Real Madrid post match thread

[normskih]

Game went to pot the minute Rico came on.

He's absolute garbage. Went walkabout for their first and the third, I've seen women's footballers go in harder and win that.

Eddie didn't cover himself I'm glory either rushing out like a crazed lunatic.

We are miles away from competing at the top again. Absolutetly miles away!!!

We spend up north of nearly 200 million and he rolls out Rico and Gundo.

Fucking pathetic Pep!!!

Our rhythm went when Grealish went off, not when Lewis came on.
Ederson has always ran out like a crazy man.
We were the better team just before and after we scored the first goal.
I agree about the changes with the subs bench.

 

[MMA]

He cant though. Thats gone too

Yep.
Time and time again goes to make a pass , hits and oppo player and we're under the cosh on a counter attack..

All have hearted passes like his corners.

I love him. Legend.
But he's a family man now .
Older.
He's settled down in his head.
Won everything domestically..
Same with a few others..
You can see with a lot of them it's all a bit meh on match day.

 

[SamBlue]

Rmember the days when teams hardly had a shot v us. Last 4 games, 57 shots against us. Even Orient had 13.
All down to Pep trying to play his usual tactics with personal not good enough to play that way and him unable to adapt tactics

I am not sure he's been playing his tactics and that's his (or our) problem.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Kevin is a shadow of his former self, dont understand whats wrong.yeah ,you can loose some speed ,but his passis are off ,shots are off and most of his crosses aswell.

He had an absolute stinker tonight for sure. Contributed zero.

 

[Dodge]

Time to do a RM on RM in Spain.

Fly Tuesday, win or lose on the fucking booze.

We are City, we love lager, taking over Bratislava.

 

[bluemullet]

since we won the CL in 2023, we've played Arsenal 4 times, Madrid 3 times, Liverpool 3 times (biggest teams we've played and have not won once)
Total inability to manage a game out with 10 minutes to go.....how many times has that happened in games this season?
Keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
Fortunate to be 2-1 up and then we concede two goals in the last 5 minutes with some utterly pish defending.
Its becoming really annoying.

Had to check that stat re no wins. That’s so telling. These are the teams we are in direct competition with and we have dropped off massively. Re build needed. It’s been a wonderful time to be a blue but we may fall away if we do not address the obvs weaknesses now. It may already be too late as we should have been replenishing every season, even after we won, and that was not the case. Big job ahead if we want to get back to no1 which we clearly aren’t ATM.

 

[i8rags]

Just watched 2nd half highlights, we got done proper

 

[remember arthur mann]

Haaland must have thought, ffs, I do the business and they put a lightweight in defence.

 

[willipp]

Don't get the optimism on here. Did I watch a different game? Should have ended about 7-2 to Madrid on chances and Madrid were awful.

Madrid weren’t awful. They were actually very good and created so many good chances. We didn’t have that many clear cut chances and can only think of one or two saves courtois had to make.

2-1 up with minutes to go and we’re all thinking we’re good, but we rode our luck for 90 minutes and it caught up with us in the end.

 

[hilts]

He made a few decent saves, but ones you need and expect your keeper to make. All that means nothing though when you fucking just hand the opposition the game back like that. Fucking killed us.

Yep, some struggle with the fact that a keepers job is to stop shots, it's like if they do that a few times they are Gordon Banks. He didn't make any great saves but did his job until he didn't. Even the shinner from Mpabbe was poor but that pass for the other goal with the game there for us, Jesus christ use your fuckin noggin.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Hart?!?!

I’ve got zero faith in Ortega or Ederson not to give any goals away.

 

[Micky Blue]

Rmember the days when teams hardly had a shot v us. Last 4 games, 57 shots against us. Even Orient had 13.
All down to Pep trying to play his usual tactics with personal not good enough to play that way and him unable to adapt tactics

Do you remember his first season at City? that wasn’t a great team, they were good but not capable of Peps football.
But Pep had ideas and innovations.

He inverted the 2 fullbacks to go into midfield and make up the numbers.

It wasn’t a great season but Pep would try things, he was brave and made changes.
I don’t see that from him anymore and that worries me.

 

[ancoats]

Do you have proof of that?

Go ask Ederson

He was going to leave and had a deal on the table but it fell through

 

[Dodge]

But it did go in didn't it.

Luckily yes.

 

[jamesha]

Did anyone really expect anything else? To go into the second leg with an outside chance is something I would have settled for pre-kickoff. This season is a transition. If we qualify for next season's Chumps League I will be happy. The FA Cup should be a realistic target too given the dippers, tarquins and chavs are out.
Back in the day I would have died happy with just one FA Cup win - perspective required!

 

[cookster]

Peps loyalty to the Dad's Army is killing us.
Another game where it played out before our eyes.

 

[west didsblue]

Two brain farts from Ederson cost us in the last 10 minutes. Shame because he had played well up till then. Didn’t help that we’d lost Akanji and Ake making the defence much more vulnerable.

Still all to play for although Madrid are obviously strong favourites.

And JBIAC which almost goes without saying.

 

[dom]

View attachment 146438

Architects of our own downfall...​

Fuckin gutted! It's the first time in months I've seen something approaching the real Manchester City. We had a rocky first 15 minutes where Real could've been two up, but we weathered the storm to take control of a compelling match up.

However, I never lost the sense that Real had it in their locker to score, so this match was always gonna rest on our defensive performance. Grealish looked up for the match, & I've never seen the Striking Viking run as much as he did tonight. And so it was that Grealish & Haaland combined with Gvardiol to open up Madrid to give us a just about deserved lead.

Grealish's chip is something we've been crying out for more of from him, & he found an on-rushing Gvardiol who chested the ball to Erling who sidefooted the ball past Courtois for the opener. 1-0 City going into the break on top.

View attachment 146441

After the break we continued where we left off & put Real under more intense pressure, but after losing Grealish in the first half, & Akanji at half time, Real began to take a foothold in the game around the 65 minute mark, with City playing on the counter.

We were relatively comfortable, but with Lewis replacing Akanji, Real shifted Mbappé to their left to form a deadly double against Rico. I could see it coming, & Real got a lucky equaliser that their efforts deserved.

Afyer that, the game became really open & turned when Ceballos fouled Foden just inside the box for a penalty. Haaland stepped up & side-footed a clinical 2nd for himself & City to make it 49 goals in 49 CL matches for him.

We just needed to keep our composure & concentration, but I sensed tiredness creeping in to our returning players, & so it was when with 10 minutes to go, Ederson under no pressure kicked the ball to Real in our midfield. Madrid couldn't believe their luck!

They moved the ball to the right, fired in a shot which was well saved by Ederson, but it eventually fell to the returning Diaz to equalise for the visitors again. I thought the game would end up 2-2 before the kick-off, so I'd have been comfortable with kicking off the second leg on level terms.

Looking more & more fatigued (which was understandable), we again gave the ball away again & succumbed to a late winner by Bellingham. We just didn't have the energy to keep the ball away from our danger areas & exhaustion contributed to several lapses of concentration.

We're down but definitely not out. On a positive note, there were signs that the City everyone knows & fears was in that performance somewhere. The real gutting thing was the groin injuries to Akanji & Grealish, as both were looking good up to the point they were substituted.

We can only hope neither injury is too serious, & that we take heart from the positives that were on show. Real's last two goals were our fault, which shows if we can cut out the individual errors, get more injured players back & match fit, regardless of what happens at the Bernabeu, we could have a strong finish to a dreadful season by City's standards.

View attachment 146442

My MoTM was Johnny Boulders. He was brilliant filling in for Rodri & excellent when dropping back into central defence. We've got a series of serious tough & crucial matches ahead of us, which will determine how our season will end up, so now it's squeakybum time for City.

Roll on the return in Madrid. CTID...

Excellent summary, mate

 

[paulchapo]

To be honest even 2-1 wouldn't have been enough for the second leg but to.lise it like that is still gutting.

 

[il_Cecchino]

Rico Lewis vs Vinicius is a suicide. This is a Guardiola's mistake.
And you are too slow. Gundogan, De Bruyne and Kovacic are past their best. You need new legs in midfielder. Guardiola should give more minutes to McAtee and O'Riley: maybe they will not ready, but you already know Gundogan is not good enough anymore.