League Cup Semi Final

Luis wrote:Will Adebayor be back? Surely he can't still be in mourning.

he's had a week, being on the wrong end of gunfire and watching someone in your party die usually only takes 5 days to get over. He's clearly milking it.

2nd leg is next week so I doubt much will change, Vidic should be back and Ireland perhaps.

Footballers have experienced tragedy before and played the next day, I'm not saying it wasn't a horrible thing to experience.

César Salazar wrote:

Luis wrote:Will Adebayor be back? Surely he can't still be in mourning.

he's had a week, being on the wrong end of gunfire and watching someone in your party die usually only takes 5 days to get over. He's clearly milking it.

2nd leg is next week so I doubt much will change, Vidic should be back and Ireland perhaps.

I was just going to say the same thing. Symptom of our insta-media society. As soon as it's off the rolling news bar, it's yesterdays news. Woe betide someone actually behaving like a human being.

I'd like to buy Robinho off them as a match for Tevez. He has the flair we're missing at the moment.

Carrick is such a laughable footballer.

Im back, very happy given that was their full strength team (Fergie i will play the kids my arse) whilst we were missing loads. Hopefully we should have a number back for the second leg. We werent at our best but still won with Garrido and Boyata at the back. I feel we will score away just pray we do enough to get through...id take a 4-3 defeat. It wont be easy but we can do it. Come on City !

Carlos Tevez you sir are a fucking LEGEND !

Oh yeah thats 17 in 23 for the season for the legend that is Carlos Tevez.

What the fuck was Neville saying before the game, it was right ot not sign him hahahhahahahhahahaha. I rememeber Neville coming out before a derby once and saying how he could nver imagine losing to City and had never lossed....then he fed the Goat.

What a prick !

Legend after 6 months? How ridiculous is that.

I saw this post on redcafe and it is baffling ''Yea, why is it that Liverpudlian Mike Dean - who had to be replaced by Alan Wiley for the 2006 FA Cup final over fears of his ability to remain impartial; and who was also recorded singing YNWA according to the NOTW, is so keen to give penalties against Manchester United? Why, I ask you?''

I mean yesterday this dude was on a mission it seemed. But is it wise to have a scouser ref Man Utd games when the fans chant you scouse bastard every now and then?
I'm not sure about him usually i don't recall too many bad games but that was something else. He was City's best player after Bellamy.

Thought it was a clear penalty...Rafael pulled Bellamy back twice. The first one was what actually caused Bellamy to lose his balance, and the 2nd one was inside the box, which is when Bellamy went down. Ref seemed to indicate he had given it for the 2nd pull. In the replays we can see that the 2nd pull was hardly anything, but every time you watch the full incident in real-time, it looks like a clear penalty. When it happened in the game as well I instantly thought "penalty!". So the ref was right to give it.

No doubt that Bellamy over-reacted, but I don't blame attacking players for doing that. There's too much shirt pulling and dirty tricks from defenders nowadays IMO that goes unpunished. If any non-ball contact upsets the balance or running of my player, I want the defender to be punished for it. And at speed, even the slightest touch can ruin the attacker's move.

Get outta here even hardcore anti united people realise that wasnt a penalty. The problem was Rafael flung his arm away from Bellamy as he went down so it could have appearing like that fling was to pull him but he didn't touch him.

The ref was a joke all game though.


Pool Carragher incident and a few others. Chelsea get a dodgy free kick and foul from it but the goal still stands not City how many big games are we gonna have this year where the refs completely balls up for the other team. I'm sick of it.

But i cant wait for the second leg against these c**ts.







If we let them knock us out of this we'll never hear the end of it. So it's a big game now.

I don't think it was a penalty, but I can see why the referee has given it. When I first saw it in full time I thought it was a pen, and I imagine the ref saw much the same thing.

However, the major mistake by the referee was in not sending off Craig Bellamy for charging into Valencia, elbowing him in the chin and then trying to wrestle him.

Rafael gets booked for a small tug on Bellamy's arm. Bellamy hits someone in the face for absolutely no reason and doesn't even get a yellow for it. Not the first time this season Bellers got away with acting like a complete chav, remember his completely needless assault on a helpless man who was being held by the stewards?

Still, Man U didn't create much until the closing stages and were once again over reliant on Rooney to both create and score the chances.

Agreed with the "Bellamy should have been booked" comments from most people. Particularly in the 5 mins between the equaliser and halftime..he was charging around everywhere, clattering into people like a madman.

I'll say it again, Rooney needs to be in a proper footballing side. He's carrying this team single-handedly

Evra and Valencia have both had great seasons as has Giggs. I think people make rash statements sometimes. United lack creative central midfield players so Rooney has to do that and score so it looks like he's doing everything but in reality he should heve scored yesterday and against Leeds...and he didn't. Hardly carrying a team IMO.

United are over relying on him.

Rooney + striker and winger. Like for example Rooney + Anelka and Ribery. France NT is sorted and complete.

Isn't that Fergle's fault then? Sign more creative midfielders.

It seems like your midfield is more set up to disrupt the flow of the other team's than win the game outright.

A good footballing side would have a lot more creativity in it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_cup/8469774.stm

G-Unit Neville under investigation from the F.A

L r dd wrote:I'd like to buy Robinho off them as a match for Tevez. He has the flair we're missing at the moment.

Really?

You need someone who plays with a high intensity. Not someone who'll drift around for most of the game.

L r dd wrote:Can Owen ever make a proper connection. I mean i could kick more powerful than he can at 9 years old.

So you're nine then? This explains much

City

Completely agree with Kas re the penalty, the initial foul might have been outside the box but Rafael was still fouling Bellamy once he was inside the box, just don't see the fuss.

It was good to see rooney taking on players again. Its something he did when he first broke through but in recent years he's tended to just create space and either pass or shoot from distance rather than taking on the man. Last night he had the City defence running ragged on a couple of occasions though.

Rooney, Arshavin, RVP

My opinions on last night. If anyone cares.

1) City got lucky. I'm no United fan, far from it, but that "penalty" clearly wasn't a penalty. In my opinion. Sirt pull outside the area. This mystical "second" tug - it never happened. It just looked like it did at normal speed because of where Rafael's hand was, but in slow mo there was no second tug. Happy to be shown up on this, but for now I'm sticking with it.

2) United were clearly the better side. Sorry City. Tevez and Given apart, it wasn't exactly a match winning performance from the boys in blue. Rooney did enough on his own to have warranted a draw at least

3) City need to park the bust at Old Trafford, because I can't see how they can win the second leg, given their dodgy away form and the ease with which United got behind their full backs on numerous occassions last night.

Players who performed well:

Tevez, Given, Giggs, Rooney, Evra

4) Is there an uglier pair of mugs in the game than Wayne and Carlos? If so, I'd like to never see it.

5) It was no North London Derby. Arf Arf

Is there an uglier pair of mugs in the game than Wayne and Carlos? If so, I'd like to never see it.

Les enfants vélodrome

Nasri is not that bad!

Spider Crouch wrote:My opinions on last night. If anyone cares.

1) City got lucky. I'm no United fan, far from it, but that "penalty" clearly wasn't a penalty. In my opinion. Sirt pull outside the area. This mystical "second" tug - it never happened. It just looked like it did at normal speed because of where Rafael's hand was, but in slow mo there was no second tug. Happy to be shown up on this, but for now I'm sticking with it.

That's my problem with everyone who is now banging on about how it was a wrong decision. You can't blame the ref for giving it, because in real time and at full speed, it looked like a clear, clear penalty.

Romford Pele wrote:

Is it just me who thought Given had at least a couple of bad fluffs? He didn't exactly look great for the Utd goal either.

So are you lot saying that Rafafu didn't touch Bellamy inside the box? I still haven't seen anything to show me that he wasn't still fouling him when they got inside the box (Craig being very clever to suggest that was the case I suppose), but could be wrong...

kas wrote:

Spider Crouch wrote:My opinions on last night. If anyone cares.

1) City got lucky. I'm no United fan, far from it, but that "penalty" clearly wasn't a penalty. In my opinion. Sirt pull outside the area. This mystical "second" tug - it never happened. It just looked like it did at normal speed because of where Rafael's hand was, but in slow mo there was no second tug. Happy to be shown up on this, but for now I'm sticking with it.

That's my problem with everyone who is now banging on about how it was a wrong decision. You can't blame the ref for giving it, because in real time and at full speed, it looked like a clear, clear penalty.

I thought the referee did well, the only thing I thought he could have done was book Bellamy for his excitable period at the end of the first half, but he had set a precedent early on that he was going to take into account the occasion and Bellamy's antics weren't particularly dangerous. Rafael booked for denying a goalscoring opportunity, van der Sar booked for time-wasting and De Jong booked for a professional foul - aside from non playing captain Neville acting like a 10 year old it wasn't a nasty game.

Hopefully some of Adebeyour, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, Santa Cruz, Johnson, Ferdinand, Ireland, Tosic and Vidic will be back for the 2nd leg

Especially Bridge. We'd be guaranteed a high scoring game

Bridge, Ferdinand and Adebeyour are the only ones who might make it I think.

Bridge isn't great but he's better than Garrido or Silvinho, and he's something of a big-game player. City had children in defence last night, I wonder if they'll sign someone, Haangeland or Dawson or summink.