Football/Soccer Discussion Thread

Went said:

Yesterday his plan was getting a 0-0, and it didn't work really well. I do wonder how he'll try to get a 0-3 in the same field where he lost 1-0 and 5-0 in his last appearances.

Also, hearing all of this, I wonder how Inter managed to beat them last year. You know, you'd think their pocket pets wouldn't allow an offside goal from Milito in the first leg and wouldn't disallow a really arguable handball goal that would have got them through in the second one.

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Yah, it did seem like they were happy to sit back and let Barca just play. The overall possession was shocking. Wasn't it something like Real 29% - Barca 71%?
He is going to have a very attacking squad out, since he has to really go for it now. He needs an early goal and really needs to get that second goal in less than 60 minutes, otherwise it is going to be bad news.​

Captain Fabio said:

Yah, it did seem like they were happy to sit back and let Barca just play. The overall possession was shocking. Wasn't it something like Real 29% - Barca 71%?
He is going to have a very attacking squad out, since he has to really go for it now. He needs an early goal and really needs to get that second goal in less than 60 minutes, otherwise it is going to be bad news.​

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Thats the case of most Barca matches unfortunately.

Attack Barca = Suicide
Defend against them/Pack midfield = Very small chance of coming out alive.

Barcelona seem to have taken legal action against Madrid, particularly Mourinho. It looks like they reported to UEFA, after a series of comments before and after the game by Mourinho claiming that Barcelona have referees on their side and that they exercised a scandal in last night's fixture and some previous CL encounters. He also blamed the Barcelona staff of having influence on the referee's decisions.

Adding to that, UEFA is ready to take action to punish Madrid, Mourniho AND Barcelona. By Barcelona, I'm thinking they would ban Pinto after that 'slap' and fight. I hope the verdict does not come too harsh on either side; it was a fierce night and words floated around and both sides are guilty of something. The situation took a rampant direction. I hope everything is sorted out before the second leg.

Hiche.. said:

Barcelona seem to have taken legal action against Madrid, particularly Mourinho. It looks like they reported to UEFA, after a series of comments before and after the game by Mourinho claiming that Barcelona have referees on their side and that they exercised a scandal in last night's fixture and some previous CL encounters. He also blamed the Barcelona staff of having influence on the referee's decisions.

Adding to that, UEFA is ready to take action to punish Madrid, Mourniho AND Barcelona. By Barcelona, I'm thinking they would ban Pinto after that 'slap' and fight. I hope the verdict does not come too harsh on either side; it was a fierce night and words floated around and both sides are guilty of something. The situation took a rampant direction. I hope everything is sorted out before the second leg.

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And thats not the only thing Uefa have been discussing, Rangers have been fined 40k euros and had their fans banned from one away match.

Back to the Madrid story, I think Mourinho should be allowed to speak his mind, whether he is right or not. There seems to have been a sudden crackdown on comments about referees (such as Fergie being banned off the touchline for five matches for slating a ref's decisions, personally Fergie was right anyway) and its starting to annoy me.

Yes, I kind of agree with you on that.

Now Madrid is seemingly going to respond by also reporting Barcelona to UEFA.

"Upon learning of the unprecedented decision made by F. C. Barcelona to lodge a formal complaint against Real Madrid C. F. coach Jose Mourinho with the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body, Real Madrid C. F. announces that it is obligated to do the same concerning the repeated unsportsmanlike behavior of F. C. Barcelona, whose players consistently feigned aggressions with the sole purpose of misleading the referee of the match, which clearly led to the unfair decision to dismiss our player Pepe," reads a statement on the club's official website.
"It is surprising that this chain of unsportsmanlike conduct and unfortunate decisions finally culminates in the filing of a complaint against our head coach Jose Mourinho who, beyond opinions based on his right to freedom of speech, expressed his objection to victory at any price and the violation of the principles of loyalty, integrity and sportsmanship established in Art. 7 of the Preamble of the Statutes of UEFA and Art. 5 of its Disciplinary Regulations, by which Real Madrid C. F. expresses its full support of its coach."

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Source from Goal.com

Nice.

The league is set up for an interesting end to the season now.

United V Chelsea (possibly for the title) next week. I would have preferred to have pretty much sewn up the title by now though.

Anyway, the Schalke match should be first priority at the moment.

Consecutive promotions for my team after we beat Portsmouth and Cardiff lost to Boro.

PREMIERLEAGUE HERE WE COME!!

One of my friends is a massive Norwich fan, and pretty much didn't sleep all of last night, he was so happy! Congratulations!

-Lapras- said:

Consecutive promotions for my team after we beat Portsmouth and Cardiff lost to Boro.

PREMIERLEAGUE HERE WE COME!!

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Glad to help. :D Even though I dont support Boro.

Amazing how in six (?) seasons, Norwich have went from Prem to L1 and back to the Prem.

Barcalona are just another class at the moment who saw messi's second goal against madrid top quality :)

sean777 said:

Barcalona are just another class at the moment who saw messi's second goal against madrid top quality :)

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Not looking forward to facing them (assuming we actually beat Schalke first).

Went said:

Summary: Barcelona had more posession, more shots on target (at least two times more), Valdés didn't need to save a single ball, and they scored once for an overall 3 goals. Madrid beat the CL record for "fouls on a single game" and "fouls on a single player (Messi) on a game". Casillas saved 5 clear shots and several players deserved to have got a second yellow (Carvalho, in fact, did his best to get the second one several times). They had three shots on target, and scored one.

They also had a shot on goal after Ronaldo had tackled Mascherano down (it could have been also a foul on Ronaldo originally). It was disallowed before Higuaín even shot the ball. But it's clear for pretty much everybody here in Madrid that they have been painfully robbed by the referee, Barça, UEFA, FIFA, and Unicef.

So yeah, Doing my best to avoid talking to most of my friends today as they are eager to shout at me for being brainwashed by the evil catalonians.

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What do Unicef have to do with it?

Anyway, MANCHESTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR UNNNNNNNNNNITTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!

You know a team shouldn't be in the semis when Gibson & Anderson score past them. Gibson was something special tonight though, which is unlike him.

We probably have no chance in hell of winning the final but whatever. :D

Went said:

I don't know, but Mourinho said they might be involved on the "referee-buying scandal!" only they can see, apparently.

And good luck, and may the best one win! I expect an entertaining final, really, between the best two European sides nowadays.

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I'm not sure about a 'buying scandal' but from what I've seen, Barca do tend to be favoured by the refs.

It should be a pretty interesting final as long as we don't end up playing hoofball like in 2009.

I just had to post that when you said 'hoofball'... but I'm setting a bad example!

Erm... my friends said the Man U game was quite good; 6-1 on aggregate seems like quite a decisive victory!

Mr Cat Dog said:

I just had to post that when you said 'hoofball'... but I'm setting a bad example!

Erm... my friends said the Man U game was quite good; 6-1 on aggregate seems like quite a decisive victory!

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I'd love to see a match of 'hoofball' played by actual horses.

It certainly was a decisive victory, I didn't catch much of the first leg but Schalke were played off the pitch in the second by a second string.

Schalke were too horrible in both legs, albeit they showed some offensive mentality a little bit in the second leg at Old Trafford. The goals scored by Manchester were too easy; hadn't it been for Neuer's mediocre handling this game, 4 goals wouldn't have been scored, and that easily. Neuer surprised me last night - I expected a lot more from him, although he did make some superb and difficult saves to make up for his slip-ups. Schalke were pretty much outplayed by a rampant United, who had a good night.

Predicting Schalke would have beaten Manchester away was ludicrous. They were overwhelmed by the idea of reaching the semi-finals for the first time in their career, hence cracked down. They worked hard to reach such a stage in this competition. They especially shined during their thrashing of last year's champions, Inter.

The overall rating of this year's semi-final games isn't too high on my standards. I really expected more from the four teams, mainly Madrid and Schalke. Oh well, at least we got an interesting final to look forward to; I'm rooting for none. Seriously, although Barcelona are blatant favorites, I'll bet Manchester United will give them a good game, with a hint of revenge escorting them.

Went said:

Okay guys, a riddle: what's the team that has won today, is one point away from winning the League and will try to get a double in the CL final in a few weeks?

It should be easy to guess.

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Either Manchester United or Barcelona.

Both are effectively one point away from winning the league. :P