no way that was a penalty!

barca played so awesome. great football!

30 minutes of awesome = 0 goals
2 hoofs = 2 goals

:D

Not a penalty and the first goal is because that cunt Busquets shouldn't be playing instead of Touré.

How is it not a penalty?

Puyol gets his legs tangled around Fabregas and prevents him from shooting.

Barcelona paid for playing such a high intensity game at the start, ridiculous to think they could keep that up against a PL side.

Diaby/Song were terrible all game.

How Almunia can continue to cause ridiculous goals is beyond me, the guy gets caught in no mans land every two minutes.

Denilson > Messi

Barcelona was desperately unlucky, but it's academic anyway since arsenal are never going to win in nou camp.

Getting outclassed this hard and achieving a lucky result may happen once, but not twice.

Only outclassed for one half.

They should have been like 3-0 up at half-time admittedly, but in the second half except for the two goals which were entirely Song/Almunia's mistakes rather than Barca outclassing it was a slight advantage to Arsenal.

This was entirely down to Denilson keeping Messi quiet and Barcelona having tired themselves out in the first half. You can't press that much, that fast, that high for 90minutes against a PL team and they paid for it at the end.

they paid for it because it wasn't 3-0 at half time, hence they were unlucky

They paid for playing at light speed for 45minutes and not making it count.

Then they couldn't play at light speed and were gifted two goals but couldn't keep in the game anymore despite Diaby simply gifting the ball to them every time it went near him.

Blame "luck" all you want, you make your own luck.

that's what substitutes are for. if they would have replaced maxwell in second half it wouldnt be a problem..

Maxwell for who?

Nobody in the Barca squad could match Walcott for pace anyway.

Abidal can stop Walcott, but Abidal is just coming out from a long injury. Anyway, the problem wasn't just a man problem, but that Maxwell kept attacking even after Walcott made 2 or 3 runs, which was letting the door even more wide open. At least he should have realize he shouldn't keep running the side up anymore, or the order reach him.

Abidal is of course a better defender than Maxwell, but it wouldn't have made a difference for the first goal, Walcott is much faster than both.

Barcelona need to play with a high defensive line otherwise they can't press or dominate teams with their intricate passing. Walcott came on and the first through ball he slaughtered Maxwell, the second...

Maxwell is positioned ahead of the two centrebacks, in line with Dani Alves (As they were all game) with about twelve feet between him and Walcott. Arsenal made an interception in the middle and counter with three quick passes, the final ball being a through ball behind Maxwell.

Maxwell dropped back quickly but had to keep in line with Pique, when the ball was played this was more or less his position and there's nothing he could really have done, nor would Abidal have been capable of doing much more in that situation.

Had Maxwell instantly dropped deep the entire left flank would have been a gaping hole for Arsenal to play through/around, which is why Pep brought Henry on, to force the Arsenal back line to drop deeper so Maxwell could be more defensive, it just didn't work.

The cross leading to the penalty is a different matter though.

arsenal fan?

There is no doubt about the fact that barca proved that they are better than arsenal! Of course especially in 1st half.

That being said, I agree on the fact that Arsenal played a way better in 2nd half, than they did in 1st. Especially that last 20 minutes! But the fact that you say that Barca cannot keep the pace against a PL team for 90 minutes is not true. They have proven to be capable of that on multiple occasions! To be quite fair, I think the main reason for Arsenals comeback was the fact that Barca started playing like the game was already theirs, which is quite unfortunate for a team on this level, and that gave Arsenal the opportunity to come back into the game. Secondly I believe Walcott played on a very high level, way higher than he usually does!

Anyways, this being said, good luck on Nou Camp :)

And yes, I am a Barca fan!

I don't think you've understood my point.

Barcelona started the game with a relentless pressing game, this is hugely physically demanding and I've never seen any team try something so aggressive for 45minutes.

No team in the entire world could keep up that style of pressing for 90 minutes against a Premier League team, maybe against an Italian team but not in a league where huge stamina is mandatory.

Note: I'm not saying a Premier League team could do it either.

In their previous games against English opposition they didn't need to pressure like that as neither Chelsea nor Manchester United are possession based teams, they naturally sit back and play direct balls.

They wanted to blitzkrieg Arsenal in the first half, rattle them and destroy any confidence they had in themselves. It somewhat worked, but the failure to convert chances ultimately made it a costly mistake.

They couldn't keep that pace up for the second half and that allowed the Arsenal defence to push up which, combined with Denilson keeping Messi quiet allowed them back into the game.

It's easy to say "oh. they gave up" but it doesn't reflect how the game went at all and is rather arrogant and disingenuous.

Not everything is speed, mate. Maxwell just suck on defense, and he also failed to see the hole he was letting for Walcott. Thinking Walcott can't be stopped has to be a joke, really. All you have to do is not letting he space enough to take advantage of his sprints. BTW, the same hole Barça had with Walcott, Arsenal had with Alves. It was unbeliebable how they let the whole right wing open for him to get to their area without finding a single oponnent on his way.

In that situation everything was speed though.

I didn't say Walcott can't be stopped, just the way the situation played out it would be unrealistic to simply assume Abidal would have prevented it.

Yeah, deny Walcott space and he can't do anything but he started his run way deeper than the defensive line and Maxwell. What do you expect Abidal to do? drop deeper than the centre back and give the 2/3s of the pitch behind the defence as open space?

Yes, Alves in the first half had the whole pitch, is this relevant somehow though?

It's relevant in that they are the same tactical mistake, not that those players are unstopable. I didn't say Abidal should have entered to stop Walcott. I say Maxwell could have, although not completely stop him, stop attacking himself, a focus on defending Walcott runs. That was the biggest problem. And I also said in the second leg game Abidal will be already in good shape, and he's a defender of another level who won't make those mistakes.

It's not relevant because I wasn't making an argument that Arsenal are better at it or anything.

The point is, Maxwell wasn't attacking, he was well positioned defensively and he just got burned for pace by Walcott who started almost at the halfway line!

Abidal would have no doubt been taking up the same position, it was sensible, he was constricting the space, providing an option for the defence and midfielders and wasn't susceptible to being taken on.

The second leg will be a different game with different players so it's kinda irrelevant, maybe Walcott will get played as part of a front two!

You shouldn't critizise Almunia, tbh. He saved 3 clear goals today. Amazing performance from him.

Barça looked like past season for the first half. It's not at that level this year, and they payed the overeffort. Anyway, it seems the clear favorite for the second leg game. They are better, have a favorable score and play at home. It'd be very surprising if they don't make it into semis.

Man of the match should be Walcott ;)

And Almunia!

Cmon Gooners!

Hopefully they can perform away from home. Will be an intense second leg!

ref made bad decisions for both sides all game. pretty fucking useless if you ask me.

funny how he awarded goal kick when messi was tackled in first half. did the defender touch the ball or not, ref?

The booking of Fabregas is a prime example.

Messi did just fall over on that one really though, so it was just a goal kick.

yep and one time when xavi got a free kick because he tried to lean against someone who wasnt there.. useless ref and i'm not saying that because i'm a barca fan.. "we" got stuff that wasnt there too.

nah, maybe messis wasnt a pen but neither was the last situation, im my view.

Please explain how this is not a penalty?

Puyol runs into Fabregas as he's preparing to shoot, gets his legs tangled up, takes Fabregas out and stops a goal scoring opportunity. Puyol knew, exactly what he was doing.

As for the Clichy situation the call was correct, he didn't trip Messi up, he pulled out of his actual tackle, and only made minimal contact between the two players upper leg.

so you're honestly saying the ref did a good job?

Overall in the game?

It wasn't a good refereeing displays by any means, it wasn't shockingly bad either and he got those two calls right and nothing major wrong (Except maybe the Fabregas and Pique cards since neither were probably fouls at all).

i dont agree with you. ref ruined the game

Which decisions "ruined" the game exactly?
The two penalty decisions/claims that he got spot on?

It's not like either team were making dirty fouls, or even really fouling at all. He booked Arshavin for a bad tackle really early on and I can't remember anything close to a bad challenge after that. The game flowed well, he played advantage brilliantly, didn't get any offside calls wrong.

an offside on some arsenal striker i cant remember (which puyol actually saved but whatever) which was incorrect
tackle on messi
penalty + red card puyol
pique yellow
some free kick close to arsenals goal.. cant remember who but i remember being angry

generally he made the wrong decisions.. and a lot of missing key players (for both teams) next game which will lead to lower quality of play. GG.

The Bendtner decision was super tight and I thought it was fair enough, none of the players played to the whistle there anyway.

Fabregas and Pique will miss due to yellow cards which were very harsh so, yeah. But Puyol missing the game is fair as fair can be, he fouled a guy in the process of shooting, in the area as last man back.

i wouldnt say it was intentional to get tangled up in his legs. he was just trying to block.

Yes, so he intentionally got in the way of Fabregas and the ball, made contact, brought him down and thus it's a foul and red.

he got caught trying to get ahead.. in traffic this would be concidered an "accident".

i'm not too bummed out though, i highly doubt arsenal will be able to do anything away.

Accident or not, it's still against the rules and a foul.

Nobody said it was a cynical/professional foul, but Puyol knew exactly what he was doing and can have no complaints.

i don't agree with you, shouldn't have been a pen.

You don't agree with the rules of football, nice one.

you're assuming we view the situation the same way, classic way of making a point. however we don't view the situation the same way

Because you are viewing it wrong due to your bias.

Fabregas is goal side, the ball is in front of him.
Puyol is behind him and comes in from behind.

Puyol gets his leg between Fabregas and the ball and crucially makes no contact with the ball himself but takes out Fabregas's leg instead.

This is like the definition of a foul tackle.

Then the red card, he's through on goal with nobody in between him, the ball and the goal (bar the keeper) and is preparing to take a shot.

Last man back + Goal Scoring opportunity = Red Card

as i recall it fabregas leg got stuck in between puyols as he were swinging at the ball? i cant view the youtube vid because im at work

Nah, he was already shooting when Puyol got his leg in front.

and i don't think im that biased.

both teams got wrong calls all game. i'm saying ref is shitty.

He's very biased when talking about Arsenal ;)

Anyway, I think the penalty call isn't really incorrect by the book, but in 90% of the matches that penalty would be considered just another contact and nothing would happen. Just as Messi's one.

Yeah, I'm so biased when I make well reasoned and correct points about the rules of football... Oh wait...

Where have I been biased here exactly?

Barcelona were better but tired themselves out and it was a penalty and a red card.

That kind of tackle gets given as a penalty all the time, it's not just regular contact.

Both Shearer and Gullit said after the game that they thought it was a soft pen. Talked about how Fabregas seemed to kick Puyol more than anything, which I kind of agree with since Fabregas kicked Puyol in the back of the leg.

Yeah, not a foul at all

A soft penalty is still a penalty.

Dont see how he can be late if he is kicked in the back of the leg.

Because a shooting motion involves pulling your leg back and that is how he catches Fabregas.

Yeah and he took to long so Puyol got infront of yhim.

How is he in front of him? Are you blind?

Not literally infront of him. But since the ball is on Fabregass right side, which Puyol manages to cover before fibreglass gets the shot in. Fabregas tries to cut the ball, dont know what its called in English but Skærin in Icelandic when Puyol is right next to him. Just looked like he kicks him since it is quit obvious that Puyol is never going for a contact with Fabregas.

Doesn't matter if it is accidental or not. Pyuol stops Fabregas from getting the shot off and never comes close to playing the ball. Anyone with half a brain see that it's a foul.

Contrary to popular belief you are not entitled to all the space/time in the world to get your shot off. If someone manages to get infront of you when you are taking your shot then it means you are to late. But of course Puyol was behind him since its not like he got kicked in the back of his legs.. Oh wait.

Are you joking? He gets kicked there because Fabregas has his leg back in a shooting motion. You don't put your leg sideways when you try to shoot the ball.

And only Puyols leg is in front of Fabregas's leg, not Puyol himself.

Thus, it is a tackle/trip by Puyol not Puyol standing in the way of a shot.

You kind of do when a cross has gone over your head and you attempt a volley on your other side.

you cant expect puyol just to disapear from the pitch, hes clearly going for the ball and when fabregas goes to take a swing at the ball he actually HITS puyol. ridiculous decision

No, I don't expect Puyol to disappear from the pitch, neither do I expect him to foul a player.

He's clearly going for the ball, sure, but he didn't win the ball and runs into Fabregas's shot, gets his legs caught and takes the player out.

Penalty and due to being the last man back and denying a goal scoring opportunity it's a red card.

It's a clear cut, blantant penalty, the red was harsh but again, it's in the rules.

Pause the replay of the youtube link at 0:29.

Puyols right leg is over the top of Fabregas's ball playing right foot and his left leg is behind. This is an illegal tackle.

are you serious? so puyol timed his run so his leg would be perfectly placed at the exact second fabregas took his leg back? fabregas KICKED puyol, its a freeout

No, he didn't time his run for it to happen, it was accidental.

The thing is, you can't block, and trap, the leg of a player who is in front of you from the ball and say "lol my bad" and play on.

If Puyol was in front of Fabregas it wouldn't have been a foul, but Fabregas had position on Puyol and thus that situation unfolded and he fouled him. Pretty simple.

Gotta laugh at how so many people don't understand the rules of football.

but you can kick a player/trip a guy whos behind you? it was accidental both players got tangled up together, no ones really at fault.

That's the most stupid comment ever.

There would be no such thing as a foul with your point of view, everything would just be an accidental tangling of two players bodies with nobody at fault.

All you would need to do to stop a player would be to run into them and trip them up.

Fabregas is goal side, the ball is in front of him.
Puyol is behind him and comes in from behind.

Puyol gets his leg between Fabregas and the ball and crucially makes no contact with the ball himself but takes out Fabregas's leg instead.

This is like the definition of a foul tackle.

puyol is to the side of fabregas and fabregas kicks puyol. puyol did nothing wrong, he has every right to be where he was when he was... secondly if you watch the video fabregas is late to take a swing at the ball he has no chance of hitting it so its not even a goal scoring opportunity.

i really cant see what puyol is suppose to do differently in that situation.

wtf are you guys on about. fabregas did not even see puyol, puyol came from behind and was late. you can see in the replay that it is his leg going towards fabregas' AND i say again - he came from behind.

lol

:(

are you retarded or something?

lol?

with your logic i could just turn around, stick my legs in between someone elses and get the pen! good idea!

No that's idiotic.

sure, that's why i don't think it should be a penalty.

That's nothing like what happened though.

give it up dude, we think different why do you keep nagging me about it

he didnt run into him, fabregas kicked puyol. puyol has every right to go for the ball, he cant just vanish when febregas decides tro take a swing at it. also fab wasnt even going to get the ball.

Fabregas is going for the ball and Puyol goes into the back of Fabregas. How anyone sees that as Fabregas committing a foul beyond me.

Shearer said it, so I guess that explains the intellect and knowledge of football required.

What is with you people and bad pundits. Shearer is the dullest man to ever play in the prem and someone actually thought it would be a good idea to put him on tv.

There's a Scottish guy on some Sky program who is quite good and Dixon/Keown on MOTD2 are good.

Everyone else is either utterly clueless, utterly out-of-touch or utterly dull (Or in the case of Shearer, all three).

ITV had Edgar Davids who proved to actually have some football knowledge but he couldn't speak English and was obsessed with Ibra.

Football punditry in England is all about personalities rather than football.

Heard that Slaven Bilic was on the programme a few weeks back and made them look like idiots.

We have Oliver Kahn.
...

Can't be worse than anything we get.

They are all tactically inept and I'm pretty sure they don't watch the games.

You don't know Tomás Roncero and Roberto Gómez. I don't know how bad is what you get, but they at least match it.

Ahh yes I remember when he proclaimed Werder Bremen would never score against him and Bayern would win the title. Three fuckups later and Werder Bremen are crowned champs. It was hilarious.

that was the 2nd best championship finale ever. so fucking awesome.

but we also have Netzer and Kloppi!

no, WE have kloppi now! And we're never giving him back

commentating for RTL during world cup.

Did I mention my boss already said we will be using the beamer in our conference room to watch the games? :D

Kloppo. He's not cute, he's competent.
Kloppo.

haha :)

puyol getting a red card hahahaha so fucking ridiculous

looking forward to the full force rape at camp nou

no way was it a penalty, if anythign fabregas fouled puyol

football = random shit

esr = random shit

stop bugging ini. go Arsenal!

I care about football and correct decisions.

I like Barcelona and Arsenal.. :/

I want Arsenal to go through, because you brits just can't beat germans.

On the other hand Barca - Bayern would be a thrilling final.

yeah another 4-0 would sure be thrilling

won't happen again. don't fool yourself.

prolly not, since barça is weaker than last season and bayern stronger.
but there is still a huge difference between those two teams.

i think it will be the same final as last year, barça-manu

I'd like Arsenal to win so that we can see Arsenal vs Inter (We've already seen Barca) and potentially Arsenal vs Bayern/Lyon/Bordeaux.

Also, seeing Barcelona win a consecutive CL would suck, it's more interesting and exciting when new teams win these competitions unless the team who wins is doing something extraordinary.

I don't think Arsenal have met a German team for a long time :P

Inter > Arsenal
Barca > Inter
Would be my guess ;)

I dont like nor dislike Barca but it would be pretty cool if they managed to win a consecutive CL imo, mainly cause it should be close to impossible and it would be pretty cool if this generation of Barca lived up to the hype of being the best team in the world.

Ok, now that I think about it, Ive come to dislike Barca, theyve got this holier than thou thing going thats everyone is buying in to, its almost as annoying as the Cooller best player ever thing. Still, it would make for a much better story afterwards if they lived up to it. So go Barca! ;)

"I dont like nor dislike Barca"

"it would be pretty cool if this generation of Barca lived up to the hype of being the best team in the world."

"now that I think about it, Ive come to dislike Barca"

"So go Barca! ;)"

He loves me, he loves me not :( He loves me not, he loves me :D

I wonder how long it took you to write that post, it seems full of epiphanies.

So basically I cant find them dominating a cool thing unless I like them? And I would hardly call it an epiphany to go from indifferent to dislikeing.

lol

I like Barça although I'm not a supporter, and I don't dislike Arsenal, but... I can't stand Florentino Pérez, so I really hope Barça win it at Real's home.

Actually that would be cool but Arsenal winning it there with the 0 net spent would be cool too!

Arsenal was a HUGE dissapointment.

i don't really follow the EPL, but in the buildup the barcelona sports dailies were talking about arsenal being the same as barça, always looking for possesion and always attacking. so i thought maybe it won't be the usual 65% possesion for barça, but in the end it was probably even more.

still i think arsenal has a decent chance of qualifying. pique and puyol out in central defence is a big loss.
milito is a very good backup, but marquez is just horrible this season. i hope toure plays for him as a CD.

good chance? without fabregas, gallas & arshavin and they already got owned at home with those three players. It would take a miracle, to get any result in barcelona.

Arshavin has been poor all season?

He doesn't defend
He loses possession
Misses open goals

He won't be a loss at all.

Fabregas has run out of steam and is injured anyway (before his fracture).

Gallas has been out for a month and there has been no noticeable difference, he's played most of the season half fit too since Silvestre is a nightmare.

Look at it this way, that was the worst Arsenal performance for a long time and that was the best Guardiola has seen his Barcelona play and they only got a 2-2 draw.

Yeah right...., I'm sure their replacements are much better which is why they were all starters in the first game vs barcelona?

Your arsenal bias is quite amusing, but not very objective I'm afraid.

And btw I don't care about either team going trough, I'm neither a barca or arsenal fan, although I do like the fact that the premiership is losing it's dominance over the champions league, which was getting quite boring tbh.

Sure a fully fit Fabregas would be a miss but the other two won't be massive losses, especially not Arshavin.

I mean, your argument was they got owned with them, yet in the second half they weren't on the field and the game was much more even than the first half when they were on the field.

I'd imagine Nasri will fill in for Fabregas and he's quite capable and Rosicky will fill in for Arshavin and he's far better in possession and at defending.

I really don't see how it's biased to argue that it was a penalty, that Barcelona dominated so much initially due pressure no team could keep up for 90 minutes and that Gallas/Arshavin isn't too big of a loss.

It's not like I'm saying Barcelona were rubbish or that they didn't dominate the game. I'm not even saying they won't win the tie, I fully expect them to.

Or do you not agree that Arsenal performed terribly and Barcelona performed to an unbelievable level?

We already went over this, but anyhow

Arsenal may have performed terribly, but that to a large degree has to do with the the quality of the opposition. I think Arsenal just doesn't match up very well against Barcelona because they both like to play a similar technical style, and Barcelona is simply better at.it. Teams like Chelsea, Inter or either of the French teams are much harder for Barcelona because they use brute force to disrupt their play.

Your argument is that Barcelona was stupid to play at light speed for the first half and got punished for it in the second when they ran out of steam. Well yes and no, if they had been up 0-3 (or more) it would have totally been worth it. Aresenal would never have come back from such a mental mauling, and Barca could have put 11 men in goal for all that they care. I say that Barcelona was unlucky to go to half time with 0-0, you say it wasn't luck. Thats where our opinions differ. Objectively IMHO Arsenal is going to have a very though time at nou camp, but if they somehow manage to go trough I'll be the first to congratulate you.

You've misunderstood my position slightly.

Firstly, it wasn't luck that Arsenal survived the first half at 0-0, they made the saves and blocks to prevent Barcelona from scoring.

In this situation you make your own luck. So if you want to call it luck fine, but it was purely down to Arsenal, desperate as it may have been.

It was a good decision tactically, until they failed to make it count and score the goals and thus in hindsight it was a mistake as it didn't pay off.

As we saw, when Barcelona didn't press as hard, fast or high Arsenal were capable of keeping possession and created chances, ultimately scoring two goals. So evidently the chasm in quality isn't there.

Are Barcelona better? Of course, they won all six competitions last year, but it's not as big as people want to believe.

Even if Barcelona win 4-0, you won't see the first half domination again I suspect because they'd be risking the league going into the el classico knackered.

Nasri > Ashvarin

Rosicky > Arshavin

FU Arshavin>>>ALL

Only one player can be >>>>>ALL and thats Totti.

Totti, Nasri, Rosicky all are average players nothing special...

<3

errr, no.

I think the game ended with 68% possession for Barcelona but it's important to remember that with the switch to 433 Arsenal have become a less possession orientated team which is why it's hilarious when I see the media claim Wenger copied Barcelona's formation from last year.

The two really aren't similar in the slightness except for the vague notion of having 3 midfielders and 3 forwards.

Anyway the problems in this game were Diaby/Song/Fabregas/Nasri/Arshavin didn't put any pressure on the ball in the first half and Diaby/Arshavin/Eboue gave the ball away all game, worst performances from all of them all season.

Denilson played 45minutes and completed more passes than any other Arsenal player.

It'll probably be a loss at Camp Nou but it's unlikely to be as dominant a performance from Barcelona (Even if they do win 4-0 or something).

baca gonna smash then at new kampf

In 13 hours we will know who goes through! ;)

damn, this is gonna be a nailbiter. I just hope the better teams goes through. With their current injuries though, I doubt Arsenal can go for a draw... so, my prediction: 2-1, and 3-1 in extra time =p

2-2 is the only score that can force extra time btw

lol how did I ever think arsenal won that game? woops!
in that case, the odds are 70-30 in favor of barca.

probably because arsenal fans act as if they did (:

although i suppose a game where walcott produces a decent first touch for once should be considered a victory in itself

I love it when Walcott dribbles and the ball kinda just gets stuck between his legs and occasionally it looks like he's a football genius.

or when he fucks up a cross so much that it completely decieves the defence

His crossing is amazing m8, look how he deflected his cross off of Puyol onto Bendtners head!

fifa street x 10 = walcott

Walcott is like the luckiest 100m runner ever, gets into one of the biggest football clubs in the world and earns £££.

:D

I think bolt still earns more then him though, maybe he is even the better football player lol.

He'd be like Adebayor++++++

How much does Bolt earn?
What about other top 100m runners?

I'm kinda ignorant on how much they get since you generally see top British athletes doing adverts for wheat cereals or dodgy loan companies...

Barça also has a lot of injuries. Anyway, that's no excuse. They are better and play at home, so they must win clearly.

It's just Ibrahimovic who is out right? (+Pique/Puyol through suspension)

In comparison to the Arsenal injury list it's nothing :P

Iniesta just came back from injury, he won't play as a starter.

Barcelona's starting lineup:
Valdés; Alves, Milito, Márquez, Abidal; Xavi, Busquets, Keita; Bojan, Messi y Pedro.

Can't believe Touré is not playing...

Touré not playing this season is impossible to understand. He was one of the best players last season but this year Pep decided that he wants to go with that Busquets cunt and let Touré rot in the bench.

Agree completely.
I don't think Busquets is bad, he is still young and only in his 2nd season.

But Touré is one of the best DMs in the world. I just don't understand what Pep is thinking when he is alinging Busquets in the big games.

Personally I prefer Busquets, Yaya is mostly physique if you ask me whereas Busquets seems much more intelligent on and off the ball and just lacks a bit of experience in comparison.

He's got superior technique too and is more agile whereas Yaya is like an 18wheeler doing a 360.

Ye, well, Piqué is also injured, but it doesn't affect this game.

:E

omg 3:1 ! :D

(>$_$)> Messi <($_$<)

Messi 4:1 Arsenal

LMAO@Arsenal Fans.

messi > arsenal

MESSI SOS UN CAPO !!! CUM WAS SPREAD ALL OVER MY TV

Well, thats that then.

Who will go through in the ManU - Bayern fixture? :)

manu

bayern ofc. :)

0:1

Wouldn't that be a Robbery.

:D

Hurr hurr hurr

Més que un jugador

No lmao@Arsenal? What a loss of traditions.

It's only lmao @ when the team was expected to win m8

That was at the start. I've seen lmao threads for almost every game later, just for the discussion. Don't feel hurt ;)
Example: Last season there was lmao@bayern (vs Barça), lmao@chelsea (vs Barça), etc. No difference with the Arsenal game at all.

Feel free to make one, though I don't remember it being done for every game, that'd be exhausting :D

There was one for every game during the Eurocup iirc.

Also, is this the best cup round in years or what. Manu v Bayern half time now and it's fukken awesome.

Whole game was awesome. Bayern's second goal = instant ejaculation.

\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/\o/

who watched el clasico ??

great play and goal by messi, good coolnes definition from pedro

real didnt have what it takes to take barça down, my god that ball that van der vaart missed wtf lol

van der vaart didn't miss anything, it was a good save from the goalkeeper.

Anyway, is it just me or does Cristiano Ronaldo look completely gay?
And I don't mean physically, but the way he does all those ridiculous step overs whenever he is charging at some defender. They usually let him make an ass of himself for a while until they calmly take the ball from his feet making him look like a total fool.
I guess Real is the perfect club for him, style over substance. Compare that to Messi, everything he does is completely functional.

Messi is a true dribbler, Ronaldo can't dribble so he has to do his step overs to give him an extra yard when he boots it past him and runs onto it.

It annoys the fuck out of me when I see fullbacks get tormented by it so much too, Premier League players can't tackle though so I guess it's understandable.

every time I see the title I think this is Bafta Interview

olic delivered, bayern is gonna be a good opponent in finals, too bad ribery wont be there

today is the big match hope its a good match despite the winner, inter did an amazing job tricking barca and blocking messi in milan lets see barcas responde today =D