CL Last 16 vs Barcelona (feb. 24 & mar. 18)

[Dribble]

Re: CL Last 16 vs Barcelona

Has anyone booked their flights to Munich for next October yet?

Ha ha ha ha!!! :-)

 

[keemcfc]

Hopefully everyone will be fit

Hart
Zaba Kompany mangala clichy
Navas Fernando Fernandinho Milner
Silva
Aguero

Yaya is suspended for the home leg but in all honesty I don't see a space for him in that team anyway unless Silva gets injured, he can't play in a midfield 2 against a team like these and we can't play 3 in midfield as the fullbacks need protecting, plus a 3 man midfield would force Silva onto the wings, stifling his attacking threat and leaving our fullbacks wide open

 

[Sergi0 Na5r1]

Leo just tweeted "Looking forward to playing in the next round of the UEFA CL. It'll be really nice to face my friend Sergio Aguero as I always beat him at FIFA, but let's see what happens on the pitch. ;) "

 

[Whyruss]

They have Messi, Neymar and Suarez...they're going to destroy us.

Teams have played defensively this season and worked well against Barca.

Look at the Valencia game where barca were held for 94 min without a goal, until they let their guard down in the final minute and blundered an easy shot from Messi and Busquets in literally the last 10 seconds of the match. We need to play defensively and keep neymar away from making runs. Suarez has been assisting more than actually scoring and messi can be controlled. They will be playing in the CDR cup as well so their schedule will be no less busy then ours.

No, it was a cross from Messi and header from Neymar who was 5 yards out. Diego Alves pulled out a miracle save but couldn't hold on to the ball and so Busquets finished it off.
I really like City but I'm a longtime Barcafan. It's a pity that we meet again in the 1/8 finals... but I hope it's going to be an open match with a lot of goals and spectacular football.
Btw I wouldn't worry about Barca getting a pen - we are not Real! (of all goals CR scored in La Liga this season about 40% are from pens)

 

[TFC]

Cant fucking wait. Lessons will have been learned from last year and I expect us to more than give them a game.

If we want to be taken seriously on the European stage, these are the ties that sooner or later, we are going to have to win. Bring it on.

 

[Bill]

For any of you fancy going to the away leg there are some good deals on jet2holidays.com

You can get Monday to Thursday for £215 flying from Manchester including hotel staying on Las Ramblas.

I think its the time off that's the problem for some. using up holiday quotas.

 

[Mico]

Re: CL Last 16 vs Barcelona

Doesn't work that that.

They have two bowls out of which the pairings are made. The first bowl A is the runners up bowl, out of which the 1st team is drawn. The second bowl - let's say Bowl B - is then made up there and then with the required balls representing the possible opponents.

So for the 1st draw, all possibilities are in play. When they prepare Bowl B for the 2nd match, they don't put in the group winner that was already drawn in round 1, so there's 1 less ball in Bowl B for the 2nd draw. For the 3rd draw, there's 2 less balls etc. Finally with the last draw, only 1 ball is put into bowl B.

So it all works and all seems above board. The issue however is that we can't actually see what teams are in each ball, so it would be possible (somehow) for bowl B to continue say 7 balls, all with the same team name inside.

This explanations sounds plausible. Is there video footage of the draw ? I only heard it in the radio.

The Daily Mail have nailed the fix! Link

This is how they do it (according to their informant):

Heated balls, squishy balls, heavier balls, bigger balls – we've heard all these conspiracy theories of how UEFA allegedly rig their Champions League draws. But a former International referee has now gone further, explosively claiming that UEFA use vibrating balls to ensure that the biggest clubs are kept apart until the latter stages of their competitions.

The Turkish official, Ahmet Cakar, has sensationally suggested that the former football stars that carry out the draws have metal objects in their hand which pick up vibrations in the balls as they bounce around in the pot. This therefore allows the stars to know exactly when to draw each ball and guarantee the ties that UEFA’s top brass desire.

Those incriminated by the allegations would include former footballing heroes including Steve McManaman and Patrick Kluivert – who picked out the balls during last week’s respective draws – while past legends such as Denis Law, George Weah and Ruud Gullit would also be accused, having presided over draws in years gone by.

Cakar also believes that UEFA General Secretary, Gianni Infantino (the bald fella who always presents the draws) also plays a part in this deception – with Cakar accusing him of suspicious hand movements while the draws take place, with the Italian seen to be moving a lever beside the pot of balls during last week’s draw. Suspicious, indeed.

The wacky official, who has re-invented himself as the country’s most controversial TV pundit (think Roy Keane and Graham Poll rolled into one) carried out a bizarre demonstration, live on national Turkish television, in which he showed the ease with which a draw can be fixed.

Going through a methodical system that he believes UEFA use (although he does not reveal his mysterious secrets), Cakar mystically picks balls out of a bowl with the intention of recreating the exact order of last week’s Europa League quarterfinal draw. Cakar keeps his eyes closed throughout but he still manages to spookily create a draw identical to the one that UEFA carried out last week.

The Turk’s suspicions were raised when, during the Champions League last 16 draw in December, the rehearsal draw corresponded exactly with the real one day later, with bookmakers offering odds of 5,000-1 of the incident occurring, while others suggested the odds could be as extreme as nearly 2,000,000-1.

The wacky official’s major concerns also surround his conviction that Europe’s biggest names are favoured by being handed 'easier' ties while Cakar maintains that clubs from the same country are also separated for as long as possible.

Interestingly the evidence of last week’s draw does little to dampen his speculation – with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the clubs widely considered to be the competition’s favourites – all being kept apart.

There is a particular sense of injustice in Turkey, with supporters believing that Galtasaray were purposely drawn against Real Madrid so as to ensure that, as a 'supposed' weaker side, they would be eliminated before the latter stages of the competition.

Adding further fuel to the fire is the fact that no clubs in either the Champions League or Europa League quarter-final draw were drawn against a team from the same nation – despite the fact that the Champions League competition has three Spanish clubs out of the remaining eight still in the competition and the Europa League had three English clubs of the remaining eight still in their competition.

Here's the link to the videos:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2297502/Vibrating-balls-fixed-Champions-League-draw--VIDEO.html#v-2244171852001" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... 4171852001</a>

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2297502/Vibrating-balls-fixed-Champions-League-draw--VIDEO.html#v-2244171916001" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... 4171916001</a>

Seriously, just say no to drugs, kids.

If you believe any of that tripe that you've just posted, then your habit is out of control and your paranoia owns you.

Get a grip.

 

[Blue Haze]

They have Messi, Neymar and Suarez...they're going to destroy us.

Teams have played defensively this season and worked well against Barca.

Look at the Valencia game where barca were held for 94 min without a goal, until they let their guard down in the final minute and blundered an easy shot from Messi and Busquets in literally the last 10 seconds of the match. We need to play defensively and keep neymar away from making runs. Suarez has been assisting more than actually scoring and messi can be controlled. They will be playing in the CDR cup as well so their schedule will be no less busy then ours.

No, it was a cross from Messi and header from Neymar who was 5 yards out. Diego Alves pulled out a miracle save but couldn't hold on to the ball and so Busquets finished it off.
I really like City but I'm a longtime Barcafan. It's a pity that we meet again in the 1/8 finals... but I hope it's going to be an open match with a lot of goals and spectacular football.
Btw I wouldn't worry about Barca getting a pen - we are not Real! (of all goals CR scored in La Liga this season about 40% are from pens)

Yeah I think this will be not much different than the last time, considering our teams aren't really that different. Except you added Suarez. So yeah, a Barca win most likely. We need luck IMO

 

[Tom_mcfc]

The Fat el Hombre has come up trumps again for our crew. Flights from Liverpool morning of the game coming back the Friday and an apartment centrally located £130 all in. Happy days

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

No problem ! We just have to re-use the template we used in rome . We just have to do some tweaking .
Alba is really fast but light weight , he would easily handle Navas or Nasri , however Milner would prove to be a handful for Alba so I would rather see milner played in that position . Alves is really slow now and has pretty much lost his defensive abilities , I fancy Nasri winning that battle .