Champions League 2009-2010

[DeLorean]

Thought it was a penalty myself. He definitely interfered with Fabregas' efforts to hit the ball, and didn't get the ball himself.

Yeah I agree with you this time, I actually thought it was stone wall to be honest.

[Dodge]

Thought it was a penalty myself. He definitely interfered with Fabregas' efforts to hit the ball, and didn't get the ball himself.

Looked to me like Fabregas just kicked Puyol, as Puyol shepherded it out. I thin if it was on the touchlione at half way, Faebregas would've been booked for it.

(and no, I@m not ona wind up...)

[bennocelt]

I do wonder why Ferguson changed it swapping Park & Carrick off for Berbatov & Valencia, one of them might have been understandable but in taking Park off especially I think they were a little lightweight in the middle of the park and with the likes of Van Bommel's vision and ball retention and Pranjic's lungs Bayern were always going to be a threat.

WTf Park is so lightweight that i can imagine he would fall down if there was a strong wind blowing up the middle of the pitch. And Carrick, well ferguson knew what he was doing with that nice transfer deal;)

manure Utd are screwed without Rooney

[Closed Account 2]

I thought against Bayern, 1-0 up it would have made sense to keep at least one of Park and/or Carrick on the pitch, Nani and Valencia are attacking players and maybe bringing on one of them would have been justified, but both changes damaged the shape of their team and gave the likes of Van Bommel more time.

[Schumi]

Inter as good as through, 1-0 up and a man up now as well. CSKA need 3 and Inter look more likely to get another goal.

[shaneker]

Sweet Jesus tapdancing Christ. How do you describe him?

Got tickets for Barca's last game of the season at Camp Nou, praying Messi stays fit, to see him in person would be an almighty treat. Wow.

[Declanus]

He is good to watch. Hope its a sign of things to come in the World Cup

[shakermaker1982]

The scary thing is that Barca were sloppy at times last night and coasted most of the game. Do the British media realise the damage Messi has been doing in la liga these last few months? They need to get on youtube and watch the Valencia game.

[shakermaker1982]

Sweet Jesus tapdancing Christ. How do you describe him?

Got tickets for Barca's last game of the season at Camp Nou, praying Messi stays fit, to see him in person would be an almighty treat. Wow.

your in for a treat. I got to see him last year. Make sure you turn up early and watch him in the warm up. Seriously. That alone is worth the admission fee!

[Dodge]

your in for a treat. I got to see him last year. Make sure you turn up early and watch him in the warm up. Seriously. That alone is worth the admission fee!
I've seen barca a few times and I brought a couple of first timers along the last time. One literally couldn't keep his eyes off Messi. From warm up, throuugh the whole game. He didn't stop talking about it for weeks. His footwork is astonishing.

[OwlsFan]

The ITV commentary team called him "the player of his generation" last night but a few weeks ago Andy Gray was calling Rooney the best player in the world when comparing him against Messi.

Second half was a bit of an anti-climax after the first but most enjoyable nonetheless. I wonder will Inter try man marking him.

[Closed Account 2]

I would imagine Inter will man mark him, with someone like Cambiasso taking him from midfield if he plays of a striker (Ibrahimovic as in the first leg) or Lucio taking him if Barca deploy him further up the field (as they did last night).

[culloty82]

Certainly seems to be no stopping him at the moment - 25 goals in his last 25 La Liga games, but the hunger of the team, the speed of closing down the opposition the rare occasions they lose the ball is what's most impressive. Looking to tonight, O'Shea's back fit again, but probably too much of a stretch for him to start, hard to see where the goals are going to come from when Berbatov's fairly ineffective as a lone striker, probably see both Valencia and Nani on the wings, with Fletcher, Scholes and Carrick in the centre. Have to be optimistic, so I'll go for 2-1 United, with Valencia and Scholes on target, and United squeezing through in extra-time or penalties. Worrying reports about Milan and Real sniffing around Vidic again, looks like the fire to the smoke blowing around the time of the Leeds match.

[Junior]

Well hopefully we'll all get to see the little maestro in August at the Arriva..................and no, I'm not talking about Andy Reid:)

[Schumi]

What a finish from Robben!

[Declanus]

Gibson had a decent enough game after scoring. Good to see O'Shea back playing. Do RTE get Stevens on the commentary team or free.

[old git]

The scary thing is that Barca were sloppy at times last night and coasted most of the game. Do the British media realise the damage Messi has been doing in la liga these last few months? They need to get on youtube and watch the Valencia game.

british media only think their is 1 great league in europe .. and only worried about rooney at the moment without him world cup is only a dream ... they need to wake up soon ....

[old git]

What a finish from Robben!

cracking goal ... but utd must be ripping left it behind them over the 2 legs .. bad defending in munich cost them 2 late goals .. tore munich apart in first half tonight but again bad defending cost them on stroke of half time .. rooney factor seemed to work on team untill he injured ankle again and utd should have replaced him at half time and once rafael was sent off writting was on the wall ... best bit was utv/ media trying to get over the shock of no english club in semi final !!!! ... dunphy was talking s**** on rte again he knew munich would win tie and thats it utd are gone / finished nani a nobody and sad to see a club like utd end up like this no money / broke and this season was their lap of honour :ball:

[osarusan]

Funny to see Ferguson blaming Robben's goal on Rafael's red card. "That's where Nani would have been if Rafael wasn't sent off." Also, him being disgusted at Bayern's behaviour for the second yellow card is pretty hypocritical given United are the worst team I've ever seen for whinging to the refereee.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8605786.stm

[Roadend]

"Typical Germans" he said, I think he needs to learn to count....
http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/ae49/Roadend1/Typical.jpg

[KK77]

cracking goal ... but utd must be ripping left it behind them over the 2 legs .. bad defending in munich cost them 2 late goals .. tore munich apart in first half tonight but again bad defending cost them on stroke of half time .. rooney factor seemed to work on team untill he injured ankle again and utd should have replaced him at half time and once rafael was sent off writting was on the wall ... best bit was utv/ media trying to get over the shock of no english club in semi final !!!! ... dunphy was talking s**** on rte again he knew munich would win tie and thats it utd are gone / finished nani a nobody and sad to see a club like utd end up like this no money / broke and this season was their lap of honour :ball:

Typical Dunphy.

[old git]

Funny to see Ferguson blaming Robben's goal on Rafael's red card. "That's where Nani would have been if Rafael wasn't sent off." Also, him being disgusted at Bayern's behaviour for the second yellow card is pretty hypocritical given United are the worst team I've ever seen for whinging to the refereee.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/8605786.stm

utd do their fair share of whinging at refs .. as do a lot of other clubs in preimership ..
unfortunatly it has become a part of the modern game now .. moan at ref to get players booked / go down easy & roll about etc.. european players still seem to concentrate more on getting players booked these days for minor incidents . i thought fifa were also advising refs to take more action against players waving imaginary cards at refs after tackles / challanges ... yes rafael pulled him back but ribery made absolute most of incident and in the end sending off probally changed outcome of match :ball:

[Closed Account 2]

I do wonder how Van der Sar was beaten for the first Bayern goal, it was a decent finish, but the angle seemed very accute.

[DeLorean]

I do wonder how Van der Sar was beaten for the first Bayern goal, it was a decent finish, but the angle seemed very accute.

Yeah I actually paused it from one angle (the angle facing Olic's back) and it actually looked impossible to score, Van der Sar had the whole goals covered. He then took another unnecessary step closer his post which made the space for it to creep in, would go down as a slight error for me anyway. Speaking of goalkeepers, Lloris made some save in the 2nd half from a header, not sure which player it was.

[old git]

I do wonder how Van der Sar was beaten for the first Bayern goal, it was a decent finish, but the angle seemed very accute.

one of those shots if he saves " good save " if it goes in he " should have saved it " think he was just not expecting olic to shoot ... another point why was carrick marking and messing up clearance with 2 min to half time .. 2 centre halfs gone missing ...

[Closed Account 2]

yeah he did mess up that clearance, seemed to dawdle a bit waiting for the ball to come down. I still think Olic, through the bounce of the ball, was forced wide enough for the keeper to be able to cover most of the goal. For some reason keepers these days are never instructed to save with their feet, had Van der Saar stuck a leg out he probably would have proded the ball out and it would have gone wide. The same was true of Victor Valdes in the Emirates last week, had he tried to save Wallcot's shot with his foot rather than diving down to it he probably would have stopped it.

I think it was Wendell who had that header at the death for Bordeaux against Lyons. He's a bald Brazilian who looks a bit Silvestre, if that's who you mean.

[OwlsFan]

Very enjoyable game. Inter playing like Ireland under Jack. Tight defensively and then playing the long ball in to the corners for their forwards to chase and Barca looked very vulnerable. Inter got the rub of the green no doubt with the possible penos and the offside goal but I think they deserved their luck. Despite having less possession they created the better chances. Looking forward to the 2nd leg already.

[superfrank]

Didn't catch the entirety of the Bayern-Lyon match but, with every replay, Ribery's challenge seemed to get uglier. It really was a shocking lunge.

[DeLorean]

Yeah it was a dirty one alright, he's having a bad time of it. It was as bad a match I've seen in a while, largely because of Lyon's approach. I was very surprised with how poor and negative they were having seen a couple of their performances earlier in the competition i.e. at Anfield and at home to Real. Bayern, in fairness to them, tried to force the issue but they are a bit limited themselves. Still all to play for though, could be a completely different Lyon at home.

[osarusan]

Well well.

Barca about as cutting as a sponge for most of the game. 2 lines of Inter players in front of them for 90 minutes, and they never looked likely to break them down, even after the sending off.

Well done Inter, but I can imagine the final will be a dour affair.

[Closed Account 2]

Inter dark horses.

good shout

Also can anyone confirm if Busquets played Elias in the film Platoon ?

http://i.cr3ation.co.uk/dl/s1/gif/a095b62ba601cdf2e9b5ff3d0e9c8069_biscuitsshakey.gi f

[shakermaker1982]

I wanted to punch Busquets in the face last night. Clowns like him should be getting bans for feigning injury.

Awful game last night. I was really looking forward to it as well.

Barca might also need to work on a plan B for next season. Inter defended like heroes but I was expecting more from Barca.

[gaiscíoch]

It's an awful pity Motta didn't just hit him instead of grabbing him around the neck.

In fairness it's fairly rare you actually see a excellent semi-final.

I think Barca's biggest downfall was the substitutions. Jeffren and Bojan (Talented as they may eventually be) and Maxwell wouldn't exactly strike fear into the Inter
defense.

The lose of Iniesta did hurt them they are obviously a better team with Both Xavi and Iniesta together.
Bet Barca wish they still had Eto'o after last night Zlatan was crap.

[joeSoap]

Can anyone confirm that it was actually the Inter fans that Mourinho was running to after the game with his victory gestures? If so, then thats acceptable and understandable, in which case Valdes should get a hefty ban for manhandling him. If not, he should be severely reprimanded for potentially inciting the crowd.

And Barca should be ashamed of themselves. Turning on the sprinklers in the half of the field where Inter were celebrating smacked of bad taste and was downright disgusting.

[bennocelt]

It's an awful pity Motta didn't just hit him instead of grabbing him around the neck.

In fairness it's fairly rare you actually see a excellent semi-final.

I think Barca's biggest downfall was the substitutions. Jeffren and Bojan (Talented as they may eventually be) and Maxwell wouldn't exactly strike fear into the Inter
defense.

The lose of Iniesta did hurt them they are obviously a better team with Both Xavi and Iniesta together.
Bet Barca wish they still had Eto'o after last night Zlatan was crap.

Yeah def agree with all of this. Guardiaola has to maybe rethink his plans for next season, cant really rely on Messi and the two in midfield all the time, need another forward that can help relieve the pressure like last night. What was going through his mind when he bought that Swedish donkey?
Also his tactics were all over the shop, and his substituitions were even worse. Dont know why Barca prersisited with crossing the ball innto the box, never works when you have a team as defensive as Inter. Should have drawn them out to wings and cut inside. So bloody frustrating.
The final will be crap, but hope Inter win it. Mourino certainly has some neck, and I find it hard not to like the guy, plus he is an excellent coach.

[Closed Account 2]

Mourinho has gone on Italian TV saying he was saluting the Inter fans at the end of the match, he didn't know exactly where they were sitting, but knew they would be at the very top tier of one of the stands, so he pointed around at the top tiers to salute them. He said words to the effect that the 5000 Inter fans in crowd were the 12th man and vital for such an intense match.

I have to say I don't know why Valdez got so animated with him, Barca looked a little bitter at the end.

[bennocelt]

Just curious guys but Hamilton said the two brothers last night were the first time that two brothers faced off in a CL game. Im wondering did the Boer bros not see each other once - rangers V ajax, or the laudrup bros??

[Closed Account 2]

I can't think of another example, the De Boers spent most of their time together at the same clubs and tended to move in parallel. The Kalou's (Bonaventura and Soloman) had too much of an age difference, it could yet happen with the De Guzmans though if Julian goes back to Spain and Feyenoord qualify for the CL. They could also line up against each other nationally (Dutch v Canada).

[gaiscíoch]

More importantly is this the first time a team without any players from the nation the club represent has played in the semi final. Soon to be final.....
I.e inter had no italians starting?

[DeLorean]

Not sure why everybody thinks it will be a bad final. Bayern don't know anything other than attack with the players they have and Inter were only ultra defensive because they were defending a lead at the Nou Camp. United, Chelsea and Liverpool all had a very similar mindset at the Nou Camp over the past few seasons and they weren't even defending leads. I think it could be a good match and it has to be good for the game that the Premier League or La Liga isn't represented for once.

[osarusan]

Well done Inter.

I'm not too thrilled by their brand of football, but when they've knocked out Chelsea, Barca and Bayern, you can't complain about their success.

[Ciaran W]

Boring,boring,boring !

[KK77]

Fully deserved their win. Always fancied them after they beat Chelsea. If they are boring it doesn't say much for the other teams.