Come on Barcelona

[WaltonRed]

Alan Parry is a disgrace. What a total arse licker. Call yourself a red aswell.

Shame on you.

[Crazyhorse7778]

Try and watch the after game coverage on RTE tonight if you can, it's comedy gold.

Dunphy and Giles really laying into that greasy cunt.

[kopboy11]

Thought Xavi was immense tonight.Start Henry and they'll do them next Tues.

[Red Mist]

Well that was boring. So much for ManUre and their attacking football, they just defended for their lives the twats. At least we went there, had a go and beat them. ManUre are a disgrace. And their fans have the nerve to call us a defensive team.

[Faustus]

Both ties still firmly in the balance, in my opinion.

Should make intriguing watching next week.

[Red Mist]

And how many penalties do ManUre want? I can't believe the idiots at Sky were saying every one of ManUre's pen appeals should have been awarded! That's the only way those useless mancs would have scored against Barca, but they still fucked it up.
It's hard to believe football has come to this, where every challenge in the box that results in a player falling over is automatically declared a penalty. For Souness of all people to say ManUre should have had more than one pen is amazing, considering he sort of player he was and the type of football played in his era, i.e. when it was a proper man's game. He's become such a sissy since shaving off his moustache.

[Brownie]

I thought it was a really boring game. So much for what, 'should have been the final'.

The Mancs were ultra defensive whereas Barca actually almost bored me to sleep with their passing. Has anyone else ever seen a team that plays such pointless football? They engineered a few good situations out wide only to pass it back into the middle again!

I was getting really annoyed with it to be honest. Talk about a lack of substance...

[RedinSweden]

I watched it with Mrs RiS and she was swearing her head off at Ronaldo. "Stay on your fucking feet". I missed the one that was given but she said that one was the strongest argument. She didn't think any of the others were pennos either. As she put it "He could learn a thing or two from Dirk Kuyt". Ace.

[coop]

Barcelona as ive said before are obsessed with passing the ball around. There is a difference in playing possesion football and actually playing attacking football.

All they did was play pretty little passes between themselves but not actually creating too many chances. Eto'o probably had the best chance but pulled it wide but other then that it seemed like just kept hold of the ball and then run out of ideas near the manc goal.

I actually expected Man United to score on the counter because they are normally pretty direct but they were too intent in just not concediing and Zambrotta kept Ronaldo pretty quiet.

Rose tinited glasses or not but we would have beaten Barcelona there last night as absorbing pressure like that and then attacking teams is what we excel at and im pretty certain we would now be booking our tickets to Moscow already had we played Barcelona last night.

Although Man United can be happy they never conceded a goal they also never scored one either which is crucial in these types of games as there is always the chance that Barcelona can score at Old Trafford.

If i was Man United fan (shudder the fucking thought) i would be a little pissed in the fact of with the attacking talent of Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney on the pitch they were too busy not conceding instead of attacking Barcelona themselves.

Had Man United attacked Barcelona the tie would have been over now.

[Dirk]

Barcelona last night reminded me of Arsenal against us.

[RedinSweden]

Originally Posted by coop

Barcelona as ive said before are obsessed with passing the ball around. There is a difference in playing possesion football and actually playing attacking football.

All they did was play pretty little passes between themselves but not actually creating too many chances. Eto'o probably had the best chance but pulled it wide but other then that it seemed like just kept hold of the ball and then run out of ideas near the manc goal.

I actually expected Man United to score on the counter because they are normally pretty direct but they were too intent in just not concediing and Zambrotta kept Ronaldo pretty quiet.

Rose tinited glasses or not but we would have beaten Barcelona there last night as absorbing pressure like that and then attacking teams is what we excel at and im pretty certain we would now be booking our tickets to Moscow already had we played Barcelona last night.

Although Man United can be happy they never conceded a goal they also never scored one either which is crucial in these types of games as there is always the chance that Barcelona can score at Old Trafford.

If i was Man United fan (shudder the fucking thought) i would be a little pissed in the fact of with the attacking talent of Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney on the pitch they were too busy not conceding instead of attacking Barcelona themselves.

Had Man United attacked Barcelona the tie would have been over now.

They were going on about the excellent defensive work of Rooney last night on the TV here. I barely knew the cunt was playing. Barcelona overcomplicated everything and i can't remember many killer balls for all their possession.

[G Richards]

It will be a Barcelona v Liverpool final. The media is all over Man Utd and Chelsea at the moment, thinking they have one foot each in the final because they have their away games out of the way. Well, here's how it will be: both us and Barcelona will score at least one goal away from home and go through to the final. Have it!

[wiiksie]

Good post Coop.

Eto'o should have scored from a lovely interchange between Iniesta and Messi, but that was it really. The mancs will get a dodgy goal of the arse of some twat (Brown probably) and the tie will be over from that exact point.

The media circus surrounding this match made me laugh though, it was pitched (as someone said earlier in the thread) as 1970 Brazil v 1974 Holland. Total footballing excitement. In actual fact, it was poor quality shite. The mancs were Bolton for the evening, no adventure at all. Like you say coop, one decent attack and they are in the final.

I really like Zambrotta though, if he was a few years younger he'd be an outstanding addition to any squad.

[KevieG]

Originally Posted by snez1

Youtube please lol

not youtube'd yet

try this

RTÉ Sport: Irish and International Sport News, Fixtures and Results

go to the post match analysis

or even

YouTube - Dunphy on Ronaldo (vs CL Barca 24-04-0

[coop]

If you watch Sky or in all fairness any media outlet who covered the game are waxing lyrical about Man United defending as if they were under onslaught all game but the reality was Barcelona had 73% of the possesion but created just the one chance.

Most of Barcelonas possession was around 30-40 yards from Man Uniteds goal but as soon as they got within striking distance they tried to over complicate things by going for that one killer ball instead of taking a shot.

Had Barcelona been more confident in their own ability and had a few shots on goal they could have won last nights game two or three nil.

[RedinSweden]

Originally Posted by coop

If you watch Sky or in all fairness any media outlet who covered the game are waxing lyrical about Man United defending as if they were under onslaught all game but the reality was Barcelona had 73% of the possesion but created just the one chance.

Most of Barcelonas possession was around 30-40 yards from Man Uniteds goal but as soon as they got within striking distance they tried to over complicate things by going for that one killer ball instead of taking a shot.

Had Barcelona been more confident in their own ability and had a few shots on goal they could have won last nights game two or three nil.

United had 8 men behind the ball most of the time.

[spider-neil]

anyone who has watched barca (and I have) will know that its the away game that will suit them rather than the home game, yes they have 90,000 fans for their home games but away from home teams are expected to come at them at that is when they are at their best when they have more space between the lines. the obvious draw back to this is they have to keep manu out but again away from home the away goal comes into effect.

[Mr T]

If I was one of their fans I'd be really disappointed by the tactics set out. Yes they didn't concede but they faced a Barcelona team very low on confidence and they let them have the ball.

With Puyol out I don't understand why they didn't just attack them, they have more than enough in their locker to unpick that defence. The away goal is a must against a team like Barcelona because in a flash one of their big players could produce a moment of brilliance and score a goal and that's all it would take. Rafa learnt that after playing Benfica in 2006 and so a year later we attacked Barcelona at the Camp Nou and knocked them out.

[Jorge Borge]

Can't be arsed to trawl through all of the media but just read a couple of pearlers in the Times. This sentence being of particular comedy value:

Carles Puyol returns for the Catalan side, which is a plus — for United.

As already said, I was screaming at the telly "Shoot, just pop it! 'Ave a go!" everytime Barca got in or near the box. I would even say they were worse than Arsenal at trying to find theperfect goal. The perfect goal is the one where the ball goes in the net. Just gerrit in there. Jeez.