Re: Football Chat Thread : Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:28 pm  

Nice to see Rafa on tonight, it's not every day Sky put a footballing genius on as a pundit. He must have been laughing at Arsenal tonight after he masterminded a 2-1 away victory back in 2007, oh how Wenger could have done with Benitez giving him a few tips tonight.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:32 am  

Roddy B wrote:

Nice to see Rafa on tonight, it's not every day Sky put a footballing genius on as a pundit. He must have been laughing at Arsenal tonight after he masterminded a 2-1 away victory back in 2007, oh how Wenger could have done with Benitez giving him a few tips tonight.

They are a completely different proposition under Guardiola than Popescu son.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:47 am  

Just seen the highlights.

A travesty of a decision from the ref to send RVP off. It's possible that he did know he'd been whistled offside before he shot, but it's just as likely that because of the noise of the crowd and concentrating on striking the ball he just didn't hear the whistle. Because there's no way to know, you just can't book him for that.

The rule is in place to punish players who boot the ball away in a defiant act of petulance. That clearly wasn't what happened tonight.

Still, as bad as that decision was, the ref not giving the pen to Barca in the first half was equally bad.

Lots of people on the CFC site are saying RVP should have been off in the first half anyway. Was it just the one incident they're referring to? I thought there was little in it myself.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 9:24 am  

As good as Barca are they look really vulnerabale at the back. Fair enough i know there 1st choice CBs were out last night but the way Alves and Adriano got up field it was almost like playing only 2 at the back.

Also how annoying is Valdes.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:16 am  

Enfield Exile wrote:

A Mancunian who started his career at City.

If you read his book you can see that Barca are the kind of team he envisaged.

I love watching them play. You could have Stockport County's centre-halvesin that team and they would still be the best team in Europe. The one thing that I find frustrating is that Xavi does not get the plaudits he
deserves. As good as any midfielder that has played the game in my life time.

Maybe not in Britain, but over here he's seen as the brain of the team. Being Catalan also helps his profile.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:32 am  

How good were Barca at closing down? Messi and Pedro work their b**locks off to pressure defenders. Not one Arsenal player had time to play the ball. Fabregas should never have played, he was dreadful. Wilshire and Nasri were the only players who could pick a pass.

When you see Barca consistently winning the ball in the Arsenal half it's no wonder they had 19 shots on goal. Their finishing was really poor on the whole though. The goals came from a "mistake" by Catalan Cesc (but the Iniesta ball was sublime), a penalty and a deflection. The play leading up to Xavi's goal was as good as it gets.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 11:58 am  

I think RVP heard the whistle and knew exactly what he was doing and just reacted naturally by shooting,never even thinking about being sanctioned for it.But technically,he was in the wrong to carry on playing....
Can't imagine any english ref giving a second yellow for that - except that is Geoff Winter if he was reffing a Spurs game.....not that i'm one to bear grudges !

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:13 pm  

Messi > the world.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:22 pm  

sanjunien wrote:

I think RVP heard the whistle and knew exactly what he was doing and just reacted naturally by shooting,never even thinking about being sanctioned for it.But technically,he was in the wrong to carry on playing....
Can't imagine any english ref giving a second yellow for that - except that is Geoff Winter if he was reffing a Spurs game.....not that i'm one to bear grudges !

Don’t be silly. It was never a second yellow card. It was a poor decision by the ref, who I thought had a poor game. I could have swore he changed his mind about the Barca penalty. At first he appeared to signal for a corner. He then subtley swivelled so that hit looked like he had been pointing to the penalty box rather than a corner of the 6-yard box.

I have watched games involving this ref in other CL games and he has been very good. Last night though he was relatively poor. ‘Poor’ is relative though. He certainly was not Stuart Atwell level of ‘poor’.

Re: Football Chat Thread : Wed Mar 09, 2011 12:34 pm  

Enfield Exile wrote:

A Mancunian who started his career at City.

If you read his book you can see that Barca are the kind of team he envisaged.

I love watching them play. You could have Stockport County's centre-halvesin that team and they would still be the best team in Europe. The one thing that I find frustrating is that Xavi does not get the plaudits he
deserves. As good as any midfielder that has played the game in my life time.

Really? It appears to me Xavi gets the attention at the expense of Iniesta, Iniesta being one of the best players I have ever witnessed play the game.