Champions League

[Barcilliant]

That's been a theme for a while now imo. "Pace and Power" are the new default in CL. "Gegenpressing" and the likes are seemingly META. Madrid already grew accustomed to these concepts but Barca is still somewhat stuck in idealizations of 2010. We're constantly talking about Barca needing to change, but people are also still a bit too nostalgic about Joga Bonito and the 2000s.

Well, this happened back before 2009 also. The epl teams were about pace and power especially Chelsea. Now it's reemerged. The German style of football has always been about physical and mental strength anyway. It's cyclical in a way. Generally speaking though teams with a decent level of skill and a high level of physicality will do consistently well and won't get thrashed like we did.

 

[Barcilliant]

The problem with Bar?a is that we must play sexy football and we must win. That is a mighty fucking task. Oh, I forgot we must have flashy, expensive forwards and cheap, ball playing CBS. Combine that with club politics and its inevitable you will have a disaster like yesterday.

 

[JamDav1982]

Pace has always been important.

The teams winning the CL have by and large been the best in world on the break for years.

Peps Barcas were when had the opportunity, 2015 Barca were, Real were, Liverpool were and Bayern/PSG could well make final now as best two sides in world on the break.

The best teams now have balance of being able to play in possession and on break underpinned by work rate across the team.

Barca are not elite in any of those three... pace, technical ability and work rate/physicality.

 

[serghei]

Pace has always been important.

The teams winning the CL have by and large been the best in world on the break for years.

Peps Barcas were when had the opportunity, 2015 Barca were, Real were, Liverpool were and Bayern/PSG could well make final now as best two sides in world on the break.

The best teams now have balance of being able to play in possession and on break underpinned by work rate across the team.

Barca are not elite in any of those three... pace, technical ability and work rate/physicality.

Exactly. The problem with Barca is that they got old and declined, and never really moved past the aging core.

 

[Newcomer]

It happens in Germany, France, South America and even Italy now. Basically every place that constantly gets disrespected or labelled farmers by the int. media and isn't spoiled shitless with CL/EL titles.
Take that for some years and you'll rally in patriotism. Still doesn't mean if our death rivals Braunschweig would get my support, there's limits to all of this. I can absolutely tell French people feel the same about PSG and Lyon there, even though during League play they celebrate every game PSG looses.

You are on point here (not on Bayern not being insufferable, arrogant cun*s). Lyon prolly had more french supporters today because of the farmer league mockery although OM, Saint ?tienne fans were certainly against them.

Between PSG fans, it is mixed. We were mostly neutral and would have laughed about the losing side anyway. Bit like yesterday.

 

[Sterlingfan2000]

You are on point here (not on Bayern not being insufferable, arrogant cun*s). Lyon prolly had more french supporters today because of the farmer league mockery although OM, Saint ?tienne fans were certainly against them.

Between PSG fans, it is mixed. We were mostly neutral and would have laughed about the losing side anyway. Bit like yesterday.

Do psg fan hate Barcelona? Im curious to know because of the beating we gave u

 

[messi2140]

Hamad the type of dawg that watched his favourite football club humiliate his favourite club.

 

[Newcomer]

Do psg fan hate Barcelona? Im curious to know because of the beating we gave u

We like no one but PSG.

But we do dislike you a bit more than the neutral club because we sold you Ronaldinho and it spearheaded your golden era. You were annoying trying to unsettle our players (Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Verratti) with your usual media tapping. Finally, we deserved to lose at the Camp Nou but were angry because we think Aytekin helped you.

Since we bought Neymar and you got substitute Griezmann, loaned out Coutinho and injured Demb?l?, i think we are good.

We would have laughed hard if you had spanked Bayern too. We h?te them with a passion.

So yeah, PSG fans hate you in general. We hate Juventus too. We don't like Real either. We hate Liverpool too.

Everyone hate us though.

 

[Sterlingfan2000]

We like no one but PSG.

But we do dislike you a bit more than the neutral club because we sold you Ronaldinho and it spearheaded your golden era. You were annoying trying to unsettle our players (Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Verratti) with your usual media tapping. Finally, we deserved to lose at the Camp Nou but were angry because we think Aytekin helped you.

Since we bought Neymar and you got substitute Griezmann, loaned out Coutinho and injured Demb?l?, i think we are good.

We would have laughed hard if you had spanked Bayern too. We h?te them with a passion.

So yeah, PSG fans hate you in general. We hate Juventus too. We don't like Real either. We hate Liverpool too.

Everyone hate us though.

Wait why do psg hate bayern?

 

[Newcomer]

Wait why do psg hate bayern?

Because they (Hoeness and co) like to talk about us.

We don't care about them but they always want to patronize other clubs, notably PSG.

Same reason why pretty much everyone in France can't stand Lyon because of Aulas.

 

[Birdy]

But hey, Pep doesn't need crosses.
Since his teams are doing just fine with possession and counters.
7 CL seasons after Barca, 7 KOs.
With some really admirable defeats like against Monaco, Lyon and similar.
He is not even losing to Bayern or RM.
He just lost to the 7th placed team from the farmers ligue who had 11 wins, 7 draws and 10 defeats in a farmer's league.

So, don't ever change Pep.
You are doing it perfectly good.
Why changing anything, I mean, it worked in 2011, lol.

Pep haters are always lovely.
I imagine BBZ8800 you didn't support Barca when Pep was in charge?

Here are the chances created in City - Lyon:

What do we see here?
That Lyon was lucky to be 1 up by half time.
And until Dembele scored in 79th min, City had 3 clear-cut chances.
The score could have been 3-0 by that minute, and nothing of what you saw could have happened.

This proves something. And no matter what you think the right way to attack is, or who best fits for CF, no matter how many posts you make the map is there to prove you wrong.
Pep with his football did enough to qualify tonight. Period. You cannot undo that.

And this is the perfect example of how blind Pep haters are.
Pep against Lyon yesterday, and against Spurs in '19 did enough for his team to qualify. He outplayed the opposition. This is proven.
He did not do enough against Liverpool '18, and Monaco '17.
He also did enough with Bayern in '16 to go to the final. Not against Barca '15, RM '14.

So the narrative that Pep not winning a CL after Barca supposedly shows something is easy to swallow, but can't be further from the truth.
Half of those seasons, he could not have progressed. The other half he could and he was unlucky.
He must be the unluckiest coach ever in the history of CL.

 

[Newcomer]

How can Lyon xG. be 1.0 when the goals scored were clear occasions of goals ?

Sure City dominated them but that xG stats is weird.

 

[Yannik]

How can Lyon xG. be 1.0 when the goals scored were clear occasions of goals ?

Sure City dominated them but that xG stats is weird.

Because xG is flawed as fuck, and not processed enough to be unironically used to make a point. It accounts the position of a shot and gives it a value based on past shots going in from there. It doesn't take into consideration things like header/weaker/stronger foot finish, or the position of the keeper or defenders.

Cornet shoots the 1-0 into an empty goal but since it's outside the box, xG accredits it with 0.1 or so.
Dembele is in a 1on1 with the keeper, but again it's a outside the box and it gets a 0.3/0.4.

Realistically this alone was a combined 1.5, unless you play on a level where your strikers can't hit a cows arse with a banjo.

 

[Messigician]

Pep being torn apart in the city forums

Yeah, he?s still bitter about the increasing athleticism in football since the turn of the century prematurely ending his career at the top level - he even doped to try to stay relevant - and has set out to neutralise the fundamental physicality that was essential to our peak in 2017/18; he couldn?t wait to replace Fernandinho with Rodri after failing to get another turtle in Jorginho.

I honestly think he saw the beautiful simplicity of having two rapid wingers stretching the play on the outside and a dark-arts master sweeping up attacks in front of his woefully coached defence as below him - so fucked it up.

It?s no coincidence that we?ve struggled against back 5?s since everything has been inverted - teams tried the same system to neutralise us in the 100 points season, but were spread across the width of the pitch and exploited by Silva and De Bruyne in the half-spaces it created; now they can practically play within the width of the penalty box, knowing that we?d be dribbling into congestion with no orthodox width on the outside.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

So i guess the final will be PSG Bayern Lol. Will be funny to see Neymar's dribbling skills against the Bayern defence.