Real Madrid (A) | CL | Post Match Thread

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Or Arsenal the other week

Or the Arsenal thugs.

They certainly should have been carded much earlier, but it didn't strike me that they were that brutal, as such. And I was at the game. It was more tactical fouling, dark arts stuff. They're southern softies, anyway, they couldn't be as brutal as the Atlético crew.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Good effort everyone.

wow this dude is a plaza, a mayor and a waiter ?

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

Just goes to show Phillip Walter Foden was ‘world class’ before last night.

I hope when he thundered that goal in his thought was to emulate the one in the derby, followed by another thought - 'Take that, yer Raggy bastards.!'

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Good effort everyone.

I don't think he realises just how very expensive it is to have a glass of wine in the UK of any decent standard. Brits let themselves go to town in Europe because it's cheap as chips.
I myself got really burned only the other day. Ok, it was London and was at the very sniffy Royal Academy restaurant, but I paid £9.50 !! for a not particularly large glass of rosé. They'd already poured it out so I couldn't refuse it. But I was absolutely gobsmacked. Certainly the most I've ever paid, anywhere, for a mere glass of rosé (which is the poor cousin of wines anyway).

 

[Jonas.shaffer]

Best referee we've had all season.

You can say that again.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Might explain the lack of cohesion in the first half. Turning up to a match looking like extras from Happy Days !

Looks like the cast from Grease .

 

[SebastianBlue]

I read an interesting preview of our game against Arsenal, where the author showed short passes is one of our important metrics. and I've kept an eye on it over the last three games. It may be a bit daft, but I felt second half we exerted much better pressure on Madrid by having our spacing better and keeping our rhythm on these short passes.

Grealish is key to this, he constantly carries the ball into the right area and it allows us to set the rest of the attack. I'm sure I write this in every post, but if we fail to attack with purpose and establish our positions in the opponent's half, it causes us huge defensive issues.

First half we were getting caught on the ball in stupid places and the gaps between players felt too large. Madrid exploited it a few times.


It would've been great to hold on for 3-2, but taking a draw home is a good result, given we were again missing key personnel for a 'big' game.

We really don't get enough credit for the mentality of our players. They keep turning up and giving it everything, despite the gruelling nature of the last 18 months and winning the lot last season.

It's the classic crunch week now. 3 games across 3 competitions, each presenting a different challenge. Often the most stressful but exciting part of the season!

I think most of our first half issues came down to both Bernie and Rodri uncharacteristically repeatedly making poor decisions and executing poorly on the decent ones. Rodri gave away the ball through poor passes more in that half than he likely did in total over the course of last season (and was out of position for several RM attacks) and Bernie continued to try to dribble through the RM press instead of leveraging triangle advancement (which is not only our normal mode of attacking but a much safer way to go about it), often losing the ball with his back to their goal. Both setup most of the RM counters we saw.

This isn’t heavy criticism, this is just an acknowledgement of what occurred.

Any side in the world is going to struggle when their DM (and arguably their most important player) and the player given the most expansive ‘possession & progression’ role are struggling to retain the ball, often due to bad decision making.

They both tightened that up substantially in the second half and, along with several other tweaks, we actually asserted ourselves over RM much more regularly and authoritatively.

I agree with many analyses of late that a lot of our defensive woes this season comes down to our forward play not necessarily being as fluid as it was last year, which puts more pressure on Rodri and our back four.

Fortunately for us, apart from the last few matches, Rodri has largely been able to compensate.

But now that we are in the latter part of the season, and Rodri’s fitness is being stretched, we are going to need to find ways to help him, especially against sides like Arsenal and RM, who like to press centrally and exploit the wings on the counter.

 

[warringtonblue]

Best ever City performance. Also the best ever performance in the Champions League from an English side.

I genuinely never seen anything like it.

Total dominace.

Stuart Pearce last night said it was the best exhibition of football ever

 

[cleavers]

Might explain the lack of cohesion in the first half. Turning up to a match looking like extras from Happy Days !

None of them look happy wearing that either.

Did somebody win a bet ?

 

[BringBackSwales]

They certainly should have been carded much earlier, but it didn't strike me that they were that brutal, as such. And I was at the game. It was more tactical fouling, dark arts stuff. They're southern softies, anyway, they couldn't be as brutal as the Atlético crew.

Still Taylor should have booked 6 or 7 of em, because he didn’t it carried on

 

[Blue Smarties]

None of them look happy wearing that either.

Did somebody win a bet ?

Probably why we’ve canned them from next season.

 

[SWPISHOME]

Stuart Pearce last night said it was the best exhibition of football ever

What channel or radio station was he on out of curiosity, Was it TalkSport?

If only we had the "Uncut Diamond" Georgios Samaras up front instead of Haaland, We would have the league wrapped up :)

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Have to say if I could sign one player in World football it would be Vinicius Jr. What an absolute superstar, I normally love watching him play, last night was giving me chest pains every time he got on the ball. Full of pace skill and effort.

Brilliant winger, if he ever gets sick of being racially abused in Spain and fancies Manchester I'd pay whatever the cost.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Just goes to show Phillip Walter Foden was ‘world class’ before last night.

Correct,and some of his past performances in the Champions league have somehow gone under the radar..v psg few seasons back springs to mind.
Watching YT clips from two years ago and I caught Rio Ferdinand and lescott both purring over his performance ,both saying world class, and Southgate just has to find a place for him at centre mid...then along came bellendham...and of course the great 18 match wonder kid mainoo. At least Henderson doesn't get a look in nowadays....bonus.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Can't believe Bellingham didn't pick up a yellow in that game

Over rated and over hyped diving **** .Fucking disgrace.
Dodged barrage of 100 million bullets like in matrix style.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Still Taylor should have booked 6 or 7 of em, because he didn’t it carried on

Point taken, but the difference, I think, is that the Arsenal players should have been yellow carded in the first instance, then a second yellow if necessary. In what I saw, at least two or three of Atlético's players could, and arguably should, have received straight reds and off. I still can't work out what the ref and his linos thought they were watching.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Correct,and some of his past performances in the Champions league have somehow gone under the radar..v psg few seasons back springs to mind.
Watching YT clips from two years ago and I caught Rio Ferdinand and lescott both purring over his performance ,both saying world class, and Southgate just has to find a place for him at centre mid...then along came bellendham...and of course the great 18 match wonder kid mainoo. At least Henderson doesn't get a look in nowadays....bonus.

It’s amazing that the fact that Phil started on the bench for the final last season is being used as evidence he was not yet world class.

There are many, many reasons a player—even a world class player—may not start in a final. The prime among them being you can only field 11 players, and with a team like ours, that usually means at least one (or more) world class talents are going to be on the bench.

Walker and Mahrez started on the bench but no one in their right mind would say “that’s specifically an indication they aren’t world class”.

Since Bellingham came along and had a half-season purple patch everyone just seems to be trying to redefine what “world class” is so he fits the bill and Phil, who has consistently performed at the highest possible level of football for several years (not just 6 months), does not.

It’s laughable, but I suppose not surprising given the quality of punditry in England (and Spain).

 

[supercity88]

By giving a yellow card very early to the Real Madrid player — straight off the bat, no warning, the way it should be most of the time — the ref stopped much (but by no means all) of Real's fouling. I couldn't help thinking if the same had been done to those thugs of Atlético for that first bodily assault on Kev, it would have been a better match and we would have won it more conclusively.

One of the small disappointments last night was Foden not going down when Camavinga dragged his foot down his heel. That was a yellow card and he'd also have missed the game next week.

You're right though, it reminded those on a yellow they were walking a tight rope. I do think it helped that so many of their players were a yellow from suspension. They could have tried to get our players booked, but then they'd set the benchmark and we'd do the same back only much more costly for them.

The ref was very good last night. Let a lot of things go, which I hadn't expected at the Bernabeu.

 

[mcfcbill91]

I think most of our first half issues came down to both Bernie and Rodri uncharacteristically repeatedly making poor decisions and executing poorly on the decent ones. Rodri gave away the ball through poor passes more in that half than he likely did in total over the course of last season (and was out of position for several RM attacks) and Bernie continued to try to dribble through the RM press instead of leveraging triangle advancement (which is not only our normal mode of attacking but a much safer way to go about it), often losing the ball with his back to their goal. Both setup most of the RM counters we saw.

This isn’t heavy criticism, this is just an acknowledgement of what occurred.

Any side in the world is going to struggle when their DM (and arguably their most important player) and the player given the most expansive ‘possession & progression’ role are struggling to retain the ball, often due to bad decision making.

They both tightened that up substantially in the second half and, along with several other tweaks, we actually asserted ourselves over RM much more regularly and authoritatively.

I agree with many analyses of late that a lot of our defensive woes this season comes down to our forward play not necessarily being as fluid as it was last year, which puts more pressure on Rodri and our back four.

Fortunately for us, apart from the last few matches, Rodri has largely been able to compensate.

But now that we are in the latter part of the season, and Rodri’s fitness is being stretched, we are going to need to find ways to help him, especially against sides like Arsenal and RM, who like to press centrally and exploit the wings on the counter.

I agree with the Bernardo & Rodri points - it was so frustrating to watch at times and I did worry they would add a third before it was sorted out. Stones was probably the tidiest of the defence and midfield in the first half.

Rodri looks in dire need of a rest, which is likely at the weekend. Longer term, I'd hope Nunes can be developed to give us the legs in midfield next to a more controlling player. It's the change of pace he brings. Foden has scored so many goals from the top of the box recently when we push teams back in, it's whether a late arriving player could also exploit this too.

Just never had a settled team this season to get the new players up to speed.

 

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

Have to say if I could sign one player in World football it would be Vinicius Jr. What an absolute superstar, I normally love watching him play, last night was giving me chest pains every time he got on the ball. Full of pace skill and effort.

Brilliant winger, if he ever gets sick of being racially abused in Spain and fancies Manchester I'd pay whatever the cost.

Him and Rodrygo were a nightmare when the ball broke and they countered. The big takeaway is we went to the Bernebau without a fit Kdb and Walker with Ederson sat on the bench and didn’t cave in. As a team they have matured from the one two years ago which let a lead slip in the dying moments of a game. Real couldn’t get a two goal lead against us last night and then crumpled when their tactics stopped working. It shows how far we have come when they are gutted with a three all draw and are shitting it coming to the Etihad next week.