Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 197. (Read 141888 times)

Despite Bayern Munich lackluster performance in the Bundesliga League this season, they still managed to send Arsenal crashing out from the Uefa Champions League. It was quite a pity to see Arsenal failing to reach the semi finals of Uefa Champions League this season as I felt the current squad of young players playing in Arsenal does have a lot of potential to create some great result with their efforts. Hopefully Arsenal will be able to reach greater heights in the Uefa Champions League next season.

It is even more frightening for the enemy defense to see Haaland's figure in the front sector which requires several players to really guard themselves so as not to score a goal in the several matches that Haaland plays, so it is very clear that Haaland is really turned off and continues to be observed by the enemy defenders. That's why Haaland has recently found it very difficult to score goals in several important matches, not just in the Premier League, in the Champions League, Haaland has also had great difficulty getting mature passes from his teammates, which has enabled him to score goals, but until now. .

Haaland is indeed a goal scoring specialist, but if his movements are limited by the opponent, he still won't be able to do more. During the match against Madrid, Haaland actually never scored a single goal if I'm not mistaken. And in my opinion, Haaland still depends on the ball supply from his teammates, so if it's not strange when he doesn't get a pass, his role is not visible at all for more than 90 minutes. There were several opportunities, but because they did not result in goals, they were considered insignificant in the end. Manchester City doesn't need to feel embarrassed about this defeat because they controlled the game from the start, but once again the essence of a match is the final result. No matter how good you are at controlling the ball, keep attacking, but if you lose, you still lose, meaning the opponent you are facing has a warrior mentality. Ancelotti realized that his defense line in the 1st leg was very weak, so in the 2nd leg he implemented a defensive system using only counter attacks and letting Man City control the ball completely, it was all part of Ancelotti tactics.

The defeat of Arsenal in Munich is not surprising because they nearly lost at their home stadium last week. Only a defeat of Manchester City is a little disappointed for them but Real Madrid played well and they deserved this winning. Anyway difference between Manchester City and Real Madrid is very slim and it is reflected on how this match ended. The winner is only decided through penalty shootouts.

For semi finals, PSG and Dortmund will remeet after two matches in early of season and Dortmund have advantage mentally based on two latest head to head matches. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are very familiar with each other in Champions League and with recent improvements and wake-up of Bayern Munich in Champions League, they will be a big barrier for Real Madrid to chase another Champions League trophy. Some players in Real Madrid will win their sixth Champions League if they get another trophy this season, unbelievable.

Ancelotti said that we could have won the Manchester City match by defending perfectly, and he was aware of this, the early goal enabled them to defend much better. Ancelotti and his players started very well with Rodrygo's goal in the away game. Haland tried very hard in positions he really tried until the end, but the Real Madrid defense was constantly around him, covering all his angles.

The person who scored the goal for Manchester City was Kevin De Bruyne, and it was the goal that would take the match to extra time it was not enough. Real Madrid eliminated Manchester City in penalty kicks. City was eliminated at home. It was a very good quarter-final match, the level was very high in both matches.

As Ancelotti said, this record must be broken and it was proven even though they played with total defense, but honestly I saw Madrid performance differently, the players were very focused and alert not to make mistakes. Solidarity maintained the defense, Vinicius, Rodrygo and Bellingham also helped in defense. He was attacked with a total of 33 kicks, 9x shots on target and Lunin made 8x saves. This proves that, no matter how small the opportunity, Madrid players make good use of it. This is football and this is the game of 2 great Man City teams who fought as hard as they could. 12 minutes into the first half Madrid were still able to apply pressure but after that until the second half ended what Ancelotti troops did was strengthen their defense. back line. For me this lag is like playing half a field and Ederson can count on his fingers how many times he touched the ball in 120 minutes. Meanwhile, Lunin continues to receive attacks that make him stronger. As a result this penalty shootout became Ancelotti target rather than conceding in extra time. Btw, I actually missed the Bayern vs Arsenal match because when I wasn't monitoring the score, the atmosphere of the Man City vs Madrid match was much more exciting and thrilling.

Today we have lost 2 Premier League representatives, only 1 La Liga representative, 2 Bundesliga representatives and 1 Ligue 1 representative remain.
Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid
Dortmund vs PSG

In the competition for the final round, the teams that qualify above are the teams most in doubt in the quarterfinals.

Whatever it is, Madrid deserved to win even though they only won because of the penalty shootout, but there is no problem with that, a penalty shootout requires luck and Madrid was luckier in the penalty shootout because it could have been the other way around. Manchester City could have been luckier in the penalty shootout, but no one could have guessed. that Madrid can win in the penalty shootout and qualify for the next round, there are no representatives from the English team, even Arsenal also lost to Munich with a narrow score, of course the semi-final match will be even more interesting.

Haaland should no longer be used next season. Guardiola should look for a replacement so that he can get results that are not disappointing next season. I know that Haaland has not played well since last season's UCL because he was never able to score a goal in an important round of the UCL, even when playing against strong team, he was closely guarded by the opposing defenders so he didn't move at all and that was his weakness, he couldn't find a gap to score goals, I hope Manchester City can find a replacement for him next season, congratulations to Madrid  

Haaland lost sharpness against Madrid yesterday, not only in the second leg but in the first leg Haaland looked unable to create many chances and not even a single goal was scored by Haaland in those two legs, if you look at the matches of the two legs that have been played, of course you know why Haaland can't score at all,  You can see how Rudiger guarded Haalaand tightly and even Haaland seemed to be invisible in the game after Rudiger continued to stick to Haalaand wherever Haaland went, actually Haaland got some passes that were indeed given by Manchester City players in the two legs but unfortunately Haalaand could not do much when Rudiger continued to guard him.

Not only in the match against Madrid, actually Haalaand often disappears when Manchester City faces big teams, another example is when Manchester City faces Arsenal this season where we can see if Haalaand has no contribution at all in the match and makes Manchester City achieve negative results, but it is very different when Manchester City faces a small team,  We can see how great Haalaand has been in scoring goals so far in the league.

Madrid will face Bayern Munich next in the champions League. I know they're favourites but we know how the champions league can be. Bayern Munich have some experienced players too and I feel the difference would be in the coaches. The coaches have so much to do in those fixtures. They have to make sure their tactics work well.
I believe it's the coaches because the player of both teams will show up and put in thier best. They'll compete fiercely, so it rest on whichever coach gets his tactics right.

PSG is going to win Dortmund, even though the tie is still looking even. Dortmund is a very good team and if we're being honest, PSG is not overly better than Dortmund, but the Mbappe factor might play a role. The semi final is set up to have a very interesting final. Whoever qualifies for it merits it.

Of course, Arsenal was an eye opener on how to play Manchester city and draw them, if you are a strong club with quality players. So I am not surprised if Ancelotti learnt a lot from that match. De Bruyne goal was a free gift from the god of football, because he was just standing there, the ball got to him in a platter of gold, which he did justice to.

Now that City is out and on Real Madrid is left, I believe the Real Madrid will be playing the finals with PSG. This is because PSG will play Dortmund in the semifinals, and I don't think that Dortmund have the quality and strength to win PSG, who have an active attack. Real Madrid will win Bayern easily, because Bayern is not in a good form.

Haaland's star cannot shine much this year. His performance within the team is not very high compared to previous years. It's not just about the number of goals scored, their impact on the game is generally not very high. One of the biggest stars, who is among the most expensive football players in the world, must be able to score goals in such matches.
Manchester City missed so many opportunities, I can say that I am happy that Real Madrid won the match

The information is very shocked news for me. I did not know that Arsenal has market value is bigger than Real Madrid as Real Madrid is a most successful clubs in Europe and they are always a most wanted destination for many star players. They are ready to pay most lucrative salary for best players in the world too.

Though Real Madrid pay a lot, they are actually very smart with their investment in their players from player transfer costs to salary. They also are smart with their decisions to sell their old star players and renew their squad. This strategy has been applying in many years under their President Florentino Perez and he is very important for management in Real Madrid recent decades.

Munich has completed its job and many people were mocking arsenal on X. The reaction was predictable since i believe that many fans from its competitors in EPL were also hoping arsenal to fail on UCL. It may be also failed in the EPL as well.

Arsenal's performance is getting even worsening start from the first leg. It reached its climax at the second half. it was also pressuring the performance from arsenal too. Things are just getting even difficult for arsenal to get at least one trophy this season.

Im surely arteta will be blamed once again by so many people when arsenal ended with trophyless at the end of season.

Ancellotti is a world class coach and he knew what to do in the difficult situation. no doubt that if ancellotti being dubbed as UCL specialist. I consider how he was also consistently managing the club and it's always often to reach the final of UCL.

Ancellotti will get another UCL trophy this season. Madrid fans can only see and wait. I strongly believe madrid is the storngest candidate right now.

God knows I have no such plans of including Kevin De Bruyne in that list of players who didn't do so well. Though he lost too many possession of the ball yesterday night. I want to blame that goal on Jude Bellingham because if he had closed Kevin De Bruyne down, he won't have gotten enough time to trap and shoot that ball yet again.

So many things to learn from that game, Real Madrid indeed showed the highest level of togetherness so they could win that game. Examples of what I mean is both Kepa and Rudiger directing Lunin what direction to dive to so he could save the penalty.  These are two players who played for Chelsea and lost and won against them before, they brought that experience into this game.

I have also read that Real Madrid watched the game between Manchester City and Arsenal which ended 0-0 so they could be able to win the game last night.

It would have been better to see both teams in finals because they showed high-level performance. Manchester City was the better team because they kept pressuring the visitors until the defense caved in. I doubt if any team would have been able to withstand the attacking power of City like Real. I assume that they were able to stand City because they also had some good attackers that mounted pressure on the host. I am happy Real Madrid won because the competition would have been boring to me if City made it to the finals again

I told a friend that PSG wouldn't have won the quarter-finals game even with the red card if it were clubs like Real Madrid or City. PSG would have struggled to even get a goal in that match. Barca doesn't have some dangerous strikers that would have made PSG play with caution. This was the reason why PSG could change strategy and begin to play a more attacking pattern. Real Madrid and PSG are my candidates for the finals and I will be supporting PSG because they have waited for so long for the trophy.

I don't know what kind of luck you're talking about. City had (including the first match) 210 minutes of pure playing time to prove that they were stronger, but they could not do it. By the way, if you remember the first game, it was really an accident that City scored three goals. Despite the fact that Real won in a penalty shootout, it was a natural victory for Ancelotti, which completely neutralized Guardiola's plan.

Madrid where able to score first and that first game they were able to defend it for some time, and the way they were defending that one goal I was surprised, I was already expecting Manchester city to drop Real Madrid and after everything that played out we were disqualified by Madrid, the both of them actually tried but the truth is at the end of the day we still need a winner. And Madrid won. And now that Manchester city is out Madrid have a better chance to win. PSG should not be counted among those that can win the champions league even if that is mbappe dream. I was certain of that of arsenal but that of Manchester City I was surprised did not actually see this coming.

In a few weeks we should have known who is going to win the champions league it as been one hell of a league you cannot even predict what will happen.

That's right, Arsenal has big valuation because they are able to manage the club very well. Since Arsene Wenger era, Arsenal, in my opinion, is the European club that has the healthiest finances. They create star players instead of buying star players. They make profits more often than losses in the transfer market. The club management may be satisfied with this achievement, because the best thing apart from winning the title is good finances for the club. Even if Arsenal haven't won the UCL for a long time, I think one day Arsenal will find a way to become champions. Of course, the wait for Arsenal fans has been too long, but it looks like Arsenal fans can still give time to their team.

Yes, because Haaland is a pure striker type player who has to get lots of good ball supplies from his teammates, he cannot work alone. It was proven that when Manchester City's mainstay player couldn't play, he had a lot of trouble on the front lines. And in this match, we know that Real Madrid succeeded in implementing a strong game, they were attacked and Manchester City attempted many kicks but all ended without result.
This season it was Real Madrid's turn to eliminate Manchester City, after last season they were eliminated by Pep Guardiola's men. This is like a revenge match, and interestingly these two teams have always met in the last few seasons in the Champions League where they have to beat each other.