Hope so. Goals goals goals shouldn't be everything.
It's only entertaining if they are good goals IMO.
Has there ever been a CL semi-final as devoid of quality as that?
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It's only entertaining if they are good goals IMO.
They are not mutually exclusive
The OP insinuated it.
At the end of the day, the CL is a cup competition, not a League match. Sometimes the quality is there and sometimes you get matches like this. I thought it was quite entertaining. It's not the first time we have seen some high scoring CL matches.
It really wasn't. Some amazing ties. The same Coruña that lost 8-3 in the group stage against Monaco managed to eliminate a strong AC Milan after losing 3-0 away in the first leg. Morientes playing for Monaco was amazing in a few games and destroyed his own Real Madrid (5-5 on agg or whatever it was).
Semis were a quite boring and fearful Porto - Coruña (1-0) and a rather interesting Monaco - Chelsea (5-3 ).
It was atypical but some great matches were played.
Monaco had a player sent off in the semifinals against Chelsea I think. Still won the tie.
What I don't understand is why quality is assumed to be the case when defenses come out on top? John Terry, the other day was asked about this current City team for example and how the record breaking Chelsea team he played for in 2005 and 2006 would have defended against them. Many on here would no doubt tell us that teams of the past were stronger defensively and that we would not see the likes of City or Liverpool be as good offensively except that the man himself, his response was that he does not remember offenses being as fast back then, he mentioned the speed with which teams play today and how it makes him very unsure if they could have handled them. He also talked about refereeing and how back then, he might have gotten away witch much more than defenders today.
If we apply the same logic that says this year is devoid of quality because of defensive weakness, surely that means 10 years ago, it was devoid quality because attacks were inferior? This is clearly wrong though as teams from the past just like ones nowadays can only play what's in front of them. The priorities keep shifting and teams adapt accordingly. There was a time when the likes of Atlético Madrid or Juventus with their brilliant deep defensive lines would have won a few CLs between them and that might still come in the future but as is the case nowadays, they have been coming up short against brilliant offensive setups that come in different shapes and forms from the individual brilliance of Barcelona and Real to the collective quality of the likes of Bayern.
If we apply the same logic that says this year is devoid of quality because of defensive weakness, surely that means 10 years ago, it was devoid quality because attacks were inferior? This is clearly wrong though as teams from the past just like ones nowadays can only play what's in front of them. The priorities keep shifting and teams adapt accordingly. There was a time when the likes of Atlético Madrid or Juventus with their brilliant deep defensive lines would have won a few CLs between them and that might still come in the future but as is the case nowadays, they have been coming up short against brilliant offensive setups that come in different shapes and forms from the individual brilliance of Barcelona and Real to the collective quality of the likes of Bayern.
Perhaps you preferred Rafa's 'shit-on-a-stick' guide to getting to a CL final.
Sorry, the Champions League is great and Liverpool have done amazing to get there.
He had to beat Chelsea, Juventus and Milan to win the thing.
If he'd have employed klopp's tactics you wouldn't have got past Chelsea.
They were defeated by Rijkaard's Barcelona, who used more proactive tactics, the following season.
If Liverpool played like Klopp's teams in 2005, they would have lost, because they didn't have the personnel to effectuate Klopp's tactics.
2012 UCL Semis were much better in terms of quality though. These are the Real - Bayern games (couldn't find a better first leg highlights video sorry) and the other tie (Barcelona - Chelsea) was far better than Liverpool - Roma too.
It was quite incredible the amount of goals scored over the two ties that were just the result of rank bad defending.
Very few? Both Liverpool goals in the 2nd leg was bad defending especially the first goal. Roma's first was comical, their 4th was the ref giving them the goal because the game was over.
First match was ripe with awful defenses. Manolas better not be out of a contract because he looked about as bad as you can look as a CB. There was no marking in any of the goals. Salah literally walked past a player and passed it to another player inside the box who didn't have to make a run to be free of a marker because there was no marking.
Liverpool barely had to play yesterday because Roma were so poor in the firsr
I leg and so Liverpool showed up barely playing. They were quite bad but still scored 2 goals quite easily.
Look at the attack leading up to their 2nd goal. The Roma player is level with Robertson when the pass is made. It's like he's instructed to not track back, so little did he try. Robertson is allowed to waltz all the way to byline and managed to find the only Liverpool player in the box because yet again, no marking.
To me they were poor matches of football. First leg had some really poor passing, both sides where under 80% completion. Tbf to Liverpool they didn't really had to play much in the 2nd leg. They were 5-2 so their performance didn't matter as long as they won it. They were also comfortably the better side in the first leg but I've seen them play a lot better this season and not win so easily, remember they could have scored more.
Over the 2 legs Roma showed about 90 minutes of horrible football. Not bad football but horrible. They "only" conceded 7.
Obviously I'd be stoked as a Liverpool supporter but I'd be concerned about concededing goals so easily. They showed much better defending against Porto and City.
I dont care if it was devoid of quality or not. Only thing that matters is we are not playing it. EOD they are playing semi final because they have won their respective knock out games, so I would assume they have certain quality, otherwise they wont be there. And even good quality sides can play scrappy games.
Bravo Ser Jon Snow
You're the glass half empty kinda guy to makes this thread. I watch games for entertainment and this CL season was one of the best in recent memory in that regard.
Depor should've won that year, shame they came up against Mourinho.
They took out Milan in the quarters. Lost at San Siro 4-1, won at Riazor 4-0....
The tie between Bayern and Real was very disappointing this year. Looking back, early Jose's Chelsea made some of the most exciting games in the Champions League. The likes of Robben, Drogba, Essien, even Damien Duff, always made for an interesting watch. More recently, the Germans and Spaniards' clashes over the years, also had interesting drama. Although it got boring fast.
2007 actually (the season after). We lost 1-0 in the home leg, but we went through courtesy of a strong performance in the first leg Nou Camp where we won 2-1. The home performance was actually even better than away where we won, even though we lost - I think Barca expected us to sit back and soak up pressure but we came flying out of the blocks (it was a very similar performance to the Suarez-led 5-1 mauling of Arsenal) and had something like 10 shots on target in the first half alone - Valdes made a few good saves and I think both Masch and Sissoko (of all people!) hit the woodwork (or forced good saves from Valdes) from long range.
If not for Valdes, Barca were going into that second half 2-0 down or worse. Second half we sat back and let them come to us, but Barca didn't come too close. They were allowed the ball up until the half way/40 yard line, then we pressed. A prime Ronaldinho and a young Messi were shut down very effectively.
BBC shows Liverpool having 15 shots on goal, 9 on target; Barca having 7 shots on goal, 5 on target during the game.
With Rafa, we were always more in control of games. Yes the games were 'boring' but we also typically choked the life out of the opposition, certainly in Europe. Taking a 1-0 lead into the second leg, I was confident pretty much every time that Liverpool would go through.
Under Klopp, we're definitely more 'entertaining' to watch and more swashbuckling but I'm never confident, not even going 3-0 into a second leg (or 5-2).
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We've broken the record for most goals scored in a single campaign. I'm definitely entertained.
I also quite like this approach of "less need to worry about the 2nd leg, if you blow the opposition out of the water in the 1st leg."
I also quite like this approach of "less need to worry about the 2nd leg, if you blow the opposition out of the water in the 1st leg."
Remember that game, it was mental. What a capitulation. Diego Tristan was a beast for a while, I remember when he put one past us because Barthez and Brown were trying to reenact keystone cops on the edge of the box that time.
Losing to Porto was really end of era for Depor, Irrueta left that summer and many of the squad then left although Valeron and Manuel Pablo stuck around for a bit.
Great great team that should've won the CL at some point.
I think the real problem is that people start taking things for granted, like Liverpool displaying a perfectly executed transition based game, or Bayern going to the Bernabeu and dominating Real on their own turf.
When Klopp did it first with Dortmund or Guardiola dominated Clasicos people were blown away by it, but now they are used to it and instead focus some details to judge things, forgetting the bigger picture.
When Klopp did it first with Dortmund or Guardiola dominated Clasicos people were blown away by it, but now they are used to it and instead focus some details to judge things, forgetting the bigger picture.
I meant Chelsea in 2006.
I remember the 2007 tie, wasn't there a golf club incident?