last game (and I still think they prob did it to wind Madrid up :) ) and pretty sure I saw Barca players trying to stay on their feet at times too but don't see anybody mentioning that? Messi did this on a few occasions.

I hate people saying "but it was his first tackle" too. Carvalho put his finger up to insinuate this at one point in the game.
Example: A player dives in neck high and takes a player out. Sorry Ref, it was my first tackle. OK then son, on your way and don't do it again. WTF is all that about??? Bad tackle is a bad tackle. be it the first or 29th one.

And it's pretty rich a Manu supporter saying Masch is the worst! One word. Nani.

Anyway, I enjoyed the 60/70 mins of the game I watched. The way Barca stroked the ball around was very pleasing on the eye.

Madrid didn't deserve a thing from the games so chuffed that Barca went through.
 
Pu, we should rally up the troops for BAP and try and play barcelona football without the cheating and diving :)
 
I mentioned Mascherano because I felt he was the only one that continued the rolling around, it seemed the other 21 players felt a little embarrassed from the last game and were much better for it apart from Mascherano.

Barcelona obviously deserved to win, they were the better side in the first leg, thought the 2nd was far more even but that could be down to Barcelona not needing to push forward as much.

About Higuains disallowed goal, my first reaction was that Mascherano was never getting back and with Higuain taking the shot pretty early he was a non factor. Haven't seen it again but I could be wrong.

Congrats Barcelona :))
 
jonneymendoza said:
Pu, we should rally up the troops for BAP and try and play barcelona football without the cheating and diving :)
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Without the PSN network that's pretty pointless! :)

At YG - Like I was sort of saying, I reckon he was taking the piss out of Ronaldo :) And to hear him saying that he is now blaming the officials for the loss! Jeez. Best side (by a mile) won it so making excuses about the officials is a joke. I suppose it's clutching at straws as they will never admit to being an inferior team. How long they will be inferior for is anybodies guess as this Barca teams cycle will come to an end at some point.

Was it 2500 passes v 600 odd (over the 2 games)? Quality. Love watching them zip the ball about. I saw a graphic of Xavi's first touch passes too. The man is class. He is Barca's main man in my eyes. Reminds me of me :)

Anyway, if Ronaldo wants to blame somebody, blame the negative coach!
 
Pu, shall we pencil in a bap session next week?

PSN should be back on by then? YG you up for it?

Lets play like arsenal ;)
 
Much better match at least. Barca definitely deserved to go through - the late Real barrage I was expecting never came, even with 11 men.

The 'foul' in the Higuain thing was really weird. I think the point is that there is definitely a foul on Ronaldo which caused him to fall into Macherano - clearly before the ball reached Higuain. Therefore if the ref played the advantage on the Ronaldo foul - less than a second later that advantage failed to materialise, so he should have pulled it back.

His ruling means that in his opinion the only foul was that on Macherano - i.e., Ronaldo wasn't fouled. Which is a bit ridiculous, but there you go. Didn't think he was that good a ref to be honest, missed fouls by both teams and should definitely of sent off Carvalho. Also should have booked Macherano for his theatrics imo. Just a weak ref who didn't want to do anything controversial.
 
Let's blame the referee again. Why not ? An easy target as usual.

How about tackling the issue of players tryig to con the referee.

UEFA and FIFA should get off their fat backsides and start to sort it out because it is becoming more and more pervasive. It was absolutely appalling in 1990 but it is coming back to those levels.

As for the Madrid conspiracy theorists. The number of times Messi was hacked at and fouled and someone like Carvalho escaped a sending off well that says it all.

A positive mentality suits sides to attack Barca and not let them dictate.

Adebayor is a nasty piece of work and Ronaldo is one bad loser.

Also concerning is the racist chanting at the likes of Adebayor though in the Nou Camp. Even though he is a prize you know what.
 
Beachryan, i agree with albi celeste that it is really easy to blame the ref.
I've been refereeing 4 or 5 youth matches: it's much more difficult than playing decent football.
Refs should be protected.
Most refs are really doing fine.

And about DeBleeckere: he really had a tough job after all the allegations of Mourinho.

As a punishment Mourinho should be forced to referee 20 matches in lower divisions...
 
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The first goal against Schalke was a nice illustration of the cleverness of Man Utd. A fantastic goal in all his simplicity...great assist and above all a fantastic run of Valencia.

Valencia deserves much more credit than he gets now. He is one hell of a player, very usefull.
 
I thought the ref did a very good job overall. Not perfect but nobody and certainly no ref is. Overall I give him a 9/10 and was impressed. For me, the Belgian is one of the best referees around and I fully respect him.
 
Most refs are very good PLF.
They have a hell of a job...very, very difficult.
I think UEFA and FIFA should protect their referees more against the mind games of certain coaches and managers.
 
gerd said:
Most refs are very good PLF.
They have a hell of a job...very, very difficult.
I think UEFA and FIFA should protect their referees more against the mind games of certain coaches and managers.
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Indeed. Managers should stick to seeing how their own tactics and players made mistakes.

Hopefully Pep will decide to rest Leo soon along with Iniesta.
 
ALBICELESTE2010 said:
Let's blame the referee again. Why not ? An easy target as usual.

How about tackling the issue of players tryig to con the referee.

UEFA and FIFA should get off their fat backsides and start to sort it out because it is becoming more and more pervasive. It was absolutely appalling in 1990 but it is coming back to those levels.

As for the Madrid conspiracy theorists. The number of times Messi was hacked at and fouled and someone like Carvalho escaped a sending off well that says it all.

A positive mentality suits sides to attack Barca and not let them dictate.

Adebayor is a nasty piece of work and Ronaldo is one bad loser.

Also concerning is the racist chanting at the likes of Adebayor though in the Nou Camp. Even though he is a prize you know what.
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dissallowed goal bruv. ref fucked on that. no ifs or buts.
 
I think it was a foul. Sure Mascherano dived and made the most of it as he always does being the cheating scumbag he is, but the fact that Ronaldo didn't WANT TO foul him doesn't matter. He fell and he fell on Javier's trailing leg who was sprinting towards the ball and tripped him ACCIDENTALLY as a result. But accidentally doesn't matter... he tripped him and so Higuain got to the ball and scored but wouldn't have otherwise.

It's not so clear cut of course and I agree there's a bit of a gray area but overall it was a foul I think so right decision again.
 
Maybe but I don't know.. plus the foul on Ronaldo is a debatable one and I didn't necessarily see it. He was running at full speed and so a little nudge here and there can unbalance a player. It could be a foul or it could be nothing....

But the foul on Mascherano is also debatable and considering what a cheat he is, he could've faked it but it does look like he actually catches him without wanting to. So for me overall, no big deal and though ref had some very tough calls to make (could've gone either way) ultimately he did well enough. The fact that Real are using Refs as an excuse is INexcusable however in my opinion. C'mon... the refs aren't the reason you're not through. You just weren't good enough. Barca ultimately were the better team and that's no surprise, just look at the league table. It was more to do with Mourinho's tactical choices and too much aggression from likes of Ramos and Pepe not refs.
 
jonneymendoza said:
dissallowed goal bruv. ref fucked on that. no ifs or buts.
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BTW please people need to stop saying the disalowed goal...the REf blew the whistle WAYYYYY before the goal happened...If it was a foul on ronaldo, the goal wouldnt have counted anyway...

When I see the replay of the incident...It really a shame for real madrid that they are making a mess about it cause if it happened in a normal league game nobody would have known it happen...it was just a bad call but again...you cant escape the fact that ronaldo made a foul on mash even tough he was obstructed before he did it...
 
That decision was 100% valid, has been confirmed by all referess I have heard talking about it. He *could* have given a FK to Ronaldo though, but I don't see much contact there, too.

Ronaldo's foul was oviously not wanted, but that doesn't matter at all.
 
What has happened in those two matches is very bad for Madrid's image in the long term. Ramon Calderon has understood that.
IMO the current Madrid team symbolizes everything that is wrong with football. They spent zillions on fantastic players and not a single of them gets better. They have bought players of the year or Ballon D'Ors but most did not win it for Madrid (and i'm not sure, but it could be that not a single one has won a Ballon D'Or while playing for them, i'm hesitating about Zidane).
On top of that the way Real were financially saved is a disgrace and fraudulent IMO.

How long ago did they give a chance to a youth player? Casillas must be the last one. At the beginning of the season they bought this fantastic player from Racing Santander, he scarely ever played...Sometimes you get the impression that they buy player not to use them but to avoid them playing for other Spanish teams.

And now they turn out to be bad loosers and this after twoi matches were they played disgracefull negative football. In Camp Nou they tried, but were not good enoug. They should stop blaming referees.
 
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