Topic: UEFA Champions League Discussion Thread - page 1018. (Read 129790 times)

Real vs City ofc.  The winner of this match up would end getting to the finals imho (or at least it's how I feel.  Lol).

Lyon vs Juve is a lock.  Juve's obv progressing...

I known it but I meant Messi surely can score many goals than many other forwards or strikers but he would have not scored more than 500 goals like he has done if he built up his career in Serie A.

I can not forget how he felt angry after Nesta made a tackle and took a chance to score a goal within 5 to 8 meters from the goal. He was very angry and dumped his fist on the pitch repeatedly.

The defensive techniques of Nesta, Maldini and Canavaro deserved to be called as The art of defense. It comes from their talents but somewhat contributed and grown up by many excellent forwards in Serie A at the period, the gold era of Serie A. I can recall Roberto Baggio, Gabriel Batistuta, Ronaldo de Lima, Christian Vieri, Fillipo Inzaghi, Hernan Crespo, Alex Del Piero, F. Totti. Even Vicenzo Montella was considered as a normal forwards and only had a spot on substiute list of AS Roma.

All football lovers know that Italian clubs have always the best defenders, especially in the era of AC Milan and Inter Milan as two strong clubs in the world. I still remember Milan squad in 2008/2009, when they have Nesta and Maldini as solid defenders. While Inter has Lúcio, Samuel, Zanetti, and Maicon in 2009/2010. These defenders contributed to achieving the treble-winners at that time, the Mourinho era.

Messi indeed will be hard to pass through the defenders. But luckily Barcelona has Iniesta and Xavi at that time that always created chances for their attackers to score. So, there is always a chance for Messi to score.

I actually do not know Napoli from ten years ago but I think they still have a good squad I mean Dries Mertens is still a really tough player and the team has not lost its skills just the form and the way they play,,, because of politics. The worst Napoli of the last 3 years for sure.

I am watching City and Madrid of course;)

If there is a conflict, it certainly affects the team and makes the team no longer consistent as before, Barcelona is indeed a top heavy club, but if you conflict like this the players cannot overcome it, maybe this is all due to the selfishness of Barcelona's superiors themselves.
In addition, Luiz Suarez did not play because this injury condition could also affect the Barcelona game on the field, we know that suarez is the spearhead of Barcelona which is highly relied on.
Against Napoli alone missed a goal first and it made a hard-earned goal back.

SSC Napoli - FC Barcelona ( 1 - 1 )



unbelievable.

ball possession:

Napoli: 33%

Barcelona: 67%

what is the purpose of having great ball possession if can't score many goals? Napoli played very well

Chelsea FC - FC Bayern Munich ( 0 - 3 )



Chelsea conceded many goals and the situation became very complicated for chelsea

To be frank, either for banter reasons, or to make jests. A lot of people are eager to watch Guardiola vs Zidane.
Because the Onus is on Mancity to qualify, which is strange.

There are speculations Guardiola will resign, if he fails to progress advancely in the champions league, and that alot puts lots of pressure on City.

Zidane has been quite unlucky since his madrid return, with injuries to almost all members of the squad this season. He is under pressure too because his signings have been injured and irrelevant when fit.

It will be a match of banters

Barcelona have a lot problems and conflicts this year and it's obvious that this negative atmosphere influence team.
They also made some big mistakes in the beginning of the year and now don't have enough attackers what is not serious for such club.
Messi can't save them every time and they are not team.

It makes stronger sense if we know that the quality of Italian defenders and of Italy clubs have fallen considerably in the last 2 decades. Despite of the fall of personal defender quality, the general quality of Italian defensive system has remained at good level (lower than before, but it is still good).

People talked too much about how many goals C.Ronaldo and Messi scored in the La Liga but they don't remember that in La Liga, matches tend to be very open, and more goals in all matches.

Once again, when C.Ronaldo transfered from Madrid to Juventus, people said he scored less than previous seasons because he has become older. It is only partially right and the rest part is the Italian defensive system of clubs here affected his total goals.

Messi, will all due respect to his talent, I believe he will score less goals if he play in Serie A, maybe half of what he does in La Liga. Clashes between Barcelona and Italian clubs prove that theory.

Anyone who watched the match between AC Milan and Barcelona in San Siro do remember how Alessandro Nesta neutralized Messi. In that match, Nesta is an old defender who stepped last steps in his career. I can not imagine how Messi can score if he has to face with Nesta, Cannavaro, Maldini, Panucci, Zambrotta in their best phases of their careers.

I am interesting watching Madrid versus City. we are know this classic match has ever people want.
Zidane has named a squad of 19 players for the meeting with Manchester City:

On Machester city team, Seems Raheem Sterling will return this match and Marco Asensio and Eden Hazard are both injured.
https://www.mancity.com/news/mens/real-madrid-v-manchester-city-need-to-know-63718141

my prediction, Real madrid will get winner.

Barcelona after Neymar departure and especially Luis Suarez injury is another team. Their place and impact on the team general performance is obvious. Messi imo is struggling to find someone helping and understanding him..
And as you said ball possession is good but it doesn't guarantee a win if you cannot score..

That's how Barca plays football, the ball possession should be for them but doesn't guarantee for the goals. I think modern football cannot determine from the ball possession, especially for the Barca squad currently.

Yes, every football lovers already know that Chelsea won't have a chance to win with their current squad. Bayern Munchen has better players and experience in the Champions League. I assume Bayern will be one of the candidates for the winner this year.

It was a sad match to watch, my team got thoroughly outplayed and we got turned into a defensive team (something we all know it isn't our style of play). When I saw the lineup and barkley was in the starting eleven instead of Williams, I was furious and not surprisingly he didn't have any impact on the game. Lampard inexperienced cause him this match. The likes of Mount and Abraham wasted our chances on numerous occasions either by wasting the ball, not been at the right place to final the past or not been able to complete the final past.

We were lucky it was only 3 goals, it should have been more judging from the stats. This was the first time I'm walking out of a Chelsea game without watching to the final whistle. I left after the 3 goal was scored. I doubt we can even get a goal away with the way we played and jorginho isn't playing next match (due to yellow card suspension) hope kante will be fit before then.

Yeah as Juventus fan I obv watch Juve hoping they will win and also as Juventus fun I hope City will lose (Guardiola dream on our bench)
Juve is stronger than Lione for sure but is not in a good shape as way to play.

Sure is 1st on the League, won the Group stage but at this point, they wanted more game style from Sarri, this Juve so far is very similar to the Allegri Juventus, a team stronger than most opponents but who can score few goals.

If we exclude Juventus and Lyon fans, well the rest of the world will watch Real Madrid VS Man City game 
Seriously it is more interesting, more competitive and harder to predict. Both teams have fluctuated performance. I see City odds bigger but playing in Madrid could have an influence too. Fingers crossed!
For Juventus, well they could secure a ticket like Bayern in tomorrow game imo

Gnabry scoring goals and a team from London getting wrecked...deja vu!  

Congrats to Bayern fans, surely it feels good to know that your team's already in the quarter finals (:
And Barca struggling to beat the worst Napoli of the last 10 years  

What are you guys watching tomorrow? Lyon vs Juve? Madrid vs City?

And there's no way Bayern won't score a couple of goals...IMO this is over.

A "fun" statistic if you wanna consider it fun.

How many goals did he score vs Italians team in Italy? You know Italians defense are harder to beat.



Source: https://twitter.com/SandroSca/status/1232427478901231617

I'm not surprised by Bayern winning the match, but damn that is a big gap.  I thought Chelsea would be able to keep it competitive at Stamford Bridge, but now it looks like leg 2 is just going to be a waste oxygen.  There is no way they'll be able to score 4 goals in Munich.

Napoli 1:1 Barcelona. Maybe it's not bad result after all. First half was terrible, we had ball posession, but zero dangerous attacks. Second half was better, mainly because Rakitic was replaced by Arthur. But there is some serious problems before second leg, Busquets will miss it due to yellow cards, Vidal got stupid yellow card and worst thing is Pique injury.
Chelsea 0:3 Bayern. I expected Bayern win, but not such big. First half Chelsea played decent, but in second half Bayern dominated completely and got full deserved big win. It's safe to say that they are in next round.

Barca dominated the game with ball possession with 65% but shot 1 time on the target, meh like Liverpool vs Atletico.

Bayern got an easy win vs Chealsea, It was easy predictable the gap is too big.