Naive.

[Pigeonho]

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
It's done now.

 

[MangoMagic01]

Arsenal really had Bayern rocked Ozil missed the pen, which deflated their confidence a bit.

Now with 10 men they can't get near the ball.

 

[inbetween]

I've heard a lot of this from our fans that we should of attacked more. The problem with this usual way is it doesn't work when you don't have the ball, you can't consistently attack a team when you only see 32% of the ball. I think the tactics and selection were perfect for this game and we were mainly unlucky that the Navas foul wasn't given and we gave Iniesta and Messi that yard of space they need. The sending off really killed our gameplan of getting anything from that game because we were outnumbered against a team that effectively just defends by keeping the ball. I would of been happy with a 1-0 and going to their place with a full squad and Aguero but the 2nd goal was a stupid goal to concede, that's what has killed our chances most.

 

[CC1]

Yet against Bayern people said we should never have played with 2 up front.

Yup. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

The benefits of 20/20 hindsight :)

Absolutely and if we hadn't played this way, it would have been headline news that we didn't learn the lesson when we lost at home to Bayern. Last night we contained Barca and then started to press - created more chances. The sending off didn't even affect our game - we were better than Barca but it was not to be our night…..

 

[robbieh]

Depends on how good you think this Barca are. For me Xavi is nowhere near as influential as he was and in my oplnion he made Barca great. I thought we gave them to much respect. Yaya,Silva, Ferndinho,Nasri et al in their prime. Barca have a poor record away from home recently too. So for me an honest performance but a chance missed.

 

[Skip Donoghue]

I've heard a lot of this from our fans that we should of attacked more. The problem with this usual way is it doesn't work when you don't have the ball, you can't consistently attack a team when you only see 32% of the ball. I think the tactics and selection were perfect for this game and we were mainly unlucky that the Navas foul wasn't given and we gave Iniesta and Messi that yard of space they need. The sending off really killed our gameplan of getting anything from that game because we were outnumbered against a team that effectively just defends by keeping the ball. I would of been happy with a 1-0 and going to their place with a full squad and Aguero but the 2nd goal was a stupid goal to concede, that's what has killed our chances most.

 

[Skashion]

When we played our normal game against Bayern we got raped and most likely would have done last night as well. Pellegrini did very little wrong in terms of tactics and formation. Defending well and hitting them with a counter or set-piece has been the best way to beat them over the past five or six years. Trying to outplay Barcelona does not give you a good chance of winning.

 

[steviemc]

Although not a great gulf in quality, there is still a difference. For that reason Barca are able to play to their preferred style, and we have to find ways to nullify their strengths.

This is exactly what teams try to do with us in the PL to have a chance of winning. They know they can't go head to head with us so have to adopt a different gameplan. I'm looking forward to the day when Barca will be the ones having to play a different style to keep us at bay. It shouldn't be too far off.

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

Arsenal looked comfortable, didn't take their chances, had a man sent off, conceded a goal, defended heroically to stay in the tie then finally conceded a late second goal.

Whereas City looked comfortable, didn't take their chances, had a man sent off, conceded a goal, defended heroically to stay in the tie then finally conceded a late second goal.

Streets apart.

 

[True_Blue69]

I've heard a lot of this from our fans that we should of attacked more. The problem with this usual way is it doesn't work when you don't have the ball, you can't consistently attack a team when you only see 32% of the ball. I think the tactics and selection were perfect for this game and we were mainly unlucky that the Navas foul wasn't given and we gave Iniesta and Messi that yard of space they need. The sending off really killed our gameplan of getting anything from that game because we were outnumbered against a team that effectively just defends by keeping the ball. I would of been happy with a 1-0 and going to their place with a full squad and Aguero but the 2nd goal was a stupid goal to concede, that's what has killed our chances most.

You can't expect to have more than 32% possession if you put a left back in midfield against one of the best teams of all time really can you. The team we picked set out to let them have that much possession.

For those saying we played 2 up front and got hammered off Bayern, to play our normal game we could still play 1 up front and have a go at attacking. Nasri should have started, anyone that disagrees obviously hasn't watched us this season. You can't let teams like that have 70% possession and expect to get a result.

Manuel got it wrong, as he did against Bayern and Chelsea in the league. He's still a great manager and is giving us an amazing season so far but he is not exempt from criticism.