The Ongoing Serie A, La Liga, All English Football, Champions League Thread - - - - - - - Part 16

[aNarcHy2day]

Certainly, erratic refereeing! Erratic match, to be quite honest... I dunno what to make of it! Madrid dominated but Manchester had the better chances... could have very nearly been the smash and grab akin to the Liverpool-West Brom tie!

Ronaldo was put under close watch all day and still scored a beauty! How good is this guy?

All that space afforded to Di Maria allowed him to run the attack in lieu of Ronnie.

Also, Phil Jones- well done again! I am officially off the "want a midfield warrior" bandwagon till the summer!

[Hunter Rider]

Very pleased with the result, I felt we needed to get an away goal at least. Madrid were the better side IMO and dominated the last 20 minutes of the first half, but a resolute defensive performance and an excellent set of saves from De Gea kept us level, there was nothing he could do about Air-Ronaldos header.

In the second half I felt we contained them better and had 4 good chances to grab a second. Welbeck, De Gea and Rio were all superb, and Jones does a good tracking job, but his lack of quality on the ball meant we never got a foothold in midfield.

It's still wide open, I think we'll need to score at least twice at Old Trafford to go through.

Originally Posted by aNarcHy2day

Also, Hunter, my IP gets intermittently banned for some reason (and I'm reasonably sure I've done nothing to warrant that). If you could please look into it...

Shoot me a PM with the details and I'll look into it for ya.

Originally Posted by bapi

Juve was smart. However I like Marchisio more and more. Italy NT midfield (if they'll continue with 4-3-3) Marchisio - De Rossi - Pirlo is very close to Spain NT IMHO.

Pirlo is getting old but in Veratti they seem to have his successor. Marchisio is excellent and has gone underrated for a while because until last season Juve were in a slump. We were linked when his contract was running down but I'm sure they re-signed him.

[aNarcHy2day]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Shoot me a PM with the details and I'll look into it for ya.

Never mind. It seems to have sorted itself out for now (obviously, since... you know... I'm here typing this!).


De Gea was pretty high on confidence last evening. Credit to Ferguson for that, actually. If it panned out the way I read it on the news, he gave the "Boy's walking now" speech in front of him at the press conference. That'd be quite inspiring, don't you think?

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by aNarcHy2day

Never mind. It seems to have sorted itself out for now (obviously, since... you know... I'm here typing this!).


De Gea was pretty high on confidence last evening. Credit to Ferguson for that, actually. If it panned out the way I read it on the news, he gave the "Boy's walking now" speech in front of him at the press conference. That'd be quite inspiring, don't you think?

Heh, ok.

I'd imagine so, Fergie has always been a great man manager who can make a player believe in themselves.

[B]

Cristiano Ronaldo rules out Manchester City move as heart belongs to United

It would anger me if Ronaldo went to City, mainly because what I've seen of him from his time at United/Madrid is that he doesn't seem motivated by more money, he seems more motivated by awards, improving himself as a player, leaving his name behind in footballing records & of course winning, I think I move to City would contradict my perception of him as I feel players that are interested in moving to City are more interested in a paycheck than their own legacy or creating a dynasty(I think is the correct word) with City.

I'd love to see Ronaldo/RVP/Rooney trio up front.. it would be biblical.

[TheFuture]

I still fancy Madrid over the two legs. I can't see Man U parking the bus at home like they did in the 2nd half last night. So I reckon it'll be an open game with a lot of goals.

2-2 on the night, Madrid through on away goals.

[Poeman]

Fergie will have them play aggressive...I expect RVP if fit to be big.

Rooney not so much

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by TheFuture

I still fancy Madrid over the two legs. I can't see Man U parking the bus at home like they did in the 2nd half last night. So I reckon it'll be an open game with a lot of goals.

2-2 on the night, Madrid through on away goals.

The thing is we have a pretty formidable home record and they have been poor away this season, plus they have to come at us as they must score, and counter attacking is one of our strengths, it's going to be tight no doubt, but I think we hold the slight edge going into the second leg.

[wobbly]

UTD played a good away game, defended well restricting Madrid mostly to long range efforts which De Ga was up to handling, and they do have the edge now going into the home game.

But never take anything for granted with Mourhinho. His Porto drew at home to UTD then against all expectations beat them at Old Trafford.

For me it's too close to call, but if I had to bet on it I'd go with UTD as the odds are in their favor now, but my gut is telling me Jose might yet have the last laugh.

[TheFuture]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

The thing is we have a pretty formidable home record and they have been poor away this season, plus they have to come at us as they must score, and counter attacking is one of our strengths, it's going to be tight no doubt, but I think we hold the slight edge going into the second leg.

I wouldn't sit back and let Madrid come at ye though, it only takes one goal and they'll have cancelled your advantage as well as leading the tie.

[Hunter Rider]

Couple of cracking free-kicks from Bale tonight, he's in the best form of his career without a doubt.

Originally Posted by wobbly

UTD played a good away game, defended well restricting Madrid mostly to long range efforts which De Ga was up to handling, and they do have the edge now going into the home game.

But never take anything for granted with Mourhinho. His Porto drew at home to UTD then against all expectations beat them at Old Trafford.

For me it's too close to call, but if I had to bet on it I'd go with UTD as the odds are in their favor now, but my gut is telling me Jose might yet have the last laugh.

The only thing I would be surprised by is if either team got blown away in the second leg, I think it'll go down to the wire and be decided by one goal either way.

Originally Posted by TheFuture

I wouldn't sit back and let Madrid come at ye though, it only takes one goal and they'll have cancelled your advantage as well as leading the tie.

I think we'll need to be measured, try and control the tempo better than we did when we got the ball at the Bernabeu, especially for the first half. If we can do that and Madrid get more desperate in chasing the goal then we can utilize out counter attack.

[Iceman]

2 great headers and a solid performance from De Gea. Great result also. Can't wait for the return leg.

[bapi]

4 goals and 1 assist in first three Milan matches for Mario. Wonder what we'll offer this summer. Hopefully 70M will be enough.

[Darthphere]

So Robbie Rogers comes out of the closet and retires from football. I'm more shocked about the retiring part.

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by Darthphere

So Robbie Rogers comes out of the closet and retires from football. I'm more shocked about the retiring part.

Why has he retired at 25?

[Hunter Rider]

Moyes puts Everton contract talks on hold to open the door to Chelsea job

Chelsea target ex-Real Madrid boss Pellegrini after failing to land Guardiola

Which would you prefer Wobbly?

[aNarcHy2day]

If it were me, I'd retire Pellegrini for good. He won eff all in Ronaldo's first year at Madrid.

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Moyes puts Everton contract talks on hold to open the door to Chelsea job

Chelsea target ex-Real Madrid boss Pellegrini after failing to land Guardiola

Which would you prefer Wobbly?

If I have to choose between only those 2 then Moyes. He knows our game and has done well with limited resources at Everton. Pelligrini doesn't know our game and didn't do much to merit great interest in his season at Real.

Beyond those two, then I'd love Mourhinho back, or failing him I'd like to see them take a chance on Zola. Either of those 2 are loved by the fans (and rightly so).

Unfortunately predicting who Roman chooses is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

I would never have thought they'd have gone for Benitez for example. After the fans had let it be known very vocally what they thought of that idea, the decision to appoint him still bemuses me. It was like sticking the middle finger to the fans.

That he currently has the worst record of any Chelsea manager since Roman took over, and this includes Grant, Scholari, AVB, Ranieri, and the guy he replaced RDM, only serves to justify why he should never have been given the job.

But Roman obviously does not listen to the fans, so what we want, and what he gets, is anyone's guess.

[bapi]

Sportmediaset in Italy is claiming Silva's relationship with Mancini has fallen apart post-Southampton game. Wow, this season is better and better. Kun could be next...

[kit1982]

Originally Posted by Darthphere

So Robbie Rogers comes out of the closet and retires from football. I'm more shocked about the retiring part.

I'm wondering if it's just to let the dust settle? Apparently he's the first footballer to publicly come out since Justin Fashanu, I'd like to think opinions have changed since then, but I'm not so optimistic. Good on him though

[the_ultimate_evil]

Originally Posted by kit1982

I'm wondering if it's just to let the dust settle? Apparently he's the first footballer to publicly come out since Justin Fashanu, I'd like to think opinions have changed since then, but I'm not so optimistic. Good on him though

sadly not gonna happen. hell sky showed video this week of an entire group of people hooting like monkeys

[Darthphere]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

Why has he retired at 25?

Originally Posted by kit1982

I'm wondering if it's just to let the dust settle? Apparently he's the first footballer to publicly come out since Justin Fashanu, I'd like to think opinions have changed since then, but I'm not so optimistic. Good on him though

Originally Posted by the_ultimate_evil

sadly not gonna happen. hell sky showed video this week of an entire group of people hooting like monkeys

I think he'll be back but I can't see him playing anywhere else but MLS. I'm not going to say we're any better than other countries in the world when it comes to hate speech and all that but I think the MLS fans are more open minded. I could be totally wrong. I think he has a lot to offer still for football, even the national team.

[Van Petrol]

Well yet again there goes out likeliest chance of winning a trophy this season. Not that I actually thought we had a chance of winning it, mind.

[Darthphere]

Oldham with their own version of hand of God.

[Poeman]

I demand Wenger resign or get fired