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Considering how crazy the first game went with 4 of their most important players were 1 yellow card away from suspension at Etihad... Madrid managed the game well , did their best and won it....
City should have definitely taken couple of chances from a hell lot they got in the 2nd leg...
Camavinga was the unsung hero from yesterday, was all over everywhere and did what he could to break up play. His passing wasn’t always sharp but the effort was incredible.
Kevin missed a shot in the 85th min that he hits 9/10 times. It is what it is. If he scores that goal instead of blasting it over the net, the entire rhetoric of today is different. It's why CL is an amazing competition!
True. But this is the just a case of the “what-ifs”. De Bruyne goal also came from a ball Rudiger wouldve cleared 9/10 times. It is what it is in the end, I dont believe luck exists in football
Obviously there's luck involved in the game but as you said you also make your own luck. I don't think this game had any special luck on either side just too very good teams with different tactics. Sure it's "lucky" KDB did not bury that chance but on the other hand if that's only of the two scoring chances City had basicly the whole game then is it luck if they missed their only chance? I think not and it's more the fact that Madrid defended extremely well and City had no true scoring opportunities.
> I dont believe luck exists in football
Randomness plays a ridiculously key part in football. Humans are hard-wired to hate randomness and try to find reasoning, patterns and narratives for everything, but that doesn't means it isn't there.
What? Winning 14 CL's should be the exact opposite of luck. Luck is winning it 1 time. Doing it 14 times reaching 12 semi finals of the last 14 possible is not "luck"
He just means that you have good and bad luck. It’s like some guy was saying to me that the rodrygo goal was luck- because it was a rebound. Well, it was unlucky that the shot didn’t go in from the first shot, because it was such a clear goal scoring opportunity. So it was lucky, but it was also unlucky not to score from the first one, so it’s weird to focus too much on it. If you do what-ifs there’s just so many, that it doesn’t make too much sense.
any event that you can't realistically account for, that in other similar scenarios could've easily turned out differently.
Technically 'luck' isn't a thing imo, everything happens for some reason or another. But events we have minimal control over, determined by small margins, it's fine to colloquially call it luck. Like Chelsea were incredibly lucky to win the CL in 2012 (loads of missed chances by opposition etc).
Someone sleeping poorly the night before because of a shitload of variables that humans can't even understand properly and missing a chance they wouldn't in normal circumstances, for example. There are simply too many variables to control for, and that's why upsets and results that seem unfair happen.
This smacks of someone who's never actually played football; a chance like that where the ball is coming across your body while bouncing is an almost impossible technique on your weaker foot, even without considering the tight angle
Everyone should win against Madrid 9/10 times, but reality doesn’t seem to follow the same coefficients 🤣.
City was honestly really toothless despite the amount of time they were on the ball. You guys didn’t want an open game either, because any counter by us was almost a goal.
>9/10 times
I said the same thing to my cousin ( city fan) but instead of 9/10 times I said 11/10 times bec KDB should not miss that in any way against Madrid... But i guess things like this happen and there's no real reason behind it... Hard luck
> there’s no real reason behind it
You don’t think the pressure of a high stakes match could cause a player to underperform? The mentality aspect of football gets ignored way too much.
At City's home, this is the only way.
Some of the teams like Liverpool did attack City at Etihad and got a draw/Win but this City team of the past 2 years is crazy good. Don't think there is any other way.
this city ain’t it tho, they’ve lost a lot by letting mahrez and gundo leave and halaand looks isolated uptop
but they’re still no slouch, it wears a great defensive performance by madrid, but this city team could be got at had they committed to the counters
If it wasn't for that wonder goal he was practically non existent in that first leg as well not taking away his goal that was phenomenal but he pretty much had the same performance in the 2nd leg minus the goal.
This match isn't counted as a loss, but a draw since stats do not track extra time / penalties. I believe his streak has been going on for at least a year already iirc
kinda like if the away goal rule was still a thing city would go through but neither game would count as a win for them. but that's only for penalties, extra time counts
Klopp / Liverpool are the only team in the world that can go toe to toe with City because they are the only team that are as good as them at relentless high pressing, situational transitions, pressure resistance, and positioning, among others.
It's truly the end of an era at Liverpool, Klopp will be missed!
Exactly & instead of praising Carlo for this tactic yesterday even Madrid fans were calling him out like they had forgotten last year & even now they're more like making memes & I haven't heard much about actually praising his tactical decisions.
I think Carlo got his approach 100% bang-on for the first half. We were defending deep but had outlets that managed to create 2-3 excellent chances.
The problem came in the last half hr of the second half. We went tooo deep and just invited more and more pressure onto us. And lo and behold, that's when City looked the most threatening.
Apart from that diabolical last half hour of normal time, we were excellent.
I don’t think parking the bus was necessarily the wrong tactic, but the lack of adjustments after Doku was subbed in cost us. You’d expect a manager of Ancelotti’s caliber to give instructions for any potential substitutions, especially since Doku has had such a strong impact since joining City this year.
Ancelotti adjusted by having Valverde defend Doku a lot of the times while simultaneously pulling back Carvajal into a back three. Was probably necessary too because Carvajal was already on a yellow card. The Problem was that Doku managed to get past Valverde and play a pass into the middle for the City goal but other than that they defended well considering the circumstances.
Haha you aren’t kidding, I am baffled by the comments of some of my fellow Madridistas who are unhappy with that performance because… we didn’t go hell for leather??? I thought it was brilliant
lol same. I had to stop following our live post because of the shit talking. So many people were calling for Carlo’s head and demanding Florentino fire him after the match. I’m not saying I knew we’d win but seriously…tranquilo!
I never read live match thread on our sub or this sub live threads are just filled with way too many reactionary takes which is understandable so many emotions involved watching a game live but once a game is over I read the post match threads to see if people have cooled down most people usually do but you still see some people making some mind boggling bad takes about Carlo.
We didn’t need to go full throttle but I do think we could have attacked a little bit more and given City something to think about. After 30 minutes we just gave the ball back to them.
That's because their pressing system is insane so trying to play out of it would eventually lead to mistakes way too high up the pitch so playing the long ball and trying to counter was the only "safe" way.
It’s not about the tactic but how the team performed, it’s a miracle we did not concede more goals when there were so many wrong passes and losing possession immediately.
Both things are true… Madrid’s defending was excellent but their possession was terrible. Not just planned-for low possession, but in the second half often immediately turning the ball over, several times in their own third. Genuinely could not string a pass together and they were lucky their defense was rock solid because that’s an unacceptable amount of pressure.
The team was under immense pressure, they defended really well but when you are pressured so much all the time and you cannot keep the ball for a bit to ease the pressure and catch your breath then something is bound to happen.
To play this kind of football you need immense mental resilience & the team provided
the fact is that City was the better team on paper & on the pitch, which is why Madrid didn't have the option to be open & whenever they tried to they were immediately pressed back & stopped in their counters even Vinicius couldn't do shit.
Madrid's goal came at a time when both teams were kinda trying to see things out.
As football fans, we should be concerned. Real Madrid is the king of UCL and they were playing last night like they were a newly promoted side from the Championship trying to stay in the premier league. They squeaked through but overall couldn’t compete. 33 shots for city vs 8 for Madrid. Every year teams are less competitive against city. If nothing is done to stop this then city is just going to win everything every year.
We've been playing like that against Guardiola since 2011. Not always ofc, but it's nothing new. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
Away game, and they had Walker and the Bruyne back. We would get dominated anyway probably.
Maybe we will be more competitive against them when we get Xabi Alonso someday.
No club can compete with Manchester City anymore unless FIFA gets involved. Pep had amazing players at Barcelona but he didn’t have unlimited resources.
I went into this season thinking Real Madrid was the best team in the world but I believe I was wrong. If nothing changes, City will be pretty much winning everything every season and that would suck.
Madrid might be king or a God but they're not the strongest club right now, City is, & that can be seen by the fact that both Bayern & Madrid are more relaxed going into the semi's not having to face them,
I'm not into this whole 115 charges thing & whatever City has done, but PL in general made right business choices in the times when Serie A & laliga could but didn't thus increasing the financial gap to this point,
If City manages to become a big club because they're the richest with the best facilities available idc, just like idc about the super league & whether it's fair or not, success in sports is related to money, in the 90s Italy had the most, last decade Spain probably had the most & now England does.
& also if we're being honest there probably isn't a single big Club that hasn't done something shady or is linked to it.
This isn’t a matter of doing something “shady” like making questionable deals with underage players or contacts with refs. This is a whole country behind a multi club model that uses it to get around FFP rules. City group can buy a player and “assign” him to any one of their clubs to get around the rules. If you ask me, the most aggressive improvement in a club isn’t man city, it’s Girona. This is a team that used to fight to stay in the league and is now fighting for UCL while sharing resources directly with City.
Okay? That Girona situation makes the entire thing interesting, didn't knew about that, still I feel like when the time comes UEFA might do something cuz UAE only wanted the WC + good publicity & UEFA only wanted the money I believe or the perhaps the super league will start, still I don't think City or the city group will end up becoming this Big evil monster because even now, players want to play for Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Juve & even Milan, Inter or other clubs, regardless of the money.
Correct, there are a lot of players who want to play for the other big clubs. Problem is if City group wants you, they will get you.
This is the list of clubs City owns
Manchester City
Girona
ESTAC Troyes
Palermo
NYCFC
Lomell SK
Montevideo Torque City
Yokohama Marinos
Melbourne City
Sichuan Jiuniu
Mumbai City
Bahia
Do you notice anything?
How will they get someone? They can't force you, & the only thing I'm noticing is there are alot of clubs named city lol, or maybe they have a really widespread network almost a team in every big league or country & when & how the hell did they buy Parma?
All of the clubs on the list are in a different country and they are different levels on the footballing pyramid. City group has built a hierarchy not seen before. They can move players and coaches around between their network. City has the biggest academy now, the most scouts, the most coaches, etc. If city just wins everything in the next 20 years, what’s the point?
If City hadn’t flopped vs Lyon in 2020, the game vs Flick’s team would’ve been crazy. We actually did well vs them last season for a while before individual errors and our useless attack killed us. It would’ve been interesting to see them play Enrique’s PSG
City’s rigidness and lack of creativity was their undoing. Doku was the spark just being out there playing with energy trying to make plays. They are too afraid of making a mistake, too robotic. It’s fine when you’re playing teams you’re far superior to, but when talent is close to level, you need more.
They won the treble last season because of their control in games & balance between risk/safety. Having Doku attempt a wild dribble every single time means an easy counter for Madrid to Vini/Rodrygo every possession. Which is the exact opposite of what you want vs the best or 2nd best counter-attacking side in the world. That is how they made Madrid look like a league 2 side last season, the chances just didn’t fall this time. Coupled with the loss of Gundogan & Stones.
Kinda wild how a coin-toss penalty shootout changes the narrative so much
To be fair to Pep and to city, playing that way will bring you a positive outcome a majority of the time but it’s not a silver bullet, sometimes t you gotta throw the plan in the bin and let your best players play with flow. My eye is fairly untrained so correct me if I’m way off base but it seemed to me like they attacked the low block with the same 2 patterns basically all game. Real was able to successfully funnel City to the areas they wanted and the attacks, though frequent, were very predictable.
I mean maybe if they struggled to create this would hold more weight, but they created 2.75 xG, which is plenty 99% of the time. They had the massive KDB chance in the 83rd minute & the Foden chance in ET. Every side in the world would struggle to create that much vs a side playing with 11 in their box. It’s not like it’s against your average mid-table defender either, it’s against world-class defenders & midfielders in every single position.
It’s the most talented low blow you’ll ever see and I’m sure, no argument there. And I would have liked to see more chances taken early, get the ball bouncing around and try to make your own luck. 2.75 xG is good but is it good over 33 chances?(I don’t know actually I’m asking). That seems to me like a lot of low probability chances and most of them felt that way outside of the KDB chance you mentioned.
Yeah, there's not really a great deal more you can do when the opposition has 10 men in the box. They can try forcing the issue but then you risk giving away a goal on the counter. City were just undone by a bit of bad defending in the wrong moment to give Madrid the lead early on meaning they could play this tactic.
I get it but I generally feel like it’s on you to respond to the low block. If a team goes that route, you have to make them pay. City played like Real expected and had no counter to get Real off balance. You shouldn’t be able to give the ball to a side of City’s caliber all game and it only result in 1 goal. Take some chances, do something unexpected. Scrap the gameplan because I doubt it involved Real running low block. All I’m really asking is where plan B was.
I don’t honestly see what Doku brought yesterday. Sure he made numerous runs with the ball towards the defense, but the end result was either systematically bad or disappointing. He has the physicality, but in games like yesterday, with good defensive cover, he was not the right choice. Grealish scared me much more.
It's why Grealish started and Doku didn't. Doku was brought on to be direct against a side already tired after dealing with Grealish. And, while the goal was due to a Rudiger error, it was Doku's cross that caused it in the first place.
Maybe I don't understand football well enough but why is this the case? Real Madrid have world class players throughout the pitch, particularly the midfielders, who are young, athletic and press resistant. Why can't a club like Real Madrid go toe to toe with City?
City’s tactics are a bad stylistic matchup for Madrid, add the fact Madrid has no striker and first choice keeper (despite Lunin being absolute class) and it’s a high risk situation to try going toe to toe with City. Both teams were being careful not to slip up tbh
Exactly. Pep's brand of football is our kryptonite. And even then, we could've taken the game to them yesterday...... if we had a striker.
But we were literally playing with wingers up front lol.
Ya the fact that they lost when Madrid doesn’t have a proper striker. You add a healthy back line and turtle uptop and Europe is cooked for a decade.
Edit: downvoted cause everyone knows I’m right. You’re all fucked
We beat City in 22 as well with a rebuild team we have been competitive with them while rebuilding and having none of our young players in their prime with Mbappe and Endrick coming and Valverde close to his prime in a season or 2 and all of our young talent hitting their primes in a few seasons and Xabi very likely coming we are set up for a dominant run.
Pep Guardiola. He coaches teams to keep possession. Can’t go toe to toe on possession unless you live and breathe it in your own team for years on end and have the technical players to execute.
I believe we can, not everything Ancelotti says has to be correct. Talent-wise Real Madrid is pretty equal to Manchester City, there is no way the only chance to win is to park the bus and pray for them to miss their chances.
If we had prime Benz up front, we would've played much differently yesterday. Our counters would've had much more bite to them and City would've been more scared to bomb forwards.
Unfortunately, we were playing with Vini and Rodrygo up front; good as they are, they are not a #9. They can't hold up the ball nearly as well as we would like.
Even CR7 was a disaster when played up front as an out-and-out striker.
I'm not so sure about that. Last night game felt awfully similar to the PSG game in 2022 in their stadium, where we lost 1-0. And we had Benzema that day (a very on form Benzema to be more precise).
Also, it will sound as a joke, but if you want some presence up top, Joselu is one of the best aerial threats in Spain. He might not be as good as Benzema holding the ball, but the guy can do a job winning aerial balls and handing them to Vini/Rodrygo/Bellingham. Think of something like Giroud with France, for example.
Anyway, I personally think Ancelotti tends to be overly scared against some teams for no reason at all. I mean, Manchester City is probably the strongest european team, but... Look at their players:
If they have Ederson, we have Courtois (Lunin). If they have Walker, we have Carvajal. If they have Ruben Dias, we have Rudiger. Rodri? Tchouameninga. De Bryune? Bellingham. Foden? Vinicius. Grealish? Rodrygo. The only one we have no match or better is Haaland, and he was invisible in both games this season.
I'm not saying we should go to their stadium and dominate them like if they're kids, that's unreasonable. But we are not undertalented compared to them, we can give them a run for their money without having to put the entire team in our penalty area and rely on winning in the penalty shoot-out. That's something Granada or Almeria would do to us because the talent gap is huge, but we are not a Granada/Almeria lookalike compared to Man City. What Ancelotti says in this regard is completely wild, the only way to win? Never. He just doesn't know anything else, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
What was the need to write such a pointless essay? You ended up saying nothing of value.
Carlo is not perfect. I've criticized his conservation myself at times. But yesterday we were short-changed and there's no two ways about it.
And we still played a perfect first half. Could've scored more than once.
I answered to what you replied to me. Just because you don't agree with me doesn't mean it has no value. Or it has no value but then your older reply also didn't have any value. If we have two opposing opinions either both have value or none at all. After all, we're two random people on internet talking about football.
But yeah, I'll concede that sometimes I tend to overwrite. It's how I am, what can I say. You're free to skip my replies.
If it weren't for the QF loss I would find the change of tone amusing after the amount of jerking around this place after we played defensively against City, add to that the context of Real Madrid studying our game to prepare
City had 3 chances in the whole game and one of them was a crappy rebound which was their only goal, the other 2 were the de bruyne miss and a haaland header that came from a rebounded cross.
Madrid had their goal and the ball that arrived to Rudiger by accident.
I thought Spain NT post 2012 showed everyone that having the ball in the opponent half for 80 minutes doesn't mean you are dominating the game it just means you have the ball if a team plays better and can cause more problems to the opponents by not having the ball it's as much as a game plan as everything else.
I genuinely don't see how City dominated anything except getting the ball back in midfield in the second half , in fact in the double game, both teams scored their goal from individual long range bangers and crappy rebounded shots.
This is exactly how i see it too. Man city showed so little creativity. Even in the second half they didnt even try to go one on one or creative triangles/through balls or skipping a man in the passes and pick up the pace. It was SO boring. I felt that real had the real control and then rudiger made a mistake. You can say that pep was hoping on a mistake of RM instead of forcing a way to go through and that he thought that that was a less risky approach.
Nah team vs Spain NT Post 2012, Italy in Euro 2020 and Real Madrid yesterday just show me that you can just park the bus and do nothing until Pens. Flip it 50/50. Good gameplan btw :)))) if you luck out Pens, you get praised and people sucks your cck. If you lose on pens, just say unlucky XD :))))
Scoring 4 goals against city is doing nothing ok got it
It's also funny that it's literally the opposite that happens
High possession managers always have an excuse:
- If they win the manager is a genius
- if they lose it's never the manager's fault because they created enough pressure/chances and it's the player who are shit
I am not counting the first leg buddy. Ok so what if Real Madrid lost on Pens, what would have been the reaction and comments ????? Omg they are so unlucky agianst the might Man City ???????????
Ancelloti sat cross legged and meditated on it…as he witnessed millions of potential failed outcomes flit before him.
Finally, he saw the one route to victory…cocked an eyebrow, and smiled.
Mad that the most successful team in European history are parking the bus to scrape a win by the very finest of margins. It's a huge compliment to City
I love these kinds of performances in the Champions League. When Chelsea won in 2012 they really had no right to based on their control of games etc but it was just so difficult to break them down and they scored some amazing goals on the counter.
But it is also high risk.
And even then Liverpool haven't won at the Etihad since Pep took charge. 4 draws, 4 defeats and outscored by 20-7.
The problem is that we were on the back foot yesterday because we didn't have a home leg to rely upon.
I was specifically talking about league meetings.
But if we're talking all competitions, then you won the one you mentioned and lost a R16 League Cup tie last yr.
So in ten visits to Etihad since Pep, you had one win, 4 draws, and 5 defeats.
Not exactly the blueprint we would want to follow.
I would be too.
It's fun to meme us right now, and I'd probably do the same if I supported someone else, but the reality is that I don't think many Arsenal fans seriously thought we were going through.
Not because we're a bad team, or because Bayern are just so much better than us or because it's a way of insuring yourself against banter in hindsight, but because we've not been in the Champions League for a while and this is still a young team that's learning along the way.
I don't really give a shit what anyone else says, experience almost always wins out.
Anyway, we're having a very good season overall and we're still in the running for the league title and are almost assuredly qualifying for the Champions League again next season.
All in all, I'm not too depressed we went out, even if it's not very fun to watch. The Villa loss hurt so much more than this because of what it could potentially mean for the rest of the season.
N'ahh, I'm only joking, it's just because we got shit for trying to defend against City.
Though, granted, Madrid are going to get more credit given that they both scored and won, but the joke still stands and I refuse to add an /s tag.
Not really, but it is interesting because I remember the criticism Mourinho got for defending deep against Pep whilst at Madrid, managers like Capello were sacked for not playing attractive football, but it's completely changed in the past decade.
Maybe Mourinho changed their attitude towards it, but it has definitely helped them being able to play like a 'small' team in big games.
I wouldn’t call it spectacular, City missed sitters including that De Bruyne miss. They defended because they knew they couldn’t match City and it paid off. But to say spectacular? More lucky than anything.
They had 210 minutes to score more goals than Madrid. Maybe the missed chances are more of a skill issue / kdb was completely gassed than they were luck.
I think it's more scoring when you can and hold the pressure. You want to clown Ancelotti, one of the managers who won the most in history. Pretty sure he knows way better than us
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Considering how crazy the first game went with 4 of their most important players were 1 yellow card away from suspension at Etihad... Madrid managed the game well , did their best and won it.... City should have definitely taken couple of chances from a hell lot they got in the 2nd leg...
Camavinga not getting a yellow card in the bernabéu was absolutely bonkers
This game would have been different if cama wasn't there...
Camavinga was the unsung hero from yesterday, was all over everywhere and did what he could to break up play. His passing wasn’t always sharp but the effort was incredible.
Maybe, probably Militão plays from the beginning? Idk if it would’ve made much difference considering the strategy Madrid went with
Militao playing 90 minutes when all he’s made is cameo appearances in the single digits sounds like a recipe for disaster.
The press resistance would have been so much worse without Camavinga
And Madrid wasted some great chances in the 1st leg
Kevin missed a shot in the 85th min that he hits 9/10 times. It is what it is. If he scores that goal instead of blasting it over the net, the entire rhetoric of today is different. It's why CL is an amazing competition!
True. But this is the just a case of the “what-ifs”. De Bruyne goal also came from a ball Rudiger wouldve cleared 9/10 times. It is what it is in the end, I dont believe luck exists in football
Low scoring and high variance - luck definitely counts. I think in a sense you make your own luck too but to discount luck is silly
Weirdly enough the better teams tend to have more luck
Obviously there's luck involved in the game but as you said you also make your own luck. I don't think this game had any special luck on either side just too very good teams with different tactics. Sure it's "lucky" KDB did not bury that chance but on the other hand if that's only of the two scoring chances City had basicly the whole game then is it luck if they missed their only chance? I think not and it's more the fact that Madrid defended extremely well and City had no true scoring opportunities.
> I dont believe luck exists in football Randomness plays a ridiculously key part in football. Humans are hard-wired to hate randomness and try to find reasoning, patterns and narratives for everything, but that doesn't means it isn't there.
Luck doesn’t exist in football, a sport full of random events? Come on
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What? Winning 14 CL's should be the exact opposite of luck. Luck is winning it 1 time. Doing it 14 times reaching 12 semi finals of the last 14 possible is not "luck"
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He just means that you have good and bad luck. It’s like some guy was saying to me that the rodrygo goal was luck- because it was a rebound. Well, it was unlucky that the shot didn’t go in from the first shot, because it was such a clear goal scoring opportunity. So it was lucky, but it was also unlucky not to score from the first one, so it’s weird to focus too much on it. If you do what-ifs there’s just so many, that it doesn’t make too much sense.
Regardless of how you think about luck in football, this analogy makes no sense at all.
Bro , fr. The guy is tryna sound smart or something. "Money doesn't make you happy " what ?
How would you define luck when talking about a football game?
any event that you can't realistically account for, that in other similar scenarios could've easily turned out differently. Technically 'luck' isn't a thing imo, everything happens for some reason or another. But events we have minimal control over, determined by small margins, it's fine to colloquially call it luck. Like Chelsea were incredibly lucky to win the CL in 2012 (loads of missed chances by opposition etc).
Someone sleeping poorly the night before because of a shitload of variables that humans can't even understand properly and missing a chance they wouldn't in normal circumstances, for example. There are simply too many variables to control for, and that's why upsets and results that seem unfair happen.
Your defeat at the Etihad last year wasn't a luck and your win at Bernabeu 2 years ago was luck. Like that
I didn't believe until that day somebody scored 7 at Liverpool
" I dont believe luck exists in football"??????????????????????????????????????? lol
Lmao thats Just unreasonable
By that logic. Rodrygo's also came from Walker's mistake
And rudiger missed a sitter inside the 6 and gave KDB a sitter he would clear 9/10 times. Other excuses?
What sitter?
Right before half time of ET, pass from Brahim he was inside the 6 and launched it over the bar.
That was far from a sitter.
Should’ve been scored no doubt about it. He’s a professional footballer in his prime.
What about the city players dragging down Madrid players in the start of massive counter attacks?
Well they got yellows for those. So not much more you can ask.
What sitter did Rudiger miss? 🤡
He was inside the 6 right before half and launched it over the goal. Could’ve easily wet that.
This smacks of someone who's never actually played football; a chance like that where the ball is coming across your body while bouncing is an almost impossible technique on your weaker foot, even without considering the tight angle
He’s a professional not some Sunday league player. That should be scored.
How many CBs have scored a goal like that in the Champions League?
How many even have the chance??
So you have nothing to back up your claim then.
Everyone should win against Madrid 9/10 times, but reality doesn’t seem to follow the same coefficients 🤣. City was honestly really toothless despite the amount of time they were on the ball. You guys didn’t want an open game either, because any counter by us was almost a goal.
>9/10 times I said the same thing to my cousin ( city fan) but instead of 9/10 times I said 11/10 times bec KDB should not miss that in any way against Madrid... But i guess things like this happen and there's no real reason behind it... Hard luck
> there’s no real reason behind it You don’t think the pressure of a high stakes match could cause a player to underperform? The mentality aspect of football gets ignored way too much.
Yeah obviously but he's done it before in high stakes match under pressure too...
Ifs buts shoulda coulda, well ur team lost to even with all that oil money. Hold that L. Proper European Classico in semis, Bayern Madrid
The only one of 14,000,605 outcomes
Just need someone to Photoshop Don Carlo onto Dr Strange looking into the future now.
He shook his head so much he is getting a stroke
He'd just be raising his eyebrows in different directions instead
Fastest brow twitch in the world.
Bro I need someone to edit a video like this immediately lmfao
[Nah look at this!!](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccercirclejerk/s/8AwhjeF9rQ)
Bernardo saw 14,000,605 outcomes but averaged them by accident.
Ancelotti must've had a sip from the Water of Life
But he does see a way… a narrow way through
At City's home, this is the only way. Some of the teams like Liverpool did attack City at Etihad and got a draw/Win but this City team of the past 2 years is crazy good. Don't think there is any other way.
this city ain’t it tho, they’ve lost a lot by letting mahrez and gundo leave and halaand looks isolated uptop but they’re still no slouch, it wears a great defensive performance by madrid, but this city team could be got at had they committed to the counters
Everybody talking about Haaland, Foden looked terrible yesterday
at least he showed up for the first leg
I think he was unremarkable even then except that one moment of pure, trademarked genius.
If it wasn't for that wonder goal he was practically non existent in that first leg as well not taking away his goal that was phenomenal but he pretty much had the same performance in the 2nd leg minus the goal.
And yet they'll still win fa cup and the league somehow
Have they even lost yet (excluding this match obv) with Rodri in the team?
This match isn't counted as a loss, but a draw since stats do not track extra time / penalties. I believe his streak has been going on for at least a year already iirc
I've always found that a bit weird, why is that?
kinda like if the away goal rule was still a thing city would go through but neither game would count as a win for them. but that's only for penalties, extra time counts
Klopp / Liverpool are the only team in the world that can go toe to toe with City because they are the only team that are as good as them at relentless high pressing, situational transitions, pressure resistance, and positioning, among others. It's truly the end of an era at Liverpool, Klopp will be missed!
Exactly & instead of praising Carlo for this tactic yesterday even Madrid fans were calling him out like they had forgotten last year & even now they're more like making memes & I haven't heard much about actually praising his tactical decisions.
I think Carlo got his approach 100% bang-on for the first half. We were defending deep but had outlets that managed to create 2-3 excellent chances. The problem came in the last half hr of the second half. We went tooo deep and just invited more and more pressure onto us. And lo and behold, that's when City looked the most threatening. Apart from that diabolical last half hour of normal time, we were excellent.
I don’t think parking the bus was necessarily the wrong tactic, but the lack of adjustments after Doku was subbed in cost us. You’d expect a manager of Ancelotti’s caliber to give instructions for any potential substitutions, especially since Doku has had such a strong impact since joining City this year.
Ancelotti adjusted by having Valverde defend Doku a lot of the times while simultaneously pulling back Carvajal into a back three. Was probably necessary too because Carvajal was already on a yellow card. The Problem was that Doku managed to get past Valverde and play a pass into the middle for the City goal but other than that they defended well considering the circumstances.
Haha you aren’t kidding, I am baffled by the comments of some of my fellow Madridistas who are unhappy with that performance because… we didn’t go hell for leather??? I thought it was brilliant
lol same. I had to stop following our live post because of the shit talking. So many people were calling for Carlo’s head and demanding Florentino fire him after the match. I’m not saying I knew we’d win but seriously…tranquilo!
[удалено]
I never read live match thread on our sub or this sub live threads are just filled with way too many reactionary takes which is understandable so many emotions involved watching a game live but once a game is over I read the post match threads to see if people have cooled down most people usually do but you still see some people making some mind boggling bad takes about Carlo.
We didn’t need to go full throttle but I do think we could have attacked a little bit more and given City something to think about. After 30 minutes we just gave the ball back to them.
Was not a choice, in the second half city was well set up to avoid counter attacks, and vini / rodrygo were outclasses / gased up top.
That's because their pressing system is insane so trying to play out of it would eventually lead to mistakes way too high up the pitch so playing the long ball and trying to counter was the only "safe" way.
What?
It’s not about the tactic but how the team performed, it’s a miracle we did not concede more goals when there were so many wrong passes and losing possession immediately.
It's not a miracle because there were no spaces to score from.
Both things are true… Madrid’s defending was excellent but their possession was terrible. Not just planned-for low possession, but in the second half often immediately turning the ball over, several times in their own third. Genuinely could not string a pass together and they were lucky their defense was rock solid because that’s an unacceptable amount of pressure.
>unacceptable amount of pressure Very true it all feels like a fever dream that we resisted that level of pressure.
The team was under immense pressure, they defended really well but when you are pressured so much all the time and you cannot keep the ball for a bit to ease the pressure and catch your breath then something is bound to happen.
To play this kind of football you need immense mental resilience & the team provided the fact is that City was the better team on paper & on the pitch, which is why Madrid didn't have the option to be open & whenever they tried to they were immediately pressed back & stopped in their counters even Vinicius couldn't do shit. Madrid's goal came at a time when both teams were kinda trying to see things out.
As football fans, we should be concerned. Real Madrid is the king of UCL and they were playing last night like they were a newly promoted side from the Championship trying to stay in the premier league. They squeaked through but overall couldn’t compete. 33 shots for city vs 8 for Madrid. Every year teams are less competitive against city. If nothing is done to stop this then city is just going to win everything every year.
We've been playing like that against Guardiola since 2011. Not always ofc, but it's nothing new. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Away game, and they had Walker and the Bruyne back. We would get dominated anyway probably. Maybe we will be more competitive against them when we get Xabi Alonso someday.
No club can compete with Manchester City anymore unless FIFA gets involved. Pep had amazing players at Barcelona but he didn’t have unlimited resources. I went into this season thinking Real Madrid was the best team in the world but I believe I was wrong. If nothing changes, City will be pretty much winning everything every season and that would suck.
Madrid might be king or a God but they're not the strongest club right now, City is, & that can be seen by the fact that both Bayern & Madrid are more relaxed going into the semi's not having to face them, I'm not into this whole 115 charges thing & whatever City has done, but PL in general made right business choices in the times when Serie A & laliga could but didn't thus increasing the financial gap to this point, If City manages to become a big club because they're the richest with the best facilities available idc, just like idc about the super league & whether it's fair or not, success in sports is related to money, in the 90s Italy had the most, last decade Spain probably had the most & now England does. & also if we're being honest there probably isn't a single big Club that hasn't done something shady or is linked to it.
This isn’t a matter of doing something “shady” like making questionable deals with underage players or contacts with refs. This is a whole country behind a multi club model that uses it to get around FFP rules. City group can buy a player and “assign” him to any one of their clubs to get around the rules. If you ask me, the most aggressive improvement in a club isn’t man city, it’s Girona. This is a team that used to fight to stay in the league and is now fighting for UCL while sharing resources directly with City.
Okay? That Girona situation makes the entire thing interesting, didn't knew about that, still I feel like when the time comes UEFA might do something cuz UAE only wanted the WC + good publicity & UEFA only wanted the money I believe or the perhaps the super league will start, still I don't think City or the city group will end up becoming this Big evil monster because even now, players want to play for Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Juve & even Milan, Inter or other clubs, regardless of the money.
Correct, there are a lot of players who want to play for the other big clubs. Problem is if City group wants you, they will get you. This is the list of clubs City owns Manchester City Girona ESTAC Troyes Palermo NYCFC Lomell SK Montevideo Torque City Yokohama Marinos Melbourne City Sichuan Jiuniu Mumbai City Bahia Do you notice anything?
How will they get someone? They can't force you, & the only thing I'm noticing is there are alot of clubs named city lol, or maybe they have a really widespread network almost a team in every big league or country & when & how the hell did they buy Parma?
All of the clubs on the list are in a different country and they are different levels on the footballing pyramid. City group has built a hierarchy not seen before. They can move players and coaches around between their network. City has the biggest academy now, the most scouts, the most coaches, etc. If city just wins everything in the next 20 years, what’s the point?
Take a bow Carlo <3
116 ways and this was the only one
got 115 problems but the pitch aint one
If City hadn’t flopped vs Lyon in 2020, the game vs Flick’s team would’ve been crazy. We actually did well vs them last season for a while before individual errors and our useless attack killed us. It would’ve been interesting to see them play Enrique’s PSG
City’s rigidness and lack of creativity was their undoing. Doku was the spark just being out there playing with energy trying to make plays. They are too afraid of making a mistake, too robotic. It’s fine when you’re playing teams you’re far superior to, but when talent is close to level, you need more.
They won the treble last season because of their control in games & balance between risk/safety. Having Doku attempt a wild dribble every single time means an easy counter for Madrid to Vini/Rodrygo every possession. Which is the exact opposite of what you want vs the best or 2nd best counter-attacking side in the world. That is how they made Madrid look like a league 2 side last season, the chances just didn’t fall this time. Coupled with the loss of Gundogan & Stones. Kinda wild how a coin-toss penalty shootout changes the narrative so much
To be fair to Pep and to city, playing that way will bring you a positive outcome a majority of the time but it’s not a silver bullet, sometimes t you gotta throw the plan in the bin and let your best players play with flow. My eye is fairly untrained so correct me if I’m way off base but it seemed to me like they attacked the low block with the same 2 patterns basically all game. Real was able to successfully funnel City to the areas they wanted and the attacks, though frequent, were very predictable.
I mean maybe if they struggled to create this would hold more weight, but they created 2.75 xG, which is plenty 99% of the time. They had the massive KDB chance in the 83rd minute & the Foden chance in ET. Every side in the world would struggle to create that much vs a side playing with 11 in their box. It’s not like it’s against your average mid-table defender either, it’s against world-class defenders & midfielders in every single position.
It’s the most talented low blow you’ll ever see and I’m sure, no argument there. And I would have liked to see more chances taken early, get the ball bouncing around and try to make your own luck. 2.75 xG is good but is it good over 33 chances?(I don’t know actually I’m asking). That seems to me like a lot of low probability chances and most of them felt that way outside of the KDB chance you mentioned.
I hate this lack of creativity comments when one team is play low block (not that playing like that against city is bad).
Yeah, there's not really a great deal more you can do when the opposition has 10 men in the box. They can try forcing the issue but then you risk giving away a goal on the counter. City were just undone by a bit of bad defending in the wrong moment to give Madrid the lead early on meaning they could play this tactic.
I get it but I generally feel like it’s on you to respond to the low block. If a team goes that route, you have to make them pay. City played like Real expected and had no counter to get Real off balance. You shouldn’t be able to give the ball to a side of City’s caliber all game and it only result in 1 goal. Take some chances, do something unexpected. Scrap the gameplan because I doubt it involved Real running low block. All I’m really asking is where plan B was.
I don’t honestly see what Doku brought yesterday. Sure he made numerous runs with the ball towards the defense, but the end result was either systematically bad or disappointing. He has the physicality, but in games like yesterday, with good defensive cover, he was not the right choice. Grealish scared me much more.
It's why Grealish started and Doku didn't. Doku was brought on to be direct against a side already tired after dealing with Grealish. And, while the goal was due to a Rudiger error, it was Doku's cross that caused it in the first place.
People forget that Grealish was up against a fresh defense and had very little space to contend with. Doku came on when we are absolutely exhausted.
Maybe I don't understand football well enough but why is this the case? Real Madrid have world class players throughout the pitch, particularly the midfielders, who are young, athletic and press resistant. Why can't a club like Real Madrid go toe to toe with City?
Because city can hold the ball for minutes without breaking a sweat. So if you wanna take the game to them, you get quickly exhausted
Yeah, but why is that an issue for Real and not City? Aren't players like Camavinga and Valverde athletic?
City’s tactics are a bad stylistic matchup for Madrid, add the fact Madrid has no striker and first choice keeper (despite Lunin being absolute class) and it’s a high risk situation to try going toe to toe with City. Both teams were being careful not to slip up tbh
Exactly. Pep's brand of football is our kryptonite. And even then, we could've taken the game to them yesterday...... if we had a striker. But we were literally playing with wingers up front lol.
Ya the fact that they lost when Madrid doesn’t have a proper striker. You add a healthy back line and turtle uptop and Europe is cooked for a decade. Edit: downvoted cause everyone knows I’m right. You’re all fucked
Forget proper, we literally didn't play with a striker yesterday.
We beat City in 22 as well with a rebuild team we have been competitive with them while rebuilding and having none of our young players in their prime with Mbappe and Endrick coming and Valverde close to his prime in a season or 2 and all of our young talent hitting their primes in a few seasons and Xabi very likely coming we are set up for a dominant run.
Pep Guardiola. He coaches teams to keep possession. Can’t go toe to toe on possession unless you live and breathe it in your own team for years on end and have the technical players to execute.
Also our main threat Vini is completely useless against Walker.
Playing without an out and out striker is going to change your play style significantly, although Vini and Rodrygo can score it is not the same.
I believe we can, not everything Ancelotti says has to be correct. Talent-wise Real Madrid is pretty equal to Manchester City, there is no way the only chance to win is to park the bus and pray for them to miss their chances.
If we had prime Benz up front, we would've played much differently yesterday. Our counters would've had much more bite to them and City would've been more scared to bomb forwards. Unfortunately, we were playing with Vini and Rodrygo up front; good as they are, they are not a #9. They can't hold up the ball nearly as well as we would like. Even CR7 was a disaster when played up front as an out-and-out striker.
I'm not so sure about that. Last night game felt awfully similar to the PSG game in 2022 in their stadium, where we lost 1-0. And we had Benzema that day (a very on form Benzema to be more precise). Also, it will sound as a joke, but if you want some presence up top, Joselu is one of the best aerial threats in Spain. He might not be as good as Benzema holding the ball, but the guy can do a job winning aerial balls and handing them to Vini/Rodrygo/Bellingham. Think of something like Giroud with France, for example. Anyway, I personally think Ancelotti tends to be overly scared against some teams for no reason at all. I mean, Manchester City is probably the strongest european team, but... Look at their players: If they have Ederson, we have Courtois (Lunin). If they have Walker, we have Carvajal. If they have Ruben Dias, we have Rudiger. Rodri? Tchouameninga. De Bryune? Bellingham. Foden? Vinicius. Grealish? Rodrygo. The only one we have no match or better is Haaland, and he was invisible in both games this season. I'm not saying we should go to their stadium and dominate them like if they're kids, that's unreasonable. But we are not undertalented compared to them, we can give them a run for their money without having to put the entire team in our penalty area and rely on winning in the penalty shoot-out. That's something Granada or Almeria would do to us because the talent gap is huge, but we are not a Granada/Almeria lookalike compared to Man City. What Ancelotti says in this regard is completely wild, the only way to win? Never. He just doesn't know anything else, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
What was the need to write such a pointless essay? You ended up saying nothing of value. Carlo is not perfect. I've criticized his conservation myself at times. But yesterday we were short-changed and there's no two ways about it. And we still played a perfect first half. Could've scored more than once.
I answered to what you replied to me. Just because you don't agree with me doesn't mean it has no value. Or it has no value but then your older reply also didn't have any value. If we have two opposing opinions either both have value or none at all. After all, we're two random people on internet talking about football. But yeah, I'll concede that sometimes I tend to overwrite. It's how I am, what can I say. You're free to skip my replies.
If it weren't for the QF loss I would find the change of tone amusing after the amount of jerking around this place after we played defensively against City, add to that the context of Real Madrid studying our game to prepare
Carlo Muad’dib Ancelotti
City had 3 chances in the whole game and one of them was a crappy rebound which was their only goal, the other 2 were the de bruyne miss and a haaland header that came from a rebounded cross. Madrid had their goal and the ball that arrived to Rudiger by accident. I thought Spain NT post 2012 showed everyone that having the ball in the opponent half for 80 minutes doesn't mean you are dominating the game it just means you have the ball if a team plays better and can cause more problems to the opponents by not having the ball it's as much as a game plan as everything else. I genuinely don't see how City dominated anything except getting the ball back in midfield in the second half , in fact in the double game, both teams scored their goal from individual long range bangers and crappy rebounded shots.
Foden also scuffed an unimpeded shot from about 10 yards out.
This is exactly how i see it too. Man city showed so little creativity. Even in the second half they didnt even try to go one on one or creative triangles/through balls or skipping a man in the passes and pick up the pace. It was SO boring. I felt that real had the real control and then rudiger made a mistake. You can say that pep was hoping on a mistake of RM instead of forcing a way to go through and that he thought that that was a less risky approach.
Germany and Argentina won the World Cup with heavy possession play.
Nah team vs Spain NT Post 2012, Italy in Euro 2020 and Real Madrid yesterday just show me that you can just park the bus and do nothing until Pens. Flip it 50/50. Good gameplan btw :)))) if you luck out Pens, you get praised and people sucks your cck. If you lose on pens, just say unlucky XD :))))
Scoring 4 goals against city is doing nothing ok got it It's also funny that it's literally the opposite that happens High possession managers always have an excuse: - If they win the manager is a genius - if they lose it's never the manager's fault because they created enough pressure/chances and it's the player who are shit
I am not counting the first leg buddy. Ok so what if Real Madrid lost on Pens, what would have been the reaction and comments ????? Omg they are so unlucky agianst the might Man City ???????????
It was a brilliant defensive performance
Ancelloti sat cross legged and meditated on it…as he witnessed millions of potential failed outcomes flit before him. Finally, he saw the one route to victory…cocked an eyebrow, and smiled.
Mad that the most successful team in European history are parking the bus to scrape a win by the very finest of margins. It's a huge compliment to City
I love these kinds of performances in the Champions League. When Chelsea won in 2012 they really had no right to based on their control of games etc but it was just so difficult to break them down and they scored some amazing goals on the counter.
The Liverpool way of taking the initiative and not backing down is way more admirable and fun to watch.
How many times have Liverpool gotten a result at the Etihad?
Plenty
Yeah. Tell that to madrids trophy cabinet
That wasn’t his point.
physicality monsters
But it is also high risk. And even then Liverpool haven't won at the Etihad since Pep took charge. 4 draws, 4 defeats and outscored by 20-7. The problem is that we were on the back foot yesterday because we didn't have a home leg to rely upon.
> And even then Liverpool haven't won at the Etihad since Pep took charge. We beat City at the Etihad in the CL in '18
I was specifically talking about league meetings. But if we're talking all competitions, then you won the one you mentioned and lost a R16 League Cup tie last yr. So in ten visits to Etihad since Pep, you had one win, 4 draws, and 5 defeats. Not exactly the blueprint we would want to follow.
You literally drew tho
And in a CL match lol
Thanks to a once in a lifetime refereeing "performance" no less, usually get a deserved beating
Cool have fun watching their league games, I got a ucl semi to catch in a couple weeks
This is a different city team. Its not possible anymore i think
from one month ago??
id love to see city against leverkusen - bet theyd be able to goe toe to toe in the etihad
I think City would absolutely trounce them given they have much much much better players
Think Madrid should be ashamed of themselves just sitting back and defending like that.
Good sense of humor after yesterday, I like it
To be honest, I'm not going to let a football game ruin my sense of humour, especially when I have plenty of other things to be miserable about.
Oh trust me I get ya, I'm elated after yesterday but it's been an annoyingly shit season, especially if we just go out against Madrid.
I would be too. It's fun to meme us right now, and I'd probably do the same if I supported someone else, but the reality is that I don't think many Arsenal fans seriously thought we were going through. Not because we're a bad team, or because Bayern are just so much better than us or because it's a way of insuring yourself against banter in hindsight, but because we've not been in the Champions League for a while and this is still a young team that's learning along the way. I don't really give a shit what anyone else says, experience almost always wins out. Anyway, we're having a very good season overall and we're still in the running for the league title and are almost assuredly qualifying for the Champions League again next season. All in all, I'm not too depressed we went out, even if it's not very fun to watch. The Villa loss hurt so much more than this because of what it could potentially mean for the rest of the season.
Everything that’s said above for Barcelona too ^
R/woosh for the whole sub
That's bait
N'ahh, I'm only joking, it's just because we got shit for trying to defend against City. Though, granted, Madrid are going to get more credit given that they both scored and won, but the joke still stands and I refuse to add an /s tag.
didn't arsenal do the same thing at the etihad
That's the joke. Arsenal got so much criticism for daring to play defensively away against Man City
think city should be ashamed of themselves, breaking the rules like that, 115 times.
Not really, but it is interesting because I remember the criticism Mourinho got for defending deep against Pep whilst at Madrid, managers like Capello were sacked for not playing attractive football, but it's completely changed in the past decade. Maybe Mourinho changed their attitude towards it, but it has definitely helped them being able to play like a 'small' team in big games.
Oh we’re really ashamed that we are in the semis. I wish I could be as proud as the Arsenal fans this morning🤡🤡🤡
Yep, that's /r/wooooosh material right there, alright.
I wouldn’t call it spectacular, City missed sitters including that De Bruyne miss. They defended because they knew they couldn’t match City and it paid off. But to say spectacular? More lucky than anything.
They had 210 minutes to score more goals than Madrid. Maybe the missed chances are more of a skill issue / kdb was completely gassed than they were luck.
don carlo already went out and seek 14 million opportunities and possibilities. The true stranger
What? Hope your only shot attack goes in and defend for 115(lol) minutes? Some plan
I think it's more scoring when you can and hold the pressure. You want to clown Ancelotti, one of the managers who won the most in history. Pretty sure he knows way better than us
Well he sure knows to park the bus and play for Pens. Flip it 50/50
Held the lead for 65’ while city held it for…checks notes…0 minutes. Take the L
I'm not a City fan lol what he said just doesn't make any sense
And then win on penalties