Champions League Round of 16 (18th Feb - 8th Aug)

giorno said:
It's funny because part of that was self-inflicted, the high press worked too well and that's why napoli spent so much time defending so deep :lol:

Napoli played against type though, and in the end it showed as barcelona were barely dangerous, sure, but they had 2 huge opportunities as a result of individual mistakes of napoli's defenders(mario rui - who is quite simply inadequate at this level - on the goal, and ospina letting umtiti anticipate him from a corner), while napoli themselves couldn't muster much attack beyond the goal and the huge callejon chance(which was a result of them pressing barcelona's build up for once)
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Napoli weren’t pressing as much as they normally do but they were defending extremely well. They did park the bus often enough at times and we did look much better in the second half after a woeful first half
 
BusbyMalone said:
People had this exact opinion the year before last and Liverpool beat City and got to the final where they lost against...Real Madrid.

Albeit, a Real Madrid with Ronaldo. But i don't think he scored in the final anyway. I'd trust Madrid to knock out Liverpool before City.
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In a final? Yeah, we'd beat them.

Over 2 legs, i think atletico have the best shot, followed by juventus, psg and bayern
 
Withnail said:
And the rest. Peps weird big game selections again.

Think City are losing this.
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Eh... it's not too weird. Fernandinho's lost a bit of form recently, and Sterling is coming off of injury. Jesus has been better than Aguero recently.

My only flag is the Rodri and Gundogan starting together thing.
 
adexkola said:
Eh... it's not too weird. Fernandinho's lost a bit of form recently, and Sterling is coming off of injury. Jesus has been better than Aguero recently.

My only flag is the Rodri and Gundogan starting together thing.
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Them two along with Otamendi is where I think they'll fall down.

I'd always prefer Aguero as well.
 
Pep constantly overthinks things in Europe.
Madrid will let them have the ball and smack them on transitions.
If City feck up tonight theres no excuse for Pep. He constantly handicaps his sides in these games
 
adexkola said:
Eh... it's not too weird. Fernandinho's lost a bit of form recently, and Sterling is coming off of injury. Jesus has been better than Aguero recently.

My only flag is the Rodri and Gundogan starting together thing.
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Apparently Bernardo will be the false 9.
Theres no excuse for that, its a tactical change.
 
cyberman said:
Pep constantly overthinks things in Europe.
Madrid will let them have the ball and smack them on transitions.
If City feck up tonight theres no excuse for Pep. He constantly handicaps his sides in these games
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It's a cliche that has no bearing tonight honestly, looking at the selection.
 
Would of started Aguero over Jesus apart from that think it’s a decent team, but Jesus will miss two sitters and Real will win.
 
Jesus on the left Bernardo false 9, Gundo, Rodri in midfield. Comfy night for Madrid.
 
Synco said:
There were obviously several Bayern players who had a great game yesterday, but I nevertheless want to point out Müller and Thiago. Both had a massive presence in that match.

I also think that Neuer (despite the occasional dodgy moment) is still among the best in the world, and still essential to the style Bayern are playing.
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I read Liews article about the match in the Guardian and learned in the comments section that Bayern the last decade has been the 8th best club in Europe at best and currently would get a beating by either Atleti, PSG or Juve, not to mention the real favorites.
 
This is my dream lineup selections

Which means they'll tonk us i guess :lol:
 
Looks like B.Silva as the false no.9 like when City played against United in the first leg of the league cup. Presumably because they think Real Madrid will play with the diamond, therefore they want to have numbers in midfield
 
Siorac said:
That's far too simplistic. They lost Hazard to injury, they were outperformed by PSG in the group stages, and they are doing so-so in La Liga (they have almost the exact same points per game average as City even though they are in an actual title race). It's certainly 50-50, not the foregone conclusion many paint it to be.
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It's not simplistic dude. Real Madrid have won every single CL under Zidane. Give the man some respect.
Atletico Madrid showed up a Liverpool side that's running away with the EPL.

I'd say favorites are Real Madrid but not by a lot.
 
Rasendori said:
Looks like B.Silva as the false no.9 like when City played against United in the first leg of the league cup. Presumably because they think Real Madrid will play with the diamond, therefore they want to have numbers in midfield
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The one they soundly beat us in?

I retract my retraction of my retraction
 
Lyon v Juventus line-ups
Lyon: Lopes, Marcelo, Denayer, Marcal, Dubois, Bruno Guimaraes, Tousart, Cornet, Toko Ekambi, Aouar, Dembele.
Subs: Andersen, Terrier, Traore, Thiago Mendes, Tete, Caqueret, Tatarusanu.
Juventus: Szczesny, Danilo, de Ligt, Bonucci, Alex Sandro, Bentancur, Pjanic, Rabiot, Cuadrado, Dybala, Ronaldo.
Subs: De Sciglio, Ramsey, Matuidi, Higuain, Rugani, Bernardeschi, Buffon.
Referee: Jesus Gil Manzano (Spain)
 
Sarri trying Cuadrado in the douglas costa role. Interesting. Seems like he's found his preferred lineup
 
adexkola said:
The one they soundly beat us in?

I retract my retraction of my retraction
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Yes. And to add to my initial comment, I presume the reason Sterling was overlooked for the inside forward role in favour of Jesus is down to Sterling not scoring in his last 4 games (I deliberately didn't include Fulham and Everton)
 
Rasendori said:
Yes. And to add to my initial comment, I presume the reason Sterling was overlooked for the inside forward role in favour of Jesus is down to Sterling not scoring in his last 4 games (I deliberately didn't include Fulham and Everton)
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He's still recovering from injury (and woefully out of form).
 
padr81 said:
Yup CL away game where we'll likely need a goal so Pep is gonna be clever and play no out and out striker whilst we pass Madrid to death in a 1 or 2-0 defeat
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Let's make it 5-0 and we have a deal
 
Love to see Ederson have an amazing performance tonight with Crouch and Rio praising him with pencil neck sitting in the middle.
 
Not the smartest move from Sterling but guessing he was set up :wenger:

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padr81 said:
He's still recovering from injury (and woefully out of form).
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He damaged his hamstring against Spurs, and has been in poor form. The most notable example being him being scoreless in his last 5 games (thought it would be disingenuous to include the games of Fulham and Everton, as he came on in stoppage in one of those, and played less than 40 minutes in the other.) In contrast, Jesus has been productive since December
 
Regarding the formation, with the league cup game against City we also had Maguire out with Jones who had barely played in and Pereira in midfield, was a comedy first half line up with a Pereira own goal as well.
 
Rasendori said:
He damaged his hamstring against Spurs, and has been in poor form. The most notable example being him being scoreless in his last 5 games (thought it would be disingenuous to include the games of Fulham and Everton, as he came on in stoppage in one of those, and played less than 40 minutes in the other.) In contrast, Jesus has been productive since December
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I'm fine with Jesus being in for what its worth, even if Sterling wasn't injured but injury is more the reason he's not playing than form. He'll start the second leg 100%.
 
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