Non City Fans..... City vs Barca Views.

Most of the rags have already posted in the post match thread.
 
I think you did well to keep it to only 2-0 and that to only because of a late goal considering how early you went down to ten men in the second half. Still have every chance in the tie, it's not an insurmountable deficit by any means, especially for a team like City.
 
Barca were pretty poor today but looked a level or two above Man C who took their chances when they could just lacked a bit of luck when it came to finishing in my opinion. If Man C scored scored it wud have rattled Barca and disrupted their game cause they looked poor early on. Your not gonna beat Barca if you dont take your chances cause there wont be many....
 
No point talking about the false 9 and why I think it makes Barca easier to counter so will go straight into City. I thought Pellegrini got his tactics wrong and like Kompany said showed too much fear. Should have put out a more attacking line up, but played the same way. I would have started a midfield 5 with Jovetic, Silva, Nasri, Fernandinho and Toure.

First 15 minutes or so the City team were clearly nervous and let Barca settle in a rhythm. Barca played some nice stuff, but they lacked any real penetration. City grew into the game and looked the more dangerous, but did not keep their composure when they had the ball. Demechelis defended very well, but needed to be calmer when in possession and the same goes for Kolarov. At half time things were going okay for City, but their lack of composure on the ball always left them liable to giving it away in a dangerous area. My biggest concern for the team was making a mistake. Apart from a mistake they looked more likely to score, but thought they should have gone for it more.

After half time City came out strong; I think they grew in confidence realising that Barca were not gods. Demechelis and Kompany defending on the front foot was working well. Then they were undone by Navas losing the ball/fouled and Kompany making a mistake. Demechelis then was rash to make the challenge. With 15 minutes to go was probably worth getting the red for a foul outside the box, not with 40 minutes left. After that Barcelone had a 5 minute period where they could have got another, but Nasri coming on settled things. With 5 minutes to go City should have settled for the draw. 1-0 is not too bad a result, but 2-0 is terrible.

All in all I don't think City were outclassed, but made the mistakes which were punished at the top level. Before the red they probably were having the best of the game. If you go out then the players will be kicking themselves, because like Kompany said Barca were there for the taking. It's going to be extremely difficult to turn this around.

As for the ref, I think he is getting a lot of unfair criticism. Yes he blew up more than English refs, but that is a given. It's part of the reason why foreigners struggle to settle into the Premier League immediately. He was fair for both sides and apart from a Kompany shoulder barge and a Alves tackle; he had reason to give all of his free kicks.

The big talking point is the red card. I personally think it was 50/50 about whether the Navas foul would be given. If it's given you cannot complain and you cannot complain if it's not. In my opinion the foul was outside the box, but that was such a hard call to make and can see why the ref got it wrong. The match is still there on ITV for anyone to see and look and question any decision. To claim the ref helped Barca win is a joke. To even put this in the same light as the Chelsea game is crazy. When City have four good penalties turned down and Barca escape a clear red card then it's worth discussing.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY</a>

EDIT
I don't understand why you did not take more time on set pieces. A few times you had free kicks where you could get everyone forward and whip it in. Virtually every time you took in short. Strange considering the trouble the initial free kick into the box caused and Barca's weakness to set pieces.
 
BayernMan said:
Barca were pretty poor today but looked a level or two above Man C who took their chances when they could just lacked a bit of luck when it came to finishing in my opinion. If Man C scored scored it wud have rattled Barca and disrupted their game cause they looked poor early on. Your not gonna beat Barca if you dont take your chances cause there wont be many....
Click to expand...

This is the most yawning gap. Not just Barca but ordinary PL teams' strikers are far more clinical. Three chances of note last night - Hart saves one, one pen and a goal where any of 30000 spectators could have kicked away. Clinical in the extreme. Three chances two goals.
 
Barca were on a different planet - and that's nothing to do with city's performance. You can see the players for Barca have adopted the philosophy of passing, keeping possession and picking the best option - that's inherited in that club , at times it was brilliant to watch how easy they make football look , the scary thing is I don't think they really moved out of 2nd gear, City looked class at times but were often chasing shadows which may have tired you , impressed with Yaya's work rate last night and Kompany is a beast at the back, the good sign was when you went down to 10 men how commited you looked , at times it didn't look like you had lost a player. Overall you gave it your all but Barca when they pass like they did yesterday are just too good for anyone.

It was definately a red , but the foul was commited outside the box. Can see from the refs view it would of looked like a pen.

Hope you guys go for it 2nd leg and pull off what would be a miracle.
 
supercrystal7 said:
No point talking about the false 9 and why I think it makes Barca easier to counter so will go straight into City. I thought Pellegrini got his tactics wrong and like Kompany said showed too much fear. Should have put out a more attacking line up, but played the same way. I would have started a midfield 5 with Jovetic, Silva, Nasri, Fernandinho and Toure.

First 15 minutes or so the City team were clearly nervous and let Barca settle in a rhythm. Barca played some nice stuff, but they lacked any real penetration. City grew into the game and looked the more dangerous, but did not keep their composure when they had the ball. Demechelis defended very well, but needed to be calmer when in possession and the same goes for Kolarov. At half time things were going okay for City, but their lack of composure on the ball always left them liable to giving it away in a dangerous area. My biggest concern for the team was making a mistake. Apart from a mistake they looked more likely to score, but thought they should have gone for it more.

After half time City came out strong; I think they grew in confidence realising that Barca were not gods. Demechelis and Kompany defending on the front foot was working well. Then they were undone by Navas losing the ball/fouled and Kompany making a mistake. Demechelis then was rash to make the challenge. With 15 minutes to go was probably worth getting the red for a foul outside the box, not with 40 minutes left. After that Barcelone had a 5 minute period where they could have got another, but Nasri coming on settled things. With 5 minutes to go City should have settled for the draw. 1-0 is not too bad a result, but 2-0 is terrible.

All in all I don't think City were outclassed, but made the mistakes which were punished at the top level. Before the red they probably were having the best of the game. If you go out then the players will be kicking themselves, because like Kompany said Barca were there for the taking. It's going to be extremely difficult to turn this around.

As for the ref, I think he is getting a lot of unfair criticism. Yes he blew up more than English refs, but that is a given. It's part of the reason why foreigners struggle to settle into the Premier League immediately. He was fair for both sides and apart from a Kompany shoulder barge and a Alves tackle; he had reason to give all of his free kicks.

The big talking point is the red card. I personally think it was 50/50 about whether the Navas foul would be given. If it's given you cannot complain and you cannot complain if it's not. In my opinion the foul was outside the box, but that was such a hard call to make and can see why the ref got it wrong. The match is still there on ITV for anyone to see and look and question any decision. To claim the ref helped Barca win is a joke. To even put this in the same light as the Chelsea game is crazy. When City have four good penalties turned down and Barca escape a clear red card then it's worth discussing.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY</a>

EDIT
I don't understand why you did not take more time on set pieces. A few times you had free kicks where you could get everyone forward and whip it in. Virtually every time you took in short. Strange considering the trouble the initial free kick into the box caused and Barca's weakness to set pieces.
Click to expand...

Good post.
 
The Ledge said:
supercrystal7 said:
No point talking about the false 9 and why I think it makes Barca easier to counter so will go straight into City. I thought Pellegrini got his tactics wrong and like Kompany said showed too much fear. Should have put out a more attacking line up, but played the same way. I would have started a midfield 5 with Jovetic, Silva, Nasri, Fernandinho and Toure.

First 15 minutes or so the City team were clearly nervous and let Barca settle in a rhythm. Barca played some nice stuff, but they lacked any real penetration. City grew into the game and looked the more dangerous, but did not keep their composure when they had the ball. Demechelis defended very well, but needed to be calmer when in possession and the same goes for Kolarov. At half time things were going okay for City, but their lack of composure on the ball always left them liable to giving it away in a dangerous area. My biggest concern for the team was making a mistake. Apart from a mistake they looked more likely to score, but thought they should have gone for it more.

After half time City came out strong; I think they grew in confidence realising that Barca were not gods. Demechelis and Kompany defending on the front foot was working well. Then they were undone by Navas losing the ball/fouled and Kompany making a mistake. Demechelis then was rash to make the challenge. With 15 minutes to go was probably worth getting the red for a foul outside the box, not with 40 minutes left. After that Barcelone had a 5 minute period where they could have got another, but Nasri coming on settled things. With 5 minutes to go City should have settled for the draw. 1-0 is not too bad a result, but 2-0 is terrible.

All in all I don't think City were outclassed, but made the mistakes which were punished at the top level. Before the red they probably were having the best of the game. If you go out then the players will be kicking themselves, because like Kompany said Barca were there for the taking. It's going to be extremely difficult to turn this around.

As for the ref, I think he is getting a lot of unfair criticism. Yes he blew up more than English refs, but that is a given. It's part of the reason why foreigners struggle to settle into the Premier League immediately. He was fair for both sides and apart from a Kompany shoulder barge and a Alves tackle; he had reason to give all of his free kicks.

The big talking point is the red card. I personally think it was 50/50 about whether the Navas foul would be given. If it's given you cannot complain and you cannot complain if it's not. In my opinion the foul was outside the box, but that was such a hard call to make and can see why the ref got it wrong. The match is still there on ITV for anyone to see and look and question any decision. To claim the ref helped Barca win is a joke. To even put this in the same light as the Chelsea game is crazy. When City have four good penalties turned down and Barca escape a clear red card then it's worth discussing.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PENQDQ52SOY</a>

EDIT
I don't understand why you did not take more time on set pieces. A few times you had free kicks where you could get everyone forward and whip it in. Virtually every time you took in short. Strange considering the trouble the initial free kick into the box caused and Barca's weakness to set pieces.
Click to expand...

Good post.
Click to expand...

Yes excellent analysis. IMO
 
I thought you did alright but you never looked like actually beating them, then again they have years of experience at getting results in games like this.
Demichelis ? Well I'm not a fan of his but he had to put the tackle in and it was a sending off, imagine the way he'd have been slaughtered if he'd let him run on. The penalty was borderline, probably outside the box but later on you did have a bit of good fortune with their disallowed goal which looked onside.
If you'd kept it to one goal you'd have had a chance but I think that late second has probably killed City off.
Before the game I really thought you might just surprise them tbh.
 
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