Champions League Round of 16 (12th Feb - 13th Mar)

Hugh Jass

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Mourinho would cream himself watching A Madrid. Keep it tight defensively and then sort of engineer a chance or two from mistakes. Or else set pieces. Not saying it is bad. It is intriguing to watch them. I would say the last team Pep wants to meet is A Madrid.
 

Canagel

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Oh - people in Germany thought that Schalke would really play like a 0:6 or something tonight. So that 2:3 actually still sounds very well...

Schalke right now is underachieving (when you see the players - but they do not have the players for top of the league but a lot better than they are in the table right now), do not have a real playing philosophy (wanted this season to play not just parking the bus and counter attacking - even bought Rudy for that - just to recognize that the team is not good enough to do this in the league), no leading players and no philosophy.
underachieving and no philosophy? sounds like us under Mourinho.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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Mourinho would cream himself watching A Madrid. Keep it tight defensively and then sort of engineer a chance or two from mistakes. Or else set pieces. Not saying it is bad. It is intriguing to watch them. I would say the last team Pep wants to meet is A Madrid.
I think over two legs they are the team everyone least wants to play.
 

Amar__

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Mourinho would cream himself watching A Madrid. Keep it tight defensively and then sort of engineer a chance or two from mistakes. Or else set pieces. Not saying it is bad. It is intriguing to watch them. I would say the last team Pep wants to meet is A Madrid.
If Mourinho was manager of Athletico they would probably never score any goals.
 

Hugh Jass

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I think over two legs they are the team everyone least wants to play.
I agree. Must be so frustrating playing against them. To have most of the ball and not be able to create chances and then have them score calculated but flukey goals.

They wear down teams psychologically as much as physically.
 

Hugh Jass

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If Mourinho was manager of Athletico they would probably never score any goals.
In fairness Mourinho has two CLs. Simone has none, albeit very very unlucky not to have at least one.

It is the same sort of philosophy. Wear teams down psychologically and then be efficient up front with what chances you have.
 

giorno

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Atletico Madrid are the football equivalent of a coin toss. That's their strenght: they drag you in the mud, and manage to turn the game into a 50/50 thing. Which they are used to and you are not, so in actuality they're much more likely to win than you

(And as i type this Allegri is saying the exact same thing:lol:)

It's also why they have struggled at times against the likes of psv or leicester
 

Hugh Jass

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Atletico Madrid are the football equivalent of a coin toss. That's their strenght: they drag you in the mud, and manage to turn the game into a 50/50 thing. Which they are used to and you are not, so in actuality they're much more likely to win than you

(And as i type this Allegri is saying the exact same thing:lol:)

It's also why they have struggled at times against the likes of psv or leicester
Agree.
 

Keeps It tidy

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Atletico Madrid are the football equivalent of a coin toss. That's their strenght: they drag you in the mud, and manage to turn the game into a 50/50 thing. Which they are used to and you are not, so in actuality they're much more likely to win than you

(And as i type this Allegri is saying the exact same thing:lol:)

It's also why they have struggled at times against the likes of psv or leicester
And it makes sense they struggled with PSV since they are the Dutch version of that.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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I do not understand Dybala´s market value.Very disappointing, like all Juventus.
Cris had a good shot in a free kick, with another goalkeeper would have been a great goal
It has nothing to do with today's game, but I think Lemar has little future at Atlético.
I'm willing to give him another season. It's quite a change in system to go from Jardim's Monaco to Simeone's Atletico and from France to Spain. He has talent and you see glimpses. Seems he's very good in a counter attack but his overall game isn't consistent enough and he loses possession a little easy.

For the rest of the season I do prefer to see Vitolo start or Correa. Vitolo you know your getting work rate and tenacity.
 

breakout67

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Atletico and Simeone rarely get the credit they deserve because they play shithouse football. Meanwhile any pony manager/team that talks about philosophy and attacking has a **** following.

Wouldn't want him anywhere near United, but Simeone is a fantastic manager and Atletico are a fantastic team.
 

FootballHQ

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Don't know if they're a worse team but their results have definitely been worse. Lost 3 CL games already, been poor through most of the CL campaign and they just never seem very convincing to me despite being unbeaten in Serie A (no surprise that though?).
Always feel like they peaked with that fantastic 2015 team, bad luck for them to run into Barca and also 2017 playing Real Madrid although that was arguably a more winnable final for them.

Probably a case of Seria A become too easy for them nowadays so they've lost that edge around this time in the season.

Still got a very good 11 but not a huge amount of depth on the bench. Is Douglas Costa injured again? He's always a good sub to bring on in tight games, helped them get through against Spurs last year.
 

Synco

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Atletico Madrid are the football equivalent of a coin toss. That's their strenght: they drag you in the mud, and manage to turn the game into a 50/50 thing. Which they are used to and you are not, so in actuality they're much more likely to win than you

(And as i type this Allegri is saying the exact same thing:lol:)

It's also why they have struggled at times against the likes of psv or leicester
Exactly what Klopp has said in many variations in the past: We have the tactical means to drag down the opponent to our level and once we have them there, we can beat them.

(And his Dortmund side often played their best football against superior teams as well.)
 

adexkola

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Atletico and Simeone rarely get the credit they deserve because they play shithouse football. Meanwhile any pony manager/team that talks about philosophy and attacking has a **** following.

Wouldn't want him anywhere near United, but Simeone is a fantastic manager and Atletico are a fantastic team.
You don't half throw out straw men.

It is very possible to like a Simeone and a Guardiola at the same time.

Source: guy who likes both managers.
 

breakout67

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You don't half throw out straw men.

It is very possible to like a Simeone and a Guardiola at the same time.

Source: guy who likes both managers.
You've lost the plot. My post was not even directed at you and you completely failed at basic comprehension. Why would Guardiola come into the category of pony manager?

Simeone and Guardiola have been in my opinion one of the best managers in the world for several years. YOU are the one that is throwing out a strawman, no where did I say that you can't appreciate Simeone and Guardiola.
 

RooneyLegend

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This should be a wake up call for Juve. Sadly they are more likely to blame Allegri than understand the issues with their team. They just don't have the players in the middle of the park to win this competition. When they did have them, they didn't have players up top and wide in defence. It's a hard competition to win without a complete side and the difference between them was never just Ronaldo. They should have seen that in the final they lost to Madrid.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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This should be a wake up call for Juve. Sadly they are more likely to blame Allegri than understand the issues with their team. They just don't have the players in the middle of the park to win this competition. When they did have them, they didn't have players up top and wide in defence. It's a hard competition to win without a complete side and the difference between them was never just Ronaldo. They should have seen that in the final they lost to Madrid.
Yeah their midfield is 2nd rate(maybe even 3rd rate) for a team aspiring to win the competition.

You need a great midfield to win the CL and they don't have it.
 

Skorenzy

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Ah I see Ronaldo is back to mediocrity in CL without the support of Modric.

Before you crucify me, the same thing has happened to other great players as well: Messi's most dominant period in the CL ended with Xavi's decline.

One midfielder alone is never winning you the CL - Madrid won't win it this year as well. But to play great football and have maximum success, you need both: The impeccable forward and the brilliant midfielder.
One could easily argue 2014/15 was his most or 2nd most dominant season (UCL and even overall).
 

carvajal

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I'm willing to give him another season. It's quite a change in system to go from Jardim's Monaco to Simeone's Atletico and from France to Spain. He has talent and you see glimpses. Seems he's very good in a counter attack but his overall game isn't consistent enough and he loses possession a little easy.

For the rest of the season I do prefer to see Vitolo start or Correa. Vitolo you know your getting work rate and tenacity.
I would give him too. I liked him a lot at the beginning of the season but he disappeared. He has a lot of quality but without that commitment -and as you say only with glimpses- it is very difficult to reverse the situation with Simeone. Especially when he changed his style slightly, opening it a little and began to fail defensively.
I am very surprised that they can maintain this level of spending and I imagine they will have to sell in the summer. I wonder if Simeone will be tempted to sacrifice technical quality prioritizing for example the renewal of Lucas.
 

VorZakone

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What was Bonucci thinking there? It was always going to be unlikely for VAR to overturn a 2nd goal in a short period of time. Be happy with the first one and just get on with it.
 

Pagh Wraith

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So happy for Atletico. I really enjoyed that game. Vintage stuff. This is their best performance since 2016. I think they are so determined to make that final it's going to take something very special to prevent them getting there.
Feel the same. There just is something about watching Atletico in these type of games. I know many find them boring but a lot of my favourite games in recent CL season feature them.

Also, does someone have that first half clean sheets in Europe stat under Simeone? That was insane.
 

Kasper

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what are they doing in the CL knockouts?
They had an absolute joke of a CL group with Porto, Galatasaray and Lokomotive Moscow. Right now they shouldn't even be EL KO stage material.
 

Inter Yer Nan

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I would give him too. I liked him a lot at the beginning of the season but he disappeared. He has a lot of quality but without that commitment -and as you say only with glimpses- it is very difficult to reverse the situation with Simeone. Especially when he changed his style slightly, opening it a little and began to fail defensively.
I am very surprised that they can maintain this level of spending and I imagine they will have to sell in the summer. I wonder if Simeone will be tempted to sacrifice technical quality prioritizing for example the renewal of Lucas.
With Godin leaving I'm sure Lucas will be renewed. I think Atletico's financial situation is good now. No, they can't go out and spend like English teams, Real, Barca and Juve but they are fine keeping players and the great thing is that their best players love the club and want to play for each other. They are a club where loyalty exists still.

In Oblak, Giminez, Lucas (if he stays), Koke, Saul, Rodrigo, Griezmann their core players are young and improving too. Hopefully Motata finally found a home where he can be the man and Correa is an excellent, young talent too. I think for Atletico its a matter of fitting in missing pieces but with a genius like Simeone in charge they can always fight for trophies despite facing teams with more talent (arguably) and finances.
 

Skorenzy

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I do not understand Dybala´s market value.Very disappointing, like all Juventus.
Cris had a good shot in a free kick, with another goalkeeper would have been a great goal
It has nothing to do with today's game, but I think Lemar has little future at Atlético.
I think it's fair to say that the arrival of Cristiano has had a huge impact on Dybala. Unfortunately as with Messi for Argentina, it's a negative one.
In both teams he seems to only thrive in a specific positional context within a formation. Today against Atléti he sometimes played so deep that he was coming for the ball behind Pjanic and Bentancur.

So while that does make him look limited, I think he can be a devastating player in the right set-up. (well, he's proven it year upon year at Juve and also his last season at Palermo).
 

Peyroteo

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Can you enlight us? It's not what i've heard.
‘Ese portugues, hijo puta es’, ‘Cristiano muerete’, etc.

It calmed down in the second half, they spent at least 20 minutes straight throwing insults in the first half though. Which was nothing out of the ordinary really.
 

carvajal

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‘Ese portugues, hijo puta es’, ‘Cristiano muerete’, etc.

It calmed down in the second half, they spent at least 20 minutes straight throwing insults in the first half though. Which was nothing out of the ordinary really.
today was "eres un moroso/un violador"(defaulter/rapist)
 

Peyroteo

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I think it's fair to say that the arrival of Cristiano has had a huge impact on Dybala. Unfortunately as with Messi for Argentina, it's a negative one.
In both teams he seems to only thrive in a specific positional context within a formation. Today against Atléti he sometimes played so deep that he was coming for the ball behind Pjanic and Bentancur.

So while that does make him look limited, I do think he can be a devastating player in the right set-up. (well, he's proven it year upon year at Juve and also his last season at Palermo).
Dybala has been very good this season, he was hardly the problem tonight either.

He’s just playing deeper sort of like Isco did for Madrid.

Juve’s problem is the midfield. Signing Ramsey will hardly fix things imo, they need a clear upgrade
 

Canagel

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Feel the same. There just is something about watching Atletico in these type of games. I know many find them boring but a lot of my favourite games in recent CL season feature them.

Also, does someone have that first half clean sheets in Europe stat under Simeone? That was insane.
I just dont understand how any neutral can warm to athletico with the football they play and all of the shitehousery that comes with it. unless you're a fan of the club it doesn't make any sense to me. I just dont see the joy in watching park the bus anti football but others here seem to enjoy it. comes down to taste in the end but I'm not a fan at all.