UEFA Champions League 2015/2016

fd1972uk said:
How tough are Atletico, one of the best defensive units I've saw.
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Yep, defensively, this might be one of the best teams ever! Every player knows his exact role, when to cover for a teammates... and when to hold shape, etc. Extremely impressive as far as defensive discipline and organization go! :WORSHIP:

Simeone knows how to win and does anything required to do so.
 
No Casemiro and Benzema for Real
No Toure and Silva for us

CRonaldo back

City --> :COAT: <--CRonaldo

Pellegrini and his stupid 1st leg sub... We had a great chance to take a lead into tomorrow night
 
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Its a incredible energetic squad w/ a more passionate boss ,a bit of a nutter lol .

I hope AtlMadrid wins the lot! If MCity don`t make the final.
 
I think this is Atletico's year. They'll do it this time.
I know they have higher chances against City, but they can do it also against Madrid.
 
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Godotelli said:
Seems it's the year of defensive football
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Why though? Just because of Atleti, Leicester & Hertha?

Atleti are a great counter-attacking side and imo great to watch when they actually try to play it forwards.

Guardiola had similar experiences in the CL-semis of 09, 10 & 12, right? (albeit vs weaker teams)
 
I have to say over the course of two games both teams had deserved to go through, but the theatricals yesterday and especially Simeone's behavior to not deserve to be a CL winner. If you park the bus like that from minute 1 onwards and try to gain every second then you destroy this game. And I now really hope Real beats them in a final again.

But I don't want to blame it on them only, we had our chances to score and we didn't loose it yesterday, but with the harakiri tactics in game one, especially with leaving Müller out for so long and playing like children in the first half. Sad to say, but obviously we have to come back next year (again) and try to make it further then the semis. Although without Guardiola we might finally find against a Spanish club again...
 
S-NipE said:
I have to say over the course of two games both teams had deserved to go through, but the theatricals yesterday and especially Simeone's behavior to not deserve to be a CL winner. If you park the bus like that from minute 1 onwards and try to gain every second then you destroy this game. And I now really hope Real beats them in a final again.

But I don't want to blame it on them only, we had our chances to score and we didn't loose it yesterday, but with the harakiri tactics in game one, especially with leaving Müller out for so long and playing like children in the first half. Sad to say, but obviously we have to come back next year (again) and try to make it further then the semis. Although without Guardiola we might finally find against a Spanish club again...
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To be fair it ain't just Atletico and for me the biggest play actor probably in Europe is your no.9, an amazing striker, but total embarrassment.

Bayern were unlucky, but I'm happy for Atletico as their defensive play is just so brilliant to watch.

Also, whilst they were sat back in the 2nd half, they did a lot better in the 2nd half and for a good part of the opening of the 2nd half, they were all over Bayern.


FD
 
It's is a litle bit silly to consider Atletico a team that is only about defending, just look at the forwards they have had over the past years, among the best in the world: Aguëro, Falcao (when he was top), Villa, Diego Costa and now Torres and Griezmann and i even forget some...

In the first half, Atletico found no answer against the attacks and the pressure of Bayern but sadly Muller missed the penalty.

In the second half Simeone reshuffled his cards and with a sublime Carrasco instead of a more defense minded player (the Argentine DMF, can't remember his name), Atletico were much more dangerous...

Antoine Griezmann is a class act.

IMO Pep failed as Bayern coach...
 
gerd said:
IMO Pep failed as Bayern coach...
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I know why a lot of peolpe & media outlets think the same (expected a CL title) but I'm curious as to what is YOUR reason for thinking that way.


To me Atleti's attacking greatness since '14 does not primarily come from individual quality (although having Costa/Griezmann helps a lot) but from their interplay whenever they can attack a retreating defense at speed. They make the right runs, create space for each other and consistently spot their teammates' runs. It's often beautiful to me and the chance were Torres hit the post last week was a good example.
 
Well, I think Pep failed because the Bayern board did not get him with the goal to just win the Bundesliga. I reckon he thinks he's failed himself as well.
 
Well, if a big club like Bayern hire a star coach like Guardiola and he is there several years (3?), then one might expect (with all te resources they have)that they can at least win the CL once...he didn't, so he failed...

Bayern play "better football" than under Heynckes? Some might agree, others won't, but you don't buy anything with good football...

He won the Bundesliga every year? He should with that squad and also considering that fact that the biggest opponent (Dortmund) looses his best players year after year (and often to Bayern: Lewandowski and Götze)...

I'm not so sure anymore about Guardiola. If he hadwon the Bundesliga with teams like Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, Dortmund or (even better) Mainz, Augsburg or Hannover, that would have been fantastic. But he won it with Bayern...

Had he won La Liga with Athletic de Bilbao, Real Sociedad, Sevilla or Rayo Vallecano, that would have been great. But he won it with Barcelona...you only have two sides that are really competitive: Atletico Madrid and Real. And his biggest ally was Real Marid's president who does everything to make sure Real Madrid are not competitive, i.e. being a collection of ego's but not a team...

Winning the CL with Manchester City would be huge...but it would be very ironic if Pellegrini did it this year...winning both the EPL and the CL would be the ultimate achievement.

Still Heynckes left him a much better team than Pellegrini...
 
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It's not like the Bundesliga is the SPL. There are good teams in there. Having the best players in the league doesn't guarantee success year after year. Bayern have had the best players for a good chunk of their history and yet have had a tendency towards boom and bust at times. This year will be the first time ever they have won 4 titles on the bounce (Heynckes didn't win anything in his first year). Part of being a top manager is about keeping the players winning.

Look at Chelsea this year. Indeed look at recent winners City and Utd this year too. Leicester win the title with a low points total whilst the teams with the best players and bigger budgets are mismanaged.

No other coach is put under as much scrutiny as Guardiola and that's because he is held to his own incredibly high standards.

Muller scores the pen and they go through to probably lift the trophy. Small margins. It is a cup competition afterall.
Di Matteo is not a top manager yet he has won the CL. If we somehow win it this year it does not make Pellegrini a top manager.
 
I kind of agree with that post, Godot.
I didn't say Guardiola was pants, i'm just not sure he is that fantastic coach everybody makes him.
It's true that it's a game of small margins and certainly in cups, but he has had at least 3 years with Bayern. If you have 3 years and you can't win a CL with that team ans those resources, you have failed...and failing does not automatically implies Pep is a bad coach...
 
Interesting opinion on FW about Simeone: basically we like him because he's not in our league (said as a prem fan). He's just like Jose in terms of not sticking to things like rules or etiquette. He literally threw a ball onto the pitch to stop a counter attack. Cheating of the very highest order imo. He basically hit a 4th official last night!

It's amazing that they've gotten to another final, but I'm not sure we should be applauding Simeone's antics. Tactics, sure, though I maintain it's easier to play negative football than positive.

Will be interesting to see how football's next tactical evolution happens now that teams like Atleti and Leicester have done so well. Screw possession, it's about being solid and having the talent at the top of the pitch to turn small windows of opportunity into goals.
 
beachryan said:
Interesting opinion on FW about Simeone: basically we like him because he's not in our league (said as a prem fan). He's just like Jose in terms of not sticking to things like rules or etiquette. He literally threw a ball onto the pitch to stop a counter attack. Cheating of the very highest order imo. He basically hit a 4th official last night!
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The difference to Jose is that Jose had some charme, at least to me. Simeone is just borderline all the time in a very unattractive way to me. To be fair though, he seemingly didn't hit an official, but someone from the team (second coach or something was said on German TV). Still that is something you have to control on that level.

And I agree with Gerd on Guardiola, even if he is the best statistical manager in Bundesliga history I think he didn't succeed at Bayern, many other coaches would have won the league with that team in the last years. I doubt he is the great coach everyone says he is, he was at least having great material during his spells. Not sad he is finally going.
 
Sour grapes!!! Cholo is brilliant he plays vs Barça/RM the work is cut out from him. Mouthe yawnbite never had a squad like the might king cholo! You lots can't mention players that left and said he had a decent squad one player is not suffice. F-Off Wenger you full plum.
Beach typical way to praise your new parasite boss :yawn: the f'n :yawn: I will be in MUTD thread from day. One until he leaves!! Get use to me bud.
 
- about Atletico, to be fair, they deserve to win the Cup.
- about Simeone, I see him as a scumbag as person, so he's a bad example as a coach, a coach for me is about respect.
- about Guardiola, he clearly wants to revolutionnise football, and put some new experiments, but, he could only do that against the likes of Hoffenheim, Darmstadt and Co, where he plays with 2-5-3 or whatever ... but against big teams and tough opponents, he's practically clueless. As mentioned here, Guardiola's tactics need Super players, I don't think he can do anything with lesser players.
 
so i hope Atletico wins this time... :)) would be deserved for what they did in last few years..
 
So criticism of Guardiola here is all about his success, not the football happening on the pitch, right?

Was Alex Ferguson a failure for rarely winning the CL, despite domestic domination?

Has anybody ever seen another coach that was EXPECTED to win the CL? (not sure Rummenigge & co. actually expected it of Pep, possibly just an idea pushed by media)

Was nobody else amazed by Bayern's performance yesterday? Personally I have never seen Simeone's Atleti (with 11 men) being torn apart this bad. Sure, focusing on crossing and immediately winning the 2nd balls through that chokehold counter-pressing structure was not the most visually pleasing approach but man did Bayern control the game.. Usually Atleti dictate the way every game is played but not this time..

Pep has his faults, but how well are his strengths actually understood?

Are Ranieri, Magath, Di Matteo better coaches than Pep for overperforming their squads? Did Pep not overperform his squads?
Like Godotelli said, are Pellegrini & Zidane better coaches or had better seasons than Allegri & Luis Enrique?
 
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I don't get the Pep hate honestly.

On topic the real vs Man city game is the worst semi final that I can remember in a long time.

With a route that real had would be a travesty if they win this year
PSG
Shakhtar
Malmö
Roma
Wolfsburg
City
 
As I suspected we lost that in the first leg with the dumb sub and change of shape after Silva's injury.
Real get an early goal and because we didn't win the 1st leg they don't need another and could just be quite conservative, neutralising any space for us to counter.
Disappointing to see that we didn't really look like we wanted to win in the end. Why not throw Mangala upfront for the last 5-10 mins? No urgency in a CL SF needing 1 goal to go through! We play like Pellegrini looks!


Aside from that, pretty disgusted that Vasquez played the last 15 and what is it with Spanish GKs and 'injuries' in injury time?
 
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