wisconsincule
Senior Member
If you aren’t happy you suck!!!!
Let’s go!!!!!! Vamos Barca!!
Let’s go!!!!!! Vamos Barca!!
Champions League Semi Final: Liverpool - FC Barcelona 4-3 agg.
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
Jaguar
Flair Trait
said a little bit. We struggled to make 4 passes without giving the ball away a lot of the game. Yes we were quite good defensively, but Liverpool played very well and we weren't that good overall. Super happy though, Visca el Barça!
wisconsincule
Senior Member
Everyone watch our fans after Messis second. Pure jubilation!!! Let’s go!!
i_bleed_blaugrana
Senior Member
From a general perspective, I think Klopp set them up just about as good as you can. I was really paying attention to their line spacing in the first half and they did as good of a job as you can do in reducing the space between the midfield and defensive lines. Robertson and Matip were their best players tonight, Salah played decently but should have scored and Mane was very disappointing from Liverpool's perspective. The logic behind the Gomez selection made sense and kept Coutinho quiet but got awkward when we switched to the 4-4-2.
Despite this though, I think the possession stats show you how close this game really was and how deceiving Messi made this scoreline. The diamond was an interesting choice that I think largely worked in giving them enough midfield options to be able to hold the ball yet compact when they fell back, similar to what Pep did against us. I stated I wanted this to go like Bayern 15 and this game felt a lot like Bayern 15 in reverse: Suarez scores an early goal instead of Neymar's late clincher and magisterial braces from Messi being the constant. A few buddies of mine are big Liverpool fans and I have a lot of respect for them as a club so I think they have a lot to be proud of because I was certainly sweating bullets until Messi's first. So glad we kept a clean sheet but objectively, a fair scoreline would have been 3-1 and they have to be gutted looking at the situation they are in. Klopp is in a real Catch 22 regarding Newcastle and rotations, honestly think the PL is way more important for them this season and I'd prefer to see them win it this year but that means he plays their best 11, leaving them with less gas in the tank for the return leg. Compared with that, how open they looked when they started going for it, Messi being undeniable right now and the fatigue make this impossible for them, even with the magic of Anfield. I feel for them honestly because they were putting us under considerable pressure, but, Valverde's Barça has shown that they can handle this.
Now onto us. Barça's 2nd goal was Valverde's time here in a nutshell: defensively sturdy, decent in possession yet calculated on the break and when it doesn't go quiet to plan, Messi comes in to clean up the mess. It is Lucho 2.0 but we can kinda control a match this time. But heavily, heavily reliant on the individual talent of the squad making the difference rather than coordinated team movements and our general play on the ball. I'll give Valverde credit for the Semedo sub in particular because that helped stabilize the team and the switch to the 4-4-2 paid off perfectly. The shape was right but I think we could have gotten even more joy if Dembele comes on sooner for either Roberto or Vidal because Gomez v Dembele would have been a big mismatch to exploit but Valverde just will never make a sub like that, clearly. The middle of the park was a mess all game but the rondos came into play for us, we just seemed to have slightly quicker in-the-moment recognition in these congested spaces but crucially had the technique to execute a play, something Liverpool just didn't quite demonstrate tonight. I really believe that is where so much of our quality comes from, like Xavi said a while ago, it just forges a mental quickness but also flair that is so hard to play against. Disappointed in Dembouz in the end (take a touch!) but it was like his 2nd touch of the game, so I cannot be too mad. For as threatening as they looked before Messi's first, we looked doubly as threatening as they did after Messi's goals and Suarez's. There is immense danger from us after we score and we are really good at getting a couple of goals in a short spell, smelling blood as they say. They played well but our individual quality showed through, much like it did for Real in the final last year.
We ebbed and flowed a lot throughout the 90. We started off excellently, something we haven't done a lot recently and I really hope this myth of us being defensively vulnerable starts going away soon. Even when Liverpool had their spells, I think our back four were pretty spot on, particular Pique-Lenglet plus ter Stegen quickly cementing himself as our best GK ever, I think its our defense that is allowing us to hang on in these games and wait for Messi to find a moment. I rewatched the highlights of this tie back in 2007 and we defend 10x better now than we did then. We are really, really disciplined in regaining our defensive shape after a break. Our back line doesn't lose shape nearly as often, the midfield recovers fairly quickly. These are small things that allow us to neutralize opposition attacks and create much lower percentage chances than we did in the past, even with Lucho. That is Valverde's biggest contribution to us: he is teaching us how to defend and win ugly and it is important for us in taking the steps necessary to truly dethrone Real in the future.
To be clear, I am certainly not a huge fan of all of this. It hurts me to see Ajax do so well playing pure totaalvotebal and know we could be playing the same, first time in my life so far I've ever enjoyed watching a team play more than Barça. But this in so many ways is Valverde showing us how to win when we don't have the components to do that and still be competitive. Despite being so reliant on Messi, there are a lot of lessons we should learn from Valverde here that coupled with more imaginative movement off the ball, we could still be competitive post-Messi. I do think it will be a lot easier for us to play better, more fluent football with de Jong in midfield next season however. I'd say the biggest thing we are missing offensively right now is penetrative passes from the MF. Teams used to be terrified of getting broken by a single, accurate through-ball perfectly timed to an onrushing forward and we don't have that threat at the moment. Outside of Messi, Alba and maybe Suarez are our most consistent playmakers in terms of setting up goal scoring chances and that needs to change. Aleñá, de Jong give us that next season, Arthur can do it at times and I think Puig will bring it as well but I think that's the biggest thing we need back in our game, offensively-speaking.
But the bottom-line is this is probably good enough to conquer Europe right now. When you got a player like Messi, it clearly doesn't have to be a masterclass tactically and Valverde has simply made it really hard to hurt us offensively without giving room for Messi to hurt our opponents. Its a clever strategy and I think it will be good enough for us to see off this tie in Anfield and control the game well enough against Ajax/Spurs to win it all this season.
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behindbrowneyes
Well-known member
Start the game at Anfield as if the tie was still 0-0. This is Barça, not Bilbao. I want to see the desire to win there too.
Alik
Moderator
Very shaky start to the match. We grew in confidence with the score and got comfortable after the Semedo-Cou substitution.
Let's hope the missed chances at the end to come back to bite us at Anfield.
I think playing the 4-4-2 of the second half is the way to go in the second leg.
Great match, great atmosphere, great result. Especially happy with the Messi performance and the clean sheet.
Let's hope the missed chances at the end to come back to bite us at Anfield.
I think playing the 4-4-2 of the second half is the way to go in the second leg.
Great match, great atmosphere, great result. Especially happy with the Messi performance and the clean sheet.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Amazing that this Barca side are going to win the Champions League when the much better sides in 2010 and 2012 didn't
Don't think 2012 team was better side,though we played against worse opponent for sure
that Neymar-style rolling and the smile after was awesome
It was intended dirty tackle by Milner.
When other team goes that dirty on you overreacting is the way to go.
Style of play aside, we've asked the boys to give everything for the win, and this they did.
Proud of the team and let's finish the job in England. I remember last time we won there 1-0 in 2007 with a Messi assist
Amen
Newcastle is a really tough place to get a result especially in the last few months when they have risen up the table. That will be a gruelling match and plays into ours hands perfectly I hope.
Just a comment on something tactically I think EV got right:
Barca blunted Liverpool's directness and 100mph pace of football by playing out from the back slowly with the ball on the ground almost every time (I think once Ter Stegen kicked it long) with the ball going back to Ter Stegen then him passing on the ground out again retaining possession and passing around their press. They do this nornally but not to this extent and I think they were under order to slow down the game's pace.
This took the wind out of Liverpool's sails and killed that intensity and directness they are known for. Unlike in the Premier League where Liverpool put pressure on the back line of the opposition, who almost always just kick it up in the air (EPL airball) down the field, allowing Liverpool to collect again and charge at them once more in a dominating cycle. This intensity and 'no-time to think just catch your breath football' couldn't get going mostly because of this.
Barca blunted Liverpool's directness and 100mph pace of football by playing out from the back slowly with the ball on the ground almost every time (I think once Ter Stegen kicked it long) with the ball going back to Ter Stegen then him passing on the ground out again retaining possession and passing around their press. They do this nornally but not to this extent and I think they were under order to slow down the game's pace.
This took the wind out of Liverpool's sails and killed that intensity and directness they are known for. Unlike in the Premier League where Liverpool put pressure on the back line of the opposition, who almost always just kick it up in the air (EPL airball) down the field, allowing Liverpool to collect again and charge at them once more in a dominating cycle. This intensity and 'no-time to think just catch your breath football' couldn't get going mostly because of this.
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