Pepe and Isco have been great, especially Pepe, looking very secure.
Champions League Last 16 games - Feb/Mar 2015
- Thread starter Sarni
- Start date
Uchida keeps making hospital passes.
What a ball from Kroos! Cristiano indecisive and Schalke GK gets lucky in the end.
Varane hasn't put a foot wrong either, I don't think. Very confident, good reading of the game and some great interventions.
Madrid look really fatigued, if they win 3-0, they'll have the opportunity to rest players for the home leg.
Lovely run
Excellent dribble from Bale there
Isco is the definition of a 'baller'
Isco outplaying everyone tonight, which is far from the first time lately. Baffling how little credit he gets.
Uchida 
Is he trying to replace Fuchs as the most useless full back?
Is he trying to replace Fuchs as the most useless full back?Cheeky
think Madrid would be more effective with Bale on the left though Isco is doing a great job there
Madrid's defence reminds me of United's a few years back - they take a few chances but are all very very good defensively
Madrid's defence reminds me of United's a few years back - they take a few chances but are all very very good defensively
A spell of basketball, just without the baskets.
No yellow card there for Howedes?
Cristiano shooting from there, Christ.
Ronaldo 
Ronaldo takes a freekick from 45-yards out.
Oh Cristiano!
Why do Messi and Ronaldo still take all free kicks despite having teamates better than them at them?
Basel could make the quarterfinals this season, that'd be a brilliant achievement. Unlike APOEL's quarterfinals three seasons ago it'd actually be a result of a few years of hard work that could be repeated in the next few years because they have the foundations of a very good European side there, not easy to achieve that when you're playing in Swiss league and aren't really stacked with money (although I imagine they have to be pretty rich by their league standards).
Said it a few times this season but Isco is a top quality player. So glad City didn't get him.
I think their whole style is similar to ours in 2008 and 2009. Defend deep and in numbers and rely on the attacking players to cause havoc. For Tevez and Rooney, read Benzema and Bale with Ronaldo obviously. Incredibly solid and effective going forward.
They aren't as good as they were a few years back. It's very much like APOEL's run in that they've faced poor opposition.
Paulo Sousa about to join the very long list of managers who have been able of outwitting Lopetegui tactically. Lopetegui has been shocking in the games that matter, specially when you consider the players he has (Danilo, Alex Sandro, Óliver, Brahimi, Jackson Martinez etc). To make things worse, it was a former Benfica player that scored the goal.
I'm not sure. They had Liverpool in their group and got 4 points against them, while they're certainly far from world class this Liverpool side isn't really that bad. Of course they've lost some key players over the years (Shaqiri, Xhaka, Dragovic, Salah to name a few, Sommer too?) so understandably they'll get worse, it's just that they are still a pretty decent side.
Porto had an easy group, didn't they? Athletic looked lost in Champions League, BATE are an average side and Shakhtar aren't that much either. Porto are nearly always seeded in the first pot so they usually end up with easy groups though.
Ronaldo
There was no play time left. Shoot or do nothing.Oh Cristiano!
Schalke can still steal a point from Real. They haven't been half bad for a team with injuries.
The Liverpool side they played were awful. They were going through a really bad slump. Even United smashed them 3-0.
Basel aren't that good as evident by their performances in the CL this season. They've just been fortunate Liverpool were worse than them. Also, Ludogorets got their one and only CL win against Basel.
Easy-ish. Better 3rd and 4th seeded teams than most.
Yeah they had. Bate was atrocious and Porto confortably beat Bilbao in both matches (it wasn't as close as the scores show). In the Shakthar games it was a more balanced affair. Lopetegui doesn't convince me as a manager. He changes too much, the rotation has no criteria and his preference for some spanish players like Marcano or Tello isn't understandable. Managing at this level isn't like coaching youth ranks with clearly superior players like the Spanish youth national teams. When it mattered he lost 0-2 at home to Benfica in the league and 1-3 also at home to us in the Portuguese cup. He isn't the most popular manager for the supporters.
Schalke are lucky to be here init Sly, you lot got robbed by that last minute goal in Germany right
Yep by a gazprom sponsored russian ref. And now we got Wolfsburg for the Europa League. Damm germans
Clattenburged! Port's goal disallowed late on, but correctly.
Disallowed goal by Porto.
Of course, if that was United, like with Rooney's goal a couple of days ago, everyone would be saying they weren't interfering with play.
Schalke are schit.
Brilliant again by Isco. He's one of the few who decided to turn up since the winter break.
that pass from Isco
thats the pass Anderson used to try but no one was ever fooled by
thats the pass Anderson used to try but no one was ever fooled by
Surprised Cristiano didn't go for the shot there, he was in acres of space and had the angle for both feet... really weird