CL Round of 16: Inter vs Bayern match thread

A repeat of last years final... neither treble winners Inter nor Bayern (who were 1 game away from a treble) have started this season well. But there are still 2 months for this classic with a transfer window in between....

By that time, both teams could be back to their best....

i hope we can field our best 11, badstuber and robben should be back


inter and bayern can only improve there form, it cant be really much worse, wouldn`t surprise me if one of those teams reach the final, if barca is not in there way

its always better to peak late, like we did last season


inter is a dangerous side, now they won the club world cup, maybe that pushed there team in the mental area, and also some injured players coming back

Too bad they're sacking Benitez. I still think we're slight favorites, barring more injuries to key players.

wow Leonardo the new inter coach, that does not really scare me

but a new coach always brings new effects, hopefully the effect has been squipped in february

How good is this tie going to be

Both teams score loads and can't defend. I expect a minimum of 10 goals in the 2 legs!

Sneijd'or is in the form of his life, scoring (belters!) consecutively in his 3 games after being back from injury. Bayern had the upperhand, but now that Benitez has gone I think Inter are clear favourites.

Robben is back, what a game that was against Hoffeheim for him. It's 50/50 now I think against Inter.

well i know we that lucky that in 2 weeks both will be injured again

we need both, then bayern is really working well, i think nowdays ribery is more injury prone than robben

d gorgeous one haz spoken wrote:Robben is back, what a game that was against Hoffeheim for him. It's 50/50 now I think against Inter.

This is going to be a goal fest, end to end football decided by who converts more chances... it is unfortumate that Milito is injured and Pazzini cup tied, I think without a CF we will not score enough goals and this is what gives Bayern an upper hand... Robben, Ribery & Co will be able to walk over our defence at will, and while Inter may be able to do the same on the other end, we won't have a CF to finish our chances. And like I said, this is a game about finishing percentages...

"Sneijd'or is in the form of his life, scoring (belters!) consecutively in his 3 games after being back from injury. Bayern had the upperhand, but now that Benitez has gone I think Inter are clear favourites."

"Robben is back, what a game that was against Hoffeheim for him. It's 50/50 now I think against Inter."

So this tie revolves exclusively around the Dutchies?

You guys never change

Allez les rouges wrote:"Robben is back, what a game that was against Hoffeheim for him. It's 50/50 now I think against Inter."

Unfortunately, I think Bayern are clear favourites for this one. This game really scares me, both teams ve awesome attacks and poor defences. If we had someone like Mou who could ve organised our defence, we would be clear favourites over 2 legs with an effective counter atttack strategy to exploit Bayern's weak defence. But with Leo & his leaky defence, its now about who can outscore whom... and with Milito and Pazzini unavailable, I am afraid Bayern should be able to outscore us. Specially with the 2nd leg in Munich.

This is where Leo's inexperience is going to cost us. I see very little hope.... I pray I am wrong, but looks like over the two legs, we are going to lose this one.
IMO Bayern 75% - 25% Inter

This one is fecking annoying because the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle are in London next week, but have to watch this one...

bluenine wrote:
IMO Bayern 75% - 25% Inter

IMHO the percents are a bit more even technically, but if I add up motivations I end up as scared as Bluey.
We have no revenge to take and if we lose we can walk out saying we're still in contention for the league.
For Bayern it's a season-tipping moment instead.


Actually, I'm relieved we have no Pazzini and Milito and Pandev is off form.
I fear Leonardo would've gone for a 4312 diamond if he had two strikers available.

With that module, we basically pull out the feat of having no width & no central cover for CBs at the same time (let alone that we tend to stretch the lines too much).

With a single striker, Leonardo will have to shuffle the positions in a way that hopefully cover the space better for us.


If it was me, I'd try something a bit experimental like a headless 451 with Sneijder as a false nine, but this is too "spallettian" and convoluted for Leo:

abundance wrote:

bluenine wrote:
IMO Bayern 75% - 25% Inter

IMHO the percents are a bit more even technically, but if I add up motivations I end up as scared as Bluey.
We have no revenge to take and if we lose we can walk out saying we're still in contention for the league.
For Bayern it's a season-tipping moment instead.


Actually, I'm relieved we have no Pazzini and Milito and Pandev is off form.
I fear Leonardo would've gone for a 4312 diamond if he had two strikers available.

So what makes you so sure that Leo will not go for a 4312 diamond even without Milito & Pazzini? I have a bad feeling he will do just that, with Eto'o & Pandev upfront!

Maybe I don't give Leo enough credit, but he is tactically so limited. If he starts Motta in the centre and Cambiasso on the wings one more time, I am going to go to Milan and personally kick his butt!

abundance wrote:If it was me, I'd try something a bit experimental like a headless 451 with Sneijder as a false nine, but this is too "spallettian" and convoluted for Leo:

Cesar
Maicon Ranocchia Lucio Zanetti
Motta Cambiasso
Stankovic
Eto'o Nagatomo
Sneijder

Thats a bit too much for Leo... I would be happy if he just manages to get the teamsheet right:

I don't mind even if Pandev or Coutinho start above Nagatomo, but the rest 10 should start.... at least this way we will go down fighting...

all players fit, kroos played 30 min, have my doubts hes that ready to start against inter, pranjic and the complete defence is an utter weak point

inter have some dirty smart contes in the team, they can hurt us

--------------------------------kraft

lahm------badstuber---tymo------gustavo

------schweini-----kroos/pranjic

robben------müller-----------ribery

------------gomez

Kraft and Gomez are doubtful for the first leg. Gomez more so than Kraft, apparently. Klose is a good replacement, of course, but Gomez is having quite the run and would be the better option.

That looks like a very strong Bayern side. Gomez has been on fire this season, his fitness will be important.

Going to try and catch this tie, should be a good game.

Will be keeping a close look out for Kroos' performance, and subject his performance with the type of critical eye that Kroos (the poster) likes to cast upon all player who aren't German / play in Germany

Gomez can play. Kroos will probably not start. He just came back from injury and got about 20mins on the weekend.

Effenberg wrote:Gomez can play. Kroos will probably not start. He just came back from injury and got about 20mins on the weekend.

Damn, I wish Milito was fit, or Pazzini available. If one of them and Samuel were available, this game could ve been very interesting indeed.

Anyways, we can always hope... Stank is back, and the midget/lucio may also be fit. There is some talk that Leo might actually try the 4231, after experimenting with it during the weekend. For me, that is probably a better formation in this circumstance than the 4312 diamond.

I hope we start Zanetti at LB, not Chivu... coz Robben will eat Chivu up. I would be more than happy with a 0-0 here, though that is so unlikely considering the defences in question.

Expected line up:


Not sure why Leo wants to try out a new formation in a big game, but then its better than our usual formation given the ciurcumtances.

I don't like the fact that Cordoba may start over Ranocchia, perhaps its coz Leo feels the frog & Lucio may not be that compatible as they are similar. But the biggest concern I have with this line up is Chivu at LB, Robben will literally fry him... I would have prefered Zanetti at LB, and Kharja at Zanetti's midfield position.

Apart from these two changes, this probably is our strongest line up from the available players. We are going to miss Milito/Pazzini and Sameul a lot in this tie.

average age of tonights probably starting 11

bayern 25.3 (with pranjic, without kroos)
inter 30.7 (the latest line up from blue)


ok we should have some advantages in terms of facking running

Noah and the Bale wrote:That looks like a very strong Bayern side. Gomez has been on fire this season, his fitness will be important.

Going to try and catch this tie, should be a good game.

Will be keeping a close look out for Kroos' performance, and subject his performance with the type of critical eye that Kroos (the poster) likes to cast upon all player who aren't German / play in Germany

i would appreciate that

no kroos is coming back from injury, and it looks like he will only play in 2nd half (ok already making excuses )

i rate kroos much higher than özil, because he is an complete package of an midfielder (ok put some pressure on him right now )

Kroos wrote:average age of tonights probably starting 11

bayern 25.3 (with pranjic, without kroos)
inter 30.7 (the latest line up from blue)

ok we should have some advantages in terms of facking running

The midget brings our average age crashing down, that lil kid...

Its very easy for a good attacking team like Bayern to beat Inter.... all you have to do is sacrifice Schweini to mark out Sneijder, and tell Ribery to play further upfront than usual... Thats will neutralise most of our goal-assisting threat. Then all you have to worry about is individual brilliance from Eto'o or Stank, which you have easily outscore. Van Gaal is too clever a coach to miss this trick, and thats why I am not expecting Inter to go through to the quarters.

ok i smell your fear, but dont feel too worried, the fear is here in germany too

your line up looks pretty strong, but we know INTER is not that compact in defence, and we know that leo has won 10 games from 11 or something like that, i would be really happy with a draw tonight, i am not convinced in our team, they played too inconsistent this season

i mean our defence is shit, our central midfield is weak, against zanetti-cambiasso and snjeider schweini wont have a chance

I have to agree with Blue. In the Final last year, I had no doubt that Inter would prevail. Today, I only see Bayern winning.

Marseille XI: Mandanda, Heinze, Diawara, Mbia, Fanni, Cisse, Kabore, Gonzalez, Ayew, Brandao, Remy

Man Utd XI: Van der Sar, Evra, Smalling, Vidic, O'Shea, Carrick, Fletcher, Gibson, Nani, Rooney, Berbatov

Inter and Bayern line up as expected.

Man. Utd's midfield is Gibson-Fletcher-Carrick

final line-ups

1 Julio Cesar; 13 Maicon, 6 Lucio, 15 Ranocchia, 26 Chivu; 4 Zanetti, 8 Thiago Motta, 19 Cambiasso; 5 Stankovic, 10 Sneijder; 9 Eto'o.
Subs: 12 Castellazzi, 14 Kharja, 17 Mariga, 23 Materazzi, 27 Pandev, 55 Nagatomo, 29 Coutinho,
Coach: Leonardo

Bayern Munich: 35 Kraft; 21 Lahm, 44 Tymoshchuk, 28 Badstuber, 23 Pranjic; 30 Gustavo, 31 Schweinsteiger; 10 Robben, 25 Muller, 7 Ribery; 33 Gomez.
Subs: 1 Butt, 2 Breno, 5 Van Buyten,16 Ottl, 8 Altintop, 39 Kroos, 18 Klose.
Coach: Luis Van Gaal.

The way the above line up is written, looks like its Motta at the centre and Cambiasso at the wing.... I am pissed, angry, mad angry. You fuckin idiot Leo

Come on Bayern!