UEFA Champions League/Europa League 24/25/26 April *** Spoilers ***

[Tom84]

Young + assists via penalty winning would be higher than he is now.

I have Young currently down as having 12 assists this season inc penalties won (Young has only actually won 3 penalties this season and those are the three in recent weeks v WBA, QPR and Villa that everyone is getting their pants in a twist over)

Like Pighardia says though assists can be misleading I mean should a player who plays a simple square 5 yard pass to someone who smashes it from 30 yards really get credited with an assist? (I think back to a goal Flamini scored against Newcastle when I say this and Csec got the assist) Then there's Young v Arsenal which I always talk about, stats say he got 3 assists that game and yet two of them was just putting his foot of a rolling ball during a free kick routine - De Gea could have wandered to the other end of the pitch and done that!!

I'm not entirely convinced going over for a penalty should result in an assist either as the player could be going away from goal and thus not in any position to create a chance so him then being fouled is more due to poor defending than good attacking play...

 

[jakeke]

If Ramos' ball hits Charlie Adam's ball in orbit we're all screwed

 

[Pighardia]

Assists is the kind of stat, imo, that can be used to show a player is playing well, but not badly. A lack of assists shouldn't be used against a player imo. For example, I remember watching a Liverpool game earlier in the season Where everyone was having a go at Downing for not having any assists all season, but I saw him go past a player easily and put a beautiful cross right on Andy Carrol's head which he messed up from about a yard out.... whilst in the same game Adam(i think, really can't remember) completetely miss-hit a shot that went straight to Suarez who scored .....Adam gets an assist and Downing gets nothing for that!

 

[Wayn0r]

I see your ramos, and raise you...

 

[The Running Man]

thing is in sports like hockey and in the nhl they make a big deal out of assists and actually track 2 player assists on a single goal scored. the match stats record with goals and the trail of assists and these are officially kept numbers.

that's why on a nhl highlight show at the end of the game they list both goal scorers and assists and usually the star player of the game will be the player with the most points (goals and assists count to 1 point each).

assists aren't properly recorded in football unlike goals. they probably should be though.

 

[chrisxuk]

I see your ramos, and raise you...

 

[drunkenmaster]

I have Young currently down as having 12 assists this season inc penalties won (Young has only actually won 3 penalties this season and those are the three in recent weeks v WBA, QPR and Villa that everyone is getting their pants in a twist over)

Like Pighardia says though assists can be misleading I mean should a player who plays a simple square 5 yard pass to someone who smashes it from 30 yards really get credited with an assist? (I think back to a goal Flamini scored against Newcastle when I say this and Csec got the assist) Then there's Young v Arsenal which I always talk about, stats say he got 3 assists that game and yet two of them was just putting his foot of a rolling ball during a free kick routine - De Gea could have wandered to the other end of the pitch and done that!!

I'm not entirely convinced going over for a penalty should result in an assist either as the player could be going away from goal and thus not in any position to create a chance so him then being fouled is more due to poor defending than good attacking play...

hehe, well ESPN has Young down as 7 in the league( QPR, one against West Brom, Villa and another one missing in another west brom game) seemingly not counted vs the Barclays/fantasty league site which has him down with 11 assists. I think a couple of those were penalties, though I can't remember them all, and likewise I think there is at least one more penalty that ESPN aren't counting towards his tally in the Europa league.

Basically, most of the major sites count things slightly differently making it a bit of a nightmare to compare them.

 

[FrankJH]

All said and done Chelsea's thriller was FAR more entertaining than last nights beautiful game (I guess that means I'm not a purist lol).Question for more me now is if Chelsea go on and win it you would assume that Di Matteo keeps his job. However, if they come second best it will be interesting to see what happens as his record has been great.

Admittedly the players did not want to play for AVB more so than his tactics being bad (imo). But Chelsea's record has been great under Di Matteo...

Quite commical really - last night's first half could have been played in full in any highlights show it was that good and entertaining for the neutral

It would be interesting to time the "highlights" of tuesday nights match - 10, maybe 15 minutes at best?

I have to admit thought 2nd half and extra time last night was a lot less entertaining until the pens came about

 

[Owenb]

All said and done Chelsea's thriller was FAR more entertaining than last nights beautiful game (I guess that means I'm not a purist lol).

Question for more me now is if Chelsea go on and win it you would assume that Di Matteo keeps his job. However, if they come second best it will be interesting to see what happens as his record has been great.

Admittedly the players did not want to play for AVB more so than his tactics being bad (imo). But Chelsea's record has been great under Di Matteo...

I doubt many purists thought last night was a 'beautiful game'. The first 30 minutes were great but once Bayern scored Real lost there nerve as they knew another goal for Bayern would make the tie extremely difficult.

Sheer madness if Matteo doesn't get offered the full time spot, even if he doesn't win the final.

Giving Matteo the job because Barcelona were awful over two legs is what would be sheer madness. All Chelsea have done is revert to type with a bunch of players that are at the end of their career's. If he has the correct vision for the team, which needs to be nearly completely rebuilt, then he should get the job but not because of a handful of results. I said the same thing 12 months ago about Daglish and Liverpool. The guys vision for the team is 1995 football and the results reflect that.

 

[Nate75]

Quite commical really - last night's first half could have been played in full in any highlights show it was that good and entertaining for the neutral

It would be interesting to time the "highlights" of tuesday nights match - 10, maybe 15 minutes at best?

I have to admit thought 2nd half and extra time last night was a lot less entertaining until the pens came about

First half last night was great. However it looked like both teams settled for pen's at half time.

The Chelsea game seemed on a knife edge from start to fi.. well until the Torres strike and therefore I found it more entertaining.

 

[FrankJH]

wass going to edit my post above but too late , so.......


Thought Bayern did very well indeed considering they were away from home and came from 2-0 on the night

Ribery was attroctius (and so was Pepe) and dont see at all why people think he is so wonderful after last night's showing - there were a couple of nice moves but nothing really memorable specifically

As the commentary said after Real / Ronaldo had scored his second, the match on the night could easily have been 2-2 in actual fact because BM wee attacking as much as Real were

(and condiering Benzema and Ronaldo have +80 goals between them, that was just , and some of the former's efforts were just sublime even if he did actually miss)

The Chelsea game seemed on a knife edge from start to fi.. well until the Torres strike and therefore I found it more entertaining.

If Chelsea had tried to attack in their match as much as Bayern did away from home I would be happy for the british team, but they were just attrocious imo

The other thng that is frustrating from a neutral point of view is that a number of (the best) players from both clubs are banned from the final - while they probably deserve it for the offences caused, but Final's shouldnt be like this it completely spoils the spectacle

While he was very noticible in the 1st half, I thought in the 2nd and in extra time Ronaldo disappeared abit (dont get me wrong 1st half he was seemingly everywhere)

Thought Ronaldo took his penalty (during the shoot out) really well, and it was just a great save by Neuer - but some of the other RM pens could be outdone by a toddler lol

 

[Yas786]

Personally last night i thought Ribery and Gomez were pretty atrocious but for Ribery??, i think Real just kept him out of the game unlike the first leg where he ran rampant all over them. Gomez was shockingly bad last night especially his finishing...thank god he scored his penalty.

But that doesnt make him or Ribery bad players as they are much better player than they showed last night but guess last night they were having an off night...much like Messi on tues, does that make Messi a **** player??


Anyhow am glad Bayern made it through, couldnt bear to see that smug Mourinho winning another CL in all honesty.

Should be a cracking final, got my money on Bayern to beat Chelsea and hopefully they will seeing as they will be playing at home.

EDIT: Terry will not be allowed to lift the trophy should Chelsea win but he may get a winners medal. Think UEFA will have a look into the yellow card situation regarding the CL final in the future...red cards should stay but they should really rescind yellows should a team get to the final.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...-Terry-wont-lift-Champions-League-trophy.html

 

[K1LLSW1TCH]

Once again are we all to be devoid of opinion unless we've seen something the amount of times which satisfies you? I've given my opinion on what I've seen of the player, sorry if that upsets you

It doesn't upset me, stop being a drama queen. Someone has scored 40+ goals this season, you have seen them play twice against the second best team in Europe and decided that they are rubbish. Do rubbish players consistently score 35+ goals a season?

Get a grip.

 

[Tom84]

It doesn't upset me, stop being a drama queen. Someone has scored 40+ goals this season, you have seen them play twice against the second best team in Europe and decided that they are rubbish. Do rubbish players consistently score 35+ goals a season?

Get a grip.

Did I say he's rubbish? Let's rewind shall we?

I said I don't know how he's scored 40+ goals - I stand by that given the amount of chances he fluffed over the two games.

You then asked how can I question his ability - I can question it because of what I've seen and that's all I've got to go on.

At no point did I say he is rubbish but by all means continue to think I did if you want

 

[K1LLSW1TCH]

By saying you have no idea how he has scored 40+ goals is indirectly saying he's rubbish pretty much. Continue to make your mind up on players after watching two games if you want.

 

[FNGsam]

Is the bundesliga at as high a standard as the other leagues?

That could also come into it. I personally don't know anything about Gomez, didn't watch the semi-finals either so no comment just wondering.

 

[Andybtsn]

Gomez is still the second top scorer this season in the CL, so it's not just the Bundesliga he scores in.

 

[jakeke]

Bundesliga is excellent at the moment, Gomez is a great no. 9 just had a dodgy night

 

[Gustov]

Got in at 6am after the game, flight delayed the following day and food poisoning from Paella....

I also lost my £140 ray bans when the barca fans decided to throw glass bottles and chairs at us.

Aside from that it was wonderful.

 

[Tom84]

By saying you have no idea how he has scored 40+ goals is indirectly saying he's rubbish pretty much.

No it's not, me saying I don't know how he's scored 40 odd goals is a reflection of his poor chance to conversion ratio over the two games with Real Madrid. Nothing more nothing less.