Champions League: Real Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund discussion

Please don't include Pepe in midfield.
Or I will report you for trolling

Still cant believe people still want modric to play as AM after so many flop performances in that position. Or even blame ozil despite being played out of position suddenly.

both benzema and higuain are so ... sigh... underperforming.

i grabbing at straws trying to think what we can do differently to turn this tie around.

Is Marcelo back from injury yet?

I have a feeling Real Madrid will win the match 3-1 and not qualify, the least the team can do is to play with a lot of heart on Tuesday, not sure who will start but everyone must give their last breath to get something from the match, football is a funny game, with a lot of luck on our side, you never know, we might sneak into the finals.

After giving this some thought I've decided that this is probably our best lineup:


Why Angel in the middle? as you saw in the 1st tie, Gundogan had too much free space to run around in, we need to shut him down before anything. He is just too instrumental for Dortmunds game.

If we win the midfield battle, and I believe we can win it by hard pressing, I think we can win the game atleast, but not sure if we can qualify.

Xabi must not play at all cost. The man sucks

OH for GOD sake, why do we always have to play to occupy haven't strengths, haven't we learned enough from this in the last match.

I wish we had Sahin for this match

Howard Webb will be the referee for the 2nd leg.

He's experienced and could be a bit lenient since he's an EPL ref. Good choice.

Not sure what happened to Xabi all of a sudden. He played badly even y'day. My guess he is not fit. Xabi will play as we don't have any better options. I think Mou will play dirty in mid-field, may be Essien. Arbeloa will be right back and Pepe perhaps will be out.

We need lot of luck. Hope & Pray we win 4-0. If not I will take 3-0

we NEED a dirty midfield becouse we don't have a techinically superior midfield

we lost the first tie becouse they outpressed us and outcontrolled us. we need to atleast win the pressing battle, becouse i seriously doubt we can control the midfield with our players

thats why i think di maria - modric - khedira is our best choice in the next tie

Hopefully Mou learned his lesson after the last 3 BvB games...

LeGladiator wrote:Hopefully Mou learned his lesson after the last 3 BvB games...

Wouldn't he need 3-4 more games until his learning curve peaks sufficiently?

Considering this a CL semi, hopefully not.

I don't know how we'll play against Dortmund though. Based on the past few games we've played them, I think our passing will need to be quick and precise to get past their tactical pressing.

Our play will need to be less predictable and defensively we need to be organised and solid.

rwo power wrote:

LeGladiator wrote:Hopefully Mou learned his lesson after the last 3 BvB games...

Wouldn't he need 3-4 more games until his learning curve peaks sufficiently?

Probably

Spoiler:

It'll take something special for us to go through and there has been nothing in the recent past to suggest this team can produce the type of performance we need to reach the final but then why do I feel like it can still happen for us? Why do I feel like it's still all to play for?

Everything that could have gone wrong for us in the first leg did go wrong. We conceded the first goal early into the game, we conceded early in the second half and we let silly mistakes cost us with two other goals. We can talk of tactics and approaches but for me the difference maker was that Dortmund wanted it more. They won the 50/50 duels, they ran more and it was clear their level of intensity was higher than ours. That is what disappoints me the most about that result, it's that we as a team have always prided ourselves as having that type of intensity. Fighting for every ball like it was life or death is something we've seen the players do for the past 3 years. There was a period in the first half where we were in control and looked like the better team, then half time gave BVB a chance to regroup. In that period we were winning the 50/50's and they made the difference.

If we can score the first goal and stay on top of Dortmund for the whole game then I think it's possible for us to win. We can't give them a chance to regroup, we can't give them the feeling that they can win the 50/50's. We have to win every header and every loose ball. We have to make as much use of every set piece as possible and put as much pressure on their back four as they have put on ours.

It's going to be 11v11 out there and our 11 has to believe they can win which is why I don't want us to play soft players who won't put in the effort. I don't want us to be pedestrian like we were in the first leg. Getting through on quality alone stopped being an option when the score became 4-1, we'll have to put in that much more into it now.

On Tuesday I want to see blood and I don't care who it belongs to.

Sigh I don't believe anyone thinks we can win 3-0 and quite frankly I do not. As much as I would like to win BELIEVE ME, but the fact that we lost 4-1 says it all.

Now there is this huge momentum to rally up the fans, getting everyone behind the team, and striving to get the 3-0 result. But I dislike this approach.

Yes it's important to have the 12th man and having the Bernabeu behind us every step of the way is important.

Mourinho is right in saying that we played against Dortmund as if it was a friendly. We got hammered now we have the players saying they need us to turn this result around.

It's just a bullish** attempt at a plan B. We NEVER should have lost 4-1 to begin with, our players were playing mediocre, and overall the team as a whole was raped. And this is after we've played Dortmund TWICE already this campaign.

The players are using the fans to save face and make it seem like they will do the impossible (we all want La Decima), but like Mourinho said,"if we go out and play like we did in Germany... forget about it"

sincerely, I believe in this team, in the players, and in the fans that will be at the stadium.

likeastar wrote:sincerely, I believe in this team, in the players, and in the fans that will be at the stadium.

As do we all.
*Excluding Pepe*

FalcaoPunch wrote:Sigh I don't believe anyone thinks we can win 3-0 and quite frankly I do not. As much as I would like to win BELIEVE ME, but the fact that we lost 4-1 says it all.

Now there is this huge momentum to rally up the fans, getting everyone behind the team, and striving to get the 3-0 result. But I dislike this approach.

Yes it's important to have the 12th man and having the Bernabeu behind us every step of the way is important.

Mourinho is right in saying that we played against Dortmund as if it was a friendly. We got hammered now we have the players saying they need us to turn this result around.

It's just a bullish** attempt at a plan B. We NEVER should have lost 4-1 to begin with, our players were playing mediocre, and overall the team as a whole was raped. And this is after we've played Dortmund TWICE already this campaign.

The players are using the fans to save face and make it seem like they will do the impossible (we all want La Decima), but like Mourinho said,"if we go out and play like we did in Germany... forget about it"

The players aren't the ones who are organising the fan support lol. That is obviously a club decision and I personally think it's the best course of action when dealing with the fans. It's better to have them support the team instead of watch nervously and I'm sure it'll give the players a boost.

We shouldn't have lost 4-1 I agree but we can't cry about that now when there are still 90 minutes left to be played. The time for blaming and holding people accountable will come after. For now all we can do is hope and believe that the first leg won't happen again because the team won't allow it to.

Expectation in Spain is that this will be our starting line up

-------------------------Lopez-----------------------
----Essien------Varane---Ramos---Coentrao
------------------Modric------Xabi-----------------
Di Maria---------------Ozil-------------Ronaldo---
----------------------HIguain-------------------------

I was and still am shattered by last weeks result but hey it's my team. there is no much hope but never say never.

we need to focus, be clinical and of course have luck on our side to win 3-0 or get a result to progress. so lets hope for that.

Zealous wrote:Expectation in Spain is that this will be our starting line up

-------------------------Lopez-----------------------
----Essien------Varane---Ramos---Coentrao
------------------Modric------Xabi-----------------
Di Maria---------------Ozil-------------Ronaldo---
----------------------HIguain-------------------------

A bit daft for a team needing to keep a clean sheet, don't you think

i think khedira will replace modric in that line up. di maria will stay though, he had a decent game against atletico and we could use a miracle which he can provide.

Modric-Xabi??

BvB is not another scrub la liga team