And if Bayern Munich pull off a miracle and make the final, this thread nd Pep's repuation will look different. Bit early for this thread I feel.
The silence and/or back-tracking from posters nailing him to the wall right now would be interesting should Bayern turn it around.
This thread feels premature. Barca aren't the best of travellers and Bayern, buoyed by home support, can be deadly if they score an early goal. A 0-3 scoreline is not insurmountable and Barcelona's defence isn't particularly good when the shit hits the fan.
It obviously looks like Barcelona are through, but just from the denouncement in this thread, if Pep now goes through under these circumstances, he'll be hailed for it.
Messi decided this leg with a sublime 10-minute spell, he can do that to any team on the planet. I'm not sure why Pep should be chastised for that.
Watching the game, I felt some of the Bayern players under-performed and the errant passes that led to so many counter-attacks wouldn't normally happen - is that Pep's fault, or did his players shit themselves?
Missing key players is also an obvious factor.
There are calls in here for Bayern to play tight and compact with a pragmatic slant. Are people sure these players, who are used to playing possession-based, expansive football can even do that? It's akin to asking a Mourinho team to play progressive and cavalier football against a top side - after the fact, people would be asking why the hell they dropped their principles and died by a sword they never hold in their day-to-day football. Besides which, Barcelona's midfield is not what it was, and if anything, that's the area of the pitch best exploited to suffocate supply to that deadly front-line, so it's not like Pep's idea was outrageous even if his initial execution of the plan had to be modified to something more conventional.
If Barcelona hammer them at their place and have Pep on the end of another semi-final mauling, then sure, lay in to him, but for now, there could be a lot of people with egg on their faces come the end of the 2nd leg.