Champions League Final | Post-Match Thread

[Darker blue moon]

If you have a proper look on here there will be very few of those responses from fans that know the game.

I said earlier a final is FINAL, and there is only ever one winner and it's usually the better team, and it was.

I didn't think the ball ran well for us for much of the game, and that is sometimes how football works, and it's fine margins, but that is often down to how you play.

We started the game like a frightened rabbit, it gave you the momentum, and it was only a surprise that you took so long to take the lead, though we did have chances too, but losing a goal close to half time was a problem for us.

There was an awful lot on the pre match thread

 

[Bill Walker]

Didn't have a bad game???
Tell me the last time this over payed "star" took a city game by the scruff of the neck and said "this ones for me,i'll show everyone how good i am"?
Bollocks he was awful YET AGAIN

Can I like this ten times?

 

[Bill Walker]

There you go again billy bigs balls. 2 minutes on here etc etc. Blah blah blah

so you’re a Fanboi of the mega post fraternity?

I couldn’t give 2 fucks how many posts someone has on here if they raise a valid point.

you come across as Kevin the teenager, which is what you probably are (in your head at least).

I agree with you about the post numbers, but no need for the personal insults. COC requires respect at all times.

 

[Dribble]

Well, you have to say what you think your strongest team is because the striking fact is that Pep has rotated his squad regularly as a result of form, injury, illness and to balance minutes. I assume that by "strongest team" you mean the eleven who started the QF and SF, in which case Rodri started 3 of them, whereas most people wanted to go with Ferna. Ferna came on after 64 minutes and the same substitutes were used in the final as in the earlier knock out rounds. Apart from that Cancelo started 2 of the knock out rounds in Zinchenko's place but Zinchenko's selection does not seem controversial. So the element of rotation does seem to have been minimal, and the factis that the "strongest team" had ONLY started the QF and SF so we cannot take it for granted that it would start again a monthe later, though the evidence is that Pep was loyal to those players. The theory is that he blundered by not playing Ferna, who would have prevented the Chelsea goal. This might have been the case ... but equally it might not. I would point out that Ferna was unable to prevent a golden chance falling to Pulisic to put the game beyond our reach. And for the goal itself it is hard to say that only Ferna was needed to prevent it: no-one was within a mile of Mount, our CBs had gone AWOL and Zinchenko waved Havertz goodbye as he chased a ball played into the space behind our backline. The goal was a team disaster, not down to the absence of one man.

Split hairs all you like, we all know what our strongest lineup & formation was, & that would include Rodri or Fernandinho. The goal we conceded came from a pass right where either Fern or Rodri would have been.

We played with a CDM vs Dortmund & PSG, so why not against an equally strong Chelsea in the final? It boggles the mind & beggars belief. Simple.

 

[Newman Noggs]

There was an awful lot on the pre match thread

That's because, overall, as the league table showed we're the better team and many fans were correspondingly confident.

Chelsea did what some teams do who know they can't compete standing toe to toe and just defend hoping to score at some point. Leeds did it with 10 men, united always do it, Spurs did it and Newcastle did it. No-one beats us playing attacking football as our owners demand we do as described by Pep in his interview with Ferdinand. PSG and Dortmund found that out as did Liverpool at Anfield. It's a unique club philosophy which will cost us from time to time.

So Chelsea did it and won and deservedly so. We have to find an answer to the parked bus and it's something we've been wrestling with for years. Fortunately, generally, we've been doing rather well.

 

[Darker blue moon]

Good debate but I don’t think you can say we parked the bus with three basically playing up front and the amount of chances we had in the first half. Admit we defended second half but a lot of teams would have done that after going 1-0 up. I reckon if you were 1-0 up at half time to you would have done the same and bought on a couple of holding players

 

[Father Paul]

That's because, overall, as the league table showed we're the better team and many fans were correspondingly confident.

Chelsea did what some teams do who know they can't compete standing toe to toe and just defend hoping to score at some point. Leeds did it with 10 men, united always do it, Spurs did it and Newcastle did it. No-one beats us playing attacking football as our owners demand we do as described by Pep in his interview with Ferdinand. PSG and Dortmund found that out as did Liverpool at Anfield. It's a unique club philosophy which will cost us from time to time.

So Chelsea did it and won and deservedly so. We have to find an answer to the parked bus and it's something we've been wrestling with for years. Fortunately, generally, we've been doing rather well.

Chelsea are much more than a parked bus I suggest you read the post by Chicago Blue if you think that is the case.
You are right that City under Pep have developed a possession based attacking philosophy which has been both enjoyable to watch and effective.
The tactical battles in the modern game can be difficult to digest but in general Pep has proved he well on top of his brief but this weekend sadly he came up short. It is not a night any of us will want to remember. A trip back to the drawing board and a reshuffle of the pack during the summer is needed if this Chelsea team and perhaps others of a similar ilk are to be overcome next season.

 

[Father Paul]

Yep, pretty much that! I get why we did it but we put the pressure on the wrong parts, we should have nullified the outball wide and forced them through the middle.

The whether we should have played a dm or not isn’t the main thing.

I am not sure exactly what we were trying to do and the way we set about trying to implement the game plan suggested the players did not fully understand it either.
The fact that what we tried to do did not work is one thing but from an early stage it was obvious it had very little chance of working.
Make no mistake this was a really bad night for Pep in an arena in which he is becoming accustomed to failure.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Split hairs all you like, we all know what our strongest lineup & formation was, & that would include Rodri or Fernandinho. The goal we conceded came from a pass right where either Fern or Rodri would have been.

We played with a CDM vs Dortmund & PSG, so why not against an equally strong Chelsea in the final? It boggles the mind & beggars belief. Simple.

100% it beggars belief.......as soon as i saw the line up i knew the outcome as my comment in the pre-match will support.

Clearly there are no guarantees we would have won with the 11 that 'picks itself' but the game would have been very different and we would have been playing to our strengths.

Still so angry and frustrated that all that brilliance and hard work Pep and the lads put in to get us to the final was thrown away so easily and unnecessarily.

 

[citymad]

Exactly my thoughts.. to be be more precise why why why one thousand pounds in my case, if I’d suspected sterling was going to play I would have sold my ticket and stayed in the fan zone with my mates, got too pissed and forgot about the team announcement until I got in the ground and saw his face come up on the screens
The collective groans when this happened and the exasperated gasps when the idiot got the captains armband summed the whole evening up.

I said last night when Guardiola made that speech about players being upset if they're not chosen for the final I would guess 90% of blues knew he was talking about Sterling, possibly Gab, Aguero and Rodri. Never in our wildest dreams would Fern be left out and starting with Sterling, a woefully out of form player. What a time to field a starting 11 you've never put together before in a once in lifetime final.