UEFA Champions League/Europa League 12/13/14/15 March *** Spoilers ***
- Thread starter Cosimo
- Start date
Anyone else sick of how ITV kept banging on about "NO TEAM HAS EVER COME BACK FROM 2-0 DOWN IN THE FIRST LEG!!!!"? Talk about sensationalist headlining, yes that precise scoreline may have been a first but I've seen bigger deficits overturned, heck it's not even the biggest first leg lead I've seen AC Milan squander against Spanish opposition in the Champions League since the turn of the century!
Caporegime
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Fabianski to start, awesome...
I'm sick of ITV's football coverage in general.
However, it is a pretty impressive record to break, imagine if an English club had done this, actually! Arsenal v Bayern
! You can do it Arsenal .I only heard them (ITV) mention it once, but to be fair I had the volume down way low.
I was more uncomfortable with Townsend and him wanting to move away from the happy Spanish guy who wanted to blow him a kiss, the way Townsend was talking was cringeworthy.
I know what you mean, I remember barca losing to Chelsea 3-1 in the first leg in 2000 (iirc) and still going through. I think they meant specifically 2-0 as last season when arsenal were playing ac Milan there were articles saying one team has come back from a 3-0 loss in the first leg. (Think there was also Milan beating deportivo 4-1 in the first leg and not going through.)
It's fake,
The same bet was doing the rounds when Barcelona played at Milan. He also had a 4-0 score line but Barca actually got beat 2-0...
It doesn't surprise me someone has simply amended the dates, and the odds don't look true either...
Caporegime
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I'm sick of ITV's football coverage in general.
However, it is a pretty impressive record to break, imagine if an English club had done this, actually! Arsenal v Bayern
I only heard them (ITV) mention it once, but to be fair I had the volume down way low.
I was more uncomfortable with Townsend and him wanting to move away from the happy Spanish guy who wanted to blow him a kiss, the way Townsend was talking was cringeworthy.
I can't stand tv coverage, I put up with commentary because football is just weird without it, though most commentators are utterly terrible. But the analysis pre/during/post game is horrendous.
Italian teams are pretty frequently awful away from home, Barca are better at home, as poor as Barca were away from home, Milan were last night.
Barca didn't play differently, Milan were just woeful on the break, terrible in their passing, and woeful defensively. They were in similar positions but they ended up static, and being unable to intercept passes like in the first game, it was like Milan were standing still in two rigid rows, while the first leg they were in two rows but moved together as a team, got closer and generally just made Barca's passing not work. In terms of blocking shots, well Mexes has never been good, he was late to react, then threw out a leg and got megged, that shot really should have been VERY easily blocked.
People are saying Barca were fantastic, I don't think they were, same football but against a team that gave up before the game started. SO many top teams play the "we've got a lead, lets go for a draw" tactic, and it fails almost every single time. Utd got a goal, then decided to back completely off and let Real completely back into the game, then Real got ahead and did the same and it was all Utd at the end.
Pressure on the ball + actually attacking = harder for the other team to score, its simple, its basic, its always worked, and the sit behind the ball against a better team fails 99/100 times, yet we've seen Milan, Real, Utd, Chelsea, and City try it in the champs league this year.... its failed while they used that tactic each time. Its mind bogling how stupid top managers can be. If Milan went for the win they would probably have scored, they had great chances despite barely trying to get forward and should have done better.
Robinho not starting was a joke, he was 50 times better than Niang when he came on, Niang was utter crap(he might end up good but is young and inexperienced and showed it all game). They should have bought Balotelli in the summer, or replaced Ibra properly, thats cost them hugely.
Milan did it against Arsenal, 4-0 up first leg, decided to not bother with the second leg, as with last night, came insanely close to scoring a couple anyway, but the bigger lead won it for them. Milan were close to abysmal against us, put in an almost identical performance last night to the away leg to Arsenal.
There was like a 3% chance Barca wouldn't score last night, and a 15% chance they wouldn't be able to score 2, had Milan attacked, they'd still have conceded but could quite easily have scored 1 or 2, absolutely bat **** crazy to play sitting back, trying to hold on to a pretty narrow lead without trying to score for the majority of the game. More than anything, when you tell a team to not get forward, its so negative the players play like crap, like they've got nothing to play for, like losing is inevitable, and thats exactly how the whole team played. Not a single Milan player didn't play worse than normal, most by a huge amount... thats what happens when you tell your players "if you play normally, you'll lose" , and thats what telling them to not attack at all, is saying in so many words. Almost every Milan player played as if already beaten.
Soooo, Wilshere out for 3 weeks, Chesney being rested due to his mental state from playing too many games (surely there is more to this??), Podolski out and Sagna out (not too fussed about this if Jenkinson can play as he did at the start of the season).
We're going to get a severe beating tonight and i really worry about the next 3 weeks in the prem without Wilshere. What little chance we have of finishing top 4 appears to be diminishing rapidly without having played a game.
We're going to get a severe beating tonight and i really worry about the next 3 weeks in the prem without Wilshere. What little chance we have of finishing top 4 appears to be diminishing rapidly without having played a game.
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Soldato
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Goalkeeper rested for playing too many games? 
Football, getting softer by the year. 
Football, getting softer by the year. Good luck to Arsenal tonight, can see us getting a spanking.
No Wilshere, no Podolski either...so doesn't look good at all.
Looks like our back 4 will be Jenks, Kos, Verm and Gibbs. With Arteta, Diaby, Coquelin in the midfield and up front we have Giroud and Rosicky and Ox.
Not sure if ill bother watching as we probably wont score a goal or struggle to score one at least.
No Wilshere, no Podolski either...so doesn't look good at all.
Looks like our back 4 will be Jenks, Kos, Verm and Gibbs. With Arteta, Diaby, Coquelin in the midfield and up front we have Giroud and Rosicky and Ox.
Not sure if ill bother watching as we probably wont score a goal or struggle to score one at least.
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Associate
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Goalkeeper rested for playing too many games?
Just giving up and creating an excuse for the inevitable loss. Rest your key players then when you lose it wasn't because you were awful, but because of your unfortunate injuries...
Although Wenger is still banging on about how we can turn it around. Optimism is great for morale and all that, but at this stage you just look like a deluded mentalist.
Caporegime
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Can anyone remember the last major European team that utd beat? I have it down as barca..
Since then I can't recall a win against a non English tier one European team like Madrid or Bayern..
Since then I can't recall a win against a non English tier one European team like Madrid or Bayern..
What's up with Walcott and do you really think Wenger won't play Ramsey? You have 11 outfield players mentioned there, might be a good tactic.
No idea, its what i saw on SSN earlier this morning.
Dont know if those are the players we are definitely going for but SSN seems to think thats our squad for tonight.
EDIT: Sorry it could be our potential squad to start tonight.
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