Barcelona v. Arsenal (UEFA Champions' League, 1st knock-out round, 2nd leg) 3/8/11. Match Thread

Soooooo.... what are you saying rev? I'm confused coz you're being too cryptic mate.



Anyway, I'm with you mate. Maybe there should be a forum on the boards NOT for which club you support but for which club you despise

You wanna replace me?

I've changed my profile to reflect that the club I like least is Barcelona. They really are the finest team on the planet. Could you tell their two CBs were missing? And when you see Messi's first goal, you have to realize that you are witnessing genius. And yet, they dive and whine and they flop and they dive and whine some more. You know, they don't have to do that. While the game was pretty much Iniesta and Busquets flop-free, we got enough from Alves to cover them all. I'm less bitter about losing now than saddened from their continual degradation of the beautiful game....

Yes, In my old age (50) I'm coming to realize your'e not going to cruise into Nou Camp and win. Ain't going to happen. Bitter a pill as it is to swallow (believe me i was pounding the bar cause I love this club), the karma is sometimes stacked against us and i really don't want to have words with other Gunner supporters about it. It wasn't going to happen today. No way. No how. Like I said. Move on. If in my life we have a run of Siverware, Great!,. Won't change my feelings for the club. Anyone who thinks otherwise can ********-off! No malice intended in my posts to fellow Gunners ever. Gunner till I die!

Tough loss guys, the red was a travesty... this game was turning into a instant classic and the ref had a direct impact on the power balance, he didn't impact the score directly...

Silly 1st yellow for RVP cost Arsenal dearly, he should had more composure.

The read card changed to game too much to know what would/could had happened, Barcelona was creating way too many chances even before the red so I don't thing it was a good strategy but you never know what could had happened with 11 x 11...

With that being said Barcelona passing game is just too much, they are able to create many quality chances (Villa had two clear chances before the red)

Good luck on EPL

I neither support Barcelona or Arsenal, but though the red card was a terrible decision, then referees make big mistakes all the time (also in the first leg of this tie) and it usually more or less even itself out in the end, so I'm pretty sure Barcelona has just as much reason to make complaints, if you look at both the 1st and 2nd leg.

In any case, this decision didnt really change anything. Arsenal had nothing going for them in this match, except for a lucky punch own goal by Barcelona... The rest of the match was totally dominated by Barcelona both before and after the red card, just as Arsenal did not produce a single attempt on target, neither before or after, so ther was no change in the run of play... Arsenal was outplayed and ther is no reason to blame it on the referee.
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BS Van Persie send off. BS no-red card for whoever put his hand on VP's neck. Don't care how much Barca were outplaying us, we were winning before VP got sent off. They could have created 10 million chances and us 0, we were still winning and it's crazy to believe having 11 men for the rest of the game wouldn't of made a difference late in the game.

Barcelona, what a dirty club.

47 touches by Barca in our box.
2 touches by us in theirs.
0 shots....ZERO from an Arsenal player. 4 goals, all scored by Barca.

We could not string 3 passes together.

And someone wants to blame ONLY the ref? You are joking right?

Anyway, had we won our easier than pie group and we are moping the floor with Roma today and Barcelona is someone elses problem for now. This team cant learn to help itself.

Via Twitter:

@laliga_news
Almunia on Spanish radio: "We needed a goal but there were some players walking around. I didn't understand that".

Interesting. I wonder who that was aimed at?

Most focus on the petty, useless part that you can't do anything about. The most important part and one you have control over is what you wrote above. Focus on these issues and discuss how to avoid them again.

I don't think many, if any, have done this. But it is at best naive to believe that a sending-off when you are in the lead isn't a turning point in the game.
Fact is, the ref was terrible and made an clearly poor decision that changed the complexion of the game. As I (and others) have pointed out, Barca may well have been the better team, but due to a ludicrous refereeing decision we will never really know.

What if I was a teenage Phishy you douche? Do they even play soccer? in redneck Texas? Ass!

Any of the front 6 not named Wilshere or Nasri.

And yet, despite all that, we were WINNING the tie at the point of the red card, and to the extent Farca needed a goal, more space would have been available for counter attacks thereafter. Like we scored our goals in the first game.

C'mon. as was already said, 800 passes completed, 14 chances created. It is sickening to realize that a team THIS GOOD as Farca is constantly requires the god damn referee to do "his thing" to ensure victory in the CL for the past 3 years. I guess last year, they screwed up and forgot to send off a 2nd Inter player to ensure success.

You're kidding right? You think we are only blaming the ref? We are pretty much in complete agreement that we were outclassed today, for lots of reasons.

While I don't share topcat's view that the game was up for grabs at the time of van Persie's carding (our loss was inevitable to me), we really had no chance after that, one oh-so-fleeting Wilshere pass notwithstanding.

When the Cubs got beat by the Braves in the playoffs years back I stopped watching baseball. Sosa being a cheat put the nail in the coffin. Greg Maddux and the other Braves pitchers, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were getting a foot on each corner. I think it was the southwest sky cam roll out that proved it. It was such BS. Well they have earned it people would say. NO IT IS OUT SIDE OF THE FING STIKE ZONE I would say.

This is not a one way street. When MJ came back after his dad died he got every fing call. The 3 NBA rings we got after that felt like getting laid by a hooker. Sure my balls were drained by I was not proud.

When we got that call v. Birmingham in the cup final (where there should have been a goal and red card) I was pissed. I don't want to win because of a crap call. I would have rather have played with 10 men. Unless we win that game by 2 good goals I would never have been proud of it.

Any Barca fan who is proud of their team right now is a total ********.

We were out played. Fine. We did not take our chance. Fine.

Who gives a f anymore? Cheating, shooting air rifels, paid off refs, teams $600,000,000 in debt, $50,000,000 for players, players getting tapped up, keepers out of their box putting their hands to the face of another player with out a card, players elbowing players off the ball in the head with no red card, players getting their legs broken, the old firm BS, Gary Neville..... what is the fing point?

I just wanted a fair fight. Do they not know we can loose all on our own?

Going back to Heroin.

The ref screwed us and our captain let us down... In that order

A lot of lions out there tonight until that third goal

Almunia said he had to tell everyone they needed to score while people were walking around casually... Unbelievable

Also, I defended him but I'm through... Nick can bounce

You have one chance, just one chance... And you touch it to Mascherano... Amazing

Lastly, Wenger needs to bring in more speed...

Barcelona 'outplay' literally every team that comes into the Nou Camp and destroys them statistically. Every. Single. Team. You can't go there and expect to boss a game or play your usual stuff against them. Nobody on earth can do it unless all of their starters have an off day simultaneously. You get a result there by being as solid as possible at the back and making the most of your chances going forward. Man United, Chelsea and Inter have all got results there in recent seasons, and the stats looked similar to the stats today. All three of them had less than 30% possession (Inter had 14%). None of them had more than one shot on goal (Inter had one shot total).

We didn't defend as well as those teams did, but we got a goal, unlike any of those three teams. You can say taht we were outplayed outclassed or what not, but you can't say we definitely would not have gone through if RvP had stayed on. For starters, RvP got sent off at the end of a counter attack, the second or third one we had in the few minutes after it was 1-1. Our goal changed the game in that Barca had to come out and play again, and if we could defend reasonably (up until that point Barcas only goal came from a self inflicted mistake so you could argue that we were defending reasonably) there would be chances opening up on the other end, which RvP would have helped exploit. Also if that chance at the end had fallen to RvP instead of Nik most likely he scores and we're through. I'm not saying we would have gone through, but we did stand a decent chance and deserved to find out. It was a shockingly bad decision to send RvP off.

Well said ARSONISTS! I don't think you can take this "fixed" sport too seriously. Better to rely on a cold beer at the Pub and take it for what it's worth (mostly enjoying conversation with fellow Gooners). yep! UP THE ARSENAL!!!

I can agree that the red card was a terrible decision, but you cant just pick a single bad decision from this 2nd leg and blame the referee for losing the tie ... The Barcelona fans then could just easily do the same, when you look at this terrible decision :

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7tLmp7kQJA"]YouTube - Messi disallowed goal vs Arsenal 16/2/2011[/ame]

Referees make big mistakes all the time and it usually more or less even itself out in the end, when you look at both the first and second leg.

In this match Arsenal did not produce a single attempt on target, neither before or after the red card and ther was no change in the run of play either, or any good reason to believe that that ther would have been...
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I know i shouldn't start this... fan is short for fanatical but I just can't resist...

Why on earth should a Barcelona fan fell ashamed for a terrible ridiculous referee call!!!

They got a huge present from the referee, IMO it changed the game but so what!!! Do you thing Arsenal should ask for the Busquets goal to be disallowed because it was a own goal!!!! own goals are hardly a "fair fight"

Barcelona HAD NO HAND is getting RVP second yellow card... it was the ref stupidity alone...

rant of the year

Offside decisions happen. I never really complain about them. They are excusable because these things level out. You win some you lose some. This is just regular human error.

You say there was no evidence of the tide changing and you might be right...but we were robbed the chance of seeing if it could happen. We showed in the first leg that we can make a late push against this Barca team. Not saying it would have happened but we were robbed of any chance by a truly inexcusable decision.