Your post my friend is a typical case of "I still can't believe we didn't dominate as we usually do " .. expected
so now it's Puyol was missing.. i don't hear "AWESOME LINEUP It's OUR CL FINAL" and more "We are still not fit " after "We will be fit and ready and camp nou " after last sunday game.. hypocirtical there amigo ?
I don't need to argue if we are getting closer or not.. you lot and me were all on the chat and i know what you all wrote during the game.. it's a lot more valid proof than a non-measured response after you escaped with a narrow victory in a game that could have gone either way
so what floor are you talking about Irv ? you lot were shitting in your pants through out the game .. at no point Barca showed any sort of dominance beyond 4-5 minutes ?
It's an amazing game only disrupted by Marcelo assult on Cesc but i understand all those monkey chants from the "respectful " camp nou crowd ..made him lose his head even though it's no excuse to take out on Cesc
I know exactly what my quotes were during the match. they were, "RMadrid are pressing extremely well" ... and they were. but you also missed my other quotes, "FCB have no off ball movement" which led to my other comment "FCB are clearly not match fit". it was obvious from the way that Xavi and Sergio weren't running around a lot. it was obvious from the lack-lustre pressing that FCB employed which meant that FCB wasn't playing the style of game they usually play. I don't know what you're getting at. These are all points that re-inforce my point that FCB was not match fit/match ready. There were a few moments when the passing was there, and when Cesc came on (and I can't believe I'm about to type this) the passing game went up a notch. the energy level rose. and then FCB created a goal and a few chances/half-chances (most notably Iker's save on Leo at 3-2). In fact, you could say FCB's best moments in the match was right after Cesc came on (sigh).
as for El Capitan:
let's recount the matches since Pep has been manager, shall we? (all stats derived from ESPN Soccernet)
2008/2009
2-0: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 0 goals
2-6: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 2 goals
2009/2010
1-0: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 0 goals
0-2: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 0 goals
2010/2011
5-0: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 0 goals
1-1: El Capitan played 58minutes, RMadrid scored 1 goal in the 83rd minute
1-0: El Capitan played 0 minutes, RMadrid scores 1 goal and wins the CDR
0-2: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 0 goals
1-1: El Capitan played all 90 minutes, RMadrid scored 1 goal
2011/2012
2-2: El Capitan played 0 minutes, RMadrid scored 2 goals
3-2: El Capitan played 0 miuntes, RMadrid scored 2 goals
so let's re-cap shall we. FCB has played Madrid 11 times since Pep got here. Record is FCB 7 wins, Madrid 1 win, 3 draws (including victory in the CL and FCB's first victory over RMadrid in the Spanish Super Copa ... teehee). When El Captian plays all 90minutes our record is FCB 6 wins, RMadrid 0 wins, 1 draw. In those 7 games, FCB has conceded 3 goals. 2 in the 2-6 demolition, and 1 in the CL Semi-Final where the tie was already decided when Pedro scored to make it 3-0 aggregate (for reference of Pedro's goal, simply ask and I will post my video of the Nou Camp going nuts post-goal). In the 3 games without El Capitan, FCB has 1 win, Madrid has 1 win, and 1 draw. 5 goals allowed. in the match where El Capitan was subbed off last spring, it was 0-1 FCB. then we conceded a late equaliser.
men lie.
women lie.
trending numbers with a large enough sample size don't.