Barcelona vs City - pre-match thread

[Gray]

We will have to out score them, I do not trust our defence.

Do you think that may work in other games as well?

Would have done against Everton, but then two of the most costliest players on the planet could not beat the keeper from ten yards.

They get one chance and score - result two points up the swanee.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

"I've gotta feeling......."
"I don't know why, but...."
"I can feel it in my water..."
"We're due a bit of luck..."

I admire the optimism, but could somebody perhaps be a little more expansive on how we're going to contain Barcelona's attack without resorting to the law of averages.

 

[Danny_Johnson4]

They have absolutely unbelievable talent in their side but I confidently say they are about 3/4 of the side they were when they won the UCL against Juve 2 years ago
I watched their game against Atleti last month and they literally were stumped as to how to break them down. They scored from a scramble after a corner and after that, Madrid were the better side. Don't get me wrong, we will not play like Atleti (who sat behind the ball for the entire game and hit on the break), but it showed a way of stopping them
I also saw them (Minus just Messi - just!) obliterated by Celta in the first half where they went 3-0 down. They are not the side they were simply because of age any maybe motivation but they've also lost to Alaves this year and struggled against the Borussia side we battered
I dont THINK we will win, but I am more confident than on any of the trips we have had to Spain so far. I dont see us going 4 games without a big, clinical performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if we pulled it out and beat them.
Bare in mind we were outstanding at Old Trafford, a huge pitch, and this one is probably the biggest in Europe besides Wembley and I can see us taking advantage and breaking with our build up pretty easily against their midfield, its whether we can put the chances away that we havent in the past couple of games

 

[SWP's back]

Would have done against Everton, but then two of the most costliest players on the planet could not beat the keeper from ten yards.

They get one chance and score - result two points up the swanee.

To be fair to them it was 12 yards.

That's 20% further away.

 

[cibaman]

They have absolutely unbelievable talent in their side but I confidently say they are about 3/4 of the side they were when they won the UCL against Juve 2 years ago
I watched their game against Atleti last month and they literally were stumped as to how to break them down. They scored from a scramble after a corner and after that, Madrid were the better side. Don't get me wrong, we will not play like Atleti (who sat behind the ball for the entire game and hit on the break), but it showed a way of stopping them
I also saw them (Minus just Messi - just!) obliterated by Celta in the first half where they went 3-0 down. They are not the side they were simply because of age any maybe motivation but they've also lost to Alaves this year and struggled against the Borussia side we battered
I dont THINK we will win, but I am more confident than on any of the trips we have had to Spain so far. I dont see us going 4 games without a big, clinical performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if we pulled it out and beat them.
Bare in mind we were outstanding at Old Trafford, a huge pitch, and this one is probably the biggest in Europe besides Wembley and I can see us taking advantage and breaking with our build up pretty easily against their midfield, its whether we can put the chances away that we havent in the past couple of games

Other teams such as Atleti will find it easier to get a result against Barca because of the way they play. We might find it easier to beat teams that Atleti will struggle against. But Barca are a difficult team for us to play because we are still an inferior version of them, albeit the gap may be closing. I cant see it being anything other than a very open game with plenty of goals. And they have more firepower than us. But, as we saw on Saturday, the best team doesnt always win. And a draw would be a fantastic result for us.

 

[oasis-city-greek-fan]

----------------Bravo
Zaba-Kompany-Otamendi-Clichy
-----------Gundo-Dinho
------Sterling--KDB--Silva
---------------Aguero

 

[Thaksinssoldier]

................Bravo.............
Zab...Otamendi...Stones....Aleks(hopefully not)
.........Fernandinho...Silva(yes deep)........
Sterling.....Kev......Nolito......
...............Kun..................

 

[rabby]

They have absolutely unbelievable talent in their side but I confidently say they are about 3/4 of the side they were when they won the UCL against Juve 2 years ago
I watched their game against Atleti last month and they literally were stumped as to how to break them down. They scored from a scramble after a corner and after that, Madrid were the better side. Don't get me wrong, we will not play like Atleti (who sat behind the ball for the entire game and hit on the break), but it showed a way of stopping them
I also saw them (Minus just Messi - just!) obliterated by Celta in the first half where they went 3-0 down. They are not the side they were simply because of age any maybe motivation but they've also lost to Alaves this year and struggled against the Borussia side we battered
I dont THINK we will win, but I am more confident than on any of the trips we have had to Spain so far. I dont see us going 4 games without a big, clinical performance, so I wouldn't be surprised if we pulled it out and beat them.
Bare in mind we were outstanding at Old Trafford, a huge pitch, and this one is probably the biggest in Europe besides Wembley and I can see us taking advantage and breaking with our build up pretty easily against their midfield, its whether we can put the chances away that we havent in the past couple of games

Agree with all this,Peps touched on it a few times this season that our final pass and our efforts on goal have been disappointing after some of our build up play.
For me we match Barca on almost every aspect of play but they have 3 killers in front of goal,hopefully in time we'll bridge this final gap.

 

[Blue Hefner]

Their strikers are ruthless, ours unfortunately are not. At this level we need to take our chances when they come along because they do not come along very often

I cannot see us winning this game

 

[Fuzzy80]

It is so rare we go into a game now when the opposition is better then us, it seems some fans just accept we should lose. However, as we know football does not work like that.

Time to make a statement across Europe!!