That's a bit of a stretch Charlie. Roma were the serie a form team when they played Madrid and Wolfsburg are BL plodders who thought signing Bendtner was a good thing.Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Madrid just have a peculiar trait with defending 2 nil first leg victories.
Exhibit B is explained by Exhibit A. They're boring to watch, flat track bullies with the flair and creativity coached out of wonderful players like Silva and Aguero. They're so conservative they play with two defensive midfielders who are so similar they even have the same name, and still can't defend, which is why they give the illusion of being entertaining or spontaneous.
I think they've gone a bit stale, especially since De Bruyne's injury. We're talking about a side that scored 102 league goals just two years ago with largely the same players under the same manager. I don't think the inclusion of two holding midfielders necessarily means they're conservative, they needed to take some precautionary measures when it became obvious that Toure hadn't the legs to cover back from that position, although it hasn't really improved things. As for coaching the creativity out of Aguero and Silva, I think that's beyond harsh.
Man City were doing all right, well in contention and clear favourites for the league title before the announcement of Pellegrini's exit, after which they lost 3 in a row and they haven't regained that lost ground. Pellegrini has also gone more cranky.
Can you blame him? Who would be committed to an organisation who announced that it would be replacing you in a few months time?
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
I wouldn't blame him as he's only human after all. But considering he's getting a Eur 4m contract termination payment, I wouldn't get too bothered about his plight.
Heynckes was in a similar situation with Bayern 2013 and he kept a very tight ship. Pellegrini's also answerable to the supporters to lead the club to the league title despite the board's untimely humiliating interference.
Somehow I think he'll give PSG a run for their money, that would be some run wouldn't it?
I say the crankiness is because he really wanted to go out on a high and his squad just aren't delivering for him. At least he won the League Cup though to add to the achievements in his first season. Kompany, Yaya Toure, Silva and Aguero have been their go to guys for a long time now and, for various reasons, Aguero is the only one of them performing to anywhere near his genuine level this season. De Bruyne was the one player who was consistently compensating for a general lack of form in the side and I think even Aguero has suffered without him. The lack of depth in their squad is astounding though for the money they've spent. Hart and Sterling out for a month now as well to add to Kompany, Otamendi and De Bruyne. Five of their last eight PL games are away from home also and they haven't travelled well this season.
Wolfsburg suffer a huge blow to their CL hopes
Wolfsburg look to terminate Nicklas Bendtner’s contract immediately
Thats a blow?
(edit:LOL)
I have to say, Wolfsburg are excellent so far and yet again our Charlie was on the ball, this time about their potential to cause Madrid problems.
They could be 3 up only for Shirley's powder puff effort, but he's not a real striker.
In the Paris game, 2 poor decisions by the ref, one not to give a penalty and the other to give a penalty to PSG. And the 2nd bad decision only compounds the first poor decision, not compensate for it.
Stick with me geysir, I'll teach you things.
Have to say I'm baffled by the PSG result. On the play and the chances they had, they should have won comfortably but somehow gave away two goals to a team who were barely in it. They'll still win it handy enough as that City side will just keep giving up chances.
More like 2 bald men fighting over 7th and 8th place.
Real Madrid looked like a team that celebrated too hard after their token win at the weekend. I didn't think Wolfsburg even needed to be very good to win, but they looked useful enough in the first half, particularly Draxler cutting in from the left and picking out some nice passes. In the second they just remained disciplined but I don't think Real ever injected enough pace or quick passing to really test them. They were totally disjointed, for all their possession they just couldn't seem to get into any kind of grove, very individualistic, Kroos trying shots with his weaker foot from ridiculous angles and distances, Marcelo going on mad solo runs and that Jese Rodriguez bloke rarely impresses me, doesn't look a Real Madrid player at this point in time anyway.
The game could have been very different though, if the 50/50 calls weren't pretty much all in Wolfsburg's favour, their penalty and Ronaldo's 'offside' goal. I heard that Bale was brought down in the box as well but missed it myself. Overall I think Real were well deserving of their 2-0 defeat and uphill task to come though. For the good of the semi finals I hope they turn it around as I don't think Wolfsburg would cause any more bother, especially now that their cover has been blown.
One big difference between Barca and Madrid was clearly demonstrated over these first leg games.
Madrid's play was disjointed, players isolated. Ronaldo doing his hump, lost badly to a well organised but modest outfit.
Barca function as a team, rally around, team ethic, support each other and claw the game back into their control.
Class tells in the end and I'm not referring to Madrid or Man City, but to those brave posters who put their neck on the line way back and predicted that Man City would put it up to PSG, that Pellegrini has form in these type of games, and predictably enough that Madrid would have too much for Wolfsburg.
Though Wolfsburg did cause Madrid plenty of anxious moments.
Ha ha! Paul O'Shea would be proud. Real neck on the line stuff alright, a half arsed prediction where you didn't even say who you thought would go through! I'm disappointed with my own predictions though, too specific maybe.
Pellegrini's form in these type of games has been fairly mixed I would have thought, a couple of decent results with Villarreal/Malaga, never really threatened to do anything before with Man City and a disappointment with Real Madrid.
I thought Real Madrid were as comfortable as a team could be while knowing that one goal would see them eliminated. Did Wolfsburg even create a chance? They had some decent possession in the first half for a while alright but practically nothing in the second. It was quite similar to Man Utd's comeback against Olympiacos a couple of years ago, with Van Persie being the hat-trick hero that night, and the winning goal being a fairly flimsy looking free kick that somehow made it's way past everybody. Olympiacos were a lot more threatening than Wolsburg though.
That £55m for De Bruyne is starting to look very reasonable. Class act in every way it seems.
I was disappointed by how meekly PSG bowed out, then I remembered who they are and said "**** 'em." Wolfsburg were game but as soon as Draxler pulled up it was game over and they only once looked like scoring, from a 30-yard shot.
Yeah I was taking PSG more seriously than I had done in the past. I think I probably gave them too much credit for their performance against Chelsea, naively ignoring the fact that Chelsea have been rubbish all season.
Draxler was a big miss alright, if anybody was going to do something it was him and he had started fairly well. It was impressive the way they regained their composure after being hit with two goals in a couple of minutes early on.
Pellegrini v Pep might be on the cards.
What a defensive performance by Atletico (ok lucky penalty not given in last minute). A masterclass in defending without the ball.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
Eamo and Gilesy agree with you OF.Brady preferred to focus on the negative, talking about how cynical Atletico are and how he'd much prefer Barcelona to go through because the play nice football (and aren't cynical at all of course!).
He also used they phrase "he was ball watching the ball" at one stage.
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