City vs Barca - Post Match Thread

[Gordyola]

It was a good match and could have gone either way but please dont give the ref crap.We got a handball penalty and a goal disallowed by offside denied wrongly so please dont say we won due to refs error. And here you go

Where was MD holding Messi, this is the criteria in the picture that you produce as evidence of the correct decision? The foul was committed outside the area so it was a FK Id be interested in knowing where the picture was copied from please

With respect to the handball it was neither deliberate nor was the arm in an unnatural position, so no pen

Not seen the Piquet offside so not able to comment

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Was there last night and have just watched it back in full.

Imo our best performance individually and collectively for as long as I can remember.

Barcelona are fucking outrageously technically brilliant players. Their movement, intelligence and manipulation of the opponent's shape is like nothing I've ever seen 'live'.

I dont care what Kompany says they're easily the best team we've ever played against and I include Bayern in that.

To go toe to toe with such a team and restrict them to very few chances, whilst creating a pleasing number ourselves was quite frankly outstanding.

In reality they scored through a wrongly awarded penalty and a last minute goal against a team who'd run their bollocks off for 90+ minutes, 35 of which were with 10 men.

We showed last night we belong to be in the top echelons of european football. We showed we can truly mix it with the very best. Barcelona 1000% new they were in a game. Even with 10 men we were toe to toe with them and could've forced a draw or got a win.

Individually I think every single player (MDM included) had an absolute blinder and gave 110%. If we continue to play like that domestically we should wipe the floor with every competition we play in.

Kompany, Yaya, Fernandinho and Silva were absolutely world class and were a joy to watch.

The luck didn't fall our way. Perhaps in the away leg it might.

That's EXACTLY how I saw it too. Was a bit puzzled when I saw the way it had been covered by most of the media this morning.

Yep. That's how I saw it too. A night to be proud of. Not because we didn't disgrace ourselves, but because we showed we have reached the highest echelons in European football. We are the best team in England, we are in the top 4 or 5 in Europe and we are one transfer window from winning the Champions League.

Let's hope we don't overlook the areas that have been clear to us all for 2 years in the next window.

We are a quality CB, a quality left back and a quality CM away from dominating in the domestic league for years and competing for the trophy in the CL. I say it every window and we fail to address it every window.

Demichellis, Lescott, Nastasic, Clichy, Kolorov would not get in any of the other top 4 European sides and our cover for Yaya and Fernandinho is too weak.

It's time to address this in the summer.

 

[Gordyola]

That's EXACTLY how I saw it too. Was a bit puzzled when I saw the way it had been covered by most of the media this morning.

Yep. That's how I saw it too. A night to be proud of. Not because we didn't disgrace ourselves, but because we showed we have reached the highest echelons in European football. We are the best team in England, we are in the top 4 or 5 in Europe and we are one transfer window from winning the Champions League.

Let's hope we don't overlook the areas that have been clear to us all for 2 years in the next window.

We are a quality CB, a quality left back and a quality CM away from dominating in the domestic league for years and competing for the trophy in the CL. I say it every window and we fail to address it every window.

Demichellis, Lescott, Nastasic, Clichy, Kolorov would not get in any of the other top 4 European sides and our cover for Yaya and Fernandinho is too weak.

It's time to address this in the summer.

Agreed with all of that

 

[levets]

Absolutely ridiculous post.

More than ridiculous. Embarrassing. Likkle City syndrome in full view.

I hate how some of our fans are blind to how good our players really are. And then they throw "blue tinted specs" at those who aren't blind like them. It's like they think that they are being clever.

Not blind just objective.

Valdes
Alves Mascherano Pique Alba
Silva yAYA Busquets Iniesta
Messi Negredo

That would be a combined team from last night.

I know it is virtual a capital offence on here to criticize Kompany but his distribution is often pretty aimless. And so was MDM's last night which is strange for him. They both kept giving the ball back to Barca in the first half.

Negredo? Based on last night? No chance...

 

[Santiago Street]

Clichy or Kolarov would stand a decent chance of getting a game at Madrid. Jimmy Milner is more than an able deputy in CM

We don't need a team full of galacticos

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Let's hope we don't overlook the areas that have been clear to us all for 2 years in the next window.

We are a quality CB, a quality left back and a quality CM away from dominating in the domestic league for years and competing for the trophy in the CL. I say it every window and we fail to address it every window.

Demichellis, Lescott, Nastasic, Clichy, Kolorov would not get in any of the other top 4 European sides and our cover for Yaya and Fernandinho is too weak.

It's time to address this in the summer.

I agree a bit but disagree a bit too. I think Clichy is good enough, for a start. The rest of the players you have listed are squad players, not first choice, so the same could be said for squad players at other top European clubs. I think we will see Lescott and Kolorov upgraded, and very possibly Richards and/or Rodwell. And if a couple of those upgrades are top drawer/world class players I think we can win the Champions League.

A world class centre half and a top class holding player are priorities, I agree, and I'm certain the club do too. Even just those two would make us absolutely formidable. But even as it stands we are good enough to win a domestic double or even treble.

 

[shadowyu]

My observations:

1) Barcelona are way, way better than I thought. They are phenomenal;
2) Our lineup surprised me as did our defensive style. We did execute defensively to perfection in the first half. Having both Clichy and Kolarov in the lineup completely shut out their extremely potent right side and even frastrated Dani Alves on multiple occasions;
3) Demichelis wasn't as bad as people here are saying. He had a good game until the penalty incident. Even then, it was Navas who gave the ball away. I find it difficult to blame Demichelis even though to me he is not as good as Pellegrini believes he is;
4) Clichy was fantastic (until being caught out of position for the second goal). He was playing with great effort and of course speed. I think Pellegrini (and maybe even Kolarov) are working with Gael on improving his offensive game. He now moves with the ball with confidence, makes an occasional dribble and is not afraid to make a first time cross.
5) Other standouts were Kompany, Negredo and Nasri.
6) Referee was not to blame. The penalty was legitimate. The foul, from my point of view started outside of the box but continued into the box;
7) Lescott is a pretty good defender. OK, poor on the ball, but a pretty good defender regardless;
8) We got beat by a better team for the night. The way we set up, we had to execute to perfection in order to get a result. There was really no room for error. The error(s) happened and that's it. Barca just have so much confidence, so much of the already built style that it is and will be very difficult to compete against them. The effort that our players put in was phenomenal though and should be appreciated.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

That's EXACTLY how I saw it too. Was a bit puzzled when I saw the way it had been covered by most of the media this morning.

Yep. That's how I saw it too. A night to be proud of. Not because we didn't disgrace ourselves, but because we showed we have reached the highest echelons in European football. We are the best team in England, we are in the top 4 or 5 in Europe and we are one transfer window from winning the Champions League.

Thank God some people share the same opinion as me. I've been pulling my hair out reading some of the shit spouted in here in the past 12 hours.

 

[Stoned Rose]

Much of the commentary on the game since has been very generic, full of tired old eulogies and hat tipping to a Barcelona team that really do not deserve it anymore. Barcelona looked very ordinary and quite beatable to me last night. The red card was a real shame, prior that we were on equal terms with them, they had the possession, we looked like the team more likely to score.

I give us decent odds in the return with Aguero and Nasri back.

I completely disagree with this. I don't think Barcelona looked ordinary at all last night, I thought they were absolutely fantastic. Their movement and footballing intelligence is just unequalled. They play well without the ball, even better with it and the speed and quality of their transition (from not having the ball to having it and vice versa) is absolutely first class.

So why is it that one of the best 2/3 teams in the world managed one shot on target in the first 45 minutes, and looked rather less likely to score when it was 11 v 11 than us?

because we were fantastic too. We knew they would have a lot of the ball, we just made sure they had it in areas they couldn't hurt us. for 50 minutes, that worked. We were organised and disciplined, we might have kept a cooler head from time to time but we also used our passion and our aggression to our advantage - until the ref gave a foul for them. We gave them far more scares in the first 50 minutes than they gave us.

The decisions have been done to death - in tight matches between two relatively evenly matched teams they are often the decisive factor, as it was last night. If we were playing Chelsea or Arsenal and went down to 10 with almost half the game left, you'd expect to get beaten more times than you wouldn't.

I'd say that Barca have a better squad and first XI than us FTTB but there isn't a lot in it - the gap is more like the gap between us and Chelsea than it is between us and say Swansea or Newcastle. We are certainly one of the best 10 teams in Europe, quite arguably the top 5. We are at the top table and we are here to stay.

We will reach the final of the Champions league within three years.

Quality.

 

[Newman Noggs]

Decided to wait more than 12 hours before posting so that my inner child, the one that wants to moan about the ref and all the other gripes, has had a chance to settle down.

My take is that we did okay but we are still in the tier of clubs just below Barca ,Bayern and Madrid. All we can do Is keep improving and keep building until we are strong enough to enjoy 60% possession when we play at their grounds. Time will sort that out so we just have to be patient and back those in charge and those players like MD who fall short of what we would like.

Admittedly it's unlikely but the pressure is off us now and an early goal in the away leg could make things interesting.