UCL QF 1st leg PSG - Barcelona

PSG it is.

could of gotten easier opponent but could of also gotten harder ones.

i feel comfortable with this matchup especially with their suspensions in the first leg? i forget who it is other than ibra

Verratti their best player, advantage for us, but PSG can still hurt us regardless.

So Veratti and Ibra are out for sure the firsf match? Where is the first match played? Also is Lucas healthy or is he injured?

Who has the first leg home?

PSG at home first game. UEFA making sure we get them at home without Ibra and Verratti

Barca, Bayern and Madrid all have the last game at home...UEFA

Bit disappointing from an entertainment perspective, we already this this match up enough times.

Juve would have been more interesting for example.

They beat us already without Ibra right? In any event this is could be a really difficult tie.

the game will be tight at best, but i hope we pass through this....I seriously wanted to avoid both the Madrid (both would be ROUGH and tough) and Bayern and hoping madrid does not get Monaco or porto....so i am happy with the draw. As for bayern getting easy opponent, i think none other than Barca would be a tough opponent for them, so it does not matter to me.

None of Madrid, Juve or Atleti would be easy. Bayern are obviously in a class of their own.

PSG actually play a lot better when one of Ibra or Cavani sit... playing the 442 with Ibra-Cavani on top doesn't work for them because everything becomes very very narrow. Now, you have Pastore and Lucas/Lavezzi that surround the CF and it's a lot better in terms of football.

Blanc starts Cavani/Ibra because of Cavani's pricetag... otherwise, he'd never pair them up.

As far as Verratti... he's not PSG's best player. Don't let his CL games against Chelsea fool you. Motta hasn't been playing well at all either other than the CL games against Chelsea. As of right now, Pastore, Silva, Luiz, Matuidi, Lucas Silva and Marquinhos are the best players. With Verratti gone, Pastore drops into the CAM role (which he likes). You'll likely see Luiz drop into the CM role (which he likes also) and Marquinhos pairs up with Silva at CB (his best position). Van Der Wiel comes in at RB.

Tbh, as long as Cavani plays ok, it's a good setup for PSG.

yea I hope if we do have to play Bayern, it's in the final (if we get that far)

I just want to remind to the people here that almighty Bayern have already lost against the only proper teams that were matched against (City, Wolfsburg).
Not saying they are not dangerous but for me they have not justified this "other level" status you guys are talking about

Alves will be off for the first leg. RB of Douglas, Montoya, Pedro or Masche?

Well at least you guys can sleep easy knowing Lulz already fulfilled his quota of having 1 good game every 6 months.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Alves will be off for the first leg. RB of Douglas, Montoya, Pedro or Masche?

Adtriano

At one point we kept landing Milan and Arsenal, now it seems its PSG and City.

Don't call me James wrote:Well at least you guys can sleep easy knowing Lulz already fulfilled his quota of having 1 good game every 6 months.

Luiz has been PSG's best player with Pastore this season... while Silva was recovering his confidence and was out for 2 months due to injury, Luiz anchored the defense.

billy_gr wrote:I just want to remind to the people here that almighty Bayern have already lost against the only proper teams that were matched against (City, Wolfsburg).
Not saying they are not dangerous but for me they have not justified this "other level" status you guys are talking about

Who else should they beat?

They dont need to justify anything with results, they have better players than every team, they have a better system than every team and from what I can see they play at a higher footballing level than every team.

Clearly they can lose just like anyone else, but who do you think is just as good as they are?

Don't call me James wrote:Well at least you guys can sleep easy knowing Lulz already fulfilled his quota of having 1 good game every 6 months.

You mean against Chelsea? Because he was quite good when we faced them already this season IIRC.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Alves will be off for the first leg. RB of Douglas, Montoya, Pedro or Masche?

Surely rightly or wrongly you'll play Bartra at RB?

I think we should play Bartra.

Lucas wont be playing out on the left, so I dont know how many 1 v 1 dribbles he will have to face anyway.

Plus we probably need the size in an aerial battle. What was underrated about PSG -Chelsea was that they won most aerial duels with a noted set piece side.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Alves will be off for the first leg. RB of Douglas, Montoya, Pedro or Masche?

Surely rightly or wrongly you'll play Bartra at RB?

Right. I kinda forgot he still plays for us

Motta, Matuidi and Thiago Silva are all one yellow short from suspension....so we get veratti, ibra out in 1st leg and Motta, Matuidi and Thiago (max.) for 2nd leg (cant think thiago not getting a yellow at home)
i hope someone come up with another logic of how good PSG is without thiago and motta

well... PSG played without Silva for over 2 months and were fine with Marquinhos. Assuming Cabaye gets healthy, the dropoff from Motta won't be much especially considering that Motta had been utter dog crap until the Chelsea tie for the entire season. Blanc stuck with him... but there were numerous rumors he was going to be offloaded in the winter mercato.

Silva rarely gets carded so i don't have huge worries about him. Motta does... but mostly on the road. Since the first game is in Paris, he has a better chance of being ok. keep in mind that PSG were great with Motta out and Luiz playing cm in leg 1 v chelsea.

This tie is going to be tough as shit.