football thread No11

Real Madrid lost =O. Amazing. Just this saturday past they were the clear favourites. They are now in the worst position of the challengers.

 

Negative head-to-head record against both of the other challengers. Mind you, both of those will face each other in the very last fixture though.

 

Spoiler :

I'd love it if they won the title, love it!

 

Wow. Bayern very nearly made a terrible mess of that. It's one thing being confident in your own style, but it's another thing altogether to refuse to exploit the well-known vulnerabilities of your opponent, for no other reason than it involves taking a few more gambles with possession than you're used to. And what on earth were they thinking about giving Welbeck so much space on the counter, over and over again? They really played into United's hands here, and had Moyes' boys not been so lacking in form and confidence, Bayern could quite easily have lost this one, perhaps by several goals.

Getting the draw and an away goal means you'd still rate them clear favourites to progress, but this really was quite poor indeed from a side who are supposedly the best in the world at the moment.

 

Mandžukić should have started the game instead of Müller, it was clear on the first half that a "9" was needed in order to break United's defense. The second half was horrible. They lost some of the possession, the defense was sleeping on the Vidic goal. Mario Götze should have also started. Bayern was overconfident I think, and nearly paid the price. They need to step it up on the second leg, because Manchester United are not going to go down easily; being this their last chance at a title and a CL berth next season.

 

It should have been clear before the game - United have struggled to deal with quality centre forwards this season, especially when their defenders have been forced to turn. Bayern utterly dominated possession in the first half because they were effectively playing a 2-8-0 formation, but United looked more likely to score because they were effectively playing 6-3-1. With Bayern unwilling to expedite their attacks, United's defensive third was packed tight, with all of the play happening exactly where Vidic and Ferdinand will have wanted it: in front of them. Meanwhile, Welbeck had acres of space in which to put pressure on Boateng, Javi Martinez and Neuer, forcing errors from all three which, had he been able to capitalise, might have left Bayern looking at a far less pleasing scoreline.

Indeed, and (as is almost a tradition for Bayern sides in European competition) they started to look very vulnerable once that confidence was shaken.

 

Bayern were overconfident, but it's also a sign of Guardiola's inflexibility. His strategy is brilliant, but he doesn't change easily.

Meanwhile, 1-1 at Camp Nou! Crack-tastic goal for Atlético! The tie is still winnable for both teams! I expected a 0-0 after a while.

 

I agree with you on Super Mario, but while it was predictable Man Utd. would play ugly football the extent of a defense's wall isn't always a given. Bayern have played plenty of teams that played defensive while stronger counters all year than Man Utd. by a long-shot. I don't think Götze really made much of a difference though. Man Utd. was submissive really all game and while Götze added fresh legs, it didn't really change the story of the game

Also I saw Wolfsburg's Diego's goal against Barca, a pretty nice strike. Has he been getting decent playing time in Madrid?

 

Not as much as he could have, but who'd've predicted Diego Costa's explosion of talent?

 

How often have they come up against a centre back pair as capable of keeping up such a defence as are Vidic and Ferdinand, though? If those two can avoid getting isolated or having to turn to face their own goal, they are both still up there with the very best. Bayern's problem was that they didn't even try to put them under the kind of pressure that makes them look vastly less capable, as it involves moving the ball quickly, and thus giving away possession more frequently. If Guardiola's men were to play the same way against a team like Chelsea - who are even better than United at defending deep, and are also stronger on the counterattack - they might find themselves in real trouble.

 

Barcelona have been banned from the next two transfer windows (both national and interenational windows), hence being unable to sign new blood till summer 2015, due to them breaking international rules about signing underage players (and some other rules regulations ... might well be a non-mention of the Neymar case)

How bad could this be for them in the next season?

 

Not bad at all - just sue long enough so you can make signings in the next transfer window to cover all the bases, then either drop the lawsuit or make a deal to reduce the ban to just a window or a pure fine instead.

 

It will surely hurt them. The margins of difference are very small at the top in Europe.

 

That is ... a very American way to think

 

Maybe, but I can't see Barcelona just accepting the decision

 

They are actually appealing the decision. This ban comes at a very inconvenient time for Barcelona. They need some new players, like a keeper for instance.

 

I have never seen Clattenburg call a good game ever. Speaking of which, I don't think I can stand a single British football commentator - bias oozes in nearly every game, even where ostensibly they don't have a horse in the race.

 

To see Madrid actually playing good football shows that Mourinho was really holding them back. Good riddance, José!

 

Well, that and the fact that BVB had a ton of injuries + Lewandowski suspended, making them look terrible.

 

But Madrid have been playing better in general throughout the season than they did with Mourinho. OK, they've lost a few matches here and there, but they haven't given their supporters cause to suffer by grinding 1-0 home wins against relegated clubs.