Let's take some positives out of the ruins of this day: - Ronnie is back. It's now a matter of getting a full match of brilliance out of him. He's hungry, active, precise, and even scoring spectacular goals. - We played very well until the deflected equalizer. The wheels simply came off the wagon, but we showed we can play our usual flowing style again. - With the win today, Real might convince themselves they are in good form. From what I saw today they are far from that. Recre, a relegation contender, made them suffer greatly until the red cards and Robinho. - 5 points can go down to 0 as quickly as 9 became 2. Lots of La Liga left to play.
Great game by Aguero I must say, shame that Messi was not able to start this one. It would have been a great duel...
There's too much money riding on the Champions League to just throw a weak lineup out there and write it off due to luck. Even with a useless Edmilson out there, the first choice back 4 were in place, plus there was enough firepower up top to win this game. They mentally crumbled after the deflection which is unacceptable.
We were all in ecstasy last week so this is quite a come-down. Still lots of Liga to go though... Just how many games has FR lost with his questionable lineups???? Sometimes I really wonder if I'm seeing the same players as he is.
no disrespect to Celtic, but if they were to eliminate us on Tuesday, forget eating my laptop, I'd eat my entire house, brick by brick and stream it live on Sopcast. after which I'd edit and post the highlights on Youtube and full delayed coverage on torrents. basically, what I'm trying to say is that our focus - and thus our strongest lineup - should've been today. what Rijkaard did today was unforgiveable. sure, had he picked a full-strength team, Aguero may still have destroyed us, but at least we'd sleep tonight knowing there was nothing more that could've been done. Barca defeats always ruin my weekend. it takes me till Monday to forget about it, then when I turn up for 5-a-sides on monday evening, my teammates never fail to wind me up about it. I shall now find out how quickly I can get to the bottom of this Blossom Hill White Zinfandel bottle (yes, it's a girly drink, I know)
This game proves, almost beyond doubt, that Yaya was the single most important change we made in the summer. He comes back from the African nations and we look great. FR leaves him out and we look mediocre. Poor old Yaya is going to have to get very little rest if this season is going to turn out at all well.
Only because hes been ********ing injured for half the season, at the start of this season he was ********ing immense. And even not close to fully fit he has 4 assists his last 4 games? And instead of plauying him to make him reach his full form you leave him Toure and emssi on the bench in a massive game? WAs Frank actually resting players waiting for celtic to score 2 goals at camp nou without suffering once?
Don't want rub any salt or anything, despite all the rivalry between Barca and Real I have to say that was an entertaining match, and the goal by Ronaldinho was materclass. As much as I didn't want Barca to score that goal made me jump. WOW!!!! All in all though an exciting game to watch.
Don't know who was more to blame: Rijkaard or the players. Hats off to Kun who was superb. Match report - http://fcbnews.com/atletico-madrid-4-barca-2/
That was ridiculous. Ronaldinho's goal was simply stunning. We were in control of the match, and the deflected goal happened. Next thing you know, every single time Aguerro had the ball it ended up in the back of the net. I still don't think that second goal should have gotten by Valdes, coupled with the Celtic second goal, I'm beginning to wonder if he needs a rest. Yikes
I had a strange feeling that something was missing in this thread and then I realized that we have gone for 13 consecutive pages [over several days] without a single post from Hendrixforpope. He must be seriously injured or in the hospital...
He may be on a high school trip, pried away from his basement computer by his parents and forced to tour the many museums of Washington, DC. with classmate who only know him as giggly guy.
Thanks for the warm wishes Josie As for the game , defelction f#cked it all up. It's surely no excuse, but at that point, and with an absolutely stupendous Ronaldinho goal, we had like 78% posession and Atletico we looking for scraps on their own turf. We had them by the cojones...then came bad luck. I still beleive though this was a game that our defence lost, and Puyol was unfortunately a big part of that. First goal he was just unlucky, but that penalty was really stupid, that was the kiss of death.
Maybe a month ago you can say that, but he's been more than fit and has sucked. Sure he's had 4 assists, he's also had about 44 bad giveaways and about 54 lazy, unnecessary fouls during that time. On top of that, when has a midfield triumvirate of Iniesta, Deco & Xavi been effective? Uh, never. FR is to blame for putting all his eggs in the Edmilson basket and not bringing on Messi at halftime, no doubt. Either way, Deco wouldn't have made an ounce of difference.
To Rijkaard's defense: according to SPORT, the reason of not starting Messi was due to him having some muscle fatigue and he did not want to risk any injury. I do not know if this is true, or if he is just trying to find an easy excuse for the blunder committed by not starting him. Anyways, for one reason or another, it seems as if we can never really enjoy a true "Messi vs. Aguero" duel on the pitch. Shame really...
Atletico already played Barca earlier this season and we had the Messi v Aguero duel. Aguero did nothing the whole game while Messi scored for Barca.