Pep Guardiola

[Stric]

Come on man, no way did they resist Barca's attacks for 77 minutes. We drove through their defence, it was more so to do with our wasteful finishing (Suarez x2 and Neymar x1) than kept it 0-0.

That's why I gave credit to Neuer, because it was literally him who kept Barca at bay for that time period.

How did they not resist if it was 0:0 until the 77th minute? Yes, we dominated, but we didn't score. In that case you could say the same about their two chances that went wide, they also kept it 0:0. MAtS wouldn't have been able to save those, at least not the first one. Neuer was skillful and lucky, no doubt about it. But let's not pretend we scored throughout the game and kept a lead. Until the 77th minute, nobody knew if we were going to Munich on Tuesday with a 0:0 draw from the first leg.

 

[footyfan]

That's easy to say from our perspective. Tata didn't reach the semifinals last year. LvG didn't even reach the quarter finals in 2011, despite Bayern reaching the final the previous year and the following two years. And Bayern is hardly one of the two best teams in the world this season, or last season for that matter.

Not really. Tata's Barca was nowhere close to being one of the 2 best teams in the world and even assuming Bayern is not one of the 2 best this year, they only had to face Shakhtar and Porto.

How did they not resist if it was 0:0 until the 77th minute? Yes, we dominated, but we didn't score. In that case you could say the same about their two chances that went wide, they also kept it 0:0. MAtS wouldn't have been able to save those, at least not the first one. Neuer was skillful and lucky, no doubt about it. But let's not pretend we scored throughout the game and kept a lead. Until the 77th minute, nobody knew if we were going to Munich on Tuesday with a 0:0 draw from the first leg.

Yes but that had more to do with Barca's wastefulness than Bayern's tactics or performance. Pep actually played a pretty poor team imo. Starting 4 midfielders in a line (Lahm, Thiago, Alonso and Schwein) with just Muller and an injured Lewa upfront was just....bad selection. Not to mention the poorly managed high-line, though that is not entirely on him.

 

[Stric]

Not really. Tata's Barca was nowhere close to being one of the 2 best teams in the world and even assuming Bayern is not one of the 2 best this year, they only had to face Shakhtar and Porto.

You can't cherrypick your way towards an argument like that. If you're going to use that, then go back through each of those seasons and look at which easy opponents the two best teams faced throughout their CL campaign.

 

[footyfan]

You can't cherrypick your way towards an argument like that. If you're going to use that, then go back through each of those seasons and look at which easy opponents the two best teams faced throughout their CL campaign.

2009:

Barcelona - Lyon, Bayern
Man Utd - Inter, Porto

2010:

Barcelona - Stuttgart, Arsenal
Inter - Chelsea, CSKA

2011:

Barcelona - Arsenal, Shakhtar
Real Madrid - Lyon, Tottenham
Man Utd - Marseille, Chelsea

2012:

Barcelona - Leverkusen, AC Milan
Real Madrid - CSKA, APOEL

2013:

Barcelona - AC Milan, PSG
Bayern - Arsenal, Juventus

2014:

Real Madrid - Schalke, Dortmund
Bayern - Arsenal, Man Utd

2015

Barcelona - Man City, PSG
Bayern - Shakhtar, Porto
Real Madrid - Schalke, Atletico

Spot the two odd ones out.

 

[Barcaman]

I still hate him for leaving the best generation we had in our history when everyone down to last man wanted him to stay. And hate it that he took away that Barca style he created and gave it to Bayern.
Obviously winning tonight helped block out negative emotions and I can't begin to imagine how would it have been had Bayern won.

 

[Stric]

RM's 2014, 2012 and 2011 would compare, easily. Especially 2012.

 

[footyfan]

2014, really? With that Dortmund? Not even comparable to Bayern this year. RM 2012 is obvious (even easier than Bayern's this year), 2011 is arguable but OK. That makes 2 other instances in 14 ties. Not very convincing. It would've been a shock if Bayern didn't reach semis this year.

 

[Stric]

Should we give no credit to Enrique then for reaching the semis? Apparently, it's only normal that he did. I know Pep had it easy this year, and had coached great teams along the way, but many other coaches would have screwed it up. The fact is, Pep reached the CL semis in every season he's coached, and no matter how much someone tries to downplay that, and how easy he had it in a particular season, it is still an incredible achievement. I'm not saying it says much about his success this season, it doesn't, and that was not the point; to be honest, it says much more about his time in Barca, but regardless, his record as a coach is phenomenal.

 

[barcanuck]

Pep tried turning Bayern into Barca and that was his downfall.

He got small players : Gotze, Thiago, Bernat to try and resemble the Barca team while losing muscle of Madzukic, Gomez, Gustavo and worst of all they let a guy who is very much a Barca type player go in Kroos and replaced him with a Real player Xabi.

Those my friends are the undoing of Pep at Bayern.

 

[Cruijffista]

There's really nothing Pep could have done to stop Messi.

 

[Stric]

There's really nothing Pep could have done to stop Messi.

Exactly. If Messi at some point dribbles through 5 players and scores, good or bad tactics have nothing to do with it. I'm not saying his tactics were flawless, but there's not much he can do against such opposition. Except park the bus. But he'd still need to attack and score at some point in order to advance, which would again open up room for Messi.

 

[mssarm]

Exactly. If Messi at some point dribbles through 5 players and scores, good or bad tactics have nothing to do with it. I'm not saying his tactics were flawless, but there's not much he can do against such opposition. Except park the bus. But he'd still need to attack and score at some point in order to advance, which would again open up room for Messi.

and that was the only chance Barca got? How many chances did Neymar and Suarez waste. How about starting with wrong formation and changing it in the middle of the game. The fact is Neuer saved Pep's ass today

 

[Stric]

There is only one undeniable fact, and that is that the score was 0:0 until the last 13 minutes of the game.

 

[mssarm]

yes, bayern was lucky for 75 minutes and they were not that lucky afterwards. What that proves? Just don't understand why are you so upset with Barca's victory? Are you Barca fan or Bayern, or Guardiola fanboy maybe?

 

[Stric]

yes, bayern was lucky for 75 minutes and they were not that lucky afterwards. What that proves? Just don't understand why are you so upset with Barca's victory? Are you Barca fan or Bayern, or Guardiola fanboy maybe?

Typical Barca forum attitude. The second someone dares to say something even remotely non-negative about our opposition or anyone outside of Barca, they're upset with our own victory, they're not really supporters, they're closet madridistas, Barca-haters, etc. Jesus Christ people. You want to know what I am? I am a person who doesn't think you go from tactical mastermind and most successful manager in football history to complete clueless amateur overnight, as some of you are apparently suggesting. Bayern had a difficult away game in which they met a superior opponent and they lost. It doesn't mean their manager is incompetent. Why can't you enjoy the victory with dignity and leave it at that, instead of trying to downplay any single shred of credit the opposing team deserved?