2011/12 UEFA Champions League - Semifinals 1st & 2nd Leg

Fug-Q wrote:

Cristiano wrote:

fcb wrote:Really? Am I wrong? Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Arbeloa have all shown their abilities in that domain, most notably in the series of Clasicos last year.

I need no telling about the cuntish behaviour of my own team I see it often enough. Though against Bayern you will not see any of that approach, they reserve that kind of "thugurry" for Classico bcoz Mourinho doesnt believe football is the answer against Barca. This approach is not seen against any other team, yes of course there will be the moments of cuntishness from Ramos and Pepe throughout the season but we are not exactly a fucking Sam Allardyce team.

My whole thing about you becoming a c**t recently is that you have become seriously biased, Messiah is starting to sound less biased than you. I thought I would never see the day.

Pepe,Ramos and Di Maria are c**ts in nearly every game,did you not watch the match yesterday? Pepe was diving all over the place faking injury like he always does.

Cristiano wrote:

Fug-Q wrote:

Cristiano wrote:

fcb wrote:Really? Am I wrong? Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Arbeloa have all shown their abilities in that domain, most notably in the series of Clasicos last year.

I need no telling about the cuntish behaviour of my own team I see it often enough. Though against Bayern you will not see any of that approach, they reserve that kind of "thugurry" for Classico bcoz Mourinho doesnt believe football is the answer against Barca. This approach is not seen against any other team, yes of course there will be the moments of cuntishness from Ramos and Pepe throughout the season but we are not exactly a fucking Sam Allardyce team.

My whole thing about you becoming a c**t recently is that you have become seriously biased, Messiah is starting to sound less biased than you. I thought I would never see the day.

Pepe,Ramos and Di Maria are c**ts in nearly every game,did you not watch the match yesterday? Pepe was diving all over the place faking injury like he always does.

c**ts yes, but not the kind of physical approach like against Barca.

And as far as Barca is concerned, Busquets, Pedro, Alves, Mascherano etc are all c**ts so lets not pretend Barca are fucking angels here. This whole good and evil narrative when it comes to Madrid and Barca is pathetic. Both teams are full of c**ts.

S4P wrote:Sadly I think you're going to end your winless run against us in either the first leg or, more realistically the second leg. But I think the only way for us to progress is for RDM to play the following:

--------------Cech
Ivanovic-Cahill-Terry-Cole
------------Essien
-------Ramires-Lampard
Sturridge--Drogba--Mata

Ivanovic over Bosingwa because like it or not, Barca will have more possession. Ivanovic isn't as good with the ball as Bosingwa but is 10x better without it. I would be more confident of Ivanovic winning his own personal battle with Pedro (especially given that the latter isn't in particularly great form at the moment) than Bosingwa.

Despite what worms says, Cahill is much more disciplined than Luiz. That's vital when you're up against the best player in world football. I still don't think he and Terry will keep Messi quiet, but at least Messi won't be finding large holes in the defence like he did against Bayer Leverkusen with Cahill in over Luiz.

Ramires AND Essien: 2 powerhouse midfielders who if on form will have the energy to make it very difficult for the likes of Xavi, Iniesta to make those telling passes.

Mata-Sturridge to give us 2 players who have the ability to go past players and provide some creativity.

Drogba over Torres is a simple choice. Drogba was phenomenal in the SF 3 years ago in everything but finishing. If we're 1-0 up and he manages to create himself another 1 on 1 with Valdes, I just hope there's a different outcome. Against this Barca team, especially with the 2nd leg in Spain, we cannot have a conversion rate as poor as we had at Stamford Bridge 3 years ago.

Disco Benny wrote:Drogba is the key to Chelsea having any hope of beating Barcelona IMO. No point trying to play possession against Barcelona, soak up pressure, get the ball to him quickly so he is isolated 1 V 1 with the opportunity to turn and shoot, do this as many times as possible and they may have a chance.

Fug-Q wrote:

Disco Benny wrote:Drogba is the key to Chelsea having any hope of beating Barcelona IMO. No point trying to play possession against Barcelona, soak up pressure, get the ball to him quickly so he is isolated 1 V 1 with the opportunity to turn and shoot, do this as many times as possible and they may have a chance.

He will probably be against Pique,Masch and Puyol though and all 3 are in great form at the moment,you might think he will bully Masch and Puyol because of size difference but they are both so strong,sharp and quick at dispossessing players.These aren't your average defenders.

Jaime wrote:Good to see that Beckenbaur and Hoeness are in full on c*nt mode. There aren't as many real live c*nts in the current Bayern squad as back in the good old days so we need someone to stir the fire a little.

Fug-Q wrote:

S4P wrote:Sadly I think you're going to end your winless run against us in either the first leg or, more realistically the second leg. But I think the only way for us to progress is for RDM to play the following:

--------------Cech
Ivanovic-Cahill-Terry-Cole
------------Essien
-------Ramires-Lampard
Sturridge--Drogba--Mata

Ivanovic over Bosingwa because like it or not, Barca will have more possession. Ivanovic isn't as good with the ball as Bosingwa but is 10x better without it. I would be more confident of Ivanovic winning his own personal battle with Pedro (especially given that the latter isn't in particularly great form at the moment) than Bosingwa.

Despite what worms says, Cahill is much more disciplined than Luiz. That's vital when you're up against the best player in world football. I still don't think he and Terry will keep Messi quiet, but at least Messi won't be finding large holes in the defence like he did against Bayer Leverkusen with Cahill in over Luiz.

Ramires AND Essien: 2 powerhouse midfielders who if on form will have the energy to make it very difficult for the likes of Xavi, Iniesta to make those telling passes.

Mata-Sturridge to give us 2 players who have the ability to go past players and provide some creativity.

Drogba over Torres is a simple choice. Drogba was phenomenal in the SF 3 years ago in everything but finishing. If we're 1-0 up and he manages to create himself another 1 on 1 with Valdes, I just hope there's a different outcome. Against this Barca team, especially with the 2nd leg in Spain, we cannot have a conversion rate as poor as we had at Stamford Bridge 3 years ago.

1. Iniesta will play left wing,not Pedro.

2.Still not buying your opinion that Cahill is better than Luiz but I'm bored arguing about it so we will have to wait and see how well or bad Cahill does.

3.Essien is no longer a powerhouse midfielder,he is finished.

4.I agree Drogba would be the right choice but the fact Torres was rested yesterday indicates it will be him who plays.

Mourinho ironically labels Real Madrid 'underdogs' against Bayern

The Portuguese believes that Los Blancos' poor record against the Bavarians is 'meaningless' and laughed off the suggestion that his players could be intimidated by the atmosphere

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho has ironically labelled his side "underdogs" ahead of the first leg of their Champions League semi-final clash with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

Los Blancos have a poor record against the Bavarians, having suffered eight defeats and managed just one draw in their nine previous away games against the Bundesliga giants in European competition.

Bayern players past and present have talked up the significance of that statistic ahead of Madrid's visit to the Allianz Arena and Mourinho, during his pre-game press conference on Monday, sarcastically accepted that their hosts are the clear favourites to prevail in Munich.

"More important than my opinion is that of those who are more important and more credible than me," the 49-year-old stated.

"Uli Hoeness, Franz Beckenbauer, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Oliver Kahn and Ottmar Hitzfeld say that Madrid are not a great side, that Bayern are stronger, and that we have a complex with the 'dark beast'.

"So, we will be the underdogs in this tie."

However, Mourinho then took his tongue out of his cheek to express his true feelings on the fact that Madrid have yet to triumph in Munich.

"The past is all about meaningless numbers," the Portuguese declared. "History will not play a factor tomorrow [Tuesday].

"This will be a different match from the previous ones. This is a semi-final; those who play it want to win.

"Bayern have the special motivation as the final is in Munich, but we have the motivation of being here for the second year in a row.

"We will see what happens."

Mourinho then seemingly joked about the hostile reception that Madrid expect to receive from the Bayern faithful on Tuesday.

"To tell you the truth, security issues are where Uefa means business," the two-time Champions League winner stated. "There will surely be plenty of firefighters if there are fires or hells, as you said.

"Bayern will play with a lot of heart, which is nice in football, but they can also play very well.

"I think that this match will be more tactical than normal and that it will be a great game."

Mourinho then stressed that he trusts Howard Webb will do a good job on Tuesday, but admitted that the English referee could make some erroneous calls, in a thinly veiled reference to the controversial penalty Barcelona were awarded in their 2-1 win over Levante on Saturday.

"Webb is a good referee, with a lot of experience in matches of this level," the former Inter boss mused. "Madrid have good sensations with every referee.

"We will help him do his work for him to make good calls, knowing that he could err and that there could be a debatable penalty, like one of those which gives three points ..."

Meanwhile, the Portuguese coach, who has worked in England, Italy and Spain, also hailed the quality of the Bundesliga, but ruled out a coaching job in Germany.

"I cannot work in a country where I need a translator, that is impossible for me," he explained.

"Communication is key, talking to the players, setting up the training sessions and I do not speak German.

"It would be very hard for me to coach in Germany. But I really like the Bundesliga, it is an amazing league, and not many coaches would say 'no' to Bayern."

Madrid's meeting with Bayern in Munich gets under way at 20.45CET.

worms wrote:I would actually say Mikel is better than him technically.

S4P wrote:

worms wrote:I would actually say Mikel is better than him technically.

I thought you were joking when you said you don't watch much "DPL".

This is Mikel right now

S4P wrote:Mikel's dribbling accuracy? He never dribbles further than 3 yards with the ball. You would know that if you looked at our games rather than PES Stats.

This is Mikel right now

Actually, it's Mikel's stats from 13th December 2008. A simple check of the date of the post would have told you that.

Mikel is more of a poor man's Makelele too, in the sense that almost all of his passes travel 5-10 yards to the full backs or centre backs. That might be nice for ball retention, but I would prefer to have a player who runs 20 yards with the ball ala Ramires/Essien and gets the occasional assist.

I don't see any statement that says "Essien is considered a very average player technically on that website,it's because he was." All I see is some stats on Mikel, Alonso, Denilson, Lampard and Fabregas. The website doesn't mention Scholes. Are you going to tell me that these players are all technically better than Scholes based on this?

By the way, I think I should add that the numbers underneath Mikel and Essien's pictures (e.g. Attack 76, Defence 75 etc) are just numbers that PES have made up for the game. I hope you weren't basing your argument of Mikel > Essien around the statistics of a computer game.

Jaime wrote:Good to see that Beckenbaur and Hoeness are in full on c*nt mode. There aren't as many real live c*nts in the current Bayern squad as back in the good old days so we need someone to stir the fire a little.

Effenberg wrote:

Jaime wrote:Good to see that Beckenbaur and Hoeness are in full on c*nt mode. There aren't as many real live c*nts in the current Bayern squad as back in the good old days so we need someone to stir the fire a little.

I think you have the c**t market cornered with your current squad.

The Easter Bunny wrote:Good god, judging people on their Pro Evolution stats

Disco Benny wrote:Good God.Mikel better technically than Essien and then backed up by some dodgy stats from a computer game. A new low