Real Madrid (H) | CL SF 2nd Leg | Post-Match Thread

[StillBluessinceHydeRoad]

As a child I saw the great Real side of the late '50s. I then saw the Ajax side of Cruyf et al and then the Bayern side of Beckenbauer and Muller and also the scousers of Souness and Dalgleish. Then came Sacchi's Milan. But last night I saw a display from my team which was at the very least the equal of any I ever saw from those great teams. It was a really humbling experience to see what everyone at City has created. A truly great team.

 

[jimharri]

. . . & Intravenous de Milo is our best selling album

I always thought "lick my love pump" was a classic of it's time.

 

[Jam Tomorrow]

Feel absolutely wiped out today, glad to be wfh! Woke up early and last night seemed like a dream, didn’t even have a drink!
the Marca article saying our stadium was the most hostile they have come across in years is a great compliment. Inevitably some of our players started to tire in the last half an hour, the crowd helped them through, constant booing and whistling when Madrid had the ball wore them down and lifted our players, you could actually see it.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Here's a radio commentary for those who like this sort of thing......

 

[inbetween]

My favourite thing about all of these “Liverpool, United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barca, Bayern can’t compete with unrestrained, unlimited financial power” articles is that they completely ignore the fact that multiple levels of financial accounting and spending rules were devised and implemented—mostly at the demand of the clubs referenced—specifically to restrain and limit our spending and finances.

They are laughable bad faith arguments meant to distract from the fact that all of those clubs employed similarly high spending for decades before City won the lottery, and most continue to spend as much or more than us today.

And several only have that financial power because of similar massive cash injections (United, Liverpool, Chelsea), government subsidy (Real Madrid, Barca), and/or their leagues allowing them to have a near monopoly on talent (Bayern, Real Madrid), which includes allowing them to tap up the beat players to sign them on frees after they run out their contract, with no independent compensation determinations or regulatory intervention.

This is not about “financial doping”, as if there is such a thing we only adopted the program originated by the other dominant clubs in world football.

This is about the established order pushing against the tides of change and weaponising captured media and governing bodies to try to stop it.

But, as the old saying goes, they’re just pissing in to the wind.

And, once more, they know it. This is them raging against the dying of their light.

None of those clubs have a problem with us winning competitions at their heart (at least their owners and the business folk who run them). What they have a problem with is city changing the financial landscape and they don't have any control over it.

Barcelona once had UNICEF as their shirt sponsor and UNICEF as a charity never paid a penny for it. They still spent massive money and they could afford a charity sponsor because back then they could borrow money to survive or the Spanish league/government would throw backhanders to sort out their troubles.

City didn't have that choice but thanks to the business guys in charge we went from nothing to one of the most valuable teams in the world. All these other clubs can do is cry foul because for years they couldn't do the same because they're mostly corrupt or at best badly run.

The European super league was the latest attempt to take back control of the money and it proved they don't care at all about the football.

 

[RodneyRodney]

I always thought "lick my love pump" was a classic of it's time.

Well ahead of its time , in fact ; a Zen masterpiece , played on a guitar which can't ever actually be played, because it's so perfectly tuned

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Our back line practically nullified their attacking threat. Walker in particular on their left-hand side had Vinicius on a string, and Diaz kept Benzema very quiet. On top of that Eddie pulled off a couple of very good saves when they did resort to long range efforts.

Essentially, Kev's equaliser in the away leg changed the way they approached the game. Although they did try and play similar to the way they played first game in soaking up our early pressure and then hitting us on the break they couldn't afford to be too cautious. They perhaps underestimated our ability to play prolonged levels of high intensity football, and the way we kept possession forced them to chase the ball for the majority of the first half.

Their subs did make a difference, but it was too little, too late.

 

[HelloCity]

Still a bit giddy! Wrote this:

This Is How It Feels

Oh, what a night! Last night was one of the most incredible games of football I have seen. It’s certainly City’s best European performance at the Etihad and, from what I can remember, no European g…

gjfootballarchive.com

Let’s enjoy every moment an relive this over and over and over again.

Hopefully the updated version of The Greatest City / The City Years has a front cover with all 3 trophies on it.

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

We talk about the ground being overrun with tourist type fans for the big CL games. Last night I had a Chinese couple behind me, who were at their first City game. When we broke into the Poznan they joined in and the woman had the biggest smile on her face, it was actually brilliant to see.

 

[Crooked_rain]

BT commentary were quite funny, until 1-0 they were acting like us toying with Madrid was some planned rope-a-dope tactic, rather than us just smoking them.