I think our attacking game will depend a lot on Mascherano and his partner in defense. If he is playing on the left(Pique on right) we will probably need Gervinho to cut inside from the left as he is our only right footed winger. Dzeko will position himself close to Mascherano and try to receive the long balls we will rely on and pass it to the winger next to him (Salah). After that Salah will try to find Gervi behind their CBs or charge that area himself if he has the chance. This is where we needed Ibarbo, he would have been useful this match. In recent years Atletico have been very successful bullying Barca with a simple tactic, using Raul Garcia as RW and putting him next to Jordi Alba, then send him long balls which he wins almost every time. In this match he won 6/7 aerial duels, one of them resulted in the winning goal: Against Verona Rudi subbed in Ibarbo in the 81st minute, and many were confused by that sub. Going back to the match, you will find that Verona took off their starting LB Sourapeyan (187 cm) and put Romulo (178 cm) in the 78th minute. Rudi responded immediately by subbing in Ibarbo to try and use him as outlet for receiving long balls in that area, but unfortunately there wasn't enough time for it to work.
The formation of corriere della sera: Scz; Maicon, Manolas, Ddr, Digne; Flo, Keita, Ninja, Iago; Salah; Djeko
I know, but if Castan is off, DDR will be the best solution, hoping that midfielders will filter something
Is there a chance we can steal a point here? I'm trying to talk myself in to it, and then I look at their front 3 again, and I die a little bit inside. I feel like it's cheating. Where is Gyomber when you need him?
thankfully tv3 + who shows the game in Denmark are gonna use the pre match to talk about "Messi Vs Ronaldo" yay... thats something new, ive never heard before. I WANNA HEAR ABOUT ROMA AND MAYBE BARCA....
Am I a bad fan if I bet on Barca to win? It would be a win-win situation for me....unless it ends up being a draw
The resounding optimism before the the Bayern game burned all of us. I'm in a similar boat as you. I hold out some hope for a strong display against Barca tonight but there has just been too many disappointments to be bursting with optimism. Good thing for us is that Barca away is our final game in the group stage and they will most likely have secured top spot in the group by then.
Its going to be the 5th match not the last one, they face Leverkusen away in their last game, so the Germans are the ones with a good schedule.