City were obviously better, and they did waste some chances.

However, Madrid wasted chances as well. An Ederson gift after the first goal, a free header by Militao, and one atrocious Vini shot when he had no pressure were all very good chances wasted by them.

Madrid's defense was atrocious, and City scored from their first two shots on target, so they did get lucky in the rest of the match.

Frankly, having this limited Madrid team play much higher than their level is a miracle that the coach is not remotely getting credit for.

Question to Madrid fans whom for some reason don't like Kroos any more. Is this how you'd like to line up against City next week?

I’ve seen enough of Laporte in big moments to know he’s the Spanish Lenglet. He just has better passing. Beta CB.

Casciavit wrote:I’ve seen enough of Laporte in big moments to know he’s the Spanish Lenglet. He just has better passing.

And not really Spanish either tbh

Walker will deal with Vinicus much better in the second game. City are more experienced than they were years ago.

It’s just Madrid has this weird black magic in the CL. You can’t help but feel they’ll sneak a win next week lmao.

Lord Spencer wrote:City were obviously better, and they did waste some chances.

However, Madrid wasted chances as well. An Ederson gift after the first goal, a free header by Militao, and one atrocious Vini shot when he had no pressure were all very good chances wasted by them.

Madrid's defense was atrocious, and City scored from their first two shots on target, so they did get lucky in the rest of the match.

Frankly, having this limited Madrid team play much higher than their level is a miracle that the coach is not remotely getting credit for.

The problem is that Madrid's defence was leaking throughout the game, it wasn't just one or two moments like City had vs Atlético. Especially Madrid couldn't deal with the diagonal crosses at all. Mostly their wingback defending the crosser was always out of position and the others defending the actual cross had too many players to mark so City despite not having any aerial threat scored two headers with ease against Madrid's defence.

Pedram wrote:Big mistake for City to leave us alive, you just know Benz is gonna murder them in Bernabeu.

It's way too soon to be this cocky, man It's not like the home advantage has been all that much of an advantage for us in recent time. Even Ajax comfortably beat us 1-4 at home a few years ago in the round of 8th.

Imagine benz on this city team

BarcaLearning wrote:Is it just me or is Valverde a scrub? Hes just no where near Real MF starter quality? They better sign another MF cos Real still carried by the old 3 MFs...

No other choice. He was covering a lot of ground and defensively wasn't bad. Madrid need his legs in an otherwise ancient midfield. On the other hand he adds nothing to the build up nor has creativity or intelligence to drive the ball forward.

danyjr wrote:Question to Madrid fans whom for some reason don't like Kroos any more. Is this how you'd like to line up against City next week?

Our best midfield is one that neither includes Kroos nor Casemiro

You rate Valverde more than Casemiro? Why?

Myesyats wrote:???? ???????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????

Totally agree.

Valverde is actually often very good.  He does the dirty work and defends hard.  Also the only one that can break lines in the midfield right now.

Cama is a bit too young this season... but next season will be his time.  Cama - Valverde - Modric is very good.  Looks like we're after Tchouameni from Monaco... you put him at DM and let Cama and Modric do their thing.  Valverde to rotate.

danyjr wrote:

Myesyats wrote:???? ???????????????? ???????????????? ????????????????????

Totally agree.

I don't agree with the last question mark, to be honest. 55 question marks would've made sense. But 56? nah, Myesyats is obviously being biased here.

danyjr wrote:You rate Valverde more than Casemiro? Why?

at the moment both Casemiro and Kroos are slow defensively. Kroos is useless and Casemiro is very mistake prone. Only one of KCM should play and right now Modric is the most productive one of the lot

I swear a couple of seasons ago Casemiro was quite a promising player. He was fit and hustling everywhere, winning balls, playing good balls forward.

Casemiro could work but with 2 younger players next to him. This KCM thing will ne Carlo's downfall

I have no clue how Kroos finished the game. Even Ronaldo is a better defender than him

I don't wanna sound like a tactical hipster, but some of Kroos' work goes unnoticed. His composure on the ball seems to be taken for granted. Lesser midfielders would've turned the ball over 10x more against that City press.

People keep forgetting how thin this squad is, only 18! Surprised the usual shit comments about Ancelotti weren’t there today.

We may or may not win this semi, but you have to admire in what really is over achieving, 3 rounds now. You can never count us out and if we do get to the final, another CL win is possible.

As to next year, I think Sports summarized the MF well.

On defense, with Rudgier coming in, half of CB is resolved as is LB. By the way it seems Fran Garcia will be added re LB as well, so perhaps we will see Alaba with Rudgier and Militao goes to backup role? Someone has to have a serious conversation with him, absolutely terrible, plus terrible attitude in either blaming others or not recognizing his errors! With RB, Carvajal has definitely declined, but he has had some good play recently in liga games. They are either after James or Vinicius Tobias to challenge him.

Up front Mbappe solves a lot, plus they are thinking of Cavani to backup Benz.

We will be much better next year, not only because of the new additions but having depth in squad.

farfan wrote:I don't wanna sound like a tactical hipster, but some of Kroos' work goes unnoticed. His composure on the ball seems to be taken for granted. Lesser midfielders would've turned the ball over 10x more against that City press.

Exactly. I saw Valverde quite a few times making it really difficult for his team to beat City's press. Problem for me is his awareness and playing safe passes backwards. In a game like this you need someone who has composure, otherwise you are being pinned back in your half whether you have the ball or not. How many times did we see Madrid going back as opposed to forward when they have the ball only to have to hoof it forward in the end.

I think Carletto's starting line up was the best he could do. I do like Camavinga, even more than Valverde though his lack of experience can come costly in big games so again I'm with Carlo on this one.

FFS Real are winners, they'll just about wrap it up in the semi also being sub par.