City vs Barca - Post Match Thread

[cityok]

Manuel fked with the team for the first Chelsea match a couple of weeks ago, then turned the lads out a week later and it was a hailed as a masterclass.

No reason why the same can't happen again.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

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.

I think that's a sensible post and mirrors my own feelings. We did well last night but we weren't as amazing as people are making out. We were too often careless with the little possession we had and wasted some decent potential chances in front of goal.

Each step we take is a harder one. Getting into the top four was relatively easy. Chasing down the title was harder. Getting out of the CL groups was a harder task still and now getting into the later stages is the hardest task of all. We're not a nailed on semi-finalist as yet. But we're well on the way. Maybe in 2/3 years we'll be there.

 

[bluemc1]

we are just 1 level below the top top teams at the moment, all this shit Barca not the team they were is bollocks, they are a fantastic side, if City had Zipped it about the one touch pass and move stuff they showed last night people would be on here drooling about how good we are, yet some on here saying they are not that great and looked ordinary, give me a break.
they play Real Madrid, Ath Madrid a fair few times and they dont seem to be knocking goals past them freely do they ? so why people were saying we would i dont know.

 

[Chris in London]

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

There were three marginal calls by the ref/liner within the space of ten seconds, each one of which went in barca's favour, on which the game turned. You are right to say the match could have gone either way - and it went your way. No complaints (apart from against the referee) that's football. If we had benefited from those decisions, we certainly wouldn't be offering you a replay.

But forgive us if we take umbrage with the decisions of the referee if (as is the case) they prove to have been flawed.

Here is a short thesis on the laws of the game, from which I will actually be quoting from the laws of the game.

First (from Law 12), these are the offences which justify the award of a direct free kick:

A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following seven offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:

kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
trips or attempts to trip an opponent
jumps at an opponent
charges an opponent
strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
pushes an opponent
tackles an opponent

A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following three offences:

holds an opponent
spits at an opponent
handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)
A direct free kick is taken from the place where the offence occurred (see Law 13 - Position of free kick).

Please note the first two in particular.

Here is the law relating to penalty kicks (law 14):

A penalty kick is awarded against a team that commits one of the ten offences for which a direct free kick is awarded, inside its own penalty area and while the ball is in play.

Note that a penalty is awarded against the team that commits one of those offences inside its own penalty area.

Demichelis was penalised for tripping Messi. That trip occurred outside the area. The momentum of both players took them both into the area so perhaps the ref can be forgiven for mistaking where the trip took place, (though there is no excuse for the linesman) but there is no doubt that the correct decision would have been a direct free kick about 1 metre outside the area and a sending off. (Assuming Navas wasn't fouled in the build up). When you look at where the trip took place, however, it is crystal clear it was outside the box. The penalty was wrongly awarded.

Of course there are offences which start outside the area and continue inside (e.g. holding) but tripping is not one of them.

I have no difficulty with Barca fans who say 'hey, we had the rub of the green with the penalty but we made the most of it'. I have no difficulty with the argument (even if I don't necessarily accept it) that 'penalty or no penalty, 10 v 11 for 40 minutes is probably only going to end one way'. But spurious attempts to justify the award of a penalty that the laws of the game say was not a penalty is just disingenuous.

 

[NQCitizen]

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.

Agree with every bit of this if you swap Negredo (who I thought made very poor choices) for Fernandinho (did the work of 3 players).

Clichy was outstanding for me, purely down to the effort he'd put in that he was unfortunate to concede the second goal.

 

[CitizenTID]

The wording of those rules sounds wrong to me anyway.

Is a "tackle" not a successful gaining of the ball, where a "foul" would be an unsuccessful challenge without first touching the ball?

 

[Robinho's Subbuteo]

You know what guys, I think we'll have 'em at their. I just have this feeling. 1-3.

 

[Dogsbollox1962]

As a whole i thought we played as well as we could
we are still short of the top 5 teams in Europe ,but look how far we have come nationally..!!
still have a chance to go there and surprise, but not counting on it
the prem ,f.a. cup & league cup is still within our grasp
lets keep it all in perspective
we are still a work in progress, Im proud of our guys
there will be many glory days ahead
sure beats playing macclesfield.................

 

[supercity88]

Hope the players can continue to show that level of commitment and fight throughout the rest of the season because it was fantastic. Was so proud of their passion in trying to equalise. Wasn't bothered about conceding the second because we showed that fighting spirit and in the long run that will win us trophies. To provide some perspective, everyone was applauding Mourinho and Chelsea for their league win at the Etihad but are Chelsea a better team than us? No. All this talk of Barca not being the side they once were I agree with, but they are still an unbelievable side, 2nd only to Bayern possibly but it was our hard work and performance that made them look that ordinary. Had we played a more open game we would have probably been on a similar scoreline to the Arsenal game but in reverse! We made Barca look ordinary, Messi couldn't get a moments peace until he was played through on goal. Even after that he was made to look average.

 

[Wilmslow Road]

What get's me is that he changed a team that played brilliant against Chelsea.
Maybe bring Nasri in but leave the rest alone.
Barca should have been worried about us not the other way round.
I think if we had attacked we could have scored a couple, sure they might have as well
but i would sooner have had 2-2.