2012/13 UEFA Champions League thread

[Kaney]

Arsenal throw away a perfectly good lead by having the best defence in England.

[Baddar]

Harsh on City, that - could've been avoided if they didn't have such a shocking start to the night, and group in general, really.

[Cymbols]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

To be fair, he can call for full time no matter where the ball is so long as a penalty has not already been given before time expires.

[therockbox]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

The ball had gone out so he'd clearly decided it wasn't a penalty. Balotelli had a hold of the defender's shirt as well.

[Colly]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

To be fair, he can call for full time no matter where the ball is so long as a penalty has not already been given before time expires.

He can, but it doesn't happen. The vast majority of full times are blown when the balls midpitch or in possession on the way there, not in the box. No doubt in my mind he's bottled a decision one way or the other, he hasn't even given his assistants (both of whom have a better view) a second to help him out which is the biggest issue there for me.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Colly

[therockbox]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

To be fair, he can call for full time no matter where the ball is so long as a penalty has not already been given before time expires.

He can, but it doesn't happen. The vast majority of full times are blown when the balls midpitch or in possession on the way there, not in the box. No doubt in my mind he's bottled a decision one way or the other, he hasn't even given his assistants a second to help him out which is the biggest issue there for me.

The ball had just been floated from a set piece into the box, though. He's got to give that attacking 'phase' a chance to end, which it does when it goes behind.

The assistant behind the goal signals for no penalty as well.

[Cymbols]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

To be fair, he can call for full time no matter where the ball is so long as a penalty has not already been given before time expires.

He can, but it doesn't happen. The vast majority of full times are blown when the balls midpitch or in possession on the way there, not in the box. No doubt in my mind he's bottled a decision one way or the other, he hasn't even given his assistants (both of whom have a better view) a second to help him out which is the biggest issue there for me.

Fair enough then, I wasn't watching to judge if it was a penalty or if the ref should've called it.

[Starvinho]

The disallowed goal was marginally offside as well, pretty much as close as it gets though.

[therockbox]

Both have hold of each other before Balotelli flings himself to the floor. I have no idea why Keane/Dixon on ITV seem convinced the 'benefit of the doubt' should go to the attacker in that situation.

[Starvinho]

Balotelli is almost pushing the defender away with his hand, and that in itself could be deemed as a foul. So in the end, it was 50-50 and the officials made the right decision in my opinion.

[Cymbols]

He was defo getting his shirt pulled but he went down far to easily. Can see how the ref didn't give it even though he probably should've.

[Colly]

He wants bashing, that's a shocking decision. Yes its late, but you blow when the balls in the air, not when the balls in the six yard box and there's a penalty call to make. Shocking.

To be fair, he can call for full time no matter where the ball is so long as a penalty has not already been given before time expires.

He can, but it doesn't happen. The vast majority of full times are blown when the balls midpitch or in possession on the way there, not in the box. No doubt in my mind he's bottled a decision one way or the other, he hasn't even given his assistants a second to help him out which is the biggest issue there for me.

The ball had just been floated from a set piece into the box, though. He's got to give that attacking 'phase' a chance to end, which it does when it goes behind.

The assistant behind the goal signals for no penalty as well.

I'm not convinced the ref even gives him time to make that non-commital gesture famous amongst goal line officials, but if he's said over headset fair enough. He's got two assistants in view though and he couldn't blow the whistle and run away quickly enough.

[Colly]

Both have hold of each other before Balotelli flings himself to the floor. I have no idea why Keane/Dixon on ITV seem convinced the 'benefit of the doubt' should go to the attacker in that situation.

I've not seen a conclusive replay to show whether Balotellis put his arm up first or not, but I certainly agree with you on the second point. Keane suggesting the same for the offside (narrow, but definitely offside) is just silly.

[therockbox]

I'm not surprised he's tried to get away at the end with the Man City players bearing down on him.

[therockbox]

I've not seen a conclusive replay to show whether Balotellis put his arm up first or not, but I certainly agree with you on the second point. Keane suggesting the same for the offside (narrow, but definitely offside) is just silly.

Has the 'benefit of the doubt' thing ever been an actual directive/rule? Andy Gray used to bang on about it loads whenever a marginal offside was given correctly, but it just always seemed like something commentator's had made up.

edit: ITV bigging up their interview with Mancini, then cutting it short after about 50 seconds because the show has finished, is hilarious. What a useless channel.

[MJB]

Where was Yaya Toure's 'marking' on that second Ajax goal? Terrible.

His goal on the other end was a world class showing of strength.

[ZJ Penn]

Ive got no feelings towards Man City either way but I thought they were both pretty stonewall bad decisions.

[Crybaby Bunting]

The referee reaching towards his pocket for the yellow card and then deciding against it said more than any interview could. He clearly wanted to get out of making a controversial decision and ended up making one anyway.

[stokeriño]

Can't say I'm amazingly confident for tonight. People are saying that we need another performance like Valencia last season (which we won 3-0 with Drogba leading the line) and the optimists seem to be mainly banking on us being magically better than we have been in the last couple of games. My main concern is that we haven't a solution to the main thing that killed us in the away match: Srna and Fernandinho will double up on our left back (Cole in that game, Bertrand in this as Cole is injured) and carve through our defence.

...Still, better than City.

[Colly]

Play Cole and Bertrand, both at left back...