English & European Football [24th - 29th Apr 2010] **spoilers**

People didn't see Barcelona losing to Inter, or United to Bayern.

I'd put them both on 50 - 50 for the final.

I think Mourinho is a good manager, I don't like the ****fest (Richard Keys is in love with him) that seems to follow him about. I do enjoy some of the things he comes out with.

This is only his second European Cup Final though.

I've not said all he does is park the bus, I've said they parked the bus against Barca, which on the face of it, is what most teams have looked to do this season, but not had the quailty or ability to do it.

Inter were decent in the first leg, but I felt very lucky to get a 3-1 win.
Inter turned up and defended for 90 odd minutes today, it's not nice to watch and is anti football. They didn't turn up to play football, but to stop Barca playing.

Now, they're a good side, they have a good manager, why couldn't they do something more then just defend? They didn't do *too* badly in the first half and that was much better to watch, and I thought Inter were much better.

Anyway, we will agree to disagree. I think it's bad for football when results like this happen. Chelsea just defended over two legs last year, and offered nothing going forward.

Arsenal gave them a game, and showed that the best footballing side in the world can be at least challenged in terms of football :)
 
Tummy said:
thing going forward.

Arsenal gave them a game, and showed that the best footballing side in the world can be at least challenged in terms of football :)
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Arsenal got completely spanked by Barcelona, it was embarassing to watch. I was really disapointed by how bad Arsenal played. They were challenged by a real footballing team tonight and were beaten.

But footballs all about opinions :) everyone has a different view
 
No1newts said:
Arsenal got completely spanked by Barcelona, it was embarassing to watch. I was really disapointed by how bad Arsenal played. They were challenged by a real footballing team tonight and were beaten.

But footballs all about opinions :) everyone has a different view
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I agree they were well beaten and in part given a lesson in football.

They did score against Barcelona and tried to play football against them. Showed that you can play football against them and well at least score even if you do lose :p
 
Seriously how good is Pique? The move to Barca has really done wonders for him!

He's what 21 ish and was pretty much single handily nullifying what attacks Inter did manage and then when they needed a goal went up front and scored a goal that had Messi scored would have be replayed over and over and over again.

Not many players leave United and go and do better for themselves but credit where it's due Pique has taken his game to another level! Dont get me wrong I've still got high hopes for Evans but Pique looks a class above :(
 
When Barca went one up in the first leg, that should have practically been the tie over. Just moronic defending cost them in the first leg, they knew Inter was always going to counter-attack but yet they still defended with no intelligence.

They didn't learn from past experience and that is what cost them a place in the final ... sloopy, sloppy defending in the first leg.

Then tonight, they had a few chances but didn't take them.

Overall, they just didn't do enough to win against a team they should have beat over two legs.

Motta was silly with that foul on Messi which he received a yellow card, and any player knows that if you raise your hand to an opponents face, regardless the force with which it happens, the opponenent will go down on contact. Sure, Busquets did go over the hill with the reaction.

The sending off killed the tie though, what an utter farce it was after that.

Seriously, that little naff causes so much tension between teams and just kills the games.

His time willl come though, he will be found out ... starting hopefully against Bayern.

If Bayern can defend the counter-attack better than what Barca done in the first game, Bayern have a chance.
 
Tom84 said:
Seriously how good is Pique? The move to Barca has really done wonders for him!

He's what 21 ish and was pretty much single handily nullifying what attacks Inter did manage and then when they needed a goal went up front and scored a goal that had Messi scored would have be replayed over and over and over again.

Not many players leave United and go and do better for themselves but credit where it's due Pique has taken his game to another level! Dont get me wrong I've still got high hopes for Evans but Pique looks a class above :(
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It was a nice turn, don't get me wrong but Pique wasn't asked to defend AT ALL tonight, and his run in the box was at a time when Mourinho made the classic error or changing a working defence, Cordoba didn't know who he was picking up, Pique had just been shoved upfront, it was very borderline offside, a great turn but Cordoba did incredibly badly, had no need to slide in as far/hard especially as the keeper had already gone to ground that side, if he hadn't gone to ground, most likely no goal.

But thats the exact reason you should NEVER EVER EVER bring on an unforced change and change your backline. If your back four isn't working, its a forced change due to injury, thats one thing but managers will frequently take off a striker/midfielder, stick on a defender whack them in, not at full match pace, getting in the way of players, not up to speed with whose making runs where and whose covering what.

Barca just didn't deserve it, I don't like Mourinho's style of football, and someone up there said Mourinho didn't park the bus, but they play counter attack football, maybe they do usually, thats certainly NOT what they did tonight, even before the sending off there was no support. At Chelsea, and in the the first leg of this game they'd leave a striker up field but actually stream support forward when they had the ball, tonight no one got in to support, at all, at any stage. Infact Inter's ball retention was truly appauling tonight. Completely unable to even pass it back to the defence from higher up the field to waste time, Inter generated no quality football, just good blocking.


However Barca, saying they have a fantastic attack, they did NOT attack fantastically tonight, they were woeful, they did not attack well in the first leg, and they haven't produced last years "playing through the defence" type football for the last 6 months. Almost all the goals I see them play are Xavi throughballs, inter NEVER played their back 4 high up the pitch, almost all the goals they scored against Arsenal the defence was high up the pitch with a generally large gap between the back 4 and midfield, and both lines of players spread wide left to right.

You play a deep back four and you somewhat ruin Xavi's best quality and 90% of the passes Messi feed's off, one simple tactic takes out 75% of Barca's threat and every team thats done so this year has made Barca look well, like Arsenal of the last few years, get 10 yards outside the penalty box and pass it side to side and lose the big games because of it.

INter also played a far narrower team than Arsenal did, leaving far less space for them to run inbehind and less big gaps to put the passes through. Messi starts wide but rarely crosses, he always cuts inside, Pedro isn't a winger, Keita cuts inside, Maxwell isn't a great crosser and cuts inside, Alves isn't a great crosser and normally cuts inside to shoot. The whole team this year tries to get inside and creates very little on the outside, they have less pace(Pedro, Bojan, Maxwell, Iniesta, Busquets don't have the pace or power of the people they've replaced). Why fight them up the field where their skill will get them around, just wait till they all try to get into the same space on the pitch and pack that area and stiffle their attacks, worked perfectly.
 
Tummy said:
Anyway, we will agree to disagree. I think it's bad for football when results like this happen. Chelsea just defended over two legs last year, and offered nothing going forward.
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We didn't just defend over the two legs last season....:confused: We had plenty of opportunities to put the game to bed at barca let alone when we got to stamford bridge and were denied a string of penalties. I think you mistake counter-attacking for a defensive strategy. How you can criticise inter on todays performance is beyond me considering they were down to 10 men for a good majority of it, what else were they supposed to do? Who knows how they would have played for the rest of the game with 11 men on the pitch.

Also barca offered hardly anything going forward against us last year...so your comment doesn't really make sense. You do realise that iniestas goal was their first attempt on target in the whole game right compared to the four or so we had?
 
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BaZ87 said:
Not sure how true this is but I've just been told that Inter managed 67 completed passes compared to Barca's 555 :eek:
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I can believe that considering the amount of possession they had. Barca shifted the ball a lot in front of the inter back 4 however most of the passes in and around the box were mislaid.
 
Barca didnt play that well for 80 odd minutes (that one Messi shot was absolutely sublime and an absolutely stunning finger tip save) but imo both goals were more than fair.. No way could the barca player get out of the way of the ball during the play to the 2nd "goal", ball to hand for me without doubt, and far side (inter's left) defender was playing Pique onside (by a whisker) for the 1st

Barca may not have played well by their standards but they deserved to go through. It was a pretty dreadful game all told, but given the circumstances Inter (who deserved more than the single red they got) played the game they needed to

Seems to be the season of bad refereeing decisions all around - will probably continue through the WC
 
FrankJH said:
Barca didnt play that well for 80 odd minutes (that one Messi shot was absolutely sublime and an absolutely stunning finger tip save) but imo both goals were more than fair.. No way could the barca player get out of the way of the ball during the play to the 2nd "goal", ball to hand for me without doubt, and far side (inter's left) defender was playing Pique onside (by a whisker) for the 1st

Barca may not have played well by their standards but they deserved to go through. It was a pretty dreadful game all told, but given the circumstances Inter (who deserved more than the single red they got) played the game they needed to

Seems to be the season of bad refereeing decisions all around - will probably continue through the WC
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Agree completely. There was nothing wrong with the Bojan goal. That said, he should've scored the earlier header easily. I remember he missed a similar chance against Chelsea a couple of years ago.
 
ron3003 said:
Turning the sprinklers on the opposition celebrating in front of their own fans, how pathetic is that?
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A complete lack of class in defeat and just as cynical as any other team when it comes to feigning injury to get an opponent sent off.
 
Awful game. Hate to see football played like that. It's a game, it's supposed to be entertaining. Instead Inter **** their pants on the way there and played with 11 (or 10) in their own half for the entire game. Not football.
 
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