Match Thread | Man City vs. Real Madrid (17/04/24)

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Jack is playing well, but think we will see the count Doku on if things stay the same for too much longer. He will either create of force a second yellow on Danny boy.

Grealish plays decent football every game but his end product is lacking for me.

 

[PragueBlue]

Started very slowly for some reason and only really got going once they scored. Since then we've dominated but just haven't been able to finish any of our chances.

Grealish has played very well and Akanji has been surprisingly good in midfield but not so good when he pushes to the edge of their box. KDB has had a couple of shots but hasn't really looked himself with his passing and crossing. Foden hasn't been able to get in the game much stuck out on the right.

I'd be tempted to swap Foden and Bernardo around 2nd half and keep Akanji a bit deeper. There is definitely something in this game for us and if we can keep it together at the back, while keeping our forward play going, we should win this.

 

[gomer27]

He hit the crossbar from a nothing cross and created our best chance for Grealish. This place is hilarious.

Did you miss his build up play? Great he hit the bar….guy scored a million goals last year, you can’t tell me he’s playing as well as last season

He’s paid to put the ball in the net, in 4 games against Madrid he has 0 goals. I’m not saying he’s terrible, I’m saying we need more from him.

@homerdog this applies to your comment as well

 

[Crooked_rain]

I love him, and he's not been bad, but the ball does bounce off him a heck of a lot, losing possession frequently, to be fair

plenty of our players have lost more possession than him today

 

[argyle]

Haaland needs to step it up. He’s been so poor up top

Playing with 10 men at the moment. Haaland not even holding the ball up.

 

[Beanhead]

I will be furious if Alverez comes on…

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Might be wrong, but I’m unconvinced that the very 1980s ploy of chipping it up to the back post for a knock down is going to be productive tonight.

Playing to Haaland’s worst attribute. Someone is going to have to make it make sense.

 

[Bazzmand Show]

Bizzare that people are having a pop at Haaland

 

[dave_blue12]

The goal is on Walker. Plays em onside then gets drawn to the ball leaving his man who scores

 

[Legal Alien]

What was Dias doing though? The high ball he is on the wrong side of the man and then doesn’t challenge the crosser.

Okay but Walker played Vinicius Jr onside then had no idea what was going on after that. Rodrygo was on his own!

 

[paulchapo]

Not quite the atmosphere here as last season, or performance. Soft goal to give away but you could see it coming. They'll be happy to sit back now and play on the break. Not sure where the inspiration is coming from tonight.

 

[ali benarbia's studs]

What the fuck?? Must have been a tag during the naughts…

Never read his posts before, he s a scummy wummy!

 

[Dr Jacoby]

How are you blaming Haaland?

he has hit the bar, put a good ball back into the middle which nobody got on the end of and also had some good play to put Grealish through but Jack had a poor touch and couldn't put it back towards haaland

He's been one of our better players and looked a threat but our final ball has been lacking

 

I thought he was pretty hopeless for the first 25 minutes or so but he’s gradually becoming more involved.

 

[Haaland94]

Way ahead of you

View attachment 114757

Switched from beer to vodka at this point. Much needed.

 

[youngbob]

But akanji has been out best player that half ok

Has he balls. Gave it away on three separate occasions and started Madrid's attacks for them. I love him as a defender but he's clumsy as fuck in this midfield role.

 

[Gray]

Just been below par this season, not surprised after the efforts of last season.

Come on Blues CTID.

 

[pride in battle]

How we’re 1-0 down I don’t know. Played really well that first half and dominated the match.

Boos at half time? Unbelievable.

For the referee

 

[SebastianBlue]

I have intentionally stayed out of the match thread because I knew how it would be when we conceded.

I will say we haven’t played poorly, we have created quite a few decent chances, we just haven’t yet capitalised, and they did on one of our two poor passages of play.

Pep will make the necessary changes at halftime, including getting Foden more involved (possibly by having him go centre for Bernardo), making it clear ours need to increase the pace of passing when we enter their final third, and having Haaland try to come to the edge of their box when we have it to create space to run in to for both himself and our central players.

For all the consternation about Akanji going in to midfield, he has actually been one of our most incisive players and helped create two good chances to equalise.

RM have been doing what we expected them to do and we just need to raise our game and pressure them in to making the mistake we know they can make.

I would also point out that the ref has been pretty poor, giving them free kicks when they fall over, letting them waste time and not adding it on at the end of the half (even allowing them to waste most of the stoppage time), and playing “advantages” when they foul us on the edge of the RM box.

We have enough to turn this around.

In Pep and the players we trust.

 

[Matt Diablo]

Boyz playing well. Keep it going champs . . . .

 

[Blue Llama]

Seeing a load of social media ‘personalities’ with tickets tonight. There’s thousands of blues who haven’t been able to go tonight because City are dishing out popularity tickets. Wankers

It's probably not City UEFA get a load of tickets to distribute. Even ones where season ticket holders normally sit.