AS Monaco (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Paul Cooper but he might be a little long in the tooth (born in 1953)

Oi! Same year as me. In other words — with the kids.

 

[Dribble]

just read Silva post match response to the match! This is the problem with Silva mentality “we were controlling the result” sorry only 1 goal lead you don’t control the result because you can’t this team can’t yet! Am fine with a 2 goal buffer to control the result but this controlling the result at just 1 goal up is negative football!

We won the Champions League 1-0.

 

[Roachy]

Disappointed not to get the win. Very frustrating to concede a pen so late in the game, but a 3rd for us would have made it immaterial. I thought some of our passing was really nice, but we should have killed them off.

 

[Father Paul]

I know that. At the same time 16 points got Villa 8th. We are 8th now. I looked at last season's qualifying stage table before making my point because it demonstrates that automatic qualification is now more difficult for the seeded clubs than in the group stages. Then, if you won 3 at home and drew 3 away, you'd qualify easily. Now that strategy is marginal. I know it's not a terrible result but my point is that the new format requires teams to be a little more ambitious away from home. In terms of our qualification consider that we have Real Madrid away. I think we'll lose that, so that means we need to win another game away (and win all our home games) to qualify automatically. That's challenging.

Well we need a minimum of 7 from the next 3 games which will give us 11. Given that we will most likely lose in Madrid we would need two wins to finish. That series of results may be beyond this team. Looks like the playoffs in February are on the cards again.

 

[bluemoon32]

Thought we played well first half, the playing it around without hurting sides tactic in the second half was dismal.
Not a dreadful result but not a good one either

 

[waspish]

In fairness, we have a few players who like a dive or two, we're no angels

Who

 

[Gabriel]

With little coming down either flank and Monaco well set, we needed better control in the spaces in the middle. Thought we missed an opportunity to play Bobb in there. When the game is open, Reijnders, Foden, and O'Reilly look more accomplished, but when there is even less space and the ball is bobbling about, we could do with either Bobb or Cherki (once fit) in there.

 

[sk3ptical]

He certainly was, never seen him as upset and angry. Only player visibly bothered by that result and that includes the manager.

Pep all smiles at the end.

 

[Kippax77]

I'm not even sure the player conned the ref for the free kick. In my opinion the ref just got it completely wrong.

I just think the ref was just missing his guide dog.
What did he see for the free kick that nobody (including TNT) else saw?
A blatant corner for us when a Monaco player tackled Doku was also missed by him.
Really really suspect performance from the ref.
Or just maybe he really does have eyesight issues

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

We were the better side by some distance and were unlucky to come away with a tie - we hit the woodwork twice, Reijinders missed a few nice opportunities and we kept the ball which is what we set out to do. Unfortunately, Teze hit a wonder shot from distance (we should have closed him down faster though), and the penalty was unfortunate.

That said, we still struggle with our inverted fullback system when the ball turns over. Often a long ball is hit over the top to a pacy wide open winger (not today but that's been a big problem in the past), and for me, the mindset of transitioning from attack to defense needs work. We were really solid playing defensively against Arsenal and United - great shape, extremely hard to beat. But our transition defense isn't nearly as reliable.

It's a long season, a point away against Monaco isn't a terrible result, many of our players are new - adapting to our style of play and the pace of the P/L - and too, we seem to be blending styles - control versus weaker opponents - much more defensive against stronger opponents or when teams press aggressively. This is new and the flexibility to perform well in both types of games is something our players will get better at.

 

[waspish]

We won the Champions League 1-0.

We won a lot of games one nil this team ain’t ready to hold on to 1-0 when Khosovnov is out

 

[bridgeno1]

Where do you guys play Madrid? At the Etihad or at theirs?

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

Not sure if it was just me, but I found it hard to get excited either way last night about the match, whether we scored or conceded.
On the grand scheme of things the result isn't that important. PSG showed last year that if you're good enough it doesn't matter where you finish on the initial league stage. If you aren't good enough then you aren't going to get near winning it anyway, as we showed last year.

This Sunday at Brentford on the other hand, if we concede a late equaliser I'll be totally fuming.

I was never a fan who was indifferent to the Champions League, I always liked City being in it and got excited about group games. Its the new format that means a few of the games are not that important. A draw isn't a disaster.

This is probably ironic given that we almost fucked it up last year and missed out totally on the next stage, but I don't see that happening again this year.

I think the new format on the whole is a bit meh. Seem to be a lot of games with very little at stake and not much jeopardy at this stage.

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

Where do you guys play Madrid? At the Etihad or at theirs?

Away

 

[eastmanc]

Spanish refs don’t like Catalonian pep

Remember that Clive Anderson looking mother fucker who sent Pep off against livarpool, fucking hell I thought he was bad, he was by the way, but that idiot was another level shite.

 

[halfcenturyup]

But you quoted playing in a dangerous manner, verbatim, which is directly under 'Indirect Free kick' in the laws and the first criteria. It's different as it's a different set of criteria. For direct free kicks, as he didn't receive a yellow card, the ref must have deemed his actions as careless and it's open to interpretation. Personally, I think he kicked the ball in a manner that wasn't dangerous and didn't put Dier at risk - at best, Dier made light contact with his calf.

I don't know what we are disagreeing about. I was countering the argument that it wasn't an offence. It clearly was. The question is whether it was an offence of dangerous play resulting in an indirect free kick, or an offence of a kick in a manner considered by the referee to be careless resulting in a direct free kick, in this case a penalty.

Of course it is open to interpretation. Pretty much all offences are, one way or another. But I can't imagine a situation where what happened firstly isn't an offence and secondly doesn't result in a direct free kick.

Unless the defender plays in red, of course.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Gonzales knew before he raised his boot that any misjudged contact with an opponent was almost certain to cost us,

I very much doubt that Gonzales 'knew'. He didn't think, he reacted. A costly lesson I hope he learns from.

 

[laplandblue]

felt more like a preseason friendly last night rather than a competitive game.

Should of won that, no questions. If it wasn't for the post/bar we should of been 3/4-1 up before that VAR mess.

Referee was poor all game, stlll don't know who was sent off

I read the red card was for the Monaco manager? There was also apparently a yellow for our goalkeeper too. The commentators didn't know why.

 

[waspish]

Not sure if it was just me, but I found it hard to get excited either way last night about the match, whether we scored or conceded.
On the grand scheme of things the result isn't that important. PSG showed last year that if you're good enough it doesn't matter where you finish on the initial league stage. If you aren't good enough then you aren't going to get near winning it anyway, as we showed last year.

This Sunday at Brentford on the other hand, if we concede a late equaliser I'll be totally fuming.

I was never a fan who was indifferent to the Champions League, I always liked City being in it and got excited about group games. Its the new format that means a few of the games are not that important. A draw isn't a disaster.

This is probably ironic given that we almost fucked it up last year and missed out totally on the next stage, but I don't see that happening again this year.

I think the new format on the whole is a bit meh. Seem to be a lot of games with very little at stake and not much jeopardy at this stage.

Agree am frustrated at our miss chances but we going to quality probably not top 8 though! So the jeopardy isn’t there but I like this format because there are usually big games to watch every champs leagues nights!

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

I thought Nico G looked superb when he came on. He injected some fervour, kept it with deft control and movement, and gave it. The referee pulled him a couple of times for fouls that were not fouls, IMO, and that isn't on him. Neither was the penalty, IMO. Reading here this morning, he was shite, and that is NOT what I watched at all.

I thought we gave a very decent performance. I thought Nunes should have started for Stones, and didn't really understand that call - Stones for Dias by all means - but there will always be the odd selection decision we don't agree with. We created many more chances than Monaco, generally controlled possession, and kept them to very few opportunities despite their obvious pace and skill. The ref was a bad one, and it's one of the reasons I don't get as interested in European games, and Monaco were skilled in deceiving him, repeatedly.

I agree, I also thought Reijnders played well but you would think we’d re signed Charvet and stuck him in midfield with some of the comments on here. Both were good imo