FC Barcelona Thread

Even Khedira is in that list for the Ballon d'or...

@bebo: First Granada sending off was in the 60 minute I think. They played with 10 men up to the 90th minute, when another one was sent off because of 2 yellows. So they only played with 9 men for 1 minute.

It doesn't matter much. Granada didn't even shoot to goal and Barcelona wasted 3 1vs1 before playing against 10. It was a match based on a terrible definition against terrible defending. A terrible match indeed, was bored for the most part of it!
 
strange to see Barca fail to score more than 1 , but 3pts is still 3pts regardless of scoreline. If, playing woeful get ya 1pt or 3 pts I`ll take it every time no doubt .
 
I had recorded that match for my son and he told me that this was the worst match he had ever seen from Barcelona...of course he's only 8 years old...

But inadvertedly he made a good point and made me think about Barcelona's huge success, their world wide appeal and the negative consequences this may have. Thomas told me that Villa was on the bench and only played because another player was injured (i obviously haven't seen the match). Villa and Messi are his two heroes. Every time he sees Barcelona, he wants to see those two players (and other kids will have Messi and Xavi as heroes and will be disappointed if they don't play). The fact that these players are becoming larger than life icons is dangerous, because Barcelona will have a tendance to let them play as much as possible...and inevitably they will become tired (physically and mentally). I still think Madrid's back-ups are better than Barcelona's bench...

I hope i'm wrong but i consider Real Madrid the big favourite to win both CL and La Liga...
 
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gerd said:
I had recorded that match for my son and he told me that this was the worst match he had ever seen from Barcelona...of course he's only 8 years old...

But inadvertedly he made a good point and made me think about Barcelona's huge success, their world wide appeal and the negative consequences this may have. Thomas told me that Villa was on the bench and only played because another player was injured (i obviously haven't seen the match). Villa and Messi are his two heroes. Every time he sees Barcelona, he wants to see those two players (and other kids will have Messi and Xavi as heroes and will be disappointed if they don't play). The fact that these players are becoming larger than life icons is dangerous, because Barcelona will have a tendance to let them play as much as possible...and inevitably they will become tired (physically and mentally). I still think Madrid's back-ups are better than Barcelona's bench...

I hope i'm wrong but i consider Real Madrid the big favourite to win both CL and La Liga...
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Have to agree with you, Barcelona looks somehow tired.. Let's see how Barcelona play next week against Milan.
 
Amazing Messi, he is now sixth in Champion League All-time top goalscorers!!

5 goals to surpass Inzaghi, 7 to Shevchenko!
30 goals to first place to replace mighty Raul!
 
A good sign is that the team can play perfectly well without Xavi and Iniesta. This shows how good Messi is, and how he totally owns the match pace by himself if necessary. Yesterday he started plays, ended them and scored 3 goals. He did also 2 assists that ended to the post or a clear chance. This guy never ceases to amaze me.

And that's possible because Thiago has been playing very well lately. He is maturing and can easily turn into another Iniesta quickly. How great is his positional play lately? With him and Cesc we can rotate the entire midfield without hesitation. This really adds depth to our bench.

And speaking of bench, Cuenca suddenly turns into a perfectly valid sub to Pedro, Villa and Alexis! Great to have someone who can play as an old-fashion winger, dribbling and crossing. He's done 2 assists in 2 matches, a good milestone for someone who was playing in 3rd division a year ago! Pepe clearly has a good hand with youngsters. La Masia is producing at a good rate!

And finally, Valdes turned into the keeeper with more minutes unbeaten in Barcelona's history. Teams create very few chances, but he has saved 2 clear 1 vs 1 in the last 2 matches. He's probably the best goalkeeper going out of the net for 1vs1.!
 
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drekkard said:
A good sign is that the team can play perfectly well without Xavi and Iniesta. This shows how good Messi is, and how he totally owns the match pace by himself if necessary. Yesterday he started plays, ended them and scored 3 goals. He did also 2 assists that ended to the post or a clear chance. This guy never ceases to amaze me.

And that's possible because Thiago has been playing very well lately. He is maturing and can easily turn into another Iniesta quickly. How great is his positional play lately? With him and Cesc we can rotate the entire midfield without hesitation. This really adds depth to our bench.

And speaking of bench, Cuenca suddenly turns into a perfectly valid sub to Pedro, Villa and Alexis! Great to have someone who can play as an old-fashion winger, dribbling and crossing. He's done 2 assists in 2 matches, a good milestone for someone who was playing in 3rd division a year ago! Pepe clearly has a good hand with youngsters. La Masia is producing at a good rate!

And finally, Valdes turned into the keeeper with more minutes unbeaten in Barcelona's history. Teams create very few chances, but he has saved 2 clear 1 vs 1 in the last 2 matches. He's probably the best goalkeeper going out of the net for 1vs1.!
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Agree! I desperatly need to see that wonder save by Valdez again!,
I wonder when he breaks La Liga record for not conceeding a single goal?
 
The amount of Spanish talent is immense right now. Almost every top English team is relying on a Spanish player as a key player.

I was willing to mention that Bojan scored against Milan this weekend but forgot. By the looks of it, he can play a good role in Roma's campaign. Luis Enrique not very good until now but the management have faith and are being very patient. Not expecting much in this transition season.

The thing is he is very connected to the Barcelona mentality. He doesn't play a pure striker for example and is choosing some very odd attacking midfielders as fullbacks.

Another thing I'd like to address, I read quotes from Bojan and Toure this week saying they left Barcelona because Pep didn't talk to them. I remember Ibrahimovic being the same case. I was surprised knowing how much the current players admire Pep. Never thought that would be the case, especially with Bojan.
 
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Ugliest first half of football i have ever watched, it had constant fouling, diving, time wasting, it's disgraceful.
 
Lol!!! What match were you watching? If you didn't like the first half, you can't like football, dude.

This first half has been one of the best in this edition of CL. Cheers to all Milan fans, it was a good show and a vibrant fight between big sides. The final result could have been 4-5 easily.

The referee had very wrong decisions for both teams, but, if anything, it was specially permissive with some players. Aquilani, Zambrotta and Puyol shouldn't have ended in the pitch, and Seedorf could send Messi flying without punishment at the end. I think the first penalty was subjective. I mean, to me it can be whistled penalty as Aquilani holds Xavi at the beginning of the play.

What I don't get is why Aquilani wasn't sent off for that. I mean, the referee can be wrong with the penalty, but if he whistles, then it's second yellow to Aquilani for sure. Besides, there was a clear penalty to Fabregas in the 2nd half. But on the other hand, Puyol could have been sent off and Abidal deserved a yellow sooner.

All in all, though, a pretty intense match well played by two sides that were utterly offensive for 90 minutes, each one with its style.
 
It wasn't a penalty. I watched several replays and there was no pushing. Pay close attention to Xavi's legs. He fell before contact. What makes it even worse is that the ref was so unconfident he didn't send Aquilani off.
 
drekkard said:
Lol!!! What match were you watching? If you didn't like the first half, you can't like football, dude.
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:TTTH:From neutral point of view, it really wasn't. I can't like football if i didn't like first half? so due to not appreciating time wasting, diving, constant fouling means i can't like football? makes sense coming from a barcelona fan. course your gonna be disillusion.
 
@aitken: The first half was frentic and showed two big teams playing all attack football most of the time. Your sour grapes and your history of negative posting about anything "Barcelona" is simply ridiculous.

Just to put you in place regarding the first half: 12 shots on goal by both teams, 3 goals, end-to-end action practically all the time... It has an average of 1 shot on goal every 3 minutes. Probably one of the most frantic first halfs between two big teams in this CL edition. Time wasting in the first half? Your hate blinds you. The only reason I find to it is that you were going to the fridge to get beers or snacks every time a team attacked. So you ended up eating a lot of snacks!

@Zeem: I think the penalty is dubious at least, but after watching other replays, I can't have a final decision about it. I think it probably was because Aquilani really tries to push Xavi just at the start of the play, just before Xavi touches the ball, not the end that the TVs put at slow motion. Then Xavi tries to carry on but lets himself fall when he sees he's loosing the head. So maybe it wasn't after all. As you say, the ridiculous thing is to let Aquilani on the pitch. That shows the ref lacked personality to send off a player of the local team, or simply wasn't so sure about it. But the 5th ref agreed with him that it was penalty, so it's definnitely strange, because it doesn't matter what happened: either the penalty wasn't or Aquilani should have been sent off. And the ref knows it!

I think he ignored the penalty to Fabregas in the 2nd half because of the first. A shame, because from a football perspective, the game was great. Milan showed how quickly they can create danger. Ibra played brilliantly, and Seedorf and Thiago Silva as well. There were a lot of shots on goal, chances and some nice goals (wow, what a goal by Prince, and what an assist from Leo in the 3rd one!)

So cheers Milan fans, it was great to face you in the group! A pitty I couldnt go to San Siro this year!
 
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Zeem said:
It wasn't a penalty. I watched several replays and there was no pushing. Pay close attention to Xavi's legs. He fell before contact. What makes it even worse is that the ref was so unconfident he didn't send Aquilani off.
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Xavi is through and gets a tug back on his shoulder impeding his movement forward. In other words he got pulled back. That's a foul. In the box, that's a penalty. If you were pulled back playing in a game, you would call for a foul.

So as soft as some people think it is, it's a penalty.

@Aitken - Terrible first half? I didn't watch all of it but give over.
 
I am not convinced. Xavi lost balance before Aquilani touched him. There was no pushing or pulling to warrant a penalty. Fabregas's one was more valid. I don't know.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the game. Very intense with some great goals. Xavi,Seedorf, and Puyol were really good. Comes to show how age is so overrated these days in the market. You can't put a price on class like that from these players.

In the post game interviews, Galliani was regreting not getting Xavi when he was very close to signing him 8 years ago. :LOL: Can you imagine Xavi at Milan?!
 
drekkard said:
@aitken: The first half was frentic and showed two big teams playing all attack football most of the time. Your sour grapes and your history of negative posting about anything "Barcelona" is simply ridiculous.

Just to put you in place regarding the first half: 12 shots on goal by both teams, 3 goals, end-to-end action practically all the time... It has an average of 1 shot on goal every 3 minutes. Probably one of the most frantic first halfs between two big teams in this CL edition. Time wasting in the first half? Your hate blinds you. The only reason I find to it is that you were going to the fridge to get beers or snacks every time a team attacked. So you ended up eating a lot of snacks!
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My history of posting negative anything about barcelona :FAIL::TTTH: there was good football at times but 56.2 tackle success, so basically every second tackle was a foul. but i must be disillusional due to not being a barca fan. It's funny how trying to debate about the football and you have the feel to take personal attack, just because i didn't enjoy it, funny how people jump on the bandwagon and take sides. and i take it the xavi incident wasn't a dive? :TTTH:
:YAWN:
 
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aitken said:
My history of posting negative anything about barcelona :FAIL::TTTH: there was good football at times but 56.2 tackle success, so basically every second tackle was a foul. but i must be disillusional due to not being a barca fan. It's funny how trying to debate about the football and you have the feel to take personal attack, just because i didn't enjoy it, funny how people jump on the bandwagon and take sides. and i take it the xavi incident wasn't a dive? :TTTH:
:YAWN:
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To answer the same way you did.
Still frustrated after the 2 humiliations in the final of the CL?
 
gerd said:
To answer the same way you did.
Still frustrated after the 2 humiliations in the final of the CL?
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:APPLAUD: 3 on 1, such keyboard gangsters

I wasn't frustrated in first place and the 2 finals were hardly humiliations, maybe more so last one but the first one was hardly. ;)
 
You're the one who's being embarrassed. Someone who truly thinks this:

aitken said:
Ugliest first half of football i have ever watched
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Is either a troll (which is what your constant way of doing in this thread suggests to me) or either delusional, to use your own definition.

I'm open to debate with a lot of users no this board. I can agree with people or not, but I simply don't make up things for the sake of it.

Oh, and by the way, just to name 2 matches in the last 15 days... I watched Manchester Utd against Swansea and Sunderland, and oh boy, between both full matches they didn't even shoot to goal as much as in this first half. Do you really think Milan-Barcelona was worse than those matches? Ridiculous...
 
Okay as a neutral I gotta say I LOVED that match!! So couldn't disagree more with aitk3n!

One of the most entertaining matches in CL in recent times. 3-2 final result and it could've been easily 5-4 or something had Robinho and Messi not missed absolute SITTERS!

Both teams played good attacking football but not so great defensively and that makes for great viewing for the neutral! :D

As for the penalty on Xavi, it's fairly soft but I would give it because Alberto did tug him back having fallen behind. And yes he should've been given a 2nd yellow and sent off. But no I wouldn't give the penalty on Fabregas.

The ref made many mistakes overall and it was one of the German's poorest performances I've seen. Normally he's a good ref. This occassion was maybe too big for him though. He was nervous and the crowd had some influence on him as well as players protesting for either team. Not impressed by the refereeing but very good match from a footballing perspective.

And yes there was a bit of cheating and diving going on too but so what, if anything this match had more shots, more chances, more quality possession by two very good teams than most others and that made it great! A few instances here and there don't ruin a good 90 minutes!
 
drekkard said:
You're the one who's being embarrassed. Someone who truly thinks this:



Is either a troll (which is what your constant way of doing in this thread suggests to me) or either delusional, to use your own definition.

I'm open to debate with a lot of users no this board. I can agree with people or not, but I simply don't make up things for the sake of it.

Oh, and by the way, just to name 2 matches in the last 15 days... I watched Manchester Utd against Swansea and Sunderland, and oh boy, between both full matches they didn't even shoot to goal as much as in this first half. Do you really think Milan-Barcelona was worse than those matches? Ridiculous...
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When/where did i state that game was good? i accept we played so poor that game, but i don't jump on people who say otherwise, its there opinions and i respect they have there own and just because i disagree that while barca played entertaining stuff, i didn't like the way they went about it, people jump on that? sad that you can't say anything negative and fyi, troll? please, i've been posting for four years and never once been called that. learn respect.

i'm happy people disagree as there entitled to there opinions but the way there going on is pathetic.
 
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