Bayern München

[Ryu Hayabusa]

That's Nasri being his whiny self, I guess it's a win but not a huge one, if Pellegrini makes it clear not to lash out and plays less temperamental players, the passing won't hurt them.

Yes, ok. We get it. German teams an especially Bayern are overrated, EPL teams are da bomb, De Gea is the best GK in the world, facts are negligible and you will always find some pathetic excuse to twist said fact to somehow fit your weird arguments. Now please move along.
I really hope Bayern meet Arsenal (that was your favorite team, right?) again at some level of this season's CL knockout-stages, just to keep all those Arsenal trolls on websites like ********* as well as you here (explicitly stating that you are NOT like the typical ********* Arsenal troll, in case you think I would mean to imply that) on edge and see them continuing their ridiculous drama of bitching and moaning about Bayern.

edit: Ok, auto-cencoring the website I named? k, whatever. Not intending to break any rules, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[suckabov]

Yes, ok. We get it. German teams an especially Bayern are overrated, EPL teams are da bomb, De Gea is the best GK in the world, facts are negligible and you will always find some pathetic excuse to twist said fact to somehow fit your weird arguments. Now please move along.

I have no doubt Bayern will beat City without any problems, but the first match wasn't exactly City's best evening. Their attitude was horrible, they approached it like a training match. Nobody was saying Bayern is overrated.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

That website (I'm guessing lol.com?) and several others are banned here, apparently the stories they post are too ridiculous even for us. And I would be interested in Bayern vs. Arsenal as well, it would be a great game and I feel a lot closer than you make out.

As for the whole passing thing, there are loads of teams who do nothing but sit back and defend, let other teams play pretty possession football in front of them, then go on the counter and score, and (as sad as I am to admit it) it's a perfectly legitimate strategy and doesn't indicate anything about who deserves to win or who played better.

 

[Crews]

Not sure if I'm tired but I think you avoided the "did Bayern outplay City" -question, again. And City is a possession team, therefore it hurts them a lot when they are playing off the ball. having two strikers and playing a possession style requires a midfield capable of actually delivering the ball to these two strikers. When City faces strong pressing, Yaya Toure and Fernandinho alone can't do anything, especially Yaya who is utter useless under pressure.

 

[Ryu Hayabusa]

That website (I'm guessing lol.com?) and several others are banned here, apparently the stories they post are too ridiculous even for us. And I would be interested in Bayern vs. Arsenal as well, it would be a great game and I feel a lot closer than you make out.

As for the whole passing thing, there are loads of teams who do nothing but sit back and defend, let other teams play pretty possession football in front of them, then go on the counter and score, and (as sad as I am to admit it) it's a perfectly legitimate strategy and doesn't indicate anything about who deserves to win or who played better.

Yeah, it was indeed trolls.com (aka lol.com)
I fully agree btw on Bayern-Arsenal being potentially very entertaining from a purely football aesthetically point of view.

Possession based football has the tendency of denying the opponent the ball and without the ball he can't really score, so in theory you will eventually score yourself at some point. Of course it is much more complex and other tactical means need to be utilized to make that general theory work, e.g. high pitch pressing, but generally the video I posted demonstrates this kind of approach quite perfectly. Humiliating your opponent in the process by making him look like a clueless idiot, is certainly another interesting thing possession-based football has going for itself.

 

[AfricanBavarian]

That website (I'm guessing lol.com?) and several others are banned here, apparently the stories they post are too ridiculous even for us. And I would be interested in Bayern vs. Arsenal as well, it would be a great game and I feel a lot closer than you make out.

As for the whole passing thing, there are loads of teams who do nothing but sit back and defend, let other teams play pretty possession football in front of them, then go on the counter and score, and (as sad as I am to admit it) it's a perfectly legitimate strategy and doesn't indicate anything about who deserves to win or who played better.

I dont see the players making the same mistake twice if they did play, in my opinion it would a lot closer game than last season but i would predict the same score line as the first leg

 

[Maria]

Let's see how they do against City.

I hope you realize that from all the games that Pep would chose to draw, the game against City is the first one on his list. In fact, I'm 100% certain that the game in the cup against Augsburg was more important to him than this one.

 

[barcanuck]

Even with Pep resting some of his team, his backups are insane. Shaquiri, Muller, Martinez, Gotze are considered non starters. They are the deepest team I've seen in decades.

 

[ThwiX]

I hope you realize that from all the games that Pep would chose to draw, the game against City is the first one on his list. In fact, I'm 100% certain that the game in the cup against Augsburg was more important to him than this one.

"Records are not important for me but for the club's history. 18 points means prestige, and there is also prize money at stake. That's what we have to concentrate on, says Guardiola."

Sounds like he is taking it pretty seriously, or maybe not him, but the club.

 

[Maria]

Even with Pep resting some of his team, his backups are insane. Shaquiri, Muller, Martinez, Gotze are considered non starters. They are the deepest team I've seen in decades.

I don't think that Muller and Javi can be considered non starters..and even though they have numerous options in atack and midfield, I still believe they need one more CB(we had more CBs in 2009 for example and still end up using Toure there in a CL final).

Sounds like he is taking it pretty seriously, or maybe not him, but the club.

Well, I didn't said that Pep didn't take this game seriously. For him even a friendly is important, but from all the games they have this month, this is one that Bayern can afford to draw.

 

[barcanuck]

Shweini, Javi, Kroos, Gotze, Muller, Thiago, Mandzukic, Robben, Ribery, Shaquiri. Only 5-6 guys of these guys play at once. There is no backups, they are all elite. Something Barca lacks is all those options Bayern has. We need more squad depth so we can rotate properly not rely on Xavi to hold down the midfield every 3 days.

 

[Tomchin]

I saw they lost 2-3 against ManCity tonight (after being 2-0 up), how did they play?

 

[Trickykid]

I saw they lost 2-3 against ManCity tonight (after being 2-0 up), how did they play?

They were great for the majority of the first half, but seriously lacklustre in the second. They had plenty possession on City's half, but, as we saw more than a few times during Pep's time in Barca, they created nothing. He even pulled out Mandzukic with 20 mins left in favour of Xaqiri, leaving the team without a striker entirely. Ultimately it didn't make them any more dangerous.
Defensively they were also more than woeful. Negredo actually had quite a large chance of making it 4-2, but Neuer saved from a narrow angle.

All in all City were run over during the beginning, but ultimately settled and looked real solid, while Bayern started to look more and more clueless.

 

[darthvader7888]

I doubt Bayern will play anything like they did in the second half in, say, a CL knockout round.

 

[AfricanBavarian]

Im tired of losing to English teams at the Allianz Arena!!!!