EL: Barca vs Man United

Sabitzer looked good whenever I seen him play for Bayern I thought, didnt even Man U got him ffs...

That lineup above though seems too attacking? Cos most teams that play vs us know u need to defend quite a lot n be able to deal with our press, unless u just park n counter.

For us Kessie instead of Busquets n Raphinha instead of Dembele are obvious downgrades, but everyone seems to be on form n we been winning so much. Im not sure if its down to just Xavi finally selecting the right team or the teams in Liga just kinda suck especially up front meaning we dont concede goals anymore somehow Cant help but feel Man U will be much different?

Raphinha I noticed doesnt have the pace or skill to be an actual winger, more like a play maker on the right n a hard worker in general making runs into the box. His link with with the rest of the teams has been fine to watch though. Pedri n Gavi been running riot but not sure if they can do that vs Casemiro n Varane around who iirc used to bully them

Being the most in-form team in europe currently (behind Napoli) doesnt comfort me because EL/CL is always a different animal and you never know what you're gonna get so we can only guess.

We've definitely evolved a lot since the CL exit and our defense is fully fit so that's a positive. Man Utd also managed to kinda get their shit together

My bet is 2-0 in the first leg, and 1-1 away. A clean sheet is a bit optimistic, but we've had a great deal of luck with those as of late so why not

Sabitzer is suspended apparently, yellows from Bayern carried across. So will definitely be Fred and Casemiro in midfield. Some fans think we'll start Dalot and AWB rather than Sancho.

Honestly aside from GL bragging rights I couldn't give two shits about the EL this season. We could do without the schedule since we look good currently for top 4 in the PL but our squad is decimated by injuries and lack of depth. I hope it's a couple good games.

Hmmm, even more motivation just to help to place more burden on Man U's bid to top 4 then > Although somehow we are leading the league with a decent chance to actually win it somehow which really surprises me I thought Real would be much better, so perhaps EL lesser importance for both clubs right now But definitely a big matchup n interesting to see how the teams has evolved till now, cant wait.

I swear Chavi is saboting us with starting Alonso ahead of Christensen who's on fire lately

ffs how predictable, Pedri injured i hope its nothing serious because otherwise we're done

corrupt ref??? pen and red there surely

dominating these guys tho

like ref genuinely needs to be investigated after this tbh, outrageous

Casemiro dominating the midfield, what else is new

dont want this lightweight FDJ smh

Fred is weird af, terrible at times and elite at others

game didn't disappoint, great watch brought down by an atrocious ref display

I was only able to watch the last 30 mins but what I saw was all Barca. Great match. A sharper Fati would've decidedly ended this for Barca, but the 2nd leg should be just as good.

state of la liga this season when this Barca team have only conceded 7 goals in 20+ games or some shit though ffs

we were playing with 10 men too, Weghorst is tragic

Also that was a stonewall handball in the box

Kinda disappointing but I feel like a draw was a fair result tonight. If Pedri is out for the return leg then we're fuked, lost all control when he went off and the bench is thin aswell

Firenze wrote:state of la liga this season when this Barca team have only conceded 7 goals in 20+ games or some shit though ffs

Alba and Alonso dont usually start though, idk what Xavi smoked today

Balde and Christensen were the logical choice but Xavi is a bit like Pep in that he loves to complicate everything

Firenze wrote:dont want this lightweight FDJ smh

Fred is weird af, terrible at times and elite at others

That’s not so uncommon over shorter spans of time, but Fred seems to have been like that for nearly half a decade now  

18 - #Barcelona have registered their highest tally of shots faced in a local game this season (18). Meanwhile, #ManchesterUnited have registered their third highest tally on the road in all competitions this campaign (also 18). Madness. pic.twitter.com/SbnFEdDPCy

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 16, 2023

We're flying in the league but as far as rebuilding goes we're not far off from man utd as a team. Both teams are in transition. Our bench is thin and 2 injuries can tilt the season one way or the other. I hope we can edge it out in Manchester but without Pedri (and dembele again) it will be tough. Pedri makes this entire shit gel

Chavi made a mistake with the defensive setup yesterday imo, we should've went full strength from the get-go to walk away with at least one goal advantage at home. I thought the idea was to play Alba against low blocks, but in an open game it makes way more sense to start Balde who wouldn't have gotten smoked by Rashford's pace when he switched wings. No surprise Alba was awful and Balde looked electric when he came on

Decent game, both sides pressed a lot n so many mistakes it seemed. Pedri off on came Roberto I thought we were fked lol... the drop off in our midfield control was so obvious. Roberto literally does nothing in almost all the games he plays, whereas Pedri is the complete opposite lol... lucky we still came back.

Alonso got that goal but his huge weakness for all to see again when he couldnt chase down anyone at the back. Kounde also had a terrible game, prolly better at RB, n Araujo isnt a RB anyway so Xavi needs to fix this problem soon. Alba attacks a lot so Alonso was covering him n left huge gap between him n Kounde all game, the line a mess. I do feel for Man U having scrub like Weghorse whatever his name is... just cos Dutch coaches love Dutch players Otherwise we prolly would have conceded more...

Oh I gotta add again see how mad Raphinha was having to come off AGAIN for fking Ferran when hes playing so well. Its happened for countless games now n u can only sympathise... even these top level coaches have so much bias its unbelieve... if they can eliminate that im sure their teams will be even better

Can't see a non-Rashford team advancing tonight. Congrats in advance Firenze, Glory and others, it's been a good matchup

Trying to jinx Europa league games now?

Harmonica wrote:Trying to jinx Europa league games now?

absolutely shameless
must be tough over there in the Nou Camp these days

dont care about the EL, just wanna win because of the fixture

we were robbed last week

justice must prevail tonight