Rascal
El Presidente
Not that we have much experience of CL semi final's to go off but, I was certain that PSG buoyed by beating the mighty Bayern would unleash a storm upon us in the 1st half, apart from their goal, a rather uncharacteristic one for us to concede we handled them well. A telling stat, Ederson had more touches than Mbappe, who I thought was marshalled quite magnificently by Ruben and Stones. Neymar flickered like a candle in the wind, a few moments of sublimity, followed by more of diving petulance. The nadir for him came when Zincho executed a perfectly timed tackle on him after his introduction and after that he lapsed into pettiness. What a shame as he is a magnificent footballer. Their most potent threat was Di Maria, the ex rag looked very capable of tearing us apart yet slowly disappeared and ended on the periphery acting as petulant as his team mates.
If one incident signalled our second half dominance it was Gyeue's disgusting tackle on Ilkay. Moments before I had wrote on our whats app group that PSG were losing their mettle, they looked unnerved, fearful almost. Gundo was orchestrating the game, Kev was lighting it up with his brilliance and Mahrez and Foden were taking the game to them in a way they will not experience very often in Ligue Une,
Veratti is a fabulous footballer, the heartbeat of their team and we slowly strangled his room to manouevre , we passed around him and as the game grew our metronomic passing game left them chasing shadows.
Much was being made on the TV about us lacking a centre forward, there may be a half truth in that, yes we could have scored more with a predator in the box, but would we have dominated possession like we did if we were a man lighter in the midfield. Would we have been able to close down Veratti, probably not and with him open then there forwards would come in to play. In the 2nd half they were rarely a threat and remember we weren't playing against Port Vale, this was the exulted pairing of Mbappe and Neymar, half a Billion pounds worth of footballing genius. TV punditry is still living in the days of big centre forwards and 4-4 fucking 2 to use Mike Bassets famous phrase.
The introduction of Zincho was pivotal for us, he is becoming a fantastic footballer, never lets us down, uses the ball intelligently and he shows a rare passion for our club, I am not knocking Cancelo, but he had a night to forget but as he has been so good this season, I will forgive him 60minutes of ordinary.
A cautionary note, this is far from over, we may have 2 vital away goals, but if there was ever a team capable of scoring 2 at the Etihad it is PSG and Neymar and Mbappe will be a threat. I am certain though we will not be going into the game thinking it is won, there is still a long way to go, but for the moment we can savour possibly our finest night in the CL.
After all, we have had worse nights being Blues.
If one incident signalled our second half dominance it was Gyeue's disgusting tackle on Ilkay. Moments before I had wrote on our whats app group that PSG were losing their mettle, they looked unnerved, fearful almost. Gundo was orchestrating the game, Kev was lighting it up with his brilliance and Mahrez and Foden were taking the game to them in a way they will not experience very often in Ligue Une,
Veratti is a fabulous footballer, the heartbeat of their team and we slowly strangled his room to manouevre , we passed around him and as the game grew our metronomic passing game left them chasing shadows.
Much was being made on the TV about us lacking a centre forward, there may be a half truth in that, yes we could have scored more with a predator in the box, but would we have dominated possession like we did if we were a man lighter in the midfield. Would we have been able to close down Veratti, probably not and with him open then there forwards would come in to play. In the 2nd half they were rarely a threat and remember we weren't playing against Port Vale, this was the exulted pairing of Mbappe and Neymar, half a Billion pounds worth of footballing genius. TV punditry is still living in the days of big centre forwards and 4-4 fucking 2 to use Mike Bassets famous phrase.
The introduction of Zincho was pivotal for us, he is becoming a fantastic footballer, never lets us down, uses the ball intelligently and he shows a rare passion for our club, I am not knocking Cancelo, but he had a night to forget but as he has been so good this season, I will forgive him 60minutes of ordinary.
A cautionary note, this is far from over, we may have 2 vital away goals, but if there was ever a team capable of scoring 2 at the Etihad it is PSG and Neymar and Mbappe will be a threat. I am certain though we will not be going into the game thinking it is won, there is still a long way to go, but for the moment we can savour possibly our finest night in the CL.
After all, we have had worse nights being Blues.