Semi Final: Bayern Munich vs. Real Madrid

I wrote a little piece on my blog ( www.truesoccervision.wordpress.com ). I'm interested in your opinions. What do you think of the clash of titans?

Can't think. Too buzy being hard.

I like your analysis. You make it sound like Madrid will have a lot of trouble, and overall a more dangerous team, but that's probably the German-bias at work

Mourinho got Bayerns number. But I will not look beyond current fixtures as Madrid looked shaky against the Russians

The Barca article I do not agree with mostly at least.
Main reason why Barca are no doing so well in the league is the squad depth. They do not have the likes of Kaka, Di Maria, Nuri Sahin etc etc on the bench. Also it is not easy for other players to come in and fit right into Barca's style. They have to rest some of the players as you want them playing 100 percent not 95 percent every game. Plus there was the change in shape with Cesc coming in, Villa was out of form and got injured. The downside of Pep's style is it is hard to find players that will slot right in. Many have come and failed to adapt and has gone again.

Mourinho has Bayern's number after the 2010 final? Not even close.

It's a far different (and better) team than 2010s. Starting with the defense, plus the midfield is even better.

And that counts for what? Mourinho beat them with a weaker team he has now. Plus Bayern looked awful against Basel away. Lastly lets not forget what Leverkusen did to them by attacking their right side and exploiting it. To back that up was the problems they had tracking Maggio against Napoli who is a WB.

Wonder if it has something to do that you got 2 wide players that do next to nothing defensively maybe? Jose know that and he got Ronaldo and Marcelo to exploit that.

Inter of 2010 were a weak team

Not a weak team. But they were weaker than the current Real Madrid squad. It was Jose brilliant tactics and switching Eto to the flank which got them home and some help by Zlatan when they played Barca at home. Ibrahimovic taking up Messi’s space did a better job for Inter than a man-marking brief ever could.

Then to show how brilliant Jose planned that game as well is the goal of Sneijder at the back post was planned to perfection. A russian coach mentioned that Xavi do not track back all the way inside the penalty area and Sneidjer and Pandev did a in out-out. Xavi was marking Sneidjer and wolla no Xavi at the back post and there was Sneidjer.

That is just a example of what he can do.

Spooony wrote:And that counts for what? Mourinho beat them with a weaker team he has now. Plus Bayern looked awful against Basel away. Lastly lets not forget what Leverkusen did to them by attacking their right side and exploiting it. To back that up was the problems they had tracking Maggio against Napoli who is a WB.

Wonder if it has something to do that you got 2 wide players that do next to nothing defensively maybe? Jose know that and he got Ronaldo and Marcelo to exploit that.

We looked awful against Basel? Outside of 20ish minutes and a Rafinha uh oh we dominated the two legged tie.

As for the prospect of playing Real Madrid, Mourinho beat us once with a defense that had van Buyten and Demichelis in the centre with Badstuber playing left back. Its 50-50 for sure and I think that it will be a gorgeous tie.

idk its arguable that the 2010 inter team was more complete than the team madrid has now.

they definitely had players that suited mourinhos needs more.

madrid might be more talented than that team however. tough call really.

Well, right now the chance for a Bayern vs Real match-up seems to haven risen considerably. I'll be looking forward to that as I hope it'll become a cracking match. (And hopefully Badstuber can show what he's really worth against the Real attack force).

vanDEEZ wrote:idk its arguable that the 2010 inter team was more complete than the team madrid has now.

they definitely had players that suited mourinhos needs more.

madrid might be more talented than that team however. tough call really.

Same here, we don't have the players to play compact defence otherwise Farca would've suffered. Efficiency in attack will be the key for us.

Well, I hope for sure that Boateng will not try to score against Neuer again XD

I almost cracked up when I read this in a discussion about Boateng vs Neuer at transfermarkt.de (when they talked about the good old times of Sammy Kuffour and Oliver Kahn):

"Naja, Boateng versucht Neuer nicht regelmäßig KO zu schlagen, will dafür aber scheinbar mal unbedingt ein Tor gegen Neuer schießen, daran arbeitet er ja schon seit dem ersten Spieltag und auch heute konnte der Stürmer von Marsailles Boateng den Ball erst im letzten Moment vom Fuß nehmen und per Ausnutzung Neuers als Bande zum Eckball klären. Wir werden sehen wie dieses Duell ausgeht."

(="Well, Boateng doesn't try to knock out Neuer regularly, but it seems he really wants to score a goal against him one day or the other. After all, he's working hard on this since the first matchday, and even today one of the Marseille strikers barely managed to get the ball from him in the last minute to clear it to a corner by using Neuer as buffer. We shall continue to monitor this duel closely to discern the result.")

HAHAHAHA, and so true as well. Is it in reference to the match where Tarnat had to play keeper?

Phritz wrote:HAHAHAHA, and so true as well. Is it in reference to the match where Tarnat had to play keeper?

Yeah. Poor Kahn.

Lizerazu + Tarnat is a far cry from.... wait for it... Alaba + Contento D:

Actually nah, Alaba is beasting on the left atm. Of all the possibilities it look s to be that Boateng is the weak link in defense. Every couple of matches I end up hesitating on deciding whether his performance was actually good because the one thing that always bothered me about the Badstuber hate was that so far this year Boateng and LB Lahm have produced far more cringeworthy moments than Badstuber or Van Buyten.

Yeah. Boateng pretty often runs into the danger of causing a penalty or getting needlessly booked.

He's exactly the type of player we need besides Badstuber, though. His aggression will only improve with experience. These guys are very young so I'm sure there's a good future ahead of them.

rwo power wrote:Yeah. Boateng pretty often runs into the danger of causing a penalty or getting needlessly booked.

Boateng hasn't given away any penalty or score any own goals, if anything his mistakes usually do not lead to goals.

Just one mistake against Marseille and he amended it, Badstuber mistakes usually lead straight to goals that's why many Bayern fans didn't rate him so highly but now he has really improve and probably evenly match with Boateng but Boateng is still naturally the most talented CB in Bayern.

Well, then let's hope that Boa won't get a Yellow in the second leg against Marseille. IIRC, he's on 2 yellows atm and not having him for the first leg against Madrid would not be good.

Lets go bayern, lets beat real and barca, and be the best in europe! defenders: boateng lahm badstuber buyten def mid:rafinha kroos offensive mid: sweini robbery muller st: gomez formation 4-2-3-1

No Alaba?

bayern must be at there best against real, or else real can beat them. if real and bayern face each other when is the date set for?

1. Leg: Tu 17.04.2012, 20:45 CEST: Bayern München - Real Madrid

2. Leg: We 25.04.2012, 20:45 CEST: Real Madrid - Bayern München

CEST = GMT+2

you guys should beat us on experience and mentality, mourinho cant give the team something that they dont have. Plus we havent faced a team like yours in a veeery long time, I am thinking your physicality and wingers will kill us as we have suffered against individuals like that.

Experience and mentality are two things Bayern has an advantage in, I'd agree. This Bayern team has played a long time together, CL football and league wise. The Madrid team is just starting to click, but with their quality you won't notice much of a difference.

The defenses lapses we can have are my biggest fear.