Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich

Well here it is lads, the game that could possibly define our season. All players bar Ramos and Nacho were rested. I don't expect to see anyone walking tomorrow. We have to press them high up the pitch, we can't let them have most of the ball because we aren't very good at defending.

The biggest mysteries/talking points:

-Are Boateng/Hummels actually out. I keep reading conflicting reports
-Is Lewa ready? Just read on Marca that he is still having pain and may not feature (at least from stsrt)
-Who will their CBs pairings be if one or both of Boa and Hummels are missing

Our team news are much more straight forward:

-Pepe, Varane and Bale are definitely out. Though Bale'sreplacement is less straight forward.

Bayern are obviously a wing team so ZZ may opt to play Lucas to combat their wing threat. Or he may play Isco to keep more control of the midfield.

Personally I think Isco will start in a pseudo RW role where he'll have a free role coming down to collect the ball and drive the ball up supporting Carvajal etc. But you never know what ZZ thinks, if he starts Lucas I'll understand because with 2 (likely) midgets as CB pairs he may want to utilise crosses into the box

Probable line up:


We are going to be very reliant on the fullback support. Carvajal is fully rested so expect him to run up and down all game. Casemiro's role is going to be important, he has to help Marcelo against Robben and oir CBs against Lewa and Muller/Thiago

Lewa has returned to training today, and he has confirmed he'll start.

Boeteng and Hummels trained individually, but I expect them to recover in time.

About the game, I really don't know what to tell you, Hala. It all depends on how we approach the game.

Like you said, if we press them, we'll win. If we sit back and invite them into our own half, and be content with this narrow lead, then we'll lose.

It'll all depend on the plan Z is going to implement.

Also, and I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it before. Did you see the incredibly cold, and borderline classless handshake Carlo gave Z at the end of the first leg? I was really surprised, especially coming from such a classy manager.

This would be Hmmels first game in nearly 2 weeks with only a day training with the rest of the team (if he trains tomorrow that is). It would probably be a mistake to play him but if the replacements are so much worse then you could obviously gamble with his fitness.

Yup saw the handshake, was probably pissed with his team, I mean that last 15 minutes must have been torture for him. Just a bunch of individuals tryinh to dribble our whole defence and losing the ball. Carlo is still a classy coach

I don't think Carlo is the type of coach that asks his team to press high up. Never made us do it even when we needed to. It was perfect time for Bayern to do it at home but they didn't. I reckon they'll let us pass it between our CBs and press in their own half which is amistake obviously

I expect a similar cagey game as the first leg (until the red). If we manage to keep Bayern from scoring in the 1st half (main aim) they will become more desperate, Vidal will probably run around like a headless chicken hacking away at our players. Neither Thiago nor Alonso have that intendity, so we will probably have the upperhand.

But if they score first, everyone knows goals come as a package deal against us, they'll probably score the 2nd right after. We can't let them score in the first half

Having no Bale sad to say at this moment in time is a major advantage to us, in the first leg he had 75% pass accuracy that's awful and was the worst in the game. Isco is alot better under pressure and is alot smarter with his passes

Hopefully we take advantage of the fact that they won't play with any natural CBs. This is best chance wr have. If roles were reversed and we played with Casemiro and i don't know Danilo at CB you can be sure they would've punished their lack of experience

Much talk have been about Lewa being able to turn this leg on its head singlehandedly. But with no service even he cant pull a rabbit out of a hat.

They might be a hard bunch to please but our fans are amazing in getting behind our team in the big games

When I say press I mean the whole team pushing up not just 2 or at most 3 players running around trying to press our defence. Not once did they do that. Perhaps for a short while after our goal but apart from that nothing

Bayern (or us) did not dominate at all until the red card. It was a very cagey first 60 mins. We had 1 chance (clear cut) in the 1st half that Neuer parried onto the crossbar and Bayern had 1 where Vidal headed wide. It was very fitting that the only goal came from a set piece. They had slightly more possession but very little to show for it. After our goal they kind of lost their intensity abit and our front 3 were able to break free a few times. Not once did i think our defence was under any sort of pressure. Compare how LaReal pressed Barca to how Bayern pressed us. The LaReal way is what I would call proper pressuring. The reason for Martinez' red card was because he though he could dribble his way through our crowded midfield and predictably lost the ball so fouled Ronaldo to prevent a counter

Carlo isn't that type of coach. He is very conservative and tbf Bayern players don't have thr legs to mount that sort of pressuring against us. Half their team are on the wrong side of 30

Bayern starting all of Hummels/Boateng/Lewa. Midfield battle is going to be huge

Fabulous half. Incredible

Our finishing though

Dear oh dear. How did this go from the most comfortable game we've had in a while to defending like sunday league players. We always concede stupid pks in CL when we don't need to

Ronaldo 5 goals vs Bayern
Benz 5 goals all CL

sit down and stfu. If not for Ronaldo we would be a midtable team. He has been carrying that attack all by himself.

We need a new CF like pronto