WOB doesn t deserve the win. No penalty on Karchaoui is a shame Only 1 yellow card for WOB is a big joke And what did WOB show after PSG reduced to 10? Nothing. Nothing against a team WITHOUT center back !!!
The 2019 WWC was all about watching your follow through even if you connected with the ball. I remember Syrstad Engen conceding a PK vs France along those lines, and Hegering on Karchaoui was much clearer/worse. You can see a touch from the behind view, but that was nowhere near enough to justify the reversal in my opinion.
But how often do the refs actually not go with a different decision when they're called to the monitor?
Wolfsburg were fouling everywhere, and I don't know how Huth especially didn't get a yellow. She retaliated against Groenen with a push, she clearly fouled Karchaoui on a break that wasn't called (and was actually called against Karchaoui for a handball), and then she had multiple niggles against Karchaoui in a battle in midfield. There were a couple fouls on Groenen just outside the box late on that weren't called. Wolfsburg were indeed not good after going up a player, and indeed, they couldn't do anything against a Geyoro-Jean-Francois CB pairing.
And also, watching the play back, what about the two fouls (one clear one, the hug) on Jean-Francois that weren't called before Wolfsburg's buildup to the corner for the PK?
De Almeida was not smart with her dissent, but unless she said something really inappropriate, I think her first yellow was harsh. Groenen's yellow was fair, and I think she gets away with fouls sometimes. However, given Groenen's yellow, Huth, Popp, and Oberdorf all should have gotten a yellow as well.
I agree--that was penalty, IMO. Yes, the Wolfsburg defender scuffs the ball--barely--but only at the moment she's cleaning out the PSG player with her lower body. And without the contact the PSG player would have got to the ball, which was not affected much by the defensive touch because it was so slight and so late.
Didn't see this until after my first post on the play: This is precisely why the penalty should have been called. Karchaoui would have got to the ball and had a good goal-scoring opportunity. It's just another day of very questionable decisions about fouls in the box. Yesterday Arsenal didn't even get a VAR review of a handball in the box or a backpass to the keeper in the box.
VAR decisions have surprised me in the Bayern - Arsenal and PSG - Wolfsburg game. Eidevall and Precheur both unhappy and making it clear in their press conferences.
I have to observe that, however it happened and however fair or unfair it seemed, 3 quarter-finals out of 4 ended with a 0-1 away win, and all of them, anyway, saw just a single goal scored. Not sure if it means anything, I just wanted to point that out.
1️⃣1️⃣ inicial !!! Som-hi equip 🫶🏽@Spotify 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/Ts1VmlmA18— FC Barcelona Femení (@FCBfemeni) March 29, 2023 🟨📋🟥Here’s how we line up for the second leg against @FCBfemeni 👊#ASRomaWomen #UWCL #BarcaRoma pic.twitter.com/3Yx2BaKX57— AS Roma Women 🇮🇹 (@ASRomaWomen) March 29, 2023
If AS Roma's players manage to win at Camp Nou and advance further then... forget the Cinderella story, "AS Roma in UWCL" would be the new fairy tale.
The starters are the same as the 1st leg, except coach Spugna tried the Vicky Losada card as a starter instead of Giada Greggi: can it be a correct choice, when playing at the Nou Camp against her former team? We're going to see: Barça remain the über-favourite, but, given the score of just 0-1 in the 1st leg, there anyway is the scarce chance of an upset.
After the 1st Half, I'd definitely answer with a no: of course, there are many other reasons why Roma is behind by 3-0, but I'd say Losada was probably Roma's poorest player. She didn't have the ball much, she wasn't particulary accurate with her passes and she killed some potential offensive action with slow controls and unnecessary back-passes. Edit: Alessandro Spugna apparently agrees with me, since Giada Greggi replaces Vicky Losada at HT.
While the question for Barca is eight or nine we will have soon a more even match (or not if you look at Bayern`s starting team (Lohmann on the bench?) The Arsenal XI. pic.twitter.com/w03jEvfcVb— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) March 29, 2023 Unsere Start-1️⃣1️⃣ gegen Arsenal! 🔥#PACKMAS #FCBayern #ARSFCB #UWCL pic.twitter.com/AI9JivO9Es— FC Bayern Frauen (@FCBfrauen) March 29, 2023 Roma scores
Looks like for now QF is as far as Roma can advance in UWCL. It will probably stay that way untill some major restructuring of Roma roster happens. In my opinion players like Ceasar, Linari, Losada, Bartoli, Greggi, and even Serturini are not good enough to carry this team among the likes of Barca, Bayern, Lyon, etc., Wenninger is good to have as reserve - off the bench option, and not as first choice player. Same goes with Haavi who as winger is outstanding but otherwise has very limited usefulness in other places on the pitch. It's either hire more top class foregin players like Andressa or Minami this Summer or wait 2-3 years for current 20-23 year old's to mature and experience bit more.
The answer to the question is no 8 or 9: the game ends 5-1. Scoring a goal at the Camp Nou is not so bad. The match was hopeless: the final score is harsh but not humiliating, and that's somehow ok in my eyes. Barça could easily end winning the final trophy. It can sound funny to say that, but Barça had looked to me more dominating in the 1st Half of the match in Roma than in the 1st Half tonight; but the scores (just one goal in the 1st Half in Roma, 3 goals in Barcelona) seem to deny me.
Arsenal moves on with a dominating 2-0 win over a listless, mistake-prone Bayern Munich. The Arsenal press completely flummoxed BM in the first half, with the German team giving the ball away in their own half countless times and generating little in the way of attack. Arsenal should have been ahead at the half by 3-0 or even 4-0. Williamson missed an easy header that would have made it 3-0 and then the BM keeper made a couple of good saves to keep her team in the game. In the 2nd half BM showed a bit more life and it was a nervy last 20 minutes after Arsenal missed another couple of chances to salt the game away with a third goal. In the end Arsenal held up defensively and have moved on to their first CL semifinal in a decade.
Leonhardsen Maanum has just been an offensive juggernaut this season so far when she's at her best. Why did I think she was known as a DM/lone holder when Arsenal signed her? Ridiculously good goal, and that backheel/side of the foot flick set up for Foord was equally ridiculous.
Maanum has surprised me as well. She is a /good/ player--got size, athleticism, can shoot it. Fantastic first goal today. I was worried Arsenal was going to blow it with their missed chances, but they were solid today. I enjoy watching Pelova--she is nifty, strong on the ball and very good at spotting the right pass. I wonder what her best position is? Bayern looked like they wanted to stay on the bus and out of the rain. They were lucky not to be down 4-0 at the half.
Of course, the international stage is much different from the Italian League, that's not yet at the level of the other WCL's big contenders (England, Germany, France; Spain, in my opinion, is little more than Barça with some sparring-partners), but having observed these players day-in, day-out in Italy, and having anyway closely followed the international campaign, I don't agree with some of your assessments. Of course, Roma lucked out some of the draws seeing them advance to the quarter-finals (not all of them: Paris FC in the preliminary round wasn't for sure a cakewalk), but then paid for it in the last draw, because they picked what was arguably the only really un-beatable team for them: I dare to say that they would have had some kind of a chance vs different opponents in this quarter-finals, so judging of their level by comparing them to Barcelona is a little unfair, because it unnecessarily amplifies their anyway clear deficiencies. Anyway, to get to the single assessments of the players that you mentioned: I agree with you about Losada: signing her was kind of a gamble to try to get an "insider" for the match vs Barcelona. It didn't pay and I think there is a reason why Barça themselves and City let her go: it's ny now end of the line for her career. Captain Bartoli can still be effective in Italy and even on the international level she often made her sense of positioning count, but she's too much old by now and not fast enough for the kind of opposition she would be going to meet in WCL. About Linari, I don't agree: she can sometimes be error prone of out of position, but on the other hand she has often saved the day and she looks as reliable as other international CBs: even those that are vastly superior to her, as Millie Bright in Chelsea, sometimes make awful blunders, so it's not a question of being error-proof, but about having the skills and the personality to walk the international stage and I think she has. Greggi and Serturini can't probably be the stars of the team, but they're ok to me. Ceasar keeps looking like a legitimate GK to me: in the women's game, any GK who's able to make result-saving performances is way above average in my eyes and she is. I don't see so many GKs around that are so much more reliable than her. Wenninger is a solid CB and gave Roma's defense that load of international experience that they were missing. To me, despite being 32, she can be a clear starter for at least a pair of season. Even by just looking at the Barcelona matches (that, anyway, as I said above, are really warping the perspective) she was much more reliable than Minami (I can give a pass to this last one, who's basically playng out of position since the beginning of the season and who anyway was facing an opponent, Caroline Graham Hansen, who could make anyone look silly: but based on these games, she didn't sure help her own cause). Finally, Haavi is a powerful weapon and she was basically the only one, along with Giacinti, who managed to pose any real danger even vs the likes of Barcelona! She sure is one of the stepping stones I would use to build the Roma of the next seasons, and in fact Roma's management, who obviously sees it the same way as me, recently renewed her contract until June of 2025!
Unsere Startelf für das Viertelfinal-Rückspiel in der @UWCL! 👊#WOBPSG #UWCL #VfLWolfsburg pic.twitter.com/Et28tlDMIJ— VfL Wolfsburg Frauen (@VfL_Frauen) March 30, 2023 📄🆗 Le onze de départ pour ce quart de finale retour d'@UWCL ! 🔴🔵#WOBPSG I #UWCL pic.twitter.com/q2LriljHi5— PSG Féminines (@PSG_Feminines) March 30, 2023