Wing back when defending, right midfield when they had the ball?
He was very good, but there were a couple moments when Carvajal was playing inside and him out wide where I thought "if Madrid kept Hakimi they'd have another one on the break"
Champions League Quarter Finals (5th - 13th Apr)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Wing back when defending, right midfield when they had the ball?
He was very good, but there were a couple moments when Carvajal was playing inside and him out wide where I thought "if Madrid kept Hakimi they'd have another one on the break"
I think the bigger issue was that they bought Sabitzer and Roca and don't play either and Musiala looked like a 19 year old #10 playing in a 2 man midfield away from home, against veterans in Capoue and Parejo.
Also Lewandowski was totally anonymous against a good defender who's not a great athlete in Torres and a 36 year old Raul Albiol. As great a player as he is, I'm not sure he's quite as clever at finding a way to influence a game when his plan A and B are blocked as his peers like Suarez and Benzema are/were.
Was playing with bruised ribs.
Oh and people also said the same after Salzburg first leg. He ended up scoring a hattrick and an assist in the second leg.
Typical reactionary drivel.
I don't think it's unfair to say that even at his peak, he (and Aguero) are more likely to struggle in games without service compared to Suarez and Benzema.
Tbf Suarez has had his stinkers in the UCL just like the one Lewandowski had yesterday, especially playing away with Barcelona.
He was utterly rubbish against Roma away(2017-2018) ,PSG away(2016-2017), Liverpool away(2018-2019), Juventus in both legs(2016-2017) and Bayern in both legs (2019-2020).
I rate Suarez slightly higher than Lewandowski, but let's not change history and talk as if he was a world beater in all UCL knock out stages he played in.There is a reason Barca got ride of him.
His last world class performance in the UCL was in 2015-2016 season under Luis Enrique.
I'm not even saying I rate Suarez over Lewandowski, just that if you told me my team was about to get outplayed over 90 minutes, I'd prefer to have peak Suarez up top over peak Lewandowski.
Lewy plays for Polish NT so he is used to lack of service and usually bails Polish NT out. In the end, he is a human and will have weaker games like yesterday.
I've seen several people say this, but when your team is in a game like that it's hard to appreciate the entertainment value. I didn't feel we played particularly well. We downright terrible in the first half.
To be fair, he apparently broke his fast minutes before kickoff, so that may have impacted him. He was bad though.
Davebuster
You wrote such a load of stuff and forget that i wrote the magic word = 'could' ???
These 'Pool fans come here and we have to listen their crap.
I was actually replying to this:
You said I was being naive so I responded to your accusation of naivety because I don't agree with you.
It could be drugs .. it could be magic either .. maybe witchcraft? Have you heard any vodoo priests hanging around their training ground? How do they keep winning those 50/50s? Maybe they are controlling the long passes using telekinesis?
You don't have to reply to it with worse crap.
It just comes across as small time.
He was almost a false winger - his dropping into midfield pulled Azpilicueta centrally, which made our 3 CBs shuffle across to cover and that left Vinicius huge amounts of space. He was absolutely brilliant as well - really did a great job of varying his movement and being consistently threatening. Think he had one offside that was pretty poor but beyond that didn't put a foot wrong for me.
Personally I thought Azpilicueta was a huge liability - obviously not all his fault since he hasn't played consistently on the left since his physical peak (and even then much less was asked of him given Mourinho was manager at the time), but he caused us huge issues both in and out of possession. Given the alternatives (or lack thereof) in our squad, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say Chilwell was the player we could least afford to lose to long-term injury, alas.
I have to watch the game again but I read some analysis saying Carlo instructed Kroos to start plays from left back position so Kante was not really comfortable deciding whether he should press him or not.
If someone who actually knows football (unlike me) could confirm this, it would be interesting to know if this was the case and whether this was a factor for Kante not being as influential as he has been in other ocassions.
Actually you did that last year as well - Kroos was regularly dropping into the left back zone. Biggest difference was that Vinicius has gone up several levels this year and was absolutely destroying Christensen 1v1 - so Kante was stuck in no man's land in deciding whether to press high or try to cut off the passes to Vinicius.
Benzema's drifting out to our left and ability to hold the ball up from Kroos long balls was key - and you were far better on second balls in that zone with Valverde and Modric both around. All in all it meant our line had to shuffle across to the left and that left Christensen even more out to dry.
Understandable. But your team is really great. Could easiliy have been 3-3.
Real Madrid dealt a huge blow before the second leg:
Start Kovacic and Kante in the middle and Mount, Havertz and Werner up top and let's run at these feckers.
We need roughly a 147% increase in form to pull through tonight.
Madrid won't come out since they have two goal lead to consolidate. It's upto us to create. Real madrid will get a challenging game from blues and believe we can win the game and tie.0-3 is my prediction in favour of blues.
Two very interesting games tonight. CL has got some of its magic back.
Please play good tonight, please play good tonight, please play good tonight *fingers crossed*
I'm excpeting a more physical Bayern side tonight. We really lacked intensity in the first match. But the lineup will also be a bit different i reckon. I guess Goretzka will start instead of Musiala and maybe even Sabitzer instead of Sané/Gnabry. Sabitzer was heavily praised by Nagelsmann after the match against Augsburg on saturday. In the interview post match he said that against a team like Villareal you sometimes have to overwhelm them with your power.
There are the 2 options I expect.
1.) 4-2-3-1 with Sabitzer starting on the left (with him and Coman changing sides ocassionally)
----------------Lewy--------------
Sabitzer--Müller--Coman
----Kimmich--Goretzka---
Davies-Lucas-Upa-Pavard
2.) 3-4-2-1 with Sané
----------------------Lewy------------------------
--------------Sané-------Müller--------------
Davies-Kimmich-Goretzka-Coman
---------Lucas----Upa----Pavard----------
I'm excpeting a more physical Bayern side tonight. We really lacked intensity in the first match. But the lineup will also be a bit different i reckon. I guess Goretzka will start instead of Musiala and maybe even Sabitzer instead of Sané/Gnabry. Sabitzer was heavily praised by Nagelsmann after the match against Augsburg on saturday. In the interview post match he said that against a team like Villareal you sometimes have to overwhelm them with your power.
There are the 2 options I expect.
1.) 4-2-3-1 with Sabitzer starting on the left (with him and Coman changing sides ocassionally)
----------------Lewy--------------
Sabitzer--Müller--Coman
----Kimmich--Goretzka---
Davies-Lucas-Upa-Pavard
2.) 3-4-2-1 with Sané
----------------------Lewy------------------------
--------------Sané-------Müller--------------
Davies-Kimmich-Goretzka-Coman
---------Lucas----Upa----Pavard----------
Think Chelsea are in a tight spot. I think the game will be decided in the first 30 mins. If Chelsea do not get a goal in that time, expect them to be picked off on the counter attack.
We need to score the first goal. It's as simple as that. We've come back from 3-1 first leg deficits before vs Napoli in 2012 and PSG in 2014 and both times we scored first around the half hour mark.
We were obviously aided by the away goal rule in 2014 and needed extra time to finish the job in 2012, but I think if we score early tonight it could make them nervous as feck for the rest of the game.
Agreed. I don't think Chelsea are dead because as bad as they were last week, without a Mendy brainfart and if someone other than Lukaku got that awful header, it could've been 2-2. The issue now of course is it is 3-1 and danger Real cause on the counter. That is why I think an early goal is so important as it will allow your lot to not have to push too much and open yourselves up for the counter.
I am quite optimistic waiting to see what tactical trick Tuchel comes up with.
In any case, I see Madrid capable of scoring at least one goal in addition to a supposed extra time at home.
I guess Carletto will repeat the team, the only change is Nacho for Militao. There could be weakness and Carvajal, who plays a very good game one day and is a disaster the next.
In any case, I see Madrid capable of scoring at least one goal in addition to a supposed extra time at home.
I guess Carletto will repeat the team, the only change is Nacho for Militao. There could be weakness and Carvajal, who plays a very good game one day and is a disaster the next.
Owh God Carva gonna give away another penalty isn’t he?
I think Vasquez will go in for Carvajal.
could be an option, yes
I'm not sure, if Carvajal is not injured he should be the starter, but surely Lucas will play in the second half.
Option 2 in a 4231 Is what I will do. Sucks that Sule is injured, I would have dropped Upa
Bit early for lineups isn't It?
They are treating the tie like a kick about in the park! Not even bothered about keeping it hush. Cheeky
They released their line-up 90 minutes before the game last time also.
That's a fun lineup. Will make for an entertaining game and an entertaining meltdown, if they don't win.
Jokes aside I'm strangely confident for this.
Last time we faced a similar deficit from the home game (Bayern) I knew it was done, this time i really feel we could do this, not sure why maybe Carlo's history of blowing big leads, all be it nearly two decades ago.
I'm going to look a genius or an idiot in 2/3 hours time but I really don't feel this is over.
You’ve nothing to lose and should just take it to them
i get what you mean
early goal for you and game on!
Chelsea can afford to keep it tight, don't see the need to go guns blazing from the off. 1 goal and Madrid will get nervy.