UEFA Champions League 2021/22 SF - Man City v Real Madrid

The biggest thing being ignored is Madrid should have had a second penalty...Cancelo handled the ball in City's box.

Casemiro should have had yellows, but so should have Zinchenko. Ref was pretty poor throughout the match. Did not have the balls to send of Laporte at the start of the match.

Benzema did not have a free header... it was an uncomfortable angle cross that was slightly behind him.  That's is FAR from a simple chance.

Modric is not a scorer...  he has 22 goals total in 10+ years at Real Madrid.  Unless you're talking about a tap in, nothing is a clear chance for him.  Wonderful player; but he's a not a final 1/3 player at all.

Vini is the only one.

And, yes, your midfield is dominated when you're giving up 55% possession and have created zero shots on goal.  That's on the midfield.

sportsczy wrote:Benzema did not have a free header... it was an uncomfortable angle cross that was slightly behind him.  That's is FAR from a simple chance.

Modric is not a scorer...  he has 22 goals total in 10+ years at Real Madrid.  Unless you're talking about a tap in, nothing is a clear chance for him.  Wonderful player; but he's a not a final 1/3 player at all.

Vini is the only one.

And, yes, your midfield is dominated when you're giving up 55% possession and have created zero shots on goal.  That's on the midfield.

Look at it again, that was a really good header chance and he didn't even direct it at the goal. He scored harder headers in the CL this year.

Modric isn't a scorer, but he is also great at controlling balls and would have at least been able to shoot at the goal from that angle.

City had one great chance with B. Silva in the first half an that's it. The other chances were long shots from out of the box. In the second half, their goal came from a freakish Mahrez shot, and they missed their best chances of the game with Graelish.

Again, the XG was in Madrid's favor, and that's the true nature of chances instead of shots at gaol which could be from any angle or distance, so the midfield DID do its job for most of the game. Also, 55% possession against City is great, and it didn't improve when the "grandpas" were subbed out.

This level of bias against a midfield and a coach that easily won La Liga while reaching the CL final is unreal. Reminds me of Milan letting go of Pirlo then gifting Juve the title.

M99 wrote:The biggest thing being ignored is Madrid should have had a second penalty...Cancelo handled the ball in City's box.

Casemiro should have had yellows, but so should have Zinchenko. Ref was pretty poor throughout the match. Did not have the balls to send of Laporte at the start of the match.

The amount of extra time given in the second half of ET was fraudulent too. Orsato is shit. Nothing new.

Lord Spencer wrote:This level of bias against a midfield and a coach that easily won La Liga while reaching the CL final is unreal. Reminds me of Milan letting go of Pirlo then gifting Juve the title.

You'll be surprised how this has run riot in the Madrid fan base this season. Mind you, our current midfield gets overrun a lot but today, I found them to have done quite well.

I dare say though, the xG to eye test ratio does not correlate for me at all lol. I thought we were poor in the final third tbh.

The penalty adds an xG of 1. That’s probably why you couldn’t tell from open play.

Madrid was better in the first half. They had some good chances some were offside though. City looked very comfortable after their goal but then let it slip. They were toothless in extra time

The reason that I thought our midfield was poor is that you clearly saw what Man City was doing. They were giving midfielders more space than they usually do so that they could cover Benzema better. That called for midfielders to make runs because, otherwise, there is nowhere for the wingers to go if the CF is taken out. We don't make those runs from the midfield. Our CMs just stay in their zone no matter what.

Granted, i don't think our CMs have the athleticism to make consistent box to box runs... just can't do it. Kudos to Pep for that adjustment. But nevertheless, it doesn't take away from our midfield being ineffective until we brought some athleticism in.

Look at the City goal and tell me our midfield is fine... we have gotten this far in spite of them. Off the ball they've all been found lacking ( apart from Casemiro who's decline is related to his poor on the ball skills)

We've been conceding goals for fun with them

Casciavit wrote:The penalty adds an xG of 1. That’s probably why you couldn’t tell from open play.

Madrid was better in the first half. They had some good chances some were offside though. City looked very comfortable after their goal but then let it slip. They were toothless in extra time

I could tell from open play that Madrid wasted 3-5 big chances against 2-4 big chances compared to city.

De Bruyne yet again went missing when City really needed him

Bernardo Silva on the other hand was excellent in both games. That's a big game player for you

I didnt want to complain yesterday as the celebrations were in full swing but my god what a match. Definitely top 5 semis of all time.

This 2nd leg is where I can honestly say where we were the better team and had the chances to win the game in regular time. Benz chances were not clear but that Vini chance at the start of the 2nd half was very clear. Thankfully Mbappe will come in and finish those chances.

Rodrygo and Camavinga are absolute studs, change everything for us. Although we will likely play KCM in the final, next season Cama and Fede need to start being integrated into midfield

Perucho21 wrote:I didnt want to complain yesterday as the celebrations were in full swing but my god what a match. Definitely top 5 semis of all time.

This 2nd leg is where I can honestly say where we were the better team and had the chances to win the game in regular time. Benz chances were not clear but that Vini chance at the start of the 2nd half was very clear. Thankfully Mbappe will come in and finish those chances.

Rodrygo and Camavinga are absolute studs, change everything for us. Although we will likely play KCM in the final, next season Cama and Fede need to start being integrated into midfield

As much as I want mbappe to succeed but can't you guys be happy for the team has achieved without day dreaming for players who hasn't kicked a ball in the shirt? I know a lot of fans didn't want or expect the team to get far cause they are constantly shitting on the team and manager,saying the team can't achieve a CL without mbappe or haaland, that OK but atleast try to appreciate it for a day atleast.

Anyway as for my thoughts good win for the team happy for them always knew this group could get to a final, without a overhyped name leading the way with our tired and old players or the OK talents that need to be sent out on loan, etc, their is more to football than hype and names obviously no one is gonna take lessons or give credit where it's due, hopefully the team beats Liverpool and people recognize that real madrid never needed to play cr ball to have success.

Walker getting injured definitely affected the game, he pretty much coped with Vini, afterwards though the restart seemed to help Man C in their goal but then no one really cope defend Vini by himself anymore. Yea so I blame Zinchenko

Walker should have been off long before. He got away with two deliberate pushes from behind and ridiculous Italian ref didn’t call either! (As well as the obvious red for Laporte). Vini had little to do with comeback, he actually had a poor (for him) game with poor first touches.

Vini is such an annoying pos, his antics, diving and playing tough with everyone much older than him is ridiculous.

His dives vs Walker were perfectly spotted by the ref

Dives he didn't dive a single time against City

Walker pushed his from behind lolz. Don't see any of those biased premface pundits talking about it. That's a straight red. But this referee has been terrible against us before so he was obviously going to ignore that

What about Laporte slapping Modric and then falling pretending that HE was hit. Ridiculous that VAR did not intervene there. Our players lack of playacting did us in there. Xavi is calling Laporte's agent as we speak

He's worse than Neymar. Falls over with literally EVERY contact and often without contact, many refs probaably already have an opinion on him and it makes their job harder which in turn means he won't get many calls his way.

Myesyats wrote:He's worse than Neymar. Falls over with literally EVERY contact and often without contact, many refs probaably already have an opinion on him and it makes their job harder which in turn means he won't get many calls his way.

Neymar created multiple memes with his dives and playacting

Vini can dive sometimes which is frustrating for both us fans and his teammates but you'll never see him roll around. He'll get up right away. Even when he is in a chest battle with other players you'll never see him fall down.

His constant moaning can be very frustrating though and i hope he cuts that out pronto

Walker fouling vinicius from behind and then play acting it as Accidental bump to avoid red was absolutely bs. CAN'T believe the ref fell for it and gave a free hit .

He did it twice Doc. Got away with it first time so he did it again, this time injuring himself and gets away with it a second time!

This ref ignored the obvious red on Laporte and the obvious missed call for penalty on handball plus the two walker push from behind and yet all the British bemoan his missed call on Casemiro!