2012/13 UEFA Champions League thread

[stokeriño]

I think the point of the link was that Barca finished 18 points off the pace in the season prior to Pep's appointment.

[brenchill]

You're right, I agree. But it wasn't me that brought them up. I never used them as examples, but on the other hand, they haven't really been good enough to bring up in a counter-argument.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Mexes goal is ridiculous. Seriously, fucking brilliant.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/unbelievable-philippe-mexes-out-of-this-world-overhead-kick-ac-milan-v-anderlecht/

[Matt]

Wow. Zlatan Ibrahimovic eat your heart out.

[EddieG]

I want to find the predictions, and quote everyone's who counted Malaga out.

[Starvinho]

Mexes goal is ridiculous. Seriously, fucking brilliant.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/unbelievable-philippe-mexes-out-of-this-world-overhead-kick-ac-milan-v-anderlecht/

What a strike!

[Lineker]

Shakhtar Donetsk striker Luiz Adriano has been charged by Uefa after his controversial goal in the 5-2 Champions League win at Nordsjaelland on Tuesday.

Adriano scored a hat-trick in the win, with his first coming after Willian attempted to return the ball to the opposition goalkeeper from an uncontested drop-ball.

A Uefa statement said: "Luiz Adriano faces charges for violation of the principles of conduct."

His case will be heard on November 27.

Adriano's opener came after play was stopped for a home player to receive treatment.

Willian then cleared the ball downfield when play resumed, but Adriano ran on to the ball to score - which prompted an angry reaction from the Danes.

There was then confusion when Nordsjaelland kicked off, with Shakhtar initially standing off and allowing them to dribble towards goal before making a tackle and playing on.

Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu said after the game: "I asked my players what happened. Adriano said: 'It was instinct, I see the ball and I dribbled and I scored a goal'.

"We wanted to let them score, there was big confusion in the team. They deserved to score, it's a pity that this happened. I'm sorry."

Nordsjaelland coach Kasper Hjulmand said: "I don't know if Shakhtar are bandits, but some of their players, bosses and coaches are without morals.

"In my world it's unsportsmanlike conduct and a red card for Luiz Adriano would have been quite appropriate.

"[if my team did that] I would have called the team to the side and told them to give away a goal. I would have done that, 100%."

Arsenal offered to replay an FA Cup match against Sheffield United in 1999 when Nigerian striker Kanu scored in similar circumstances.

[Jimmy]

would've subbed him off straight away and given them a goal, horrible play.

[Matt]

So they're going to charge the guy who dived and caused the drop ball in the first place, too? No, of course not.

[EddieG]

To be fair to him, he played the ball back to the opponent's box, how was he supposed to know the dude was going to take it and score?

[Starvinho]

Arsenal offered to replay an FA Cup match against Sheffield United in 1999 when Nigerian striker Kanu Dutch winger Marc Overmars scored in similar circumstances.

To be fair it was Kanu who misunderstood the situation but what always made me laugh was that Overmars couldn't wait to put the ball in the net to get his goal!

[TCO]

I want to know if he kept the match ball or not.

[Herr Matzat]

Why dident anyone tell me Manchester City suck so bad? I thought they won the Premiership?

[Jimmy]

They did and they're top again at the moment.

I thought Bayern Munich were meant to be good, but they managed to lose on their home ground to England's 6th best team last year. Football's full of surprises, I guess.

[Pesci]

I think Guardiola deserves a lot of credit for the way he managed Barcelona. He took a player who hadn't scored more than 14 league goals in a season and was playing out wide, put him up front and got him scoring exponentially more goals each season he was there. He gave reserve team player Sergio Busquets his debut and made him into, whatever your opinion of him, a crucial part of the team and a player widely considered to be the best in his position. When he won the Champions League he changed his tactics to see Busquets dropping back from midfield and allowed the full backs to bomb onwards, freeing Dani Alves to bomb forward. He also took a player Barca were about to cut, Pedro, and had him play 105 games over the next 2 seasons. When they won the Champions League again he again adapted, changing to a flat back three, converting Javier Mascherano into by all accounts a pretty tidy centre back. He was allowed to make star signings like Villa, Ibrahimovic and Sanchez because he filled holes in the squad with youth team players rather than splashing out. Barca now have so many Cantera players in the first team that they can field a team of 11 of them if they wanted to, and probably still thrash most sides. Pep had to sign big names from time to time, because he was competing against Real Madrid. And as for them being failures, I'm not convinced. Villa has a good record, Sanchez has a good record, Ibra got better than 1 in 2 in the league, Fabregas got 15 goals and 20 assists last season, Mascherano was a pretty big player for them. In terms of tactics he's probably the most innovative and successful mainstream coach on the planet. He's constantly seeking advice, trying to learn, trying to improve. We're seeing how Mancini's doing fucking about with a back three at the moment - you can't just play any system and win because you have world class players. True, he had Messi, Xavi and Iniesta but what, would he be a better success at Chelsea if he didn't previously work with world class players?

Despite probably coming across as one there I'm not a Barcelona fanboy, I'm just a bit confused when Guardiola doesn't get the credit he deserves for his work with Barca. Messi doesn't go and score 60,000 goals in a season if he doesn't have the right system and players around him. I can't think of a manager I'd rather have working with Oscar, Mata and Hazard to be honest.

[The Quasi Juice]

Pep is a good coach, but I'm convinced that any coach would be successful with that Barca squad. I'm also not convinced Pep can work somewhere other than Barca and do as good but we'll see.

[EddieG]

Had an actual look at the group c table, so pumped to see Malaga 3 points ahead with a goal difference of +7 compared to AC Milan's +2 and we've got Anderlecht at home, top of the group.

[GoN_]

You're right, I agree. But it wasn't me that brought them up. I never used them as examples, but on the other hand, they haven't really been good enough to bring up in a counter-argument.

Villa did great in his first season in Barcelona, the fact that he now got a really bad injury doesn't make that any less true. To say that his signings were laughable most of the time his a huge overstatement. Chygrynskiy was bad, Ibra was bad for how much they payed for him, but you have more good high profile signings than bad by far, and you also can't forget how many players from the youth squads he gave a chance and became first team players.

[Adam]

Had an actual look at the group c table, so pumped to see Malaga 3 points ahead with a goal difference of +7 compared to AC Milan's +2 and we've got Anderlecht at home, top of the group.

Doesn't it go on head-to-head, rather than goal difference in the UCL? So you might wanna have a look at how you did against Milan over two games.

[stokeriño]

It does indeed go head-to-head. The results were:

AC Milan 1 - 1 Malaga

Malaga 1 - 0 AC Milan

Because Malaga won on head-to-head (taking 4 points to Milan's 1), it is now impossible for Milan to place above Malaga if they win to gain equal points - even if their GD was +20 and Malaga's was -20!