CL knock out stage

I'd like Villareal to win it. They play good honest football are a family club and represent all that is good in Spanish football. They sign players who dont generally get a rub of the green at other clubs (Rossi, Ibagaza at Atletico, Riquelme back at Barca) and now they have a very good crop of players Senna, Cazorla, Mati Fernandez and Josepba Llorente, they have a young lad Damián Escudero from Rosario who tore the Argentine league apart in his time with Velez, he is loaned out to Valladolid, but he could be a great player in a few seasons, superb on the left wing...

It will be interesting to see how the draw pans out, I would think Bayern could be underestimated by a lot of teams. While they have been a bit sloppy in the Bundesliga they have shown zero mercy in the Champions League, dispatching Lisbon with clinical menace. They've a got these triangles of strength all over the pitch, at the back they have Lucio, Demichelis and Van Bommel sitting just in front of them, then they have Ribery, Podolski and Toni at the business end of the field... I still think there is good value to be had in putting a bet on them, you could get a good margin...

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Originally Posted by Red4Eva

whatever about the rest of my post you are on drugs if you don't think pepe was fouled. torres had his arm on pepe's shoulder when he clipped pepe's left leg. look at torres' reaction after he put it in!

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Sorry mate but if you watch it again you'll see that Pepe was already off balance and on his way down by trying to stretch for the ball, which he made a balls of. It was no more a foul than Madrid being capable of winning the competition. And having an arm on someone is not a foul - for it to be a foul there has to be a forced push, drag/pull or obstruction causing a trip and there was none of these. Pepe fell over naturally trying to stretch for the ball. Irrelevent anyway cos as I said earlier it should have been about 10-0.

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Originally Posted by hunt4the

how wrong can you possibly be....
you'd give dunphy a run for his money

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I'm going on previous form. One big win over a poor Madrid side and all of a sudden they are gonna rip Man Utd to pieces? Even the Liverpool players are buying into it now with Mascherano beating his chest. One convincing win in the second round means nothing if you go out in the Q final stages and finish 3rd in the PL.

Man Utd didn't play very well last night. Carrick and Scholes were way below their normal standards but a win against a Mourinho side is always special. Fingers crossed Man Utd get paired up with Liverpool in the Quarters.

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Originally Posted by Pike B

Chelsea FC (ENG) v Juventus (ITA)
Villarreal CF (ESP) v Panathinaikos FC (GRE)
Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) v FC Bayern München (GER)
Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP) v FC Porto (POR)
Olympique Lyonnais (FRA) v FC Barcelona (ESP)
Real Madrid CF (ESP) v Liverpool FC (ENG)
Arsenal FC (ENG) v AS Roma (ITA)
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) v Manchester United FC (ENG

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I was robbed!!! :D

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Originally Posted by Pike B

I have a feeling Arsenal will go out. Roma beat Chelsea 3-1 in Rome earlier in the campaign, and Arsenal can be rattled. Fancy Roma on pens maybe.

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Robbed again!!! :(

Roma, Inter and Juve regained some pride for Italian football. Each could count themselves unfortunate. Inter were certainly the better side on the night but couldn't find the onion sack. Roma only went out on penos (didn't see the game) while Juve pushed Chelsea all the way. That said, all three went out.

I don't think inter were the better side on the night. Probably should've gone in level at half time but second half was relatively comfortable for utd

Liverpool's performance on Tuesday night was as near perfection as they could possibly produce. Great tempo, kept the ball well and didn't give Real a kick for 90mins. It was the type of performance United should have been aiming to replicate last night. United themselves have produced this type of performance in the past on similar nights v Roma and Barcelona at OT last yr. Liverpool fans should be proud of their teams performance on Tuesday night but must surely understand how neutrals/anti Pool supporters tend to focus on how awful Madrid were. Lets face it, as good as Liverpool were it was beyond belied that a Madrid team could be (not only look) so bad. Atletico could and should have scored 5/6 against them at the wkd and that's no exaggeration. In fact Real's equaliser in that match was offside as well.

I think Tuesday night was more a reflection on Madrid than Liverpool as the Pool have produced similar performances over the past few yrs in Europe but not had 4-0 to show for it cos they were up against teams that had something about them. Fair play though you can only beat what's put in front of you and Liverpool did that with ease.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

I don't think inter were the better side on the night. Probably should've gone in level at half time but second half was relatively comfortable for utd

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Of course it was after scoring a completely undeserved 2nd goal very early on. I'm a United fan but they were as bad as I've seen in a long time. Inter very unlucky on the night but United completely deserved it over the 2 legs.

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Originally Posted by Dodge

I don't think inter were the better side on the night. Probably should've gone in level at half time but second half was relatively comfortable for utd

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I agree. If O'Shea and Berbatov had their shooting boots it could have been 4 goals to the good. Man Utd were brilliant in the first leg and should have had gone into the second leg with a commanding lead yet it remained 0-0. They turn up at OT, put in an average performance and win 2 nil. Football is a funny old game at times!

Anybody notice how bad the goalkeepers were for the penalty shoot out last night? The Roma goalkeeper was woeful.

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Originally Posted by BarelyLegal

Inter very unlucky on the night but United completely deserved it over the 2 legs.

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How were inter unlucky? Strikers missing chances isn't unlucky. Football isn't about posession or chances created. Its about goals. Inter couldn't score and couldn't claim it was anybody's fault but their own

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Originally Posted by Dodge

How were inter unlucky? Strikers missing chances isn't unlucky. Football isn't about posession or chances created. Its about goals. Inter couldn't score and couldn't claim it was anybody's fault but their own

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United did very little to justify being 2-0 up. They rode their luck. Of course it's important to take your chances and United did but on another night a couple of Inter's chances would have been taken as well. Inter passed the ball better than United in the first half and were generally the better side. At the end of it all goals are all that matters but they don't always go to the team that are looking more threatening despite your simplistic logic.

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Originally Posted by shakermaker1982

Anybody notice how bad the goalkeepers were for the penalty shoot out last night? The Roma goalkeeper was woeful.

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Shocking altogether.They were diving about 3 seconds before the ball was even kicked.

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Originally Posted by BarelyLegal

At the end of it all goals are all that matters but they don't always go to the team that are looking more threatening despite your simplistic logic.

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Nothing simplistic about it at all. Looking threatening means absolutely nothing. Do defenders and goalkeepers not have a part to play in the game? Statistics in football don't matter. A team can have 45 shots on target and not score and lose to a team that has one shot and does. It was probably a combination of poor strikers and a geat goalkeeper but each of those areas are equally valid, and equally important.
The only cause for complaint any team can have is if they lose due to a referee's incorrect decision. Every other time they get the result they deserve

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Nothing simplistic about it at all. Looking threatening means absolutely nothing. Do defenders and goalkeepers not have a part to play in the game? Statistics in football don't matter. A team can have 45 shots on target and not score and lose to a team that has one shot and does. It was probably a combination of poor strikers and a geat goalkeeper but each of those areas are equally valid, and equally important.
The only cause for complaint any team can have is if they lose due to a referee's incorrect decision. Every other time they get the result they deserve

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Complete rubbish again Dodge..

How so?

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Originally Posted by Dodge

How so?

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That is ridiculous that last comment. If a team dominates another, rattles the bar, has 70% of the possesion, 27 corners, 30 shots on goal and say draws the game, then it's what they deserve??

B.S man..

Luck has it's part in Football. It's a human trait. Didn't your Alien leaders teach you that before they sent you here??

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Originally Posted by Pike B

That is ridiculous that last comment. If a team dominates another, rattles the bar, has 70% of the possesion, 27 corners, 30 shots on goal and say draws the game, then it's what they deserve??

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Absolutely. If its 30 shots on target, the keeper was great, wins motm and defintiely deserves a draw. If its 30 shots off target thats absolutely disgraceful fiishing. Surely finishing and goalkeeping are important in the game? What do corners mean? barcelona regularly has 70% of possession. You think they "deserve" to win every game?

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Luck has it's part in Football. It's a human trait. Didn't your Alien leaders teach you that before they sent you here??

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Whats lucky about missing that target? Whats lucky about a keeper saving 30 shots? Suppose Schmeical was the luckiest keeper in the world?

You think I'm the alien and you want the game to be settled on corners?

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Originally Posted by stojkovic

Some typical comments on here about Liverpool.

When they hammer some teams - Madrid, Inter, Juve, Barca etc its because the other teams are sh1te.

When United do it, United are the best team in the World.

Im not saying Madrid werent poor because they were but they were also made to look poor on the night. As someone said it could have been 10-0 only for Casillas.

Lets see if United put four past Inter tonight who are equally as poor as Madrid.

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Lets look at the facts, Madrid were pathetic, had nothing in defence, midfield, and absolutely nothing up front. They were sh1te!! Liverpool played well, but this was just a blip in their season.

I'm not a Man Ure fan, but the reason they are the best in the world when they do it is because they consistantly do it. Not just in one off cup competitions, but over the course of the season every season.

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Originally Posted by Pike B

That is ridiculous that last comment. If a team dominates another, rattles the bar, has 70% of the possesion, 27 corners, 30 shots on goal and say draws the game, then it's what they deserve??

B.S man..

Luck has it's part in Football. It's a human trait. Didn't your Alien leaders teach you that before they sent you here??

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Bad luck is just an excuse used when you dont do something right.

It's not anymore unlucky to hit the post that to hit the corner flag, it just means you didnt place the ball in the right place. Players have games where they cant score, not because of bad luck but because they're striking the ball wrong.

If a team has 30 shots on goal they should have a striker good enough to convert one of them.

If they miss all of them then its either poor finishing or excellent goalkeeping, nothing else.

Ive shouted 'unlucky' as much as anyone else, but thats just a way to try to encourage people for a good effort. Its not actually unlucky it just wasnt good enough.

Strange deflections/high winds/ bad refereeing are the only things I would consider similar to 'luck' in football