Real Madrid (A) Post Match Thread

I do think we are too nice as team to win this competition. We need to engage in the dark arts of s***housery a bit more.
 
Got back to my bed from Madrid at 4am this morning and now I'm vaguely functioning properly I can honestly say I'm over last night's disappointment. Just hope the players are too! Early goal on Sunday needed to calm everyone down.

Thought we were very good last night for 90 mins and I can honestly say that during the game I never felt concerned about us not going through despite Madrid having a few chances. We were playing well against a good team, Rodri & Bernardo were both brilliant, Grealish was doing what we paid £100m for him to do.... Then the goal went in, the decibel levels went up, we stopped playing like City, panic started to spread and you could just see what was about to happen. We will get there one season....under Pep....but we just need a bit of luck, a few less injuries in the run-in and some more experience and composure when things appear to look easy and the game needs seeing out, not us trying to prove our superiority.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
A striker who wasn't a striker.

Outscoring Liverpool without a striker to speak of, winning titles in the process, suggests the lack of a striker is marginal gains at best and revisionism when it's required.

We scored five goals against Real Madrid.

We needed to score six just to take it to penalties.

That would suggest a mentality and a defensive problem, not a lack of goals in the team!
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Stones is our best defender. We missed him, he makes Dias better. That left side is always targeted I'd love Haaland in the summer but can we please get a LB an actual LB not a converted one.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It's revisionism at best mate.

How many goals are enough?

One more than an opponent, every time, that's all it ever takes.

Scored six against Monaco, four against Spurs, five against Madrid...

Two games with Sergio.

A striker makes the difference when the games are tight, not when you are conceding five against Monaco, five against Liverpool, four against Spurs, six against Madrid.

It's a collective mental issue in the biggest moments.

Platt used to say Dzeko scored 'heavy goals' which is what I think people are trying to argue we don't have, but five goals across the two ties with Madrid hides the fact our defending was pathetic.
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I'd agree we were poor defending for sure, but could have put to bed in leg 1 with better strike rate

I do hope Stones is fit for run in Laporte / Dias neither looked commanding....
 
that defending scenes at the two Real goals.

we had almost 11 City players behind the ball put our marking is so poor.
Cancelo not even close to Benzema block the cross, Rodrigo able to beat Dias for the space.

then Rodri not jumping with Asensio, fucker wanted to go and head the ball, Rodri just ball watching..
then I am not sure what Laporte doing vs Rodrigo.

short guy outjumps big CB's and he knew where to head it while Laporte is just eyes closed trying to clear which cost us the pen as well last game with his handball.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I thought with a 2-0 lead, 5 mins remaining and subs being made, Ake should have been one of them to shore up the back and help
With crosses etc. I’m surprised We didn’t make that change.
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I wasn't 100% convinced by the back 4 who started.
Walker - no problem.
Dias - no problem
Cancelo - erratic. Which Cancelo would prevail on the night?
Laporte - not the game for him.

My pick would have been Walker - Dias - Akè - Cancelo to start.
(Zinchenko to replace Cancelo if necessary).
 
inbetween said:
That's bound to happen though. We were comfortable, we had a 2 goal cushion and our best players like Kev had gone off because the game was won. For them to then score 2 goals right at the end meaning we'd have to score another was a big ask.

I still really think the crowd won them the game because once they eventually got their first they never stopped after that. Had this been the first leg and we'd been beaten by Madrid 3-1 then I'd bet my house that we'd go through because playing at home in the 2nd leg really does make a big difference.

I know a lot won't see it this way but having to both score and win playing away in Madrid is a massive ask. We saw that against Athletico where we rode our luck towards the end of that game as well. It is a mental thing but every team suffers from it when playing in these big matches against huge teams.
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We won there last year with an excellent professional performance, last night was freakishly bad luck topped off with a Benzema dive the ref couldn’t wait to give. If we went to a CL final on the back of a pen like that it would be on a SSN loop for a week decrying our cheating and paying off refs
 
I want to go back to 2021 summer and ask Txiki/Pep if they are still ok not getting a striker even if they would have to cancel their Grealish transfer and put all money towards a striker.

Benzema showed what a difference a top striker makes in this CL knockout stages from PSG games until the game yesterday.
two hattricks scored and two pens converted under high pressure.

and the assist to Rodrigo on top.
 
We are creators of our own downfall every time. Over the two legs we gave away two unnecessary penalties, and played a 36 year old as a make shift right back against a 21 year old Usain Bolt wannabee. That together with our failure to see a game out from a winning position cost us dear.
 
tolmie's hairdoo said:
It's revisionism at best mate.

How many goals are enough?

One more than an opponent, every time, that's all it ever takes.

Scored six against Monaco, four against Spurs, five against Madrid...

Two games with Sergio.

A striker makes the difference when the games are tight, not when you are conceding five against Monaco, five against Liverpool, four against Spurs, six against Madrid.

It's a collective mental issue in the biggest moments.

Platt used to say Dzeko scored 'heavy goals' which is what I think people are trying to argue we don't have, but five goals across the two ties with Madrid hides the fact our defending was pathetic.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm going to keep saying it, while it would be nice to go into the final 10 minutes of every game with four goals to spare, 2 should always be enough, and the only thing you can blame is our defending and mentality for not seeing it through. We did not lose last night because we don't have a top striker.
 
I dreamt of us going to Istanbul next season for the final. Might book flights right now
 
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