Yea Ancelotti is always cool on the touch line, just like Ole.
Champions League Semi Finals (26th Apr - 4th May)
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
I'm surprised how long it's taking for City & PSG to win their first CL.
It honestly makes me give Chelsea some begrudging respect. They spent eye-watering sums of money as well but they managed to do it in 9 years after their initial takeover & heavy investment.
9 years is a lot actually but it takes a long time to gain CL pedigree and experience, even with lots of cash.
City & PSG are over a decade into their project and still no CL. They both spent about billion pounds on transfers since that time if I'm not mistaken.
PSG should have won it in 2020 and City should have won it in 2021. They both missed a huge opportunity and effectively bottled their respective finals.
This isn't surprising considering it's the first time they went to the final respectively. That's what tends to happen with first time finalists - no matter how expensively assembled the squad is. It happened to Chelsea as well.
But again, Chelsea outdid both of them even in this- having reached their first final just 5 years into their project.
It honestly makes me give Chelsea some begrudging respect. They spent eye-watering sums of money as well but they managed to do it in 9 years after their initial takeover & heavy investment.
9 years is a lot actually but it takes a long time to gain CL pedigree and experience, even with lots of cash.
City & PSG are over a decade into their project and still no CL. They both spent about billion pounds on transfers since that time if I'm not mistaken.
PSG should have won it in 2020 and City should have won it in 2021. They both missed a huge opportunity and effectively bottled their respective finals.
This isn't surprising considering it's the first time they went to the final respectively. That's what tends to happen with first time finalists - no matter how expensively assembled the squad is. It happened to Chelsea as well.
But again, Chelsea outdid both of them even in this- having reached their first final just 5 years into their project.
Prior to the game I thought City were slight favorites to go through after 2 legs.
City -
Pros -
Madrid -
Pros -
City -
Pros -
- World's best team
- Still in the middle of their peak, no signs of any real decline
- Have a mentally and physically grueling battle with Liverpool which will affect their ability to fight at 100% in the second leg, especially if the game goes 120 minutes. Can't rest entire first XI between legs.
- Play away in the 2nd leg
Madrid -
Pros -
- 7 players know what its like to win the CL thrice. Have been in tough situations before.
- Need to only draw 1 game out of 5 to win La Liga. Can rest entire first team (esp Modric/Benz) for a week before each leg.
- At home in the final leg.
- Weakness in defending collectively.
- Carlo is an inferior tactician to Pep.
- Weaker team man-for-man than City barring 1-2 players.
It doesn’t work that way though does it. This is another big big chance for Pep. The big cup is the one thing he needs to win at City and it could play on his and the players minds if they don’t win it this year. Sometimes you never get another chance for years and by that time he might be gone. This is the one at this time. They are favorites in the CL and the league but it might haunt him not winning the CL.I can see City winning it over the next couple of seasons if they somehow miss out this year
Because Real Madrid aren’t us. We don’t function as a team. If pogba plays in a set team and system he will shine.
Going by the comments you'd think Real won 
Given how the game was looking at the 15 minute mark it probably feels like a win for them too. City could have been 4 up fairly quickly.Going by the comments you'd think Real won
I would have loved him years ago. Now, i'm more ambivalent. Depends on whether we get Mbappé or not honestly. If we don't, i wouldn't mind him. So long as we use him as an attacking midPogba would fit better a team like PSG and don't want to see him on a Real Madrid shirt.
They were the better team in 2018. 2017 we were even. 2014 was an annihilation
2017 was a clusterfeck more than anything. With proper refereeing it's hard to say what would've happened. They got a ridiculous penalty in the first leg which they missed, and it changed that game. Second leg they should have been down to 10 men after 10 minutes...
2018 yeah, maybe shady, there were 3 stonewall penalties for them not given, but honestly, they made PSG proud. Even had they got the penalties, they would have just missed them. Or found a fresh new way to gift us a dumb goal in exchange
They scored thanks to a Iker howler and were dominated. Were very lucky to be 1-0 up in injury time in the first place. In fairness to them, they were without Diego Costa
Nah. Milan outplayed every opponent in 06/07 until the final and went out in the R16 in 07/08
The Barcelona game was a league game played at home...
Your 2014 final was a lot like our 99 final, though we didn't let it get to the extra time.
Those bayern games were bonkers , some of the most entertaining ucl could provide and strange indeed.
One last thing that Millan side didn't really *outplay* us in the semi , we were kinda fecked by injuries in the second leg , and they would go on to beat the pool despite them probably playing better.
It was a good result for a team in which half the players dropped 1/10 performances.Going by the comments you'd think Real won
Ancelotti again made a mistake of putting Modrić too high up the pitch where he was isolated and couldn't contribute to gameplay so much. When he got more deep in 2nd half it looked better but they cant afford the same mistake in the 2nd leg. That way they give City too much of possession and Benzema doesnt have enough ball to work with.
Not really no. We dominated that game from start to finish, missed 3 or 4 big chances and Atletico did absolutely nothing other than fluke a goal from a corner and defend
They destroyed you in San Siro mate. Yeah you had a bunch of injuries, but that doesn't change that. Liverpool were the only time they were actually outplayed, though it was a leg instead of 2(you did outplaye them in the first leg, too, but were comprehensively beaten over the tie)
Well that's just what atleti do, it's their play style, they got to the final like that.
Also we were screwed over by our injuries too hard that season our make shift defense couldn't simply cope with Kaka(looking at the goals Kaka makes a fool out of brown and heinz).
Overall millan and ancelloti ironically benefited from Calciopoli as it meant that their old squad could simply put all its effort into winning the ucl while we were fighting at 2 other fronts as well.
He won't shine. Do you ever think he was dragging us down rather than the other way around. He epitomises everything that's gone wrong. Flashy, overhyped, overpaid, talented (which is exaggerated) doesn't work hard enough, not willing to dig in. He won't be a success wherever he goes.
On a more general note, not only do players who come here get worse, the players that leave us don't do much better either.
Real fans: will Ancelotti sort out the midfield for the second leg? It might even make more sense for Kroos to come on against tiring legs and minds.
I think when Real Madrid win three consecutive games away to Bayern you have to question how good they actually are versus how good they are perceived to be.
It doesn’t but they are hyped up as favourites almost every year (since Pep) surely its only a matter of time before they win it.
If he somehow doesn’t win the CL with City thats a big failure on him imo
Not sure they have seen City and Liverpool play if they think that City have tiring legs and tiring minds. City, Liverpool and Chelsea can run for 90+ minutes at a high intensity and Citys domination of the game usually means they are fresher than the opposition come the end of the game.
RMs best hope is that City have an off day and they can just keep jumping on the few mistakes they do make.
City should have been out of sight yesterday and as has been the case in a number of games this season, RM have been fantastically lucky with the oppositions wastefulness and Benzema has been in sparkling form. Think this is still the end of the road for them. I just hope we don't see another all English final. Thats not the point of the CL.
I make Madrid favourites to go through now. Citeh should have won by 4 and will be regretting their profligacy ext week.
Did you check the xg, they didn't have an xg of 1 in 180 minutes. They also created nothing after the red only chance was gundogan missed a sitter
He will not. He'll drop Rodrygo for Casemiro and play the team he played against PSG and Chelsea. And this time I think City will finally make him pay for it in a way that no amount of Benzemagic can save us. We're still trying to play like we did during the 3peat, except back then those tactics worked because we generally did have a huge talent advantage over our opponents. Right now we don't
In one of those Bayern literally beat themselves, missing a million chances and gift wrapping us the game winner with a stupefyingly dumb mistake from a corner in their favour. Another was Cristiano taking over, and they technically beat us in the 90' at the bernabeu in the second leg, and really had us on the ropes until the Vidal red card
2017 annoys the feck out of me while 2018 hurts, it was Jupp Heynckes last game in management as well. He deserved another UCL final and would've likely won it against Pool as well
It’s a bit of both to be honest, we’ve got more then just him like that in this team. The players that leave us are going into there prime that’s probably why they don’t do much better or it’s because there not good enough at all. I remember lingard when he went on loan at West Ham he was quality. If pogba leaves he will be quality. Look at how he his for France. You could argue that players we sign who have been good at there previous clubs don’t do as good here also… sancho being one although the verdict is still out on him, he will come good under the right coach, wan bissaka was decent for palace not been that much of a success for us, Luke Shaw was quality at Southampton, he’s been hit and miss for us… the list could go on.
In a manner of speaking they did win....they were 2-0 down away from home inside 10 minutes and fought back from 2 goal deficits 3 times in one match. They go home down only one goal against arguably the best team in the world where they've proven the character to win a one off match against strong opponents.Going by the comments you'd think Real won
The media coverage of last night's game has been pretty weird. You'd think Madrid won and City lost.
Scrolling through social media sites today, for a moment I forgot that City won.
Scrolling through social media sites today, for a moment I forgot that City won.
Out of curiosity, do you consider Mourinho's time at Chelsea and RM a failure?
Madrid are a baffling team. Watching them last night they were easily second best and City should have been out of sight, but they just have something about them (Benzema, at the moment). You can't really call it luck because they do it so often. City should be going into the second leg with a 4 goal advantage.
Defensively I thought Madrid were shocking. Time after time they would give the ball away and concede a chance. When they got their foot on the ball and started to play a little, they looked decent, but even then they're nothing special.
Yet...
Defensively I thought Madrid were shocking. Time after time they would give the ball away and concede a chance. When they got their foot on the ball and started to play a little, they looked decent, but even then they're nothing special.
Yet...
Liverpool's match tonight reminds me of our semi against Schalke in 2011.
Hopefully this Liverpool team is at the same stage of their arc that we were when we played that tie.
Hopefully this Liverpool team is at the same stage of their arc that we were when we played that tie.
In terms of domestic trophies neither manager has been lacking, in terms of the CL both have.
At least Jose can say he won the biggest prize in club football at two different clubs.
Pep has spent more than any manager in the PL if im not mistaken and has reached 1 final in which his team (lauded as on of the best ever) had a solitary shot on target. like I said I dont expect him not to win it but seeing as they have been favourites to lift it every season hes been here yes in my eyes he has been a failure in European competition.
Saying all that bet they go on and win the damn thing now
We lucked our way through tbh, no one expected us to come so far. Though what does it say that even in our ‘dark’ times and in the process of rebuilding: still manage to do it. Semi-final last year as well. Fair play to the team, somehow make it through.
I do think this is the end of the line, our defense has been awful for a few months now. City will win next week as well and go through, it was just bad finishing on their part that didn’t kill off the game. All they need to do is stick to the same gameplan.
Hopefully adding Tchouameni, Rudiger and Mbappe will add the needed boost to the team.
After tonights match plenty will be left to wonder how Villarreal managed to reach the semi final. Don't need reminding but Villarreal qualified for this seasons champions league via a sudden death penalty shootout in the Europa league so a real underdog story that Liverpool will likely end tonight.
Klopp loves an underdog story, so let's see
It was the sort of goal that Atletico wouldn't have conceded, even if it meant one of those accidental decapitations for which they're internationally renowned.
Let’s hope Villarreal withstand the initial five-minute Anfield onslaught tonight. A nervy start and the Scouse pricks will sense blood. A draw would be a terrific result to bring back to Spain.
Who's playing today?
If Villarreal can survive the first 35 minutes, they can steal this.
Villarreal have nothing to lose, they have a chance
Villarreal have nothing to lose, they have a chance
I respect it, they are the bad boy pistons of football