City vs Barca - Post Match Thread

[Plaything of the gods]

We did not play to our strengths, we played to Barca's strengths they pressed us - we did not press them and on that basis the result was never in doubt. We needed to take the game to them (as Pellers said he would) instead we got passed off the park (over 800 passes to City's less than 400) and anyone denying the fact that Barca deserved to win is in denial.

Yes we had a couple of decisions not go our way but on the other side they had a good shout for a penalty against Clichy and a perfectly good goal disallowed in the second half.

It was only when Nasri came on and we decided to give it a go that we put them under a little bit of pressure.

So on reflection the match panned out pretty much as most of the pundits predicted, we were not outclassed but we were second best for most parts of the game.

We have no other option than to take the game to them in the second leg, I believe that this will work in our favour as we will have to play the game we know best.

Also not happy with the managers post match comments, sounded like sour grapes to me and he was out of order.

Agree that Pellegrini's comments were disappointing and not what I expect of him or our club. If he felt so strongly, he should have said what he said as observations and opinions, not accusations.

Feeling a little less disappointed about the result now. The team will be freed up to play their natural game at the Camp Nou uninhibited by expectations. Continuing from where we are today and all things being equal:

• We will have a fully match-fit Aguero, Nasri, Fernandinho, Negredo (I hope he can recover his old form), Garcia and, if he gets game time, Nastasic to select from.
  
• They will have a fully match-fit Neymar.
  
• We will have Milner back (why has no one mentioned this already!) and no Demichelis liability.
  
• The officials will probably favour them and their 90,000+ crowd as the home team.
  
• The crowd could go either way depending on who dominates early and scores first.

If we can get an early goal and are hustling them, Barca could start to bottle it, but it is Barca's tie to lose.

 

[adr2.8i]

isn't it all set up for a 3-0 away win that will shock the world?

Typical City.

 

[AliWaheed]

We did not play to our strengths, we played to Barca's strengths they pressed us - we did not press them and on that basis the result was never in doubt. We needed to take the game to them (as Pellers said he would) instead we got passed off the park (over 800 passes to City's less than 400) and anyone denying the fact that Barca deserved to win is in denial.

Yes we had a couple of decisions not go our way but on the other side they had a good shout for a penalty against Clichy and a perfectly good goal disallowed in the second half.

It was only when Nasri came on and we decided to give it a go that we put them under a little bit of pressure.

So on reflection the match panned out pretty much as most of the pundits predicted, we were not outclassed but we were second best for most parts of the game.

We have no other option than to take the game to them in the second leg, I believe that this will work in our favour as we will have to play the game we know best.

Also not happy with the managers post match comments, sounded like sour grapes to me and he was out of order.

Agree that Pellegrini's comments were disappointing and not what I expect of him or our club. If he felt so strongly, he should have said what he said as observations and opinions, not accusations.

Feeling a little less disappointed about the result now. The team will be freed up to play their natural game at the Camp Nou uninhibited by expectations. Continuing from where we are today and all things being equal:

• We will have a fully match-fit Aguero, Nasri, Fernandinho, Negredo (I hope he can recover his old form), Garcia and, if he gets game time, Nastasic to select from.
  
• They will have a fully match-fit Neymar.
  
• We will have Milner back (why has no one mentioned this already!) and no Demichelis liability.
  
• The officials will probably favour them and their 90,000+ crowd as the home team.
  
• The crowd could go either way depending on who dominates early and scores first.

If we can get an early goal and are hustling them, Barca could start to bottle it, but it is Barca's tie to lose.

So fuck, they all do it. No big deal. Ref was a prick.<br /><br />-- Wed Feb 19, 2014 11:30 am --<br /><br />Fuck the Champions League. We need to be out of it. Win the League, then next year, when we have a better defence, we can think about CL.

 

[gmckennasell]

%
Barcelona had 70C possession and did fcuk all with it , up to the sending off , Hart had one save from 30yds , we made valdes make at least 4 saves with 30% possession , until demichelis defended like a 16 year old debutant , we were comfortable . Cant believe posters on here saying barcelona were the better side when we had 11 players on the pitch , they had a lot of the ball , but when they got to our penalty area they were clueless , i was actually encouraged by our overall performance last night and with aguero back in the side , this tie isnt over .

 

[pml79]

First goal was a catalog of errors after what should av bn a foul on navas barca went on with the ball messi was off side n mdm left messi cause he was off side but kompany dropped back to play him onside mdm should av told kompany to hold the line but put him onside by then mdm was still couple of yards behind messi n hacked him down poor defendin n no comunication

 

[Blue_Penguijn_1]

Have to say for the amount of money that's been spent it's worrying that we struggle badly if Aguero isn't playing. The backup strikers are ok against the smaller teams but we get badly found out against the big boys.

Don't understand people saying we can actually knock Barca out as it's been done before by Bayern. We are a long way off being anywhere near as good as Bayern. We were outclassed by Bayern at home even more so than we were outclassed by Barca last night. I know we won away to Bayern but they took their foot off the gas after scoring early & they were already through.

We can bleat all we want about fouls not given (i've seen the replay alot & there was no contact) We have had our fair share of lucky breaks this season & we can't win them all. Think MP needs to man up occasionally & say the better team won.

 

[robertsuki]

Thought I would leave it a while to gather my thoughts before posting on this thread.

DISAPPOINTED

Let me explain before bombarding with expletives.

I didn't know whether :-
1. We didn't play as well as we can do.
2. We were not set up right, particularly in the first half.
3. We are not yet upto the accepted level of Barca, etc.

At the end of the day I feel it is a combination of all three.

1. Too many players had average games including Fern and Negredo.
2. Pellers obviously cautious after Bayern at home, adopted a defensive mode in the first half, which worked in that Barca had very little opportunities. On the other hand we put very little pressure on their defense, which I believe is their achilles heel. The result was the half time scoreline.
However we were the home team and needed to take a one or two goal lead to the Nou Camp. Perhaps without the penalty / sending off things may have been different later in the game with the introduction of players off the bench. We will never know!
Whilst we 'beefed up' the midfield I did not feel we had many outlets and Silva looked a lost soul on many occasions without his fellow magicians Nasri and Aguero.
Would not have started with Kolorov and Navas and instead would have used Milner and Jovetic to give that little help to Negredo going forward.
Nasri should have been introduced at the start of the second half and we should have come out of the traps flying. High pressure and start their defense to panic with our usual fast pace.
3. They dictated the game all night.

On the subject of the goals -
Maybe should have been a foul on Navas but when the quick through ball was played Kompany was ball watching and was out of position in relation to Messi. MDM got the tackle all wrong but was not the player originally caught out. Thought he had a decent game upto this point and am disgusted at the rants he gets on this forum.
The second was tiredness, poor defending from Clichy and Lescott and Joe Hart.

Realistically cannot see us retrieving the tie in barcelona so lets get our act back together, hope we have no more serious injuries and go all out for the DOMESTIC TREBLE. CL can wait another year.

 

[Dubai Blue]

Thought I would leave it a while to gather my thoughts before posting on this thread.

DISAPPOINTED

Let me explain before bombarding with expletives.

I didn't know whether :-
1. We didn't play as well as we can do.
2. We were not set up right, particularly in the first half.
3. We are not yet upto the accepted level of Barca, etc.

At the end of the day I feel it is a combination of all three.

1. Too many players had average games including Fern and Negredo.
2. Pellers obviously cautious after Bayern at home, adopted a defensive mode in the first half, which worked in that Barca had very little opportunities. On the other hand we put very little pressure on their defense, which I believe is their achilles heel. The result was the half time scoreline.
However we were the home team and needed to take a one or two goal lead to the Nou Camp. Perhaps without the penalty / sending off things may have been different later in the game with the introduction of players off the bench. We will never know!
Whilst we 'beefed up' the midfield I did not feel we had many outlets and Silva looked a lost soul on many occasions without his fellow magicians Nasri and Aguero.
Would not have started with Kolorov and Navas and instead would have used Milner and Jovetic to give that little help to Negredo going forward.
Nasri should have been introduced at the start of the second half and we should have come out of the traps flying. High pressure and start their defense to panic with our usual fast pace.
3. They dictated the game all night.

On the subject of the goals -
Maybe should have been a foul on Navas but when the quick through ball was played Kompany was ball watching and was out of position in relation to Messi. MDM got the tackle all wrong but was not the player originally caught out. Thought he had a decent game upto this point and am disgusted at the rants he gets on this forum.
The second was tiredness, poor defending from Clichy and Lescott and Joe Hart.

Realistically cannot see us retrieving the tie in barcelona so lets get our act back together, hope we have no more serious injuries and go all out for the DOMESTIC TREBLE. CL can wait another year.

Pellegrini would be in even more trouble with UEFA this morning if he'd have played Milner.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Have to say for the amount of money that's been spent it's worrying that we struggle badly if Aguero isn't playing. The backup strikers are ok against the smaller teams but we get badly found out against the big boys.

Don't understand people saying we can actually knock Barca out as it's been done before by Bayern. We are a long way off being anywhere near as good as Bayern. We were outclassed by Bayern at home even more so than we were outclassed by Barca last night. I know we won away to Bayern but they took their foot off the gas after scoring early & they were already through.

We can bleat all we want about fouls not given (i've seen the replay alot & there was no contact) We have had our fair share of lucky breaks this season & we can't win them all. Think MP needs to man up occasionally & say the better team won.

go forth and multiply you rag front bottom

 

[MillisleBlue]

Reckon we got turned over by Barca's guile and a referee hopelessly out of his depth. We're still learning and gaining vital experience in CL which puts us in good shape for future campaigns. Heads held high you Blues...