CL | Round of 16 - 1st Leg: PSG - FC Barcelona 4-0

[serghei]

- Pulling off Gomes after 20 minutes. Rakitic is usually much better covering Messi, if he loses the ball. Pulling off Roberto, regardless who comes in his place. Telling the defenders to concentrate more on the actual players, rather than mere territory and Busquests to go deeper back.
We still would have lost that day but it would have been a manageable 0:2 or something like that...

I think Lucho did use a man oriented zonal defence during the PSG game. At least in the 2nd half for sure. The problem for me was not that we didn't track PSG's players, because we did, but that our players were beaten in 1 vs 1s, and once that happened in midfield, the PSG players on the run had a lot of space to use. Both the 3-0 and 4-0 goals were scored like that, with Kurzawa and Meunier travelling with the ball 60-70m after going inside and attacking space left behind by our midfielders.

You insist on Gomes, which is fine as he was indeed bad, but the problems were bigger than that. Busquets, Iniesta, Gomes, Messi, Umtiti and Roberto had a horrible game, and the others, bar Stegen and to some extent Neymar had a bad game as well.

 

[Potroh]

I think Lucho did use a man oriented zonal defence during the PSG game. At least in the 2nd half for sure. The problem for me was not that we didn't track PSG's players, because we did, but that our players were beaten in 1 vs 1s, and once that happened in midfield, the PSG players on the run had a lot of space to use.

Yes I agree. (What I meant is hard to explain without a couple of drawings but I can't even upload a single bitmap to this forum... perhaps it's a privilege for the well deserved few...).
If you mean by "man oriented zonal defense" the same thing I tried to mention than we are in complete agreement there.
They lost the one on one duels but in my opinion the major problem was that after the first defender failed, another one or often two came to close down the open spaces, and by this there were vital attackers not being covered at all, or only from an unnecessarily large distance. The midfield was also nonexistent of course.
- Alba was late at the second goal, because he wanted to go to the middle first
- The third was funny because 5 defenders were dancing around Di Maria but none of them actually took him on.
- The fourth was funny too because once again 5 defenders did nothing around Cavani, so he could receive the ball after the entire midfield was empty.

You insist on Gomes, which is fine as he was indeed bad, but the problems were bigger than that. Busquets, Iniesta, Gomes, Messi, Umtiti and Roberto had a horrible game, and the others, bar Stegen and to some extent Neymar had a bad game as well.

Everyone had a bad game. I just picked Gomes and Roberto, because their defensive work was not just bad but zero.

 

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

As far as the second leg goes, I say either go into it with full intent to turn the tie around, or don't bother and just save ourselves for the league. As in "let's play the B team" level of saving ourselves for the league.

Bayern could have pulled it off against 2015 Barca if not for ter Stegen. They were a far better team than the current Barca, but 2015 Barca were a far better team than PSG. We played complacently and decided to conserve energy due to our lead but PSG could too.

Strange things can happen, I've seen 4-0 leads squandered in 45 minutes. We have 90. A lucky goal early on and we have ~80 minutes to score 3 goals. I've seen that done in 15.

I still favor just saving ourselves for the league though. We'll probably get humiliated even worse if we somehow turn this around. Like what happened in 2013. I don't feel the CL is worth wasting any more energy on at this point. Part of me hopes we'll luck out for once and win it but that'll take some well-deserved heat off the board. Lucho I'm not worried about because I think he's gone at the end of the season anyway.

 

[Asylum15]

Can we all agree cl is gone? We are not winning that tie. People expected the same against Bayern since we did it to Milan and got beaten up 0-4.
This match should be an easy win though, but Real getting gifted a penaldo for another comeback for the 40th time this season ruins my mood about la liga. Like having to box a fight where the other guy doesnt get counted out when you knock him down while you get points deducted.

This. Even if we do have an incredible comeback, and it would be an INCREDIBLE comeback, we will be destroyed in the next round.

 

[TrueCule]

Can we all agree cl is gone? We are not winning that tie. People expected the same against Bayern since we did it to Milan and got beaten up 0-4.
This match should be an easy win though, but Real getting gifted a penaldo for another comeback for the 40th time this season ruins my mood about la liga. Like having to box a fight where the other guy doesnt get counted out when you knock him down while you get points deducted.

No, it's not over yet. I believe in a comeback. In all those years I've been watching football I've seen many comebacks, especially when we were involved and that's how I know that this tie is far from over. If there is some club that is capable of writing the history with the epic comeback, then that's us. We're going to give PSG a tough time on CN. CN is our fortress, it's always been like this, we've always played miles better on our stadium than away.
Look, there are still 90 minutes to be played and anything is possible. We need the best match of the season, that's for sure. It will be tough nevertheless. If Messi steps up like he did against Atletico and Suarez and Neymar have their day, we can score at least 5 goals with ease. The problem is that we musn't concede so we will have to be very cautious in defence. We'll need a lot of luck aswell.
It's not over before the referee blows the final whistle! I believe in this team! Visca El Barca!

 

[JamDav1982]

No, it's not over yet. I believe in a comeback. In all those years I watch football I've seen many comebacks, especially when we were involved and that's how I know that this tie is far from over. If there is some club that is capable of writing the history with the epic comeback, then that's us. We're going to give PSG a tough time on CN. CN is our fortress, it's always been like this, we've always played miles better on our stadium than away.
Look, there are still 90 minutes to be played and anything is possible. We need the best match of the season, that's for sure. It will be tough nevertheless. If Messi steps up like he did against Atletico and Suarez and Neymar have their day, we can score at least 5 goals with ease. The problem is that we musn't concede so we will have to be very cautious in defence. We'll need a lot of luck aswell.
It's not over before the referee blows the final whistle! I believe in this team! Visca El Barca!

Its over.

Five might not even be enough and cant see them not scoring as so good on break against team that needs to push from start.

 

[bismp]

No, it's not over yet. I believe in a comeback. In all those years I've been watching football I've seen many comebacks, especially when we were involved and that's how I know that this tie is far from over. If there is some club that is capable of writing the history with the epic comeback, then that's us. We're going to give PSG a tough time on CN. CN is our fortress, it's always been like this, we've always played miles better on our stadium than away.
Look, there are still 90 minutes to be played and anything is possible. We need the best match of the season, that's for sure. It will be tough nevertheless. If Messi steps up like he did against Atletico and Suarez and Neymar have their day, we can score at least 5 goals with ease. The problem is that we musn't concede so we will have to be very cautious in defence. We'll need a lot of luck aswell.
It's not over before the referee blows the final whistle! I believe in this team! Visca El Barca!

Camp Nou was our fortress back at 2012/13 wasn't it?I was foolish enough back then that we would beat Bayern and advance to the final.But we got trashed 3-0.

Camp Nou was also our fortress back at 2009/10 and 2011/12,but it wasn't enough to overcome Inter and Chelsea respectively.And we had much better teams back then.I would argue that the plagued by injury and Tito-less 2012/13 side is also better than this team.

There is no chance we manage to score 4 or 5 goals and concede none.

 

[Barcaman]

Leave some glimmer of hope lads.

 

[TrueCule]

Camp Nou was our fortress back at 2012/13 wasn't it?I was foolish enough back then that we would beat Bayern and advance to the final.But we got trashed 3-0.

Cam Nou was also our fortress back at 2009/10 and 2011/12,back it wasn't enough to overcome Inter and Chelsea respectively.And we had much better teams back then.I would argue that the plagued by injury and Tito-less 2012/13 side is also better than this team.

There is no chance we manage to score 4 or 5 goals and concede none.

Yes, unfortunately it wasn't enough back in 2009/10 and 2011/12. We were the better side against Chelsea and Inter but we had a lot of bad luck in those two encounters and lost the tie on both occasions. Maybe it's time for luck to turn side and that we're the one that will be lucky this time.
2012/13 was way different than this season. We didn't have Tito, Messi was injured and out of sync and we lacked the motivation and desire. This season we have Messi in life form paired with Neymar and Suarez which in my opinion form of the best attacking trio in the world. We have so much potential in attack that we can, on a good day, easily score 4-5 goals. It will be tough, but it's not impossible. I have faith in this team. A lot of faith.

 

[bismp]

Yes, unfortunately it wasn't enough back in 2009/10 and 2011/12. We were the better side against Chelsea and Inter but we had a lot of bad luck in those two encounters and lost the tie on both occasions. Maybe it's time for luck to turn side and that we're the one that will be lucky this time.
2012/13 was way different than this season. We didn't have Tito, Messi was injured and out of sync and we lacked the motivation and desire. This season we have Messi in life form paired with Neymar and Suarez which in my opinion form of the best attacking trio in the world. We have so much potential in attack that we can, on a good day, easily score 4-5 goals. It will be tough, but it's not impossible. I have faith in this team. A lot of faith.

No disrespect,you have the right to believe whatever you want and hope for the best.

But,we've been playing like shit all year long.Our current form is even worse than our standard "meh" form.In order to score 5 goals you need to have absolute control of the game.But we have no midfield!What makes you believe that the extremely off-form Busi and Iniesta+any one of Raki/Gomes/etc can control the field over Verratti and the other guys.

Plus MSN may be the best attacking trio on paper,but all of them are off form at the moment.Messi definitely is.Neymar has scored like less than 10 goals all season long,it is highly unlikely he will score against PSG.Suarez can score multiple goals,but he needs the whole team supplying him,otherwise he can't create shit.

Basically we need the greatest performance in the GOAT's career,but even then it won't be enough.Let's say we score 1 or 2 goals before halftime,playing great football.PSG will surely start becoming anxious.But what makes you believe that they are going to collapse and consider another 2-3 goals?

This is our hope:
The midfield will magically start working
Messi will have the best night of his career
AND
PSG will collapse

It won't happen.Let's try to play decently and take a narrow win,to keep our morale at a relative high state.

 

[ronniecro]

This season we have Messi in life form paired with Neymar and Suarez which in my opinion form of the best attacking trio in the world. We have so much potential in attack that we can, on a good day, easily score 4-5 goals.

so much potential in the attack and we didn't even created half a chance,tanked 4 goals and literally got knocked out in the first leg,i'm sorry but there's no way we can score 5 or more against PSG,we couldn't even score 5 against leganes at home

 

[Altomonte]

Can we agree that the game in Paris was an aberration? It was our third important game in a 6-day period against a well rested strong opponent, and we underestimated the fatigue factor. We should therefore field our best team and try our best to show the world that we are still Barça.

 

[TrueCule]

No disrespect,you have the right to believe whatever you want and hope for the best.

But,we've been playing like shit all year long.Our current form is even worse than our standard "meh" form.In order to score 5 goals you need to have absolute control of the game.But we have no midfield!What makes you believe that the extremely off-form Busi and Iniesta+any one of Raki/Gomes/etc can control the field over Verratti and the other guys.

Plus MSN may be the best attacking trio on paper,but all of them are off form at the moment.Messi definitely is.Neymar has scored like less than 10 goals all season long,it is highly unlikely he will score against PSG.Suarez can score multiple goals,but he needs the whole team supplying him,otherwise he can't create shit.

Basically we need the greatest performance in the GOAT's career,but even then it won't be enough.Let's say we score 1 or 2 goals before halftime,playing great football.PSG will surely start becoming anxious.But what makes you believe that they are going to collapse and consider another 2-3 goals?

This is our hope:
The midfield will magically start working
Messi will have the best night of his career
AND
PSG will collapse

It won't happen.Let's try to play decently and take a narrow win,to keep our morale at a relative high state.

Playing on a stadium with 100k capacity is not an easy task for any away team. One thing is certain - they will not be playing the same as they were in Paris. That was by far their best match of the season. So if they did in the first leg, why wouldn't we do it on the return leg? It's not impossible. I expect PSG to underestimate us due to the high win on the first leg. They will be overconfident. We can build on that. We have the element of surprise.

 

[snowy]

I like TrueCule's faith. The second you give up, then you've already lost. After that PSG ass-whooping, Barca will want nothing less than payback gangsta style. No way they'll be satisfied with just saving face.
Key is for D-FENS to be in war mode. 4 at the back and no slip-ups. Then a high lively mid-field to finally wake up & provide quality feeds to MSN who stay high. Release Tyrannosuarex on their butts

Flip the script Nippo-Holly style & pull a 47 Ronin. Look fatigued & dispirited against Sporting & Celta, just barely escaping with wins. Act out some internal feuds & fake injuries. Pique & Umtiti get a fake arrest for being the heads of narco-traffic. Jordi slips on a banana peal and hurts his wrist while taking his dog for a stroll down La Boqueria... Have PSG let down their guards, celebrate early & then, slay them while they're still wiping the sleep dust off their eyes.

No mercy and no seppuku at the end. ooh yeah

 

[Neymessi]

Who is saying we will definitely have a comeback? But yeah there is hope. If MSN are in god mode then even 6-0 isn't impossible. We have to go all out at least and see what happens. There are 2 matches to get us into rhythm at camp nou which should be taken as a great opportunity to prepare.