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Champions League
Topic Started: Aug 1 2008, 07:30 AM (4,234 Views)
historyman
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An astonishing performance from Liverpool last night, coupled with an embarrassing display by Real. Surely that was one of the most ordinary sides that Madrid have ever fielded, as you just had the feeling that they were totally powerless against Liverpool's onslaught.

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Johnbuildr
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Mr. Pither,Mar 10 2009
11:55 PM
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Juve did play well against Chelsea but I did not understand why Ranieri took iaquinta off. To me he was their ebst player prior to that. But what a match off the bench from Sebastian Giovinco. He was a real handfull for Chelsea. JUve were threatening for the potential game winner when Drogba struck on the other end. I agree with those saying it looks like Chelsea has that ruthlessness back again. Helps to have a healthy Drogba and Essien too. ..................


An interesting game, where the home crowd seemed to have little positive effect on Juve and no negative effect on Chelsea. Save one or two Juve chants in the first half one would have been hard pressed to guess where the match was being played.
Drogba and Essien were the difference after all, weren't they? They, and some fine keeper play. Enjoyable match where the ref was pleasingly mostly invisible.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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raconteur
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Juve-Chelsea was an enjoyable match and was one of thsoe games which could go either way but Chelsea responded well to Juve's pressure with that late goal from Drogba. Two things hurt Juventus in my opinion in this game, Nedved's early injury and the sending off of Chiellini. The red card was a silly move by Chiellini, already on a yellow he came from behind on Drogba at midfield trying to win the ball. There was just no need for a foul on that position of the field. No surprise then that without Chiellini on the field it was Drogba who scored the series clinching goal.

I am with historyman, Liverpool-Madrid looked like a match of men vs boys. I have never before seen Real madrid outplayed like they were last night.
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Yogi
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Johnbuildr,Mar 11 2009
06:22 AM
Mr. Pither,Mar 10 2009
11:55 PM
.........................................
Juve did play well against Chelsea but I did not understand why Ranieri took iaquinta off.  To me he was their ebst player prior to that.  But what a match off the bench from Sebastian Giovinco.  He was a real handfull for Chelsea.  JUve were threatening for the potential game winner when Drogba struck on the other end.              I agree with those saying it looks like Chelsea has that ruthlessness back again.  Helps to have a healthy Drogba and Essien too. ..................


An interesting game, where the home crowd seemed to have little positive effect on Juve and no negative effect on Chelsea. Save one or two Juve chants in the first half one would have been hard pressed to guess where the match was being played.
Drogba and Essien were the difference after all, weren't they? They, and some fine keeper play. Enjoyable match where the ref was pleasingly mostly invisible.

I am kind of surprised you would say that John as I thought the fans were quite loud in supporting Juventus and Del Piero apparently thinks the same,

Del Piero: Juventus Fans Were Amazing

I agree with raconteur's comments that Chiellini's sending off was key but even down a man Juventus, with Giovinco running at Chelsea's defense, were looking dangerous. But Chelsea are strong both physically and mentally and withstood the pressure and tooka dvantage of the man advantage to tie the game up and advance on the aggregate score.

Looking forward to Manchester United-Inter, the type of game which the Champions League was invented for!

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Johnbuildr
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Yogi,Mar 11 2009
10:18 AM
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I am kind of surprised you would say that John as I thought the fans were quite loud in supporting Juventus and Del Piero apparently thinks the same,
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Well, possibly I should defer to Del Piero, who happened to have a slight proximate advantage on me last night... :lol:

But, I was going by my impression compared to other UEFA matches I have watched lately. The crowd background noise just did not seem to catch my attention much at all. Too bad it didn't help them hold their one goal lead either.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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Sporting
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Different tv stations seem to capture crowd noise in different ways, which is something you have to take into account in these cases.
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Johnbuildr
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Sporting,Mar 11 2009
11:11 AM
Different tv stations seem to capture crowd noise in different ways, which is something you have to take into account in these cases.

True, and we are talking about espn afterall in this case......
At least their camera feed and production direction from Europe seemed pretty good. Meaning whomever they bought the rights from for espn to telecast in the US did a good job.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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Winslow
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And Wednesday's results...
.
.
.
.
.
.
Barcelona 5, Lyon 2 (6-3 aggregate).
Manchester United 2, Inter Milan 0 (2-0 aggregate).
Porto 0, Atletico Madrid 0 (2-2 aggregate; Porto advances on away goals).
Roma 1, Arsenal 0 AET (1-1 aggregate; Arsenal advances 7-6 on penalties).

Maybe we expected all four EPL clubs to get through, but it's a bit of a stunner that zero Serie A clubs did--though the last England-Italy tie needed a shootout to decide. No details here--who saw it? Man U scored at the four-minute mark in each half, on unmarked headers by Vidic and C. Ronaldo, and generally outplayed Inter again.

Barca ran riot in the first half, toying with Lyon for 22 minutes or so before Henry scored back-to-back goals (first converting a Marquez through pass as the French defense stood there, then finishing a nice build-up move); near the end of the half, Messi dribbled smartly into the area before a slick one-two with Eto'o left the young fella open to score Barca's third. Shortly thereafter, more slack defending left Eto'o open at the top of the box, and he hit a rocket to make it 4-0. Lyon scored before halftime, but never looked likely to make a historic comeback.

Atletico needed away goals and didn't get them, but there will be two Spanish clubs in the quarters. Who would have guessed six months ago that Villarreal would be one of them?
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libero
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I thought this second leg which ended 2-0 in favor of Manchester United was a closer overall game than the first leg which United controlled. But as Winslow wrote, Manchester United scored on a pair of unmarked headers and that was the difference. Ibrahimovic missed a good opportunity in the first and Adriano in as a 2nd half sub hit the bar. You don't take your chances and you won't win particularly against a team as strong defensively as Manchester United.

I didn't see Roma-Arsenal either but Max Tonetto missed the decisive penalty when he did a Roberto Baggio and skied it way over the bar. An impressive win for Barcelona who along with Bayern seem the best non English clubs alive. From what I read Atletico were ultra defensive at Porto and while holding Porto scoreless they forgot they needed to score a goal in order to win the series!

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Juve-Chelsea was an enjoyable match and was one of thsoe games which could go either way but Chelsea responded well to Juve's pressure with that late goal from Drogba. Two things hurt Juventus in my opinion in this game, Nedved's early injury and the sending off of Chiellini. The red card was a silly move by Chiellini, already on a yellow he came from behind on Drogba at midfield trying to win the ball. There was just no need for a foul on that position of the field. No surprise then that without Chiellini on the field it was Drogba who scored the series clinching goal.


I absolutely agree with these comments about Juventus-Chelsea. It was a winnable match for Juventus but the Nedved injury and especially the red card for Chiellini were vital. Chelsea know how to manage a game well and they were able to withstand the Juve onsluaght. Why Iaquinta was taken off I do not know but Giovinco played very well and this should give Juventus hope for the future.

But the present is English clubs are dominating and Italy are now shockingly shut out of the quarterfinals. This has not been a good week for Italian football.
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Don Balon
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Barcelona were excellent against Lyon. The French club are not an easy team but Barcelona dominated them from the start. The passing was clean, the movement intelligent and it is extremely difficult to keep Messi, Eto'o and Henry off the scoreboard. Barca's style of play does give some oportunities to the opposition but Marquez and Pique I thought did well in Puyol's absence.

Atletico Madrid knew they needed to score yet Abel Resino went and played that game as if they had the aggregate lead! he elft Aguero alone up top and alone against 3 or 4 defenders Aguero always was going to struggle. By the time Resino finally brought on Forlan, Porto had reinforced their defense and shut Atleti down.

Real Madrid as others wrote were horrible but also give Liverpool credit for a very good performance. They took it to Madrid from the opening whistle and their speed and passing were just too much to handle. Mascherano and Xabi Alonso also were super in controlling the center of the field.

Good game from Villarreal in winning in Greece. There seem to be putting things right again after two months of below average play. The talent is there and this can still be a tricky opponent in the quarterfinals.

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rosarino
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Vidic and Cristiano Ronaldo were free because of their movement more than defensive mistake sby Inter in my opinion. Vidic fake done way and went the other and elft Vieira glued to the spot on his ehader off the corner early in the game while early in the 2nd half Rooney's cross was headed in by Ronaldo after a perfectly timed run which caught Inter off guard. Give credit where it is due for two well worked goals. Other than those two plays it was a pretty even game and Inter ahd their opportunities but they didn't put them away and United did with thers. That was the difference in what I thought was a good match.

I saw the extra time of Roma-Arsenal and Roma were pressing but could not break through. After Eduardo misse dhis penalty Roma ahd the advantage but Vucinic tried to get too cute and weakly hit his shot up the middle and Almunia save dit. Everyone else converted their kicks until Tonetto blasted his over the bar and Arsenal joined their compatriots in the quarterfinals which is 1/2 English clubs. No question which league has the best teams as this has become a regular occurrence now the past several Champions League.

Barcelona ripped apart a pretty good Lyon team and it is not just the rgeat front three that Don Balon talked about but also the midfield with Xavi and Iniesta directing play and Toure cleaning up behind them. I am looking forward to what the draw will bring us for the quarterfinals.
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raconteur
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Anybody else notice in big games for both club and country Zlatan Ibrahimovic seems to disappear?

I agree with rosarino that both Manchester United goals were the result of intelligent movement to get into great scoring position. All three English-Italy maches were pretty even but apart from Roma-Arsenal which went to the lottery that are penalties, in the other two the English clubs just had the ability to grind out a victory. My hat is off to them for that effort.

I did not see the game but why would Atletico Madrid, a team which I read here has struggled defensively but has a potent attack try and play defensively when they needed a win?
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gaviota
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historyman,Mar 11 2009
09:01 AM
An astonishing performance from Liverpool last night, coupled with an embarrassing display by Real.  Surely that was one of the most ordinary sides that Madrid have ever fielded, as you just had the feeling that they were totally powerless against Liverpool's onslaught.

I 100% agree. I have never before seen Real Madrid look so powerless in a European match. Credit to Liverpool for a fine game and as somebody else wrote Mascherano and Xabi Alonso were super in running the midfield but it was a team effort from Liverpool in rolling over Madrid. If not for Casillas the final score would have been more scandalous.

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Atletico Madrid knew they needed to score yet Abel Resino went and played that game as if they had the aggregate lead! he elft Aguero alone up top and alone against 3 or 4 defenders Aguero always was going to struggle. By the time Resino finally brought on Forlan, Porto had reinforced their defense and shut Atleti down.


This is the question many are asking about Atletico. Their attack was coming off two good games against Barcelona and Real Madrid, so why get so conservative last night when they needed a win? Fear of losing rather than a desire to win seems to grip teams in these circumstances but so often it is those clubs who ultimately fail.
CHAMP13NS
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Manzanares
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gaviota,Mar 12 2009
08:37 AM
historyman,Mar 11 2009
09:01 AM
An astonishing performance from Liverpool last night, coupled with an embarrassing display by Real.  Surely that was one of the most ordinary sides that Madrid have ever fielded, as you just had the feeling that they were totally powerless against Liverpool's onslaught.

I 100% agree. I have never before seen Real Madrid look so powerless in a European match. Credit to Liverpool for a fine game and as somebody else wrote Mascherano and Xabi Alonso were super in running the midfield but it was a team effort from Liverpool in rolling over Madrid. If not for Casillas the final score would have been more scandalous.

Quote:
 
Atletico Madrid knew they needed to score yet Abel Resino went and played that game as if they had the aggregate lead! he elft Aguero alone up top and alone against 3 or 4 defenders Aguero always was going to struggle. By the time Resino finally brought on Forlan, Porto had reinforced their defense and shut Atleti down.


This is the question many are asking about Atletico. Their attack was coming off two good games against Barcelona and Real Madrid, so why get so conservative last night when they needed a win? Fear of losing rather than a desire to win seems to grip teams in these circumstances but so often it is those clubs who ultimately fail.

My glee at Real Madrid's elimination (sorry madridistas) was tempered by Atletico's tame performance last night. As others commented Atletico were way too conervative when their success this season had been achieved with a more attacking formation. Why break up the Forlan-Aguero partnership when you need goals? The club's players but especially Aguero have been quite critical of that tactic which does not sound well for Abel Resino's control of the club house. Porto controlled the game as Atletico could not generate any offense and but for keeper Leo Franco, Porto would have had several goals to their credit.

The ability to go for the jugular is what separated Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea from their opponents this week. I do not envy whichever club gets drawn against any of those three.
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Johnbuildr
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Manzanares,Mar 12 2009
11:04 AM
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The ability to go for the jugular is what separated Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea from their opponents this week. I do not envy whichever club gets drawn against any of those three.-----------

It will be interesting to see how the EPL teams finish this UEFA CL. In recent history, if you call the last 26 years recent, the EPL has not faired well. Since 1984 only three EPL winners.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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