Barca is up 2-1 at the half after goals by Gerard 44' Dani 10' Staring line-up 25 Enke 2 Reiziger 3 Frank de Boer 5 Puyol 7 Saviola 14 Gerard López 17 Mendieta 19 Dani García 22 Geovanni 31 Motta 35 Navarro I mean I think we were all pretty confident that they would advance through this group, but they are making this looki sooo easy.
in the books 3-1 with 18 points, tied for the largest margin on victory for the CL in a group at 11 pts
Just Milan in 92, PSG in 94 and Spartak on 95 did this before, unfortunately, and I hope we can change that fact, not even one of them won the thing, only Milan went closer losing to Olimpique Marseille in the final. Incredible that Spartak made it to the next round with just 7 points
So LvG played a 4-3-3 according to Uefa.com -----------Enke Reiz Puyol FdB Navarro Mendietta Gerard Motta Saviola Dani Geovanni Is he going away from the 3 man back for good?
Navarro Says he wants Aresenal! From Uefa.com Margin slim for glum Terim Wednesday 13 November 2002 Galatasaray SK coach Fatih Terim believes his side went close to ending FC Barcelona's perfect record in UEFA Champions League Group H, as the Turkish side lost 3-1 to go out at the expense of FC Lokomotiv Moskva, who finished second. 'A very complete team' Cihan Haspolatli cancelled out the home club's early lead on 20 minutes, but goals either side of half-time ended Galatasaray's campaign. The disappointed coach said after the match: "We tried to score overly difficult goals and then proceeded to give away crazy ones ourselves. Barcelona are a very complete team and if we had scored our two best opportunities instead of giving away goals it might have changed our psychology." Injury changes Terim added: "Throughout this competition we have had to make changes to the team because of injuries and other causes but, tonight, I would have liked Barcelona to have played their full B-side just like they did in Belgium two weeks ago. Then we would have won!" Barcelona determination The fact remains that Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal showed all the commitment to victory he had promised in advance of the game and, despite giving Robert Enke, Michael Reiziger, Gerard López and Dani García rare starts, it was clear that the home side were determined to take all three points. Stand-ins sparkle Indeed, it was Dani and Gerard who scored first-half goals before Geovanni added a long-range third on 56 minutes - and both Reiziger and Enke had impressive games. Van Gaal said of his stand-ins: "We made the most of our opportunities and I am happy because the substitute players proved that they are at the right level. This is a long season and we will need them." Gerard in particular dictated the tempo of the match after Galatasaray's early promise had begun to fizzle out. Dani delight But it was Dani who felt most emotional about his goal, his first for seven months. Only half in jest the striker claimed: "It's been such a long time for me that people have forgotten that I play here! Now I'm going to enjoy this feeling with my family and relish my goal. My last one was against [UD] Las Palmas in April and that was a long time ago." 'We had some luck' The visitors did have their chances, though. Van Gaal said: "Perhaps we had some luck tonight," referring to the fact that Elvir Baljic missed a golden opportunity gifted to him by Frank de Boer not long before Barcelona went 2-1 up - and that Galatasaray substitute Christian forced Enke into a fantastic right handed save late on, before hitting the post with a header from the resultant corner. Navarro targets Gunners The final word was left for Barcelona left-back Fernando Navarro, who looked ahead to Friday morning's second group stage draw. He said: "I'd love to draw Arsenal [FC] in the next round. I played there a few seasons ago in a testimonial for David Seaman and I love the atmosphere and the stadium in London."
So basically we cannot get Lokomotiv, Depor, Real or Valencia in the next round. The only one of those that I would want would be Lokomotiv again, although i do not fancy going to Moscow in the winter. Our possible group opponents are: Basel (2nd in thier group) Roma (2nd in thier group) Ajax (2nd in thier group) (that would be sweet) Leverkusen (2nd in thier group) Newcastle (2nd in thier group) Dortmund (2nd in thier group) First place teams: Milan Aresenal Juventus Man U Inter Since no one can play anyone form their own association, I guess we will get an Italian club (roma), and English club (arsenal) and either a german club (leverkusen) or Ajax. Each group will have (2) #1's and (2) #2's My pick of a group would be: Arsenal, Ajax, Leverkusen Anybody else care to guess?
Also...Geovanni's goal made #4 of ESPN Sportcenters Top 10 plays this morning! Mostly because it was a cracker and he did a cou0ple of backflips afterwards.
Aloha guys. I've been out of town. Where is everyone at? Speaking of Geovanni, the play of some of the subs has to be encouraging to LvG as they dig in to the meat of the domestic schedule as well. While this squad certainly isn't as loaded as our friends in the capital, they are finding their way. Last year if Barca had a run of games without Enrique and Kluivert out of form they would have been in big trouble. Not so, this year.