Champions League thread

[dfx-]

For all the "Utd will win both legs", it was a pretty inept performance from Utd. Everything broke down through Deco though.

Barcelona's defence uses possession as their best weapon and as the much fabled Utd attack can only threaten if they keep the ball for long enough and often enough...I can't see that happening and neither can I see Utd being able to defend their 18-yard line as readily as they did tonight.

As a Barcelona follower, I thought Utd's performance as champions elect was no better than Getafe or Espanyol, not a performance from one of the best sides in Europe, unafraid of Barcelona.

[old git]

For all the "Utd will win both legs", it was a pretty inept performance from Utd. Everything broke down through Deco though.

Barcelona's defence uses possession as their best weapon and as the much fabled Utd attack can only threaten if they keep the ball for long enough and often enough...I can't see that happening and neither can I see Utd being able to defend their 18-yard line as readily as they did tonight.

As a Barcelona follower, I thought Utd's performance as champions elect was no better than Getafe or Espanyol, not a performance from one of the best sides in Europe, unafraid of Barcelona.

utd performance was terrible rooney wasted out on wing & ronaldo terrible also . fergie bottled it with team & tactics to negative... no pride or passion shown by to many utd players also , and yet barcelona did not score with all their possession & lovely play van der sar made only a few routine saves most also be a worry to barcelona they seem to be missing a cutting edge up front and look very average at the back also when put under any pressure , still all to play for as i would not class 0-0 as a good result would still fancy barcelona to sneak a goal at old trafford but then again utd should be up for a proper game at old trafford

[Marked Man]

I think Utd got what they set out for tonight. Very defensive approach for them; hoping to score on the break. They'd fancy themselves for the home leg.

[gufcfan]

Another whopper from RTE...

[jmurphyc]

Another whopper from RTE...

Real Madrid, Barcelona; what's the difference really?

[Cymro]

Barcelona totally dominated but looked like they wouldn't score in 900 minutes of play never mind 90.

Man Utd will be happy with that considering that they missed a penalty and didn't really threaten otherwise, and I think I'd now make them slight favourites to win the tie. Still hard to call though.

[Marked Man]

The only thing in Barcelona's favor is that you would expect utd to come out and play more at OT. Given that, more openings would probably be available for Barcelona than today, with everyone in the final third of the pitch.

[TonyD]

Just on Dunphys rant against Ronaldo tonight, and his worship of Paul Scholes, who I agree has been and is a terrific player. However, if we're talking about cheating, I distinctly remember Scholes playing for England in the 98 world cup against Romania and TV replays clearly showed him flinging himself to the ground in the penalty area, with not a defender within an arms length of him. A cheat, and a disgrace to the game, eh Eamonn ?

[cartman]

Just on Dunphys rant against Ronaldo tonight, and his worship of Paul Scholes, who I agree has been and is a terrific player. However, if we're talking about cheating, I distinctly remember Scholes playing for England in the 98 world cup against Romania and TV replays clearly showed him flinging himself to the ground in the penalty area, with not a defender within an arms length of him. A cheat, and a disgrace to the game, eh Eamonn ?

as eamo would say thats a 'shambles' of a comment.. scholes dived in 1998?? is that right - you've picked out 1 dive in ten years?? go back to bed...
ronaldo has hit the ground so many times this year i've started to wonder is old trafford full of snipers taking shots at the puny little *****...

[shakermaker1982]

Poor performance but a decent result. I think Fergie has learnt lesson after leaking goals in other CL Semi Finals but I think he went too negative last night. They only pressed and harried once Barca got into their half.

Barcelona had a lot of the ball but didn't do much with it. Next week will be a bit more interesting.....

[OwlsFan]

His defensive duties aside last night, I thought Scholes had a shocker. RTE showed a cameo of his tackling and defending but they could equally have shown a montage of him giving the ball away on numerous occasions and that was one of the reasons Man U never retained possession for very long, which incidentally is normally the stong part of his game (his passing). Giles loves him because he was in a similar mode as a player himself and because Giles loves him, the other buffoon does as well. "I agree with John" "I agree with Eamon" for the past 20 years.

Interesting to see Souness had made it to Barcelona for Sky, having been on RTE the night before. Talking a lot of sense about Ronaldo and how he needs to mature, cut out all the gesticulations and people will appreciate him more - not the usual ott stuff of Mutt and Jeff to court the viewers.

United pretty much got what they came for and defended really well despite only having 35% possession. No credit to Ferdinand from Mutt and Jeff of course, whom they both despise and but for a missed peno United would have won the game. It's a results, not a performance, driven game and the 0-0 tips the balance 60-40 in Man U's favour.

[paudie]

Thought United were very poor. Terrible passing and ball retention. Fergie seemed to send them out with a negetive mindset. Saying that Barca has few enough chances.

Advantage to United but if Barca score first it will be very interesting.

[shakermaker1982]

Scholes has been in a bit of a rut the last few weeks, I've not seen him give the ball away in all my years watching Man Utd as much as I have the past couple of months. I reckon he'd normally have a 95% pass completion rate at worst on his good days. Carrick was as guilty last night, he's really come into his own since Xmas but I thought he had a shocker last night.

[Roadend]

Interesting to see Souness had made it to Barcelona for Sky, having been on RTE the night before.

He always does the Wednesdays on Sky after the Tuesday on RTE.
Post match RTE analysis, or lack thereof, was a joke. Bleating on and on with the same old criticims of Ronaldo. We know Eamon, we heard it all before! I was rather hoping they'd highlight Utd's 90 minute plan of ten men behind the ball. Showed absolutely no ambition last night. You'd have to wonder now next week if Utd. do come out of their shell what Barca could do to them.

[eirebhoy]

Define brilliant for me then?
I think Denis Bergkamp was brilliant, Zola, Hagi, Stoichkov, Van Basten, Zidane, Maradona.
Or currently Messi, Kaka or Ronaldo.
To me brilliance is creative flair and being capable of incredible feats with a football.
Don't remember ever seeing Drogba do anything brilliant.
Very good, sometimes excellent, but never quiet brilliant for me..
Just my opinion..

I would have thought being a top 3 striker in the world made you brilliant.

[Junior]

No, it's him out of Chelsea's first game next season

Fair do's - The ITV commentator said he was out for the final if Chelsea got there, at the time he received the booking. I didnt check it out for myself - silly me!!!

Cheers,

[Junior]

His defensive duties aside last night, I thought Scholes had a shocker. RTE showed a cameo of his tackling and defending but they could equally have shown a montage of him giving the ball away on numerous occasions and that was one of the reasons Man U never retained possession for very long, which incidentally is normally the stong part of his game (his passing).

Very different to Fergies summay of the game (Im not saying who is right by the way) Saw his post match comments where he said words along the line of "Scholes was about our only player who managed to keep posession, which was a concern....."

[OwlsFan]

Very different to Fergies summay of the game (Im not saying who is right by the way) Saw his post match comments where he said words along the line of "Scholes was about our only player who managed to keep posession, which was a concern....."

I didn't watch the game through red tinted glasses like Ferguson There are probably stats someplace for each player's passing but I do recall some really poor passes by Scholes which was a surprise because that's usually his strong point.

Interesting that there were so few bookings in both games. I reckon the refs were given orders to keep down the bookings so the teams can field their strongest sides in the finals.

[Morbo]

United pretty much got what they came for and defended really well despite only having 35% possession. No credit to Ferdinand from Mutt and Jeff of course, whom they both despise and but for a missed peno United would have won the game. It's a results, not a performance, driven game and the 0-0 tips the balance 60-40 in Man U's favour.

I'd definitely put a wager on Barc if the bookies were giving me 6/4, 0-0 away sounds like a good result but has proven over the years to be a cursed result, I'm not sure of the stats but I'd be surprised if Utd haven't lost more than they have won when they've drawn the 1st away leg 0-0.
I'd say its a 52-48 Barc advantage, Utd have the advantage of being at home but Barc should be able to play Messi for a full 90 mins and only need a non-scoreless draw

[Pike B]

I would have thought being a top 3 striker in the world made you brilliant.

Nope... Just good as whats there at the time... I tend to judge players on past aswell as present standards.. We're not going to agree over this are we??