Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid

Carvajal

I'm not sure how once we got our first 2 goals it was as if we took a step back and invited Wolfsburg into our own half the gaps and space we were allowing was crazy. Not sure why we tend to have the habit of doing that.

titosantill wrote:i also have to give props to carvajal

How many important goals/attacks has he been involved in this season? I swear, we don't appreciate him enough.

My team is in the semis after a very hard fought 2nd leg come back win where you could see men left everything on the field and I would be critical now?

I don't think that is fair. I get what you and Adit are saying, probably would agree too but today is not the day to go full tilt. Not for me anyway.

Id rather we have the drop in intensity in the 1st half rather than 2nd. Imagine getting suckerpunched in the 2ne half. We are unable too keep our intensity up for a full 90 minutes

Thimmy wrote:

titosantill wrote:i also have to give props to carvajal

How many important goals/attacks has he been involved in this season? I swear, we don't appreciate him enough.

lol don't worry, danilo is doing his best to make sure we appreciate all of carvajal's efforts, and its working very well, he might as well be carvajal's agent . (to be fair to danilo, as crap as he's been, i think this season is just a learning process for him, i hope for his sake that he gets better).

FalcaoPunch wrote:Not sure why we tend to have the habit of doing that.

I never understood why we tend to do it almost every time either! It's baffling!

The intensity, hunger and desire to win draw only come to us when we're 1 or 2 goals down. The minute we go level, the intensity drops again. It's insanely frustrating! Why can't we just go for the win immediately instead of conceding first and then trying to get back into the game. The two goals we conceded in Germany shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't have allowed ourselves to have this uphill battle in the first place. Yes, not scoring over there shouldn't be that big of a problem, but conceding is.

I'm just as happy as everybody else here. But I tend to focus on our weaknesses even in victories. Because the other elite teams will certainly focus on them too.

The Demon of Carthage wrote:

FalcaoPunch wrote:Not sure why we tend to have the habit of doing that.

I never understood why we tend to do it almost every time either! It's baffling!

The intensity, hunger and desire to win draw only come to us when we're 1 or 2 goals down. The minute we go level, the intensity drops again. It's insanely frustrating! Why can't we just go for the win immediately instead of conceding first and then trying to get back into the game. The two goals we conceded in Germany shouldn't have happened. We shouldn't have allowed ourselves to have this uphill battle in the first place. Yes, not scoring over there shouldn't be that big of a problem, but conceding is.

I'm just as happy as everybody else here. But I tend to focus on our weaknesses even in victories. Because the other elite teams will certainly focus on them too.

Yeah I mentioned the midfield problem. I don't think kroos and modric are doing their job. Casemiro seriously made it that much easier for them to attack forward and they haven't impressed in the slightest.

titosantill wrote:

Thimmy wrote:

titosantill wrote:i also have to give props to carvajal

How many important goals/attacks has he been involved in this season? I swear, we don't appreciate him enough.

lol don't worry, danilo is doing his best to make sure we appreciate all of carvajal's efforts, and its working very well, he might as well be carvajal's agent . (to be fair to danilo, as crap as he's been, i think this season is just a learning process for him, i hope for his sake that he gets better).

Well, regardless of whether or not Danilo is making him shine, he seems to be relatively under-appreciated for running like a machine and being directly involved in attacks that, by the end of the day, someone else always takes all of the credit for. Like this attack..



He even positioned himself in a good position in front of the goal, but nope.. CR saves the day with two touches

@demon of carthage. we know the problems we have; right now we can only paper the cracks. hell, that the team has played this way all season, they're not going to all of a sudden start dribbling or playing with sense now. the barcelona and wolfsburg wins were more about heart than any sense. i expect everything will be addressed in the window. the way we are, the team can impress today, and totally mess up next week.....

for now, a 3 nil comeback win is impressive- it doesn't mean we are now the greatest of all time, doesn't mean we'll beat everyone neither, but its a lot better than getting knocked out. the problems still persist, and i bet those in charge are aware...with the transfer ban and all that, i bet those in charge won't take this win as "madrid is now the finished product".

Give Zidane some credit finally ffs.... he's turned this thing around. As strange as it sounds, he needed the Atleti loss so that the players finally understood their issues and fully commit to his ideas. The team is fatally flawed... but then again Chelsea won CL a couple of years back. You can win with a very flawed team as long as guys play their hearts out to overcome the shortcomings.

Chelsea's CL winning season was more about defensive solidity and flukey goalscoring than anything else. Luck is a major factor in winning the Champions League. I didn't want to sound like a whiner last season, but Barca were, in my opinion, damn lucky to have their two strongest opponents in Real Madrid and Bayern struggle with injuries and poor form. Of course, that's no excuse, and it doesn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't have won it if both top, rival teams had been in optimal shape, but I kind of envied their "comfortable" road to CL glory, with a relatively weak Juventus side being their final opponent team.

Juve kicked our arse in the semis fair and square... nothing weak about them. They had the better team.

As fans of Real Madrid, we are and should be delighted about qualifying, not because we defeated a top team or defeated them in grand style, but rather, avoided blushes and rendered Pique inactive on social Media.

Tactical Ingenuity or Individual Brilliance?
Let's be fair on Zidane, he did a good job with his strategy, at least it resulted in a victory. But just like DoC pointed out, our inability to create any noteworthy chance through open play against teams that sit back was just irritating. Except for Ronaldos goals, we were toothless, predictable, slow and annoying to watch. I hope we don't meet atletico again, this team is not ready/built for such teams.

Doc still needs that performance that will make him get a pass mark and I hope he delivers it in the semis and hopefully, final.

Now its clear, if we win this CL, it will be down to individual brilliance.
I just hope Zizou can see our shortcomings and fix them this summer.

If CR can keep up this level, he should stay.
Carvajal is the best Rb
Kroos is overrated, static, slow and bland.
Jese is almost ready.
We need James to break down teams with his quick thinking and passing not kroos. Only if he can adapt to a CM position.

From Marca:

Real Madrid's players ran a total of 107 kilometres, which works out to three more than in the previous leg against Wolfsburg, with the visitors totting up 105 kilometres - five less than they racked up in the 2-0 victory.

Dani Carvajal was the man who covered most ground for the home side, offering 10,852 metres of running, with Toni Kroos (10,691 metres) and Casemiro (10,653 metres) trailing close behind.

Carvajal

halamadrid2 wrote:From Marca:

Real Madrid's players ran a total of 107 kilometres, which works out to three more than in the previous leg against Wolfsburg, with the visitors totting up 105 kilometres - five less than they racked up in the 2-0 victory.

Dani Carvajal was the man who covered most ground for the home side, offering 10,852 metres of running, with Toni Kroos (10,691 metres) and Casemiro (10,653 metres) trailing close behind.

Carvajal

Ronaldo ran more than Modric i think that never happened before , against big teams we need that kind of commitment,

Regardind the game i think we were lucky, CR7 was pretty effective, we didn't create much, that midfield doesn't seem to workout well, they don't work together, Casemiro doesn't add anyting to the building, a side pass to Kroos or Modric, defensively he does the job but he has to take more risks, he's not that limited technically speaking,

Defense was solid, Ramos has a good game for a change, BBC bar Ronaldo had a discreet game, Benzema had the excuse he was off form but Bale was missing the whole game, he did help Carvajal i give him that

I think Zidane should had brought in James, i would try him as a false 9 when Benzema is injured or tired

I thought Benzema looked good. He created danger and made the runs needed to open up the middle. The defenders often had to leave their zone to help defend him, which is really what you want.

Other than scoring, you really need the CF to open up spaces and create situations where defenders need to make quick decisions. He did that. Ran his arse off.

I think he was okay. Still getting his speed back, every time he comes from an injury he's a step behind so I get it.

Did you guys notice Carvajal limping badly around 70 minute mark. he also has been playing with lots of pain and it turns out Ramos also almost all season in fact.

OK I admit it, I'm shocked at Barca's loss of form. But on the other hand I was right about City and Pelli. In any event, I'm excited now, believing we can beat, with the team that played the other night, any of Atleti, Bayern or City.

And hats off to Zidane. he just may be turning what was a horendous season into a successful one.

my predictions now are:

CL - Real Madrid
EL - Sevilla
Liga - Atleti
Copa - Barca

Barca are winning the league. 4 points is a too big difference and they have an easy schedule.

City are my favorites for the CL.

Valkyrja wrote:Barca are winning the league. 4 points is a too big difference and they have an easy schedule.

City are my favorites for the CL.

4 points maybe, but no so secure with only 1!!!

Not just Valkyrja thought so. I too thought that there was no way they would blow that massive lead. But I repeat, they're still one point ahead of us and will have to drop two more points for us to overtake them. Maybe the league is no longer secure for them, but it's not secure for us either. It's now wide open with them having a slight advantage.

@ Bill.. If we don't win La Liga or CL, watch us fire Zidane anyhow

futbol_bill wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:Barca are winning the league. 4 points is a too big difference and they have an easy schedule.

City are my favorites for the CL.

4 points maybe, but no so secure with only 1!!!

Still think that they will win it. However, if they lose points I'm convinced that we will win the league. I'm not worried about Atletico

sportsczy wrote:@ Bill..  If we don't win La Liga or CL, watch us fire Zidane anyhow

If Z reaches the final of the CL, he shouldn't be fired regardless of whether or not he wins the league or the CL. But if he doesn't knock out City, he shouldn't be kept on. If he wins the league then it's another thing entirely and he should be kept on then as well.

Or in a more simple way:

1. Trophyless + CL final = should be kept.
2. Trophyless + semi-final= Should be fired.
3. Winning a trophy (either the CL or the league or both) = he should be kept on.

I don't see it like that.  If we're competitive the rest of the way, he should be kept on regardless of results.  City is in great form right now and just passed Arsenal.  I bet you they finish 2nd in EPL.  

We're getting by because we're tactically approaching things the best we can given our flaws and the players have bought into the plan by Zizou.  Doesn't mean we don't have fatal flaws that can cost us a game at any time.

City's attacking players are very good and Aguero knows very well how to exploit Ramos/Pepe from his Atleti days.

It will come down to us getting the away goal... if we don't and City win the game, we're in trouble imo.

Considering the position we were in when Zidane took over he definitely should get a full season to show his worth. He's earned that.