i watched the first 40 minutes. neymar dived, and busquets was offside. i turned it off right before kaka's shot deflected in. barca's third goal was pretty though. i expected to lose, and we played like we expected to lose. we got what we deserved. i just can't stand how it's a foul whenever someone touches neymar. then he's allowed to grab and pull all over the other players to win the ball back, and it never gets called. i also cannot stand these ignorant english commentators. still, we're in second place. we knew advancing would come down to beating celtic and ajax at home and not losing to them away. we do that, and we're through to the knock-outs. but who's confident that's going to happen????
last game i had my rant about them, i feel like its my turn to return the favor. they know nothing, but the commentators have sucked for years now, we should all be used to it by now
I don't agree that we played like we expected to lose. Barcelona are just better. Before the two gift wrapped goals by the officials, Barcelona had 7 goes at net and Milan one. Why do they need the extra hand then? It's not like they need it. Giving Barcelona a 2 goal lead is like letting a bull loose in a china store, to borrow a cheap cliché. It's just not necessary, which is why I will mostly cheer any team that plays them in the knockouts. Who knows, if we manage to make it, maybe the UEFA jesters can arrange for another joke on us and give us Barca again. No comment on the announcers, they know which hand not to bite, and as long as Barcelona are the poster team for the modern game and keeps buying the marketable stars, they'll get the calls. You need a cynical Capello with zona mista on steroids to frustrate the shit out of them and ******** them over 1-0... Choke the crap out of them in the middle of the pitch.
This post is exactly how I felt during the game. Neymar dove inside box to get pk and commentators said, of course, pk pk, Abate touched him. Than a Milan guy gets kicked in the leg and taken down, and commentators say, o well he acted well on that one, deceived the referee this time. At one point I think Messi was offsides but hit the post and commentators were saying how he should get benefit of the doubt because it was close and it was a magical ball from someone. I get that Milan/Italian soccer is not liked by the British, but c'mon. They were just horrible. That being said, I too did not like how we played the game. It looked like from the airplane ride to Barca to the last min, we knew we were gonna lose, and just tried our best to "contain" the loss. I know its tough to play Barca in Barca, but it didn't look we were trying to win. At best, we would have tied. I guess considering the players we have, and no style, that a 3-1 defeat isn't too brutal, considering 1 was a phantom PK, and second was offsides. I hate how Balo dependent the team is. If he has a bad game, we're screwed. We are lacking an identity. The team just looks lost out there. I don't like the feeling of watching this team. We def need change somewhere....
we essentially played a 4-4-2-0. it was clear that allegri wanted to keep the score from getting out of hand by parking two rows of 4 behind the ball. put bodies in the way and clog the passing lanes. kaka and robinho were outlets for the 8 defenders to hoof the ball up to. once they got the ball, they'd immediately turn it over because they had no options coming to help attack. when sulley muntari is your third attacking option, you're playing to minimize the damage.
I think the real problem in the first half was being unable to keep the ball + the two gift goals given to a team that can keep the ball. We have to get used to the fact that this team is not very good and does not have great chemistry yet. In the 2nd half we had more possession and created more chances. If Allegri was really thinking of parking players behind the ball, then it was an utter failure with how many counter attacks Barcelona got and the three times Abbiatti had to bail the team out before they finally made it look easy to get behind the D and get their third and only legitimate goal. Having Poli and Montolivo in a four man midfield doesn't convince me that the midfields job is strictly defensive at all. Just having Muntari in the midfield doesn't necessarily denote defensive play, especially when he keeps trying to go forward and is failing miserably to get back, which is mostly what he did yesterday. Allegri just likes Muntari, we should be used to it now.
Yeah it's disappointing, but what else could he do with our squad against them? If he plays open we would get creamed as the difference in quality isn't even funny tbh.