UCL | 1/2 (1st Leg) | FC Barcelona vs FC Bayern Munich

The feeling after this game overshadows even beating Madrid, which is hard to do.

It was a beautiful game, and to come out with a win, and in such a fashion...I can't stop smiling. What a great day for football.

Lionel Messi has to be the greatest of all time, he has to be.

And I agree with Alex, Dani Alves was the second best on the pitch after Messi. If Messi was human, Alves would have been the best on the pitch today--he was unreal. Pressing after every ball, harassing every Bayern player near him, winning the ball up top. Should have had a goal to top it off if not for a great Neuer save. Insane game from him.

Iniesta I thought raised his game and looked much more like the old Iniesta we've seen. Perhaps not as penetrative as he would like (however he still looked confined in his role) but still had some great passes, did some good defending and his dribbling was brilliant at times. Did his role well.

Pique looked back to his best. Despite Mascherano at times trying his best to put the Barca backline in trouble, Pique didn't really put a step wrong. Good distribution and stopped everything that came his way.

Alba actually looked good tonight. Was a threat offensively running in behind Bayern at times and his pace troubled and inhibited Rafinha. Had several good interceptions and his passing tonight wasn't bad either. I wouldn't say he was outstanding at all but he had a solid, reliable game where he looked good and I can commend him for that.

Suarez didn't take his chances but was fantastic all night. The difference he makes to this team is unreal. Also, his workrate upfront is great to see week in week out and he does a job winning the ball back up in dangerous positions. Was dangerous all night and kept Bayern's hands full as well.

Neymar drifted in and out of the game but had some moments of pure magic. The boy will take over the team when Messi is done, he's something special. To kill off the tie in the dying moments of the game, running up to an intimidating goalkeeper like Neuer and slotting it home, at his age, as cool as you like? Cold blooded.

Of course, like I said...Messi...greatest of all time. That's all I can say.

What a brilliant game to watch. Beautiful game, beautiful team. I'm ecstatic.

Two goals, one assists for Leo Messi on his 100th /05.06.2015

Final! FC Barcelona vs Bayern Munich (3-0) | UEFA Champions League 2014/15
77' Messi 80' Messi 90'+4 Neymar Jr

messixaviesta wrote:I just wrote this on Twitter :-

If this season's Lionel Messi had played WC 2014 Argentina would have won the trophy.

At least we should win Copa America 2015.

This Messi did show up to the WC... he was great for Argentina but if you surround him with only 1 forward up top for him to associate with, with a hyper defensive system that parks the bus, plays CBs for FBs, 2 DMs, etc he simply doesn't get into this kind of scoring chances. Without the Dani Alves run or Suarez making space for Messi in the box there was no first goal. While he was admittedly not at his best during the final, he was great all tournament and playing in a system that did not suit his strengths.

messixaviesta wrote:I read an article by 'Sid Lowe' about how there are fragments within Barcelona who hate Pep Guardiola and will not welcome him warmly. Maybe I'll share the link some time as I don't have it now.

Does anyone have a link to this article?

Very Happy with the game. Messi, Alves and Rakitic were all inmense.

We have to renew Alves on a year to year renewal basis. If he is playing for the renewal, he plays like a madman. Giving him a 2+ year contract would only make the complacent and unfocused Alves to come back.

CBarca wrote:
Iniesta I thought raised his game and looked much more like the old Iniesta we've seen. Perhaps not as penetrative as he would like (however he still looked confined in his role) but still had some great passes, did some good defending and his dribbling was brilliant at times. Did his role well.

Pique looked back to his best. Despite Mascherano at times trying his best to put the Barca backline in trouble, Pique didn't really put a step wrong. Good distribution and stopped everything that came his way.

I am so happy someone noticed that Iniesta is getting back to his old self. This is 2nd or 3rd game he is showing those glimpses. Let's hope he decided to up his game when we need it the most.

As fo Pique, kudos to LE. He has done something many managers failed before him. I still expect Pique to be Pique and have a laps in concentration once in a while, but now at least he looks interested in actually playing rock solid.

i am waiting for next week for full party

but what a game...Pep almost did it...77min 0-0 to 94min 3-0 should be Pep's worst blunder ever if he fails to turn it around next week.

Other than those awesome goals, what made me so happy that we took full advantage of the time after that first goal. before the game we knew that to progress we must finish the job here. until 77 min we were unable but once deadlock broken we did exactly what we had to. we attacked on full force demanding those additional goals. full respect to the whole team and that mentality. More than the goals, i reallly liked this last 10 mins mentality. And infact camp nou deserved this after what it suffered last year.

neuro11 wrote:i am waiting for next week for full party

but what a game...Pep almost did it...77min 0-0 to 94min 3-0 should be Pep's worst blunder ever if he fails to turn it around next week.

Other than those awesome goals, what made me so happy that we took full advantage of the time after that first goal. before the game we knew that to progress we must finish the job here. until 77 min we were unable but once deadlock broken we did exactly what we had to. we attacked on full force demanding those additional goals. full respect to the whole team and that mentality. More than the goals, i reallly liked this last 10 mins mentality. And infact camp nou deserved this after what it suffered last year.

Yeah, one of the few times we did go for the kill against big opponent, and didn't somehow screw up the advantage.

I also should mention about the beauty of our players celecbrations after each goal...even i could not control my emotion.    thing is it was not just any other UCL semi final vs. a big team. there were just so many external issues related to this one that further boiled with 77 min of goalless event even after creating better chances....
all these duly exploded with every single goal and reflected in celebration

What an amazing game of football. This is what football is supposed to be like, I said this at 0-0 at half time, im not just saying this because Barca won. Two teams who were trying to score, going for the attack and trying to play real football. Leaving huge spaces in the pursuit to score goals...this is football. Not this Mourinho brand of mind numbing boring set peice play.

I credit Bayern for playing in such a way. I dont think we were 3 goals better than them, but this is football and when you have Messi, it is the difference.

That first 20 minutes of mayhem caused by Bayern going 3 for 3 at the back set up one hell of a game.

I felt like we got the better of it and Bayern had to change. We should have gone into the HT with at least one goal advantage..But Neuer is the Messi of goalkeepers I guess, he is such a presence.

After HT and before the Messi goal, I was quite concerned. Bayern were getting the better of us and I was afriad they would "steal" a 0-1 win. But then, Messi happened and the game got flipped on its head.

Some special performances from other players but to shorten the post I felt the big difference in the game was simply Messi.

Bayern were good untill the final third but they had a incredible lack of creativity, they looked out of ideas without Robben and Ribery and they were crying out for a winger. Muller and Lewa are good players but they need someone with ideas.

I think Gotze could have been introduced much earlier for Bastian, who looked old and slow all night but they were severely lacking pace, energy and creativity in the wide positions. In the end, they really only created danger moments from long balls and set peices.

But I have no sympathy for them, just as they had none for us when they beat us so badly with an unfit Messi.

Anyway, a fantastic game. This is how football should be in my opinion. I am not anti defence, Barcelona defended fantastically well and minus the first 20 minutes of man for man risk football from Bayern, I wouldnt say they defended so badly either...they just want in search of goals and so did we, so there was spaces. That's surely what football is about.

That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:I just wrote this on Twitter :-

If this season's Lionel Messi had played WC 2014 Argentina would have won the trophy.

At least we should win Copa America 2015.

This Messi did show up to the WC... he was great for Argentina but if you surround him with only 1 forward up top for him to associate with, with a hyper defensive system that parks the bus, plays CBs for FBs, 2 DMs, etc he simply doesn't get into this kind of scoring chances. Without the Dani Alves run or Suarez making space for Messi in the box there was no first goal. While he was admittedly not at his best during the final, he was great all tournament and playing in a system that did not suit his strengths.

Except this Messi didnt show up.The Messi who showed up was scrub Messi who looked disinterested and walked around as if he owned the pitch.
I said the same as jd after the City game.If this Messi had shown up,Argentina walk the WC.It really is that simple.
Hummels and co could barely cotain a scrub Messi in the final.Aint no way a midfield of Schweinsteiger and Kroos contain this Messi.He would have smoked them.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

I would have taken of Bastian for Gotze, not Muller. Bastian was looking slow all night both in defence and attack. So I agree.

That being said, I felt like they need some pace even more than creativity. Gotze came on and immediately got shut down by Alves a couple of times because he couldnt get away from him and doesnt have the tenacity to battle Alves.

Badly devoid of a someone who beat dribble a man in a 1 v 1.

free_cat wrote:Very Happy with the game. Messi, Alves and Rakitic were all inmense.

We have to renew Alves on a year to year renewal basis. If he is playing for the renewal, he plays like a madman. Giving him a 2+ year contract would only make the complacent and unfocused Alves to come back.

I think you have Alves mixed up with Messi.If there are 2 words in the English dictionary that cant be used to describe Alves,then they are complacent and unfocused.Alves is the greatest competitor in football I have seen and over all the years of watching him,have never once seen him complacent or unfocused.He bleeds for the team every single time he steps out on the pitch.You have him confused with a certain other person in our team.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

Gotze has been playing like a scrub and based on his play this season,he is very poor at carrying the ball under pressure.
I think he deservedly sat on the bench as he just has not performed when it mattered.The Muller sub was weird though I agree.I thought he was arguably their best player.

Si, si, si nos vamos a Berlin!

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

except that he can't

alexjanosik wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:I just wrote this on Twitter :-

If this season's Lionel Messi had played WC 2014 Argentina would have won the trophy.

At least we should win Copa America 2015.

This Messi did show up to the WC... he was great for Argentina but if you surround him with only 1 forward up top for him to associate with, with a hyper defensive system that parks the bus, plays CBs for FBs, 2 DMs, etc he simply doesn't get into this kind of scoring chances. Without the Dani Alves run or Suarez making space for Messi in the box there was no first goal. While he was admittedly not at his best during the final, he was great all tournament and playing in a system that did not suit his strengths.

Except this Messi didnt show up.The Messi who showed up was scrub Messi who looked disinterested and walked around as if he owned the pitch.
I said the same as jd after the City game.If this Messi had shown up,Argentina walk the WC.It really is that simple.
Hummels and co could barely cotain a scrub Messi in the final.Aint no way a midfield of Schweinsteiger and Kroos contain this Messi.He would have smoked them.

I wonder if you'll ever understand that there isn't a "disinterested Messi who walks around as owning the pitch".

Time and again it has been proven that Messi is always hungry and only looks desintersted when he is not physically well (as he was last season or in certain games every now and then). Sometimes doesn't run much because of coach's instructions too, and last year he was also affected by his off the pitch problems.

I'm baffled that you still can't see this.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

except that he can't

Haven't watched him in a while but I have seem him do that quite often tbh. Also it's quite clear he'd provide more of an threat than the midfield which was chosen last night.

alexjanosik wrote:

free_cat wrote:Very Happy with the game. Messi, Alves and Rakitic were all inmense.

We have to renew Alves on a year to year renewal basis. If he is playing for the renewal, he plays like a madman. Giving him a 2+ year contract would only make the complacent and unfocused Alves to come back.

I think you have Alves mixed up with Messi.If there are 2 words in the English dictionary that cant be used to describe Alves,then they are complacent and unfocused.Alves is the greatest competitor in football I have seen and over all the years of watching him,have never once seen him complacent or unfocused.He bleeds for the team every single time he steps out on the pitch.You have him confused with a certain other person in our team.

The Alves of last year and the begining of this wasn't unfocused or complacent? Maybe not complacent in terms of intensity, he always gives his best or almost, but he surely was unfocused and lacked a lot. Now that his contract is on the air, suddenly becomes the best version of himself.

I wonder why....

I'm absolutely in favour to renew Alves, in yearly contracts automatically renewed if he plays X games. It's the best thing both parties can agree IMO.

On the game,I am not exactly happy with the performance.I thought we were far too sloppy in possession and rushed too many plays.Not my cup of tea such a direct and counter attacking style of play.It worked so credit to Enrique for that.

Last time,when we had lost 7-0,I had thought that the biggest difference between the 2 sides was physicality.They were just far superior to us physically and just out muscled us over 180 minutes.
Strangely i thought the roles were reversed this time.IMO the biggest difference between the 2 sides yesterday was physicality.We were far superior to them physically and just outmuscled them.Our players were running up and down even in the 94th minute.

We played at a breakneck pace and maintained that intensity throughout the game.Bayern just couldnt keep up with us physically and they were just shot by the end.The only player from their side who could match us physically was Muller.rest simply didnt have the legs for such a high intensity high octane game.
It is understandable thinking about it.Alonso is on his last legs.
Schweini just came back from injury and has had a very injury plagued season.Thiago just came back from a year long break.Lahm just came back from a leg break.They were nowhere close to matching us physically and it showed more and more as the game went on.
Smart from Enrique to play such a high intensity game.I credit him for that.I find the role reversal from a couple of years ago ironic.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:That's my only criticism of Pep, IMO Gotze should have started. He actually can carry the ball under pressure and provide service for those in front of him.

Of course the 352 as well but he fixed that pretty quickly.

except that he can't

Haven't watched him in a while but I have seem him do that quite often tbh. Also it's quite clear he'd provide more of an threat than the midfield which was chosen last night.

That's the mystery. Götze is supposed to be that guy that can dribbles when the reality is he never makes a succesful dribble for us.
I can fully understand why he started on the bench.

What I can't understand is why Thiago remained on the pitch after it became clear he had an abysmal night.

agree Alex. One more reason though why I think subbing off Müller was again a huge blunder, when all of Thiago, Alonso, Lahm, Schweini, Lewandowski showed signs of being tired and could have been options to be subbed off.

free_cat wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:

free_cat wrote:Very Happy with the game. Messi, Alves and Rakitic were all inmense.

We have to renew Alves on a year to year renewal basis. If he is playing for the renewal, he plays like a madman. Giving him a 2+ year contract would only make the complacent and unfocused Alves to come back.

I think you have Alves mixed up with Messi.If there are 2 words in the English dictionary that cant be used to describe Alves,then they are complacent and unfocused.Alves is the greatest competitor in football I have seen and over all the years of watching him,have never once seen him complacent or unfocused.He bleeds for the team every single time he steps out on the pitch.You have him confused with a certain other person in our team.

The Alves of last year and the begining of this wasn't unfocused or complacent? Maybe not complacent in terms of intensity, he always gives his best or almost, but he surely was unfocused and lacked a lot. Now that his contract is on the air, suddenly becomes the best version of himself.

I wonder why....

I'm absolutely in favour to renew Alves, in yearly contracts automatically renewed if he plays X games. It's the best thing both parties can agree IMO.

I dont think he was complacent or unfocused last year.Watch the last few games of last season when we were fighting for the league(just rewatch the Atletico game).He looked like the only player who appeared focused and gave a damn.He played his heart out and was our best player in that stretch of games.if a certain player who is not to be named had played with even half the focus of Alves,we would have won the league.But this certain player appeared complacent and unfocused and we ended up losing the league.
But by all means continue with the double standards.

free_cat wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote: This Messi did show up to the WC... he was great for Argentina but if you surround him with only 1 forward up top for him to associate with, with a hyper defensive system that parks the bus, plays CBs for FBs, 2 DMs, etc he simply doesn't get into this kind of scoring chances. Without the Dani Alves run or Suarez making space for Messi in the box there was no first goal. While he was admittedly not at his best during the final, he was great all tournament and playing in a system that did not suit his strengths.

Except this Messi didnt show up.The Messi who showed up was scrub Messi who looked disinterested and walked around as if he owned the pitch.
I said the same as jd after the City game.If this Messi had shown up,Argentina walk the WC.It really is that simple.
Hummels and co could barely cotain a scrub Messi in the final.Aint no way a midfield of Schweinsteiger and Kroos contain this Messi.He would have smoked them.

I wonder if you'll ever understand that there isn't a "disinterested Messi who walks around as owning the pitch".

Time and again it has been proven that Messi is always hungry and only looks desintersted when he is not physically well (as he was last season or in certain games every now and then). Sometimes doesn't run much because of coach's instructions too, and last year he was also affected by his off the pitch problems.

I'm baffled that you still can't see this.

I dont think anything has been proven.He had a month long break in the middle of last season.He recuperated for a month in Argentina and was brought back only after he was fully fit.
And yet he comes back and puts in the same pathetic performances,looking disinterested and not putting in the effort.I mean he put in an abysmal effort in the league decider.
His WC effort was also not up to par.Guy just walked the entire time.He had injuries either in the run in last season or at the WC.Yet he was walking around majority of the games.
yes,you might say that he was physically not capable of running as much at the WC.But then if you say that,it is also his own fault.The guy spent a good part of 3 years barely doing any running.So ofcourse,suddenly he couldnt pick up the workrate when required.No professional player should be gassed after a sprint,which was routinely the case at the WC.
That is solely down to him and no external factors.