Wednes. Champions League (CONTAINS SCORES)

[SIZE=5]CONTAINS SCORES FROM WED.[/SIZE]
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Liverpool beat Leverkusen 3-1 again, they played well in what I thought would be a tricky tie for them. Garcia and Baros played very well, the match was over by half time, and Benitez was able to take it easy - he even brought Smicer on (which IMO is a bit disrespectful to the opposition no matter how bad they are). Still it was job done for them and they'll probably be hoping for PSV in the next round so as to have a good chance of the semi's. Finnan played well too, good for him to get a bit more top experience next round.

Arsenal beat Bayern 1-0, but it wasnt enough. A fairly decent game, but just not enough from Arsenal, they didnt fire on all cylinders (tho when Pires came on they looked better), and even at the death werent really putting Bayern under enough pressure. Credit to Bayern tho, they didnt just play defensive football, and went for goals up untill around the 80th min, in the end they did what they had to.

Monaco - PSV 0-2, PSV thru, didnt watch any of it.

Juventus 2-0 (AET) vs Real, Juventus go thru. Dont like either team, one are convicted drugs cheats and the other have a sizeable nasty-fan element which the club dont seem to want to deal with - shame one of them had to go thru. I thought both teams were well below par, tho despite the scoreline, Real did slightly better. They were unlucky that they took Zidane off just befor Juve got their goal, as their lack of creativity (Figo had a bad game) cost them. There was one really nasty incident in extra time, Tacchinardi grabbed Ronaldo around the neck and slung him to the ground, Ronaldo then took a kick at Tacchinardi in response. To cap it all it looked like the kick didnt make contact with Tacchinardi but he still hit the ground and went rolling... both were justafiably sent off.

Was at the Arsenal game and I agree with that synopsis. I thought Reyes was shocking though & Senderos played very well for a rookie. Flamini puts himself about but is lacking in finesse. Both Pires and Fabregas made a difference I thought.

As always their set-pieces were terrible. If you want to waste time against Arsenal just give away a corner.

I was really impressed by Bayern's movement. You could see that they were a very cohesive unit whereas at times Arsenal were totally static and gave the man in possession, very often Vieira, no options. Pires excepted, they lack cunning out wide too.

Arsenal suffer from the lack of an orthodox forward and from a reluctance to shoot in favour of trying to find one pass too many.

I saw in the paper that Finnan was substituted. Injured or tactical?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Was at the Arsenal game and I agree with that synopsis. I thought Reyes was shocking though & Senderos played very well for a rookie. Flamini puts himself about but is lacking in finesse. Both Pires and Fabregas made a difference I thought.

As always their set-pieces were terrible. If you want to waste time against Arsenal just give away a corner.

I was really impressed by Bayern's movement. You could see that they were a very cohesive unit whereas at times Arsenal were totally static and gave the man in possession, very often Vieira, no options. Pires excepted, they lack cunning out wide too.

Arsenal suffer from the lack of an orthodox forward and from a reluctance to shoot in favour of trying to find one pass too many.

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Agree with all of the above! Felt Bayern dominated the first half and was surprised at the mannor they approached the game. Their fluid passing and movement was exactly what Arsenal were missing in the first half. Second half was a little better when Pires and Fabregas came on and the goal by Henry was absolutely sublime. I felt his work rate and effort last night was immence. And scoring in a big game too! My god! :D Interestingly enough his goal last night takes him into second highest goalscorer in Arsenal's history with Cliff Bastin and only 7 behind Ian Wright now, (not to mention 3rd highest in Champions League History! ;) )

Reyes and Bergkamp I felt were shockingly bad last night but a major plus was the performance of Senderos on his CL debut and the unflappable Jens Lehmann.

All in all, I feel the best team went through over the two legs but it could well have gone the other way with a bit of luck (albeit undeservedly)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

Was at the Arsenal game and I agree with that synopsis. I thought Reyes was shocking though & Senderos played very well for a rookie. Flamini puts himself about but is lacking in finesse. Both Pires and Fabregas made a difference I thought.

As always their set-pieces were terrible. If you want to waste time against Arsenal just give away a corner.

I was really impressed by Bayern's movement. You could see that they were a very cohesive unit whereas at times Arsenal were totally static and gave the man in possession, very often Vieira, no options. Pires excepted, they lack cunning out wide too.

Arsenal suffer from the lack of an orthodox forward and from a reluctance to shoot in favour of trying to find one pass too many.

I saw in the paper that Finnan was substituted. Injured or tactical?

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Finnan played very well last night. No sign of an injury. The game was won at that stage. Jim Beglin made a good point - that Rafa took him off to give him a rest because Finnan has been one of the few players that has worked really hard over the last few weeks and consistently played well.

I know hind-sight is a wonderful thing, but:

On RTE's coverage, Giles, Dunphy and Houghton were very sure with their predictions that Liverpool would lose.
Do these people do any research at all?
Surely anyone with a 2 goal lead has a half decent chance of going through. Granted their form has been a bit **** of late, but even with injuries, LFC were able to field a farley decent team. No-one played out of position.

Leverkusen, on the other hand had probably their best midfielder playing RB, and several more key injuries. Their recent form seems to be as bad as, if not worse than Liverpool.
And with all this, Dunphy said he'd put his house on Leverkusen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by noby

On RTE's coverage, Giles, Dunphy and Houghton were very sure with their predictions that Liverpool would lose.
Do these people do any research at all?

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Every single one of them before hand "Leverkusen"
A big serving of humble pie at half time for Eamo & Gilesy, Houghton had disappeared.