your favourite 'tactical' victories of all-time?

phelans shorts

Full Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
27,217
Location
Gaz. Is a Mewling Quim.
Some that come to mind that aren't "Put 11 men behind the ball and pray" are.

Capello's Milan vs Barca 93/94 final. Barca were hugely fancied and Capello annihalated them.
Van Gaals Ajax vs Milan the very next season.
Pep's Barca vs United in 2011 although favourites Barca dominated a Sir Alex side like nothing I'd ever seen to that point.
Madrid vs Pep's Bayern: Hammering away in Germany.

I have no idea why those park the bus and pray tactics are seen as more tactical than when playing real football.
Nothing makes anyone sound like more of a arsehole than using a term like “real football”. All styles are real football.
 

Arruda

Love is in the air, everywhere I look around
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
12,584
Location
Azores
Supports
Porto
Mourinho scumming his way to European cups with Porto. Never has diving and play acting been so crucial to a teams success.
This is nonsense.

Looking back, Porto's success in those two years was extraordinary merit coupled with some luck. Luck in the sense that in Europe there was not a single real giant in good form in both competitions. I only remember a tie in which we weren't favourites, which was, coincidentally, against United. And, as expected, it was an extremely tight tie, we won in the last minute and still benefitted from one of the most blatantly wrong offside calls ever. All other European games we had in those two years, we could say we were at least a bit favourites, or even at best. The extraordinary merit was the consistency of performances, efficacy (CL final a prime example)... Both domestically and European.

Monaco, Lyon, AC Milan, Coruña, provided all the fun, spectacle, surprising results.

Diving was nothing special. You remember too much of a game in which we were underdogs, it's expected for it to happen. The rest was just standard for "Latin" football of the era. It was more visible because we won cups, but we didn't win because of that.
 

Markolan

Full Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2017
Messages
855
Location
Italy
Supports
AC Milan
Mourinho for Inter against Barca was very overrated. Barca were robbed, Bojan’s goal should have stood at the end of the game. In that case, nobody would have remembered Mourinho’s lucky smash and grab, which would never work in 90% of games.
Your comment is criminally wrong and biased imho:

1. Piquè goal shouldn't have stood as he was offside so the game would have probably finished 0-0 without it..


2. "Bojan's goal" doesn't exist. Referee stopped the game even BEFORE Bojan touched the ball because of handball from one of his teammates.. It's irrelevant if it really was handball or not, referee blew SECONDS before Bojan's attempt so there is NO goal..

3. Thiago Motta's red card was too harsh.. Let's not forget one of the most famous images in the history of this sport:

It doesnt look like Busquets was suffering so much from Motta soft slap..

Barcelona got robbed in the first match probably as Milito goal shouldn't have stood and there was a clear penalty on Dani Alves but the match at Camp Nou was one of the greatest tactical matches of all time
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,339
yeah, like him or not, the Inter vs Barca game was legendary and was Jose's finest game. I don't actually remember Barca doing much at all, they just couldn't find any space to play through or move the defenders/midfielders about. Most teams would park the bus against that team but still get bossed but Inter just contained them really well for the most part.
 

KeanoMagicHat

Full Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2019
Messages
4,026
2. "Bojan's goal" doesn't exist. Referee stopped the game even BEFORE Bojan touched the ball because of handball from one of his teammates.. It's irrelevant if it really was handball or not, referee blew SECONDS before Bojan's attempt so there is NO goal..
It does matter because it was a terrible decision by the ref and if he doesn’t blow, Bojan is on his own in the box with a shot on goal.
 

Arruda

Love is in the air, everywhere I look around
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
12,584
Location
Azores
Supports
Porto
No, no it is not.

Disgusting bunch of whingers, cry babies and cheats.
It's a silly hyperbole which you keep in your mind because a barely known dude named Derlei went down a bit too easy to win a glorified corner kick. All that followed after that, a last minute loss, Mourinho's crazy celebration, and what he turned out to be means you guys in here make too much of it. At the end of the day, just a fecking free kick in the first knockout round of a CL. Far worse things have happened, including in finals, since then.

You probably barely remember much about Porto other than the game against United anyway, that would be a far too biased memory. Common anyway, I've been here far too much time and had this dumb discussion too many times.

Christ, teams like Barcelona did it far more consistently throughout seasons after seasons, just look at the discussion above... No one says it was crucial to their success.
 

didz

Full Member
Joined
May 17, 2014
Messages
1,553
A lot of people will just put it down to a bad Barcelona side, but Bayern's 8-2 over them was tactically pretty brilliant.

Ruthless pressing to exploit the naive Barca buildup, the use of wingers to pin Semedo in particular and isolate Messi, the direct balls into a lively Lewandowski with Muller absolutely everywhere - the plan was pretty clear and Bayern were absolutely relentlessly in applying it.

Also the fact that it was a meeting of two sides that wanted to play high, send fullbacks up, and attack, with Bayern really doubling down on their style when they could have been forgiven for being cautious in a one-off tie was impressive.
 

Bastian

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
18,563
Supports
Mejbri
Oh, forgot Bilbao vs United in the EL. Suicidal pressing worked against a team that couldn't adjust over two legs.
2-1 and 3-2, but it could have been much much worse.
Yeah. The most impressive I've been with a side against United. Schooled us.
 

CarbonStoolBites

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 23, 2022
Messages
584
Oh, forgot Bilbao vs United in the EL. Suicidal pressing worked against a team that couldn't adjust over two legs.
2-1 and 3-2, but it could have been much much worse.
Bilbao were fantastic, absolutely.
But, that was not a good United side that day.
Giggs and Jones in midfield, Park and Young on the wings, hardly a vintage United team.
 

kaiser1

Full Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2018
Messages
2,033
Supports
Bayern Munich
I will give the Bayern 7-0 vs Barcelona
Another good shout was Milan 4 Barcelona 0
Not games where you spend the entire game in your box and your keeper was MOTM
 

klayton88

Full Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2015
Messages
4,376
The game against Chelsea where Herrera man marked hazard totally out of the game. Ander was a fly on shit for 90m.
 

CarbonStoolBites

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 23, 2022
Messages
584
That 1-0 victory vs Jose’s imperious Chelsea, where we were shit and Chelsea were on a 40 game unbeaten run in the league. Fletcher scored the winning goal:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/4387838.stm

It then spurred us onto 3 consecutive league titles in 06/07/08 a season or two later.
One of my favorite United matches of all time.
Was the first match after the 1-4 loss at Boro and the whole Roy Keane MUTV thing.

Will always have fond memories of Alan Smith as a United player because of that game.
He was literally Kante on steroids that night.
Never seen anyone before or since make 3 sliding tackles in the space of 2 seconds, not to mention him kicking Terry in the bollocks.

Loved it.
 

Suedesi

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
23,869
Location
New York City
Give us some examples of reasonably big or legendary games where the match may not have been a classic but demonstrated a clear tactical triumph that was either unexpected or from an underdog. A great tactical victory in the context i'm thinking of is a win where an opponent's strengths are nullified or their weaknesses exploited and where the opponents are just about evenly matched or the winner was expected to lose quite badly to a superior team. It can also have a bit of luck/good fortune but not enough to be purely 'lucky'. I'd like to see examples of clear design and intent not just surviving an onslaught (Pompey vs United in 08 for example). Two examples that spring to my mind are:

  • Inter Milan vs Barcelona 2010: Jose- "We didn't park the bus that day. We parked an entire airplane with its wings spread out." Beating what is often described as the greatest club side in history, Inter pulled off a defensive masterclass. I think they were even reduced to ten men for a good chunk of the game?
  • Man United Vs Liverpool 1996: It was meant to be a super exciting match between two great attacking football teams. It was not :lol: . Sir Alex had Keane pretty much man-mark McManaman and in doing so nullified Liverpool's attack completely. I even read one account saying that the move 'destroyed the game as a spectacle' which was pretty stupid but it was a legendary performance from Keane and a tactical victory for Sir Alex against a side that actually really caused us problems in the previous 3-4 games.

Older matches are welcome.
Milan Barcelona 4-0
Champions League Final
Athens

"Milan playing a defensive football , we play attacking so we are winning"- Cruyff before game

This extraordinary performance by Milan completely annihilated Cruyff's 'Dream Team', and what a tactical masterclass it was. It was feared that a Milan without Baresi, Costacurta and an injured Van Basten would not have be able to deal with Romario - Stoitchkov - Laudrup. Well they destroyed Cruyff's Barcelona by taking the game to the Catalans, choking the midfield and could have scored 6 or 7



 

JSArsenal

Full Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
1,730
I'm not seeing enough Arsenal shouts in here

2005 Fa cup final
1-0 in the San Siro
The entire 2006 run - Wenger's tactics were flawless throughout and we got robbed. Leaving aside big games, I'd say when we beat Liverpool at Anfield when Arshavin scored the winner. The second half was one of the best Arsenal turnarounds I've ever seen in terms of how we were playing.
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,339
Milan Barcelona 4-0
Champions League Final
Athens

"Milan playing a defensive football , we play attacking so we are winning"- Cruyff before game

This extraordinary performance by Milan completely annihilated Cruyff's 'Dream Team', and what a tactical masterclass it was. It was feared that a Milan without Baresi, Costacurta and an injured Van Basten would not have be able to deal with Romario - Stoitchkov - Laudrup. Well they destroyed Cruyff's Barcelona by taking the game to the Catalans, choking the midfield and could have scored 6 or 7



:lol:

Great third goal in particular. It's weird seeing Capello without glasses though.
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,339
I'm not seeing enough Arsenal shouts in here

2005 Fa cup final
1-0 in the San Siro
The entire 2006 run - Wenger's tactics were flawless throughout and we got robbed. Leaving aside big games, I'd say when we beat Liverpool at Anfield when Arshavin scored the winner. The second half was one of the best Arsenal turnarounds I've ever seen in terms of how we were playing.
How on living earth was that a tactical masterclass? You were battered for 120 minutes, your midfield was dominated by Keane and Fletcher and your fullbacks were wrecked by a young Ronaldo and Rooney. It was the purest good fortune that Ruud had one of the worst games he had for United. Even the commentators said you got away with murder that day :lol:
 

Moriarty

Full Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
19,066
Location
Reichenbach Falls
England v Portugal 1966. Ramsey detailed Nobby to man-mark Eusebio and Jack Charlton on Torres. Mario Coluna, their playmaker, was shackled by Bobby Charlton and couldn't find room to supply Eusebio. However, it might have been different as Portugal had two good claims for penalties turned down by the French referee before he finally gave one. All in all, Ramsey got it right and booked a place in the final.
 

JSArsenal

Full Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
Messages
1,730
How on living earth was that a tactical masterclass? You were battered for 120 minutes, your midfield was dominated by Keane and Fletcher and your fullbacks were wrecked by a young Ronaldo and Rooney. It was the purest good fortune that Ruud had one of the worst games he had for United. Even the commentators said you got away with murder that day :lol:
Henry out with no recognised striker as a replacement, Senderos in defence and Ashley Cole got a yellow card early I think. I remember it being a job well done, we came for a 0-0 or scrappy 1-0 win and got the job done on penalties.

I might be forgetting the battering though. ;)
 

Oranges038

Full Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2020
Messages
12,122
It's a silly hyperbole which you keep in your mind because a barely known dude named Derlei went down a bit too easy to win a glorified corner kick. All that followed after that, a last minute loss, Mourinho's crazy celebration, and what he turned out to be means you guys in here make too much of it. At the end of the day, just a fecking free kick in the first knockout round of a CL. Far worse things have happened, including in finals, since then.

You probably barely remember much about Porto other than the game against United anyway, that would be a far too biased memory. Common anyway, I've been here far too much time and had this dumb discussion too many times.

Christ, teams like Barcelona did it far more consistently throughout seasons after seasons, just look at the discussion above... No one says it was crucial to their success.
Relax. My initial post was just a joke.
 

GatoLoco

Full Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2018
Messages
3,296
Supports
Real Madrid
Milan Barcelona 4-0
Champions League Final
Athens

"Milan playing a defensive football , we play attacking so we are winning"- Cruyff before game

This extraordinary performance by Milan completely annihilated Cruyff's 'Dream Team', and what a tactical masterclass it was. It was feared that a Milan without Baresi, Costacurta and an injured Van Basten would not have be able to deal with Romario - Stoitchkov - Laudrup. Well they destroyed Cruyff's Barcelona by taking the game to the Catalans, choking the midfield and could have scored 6 or 7



Stoichkov in the 24th minute of the game :annoyed:
 

Lentwood

Full Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
6,833
Location
West Didsbury, Manchester
I have never seen United dominate Liverpool at Anfield like we did under LvG. It's not that we won by a large margin or created tonnes of chances but we totally controlled the games, which is almost impossible to do in that environment...so I'd put those games up there...particularly 'Juanfield'.
 

Suedesi

Full Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
23,869
Location
New York City
I have never seen United dominate Liverpool at Anfield like we did under LvG. It's not that we won by a large margin or created tonnes of chances but we totally controlled the games, which is almost impossible to do in that environment...so I'd put those games up there...particularly 'Juanfield'.
Good shout - LVG was a master tactician and for a brief time when it clicked it was amazing. Juanfield but also Spurs and City afterwards. Then Jose pulled a park the bus with an Eden Hazard moment of genius and we fell to pieces
 

SCP

Full Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2016
Messages
5,941
Location
Lisbon
Supports
Sporting Clube Portugal
Second leg of the Champions League Semifinal at Old Trafford between United and Dortmund in 97 where after winning 1:0 at Dortmund and without important players before and during the match related to injuries, they won 1:0 again against a strong United team.

Possibly post Heysel ban for the first time an English team was looking genuinely good at Champions League level.

On that semifinal and in the final against Juventus Hitzfeld proved he was a top coach at Champions League level if anyone was in doubt.
 
Last edited:

little.triangles

New Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2022
Messages
306
I have never seen United dominate Liverpool at Anfield like we did under LvG. It's not that we won by a large margin or created tonnes of chances but we totally controlled the games, which is almost impossible to do in that environment...so I'd put those games up there...particularly 'Juanfield'.
Yes, Juanfield was the only time I have heard Anfield be so tepid from start to finish in a Liverpool-United derby. We passed them to death and actually the scoreline could have been better had Rooney not missed a late penalty.

Edit: oh, and Gerrard got sent off 38 seconds after coming on from the bench :lol:
 

Trequarista10

Full Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2020
Messages
2,541
I love how people always bring up Mourinho's defensive shite as 'tactical masterclasses' in threads like these. As if parking the bus and praying for something on the counter
is in any way impressive. Inter were second best against Barca, but got lucky. Just as they were in the final. But sure, 'masterclass' indeed.

If not for a shite ref Hiddink (I'm drunk) would've achieved the same against Pep's Barca with the same tactics a year before Mourinho did. And his Chelsea deserved to win over the two games way more than Inter did.
It wasn't a case of praying for something lucky on the counter. The already had a lead from the home leg, they didn't need another goal. The only aim was to not concede two goals, down to 10 men after 20 odd minutes, against the greatest club side of all time. The concentration, application and togetherness of the performance was admirable. I said earlier I don't think it's a great 'tactical victory', but it was fantastic execution of the tactics required. It was fascinating to watch essentially a game of attack vs defence, and you could see by the way they celebrated every block pr tackle that it was a team with great spirit all committed to one another and to the cause.
 

HookedOnAPhelan

Full Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2022
Messages
3,697
Location
Norway
It wasn't a case of praying for something lucky on the counter. The already had a lead from the home leg, they didn't need another goal. The only aim was to not concede two goals, down to 10 men after 20 odd minutes, against the greatest club side of all time. The concentration, application and togetherness of the performance was admirable. I said earlier I don't think it's a great 'tactical victory', but it was fantastic execution of the tactics required. It was fascinating to watch essentially a game of attack vs defence, and you could see by the way they celebrated every block pr tackle that it was a team with great spirit all committed to one another and to the cause.
I think that's a better description of it, yes.
 

giorno

boob novice
Joined
Jul 20, 2016
Messages
26,561
Supports
Real Madrid
Capello spoke of the '94 final mentioning how the night before the game he couldn't sleep fearing Cruyff might throw all his plans out the window by playing Laudrup - who they had not prepared for and would thus throw their gameplan apart - and when he saw barcelona's official lineup without Laudrup, he told his players they had won the CL - in the dressing before the game

yes, tactical victory all around
 

rcoobc

Not as crap as eferyone thinks
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
41,697
Location
C-137
United Barca 2008

Rio was a colossus.
This instantly comes to mind,

Also the 2005 FA Cup Final vs Arsenal


Have a look at these stats


StatisticArsenalManchester United
Goals scored00
Possession56%44%
Shots on target18
Shots off target412
Corner kicks112
Offsides36
Fouls3023
Yellow cards31
Red cards10

Arsenal were completely nullified that game. They produced absolutely nothing. For 120 minutes they had more possession but couldn't do anything with it.








If we hadn't lost it on penalties, I think it would have gone down as one of the greatest tactical performances ever.

I see a lot of similarities between that FA Cup final and the Semi Finals against Barcelona 3 years later.
 

DJ_21

Evens winner of 'Odds or Evens 2022/2023'
Joined
Aug 31, 2015
Messages
12,074
Location
Manchester
The game against Chelsea where Herrera man marked hazard totally out of the game. Ander was a fly on shit for 90m.
This is the one I was thinking of aswell. Best man marked performance I’ve seen.
 

Dancfc

Full Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2016
Messages
7,406
Supports
Chelsea
Hiddink for Russia in Euro 2008 against Holland (that game that got Arshavin noticed) is up there for me.

Holland smashed Italy and France in the group and looked absolutely sensational but Hiddink and Russia totally nullified them and all be it in extra time advanced pretty comfortably.
 

izak

Full Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2016
Messages
1,426
Supports
Glory Glory Red Devils
This is the one I was thinking of aswell. Best man marked performance I’ve seen.
Gattuso on C.Ronaldo at the San Siro was much better tbh.
 

VanDeBank

Ma’am
Joined
May 13, 2021
Messages
4,862
Inter Barca.

I think the "tactical genius" component of our EL final over Ajax is overstated. Pogba's goal started from a throw in.
 

CarbonStoolBites

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Apr 23, 2022
Messages
584
Inter Barca.

I think the "tactical genius" component of our EL final over Ajax is overstated. Pogba's goal started from a throw in.
Yeah I don’t see how that was a “tactical masterclass” when we were the far superior side on paper.
All I remember was Fellaini bullying their tiny midfielders that looked like school boys next to him.
 

Irwin99

Full Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2018
Messages
9,339
Inter Barca.

I think the "tactical genius" component of our EL final over Ajax is overstated. Pogba's goal started from a throw in.
Yeah the plan was just cede possession as they were never going to do anything with it. Fellaini and Herrera pretty much shut the midfield up and I don't think Smalling or Blind were threatened once. Not really a tactical masterclass considering the wealth disparity on each side too, we were very much expected to win.