CL Semifinals Head to Head Comparisons

Imo midfield battle is a bit overrated as it's very hard to see this objectively anyway and not every tactic has the same intention on what to do with their midfield. There is no such thing as one midfield dominating the other, when the team being dominant it has to do with the whole team not only the midfield.
Midfield battle has been abused too many times to single out certain midfielders over another. Ones with overall team performance advantage get too much credit more than what they actually deserve and the others get too much sticks.
Anyway, when great team performance defeats poor team performance, imo it's never appropriate to put much credit or blame on individual from respective team. One player doesn't make that happen. Such singling-out only appropriate when player goes against how their team performing.

alexander mahone wrote:Imo midfield battle is a bit overrated as it's very hard to see this objectively anyway and not every tactic has the same intention on what to do with their midfield. There is no such thing as one midfield dominating the other, when the team being dominant it has to do with the whole team not only the midfield.
Midfield battle has been abused too many times to single out certain midfielders over another. Ones with overall team performance advantage get too much credit more than what they actually deserve and the others get too much sticks.
Anyway, when great team performance defeats poor team performance, imo it's never appropriate to put much credit or blame on individual from respective team. One player doesn't make that happen. Such singling-out only appropriate when player goes against how their team performing.

Agree 100%

Its as if people dont even watch the game.Would any of the so called experst claiming Bayern's midfield dominated explain how they dominated.They didnt create any danger from the midfield and we were comfortable in the center of the park.
Bayern destroying us on corners has zero correlation with their midfield's performance.The few other chances they created also didnt come from their midfield.So if anyone could enlighten me,it would be much appreciated.

I agree. I dont think Bayern midfield was better than Barca midfield offensively. The Bayern wingers and fullbacks did the damage and not to mention corners and set pieces.

This is just unbelievable. You guys say Schweinsteiger must prove himself against Xavi. So he does. He and Martinez completely dominated Barcelonas midfield, hence why 3/4s of Barcas possession was between the defenders or the midfielders passing it right back to the defenders. Bayerns midfield dominated Barcas and Schweini was the best player on the pitch after Muller. Yet all you guys do is come up with excuses. I got news for you. Past meetings between Xavi and Schweinsteiger don't mean anything because they're in the past. We are not talking about the past. We are talking about the present. Now stick to your words and just admit it. Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi.

I'd just like to point out that I was the first person to pick Lewandowski ahead of Benzema/Higuain on the first page.

juventus101 wrote:This is just unbelievable. You guys say Schweinsteiger must prove himself against Xavi. So he does. He and Martinez completely dominated Barcelonas midfield, hence why 3/4s of Barcas possession was between the defenders or the midfielders passing it right back to the defenders. Bayerns midfield dominated Barcas and Schweini was the best player on the pitch after Muller. Yet all you guys do is come up with excuses. I got news for you. Past meetings between Xavi and Schweinsteiger don't mean anything because they're in the past. We are not talking about the past. We are talking about the present. Now stick to your words and just admit it. Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi.

They're never going to. I've met these types wherever I go online. They've swalled too much dogma. "Greatest team of all time." "Unbeatable when play to their best." etc. etc. etc. *yawn*

juventus101 wrote:This is just unbelievable. You guys say Schweinsteiger must prove himself against Xavi. So he does. He and Martinez completely dominated Barcelonas midfield, hence why 3/4s of Barcas possession was between the defenders or the midfielders passing it right back to the defenders. Bayerns midfield dominated Barcas and Schweini was the best player on the pitch after Muller. Yet all you guys do is come up with excuses. I got news for you. Past meetings between Xavi and Schweinsteiger don't mean anything because they're in the past. We are not talking about the past. We are talking about the present. Now stick to your words and just admit it. Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi.

But he isn't... The Champions League game didn't even prove it. I don't know what your talking about and its clear that you obviously didn't watch the game...

alexjanosik wrote:Its as if people dont even watch the game.Would any of the so called experst claiming Bayern's midfield dominated explain how they dominated.They didnt create any danger from the midfield and we were comfortable in the center of the park.
Bayern destroying us on corners has zero correlation with their midfield's performance.The few other chances they created also didnt come from their midfield.So if anyone could enlighten me,it would be much appreciated.

Bayern 3rd goal(Robben) was from the center, Schweinstiger intelligently passed the Ball to Robben from center of the pitch, before he beat Alba and scored, their last goal also came from the center, they passed it to wing to Alaba who crossed to Muller to finish off.


That's exactly how Bayern play.

Bayern midfield dominated and suffocated Barca's midfield, they didn't get any pass through, except one offside pass to Iniesta. Imagine 2 man midfield dominating 3 man midfield, unbelieveable.


Now that's what I call dominating, they force Barca midifield into passing the ball backward and didn't give them a breathing space. When they brough Gustavo on, I completely felt sorry for Barcelona because the domination became even more obvious, poor Barca, they were never going to score even if they played for another 30min, Bayern were most likely to score again.


Iniesta, Xavi Bosquet were all fatigue and extremely tired, compared to the German-Brazilian-Spanish bulls.

The Sanchez wrote:

juventus101 wrote:This is just unbelievable. You guys say Schweinsteiger must prove himself against Xavi. So he does. He and Martinez completely dominated Barcelonas midfield, hence why 3/4s of Barcas possession was between the defenders or the midfielders passing it right back to the defenders. Bayerns midfield dominated Barcas and Schweini was the best player on the pitch after Muller. Yet all you guys do is come up with excuses. I got news for you. Past meetings between Xavi and Schweinsteiger don't mean anything because they're in the past. We are not talking about the past. We are talking about the present. Now stick to your words and just admit it. Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi.

But he isn't... The Champions League game didn't even prove it. I don't know what your talking about and its clear that you obviously didn't watch the game...

I did watch the game. Twice actually. Schweinsteiger and Martinez DOMINATED Barcas midfield. Simple as that. Schweinsteiger > Xavi. If that game didn't prove it to you then I guess I might as well be arguing with the wall. I'm done.

The game proved nothing to prove that Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi. Xavi was the only respectable midfielder of Barca that night in a sea of pure dross performances. Schweinsteiger wasn't even his teams best midfielder. Just because Osram's tactics out trumped Barca's tactic-less passing game, does not equal one player>other. That is just pure hindsight and frankly very shallow thinking.

For the genius' Bayern won their game through the flanks and not the midfield as Bayern's midfield merely defensively shackled Barca which does not equate to superiority in attack performances.

Arquitecto wrote:The game proved nothing to prove that Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi. Xavi was the only respectable midfielder of Barca that night in a sea of pure dross performances. Schweinsteiger wasn't even his teams best midfielder. Just because Osram's tactics out trumped Barca's tactic-less passing game, does not equal one player>other. That is just pure hindsight and frankly very shallow thinking.

For the genius' Bayern won their game through the flanks and not the midfield as Bayern's midfield merely defensively shackled Barca which does not equate to superiority in attack performances.

Thank you.Finally someone who really watched the game.Xavi was probably our best player and kept possession well and never gave it away unlike others.We lost the game because Bayern destroyed us in the air and Pique has forgotten the basics of our set piece defending.Nothing to do with Schweinsteiger dominating our midfield.Not even close.

This emphasis on possession statistics and pasing volume has just pissed me off. Bayern won the battle tactically. They didn't outplay Barcelona's mf, they stopped them from playing. Banega is the only midfielder I have seen that has outplayed all 3 more than once. Bayern are not really a MF team anyways their play is through the flanks and fullbacks. Whay was Xavi supposed to do with no runners behind the defence? Play a throughball to the stands? He still did his job albeit nothing out of the ordinary.

Bayern smashefd Barcelona though. They are better that much is clear. Worst beating since that game agianst MAdrid in 2008.

2 of the 4 goals came from Schweinsteigers build up. And on top of that he and Martinez completely shackled the 3-man mid of Barca. The best player on the field for Barca was probably Valdez actually. It would've been far worse if he didn't have a good game. Xavier held possession well, but not by going forward. He literally sat in front of the defense for most of the game and exchanged passes with Pique and Bartra. So yes, Schweinsteiger is better than Xavi and he showed that clearly yesterday. They also won the battle tactically yes, but without someone of class tactics are only gonna get you so far. Schweinsteiger showed his class.

The Barca love on this forum is absurd.