So we are just going to forget about the other 60 which we dominated? I mean if Mertens doesn't crap the bed with that PK, we walk outta there with a draw. I'm not sure where the heck this mental stuff is coming from.
In the end I don't see Shaktar taking any points from Man City. A draw at home vs Man City and a win vs Shaktar and we go through. Heck we might even go through with a loss to City and a win vs Shaktar on tiebreakers
FWIW...........538 has the latest projections Napoli 1st = 4% 2nd = 42% 3rd = 52% Shaktar 1st = 6% 2nd = 50% 3rd = 44% So they have the advantage (obviously because of the W vs us) but it's not too bleak for us.
Nobody's forgetting anything, I just put it into perspective. We cannot assume that we were dominating them for any amount of time based on a comeback where the obviously better team up to that point had already scored two goals, and without much effort. It is the last game for City, in Ukraine. City will not need any result there, they will probably rest players, and the Shahtar players will fight like lions. Forgive me for not being at all as certain as you seem to be, but I think the argument I have just stated is valid.
I'm not so much doubting whether Man City was the better team in this game so much as I am doubting that mental issues had anything to do with it. The only reason I brought up the other 60 was because of what the other poster had stated about the first 30 being an obvious indication of mental problems. No. If anything, the first 30 was an indication that we are not quite at the level that Man City is at right now. Your right that City will probably have clinched by then. So maybe they do rest players and draw/lose that game. Right now we just have to take care of Shaktar at home and see what happens I guess.
Because if those 30 minutes don't happen, we start of even with no need of coming back to try getting a draw. Simples Edit: We need to remember we were being massacred in those 30 mins, could've been 3 or 4 nil. Against a team with a better forward line, there would have been no chance of a comeback
Of course but just because Man City outplayed us for the first 30 minutes of the match doesn't mean we have some mental block we need to get over. It more than likely just means they are better than we are lol
It wasn't just outplaying us, they made us look like an average prem team with how they were passing it around. Better finishers would have made it 4 nil. And albiol is so shite, you cannot go in the the champions league with someone as slow and bad as him at center back
We'll win Man City at home I'm confident IF we go with the right choice in midfield (Sarri knows the magnitude of this game so lets hope he does)
I don't think so, I believe there was a mental block, hopefully it won't stick. If AS can draw with Chelsea and Chelsea can only lose 0:1 to MC, then we should have been better. I think it is stupid to say that what we have shown against City in the first 30 minutes of the game is our standard, because it was awful. It would then mean that Shahtar indeed is a better team than Napoli, because they were doing much better against City.
Teams don't always play up to their standards. And sometimes teams play way better than their standards. To me a mental issue is when a team just can't get over the hump. A mental issue would be that we went into the game thinking that we had already lost. This is a team that's won 8 straight in Serie A to start the season. It's a team that's been in the Champions League before and had advanced out of the group stage. We drew against Manchester City at their place back in 2011. We just came off a road win vs Roma. This team if anything was sky high in confidence. People are just searching for excuses. The easy answer is Manchester City is just better than us. And I think Manchester City is better than Chelsea. Chelsea is already 9 points back in the EPL. Lastly, I don't think the A beat B, B beat C so A is better than C argument is a good one. Just because Shaktar played City better (which I'm not even entirely sure that was the case given they lost 2-0 and we lost 2-1) doesn't mean they are better than us. Even the game in Ukraine, we outshot them, had more possession.....basically if you look at any stat, we didn't play horribly. Sometimes a team dominates and the other comes out on top. That's sports. I just think right now Manchester City is on another tier compared to the other teams in the group.
It is not a perfect argument, I admit, but neither is yours. We're looking at the issue from two different perspectives, but I don't necessarily claim that mine is correct. I think it's reasonable to say that perhaps we both have a point that is true in some way. But look at it this way, hadn't Sarri basically proclaimed that the game is already lost prior to the time that we actually walked out on the pitch? He had been praising MC too much without any reason. They are good, but CHL is CHL and if teams such as Shahtar can have courage I expect the same from us. Chelsea is not MC level, but that was exactly my point, they were more competitive against MC than we were, which means, in my opinion, that we could have done better, especially in the first 30 minutes of the game. I think it most definitely was a slight mental issue, but mainly a tactical one. Or both combined in the same proportion. Or the one emanating from the other. Take it this way, Sarri had been praising MC too much before the game started. Then, on the pitch, it showed that City were more confident and rather more tactically and strategically prepared. They would start with the ball at the goalkeeper's line and calmly move the ball forward, while we struggled to make two accurate passes without immediately losing the ball. We can be worse than MC, but this is something that we most definitely could have done better, for if it is true that we cannot win, we should at least be able to play. I think MC probably are better for now, but I also believe that our players had garnered up too much respect before the game and then after City started so confidently and easily, we simply lost that little amount of confidence which we had managed to gather in spite of the respect for City and then it all went down the hill. Then our tactics had changed so that we could slowly start gaining confidence and play our game more efficiently, which we consequently and subsequently did. Even if city are on a different level, so should we be in comparison with Shahtar and Rotterdam.
There are a lot of factors you aren't considering though, for 1 the fact that we haven't played a team who plays possession based similar to us since the friendly against Barcelona years ago
Yeah that too, was the first time in a long time I saw us way behind in possession (when I saw the stats in the half).
Man City are NOT on the level of real madrid, barcelona, bayern (if they find their feet again). Their defence cannot take being pressured and their attack is wasteful.