That Inter tie was bogus. Barca had to get a coach to Milan because of that Icelandic volcano, then Inter score an offside goal and in the second leg Toure has a winner ruled out for a weak handball.
Pep's Barcelona vs Zidane's Real Madrid
- Thread starter sullydnl
- Start date
In the first leg Milito was one on one but was called offside incorrectly, Motta was sent off thanks for Busquets playacting and they had to play almost entire hour with 10 players.
Heynckes Bayern for me.
The sheer helplessness you felt against Pep's Barca was incredible.
The nerve to complain about that tie after having CL gifted by Overbo the previous season. The so called 'unopposable' Barca were knocked out by a decent Inter team and an absolutely crap Chelsea team who were on 10 men for almost an entire leg, while being outplayed by Chelsea in 09 and needing one of the biggest refereeing farce ever to bail them out with a last minute goal.
Lost to the same Chelsea that beat Barcelona in 2012.
Anyone complaining about officiating in the Inter-Barca tie needs a slap. Barcelona were gifted the game against Chelsea the previous year, their treble was fraudulent.
that video of Fergie looking on with his hands shaking haunts me
still Fergie was looking for value in the market when he should have been looking for more Ronaldo's
To me the Inter result was fair. The Chelsea tie was overblown by the British media (as they would do again when Arsenal got knocked out a couple of years later) despite the balance of major decisions across the two legs being fairly even.
The old classic of giving Abidal a red card for nothing after he dragged and kicked Drogba and should have conceded a penalty. That's the 'make-up' call by the ref, to hide his incompetency by giving something to the other team out of thin air.
Also
I'll be honest and I'll say that Madrid 16-17 gets really close to Barça 10-11.
But Madrid 15-16 and 17-18 was based on blind luck, fitness, bad refereeing and awful Liga campaigns. Not impressed.
Barça detractors keep talking about the Stamford Bridge scandal, but those Madrid sides also have their hands dirty.
Both Madrid and Barça have ruled since 2009, period. Only Inter and Bayern managed to (briefly) keep up with them.
But Madrid 15-16 and 17-18 was based on blind luck, fitness, bad refereeing and awful Liga campaigns. Not impressed.
Barça detractors keep talking about the Stamford Bridge scandal, but those Madrid sides also have their hands dirty.
Both Madrid and Barça have ruled since 2009, period. Only Inter and Bayern managed to (briefly) keep up with them.
Last edited:
My running order of the last 9 UCL champions, best to worst
Barça 10-11
Bayern 12-13
Madrid 16-17
Barça 14-15
Inter 09-10
-
Madrid 13-14
Chelsea 11-12
-
Madrid 17-18
Madrid 15-16
Barça 10-11
Bayern 12-13
Madrid 16-17
Barça 14-15
Inter 09-10
-
Madrid 13-14
Chelsea 11-12
-
Madrid 17-18
Madrid 15-16
Yep, Madrid were lucky to win 3 CL's in a row. They were by far the best team in the world in 16/17 but thats it.
Pep’s Barcelona is the best club team I’ve seen in my 26 years of life. The way they strangled other teams was something to behold. I never felt as lost as a United fan as I did in those two finals against them.
This, basically, There was only one way to get anything against them: put 10 men behind the ball, try to counter every once in a while and pray. Even if you executed your gameplan to perfection against them, you still had to rely on them missing their chances.
There's also the Henry penalty claim from the first leg and a 1v1 for Eto'o wrongly called offside when in on goal. That's 3 major decisions which went Chelsea's way, versus the various penalty shouts for Chelsea.The old classic of giving Abidal a red card for nothing after he dragged and kicked Drogba and should have conceded a penalty. That's the 'make-up' call by the ref, to hide his incompetency by giving something to the other team out of thin air.
Also
These last couple of pages are a reminder of the good of VAR.
The worst thing is you can see the refs position in that pic. Its perfect and he has a clear view of it. Was definitely paid off.The old classic of giving Abidal a red card for nothing after he dragged and kicked Drogba and should have conceded a penalty. That's the 'make-up' call by the ref, to hide his incompetency by giving something to the other team out of thin air.
Also
Shows the mentality to come back after losing the final at home to win the thing tge next year.
I will agree with that but chelsea is at the bottom. That was the flukiest CL win of all. And all the real Madrid's is better than inter milan.
Chelsea 2012 are the worst CL winners of the past 9 years by an immeasurable distance but the fact you even left a gap between them and Madrid
Not sure if we're watching the same sport.Chelsea 2012 managed to knock-out Pep's Barça with Messi in Top form, and survived the final vs the already- functional embryo of Bayern 2013. Hardly peanuts.Chelsea 2012 are the worst CL winners of the past 9 years by an immeasurable distance but the fact you even left a gap between them and Madrid
Besides, I only placed Chelsea 2012 7th out of 9. Madrid 2016 had an outrageously easy route to the final (won by penalties! and saved in the QF vs Wolfsburg by a CR hat-trick!) and we all know the still-recent story of 2018 (blind luck in the last Pre-VAR season, and then the Karius-Salah situation in the final).
Not sure if you are taking the piss. That Mou side was unbreakable.
Barça 14-15 was the most dominating performance. Last16, last8 and las4 decided on the first leg with the second leg being just a uninteresting game. Also "easy" final. And we faced the champions of england, france, germant and italy in that rounds. Pep's Barça had a very difficult moments in the CL, same with R.Madrid (Bayern).
AC Milan late eighties, early nineties is the greatest club side ever.
Yes, I was tempted to place Barça 2014-15 above Real Madrid 16-17, but that was the apex of Zidane's Madrid, and their first Liga+Champions double since the late '50s.
In my opinion, Madrid 16-17 (solid midfield+CBs, firing on all cylinders + goalscoring beast), Barça 14-15 (truly organized + new Top GK + MSN) and Inter 09-10 (unbreakable team, Mou's masterpiece) are equally impressive.
Last edited:
That Chelsea 2012 are easily the worst team out of the lot. You mention luck in respect to Madrid 2018, but conveniently don't mention the luck Chelsea had in 2012. They just about squeezed past Napoli, were very lucky against Barca (Barca completely dominating the first leg and losing to a sucker punch. The away leg Messi misses a penalty that would have put Barca through). The final needs no introduction. Didn't Drogba score with just 2 minutes left? Didn't Robben miss a penalty in extra time that would have won it for Bayern? Wasn't the total shot count 35 to 9 to Bayern.
Chelsea were extremely fortunate in 2012.
Difference between luck and refereeing decisions though.
Zidane's Real Madrid wasn't even dominating the Spanish league, so the answer is easy. For the 1st and 3rd CL they just stop even trying to win the league in February to only focus on one competition with basically 5 matches left (7 if you want).
I mean Zidane's Real Madrid had the best squad in the world and they were mentally indestructible to survive extremely challenging CL minutes were other teams get broken (like United after Messi's goal...), but in general they had very irregular performance and Zidane was just a trigger of talent managing the squad egos the best he could, but he didn't show any kind of tactics expertise needed for regularity or to compensate lack of quality that luckily they didn't have.
I mean Zidane's Real Madrid had the best squad in the world and they were mentally indestructible to survive extremely challenging CL minutes were other teams get broken (like United after Messi's goal...), but in general they had very irregular performance and Zidane was just a trigger of talent managing the squad egos the best he could, but he didn't show any kind of tactics expertise needed for regularity or to compensate lack of quality that luckily they didn't have.
This Chelsea myth is hilarious. People seem to forget the ref sent off Abidal at Stamford Bridge when Anelka literally tripped over his own feet. Barca had to play with 10 men because of the ref but people don't like that fact. They were also denied an absolute stonewall penalty in the first leg.
The so called 'unopposable' Barca were knocked out by a decent Inter team and an absolutely crap Chelsea team who were on 10 men for almost an entire leg, while being outplayed by Chelsea in 09 and needing one of the biggest refereeing farce ever to bail them out with a last minute goal.
Mate if you are implying that Chelsea were the team favored by the refs in that whole tie then carry on.
"unopposable conquerors" who were knocked out in 2 out of 4 years and should have been in the 3rd as well.
Interesting you speak of blind luck yet you fail to mention how Chelsea were thoroughly outplayed in all of their KO games in 2012 even at home to Benfica in the QFs. Their triumph that year was like the stars aligning for them in an unprecedented way. If the semi-final against Barca was replayed 10 times; they would likely lose 9 times out of 10. Barca completely dominated that game and was a Messi penalty away from taking full control of the tie. Even without that; Ramires scored an outrageous goal (which gave them the upper hand) that he likely could never pull off again if the same sequence of play was repeated. And that Barca team weren't in "top form". They had effectively lost the league to Madrid by the time that tie came round.
In the final, they were completely outplayed by Bayern again who somehow could only put 1 goal past Cech before Drogba equalised late on. Robben even had time to miss a penalty in extra-time. If you replayed that game again: the score would likely end 5-1 to Bayern. They rode their luck more than any other team I've ever seen in the history of the competition and are comprehensively a FAR weaker side than Madrid of 15/16 and 17/18 - top to bottom. If you remove the luck factor; those Madrid teams would wipe the floor with 2012 Chelsea.
2012 Chelsea are probably the weakest CL winners not just in the last 9 years but possibly since the competition's inauguration in the early 1990's.
I never said Chelsea 2012 was a great side (but still mostly the same 2007-2010 squad, great players who managed to eventually win the UCL). I'm just sayin' Madrid 16 and 18 were even worse-even luckier.
And yet their manager was influenced by the way some Dutch team played in the early 70's.. Yes, I am biased but that Ajax team did exactly all of what we have seen both from Pep's Barca and Zidane's Madrid - they were dominant in the way Barca did with their total football style and managed to win 3 straight European Cups just as Madrid did. And btw where people will place Capello's Milan with three finals in a row, Van Gaal's Ajax with two finals in a row and even Lippi's Juventus with three finals in a row?! Don't forget that Milan and Ajax of the 90's went unbeaten for a whole season at some point..
Also what about Del Bosque's Real Madrid side? In 4 years they won 2 CL titles and 2 La Liga titles while playing some of the best football I have ever seen from a Madrid side?! Far better football than Zidane's Madrid, that's for sure?!
Last edited:
'3 against and a few for, that's fair dos'. Completely ignoring the nature of the decisions and the context within which they are made.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...009-semi-final-ref-admits-mistakes-says-cant/
The referee himself admitted that he cost Chelsea that game. It wasn't some 50/50 calls, it was clear and obvious penalties. Chelsea were denied a minimum of 2 penalties (both handballs) and most likely more (Abidal pulling Drogba's shirt, then tripping him).
The fact that you bring up the Henry 'penalty claim' confirms that there's no real point in this. Henry slipped, and then went over like his top got stuck on a door knob without him realising and catapulted backwards. Bosingwa grabbed his shoulder when he was already falling down. It's one of those dives where the forward knows he's messed up so he tries to manufacture something that isn't there. To compare it to anything in the 2nd leg is a joke, Ovrebo had a howler in that 2nd leg, basically getting every decision wrong. It just so happened that Chelsea were the ones that felt most of that wrath.
Not at all. Chelsea 2012 was the definition of a fluke. IMO there hasn't been a luckier win of a big tournament. That team was not only way past his peak but also poorly coached. Individually they weren't up with the other winners either. If I were to make a list, I'd probably go with this:
Barca 2011
Barca 2015
Bayern 2013
Madrid 2017
Madrid 2016
Inter 2010
Madrid 2014
Madrid 2018
Chelsea 2012
I agree that it's not the quality of their title wins that made Madrid special but their consistency. However, they were still a great team, just not all conquering. But a team featuring Ramos, Marcelo, Varane, Modric, Kroos, Casemiro, Isco and Bale and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo is the third best squad this competition has seen in the last decade. The only reason they aren't the best is that Messi, Neymar and Suarez // Messi, Iniesta and Xavi is even better than that, especially when coached by Guardiola.
Abidal should have been sent off far earlier for a clear pen on drogba. There is no myth. That added to the 2 clear handballs by pique and etoo and the dani alves foul that was given as a free kick even though it was in the box as the ground was cut up clear in the area, clearly means that one pen shout to 4 is even in your eyes, myth indeed.
Chelsea 'myth' that the referee admitted was him fecking Chelsea over after he reviewed the decisions.
It's not a surprise that someone that thinks Chelsea was a 'myth' thinks that Barca were denied a 'stonewall' penalty in the first leg. Completely biased and delusional.
It's not a surprise that someone that thinks Chelsea was a 'myth' thinks that Barca were denied a 'stonewall' penalty in the first leg. Completely biased and delusional.
That topic is far more popular in England for a reason. In Germany it is the same with the Madrid - Bayern match in 2017. For weeks the biggest topic in German sports media was how Bayern was robbed by the referee.
Not saying that Ovrebo hasn't fecked up that match. But it happens far more often than people imply and the main reason why it gets so much attention is because it was an English team.
Not even close. You can't be using the CL to save your season. It's that simple. Pep's Barca bar 10/11 went deep in every competition and went out to win everything. Madrid did feck all in Copa, were battered consistently domestically by Barca, Pep's Barcelona would demolish them.
The biggest difference bar trophies is the influence on the game. Pep's Barca is the most influential team in the modern era bar none.
The biggest difference bar trophies is the influence on the game. Pep's Barca is the most influential team in the modern era bar none.