FC Barcelona vs Paris SG (2nd leg CL)

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

CBarca wrote:Didn't get to watch the game as usual but I'll watch it this weekend when I can. Too busy anyhow :/

Delighted we're through

We're not winning the whole thing though. Our defense

For the first time in a long time the defense is not our primary issue, it's the midfield.

How is that possible, with our midfield and their missing Matuidi?

It shows what happens to our game when we have unoccupied zones. The moment Messi came in the change we could see. He went and straight away occupy the zone behind Villa, that brought Villa and Pedro back to game. We could see suddenly they were pressing. People say Villa does not put pressure on defenses. I tend to disagree. villa presses really when within his zone. he does not do a Alexis, who will be running all over the place trying to close down opponents.

The biggest mistake for me was to have Cesc and Villa playing together. They have no understanding at all. When Messi and Villa play together, they always switch their place and will not occupy the same position at the same time. Here Cesc was sometimes occupying the same position as Villa at other times he was standing along with Xavi, for what I don’t know. Sanchez should have been a better starter with Cesc than Villa because he has a habit of covering the positions vacated by Cesc.

I thought Batra did really well after coming on. We have to keep giving him more playing time. For me the Man of the Match for us was Jordi Alba. he was brilliant in the match.

While this, clearly, was not the best of the matches by Barcelona, let me just add some perspective. If i am not mistaken, this is the sixth consecutive semifinal appearance by this team. That alone is an awesome record in an era where most teams have 2-3 year cycles.

At this point, a La Liga and a CL semifinal is a pretty good return for the year, don't you think?

MOTM for me was our most underrated player - Valdes.

I think the problem with the team was Tito. He did not provide width against a team with average fullbacks. Cesc and Villa playing in middle (Cesc behind Villa) meant Dani could not be used to full extent as he had no winger to overlap and create hell for Maxwell. If we could have done that, they would have to retract and effectively give our underperforming midfield (looking at Bussi mainly) a bit of room to play their game.

Also kudos to PSG they were really good, but i guess most of us knew that it was just a matter of time when this team starts to gell in.

EDIT:

kiranr wrote:
While this, clearly, was not the best of the matches by Barcelona, let me just add some perspective. If i am not mistaken, this is the sixth consecutive semifinal appearance by this team. That alone is an awesome record in an era where most teams have 2-3 year cycles.

At this point, a La Liga and a CL semifinal is a pretty good return for the year, don't you think?

Amazing

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

Also Free I think there's a big difference in saying "Pedro saved our asses today" which is 100% true, and "Pedro played a good game". He was invisible. But so were Xavi and Busquets.

Were you partially blinded while watching the game and didn't notice anything Pedro did?

I'm not claiming he had an awesome game, but even if he hadn't scored, he played well. You were at the toilet when he created one of the clearest chances we had in the first time? Or when he dribled Jallet and connected a pretty good shot that was blocked? Or when he was pressing all over the place (Pedro had 2 stolen balls, which is not a lot, but Iniesta 0, Xavi 1, Villa 0, Fabregas 0, Messi 0, so you can see where the defensive problem lies, and only one helping was Pedro).

Another interesting statistic, Bartra was the player that made most clearences (7) in just thirty minutes.

I just hope Tito/whoever starts giving more minutes to Bartra. Obviously the kid has potential, but it won’t show nor flourish from the bench

CBarca wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

CBarca wrote:Didn't get to watch the game as usual but I'll watch it this weekend when I can. Too busy anyhow :/

Delighted we're through

We're not winning the whole thing though. Our defense

For the first time in a long time the defense is not our primary issue, it's the midfield.

How is that possible, with our midfield and their missing Matuidi?

Midfield didnt press.

But I want to defend Xavi a little bit, yes his pressing was bad and often late..but I am more upset with Iniesta and Busquets at that. Xavi had by far the most complicated role.

Because we had no right winger Maxwell got forward, on top of that he had to press Motta and Pastore was often dropping into his zone. He had alot of different things to deal with and he sometimes sacrificed pressing to pick up Maxwell or Pastore temporarily.

Busquets should of recognised what Pastore was doing and Dani Alves should of been higher up on Maxwell earlier.

I have to disagree on Iniesta. I only watched the second half and it seemed to my eyes that he was one of the most energetic players on our side. I agree on Busquets though... horid performance

Energetic isnt the same as smart.

Defensively, he didnt play smart. Verrati often had time on the ball while Iniesta was standing in no mans land.

I think motivation and fitness aside, we made two tactical mistakes with our pressing:

a) There was nobody on the right. Vs milan, villa went tithe right when we lost the ball. He didn't do that vs psg, leaving a stupid gap.

b) Our players pressed individually. Only on at a tines mostly, and we were always leaving a player unmarked, either on the left or at their backs.

As I said, we should stop pressing vs static attacks if we are going to do it so badly. Only press after turnover or in throw ins. Defend compact when the opposition is attacking static.

^^ Agree on these points. ^^

And just for the record Pedro had a decent game, not invisible at all. In my opinion, Valdes was our best and then Pedro and Iniesta. Pedro was easily our best presser on the night and he did get at Jallet a little bit, though not enough.

Agree that it was good the ball fell to him, many players would have missed it. Showed his class and can only improve since he would have been a bit rusty.

Lucas Moura was brilliant. He's a gem. Doesn't look off European pace at all.

@ Dani, I know. he wasn't defending really efficiently but I can't be mad at him when he's the players who run most.especially when Messi comes in and we play effectively with minus one when defending

The Franchise wrote:Very little to celebrate, crawling over the line like wounded dogs.

Sorry, I cant help it. Aint been this upset about getting to a semi ever, perhaps because I know we wont win playing so pathetically.

Somehow I felt sorry for PSG. Who would of thought it.

I know what u mean, our performance was just poor and I didnt expect this at all, no where near our best.

billy_gr wrote:we ain't going anywhere... Sometimes I think that this club misses football rational on so many levels... Transfers, tactical aproach, adaptation to the oponent... anyway we aint winning the cl this year and we have to pray for a miracle for the management to make some sensible purchases this summer

Didnt ever think so much wrong with our club atm, but could be true as well....there are problems thats been not obvious given the success we have had...

messixaviesta wrote:

The Franchise wrote:Sick of Classico's when we was winning, let alone losing or struggling.

Dont matter who we get, we wont win playing like this.

For PSG, I gotta tip my hat to the boy Lucas. Ran everyone ragged.

dani, I am sick of Classicos too. If it has to happen let it be the final.

Also we will not always play like this. Somehow the problem is nowadays we are more likely to play well when we are in trouble. For reasons not very clear the approach isn't right from the word go. I agree with you though. We can't continue to dig holes for ourselves because a time will come when we will not be able to find the way out.

Moura gave us too much trouble but Verrati's passing was special as well.

I agree, so often with the big games in Europe especially, as well as classicos, we dont start well, and not until we really have to then we movfe the ball around much faster, making more runs and jus traise the level to the highest. I just hope we dont keep making this mistake and dont regret it!

free_cat wrote:Playing Adriano today was stupid. He didn't do any big mistake, but he was nowhere to be seen in both PSG big opportunities (lavezzi and Pastore's goal) and again got injured at minute 60+, wasting a sub.
I hope Bartra is the starter from now on. He was much better and won't get injured every match.

danyjr wrote:I think you're giving PSG too little credit. They played very well from the back. Your pressing was poor, but their passing was also very precise. Technically speaking, Motta, Verratti, Maxwell barely put a foot wrong in possession.

I don't know what happened to Busquets but I said it a couple of weeks ago that he's not the same error-free player we're used to know. Generally though your passing was well below standards, I didn't see a lot of movements and you just looked like a tired team. And you know my opinion about Pedro. Great finish by him but other than that he gives the term 'winger' a bad name.

I dont know why but I thought Song has played very well whenever given a chance this season. Hes not as good as Busquets in the DM role, but I thought he may have got a chance in this game to play CB next to Pique or play DM and Busquets move to CB, instead of Adriano there or Bartra who Im still not sure about at all. I hope Busquets comes back, but anyway, I think Song can improve and be a choice in the future if need.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:Sometimes you don't play well but you get the result needed. Some say that's what great teams do. Let's not forget we are in the semis for a record sixth straight time. I guess a team or even the only team to do it five times must have been Real Madrid of 1956-60. So for that reason at least I would like to credit my team.

The problem is that this is not a one time event. The only time we've played with the intensity was in the 2nd leg of the Milan match, and that's because we were at the border of extinction. We've never played with the appropriate pressure since - and we know this is the problem. The entire team has recognized this. And yet we still go on playing on a very leisurely way.

Also Free I think there's a big difference in saying "Pedro saved our asses today" which is 100% true, and "Pedro played a good game". He was invisible. But so were Xavi and Busquets.

Villa a bit underrated, he had a sacrificial role. Does it make sense to play him as a 9 without Messi? I don't think so, Cesc was able to do nothing with all that extra space. The more traditional 4-3-3 might've worked best considering the quality of their FBs.

Is Xavi still carrying an injury? One of the reasons Busquets struggles so much in this game is that he was overrun in the midfield, and frankly Xavi didn't do enough to help out. The pressing was atrocious. We might get past Madrid or Dortmund, but I'm genuinely afraid of Bayern.

Same point, not sure why but the team just arent able to play at the highest level consistently....I fear for our chances if up against a all firing Bayern team or a on form Real team....

The pressing has been less and less well done for 2-3 years

The team is heavily relying on the same players again and again. None of the tranfers made have had a big impact ala Dani Alves.

Anyway i mostly believe that the style of play is going to chance a little bit , as Xavi won't be there to bring calm and assurance.

This summer is going to be crucial in terms on transfers .

Cesc's child was being born at the time the PSG game was being played. When he got off apparently, he straight away went to the phone to see how everything was doing...

The Sanchez wrote:Cesc's child was being born at the time the PSG game was being played. When he got off apparently, he straight away went to the phone to see how everything was doing...

Normal, congratz to him

You guys didn't make that one easy, did you?

RedOranje wrote:You guys didn't make that one easy, did you?

We did what you asked of us Red. That's all that matters

Bénin wrote:

The Sanchez wrote:Cesc's child was being born at the time the PSG game was being played. When he got off apparently, he straight away went to the phone to see how everything was doing...

Normal, congratz to him

Whether normal or not I don't think he should of played. He wanted to be somewhere else and I think it showed. Should of played Alexis.

Someone refresh my memory: have we ever played alexis centrally?

I don't think the thought even occurred to mgmt.

CBarca wrote:

RedOranje wrote:You guys didn't make that one easy, did you?

We did what you asked of us Red. That's all that matters

Did you? I don't think you did.

RedOranje wrote:Please win.

The two legged tie?

You progressed. You did not, unfortunately, win.

You are foolish for asking Barca to win.

Right, that's far too much to expect of a side with 3 Ligas, 2 CDRs, 2 CLs, 2 Super Cups, and 2 Club World Cups since 2008...

And therein lies the humor.