UCL semi-finals 2022/2023

Ancelotti scratching his head, well mister you cant always win without playing

Barca 2011 was reincarnated tonight ffs

What a performance.

And now the 3 subs combine for the 4th, what a DRUBBING, HUMILIATION FOR REAL~

Man C are just too stacked.. n now that luck finally on their side n Peps stopped messing around, its finally happening...

Anyway... has this season's football calendar been pushed back due to Covid or something? PRetty sure the final used to be late May, now its 20th June the commentator said will be?

sportsczy wrote:How in the world do you play a 3 man mid, with old Modric and Kroos, when City flood the mid with 5 players. At least put in a mid instead of Rodrygo...

Yeah this proved to be Ancelotti's mistake this game. Pep set up for Rodrygo and Vinicius to not have options. That alone forces Benz to hover outside the box and all of a sudden there's no striker.

Shocking game

Completely outfought and outcoached.

Well done City, they really wanted it more.

We can now officially move on from the old guard. They have taken us as far as they could.

Lord Awesome wrote:

sportsczy wrote:How in the world do you play a 3 man mid, with old Modric and Kroos, when City flood the mid with 5 players.  At least put in a mid instead of Rodrygo...  

Yeah this proved to be Ancelotti's mistake this game. Pep set up for Rodrygo and Vinicius to not have options. That alone forces Benz to hover outside the box and all of a sudden there's no striker.

Not to mention Vini and Rodrygo don't defend... and neither does Kroos.  So they just flooded Camavinga's side (who is not a fullback to begin with) and outnumbered it every time.  

Literally zero adjustments.  I expected something when you're down 2-0 and the trend is clear.

Glad to see balance has been restored after Ancelotti frauded a victory last year.

Yea Real definitely under performed. Maybe they gave their all already in that first leg at home, n just realized Man C are just too good the way this second leg started n thought cbf anymore, we are too old XD

Benz though was still balling a few months ago... what happened? He gets rests n its not like they tried hard for the league?

Kroos and Modric will start next year and Perez will extend them for another year so he can save up on Mbappe

BarcaLearning wrote:Yea Real definitely under performed. Maybe they gave their all already in that first leg at home, n just realized Man C are just too good the way this second leg started n thought cbf anymore, we are too old XD

Benz though was still balling a few months ago... what happened? He gets rests n its not like they tried hard for the league?

I would have respected a loss with everyone sweating blood but this was just a limp performance all round. The pressing, the passing, everything was just terrible.

I think everyone could see long before the game that we'd get slaughtered without a CDM but Carlo refused to budge. Once we went 2-0 down we were never going to come back with Benz in this form.

City really deserved it. Their game plan worked to perfection.

Who will Perez bring in in the summer?

Always been am Inter fan my whole life

Ever since the days of Adriano, Zantetti, Milito

I can finally rep this badge after so many years

Forza!

We've never lost this bad in CL with Casemiro in the team. Apparently he was just a passenger. I'd take him back today and gift away Mendy and Kroos for free as a thank you. Kroos and Modric have no fight in them at all.

BarcaLearning wrote:Who will Perez bring in in the summer?

Nobody other than a left back imo. We are bringing all the old guys back for 1 more year. Also waiting on Mbappe's contract to expire, stupidly (he's going to EPL imo).

Benzema is on the decline now clearly. As are Kroos and Modric. So we really need TWO scorers, not just one, and another midfielder.

I don't believe the Jude Bellingham stories at all.

halamadrid2 wrote:We've never lost this bad in CL with Casemiro in the team. Apparently he was just a passenger. I'd take him back today and gift away Mendy and Kroos for free as a thank you. Kroos and Modric have no fight in them at all.

We have Tchouameni... but because Carlo wants to play Kroos and Modric + believes in Valverde regardless of form... we don't play him anymore.

Kroos as a holding mid would never work other than against lesser teams and a few aberrations.

Why is Tchou benched?

sportsczy wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:We've never lost this bad in CL with Casemiro in the team. Apparently he was just a passenger. I'd take him back today and gift away Mendy and Kroos for free as a thank you. Kroos and Modric have no fight in them at all.

Why is Tchou benched?

Because he hasn't made a case to become a starter. He has been quite poor himself.

halamadrid2 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:

halamadrid2 wrote:We've never lost this bad in CL with Casemiro in the team. Apparently he was just a passenger. I'd take him back today and gift away Mendy and Kroos for free as a thank you. Kroos and Modric have no fight in them at all.

Why is Tchou benched?

Because he hasn't made a case to become a starter. He has been quite poor himself.

I disagree.  He came back from WC and was benched because Carlo wanted Kroos, Modric and Valverde to become the starters for the big games... it's very typical Carlo.  

He was outstanding the first half of the season... when we were actually playing well. But it turned out that he only played so much because Carlo wanted to preserve Modric and Kroos. Performance had nothing to do with it.

The players didn't let the team down. In my opinion we faced a younger better side who didn't let the pressure of a madrid comeback attempt get to them. City much better on the night, and based on this, if we played them 5 more times they would beat us again and again.

I just hope we don't turn into Milan in the late 2000s who still had 37 year Olds as their starters and still bringing back more old heads like schevchenko and becks on loan deals.

Sorry Inter fans but for Inter to have any chance would need a few things:

Play an amazing final
Hire Perez's/Zidane's voodoo curse master/luck bringer
Bribe the ref
Edison mistake and/or one of Man C's defender mistake which Pep has eliminated somehow after all these yrs
Haaland to keep missing chances
Pep dont bring on Alvarez

Basically u need all of the above, which is highly unlikely

Also dont forget this will be Pep's revenge for 2010, when Inter basically denied that Barca team for CL 3peat 2009-2011

What a dominant performance. In the first half Madrid couldn't even string 3 passes together. In the second half, they had no way through City's 442 defensive shape. Foden and Alvarez brought that added workrate and energy at the end of the game to seal the tie.

I thought Madrid were better in the first leg, as they continually played through City's press and City looked like they lacked ideas. But I also think that City played conservatively and they weren't seeking overloads so they could keep men behind the ball. In the second leg, you saw how much more advanced Stones played and the overloads Akanji and Walker helped create on the wings. Their pressing shape was asymmetric this time to cope with Madrid's left sided overloads in the build up. Great tweaks.

Casciavit wrote:What a dominant performance. In the first half Madrid couldn't even string 3 passes together. In the second half, they had no way through City's 442 defensive shape. Foden and Alvarez brought that added workrate and energy at the end of the game to seal the tie.

I thought Madrid were better in the first leg, as they continually played through City's press and City looked like they lacked ideas. But I also think that City played conservatively and they weren't seeking overloads so they could keep men behind the ball. In the second leg, you saw how much more advanced Stones played and the overloads Akanji and Walker helped create on the wings. Their pressing shape was asymmetric this time to cope with Madrid's left sided overloads in the build up. Great tweaks.

And a great response to those who say Pep's team play boring football. Truly felt like I was being transported a decade into the past and Madrid players surely felt like they were sat on an endless rollercoaster ride and not allowed to get out and grab some cotton candy.

He tends to play boring football against teams with similar or higher quality. I don't think that's changed since his Barca days. Only difference is that no one else matches the quality of his team right now. What he should be worried about is the slump in form they went through after their loss to Liverpool. It wasn't only Cancelo who looked like he didn't give a crap around that time.

Myesyats wrote:

Casciavit wrote:What a dominant performance. In the first half Madrid couldn't even string 3 passes together. In the second half, they had no way through City's 442 defensive shape. Foden and Alvarez brought that added workrate and energy at the end of the game to seal the tie.

I thought Madrid were better in the first leg, as they continually played through City's press and City looked like they lacked ideas. But I also think that City played conservatively and they weren't seeking overloads so they could keep men behind the ball. In the second leg, you saw how much more advanced Stones played and the overloads Akanji and Walker helped create on the wings. Their pressing shape was asymmetric this time to cope with Madrid's left sided overloads in the build up. Great tweaks.

And a great response to those who say Pep's team play boring football. Truly felt like I was being transported a decade into the past and Madrid players surely felt like they were sat on an endless rollercoaster ride and not allowed to get out and grab some cotton candy.

Yup can’t remember the last time they had the opposition pinned like that. Maybe against Atletico with Bayern in 2016?

13 shots, 72% possession, constantly winning the ball high up the pitch, leading 2-0 with Courtois making 3 brilliant saves, and that was all in the first half.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more ‘dominant’ display in a CL semis. Especially when you consider the context of it being against the former champions and the kings of this competition.

Pep’s football has strict positional requirements and is predictable in the sense that the movements are largely pre-rehearsed.

I do think that his teams do offer the conditions to play entertaining football. I mean they build from the back, move the opposition around, can counter when needed etc. There are times where he can be negative, and you can see that in away CL games where he tends to take a more conservative approach by always asking for the extra pass and increased focus on ball retention.

That being said football entertainment is linked to the players at your disposal mostly. It’s more evident with his teams because 90% of teams he plays against sits deep and parks the bus restricting space making individual brilliance harder to come by.


Having someone like Pirlo at DM makes a big difference than someone like Rodri. Having someone like Akanji inverting into midfield is a big difference to someone like Trent. Having Grealish on the LW is a big difference to someone like Leao or Mbappe.

His Barca wouldn’t have been fun to watch if Messi wasn’t dribbling past 4-5 players.

I liked his Bayern because you had Boateng/Alonso spamming switches to Robben/Costa who almost always won their 1v1 duels. Then you had Vidal/Muller/Lewa overloading the box.

Pep’s 2018 City side was probably the most entertaining because they had mavericks on the wing in Sane and Sterling, and he was playing with two #10s in KDB and Silva as CM’s.

The players at your disposal will always dictate the level of entertainment even if the manager applies a more cautious approach IMO.