Official Football Thread

Zare said:
On the contrary, from replays i don't see contact as minimal, it was a targeted slap. Eg, one player targets another one's face with his hand, without any intention to win the ball. That's called non-sport behaviour and it's a clean red card.
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So is this

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Eddies Wingman said:
It is possible, of course, but at the time when the sending-off came, Arsenal had not yet shown signs they were taking over. One can never know, but what we do know is that the match looked more or less the same before the sending-off and after.
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Barcelona had 19 shots on goal. 7 were during the first hour before the sending off, 12 were after during the last half hour. It made a difference. At 1-1 with 11 men Arsenal stood a chance.
 
MaidenVoyage said:
So is this
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Good point.

MaidenVoyage said:
Barcelona had 19 shots on goal. 7 were during the first hour before the sending off, 12 were after during the last half hour. It made a difference. At 1-1 with 11 men Arsenal stood a chance.
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True, but during the last half hour Barcelona really had to turn the screw to stay in the competition. What they did in the last half-hour may well of happened regardless of the dismissal - but we will never know. I do agree 100%, however, that it was not a fair second yellow.
 
Should be, but I would of hoped for that as the final. That said, a City or Utd v Bolton or Stoke final has a real ring of 50's football about it.
 
Albie said:
True, but during the last half hour Barcelona really had to turn the screw to stay in the competition. What they did in the last half-hour may well of happened regardless of the dismissal - but we will never know.
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We'll never know, but I think it would've been more difficult for Barca to get the goals they needed.
 
Albie said:
Should be, but I would of hoped for that as the final. That said, a City or Utd v Bolton or Stoke final has a real ring of 50's football about it.
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You thinking about the 1958 final, in which Bolton won against United? I guess most at United were really happy just to be in the final that year, considering it was the year of the Munich crash ...
 
Possibly, but teams like Stoke, City and Bolton are teams that had their glory days back in the 50's and 60's (and Bolton aside, the 70's). That said, I do not believe Stoke have made a Cup Final as yet.
 
Correct. If they beat Bolton it will be their first FA Cup final ever, and their first final in either domestic cup since they beat Chelsea 2-1 in 1972, in the League Cup ...
 
Two more teams ready for the Champions League quarters:

Manchester United beat Marseilles 2-1 after two goals by the little pea from Mexico, who has really put his mark on the debut season and shows that he is on his way to becoming a great goalscorer.

Internazionale won 3-2 in München to send ze Germans out on away goals. That one was quite surprising to me. It seemed pretty much wrapped up for Bayern at half time. By the way, their equalizer to 1-1 was a real howler from Inter's goalie.

Tonight we have one match which will not be exciting at all, and one which might be really interesting. Chelsea being 2-0 up before the home leg against FC København (or Copenhagen for you English-speaking) means the Danish club needs a miracle. Real Madrid vs Olympique Lyonnaise should be interesting, though - after 1-1 in the first leg it's anyone's match, but of course with RM as favourites to win it. I'd love to see them lose, though.
 
Bayern gave it away really. :/

So many chances in the first half to score more goals. Near the end of the second half it might have been wiser to defend a bit more instead of attacking, attacking and attacking. They gave lots of space to Inter this way.
 
Regardless of Bayern giving it away or not, it did make for a pretty exciting finish to what should have been a comfortable Bayern victory.
 
I'm not a Bayern fan but the first half just cost a lot of hair for me. (I like seeing goals of course) Terrible finishing by Bayern players, in some positions, Inter seemed like they had 2 players for defense or something.
 
It's a good sign that he is in good enough shape to remain focused on his job. Hope he gets well. Robson was one of my first favourite players. He was approaching the end of his career when I started taking interest in football, but I realized early how much he meant to United in the 80s.
 
So, Foro - Twente and PSV are in the quarter-finals of the Europa League, but out of the eight remaining teams, I think Villarreal are the strongest. I would put my money on them.

Also, Mario Balotelli has once again shown that he has no brain.
 
All 3 remaining British sides have gone tonight. I watched the Rangers/PSV game and felt that Rangers only came to life in the second half. They could not get a look in during the first half - which is credit to PSV.
 
Despite having that little Anglophile in me, I shed no tears for the exits of Man City and Liverpool. It may just be that my sympathy for Manchester United has a little influence as well  :devil2:
 
Well, well. Chelsea V Man U in the quarters. And the winner plays Inter or Schalke. Good draw for either of these two English clubs. Spurs v Real will be interesting.
 
Spurs v Real could quickly become the most entertaining out of the four ties. Both teams are more about flowing attacking football than grinding out results (if Mourinho hasn't changed things around a lot at Madrid).

Chelsea? Would have preferred someone else, but I think United stand a fair chance of sending them out. It will be a lot of Chelsea this spring! Fortunately, Martin Atkinson will not referee the CL games  (hope I don't get a three-match touchline ban for saying that :innocent:)

My predictions for the semis: United v Inter, and Barcelona v RM. The latter must be a dream come true for fans of Spanish football. Have the two "El Clasico" sides ever met in a European tournament before?
 
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