CL 1/4 Final: FC Barcelona - Manchester United 4-0 agg.

[Zidane82]

But they’re not and as much as I blame the lack of rotation for last years Roma loss, this is pretty ridiculous to already start with the crying and whining 10 minutes into the game. Good grief how miserable are some of you people?

To be fair to US whiners we have been used to some fantastic football for years and years .. we could/should have been two nil down after 2 minutes and then gawd knows what the score could have been.

As usual Valverde was SAVED by MESSI ..and he’s got maybe two or three years at this crazy level ..

I thought the usual players shone brightly plus Coutinho joined the party again.. Busqs was back to his best I felt . Messi Alba Arthur all brilliant .

Rakitic played slightly better than usual but thankfully FDJ is a massive upgrade on him for next season. Roberto was again utter dross and Samedo should always start at RB imho .
The two CBS were ok but they were torn apart easily for the first ten minutes or so .. Hopefully De Ligt agrees to sign for us .

Suarez occasionally shows glimpses of utter brilliance but those are few and far between nowadays.. I’d love to get Firmino in for next season as he’s tailor-made for us . That said Lewandowski and Diego Costa May both be available in the summer ..

 

[raskolnikov]

ThwiX is very right.

Liverpool is going to need double the effort.

I can see Messi doing well but the spaces we leave between the Defence/Midfield lines is worrying.

Liverpool is 50/50 for me. Luckily they need all energy on the epl. Difficult to fight on two fronts. Great result though! Finaly a cl semi though.Been years.

 

[serghei]

Liverpool have an edge because they are a more drilled side and Klopp is a much better manager than Valverde.

Liverpool have the edge in pretty much every area except individual quality of the players. Basically, imo they are a better managed team. This is incredibly important. Usually, team attributes trump individual class.

We need to access a higher level of dedication to knock out Liverpool. Maybe being so close to the title is what makes us give our all. Because our all is what will be needed in the semis.

 

[Sweden]

To be honest im not that impressed. Two greate individuell accomplishments and a goalie's mistake.
We should have been able to punish that defense alot moore.
Even Ajax looks better and have done so the entire CL-season.

 

[eaman]

Good performance with some brilliant individual goals. Yes we could have been one down after a minute but that was just very good play from United. I don't buy into all this we could've been 2 down thing. If they had scored the first the play would've gone in a different direction from then on. More than likely we would've upped our game. It's the same way if Messi had gotten that definite pen he wouldn't have scored that brilliant first. Might have gotten a different brilliant goal though knowing him

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I feel a little sorry for ManU - they played 3 matches in 6 days and they met a well rested Barça team with Messi, Arthur & Coutinho showing what their players lack.

They were rested last time. Feck them.

 

[unknowngenius10]

My biggest concern is that we have gotten used to playing with an advantage goal fr.the beginning, and this allow us to play our own game.
What will happen if Liverpool score the first goal in semis?
I think that might be the end for us.

 

[Hardy]

problem with Liverpool is that they look the perfect team to expose our weakness, let's be clear, we played an awful first 15-20 minutes, Manchester didn't capitalize that because they have terrible finishers, also I don't see us win the tie at Anfield so we need to pull a Bayern 2015 and close the deal in the first leg but if we play with this conservative lineup good luck.

 

[KingLeo10]

problem with Liverpool is that they look the perfect team to expose our weakness, let's be clear, we played an awful first 15-20 minutes, Manchester didn't capitalize that because they have terrible finishers, also I don't see us win the tie at Anfield so we need to pull a Bayern 2015 and close the deal in the first leg but if we play with this conservative lineup good luck.

team is motivated and I believe they will match the ante if the opponent is up for it. Not our fault United were hopeless.

 

[jairzinho]

Pool in the semis is going to be tough but Epic. Looking forward to it. Klopp vs Ernie. Messi, Coutinho, Salah, Mane, Dembele.
Sheeeeeeeiiiiiit.

 

[Horatio]

Hard to predict Barca at this point. Want to say Liverpool will be quite the hurdle, but wouldnt be first time Barca surprises me. Barca is simply the best team right now IF in form. Also dont know how to rate EPL anymore.

 

[Centauri B]

Hard to predict Barca at this point. Want to say Liverpool will be quite the hurdle, but wouldnt be first time Barca surprises me. Barca is simply the best team right now IF in form. Also dont know how to rate EPL anymore.

After around 10 years of La Liga being the best, now we have to admit that EPL is the strongest. Especially their top 6, and even more so their top 2.

 

[Givenchy]

Liverpool are the best team left in the CL (apart from us, ofcourse) and are the team imo that can cause us the most problems. the only negative today was that first 10min.. we seem to totally shit the bed at the start of matches, especially in the CL, lucky for us today, it was Rashford but do that vs Liverpool with their high pressure + Salah/Mane/Firmino and we'll find ourselves 1-0 down very fast

 

[Centauri B]

I feel a little sorry for ManU - they played 3 matches in 6 days and they met a well rested Barça team with Messi, Arthur & Coutinho showing what their players lack.

They left 5 players out against West Ham. In the first leg, they had 8 days of rest, we had 3. We still beat them at their own ground. I repeatedly posted that during the 2nd leg, things would be reversed.

 

[TheFirstLuisSuarez]

To be fair to US whiners we have been used to some fantastic football for years and years .. we could/should have been two nil down after 2 minutes and then gawd knows what the score could have been.

As usual Valverde was SAVED by MESSI ..and he’s got maybe two or three years at this crazy level ..

I thought the usual players shone brightly plus Coutinho joined the party again.. Busqs was back to his best I felt . Messi Alba Arthur all brilliant .

Rakitic played slightly better than usual but thankfully FDJ is a massive upgrade on him for next season. Roberto was again utter dross and Samedo should always start at RB imho .
The two CBS were ok but they were torn apart easily for the first ten minutes or so .. Hopefully De Ligt agrees to sign for us .

Suarez occasionally shows glimpses of utter brilliance but those are few and far between nowadays.. I’d love to get Firmino in for next season as he’s tailor-made for us . That said Lewandowski and Diego Costa May both be available in the summer ..

All good points and analytics.

As old as I am and seen the flow of way too many Games. I was just not that worried.

I also am not expecting the way they played and how good they were under Pep. It’s just not something that’s ordained to happen just because they are Barcelona. It happens to other clubs too. Man U fans just expect to be back on top because well they are Man U. Same with Inter Milan or AC Milan. I know many fans of these clubs.

Now Valverde’s style is just not pleasing at all and when they replace Suarez maybe and him maybe it can go back to closet to what it was.
Winning ugly is better than not winning at all.

How long has it taken Liverpool to be great again? At least 10-15 years if you include European production. But they are never going to be The Liverpool of the 80s and pre-Premier League days.