Barcelona Vs City CL 2nd leg Post Match Thread

[jared]

I hope everyone has calmed lest I'm going to be called a rag. We are still in the stage of getting acclimatized to the CL. I thought getting through the group stages was a minimum expectation of MP and we did that well. Even almost snatching top position from bayern.

Truthfully, the tie was over after the first leg. Conceding 2 away goals in first leg and then winning the tie has never been done before. That shows u how hard it is at this level. We learn from this. If we drew or just lost by a goal it would have turned out differently. But alas we were undone by individual errors from our CBs and a brilliant player called messi.

You could argue the ref did no favours but he also made several important decisions against them. We could have been 2-0 down before HT and it would have been curtains. The bogus foul by Dzeko on the Barca CB that shortly led to their goal and the missed penalty decision or zab's red card would not have mattered. No need to make the ref a scapegoat. We are better than that.

All in all, we were not expected to win against a team that has tasted victory or seriously challenged in this competition so many times. It's part of a learning process. We will be stronger after this. Stay humble and stay hungry.

 

[sh249]

Barca fan here.

Red was awful. Penalty missed for each side and for the second time we had an onside goal ruled out. Free kick wise we had a few more decisions go our way which often happens for the home team. I also think some of the City players lack experience with European refs.

City played well and are not far off the European elite, but breaking into that top tier is extremely difficult. A couple of new defenders might be the difference.

IMO this tie could have been different but Pell picked the wrong team and tactics in the first leg. Why didn't City play like this at the ethiad? Things might have gone very differently. Also why was Aguero isolated up front? He plays well in a free role behind a striker...

Anyway the real difference between Barca and City over both ties was ... Messi. It's no shame to lose at the hands of Messi. When he's on form he's just unplayable. He was the difference in both ties.

Totally agree Barca are becoming a one man team , take Messi out of the equation , and you wouldnt win anything.

You say that, but there wasn't a weakness in their team that I could see over the two legs.

I thought they were comfortable apart from maybe half a dozen of occasions over 180minutes.

Messi is that good I think it distorts people's view on the rest of their team. They aren't as good as they were from 2009-2011 but they're still probably the third best team in the world.

I'd certainly agree that they're still one of the top two or three sides in the world. They're also a big game team, with an unbelievable level of experience playing at the highest level, together - 7 or 8 of the starting eleven have been playing together for at least 4 or 5 years, some a good deal longer. And they've got three of the best players ever (although Xavi does, admittedly, look like he's on the slide). We're a team that has been put together in a very different way, over a shorter period, and are in our first season playing with a different style and manager. Always going to be a huge ask to turn them over, despite the media upping the ante by claiming that Barca are finished.

Where I'd disagree is that I don't think they were comfortable apart from just half a dozen of occasions over the two legs. There were half a dozen occasions last night where they were uncomfortable - first half we had one good chance (Nasri) and a couple of decent chances (Milner and Silva); second half we had Dzeko's header, Zaba missed a sitter, plus the goal, another couple of decent efforts - during the spell between half-time and the first goal, they were rocking. Add in the fairly numerous occasions when we got into really promising positions and let ourselves down with poor passes and crosses, and I reckon we actually did pretty well. Bayern aside, you won't see many sides go and create a hatful of chances away at the top sides in Europe.

 

[Marvin]

I hope everyone has calmed lest I'm going to be called a rag. We are still in the stage of getting acclimatized to the CL. I thought getting through the group stages was a minimum expectation of MP and we did that well. Even almost snatching top position from bayern.

Truthfully, the tie was over after the first leg. Conceding 2 away goals in first leg and then winning the tie has never been done before. That shows u how hard it is at this level. We learn from this. If we drew or just lost by a goal it would have turned out differently. But alas we were undone by individual errors from our CBs and a brilliant player called messi.

You could argue the ref did no favours but he also made several important decisions against them. We could have been 2-0 down before HT and it would have been curtains. The bogus foul by Dzeko on the Barca CB that shortly led to their goal and the missed penalty decision or zab's red card would not have mattered. No need to make the ref a scapegoat. We are better than that.

All in all, we were not expected to win against a team that has tasted victory or seriously challenged in this competition so many times. It's part of a learning process. We will be stronger after this. Stay humble and stay hungry.

Yes, although the refereeing of both games was biased in their favour. Maybe not deliberately. But it was a factor in the tie

 

[fatbloke]

Brilliant gutsy performance by all our lads last night and we did ourselves proud on and off the pitch.
The game itself was effectively ruined as a contest by the referee in the first leg, the referee in the second leg just compounded it by the constant soft free kicks given in Barcelona's favour (I think it was 9-0 within the first 11 minutes).
Without the two away goals (critically the wrongful penalty decision to give Barcelona the lead in the tie) last night's game would have been completely different. Barcelona would have had to have pushed on leaving far more space for us on the counter-attack, the crowd would have been more anxious and the possession/passing accuracy would have been reduced as they would have had to make more risky decisions in the search for a goal. Anyone that thinks this game wasn't heavily influenced by shocking and I believe bias decisions against us are very naïve but we fought till the end and that's all I'll ever ask of our players.

I think we need to improve our squad especially at the back, we lack pace and agility and ultimately that's what the best players (Messi, Ronaldo, Aguerooooooo, Suarez) exploit and Demichilles, Lescott and Kolarov have all been exposed in that respect

 

[FantasyIreland]

Brilliant gutsy performance by all our lads last night and we did ourselves proud on and off the pitch.
The game itself was effectively ruined as a contest by the referee in the first leg, the referee in the second leg just compounded it by the constant soft free kicks given in Barcelona's favour (I think it was 9-0 within the first 11 minutes).
Without the two away goals (critically the wrongful penalty decision to give Barcelona the lead in the tie) last night's game would have been completely different. Barcelona would have had to have pushed on leaving far more space for us on the counter-attack, the crowd would have been more anxious and the possession/passing accuracy would have been reduced as they would have had to make more risky decisions in the search for a goal. Anyone that thinks this game wasn't heavily influenced by shocking and I believe bias decisions against us are very naïve but we fought till the end and that's all I'll ever ask of our players.

I think we need to improve our squad especially at the back, we lack pace and agility and ultimately that's what the best players (Messi, Ronaldo, Aguerooooooo, Suarez) exploit and Demichilles, Lescott and Kolarov have all been exposed in that respect

Excellently summarised.

Obviously the Champs league is the ultimate prize but how fucking aggravating is it?
The cheating and cynical play,coupled with poor refereeing,frustrates the fuck out of me.Maybe we need to 'wise up' and start employing similar tactics of throwing ourselves in the air when an opposition player comes within 12 inches of us......

 

[Newman Noggs]

Not sure I agree that the refereeing is biased. It is certainly different to Premier League refereeing, or, indeed, English refereeing in general, and that is the key to the Premier League's success. Champions League is all pass, pass, pass, pass, lose ball, fall to ground, get free kick, surround ref looking to get opposition player sent off, often succeeed. I can't remember the last thrilling CL match I saw but I see such games in the PL week in week out. It's no coincidence that English clubs struggle with the refs when contact is outlawed on the continent but applauded in the domestic league. Somewhere there is a balance but it's very difficult to find.

 

[city saint]

newspaper review on sky said theyre looking into zabs touching the ref and he could be facing a long ban,

 

[kp789]

The worst refereeing performance I have seen. Both sides had ludicrous decisions against them.

The worst thing about playing spanish teams is if you go near a player they go down and the ref gives a free kick every single time.

I would be interested to see them play us with a british style ref.

That said, I dont think we can blame the ref for going out. Messi, Iniesta and Xavi are just a class above.

Neymar is overrated IMO.

 

[whp.blue]

I have waited until I could settle down after the game

whilst it was an overall gutsy performance once again Lescott cost us a match

he has no ball control and is the player least comfortable on the ball in the entire squad

I hope that is the last time I ever have to see this clown in a City shirt

City have a glaring weakness down the whole left hand side of the team and we must address this in the summer if we wish to rise to the level of the other top sides in Europe in the knockout stages of these sorts of competitions we cannot afford any passengers and Lescott is definitely a costly passenger

we need to find a top class left sided centre back and pay whatever it costs to bring them to City and a left back like Luke Shaw that would balance the side much better this problem has been apparent for a few years now and the powers that be have been too slow to sort it out.

we run the danger of our season petering out and as bad as it may sound the league cup is not enough given the resources the club has and the money wasted on poor poor players

 

[tonea2003]

take messi out of that side and there is no difference between the two teams bar a dose of conviction

its thats close, proud of the lads last night each and every one, yes one or two are lacking the quality(not naming names) but they gave it a go

we will be back next season lessons learnt and we will be in the mix for sure

now lets get winning games and the title starting at hull